

$78,000(US) worth of bitcoins couldn't fetch $50 16 months ago - sequoia
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=1e02e63700d71abc90bb409088032aad&topic=92.msg826#msg826

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sequoia
I really posted this just to get someone who understands bitcoin to tell me
that I am (not?) mistaken here. I don't understand bitcoin, but it seems
absolutely unbelievable to me that people would have faith in a currency that
shows such outrageous volatility as this example seems to suggest. As for
"volatility," I don't know all the numbers, I just mean that if it can
increase that much in such a short time, it can clearly drop as much in the
same amount of time or less.

Is the title correct here or am I mistaken? If correct, what the hell is going
on?

~~~
polyfractal
You are correct, it's "value" has increased as quickly as it seems.

Do people have faith in bitcoins as a currency? Sure, some people do. A larger
number of people see it as a way to make a quick profit by speculating.
Whether bitcoins are legitimate currency or not is irrelevant - as long as
people are willing to pay "real" money for them (and there exists a way to get
"real" money back out) there will be speculators manipulating the market and
inflating prices.

If, or how long, this will last is really anyone's guess. It could all
collapse tomorrow, or (unlikely) turn into a legit "real" currency.

