
Google searches and tweets about Bitcoin decline sharply - justboxing
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-14/bitcoin-pop-culture-moment-fades-as-fad-gives-way-to-regulators
======
minimaxir
Using Google Trends alone for calling a trend a success/failure isn’t fair, as
a spike can be correlated to _confusion_ about the term, and it’s a safe
assumption swarms of non-techies were Googling “how do I buy Bitcoin and get
rich?” in November.

~~~
tyingq
Good observation. Normalization of a new thing doesn't necessarily mean it's
falling out of favor. My non-techie wife even knows what Bitcoin is now and
isn't trying to understand it anymore.

~~~
bitxbitxbitcoin
If non techies aren't trying to understand it anymore what does that mean the
next step for them would be? Adoption?

~~~
tyingq
Perhaps. If my wife, for example, was asked by Western Union if "is Bitcoin
okay?" for a money transfer to her brother, she would probably now say "sure".
Where 5 years ago, she would have resisted. Brand awareness.

------
Sharma
Misleading article. The sharp spike in the graph was due to the drastic
increase in the bitcoin price. This was the time when Bitcoin hit all time
high and so the # of searches for the term.

Now that phase has passed and so the search trend is coming back to as it was
before the spike. Also, it will go down because now more and more people
already know about crypto. Not sure how that is a bad sign. Totally misleading
article.

~~~
Simon_says
A person with a certain perspective would see it that way. Suppose you think
Bitcoin is a fad or bubble. Ponzi scheme doesn't quite fit since there's no
mastermind orchestrating it. You think that people are only buying or
outlaying the capital to mine bitcoin in the hopes that someone downline gives
you more money for it than you invested. Eventually the world will run out of
greater fools and the price would plummet. Decreasing interest from new people
would definitely signal something to this person.

~~~
justboxing
> Ponzi scheme doesn't quite fit since there's no mastermind orchestrating it.

What about the 'Whales' ? Apparently < 1,650 Wallets (and individuals owning
those wallets) possess over 90% of all bitcoin in circulation, and each has a
minimum of 1000 BTCs.

These whales have routinely manipulated the market. Most recently on Feb 6th,
when the Mt Gox Custodian dumped like 300 million worth of BTC and briefly the
BTC price plummeted from 7Ks to 5.6K.

~~~
Simon_says
What about them? What you describe just sounds like normal supply and demand
to me. These 'whales' need to convert bitcoin to traditional currency to buy
houses, cars, etc. The question is whether there's an unending supply of
people who will buy into cryptocurrencies to support the demand side of the
equation. And bitcoin isn't really on my radar anyways since nobody uses GPUs
to mine it anymore.

------
LAMike
Fading or becoming more ubiquitous?

------
xbkingx
Oh look. Another Bloomberg article shitting on bitcoin. Seriously, I don't
even have to guess the source of these doom and gloom articles on HN anymore.
They are wrong way more than they are right and have made it a sport to
generate clickbait like this article, titled: The Bitcoin Fad Is Fading—for
Now (note the word 'fad', clearly meant to be inflammatory).

So, does anyone want to ask why the vast majority of searches for "Bloomberg"
originate in Turkey, Singapore, and Hong Kong? Seems odd that interest in the
term would be low enough in the US to place it outside the top 10.
[https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=bloomberg,bitcoin](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=bloomberg,bitcoin)

What's stranger is that the trends for 'Bloomberg' Turkey don't match any
surrounding countries (that I checked), and outside Singapore and China,
relative volume has dropped over the past few years, especially in Asia.
[https://www.google.com/trends/correlate/search?e=bloomberg&t...](https://www.google.com/trends/correlate/search?e=bloomberg&t=weekly&p=tr#)

Maybe it's the conspiracy nut in me, but if I was a conservative financial
news source and I saw a lot of interest in a totally new financial system that
I don't understand (or have influence over), I'd be afraid, too. I mean, if
the search interest in bitcoin was showing strength in those new markets I
just spent cultivating, I'd probably downplay it too. But that's probably not
what's happening...
[https://www.google.com/trends/correlate/search?e=bitcoin&t=w...](https://www.google.com/trends/correlate/search?e=bitcoin&t=weekly&p=tr#)
Or it totally is.

