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posted by
martyb
on Tuesday December 27 2016, @11:27PM
from the real-appreciation-of-virtual-currency dept.
from the real-appreciation-of-virtual-currency dept.
At the start of 2016, single coins were only worth around $435 but their value has climbed steadily all year.
The steady upward progress has continued despite regular hack attacks on virtual currency exchanges in which coins have been stolen.
Experts said the rise in value was linked to the long-term depreciation of the Chinese Yuan.
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Bitcoin Enjoys End of Year Price Surge
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The worst part of valor is indiscretion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28 2016, @03:14AM
What you are describing in macro econ terms is deflation.
As bitcoin is inherently a deflationary monetary system the value of each bit coin will go up and up as more and more people horde it. That will work *only* as long as there is demand for the bit coin. If the value goes high enough eventually the coin will not be traidable by normal people. At which point one of two things will happen. The value of exchange it has will collapse and no one will want it making it worth nothing. Or more people will horde more and more and make it more and more impossible to get. This sort of currency will tend towards the extremes.
Now if the value crashes people will not as many people will trade it as it will not be worth their time to mess with. Meaning it will be hard/easy to get.
If the value goes vertical few people will be able to get one as more and more people will 'sit on it'. Meaning it will be hard to get.
Now any sorts of predictions made about economics on the internet are silly and should be ignored. :)
(Score: 3, Informative) by darkfeline on Wednesday December 28 2016, @07:30AM
That argument doesn't work as well since Bitcoin is (kind of) infinitely divisible. If normal people can afford to trade 1 BTC worth 1 USD now (for example purposes, I know it's worth a lot more), normal people can continue to afford to trade 0.0001 BTC worth 1 USD + inflation a dozen or so years from now. Unlike physical currency, infinitely smaller or larger divisions of Bitcoin are just as easily tradeable, so there's no problem of having to carry around ten bags of pennies or the equivalent.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28 2016, @06:39PM
Now any sorts of predictions made about economics are silly and should be ignored. :)
FTFY.
There is value in economics, economic models, and economists... but predictions should always be taken with a large grain of salt. Remember how people thought the market and economies would react to both Brexit and the election of Donald Trump?
Quoting Truman, "Give me a one-handed economist! All my economists say, On the one hand on the other."
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday December 30 2016, @06:46AM
Brexit hasn't happened yet.