The Bitcoin

I know I have discussed the bitcoin before but I am prompted to do so again. I have always looked at the bitcoin as a scheme to make some people a pile of money at the expense of most other consumers. And I still see its demise somewhere down the line. Yesterday, the bitcoin made the news again when the Japan-based MtGox, the biggest Bitcoin exchange outside China, halted outside transfers from its clients’ bitcoin wallets. They attribute this to a tech glitch but I suspect there is more to it than meets the eye. I try to read as much as I can about the bitcoin and continue to harbor doubts as to its legitimacy. Even some major review sites have stopped reporting on it…(see Bitcoin Forecast and Technical Analysis Outlook | DailyForex.com)
Can we continue to view the bitcoin as a legitimate currency worthy of being traded on the forex markets?

Hey do you own any?

It wasn’t a glitch… Bitcoin doesn’t have enough liquidity. If you look at price action versus volume for the past few months, it does not take much to start a panic-sell. An individual (or government) with a few hundred million dollars to play around with could easily crash the market.

Of course, Bitcoin (or insert cryptocurrency of choice) fanboys will deny the reality; claiming how it is so much better than every government’s fiat money… Funny how everything sold using cryptocurrencies is priced in an established currency like USD because crypto is too volatile.

Bitcoin the disaster waiting to happen. Do you honestly think an interest based currency like the Dollar will be replaced by this Chinese controlled virtual money? It will create a buzz then some hidden figure will crash the market and buy them up cheap but not before all you guys get involved and make it an established tradeable instrument, then it will begin to rise again at sensible rate and someone out there would make a fortune selling them again.

Please just take a look at what NM Rothschild did with Bonds during the Napoleonic wars. Now they the spot price of Gold is decided in the NM Rothschilds offices in London twice a day. What a way to make money?!

Bitcoin is a substitute for paper, central banks are not going to let anything stand in front of its fiat. This shows us that currencies are not crashing any time soon. They have opened doors to other ideas and inventions to substitute fiat. Soon we will be seeing these new tools of money propping up everywhere around us, most will be pump and dumps.

I don’t own any and won’t go near it. I think it’s a scam and people are going to lose their shirts when it plunges to the bottom.

What people that think that bitcoin is a scam don’t realise is that bitcoin is a protocol first before its a currency. This is the same as saying that TCP/IP is the Internet, but the Internet is a result of the building of the protocol. Bitcoin marks the start of a new way of accounting - this is completely open accounting for all to see where shady deals done by large banking institutions that are hidden or direct market manipulation will be open for all to see. It is literally an end to fraud. This is why it is seen as such a danger to the current financial system - it makes their services mostly redundant and means they lose their “house” edge on the markets as anyone could trade with anyone else using the bitcoin protocol . Work is being done on the bitcoin protocol that will let you trade in shares, and any currency you like with any broker that supports the bitcoin protocol using coins with assigned values - these are “coloured” coins. If you think bitcoin is a scam it is simply because a currency with no government backing and such high volatility is just to much risk to touch, then realise that the current currencies are also a scam - LIBOR rigging, FOREX manipulation by the BOE and UK banks, unending QE etc. As soon as people open their eyes to the true benefits of using the bitcoin protocol and get over the hype of the bitcoin currency then the more stable the worlds finances will become.

LOL! Bitcoin is down 60% from its peak a few months ago. There seems to be support at $500, but can it hold again?

Bitcoin crashed to $300, but rallied back to $400. It still represents a loss of 2/3 in value.


Yeah, the biggest threat has always been regulating it out of existence. But bitcoin attracted a lot of wallstreet venture capital recently, so regulators are treading lightly. And such a change from earlier last year with Lord Holder on his slash and burn campaign rivaling General Sherman’s March to the Sea, to rid the country of all digital currencies ex Paypal. His over-the-top take down of Liberty Reserve using the Patriot Act effectively scared remaining third party payment providers into refusing to do business with US Clients.

I’ve used Bitcoin now to fund a couple of FOREX brokers. Works great! So nice not to risk identify theft sending personal info across the globe for a particular payment sytem, only to find out later, “sorry we don’t accept customers from the USA anymore”. With Bitcoin (or something similar) will never have to deal with those third party digital payment providers again. Oh, the Joy!

