Quote from: bitsharesmarket on December 11, 2014, 09:33:49 pm

Quote from: bluebit on December 11, 2014, 09:05:16 pm

Quote from: OldMan on December 11, 2014, 06:40:26 pm

Strange how BTC demand seems dismal on the open market but there are buyers to move 50,000 BTC via auction.

I've said this before and still believe it to be true - bigger fish are becoming whales and are keeping the spot price down.

If you've done any research on commodities market manipulation (gold, silver etc.) you will know that manipulating the spot price of something as small as BTC is trivial.

I fully expect an all-exchange pump to coincide with ETF release.

Thereafter the whales will probably take serious profits and move into 2.0 tech. Repeat.

How are they keeping the spot price down?

They are not, it is just wishful thinking. Sort of like the wishful thinking that people had this past summer that fall was going to bring Bitcoin price to all new highs and that obviously never materialized.

I remember in June/July being 1000% certain bitcoin was going to the moon in 2 months. I don't even know how I got that delusion in the first place, was probably just the hivemind, but I clearly remember browsing apartments and seriously thinking "hmmmm, now what am I gonna buy with all my millions in 2 months when bitcoin goes to the moon?"

Quote from: Frodo03 on September 24, 2014, 07:04:05 am

Lol yea sorry I've been having trouble with my comp. I felt like a schoolteacher writing that.

Dare to translate this in plain(er) English?

Insults are not worth much if not understood, is what I mean.

There have been many negative predictions regarding Bitcoin's demise so I don't expect to be taken seriously but here's my take.

Three fundamental factors are in play:

Firstly people are realising virtually no one is using Bitcoin for payments and likely will not, why would they given the hoops they jumped through to buy it.

"People are realising"- what people? Who? Very general statement. And of course we've all had to jump through some hoops to get Bitcoin- you need to jump through even more hoops to get BTSX- let alone even understand what it is! It is slowly getting easier and easier to buy Bitcoin because there are many companies (ex: Circle) working hard to make Bitcoin "grandma-proof". All new technologies are pretty clunky and confusing at first- it takes time for things to get simple. For the record, people ARE using Bitcoin to buy things, not "virtually no one". I don't even need to get started on that one.

Secondly without a valid payment example, cryptos don't have consumer support and consequently investors have tacitly recognised that no one other than the crypto community gives a damn about regulations. smh

Finally and most importantly PoW, once seen as a pure solution, is increasingly seen as flawed as there is now a credible alternative, something that Dan and DPoS can take some pride in revealing.

"Increasingly seen as flawed"- by who? The only people I've seen bashing PoW's flaws are people who have a vested interest in competing cryptos. Of course they're going to bash it- they're biased! I'm not a tech guy, so I can't comment on PoW's long term viability, but I can say that nobody really knows what the best algorithm is- it's all an experiment- all a matter of testing what actually works, and Bitcoin has been working great for a while. No other crypto comes close. People also seem to forget that Bitcoin can adapt and be modified...

In summary the fanaticism that kept Bitcoin alive has simply run out of air.

In my view Bitcoin it's simply kept alive by a tight Chinese business model stemming from the need of the cadres to discreetly move money out of China.

http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/#markets

As this reality sinks in a vacuum is being created, one that the Bitshares platform can fill but only if we see it associated with a currency that is 'used' by consumers and adopted by the existing Bitcoin infrastructure.

Only a VERY tiny fraction of the population has heard of Bitcoin- let alone knows what it even is. You seem to imply that all consumers aren't using Bitcoin- most consumers haven't even heard of it.

Anyone cashing out a significant number of coins is will do so off-market/OTC.

Theories that rationalize the price drop as large holders cashing out on-market do not hold water.

No one with enough wherewithal to accumulate thousands of coins is going to use exchanges to liquidate.

The slippage and security issues are a non-starter.

The price is dropping because folks are acquiring larger amounts of coins off-market and, very reasonably, dropping the price via the exchanges to facilitate accumulation.

Ironically, the good news of the last few months may be the reason for the drop.

Bigger money is now taking the tech seriously and that means folks are going to want open positions.

This is the way smart money opens a position.

Has the protocol failed? No.

Has a government announced a ban? No.

Is adoption decreasing? No.

Is VC investment decreasing? No.

Are adoption, VC investment and transactions increasing? Yes.

Hmmm...