Despite making headway towards legitimacy, Bitcoin was the worst-performing currency of 2014

[Shawn Knight]

It’s been a banner year for Bitcoin in terms of the headway made towards being a legitimate currency but you’d never gather as much based on performance alone. In fact, it was the world’s worst performing currency according to a recent report from Bloomberg.

The hot-topic cryptocurrency peaked at a value of $1,130 just over a year ago, sparking interest from investors in and out of the tech sector. A year later, however, Bitcoin’s value has plummeted 56 percent which makes it the world’s worst performing currency among the 175 foreign-exchange values that Bloomberg tracks.

When you consider all of the turmoil that took place in Russia and the Ukraine this year (remember, Apple pulled the plug on online sales in Russia following the ruble’s poor performance just weeks ago), it becomes evident just how bad of a year Bitcoin had.

As of writing, Bitcoin is trading for around $326 which according to many, is still rather impressive for a currency that didn’t even exist just six years ago. Early adopters that still have some Bitcoins tucked away would continue to enjoy a nice return on their investment today.

The publication concludes that being at war is worse for a currency than not being a war, whether fighting the world’s financial authorities for legal validity like Bitcoin or engaged in guerrilla warfare as a victim or aggressor.

Bitcoin’s value has leveled out over the past few months and given the increased adoption from some major companies, it’s possible that 2015 could be yet another turning point for the embattled cryptocurrency.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/59253-despite-making-headway-towards-legitimacy-bitcoin-worst-performing.html

 

[captaincranky]

Why do you insist on publishing "photographs", of something doesn't exist, never has, and never will exist?

There is no such thing as a "Bitcoin", it's all in your cyber-magination..

All of the foregoing being fact, you still publish pictures of it in "gold", as if to imply it's, "the gold standard"...

How about the rest of the, "crapto-currencies", like "Litecoin", how the hack are they doing?

 

[davislane1]

Why do you insist on publishing "photographs", of something doesn't exist, never has, and never will exist?

There is no such thing as a "Bitcoin", it's all in your cyber-magination..

So are half of the products traded on US exchanges. What's your point?

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Why do you insist on publishing "photographs", of something doesn't exist, never has, and never will exist?

There is no such thing as a "Bitcoin", it's all in your cyber-magination..

So are half of the products traded on US exchanges. What's your point?

'Coin'cidentally imaginary products are just what bitcoin needs! Right now one of the things holding them back is the lack of derivatives to hedge against the currency changing value.

All in all though it may not matter. Bitcoin could be used as a transaction currency only, where people wouldn't ever hold any of them, they would just convert dollars to bitcoin, transact in bitcoin and the receiver would swap them back for dollars immediately. You get the benefits of bitcoin without a lot of the risk.

 

[captaincranky]

So are half of the products traded on US exchanges. What's your point?

Perhaps, but Techspot doesn't print imaginary, fabricated photos, of them. That was my point, and it was stated quite plainly.

...[ ]....All in all though it may not matter. Bitcoin could be used as a transaction currency only, where people wouldn't ever hold any of them, they would just convert dollars to bitcoin, transact in bitcoin and the receiver would swap them back for dollars immediately. You get the benefits of bitcoin without a lot of the risk.

So, basically what you're saying is, that Bitcoin is imaginary money whose only tangible use is to act as an intermediary between spending money and buying the same money back? Buying physical imaginary money printed by one world government, or goods, then having the seller redeem the Bitcoin for either the same government's or a different government's physical imaginary money. That what PayPal or credit cards do. Now, why do we need Bitcoin again?

Some nvestors lost about 70% or their "money", stored thus far in Bitcoin, yet people still think it's a good idea. All you need now is for the people still holding onto it to panic and cash in, that would drop the price even more.
This is why many cases of fraud are never reported. The victims are either too embarrassed, or in a state of denial.

Besides, it's getting too hard to mine Bitcoin anymore. Better go out and buy a bigger, faster rig, to mine whatever the next nonsense is that someone plants on public servers.

 

[Guest]

Unlike a credit card were credit card information can be stolen and used, bitcoin transactions have to be sent from the account. Just having the address does not let you get access to the coins. This is the biggest differences between cc and bitcoin transactions. All the stolen accounts from Target and Home Depot would not occurred if using bitcoins. Is it perfect, no not by any means but it is a step in the right directions. What exactly is a dollar these days? How does it have value? How is that any different than crypto currency?

 

[captaincranky]

Unlike a credit card were credit card information can be stolen and used, bitcoin transactions have to be sent from the account. Just having the address does not let you get access to the coins. This is the biggest differences between cc and bitcoin transactions. All the stolen accounts from Target and Home Depot would not occurred if using bitcoins. Is it perfect, no not by any means but it is a step in the right directions. What exactly is a dollar these days? How does it have value? How is that any different than crypto currency?

Theft is theft, no matter what the mechanism. Bitcoin robbed its investors through an exchange and an online bot driving up prices.Then of course those who invested when the price was at its azimuth, robbed themselves via their own stupidity. I'd bet that Bernie Madoff was sitting in jail thinking to himself, "why didn't I come up with the idea for Bitcoin"?

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Perhaps, but Techspot doesn't print imaginary, fabricated photos, of them. That was my point, and it was stated quite plainly.
So, basically what you're saying is, that Bitcoin is imaginary money whose only tangible use is to act as an intermediary between spending money and buying the same money back? Buying physical imaginary money printed by one world government, or goods, then having the seller redeem the Bitcoin for either the same government's or a different government's physical imaginary money. That what PayPal or credit cards do. Now, why do we need Bitcoin again?

Why to 'we', as in you and me need it? Maybe not at all, but there are many people who do. When you change dollars between two parties online (like when buying something on ebay or amazon) you need an intermediary who is connected to the banks. This prevents people from being able to spend digital money more than once, just as easily as you copy a file. This intermediary (paypal,VISA, etc) charges a fee. This fee isn't a big deal to us because it's charged to the seller, but it's there.
However, if you're a contractor working in the USA and sending part of your paycheck back to your family in your home country, those fees can be as high as 10% for transfer and currency exchanges via a bank. That's a lot of money.
Bitcoin solves the problem of not spending digital money twice by using a public ledger, so people using bitcoin to send money oversees could get around the fees they have to pay today. The conversion fees from bitcoin to your local currency would be far less than what the bank charge today.

Once derivatives are available these conversion services will become popular because it will allow people to hold bitcoin without the fear of speculators messing with the value.

So why do we need bitcoin? I don't think we do, I think for many of us it's a solution in search of a problem. But for others it could save a lot of money.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Yay, a Bitcoin thread. One of the few topics Captain and I see 'eye to eye' on.