The Bitcoin Slide

Bit Coin Slide

Toward the end of September, trade pulled the current value of Bitcoin below $400, with many warning of a possible drop below $200.

Some experts - as far as the term can be applied in this field - say that this, despite appearances, is a good thing. The sky-high levels witnessed in 2012 which propelled the currency into the media spotlight were a result of speculative hoarding.

At that time, the interest in and demand for Bitcoin was huge, but mainly for the sake of profit. People were collecting the currency in the hopes it would rise in value and they could make a quick profit.

Now, however, Bitcoin is being used in trade, to buy and sell, fulfilling it?s original purpose. A decline in value is to be expected, apparently. The constant fluctuations are natural in any currency.

Nevertheless, the average person will be seeing a continued drop as a bad omen for investments. Especially if, as some have predicted, the value plummets below the $200 mark.

What does this mean?

Honestly, nobody really seems to know. The future of cryptocurrencies is still volatile. Skeptics are still convinced Bitcoin is just a fad, soon to fizzle out, while proponents continue to hail it as the future of finance.

For some, the slow adoption and initial wariness of cryptocurrency is startling similar to the early reactions to the internet. At the moment, too few are willing to utilise Bitcoins and keep it in circulation. Instead, if businesses accept it at all, they want it converted to flat.

This could all change, just as attitude to the web slowly became more positive. But the problems for Bitcoin don?t end with uptake.

Problems for BitCoin

One of the largest issues for Bitcoin is its mercurial state, and not just because it makes investment a risk. People don?t understand how the value is determined, and no smart investor buy in to something he or she doesn't understand.

2014 has been a bad year for Bitcoin, with a number of scandals and issues hitting value and consumer-confidence.

• A fake Chinese news report harmed bitcoin and litecoin values, only to be followed by rumours (later confirmed) of Chinese Penalties for businesses accepting Bitcoin transactions

• Charges against Silk Road for money laundering, hacking, and drug-trafficking

• Money Transaction charges against the Bitcoin Foundation, despite IRS guidance stating that Bitcoin is not money

• Trendon Shavers? Ponzi scheme, accumulating 70,000 BTC

• Theft of 750 BTC from early-adopter, Leo Treasure.

• Hackers cracked physical cryptocurrency coins

• Bitcoin Mint Casascius shut down by U.S. regulators

• Bitcoinica and Mt. Gox hacked

• Mt. Gox defunct

In the U.K, the banks cut ties with the Isle of Man?s bitcoin industry, forcing CTS, a subsidiary of Capital International Group, to withdraw its services.

Meanwhile, the launch of Roger Ver?s anonymous bounty-hunting site doesn?t inspire the greatest of confidence in digital currency.


Silver Linings

However, it?s not all doom and gloom for the digital currency. Back in April, the University of Nicosia in Cyprus opened a free six-week online course in Digital Currencies, and has been offering a Masters of Science Degree in Digital Currencies since November 2013. The university has also been accepting payment of tuition fees in Bitcoin.

More recently, the newly launched website, Coin Academy, has put together a valuable resource of both original and curated materials for study. They currently offer three courses on the subject.

Meanwhile, banking giant Santander has commissioned a study to investigate the implications of Bitcoin, and both United Way and Greenpeace have begun to accept bitcoin donations.

Interest in bitcoin from such big names can only bolster the cause for cryptocurrencies. Depending on the results on Santander?s review, the banking world could soon be on board.

So, is this downward trend the beginning of the end? Or the start of a new era for finance?


Further Reading: Coindesk.com

I have no idea what to think about bitcoin in the long run, but I'm 99% sure we will see a huge price gain at the end of the year. Here's why:

1) we're still in the long-term uptrend (it wasn't breached as some have claimed lately)
2) paypal is accepting bitcoin soon which will make it even more popular in mainstream
3) the market got rid off mtgox which no longer brings negative emotions in the community
4) I'd say it's obvious that whales are dumping

so

5) they can buy cheaply and pumping it to the new max
6) whales will want to realize their gains at the end of the year (same as they did last year and the year before that)

The future of digital currency is clear, they will last forever in a way or another.
But like every trading currency, Bitcoin is trying to find his real value, and the market is speaking on what this values is right now.

