[hackerspaces] bitcoin (Christopher Pilkington)

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> Date: Sun, 29 May 2011 23:29:32 -0400
> From: Christopher Pilkington <cjp at 0x1.net>
> Subject: Re: [hackerspaces] bitcoin
> To: Hackerspaces General Discussion List
>        <discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org>
> Message-ID: <BANLkTikM9N-s-j=bOxbbZ_deh83NurURow at mail.gmail.com>
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>
> On Sun, May 29, 2011 at 5:30 AM, Koen Martens <gmc at sonologic.nl> wrote:
>>> Interesting tidbits from other places: if you'd bought $100 USD worth of
>>> bitcoins 8 months ago, you could sell them for $14100 USD now.
>>
>> Would anyone buy $14100 worth of bitcoins though? :)
>
> I'm curious how these exchange rates are being determined.  Is there a
> public exchange where I can see asks, bids and sale prices of each
> transaction?  If not, this is not a viable currency.


As someone who invested using a cash money order to buy up some coin
back when it was being traded at about 3usd to 1btc,   ive been
watching the ebb and flow,  my "investment" has been retty
conservative, when coin went over $8 i sold off a small section of my
coin to make bakc my initial investment.  And so far im just sitting
on some coins watching the market,

With traders like MTgox.com ive got both a buy order and a sell order
setup at various thresholds. to buy low sell high.  but thats only for
another small percentage of my overall wallet.  The way the market
price is set by matching sales prices with buyers prices.  if there
are lots of buyers price goes up, if there is a huge selloff, price
goes down.

Its fun to watch the system unfold, im not sure it will be the final
solution, once the last bitcoin is mined it will be interesting to see
where the value of a bitcoin lands in the real world  (is it worth a
coffee?  how about a cow? or a new laptop? right now sellers who offer
goods for bitcoins, and bitcents are having the real issue of
conversion prices,  when the snack store opened i tihnk theprices were
great for $2.50 per btc, when the btc went up to $7 id have to say
their prices were comparatively 600% over retail. (not real math just
a guess) i see they are adjusting based on market averages but its
still tricky.