
Bitcoin price plunges $2,000 in 12 hours as year-end rally fizzles out - charlysl
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/22/bitcoin-price-plunges-2000-12-hours-year-end-rally-fizzles-out
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jpatokal
This marks the fifth time Bitcoin has "plunged" over 30%... _during 2017_ :

[https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/944048619174457344...](https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/944048619174457344?s=09&)

The only real difference is that because Bitcoin's value is now so high, even
comparatively small dips are massive in USD terms.

~~~
frik
Why every insightful news gets hidden on HN?

Has HN been run over by corporate guys? Only their news are left, and many
other news stories per day that got many upvotes and/or comments get hidden
from the frontpage very quickly.

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romanovcode
Isn't that just a regular day for it? 2k up, 2k down. Doesn't matter much.

~~~
test1235
Looking at [https://www.coindesk.com/price/](https://www.coindesk.com/price/)
it looks like it's at the same price as the start of the month.

Still, looking at the graph for the year, recent months have seen a massive
spike.

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thisisit
I might get downvoted for this but what kind of value add articles tracking
bitcoin price really do? There has been a lot articles about breaching 5k,
10k, 15k etc and now this.

~~~
hateduser2
I like the discussion. Don't even read the articles.

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paulus_magnus2
The shorting started. Let's see if there's anyone willing to protect BTC and
at which level.

~~~
philfrasty
Why would you even consider shorting BTC in the last few days? There was no
negative news at all. Might look smart in hindsight but complete speculation
IMO for this short timeframe.

~~~
prettygood
No negative news? One of the co-founders of bitcoin.com sold everything
because he doesn't believe in it anymore

[http://www.businessinsider.com/one-of-the-co-founders-of-
bit...](http://www.businessinsider.com/one-of-the-co-founders-of-bitcoincom-
has-sold-all-of-his-bitcoin-2017-12?r=UK&IR=T)

~~~
DaiPlusPlus
Bitcoin.com is unrelated to the Bitcoin Core project at Bitcoin.org.

~~~
prettygood
True, but that doesn't matter to people who don't know aything about it. They
just read "Bitcoin guy sells everything". It's not like the media is going to
properly explain it in the article, or tried writing a less click-baity title.

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nepotism2018
Not just bitcoin though is it. There is more red on gdax than santa outfit

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monob
A good predictor if the latest bubble has burst is if the suicide hotline
number is a sticky on the bitcoin subreddit.

Currently it isn't there so we have a while yet.

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chx
Transaction fees skyrocketed to $55...

~~~
makomk
I suspect a lot of the transaction fees and congestion have been from people
transferring to exchanges to sell. Though it wouldn't surprise me if someone
was doing market manipulation via spam transactions; that certainly seems like
something that could potentially be profitable.

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Asdfbla
I wonder if reporting on Bitcoin's random walk is really newsworthy these
days.

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sillysaurus3
Here we go again.

I said earlier on HN to buy in at $3,800, roughly 3 months ago.

Then I said to buy in at $5,900, when BTC bottomed out after China started
regulating it. It was a good price.

The time to buy is now, when it's been crashing. _This is always true after a
crash_.

So, let me go 3 for 3: Hocus, pocus, $14,000 is a pretty good buy-in price.
Those who have been waiting should do so now.

~~~
romeo88
Will remind you when the hype/bubble is gone and bitcoin is traded below 100
:)

~~~
sillysaurus3
Uh huh, and all of my "Buy in at $3,900; buy in at $5,800" comments were
downvoted too.

It's remarkable how influential groupthink is. Everyone is panic selling, so
_of course_ the logical action is to buy. It's never a good time to buy when
everyone's been buying! This is the only correct time to do a long-term bet.

This is all quite mistaken for day trading, but that's not this strategy.

~~~
leadingthenet
I think you’re right.

But what is your responde to the fact that Bitcoin is just not that useful
anymore? What exactly is this outrageous value based on?

~~~
sillysaurus3
1\. BTC is useful as a store of wealth. A rich saudi would be very happy to
dump their fortune into BTC and then wait several years. It would be much
safer than storing it in banks where they are held hostage in hotels until
they agree to pay N% of their fortune to be released. (Apparently this
actually happens.)

2\. BTC is a speculator's currency. The whole point is to speculate, and not
much more than that. But that's literally the point, and the fact that it's
absurd doesn't change how real it is.

3\. Fluctuations will be with BTC forever due to #2. This has always been true
and will continue to be true. Periods of inactivity will become longer, but
then eventually speculators will notice it's a lucrative deal again.

4\. Speculators have a crucial ability: they can manipulate the market. It's
common for people to dump N million into the market to cause a small rally, at
which point everyone else starts buying. This happened to Ripple. No one cared
about Ripple until however many months ago that was, when it suddenly surged
overnight due to this.

5\. BTC has immense inertia because it was the first, and continues to be the
most valuable. As long as the core team doesn't screw with it at all –
including trying to "extend" it with bigger block sizes or any other
convenience features – then BTC should stay a fine store of wealth. Satoshi
planned for the long term.

6, The above points do not hold for other currencies. Others have some of
these points, but not all of them. Hence BTC remains a solid bet.

7\. All of this can be mistaken, but after seeing this behavior many, many
times, at this point it's fine to gamble that you won't be wrong this time.

8\. Don't put in more money than you're willing to lose.

~~~
joejev
> 1\. BTC is useful as a store of wealth.

> 8\. Don't put in more money than you're willing to lose.

Cryptocurrency-think

~~~
sillysaurus3
$15k now.

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tabs_masterrace
Buy now or regret it.

Bitcoin is only going to get bigger, much much bigger. For those doubting the
scaling potential, don't forget it's software and software is not static
thing. There is now too much money in it, and the money directly translates
into interest to keep Bitcoin running and succeeding.

The protocol may change or even fork come time, but the chain will not, if you
have coins now, your store of value is written in stone, and will be there in
whatever form we have in the future.

It's going to be the new gold.

~~~
Ologn
> There is now too much money in it, and the money directly translates into
> interest to keep Bitcoin running and succeeding.

Like tech stocks in 1999? 2007 subprime mortgages?

> It's going to be the new gold

You mean my dentist can fill my teeth with it, I can give it as a shiny
necklace to my girlfriend, I can use it as a conductor for my stereo? You mean
it's actually something I can use?

~~~
tabs_masterrace
Common now, gold isn't valuable because of its conductive properties, and
nobody uses it to fill teeth anymore.

Gold is valuable, because

a) There's a fixed supply.

b) The material itself is proof that you actually posses it.

c) It's durable and easily quantifiable.

It's a store of value, that cannot be overruled, either you have it or not,
that simple. There is nothing quite like it, and that's why governments are
hoarding gold reserve in underground basements.

Bitcoin takes this concept even further and ensures that your coins cannot be
forcefully taken from you (given you store them right ofc). They are
essentially just a piece of information, and that is enough to universally
validate your ownership, without a doubt.

There is immense value in the technology, I'm sure its here to stay. Again,
maybe not the current iteration, but whatever Bitcoin evolution we end up
with, it will very likely come out of this blockchain.

But we will see. Maybe it IS gonna die tomorrow after all.

~~~
simen
Even if bitcoin for some reason disappears (and I don't believe the doomsday
scenario is anywhere in the near future), the blockchain technology on which
it is built is revolutionary, and the financial sector is researching it and
developing new applications at a furious pace.

Whatever the future of bitcoin itself and whoever he is, "Satoshi Nakamoto"
will go down in history as a great inventor.