So, is the fad of Bloomberg fading? Nah, they've been consistently low for
years, and everyone loves a 0 growth business. Is Bloomberg about to collapse?
Hopefully.

Fucking dinosaurs, man. The worst part about them is having to hear their
death moans from miles away.

------
ST2084
This is good........ for Bitcoin

------
bitxbitxbitcoin
I, for one, welcome this "cooling down" of the hype.

------
megadeth
Lagging indicator.

------
api
"Trough of disillusionment."

~~~
polotics
The ratchet up since 2016 certainly does not have me disillusioned.

~~~
api
It's a standard phase in the adoption of any technology. It usually goes:
initial interest (run up), hype phase (often accompanied by bubble), hype peak
(bubble gets absurd), disillusionment (often accompanied by crash), then
gradual renewal of interest and "plateau of enlightenment."

Cryptocurrency is still in its hype phase but there are signs that it's
ending. When it does expect a loss of interest and possibly a crash in value,
though the latter may not occur as much as people expect due to the weird
behavior of illiquid or thinly traded assets and the deflationary nature of
most existing cryptocurrencies.

The plateau of enlightenment will come as people figure out new ways to scale
cryptocurrencies and adapt them to different use cases in the real world.

Their current use cases of financial fraud, gambling, and crime are actually
not uncommon. The military and criminals are generally early adopters of new
technology, and things like gambling and porn are often early use cases. Sober
mainstream "enterprise" users generally stay away from new technologies until
they reach their plateau of enlightenment and are thus well understood and
reliable.

------
fiatjaf
Who's implying that causal relationship when the contrary is just as likely?

------
Simon_says
I hope cryptocurrencies are done. I need to buy a video card.

~~~
Grasshoppeh
Have you tried contacting the manufacturer of the video card you want?
Sometimes they have wait lists you can opt into.

~~~
Simon_says
Yea, I'm on the waitlist for all the good it does me.

It looks like the higher end graphics cards are available new for no less than
~3x their MSRP. Everything else is sold out. In all seriousness, the cheapest
option is to buy a pre-built computer and throw out everything but the GPU.
It's insanity, and I can't wait for this fad to be over.

------
austincheney
Duh. Nobody is using cryptocurreny in any significant quantities except
criminals on the dark web. The only thing sustaining value in cryptocurrencies
is investment speculation.

If investors cannot sell shares then there is nothing left for it. Investors
must be able to advertise interest, any way they can, to entice other people
to buys their shares otherwise it is just a retail souvenir.

EDIT:

I can see this post is irritating people. Please respond with an example of
people using cyptocurrecy to make legitimate purchases in any valid
quantities.

~~~
bitxbitxbitcoin
I will bite, despite suspecting that this is a useless argument to wade into
:). What do you consider "valid quantities?"

~~~
austincheney
Do you know of a population segment that makes more than 10% of their monthly
purchases in cryptocurrency alone or a major business that receives a greater
than 10% revenue from cryptocurrency?

I have heard of people on here living in silicon valley who claim to purchase
occasional drinks with cryptocurrency, but I have not heard of practical or
regular expenditures with cryptocurrency or anybody that I know offline who
uses it for any kind of expense.

~~~
justboxing
CryptoKitties ? 12 MILLION in 2017, all in Ethereum / ETH.

> CryptoKitties, the Ethereum-based digital kitten collectibles game, has
> processed more than $12 million in sales on its decentralized marketplace.

Source: [https://cointelegraph.com/news/cryptokitties-sales-
hit-12-mi...](https://cointelegraph.com/news/cryptokitties-sales-
hit-12-million-could-be-ethereums-killer-app-after-all)

Also, a story on their revenue model =>
[https://medium.com/@codetractio/a-look-into-cryptokitties-
re...](https://medium.com/@codetractio/a-look-into-cryptokitties-revenue-
model-6466b705a998)