Idolizing is bad idea. Really bad.

[QUOTE=“Mr Gone;604831”]Idolizing is bad idea. Really bad.[/QUOTE]

What’s so bad about idolising a technology that could revolutionise the way the world operates? The scope of it is enormous. I see that in the future any systems not using the bitcoin protocol or the more mature version of it will be seen as shady and probably illegal. That is if politicians see the benefit. In the future I see all voting done using the bitcoin protocol, all business accounting, all pay and tax done using it and all trading be it stocks, futures, currency’s, pretty much anything. Unfortunately it will probably take another financial crash for politicians to realise that you cant trust banks to do their accounting and valuations properly and that the public isn’t going to stand to bail them out again.

Yeah but something wich authorities cannot do nothing well. BTC is just speculative crap.

[QUOTE=“Mr Gone;604852”]

Yeah but something wich authorities cannot do nothing well. BTC is just speculative crap.[/QUOTE]

I don’t quite follow your first point. But yes I do agree that most of the buying of BTC currently is purely speculative. However you could make the same argument of every other currency with the daily trading volume of the forex market far exceeding the actual use of those currencies for business transactions.

Just saying BTC works surprisingly well to pay for goods and services. You can deposit/withdraw in BTC at FXOpen, Forex Metal, Lite Forex, and a few other brokers. Expect more brokers to accept bitcoin in the future.

But I only get BTC to make payments. Hoarding physical bitcoins is pointless and even dangerous. Read a story today how the FBI can seize bitcoins if they trace back to illegal activity – even if you purchased them legally.

As for speculation, why ignore a 24/7 market totally uncorrelated to global economic data? Several brokers now offer bitcoin CFDs: FXOpen, Forex Metal, Avatrade, Plus500, FXChoice, eToro, Bit4x. I know FXOpen charges .25% round turn plus a couple dollar spread. Considering Bitcoin’s volatility, that’s not bad.

Brokers with questionable credibility and If I don’t want I shall not receive BTC, period, I wanna receive USD.

am sceptical about bitcoin purely for the fact that as it is unregulated, a lot of criminal organisations are using it for money laundering purposes, and already several people that are heavely involved in BT in US have been arrested under suspicion of money laundering BBC News - US makes Bitcoin exchange arrests after Silk Road closure

There was a discussion on etoro last year about bitcoin when they first started offering it as a tradable stock. I continually tried to point out to people that it cannot be classed as currency until it has government backing somewhere and is widely accepted as a source of payment. Several people pointed out different businesses you can use bitcoins for online payments, but as I pointed out, until I can walk into any pub/bar/***** house/restruarnt/shop/bank in the UK and have bitcoin accepted, then I will not class it as currency. At the moment, it is too unregulated and easy frauders and others to get a hold of for governments to consider touching, and as such it is something I will view with a lot of caution.

You’re right, Bitcoin is an electronic payment system that’s not widely accepted. But most third party payment systems aren’t widely accepted either. For example, I’m looking at FXOpen’s deposit/withdrawal page. These guys offer 20 different electronic payment systems to choose from…most of them I’ve never heard of. What the heck is “Dixipay” or “Fasapay”? So now they’ve added Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Namecoin to the list.

Anyway, this is how I think Bitcoin will eventually fit into the global payment ecosystem – just one of many choices customers can use. Bitcoin doesn’t ever have to be widely accepted to fullfill that role.

And Bitcoin does have some special significance for US residents. Due to severe requlatory restrictions, all third party international electronic payment providers (besides paypal) either no longer accept US clients or have placed limitations on the accounts making them useless for funding FOREX brokers. At least for now, our regulators have not forced any such restrictions on Bitcoin. One can always use Bankwire, but why pay those expensive deposit/withdrawal fees. Even more importantly I would be very uncomfortable giving any FOREX broker my bank account details – ID theft.

All that glitters isn’t gold….or should that read; a fool & his money/coins is always parted?
Bitcoin under threat as MtGox goes offline - Telegraph

Mt.gox having technical difficulties has nothing to do with the bitcoin protocol. It’s their own website that caused the issues.