I don't think it will increase again to the price levels it was but if you are trading with it you should consider to buy it on the forex market, and on the stock market to buy a put on some company that depends on it to create a protection.

tommyhot said:

I have no idea what to think about bitcoin in the long run, but I'm 99% sure we will see a huge price gain at the end of the year. Here's why:

1) we're still in the long-term uptrend (it wasn't breached as some have claimed lately)
2) paypal is accepting bitcoin soon which will make it even more popular in mainstream
3) the market got rid off mtgox which no longer brings negative emotions in the community
4) I'd say it's obvious that whales are dumping

so

5) they can buy cheaply and pumping it to the new max
6) whales will want to realize their gains at the end of the year (same as they did last year and the year before that)

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paypal is accepting bit coin soon? where is the proof of that

I'm definitely buying BTC at these artificially cheap prices. You should be buying too.

RyanPumper said:

I'm definitely buying BTC at these artificially cheap prices. You should be buying too.

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How have you determined that it is artificially cheap?
Who is subsidizing it?

One day US govt. will ban it for sure.

Paypal and several other sharks are adopting BTC and soon LTC and DOGE.

You're witnessing the birth of a new online payments system. Buy while you can IMO.

bartosimpsonio said:

Paypal and several other sharks are adopting BTC and soon LTC and DOGE.

You're witnessing the birth of a new online payments system. Buy while you can IMO.

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Exactly, BTC beside all its ups and downs is here to stay ! The wide use of it just shows that it will only spread even further and probably become one of the official payment methods on the net everywhere as a decentralized virtual currency. The fact that the number of bitcoins that can be mined is limited is a certain indicator that their value would only increase as time passes.

jak19 said:

paypal is accepting bit coin soon? where is the proof of that

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I can't post links yet, so google "paypal accepting bitcoin" and first link at theguardian should give you all the information. Or you can look for it directly on coindesk. Litecoin and dogecoin will also be accepted.

why is it dropping so fast? What causes that, 28 hour drop so far without going up staying constant for a while, fluctuating a lot. Any ideas?

As any currency goes from the hands of the select few to the mass majority and gets spread around it is expected to fall, rise and then stabilize before it is adopted by popular culture.

It will eventually rise when no more coins can be mined, but that won't happen for a decade or two.

This same thing happened to the U.S. dollar in the early Industrial Era as well as in new countries that formed after the result of the fall of the Soviet Union.

I'd suggest you buy when the media is saying it is going to die and then hold onto it for a couple years.

When Kodak went bankrupt its stock plummeted to less than .25 cents and then Rose to over a dollar and to its current price within a matter of weeks all due to publicity.

Be smart and stay hungry my friends Bitcoin is the future and won't be going anywhere.

What the year's developments with Bitcoin demonstrated is the third party support systems and applications working with it are subject to ongoing weaknesses, restrictions and attacks that may impact the perceived value of the currency. The SilkRoad case actually shows the stength of BTC in protecting most people's privacy while permitting law enforcement to go after alleged criminal activity (because the currency is decentralized, and permits tracking specific transactions, the underworld store could be shut down without disrupting the rest of the Bitcoin marketplace).

What it means going forward is that the rest of the crypto currency world needs to create a similar peer network, decentralized structure. We need a robust peer-to-peer exchange network, a decentralized underworld e-commerce market that uses BTC, etc. It is not enough to have a durable crypto currency that uses centralized sub-systems, those interfaces need to have a peer-based, decentralized basis as well. So i predict a long-term stability for BTC, coupled with more open interface systems to make the currency itself less subject to volatile swings.

The way Silk Road was taken down is *very* controversial. Nobody knows exactly how they did it. If you do some research about it, it seems like some heavy duty spook thing right there, but I'm no expert.

All I can say is Silk Road's only relation to BTC is BTC was the currency they used. There were no weaknesses on BTC, and BTC was not how they traced the alleged criminals.

Honestly the way I use bitcoin I don't really care if it's worth $200 or $800 just buy bitcoin when you need to purchase or cashout quickly after you got a payment.

The biggest looser in this are the on who bought mining equipment in the past months.

And let's all keep in mind that bitcoin is still young (5 years is nothing for a currencie), it just need big players like Paypal to stabilize it.

Des_cartes said:

Honestly the way I use bitcoin I don't really care if it's worth $200 or $800 just buy bitcoin when you need to purchase or cashout quickly after you got a payment.

The biggest looser in this are the on who bought mining equipment in the past months.

And let's all keep in mind that bitcoin is still young (5 years is nothing for a currencie), it just need big players like Paypal to stabilize it.

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If you bought in yesterday at sub $300 you would be in profit.

I don't think PayPal will do much to stabilize BTC though... They are more interested in the btc protocol for cheap transactions. If anything, large corporations like PayPal will put alot of sell pressure on bitcoin, as they tend not to hold as they instantly cash out via BitPay, Coinbase etc. This could lead to drastically lower prices.

However, I'm still sure that BTC will surpass the previous ATH during the holiday season