Bitcoin value passes $1,000 for the first time in more than three years

Shawn Knight

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Staff member

Bitcoin is off to a solid start in 2017 as its value for the first time in more than three years has surpassed the $1,000 mark on the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index.

The cryptocurrency briefly peaked at $1,033.43 earlier today but has since slid slightly to $1,018.33 as of writing.

Bitcoin, the fascinating virtual currency created by Satoshi Nakamoto (whose identity still remains a mystery), was practically worthless for the first few years of its existence before taking parity with the US dollar in early 2011. It would be another couple of years before its popularity – and its value – really shot up, breaking the $1,000 barrier for the first time on November 27, 2013.

Unfortunately for investors, the virtual currency has been marred by fraudtheft and its association with shady businesses. In early 2014, the largest Bitcoin exchange at the time – Mt. Gox – suspended trading and ultimately filed for bankruptcy protection, a move that sent Bitcoin’s value into a tailspin. Its worth has climbed and fell numerous times over the past few years yet surprisingly enough, the decentralized currency has seen an encouraging uptick in adoption.

For those that “invested” in Bitcoin early on like Christopher Koch, Bitcoin’s rising share value is no doubt good news. Koch purchased 5,000 Bitcoins for $27 in 2009 as part of a research paper about encryption. His haul would now be worth around $5 million based on today’s exchange rates.

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Funny, just a couple years ago I remember a lot of uninformed people gloating about how they knew Bitcoin would fail, even though all they proved is how ignorant they were.


Now Bitcoin proves to have completely bounced back and all the haters are absent... Hmmm....
 
Value of bitcoin, in some regard, is the same as it is with the American dollar. It's not really
backed by anything except "the good faith and credit..."
There isn't anything physically to back it up, like gold, silver etc.
 
Bitcoin is a money laundering operation for rich people in countries who aren't allowed to expatriate certain amounts of money.

Until the IRS accepts Bitcoin as legal tender...you guys can keep trusting it. No thanks.
 
Value of bitcoin, in some regard, is the same as it is with the American dollar. It's not really
backed by anything except "the good faith and credit..."
There isn't anything physically to back it up, like gold, silver etc.

You essentially explained the American dollar/Federal reserve money "the good faith and credit" which means nothing.

Some people like to refer to Bitcoin as digital Gold, since it requires compute power to mine/solve maths problems (thus not created out of thin air so to speak).

It's a love/hate kind of relationship that the world banks have towards Bitcoin, for good and bad reasons.

I hate the idea of a total cashless society, however Bitcoin or other Cryptocurrencies would make sense for it.

Just my 2 cents (0.000195 BTC hehe)
 
Funny, just a couple years ago I remember a lot of uninformed people gloating about how they knew Bitcoin would fail, even though all they proved is how ignorant they were.


Now Bitcoin proves to have completely bounced back and all the haters are absent... Hmmm....
The haters are absent? Don't hold your breath just yet.
 
It's easy to blame the media about "dishonesty" towards Bitcoin but the simple fact is that Bitcoin isn't safe and it's hackable at the points of transactions.

Add to that it's UNINSURED.

The FDIC insures every dime of my USD in Capital One, Investor's Bank and MCU.

The FDIC is backed by the United States Military Industrial Complex.

Who insures your bitcoins?

I'll say again: until the IRS accepts bitcoins as legal tender, the foreigners can keep trading their monopoly money into them as much as they like.

I invest in marijuana stocks, biotech, Gold, silver and military companies.

No thanks Bitcoin.
 
You essentially explained the American dollar/Federal reserve money "the good faith and credit" which means nothing.

Some people like to refer to Bitcoin as digital Gold, since it requires compute power to mine/solve maths problems (thus not created out of thin air so to speak).

It's a love/hate kind of relationship that the world banks have towards Bitcoin, for good and bad reasons.

I hate the idea of a total cashless society, however Bitcoin or other Cryptocurrencies would make sense for it.

Just my 2 cents (0.000195 BTC hehe)


Well, ANYTHING that gives a "traditional" bank a run for its money, can't be all bad. %*#)% federal reserve/government has allowed all these $*(^#% mergers to the point that when a bank fails, we get the "too big to fail" garbage, and taxpayers have to pay it off.
 
I'll say again: until the IRS accepts bitcoins as legal tender, the foreigners can keep trading their monopoly money into them as much as they like.
That's true from a US standpoint. But every country has it's own currency, that is not and has never been governed by USA's IRS. Whether the IRS accepts it or not has no control over whether it will be accepted in other countries, only whether it will be accepted in the US.
 
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