# Bitcoins Drop 50% Today
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 10, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350 "2013-04-10T20:06:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/21 "2013-04-11T19:52:23Z")
As the proud owner of 154 bitcoins, there’s only one thing I have to say about this crash:
Yawn.
The 154 Bitcoins were in my wallet last week (well, 151 of them were, I’ve mined 3 since). They were there this morning. They’re there now. They’ll be there tomorrow. They’ll be there next year. Along with the other 150 or so I’ll hopefully have mined by then (lowball estimate). They’ll be in my wallet whether 1 bitcoin is worth $1 or $1000. When bitcoins go over $1000 I might consider starting to buy pizzas with my millies.
One change I might make though… the wallet is on my laptop. The addresses in it are generated from a 12 word seed I’ve memorised. So I might nuke my laptop.
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### Author:  [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/22 "2013-04-11T19:56:43Z")
> [@PastTense](#):
>
> Easy come, easy go.
I actually think this is a very healthy attitude.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/23 "2013-04-11T20:00:05Z")
The biggest market [Mt.Gov](http://Mt.Gov) is temporarily done. Elsewhere prices continue to collapse. As I write this about $69
[https://btc-e.com/](https://btc-e.com/)
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### Author:  [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2013, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/24 "2013-04-11T20:57:50Z")
The biggest problem for Bitcoins right now is that people are buying and hoarding them as an investment instead of spending them (or dumping them as the value drops), causing the values to jump up and down.
If one bitcoin is worth a dollar today, and I want to buy a cookie for Bt1 - As a buyer, why would I spend that bitcoin if tomorrow it can be worth $100. Conversely, why would the seller want to sell me that cookie if the value could drop to $0.01.
The only way for bitcoins to work is for people to regularly spend them, and right now that’s not happening.
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### Author:  [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/25 "2013-04-11T21:59:17Z")
Think of it as Disney Dollars for the internet
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### Author:  [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/26 "2013-04-12T14:14:46Z")
I first heard of bitcoins last week here on the Dope. So do I have this right…imaginary money, made up by someone who may be imaginary, that can easily be manipulated by bored teenage hackers on Spring Break, that won’t actually buy you physical groceries? This is related to the Jedi religion, right?
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/27 "2013-04-12T15:10:46Z")
All money is imaginary. But some is more imaginary than others.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/28 "2013-04-12T17:12:45Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#):
>
> Quatloos have been stable at 400Q : Newcomer
Thank you for this.
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### Author:  [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/29 "2013-04-12T18:45:14Z")
> [@kittenblue](#):
>
> I first heard of bitcoins last week here on the Dope. So do I have this right…imaginary money, made up by someone who may be imaginary, that can easily be manipulated by bored teenage hackers on Spring Break, that won’t actually buy you physical groceries? This is related to the Jedi religion, right?
It CAN buy you physical goods. They just tend to be… legally questionable at best.
Actually, if someone will take them, you can use them. It’s just a matter of finding someone who’ll take them, of course.
The main highlights for this stuff as far as I can tell are anonymity, the lack of ties to government or big business, the potential for the value to increase, and in some cases, hatred of fiat currency (which obviously doesn’t make a lot of sense in this case, but it seems to come up quite a bit as a defense of bitcoins).
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/30 "2013-04-12T19:20:03Z")
> [@kittenblue](#):
>
> that can easily be manipulated by bored teenage hackers on Spring Break
While Bitcoin has its issues I don’t believe this is one of them.
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### Author:  [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2013, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/31 "2013-04-13T03:11:02Z")
I am having trouble understanding how bitcoins are legit and not a scam. What, people are paying strippers with digital money? How are they not suckers?
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### Author:  [@sohvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sohvan)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2013, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/32 "2013-04-13T12:57:37Z")
Bitcoins seem to be more for speculation than for transactions. You wouldn’t use it to buy good or services, people just hope to sell it for a larger amount of money than you used to obtain it. In a way it doesn’t matter what it is as long as there’s demand and a limited supply.
What I don’t understand is why some people are calling Bitcoin a safe harbor of some sort in a financial crisis. With such wild fluctuations on it’s price it’s the very opposite of that. It might be 70$ a coin this week, 200$ the next week, and the week after that it might just crash back to 20$.
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/33 "2013-04-13T13:07:03Z")
It is because they are libertarian types who think that governments are always evil and incompetent, and an unfettered free market will inevitably lead to a utopia where all their gambles will pay off.
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/34 "2013-04-13T13:12:51Z")
> [@sohvan](#):
>
> What I don’t understand is why some people are calling Bitcoin a safe harbor of some sort in a financial crisis. With such wild fluctuations on it’s price it’s the very opposite of that. It might be 70$ a coin this week, 200$ the next week, and the week after that it might just crash back to 20$.
Several reasons:
They are accepted as legal tender anywhere in the world
They are not subject to power outages or infrastructure crashes
They are backed by the largest economy on the planet
Their deposits are insured up to $100,000
Oh wait…that’s the US dollar I’m thinking of.
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#):
>
> I am having trouble understanding how bitcoins are legit and not a scam. What, people are paying strippers with digital money? How are they not suckers?
Bitcoins are “legal” much in the same way “dance dollars” at a strip club or trading baseball cards is legal.
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### Author:  [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/35 "2013-04-14T16:44:57Z")
> [@msmith537](#):
>
> Bitcoins are “legal” much in the same way “dance dollars” at a strip club or trading baseball cards is legal.
But the whole thing starts with a guy with a computer and some servers announcing, “I have invented a new currency called Bitcoins! Send me $100 and I will credit you with one”. Is there anything more to it than some bits on a guy’s server? Because if I go out and buy Tim Horton’s baseball card, at least I have a physical photo and a list of his stats I can show to my friends. And a dance dollar is always worth exactly one lap dance AFAIK, the point being to regulate stripper transactions by taking the cash directly out of them.
It’d be exactly the same thing if I started advertising my own Try2B Bucks, right? Send me $10 and I’ll mark you down as owning one, congratulations. Or is there something more to them than being digitally whipped up out of nothing?
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/36 "2013-04-14T17:01:57Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#):
>
> Or is there something more to them than being digitally whipped up out of nothing?
Yes, it’s significantly different. Read up on how bitcoins operate.
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### Author:  [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/37 "2013-04-14T17:08:18Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> Yes, it’s significantly different. Read up on how bitcoins operate.
Ok. For convenience do you have an ideal cite?
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/38 "2013-04-14T18:08:13Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#):
>
> It’d be exactly the same thing if I started advertising my own Try2B Bucks, right? Send me $10 and I’ll mark you down as owning one, congratulations. Or is there something more to them than being digitally whipped up out of nothing?
I’m not exactly sure how it works. I know it uses some sort of cryptography algorithms and peer to peer technology so that they aren’t just created by some guy cranking them out. But however they work, for all intents and purposes they are “whipped up out of nothing”. They aren’t backed by gold or silver or any central bank or government. They aren’t even useful as currency (try using bitcoins at your local Starbucks). Which means the only reason they have value is because some fridge group of people believe they have value.
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/39 "2013-04-14T18:23:19Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#):
>
> Ok. For convenience do you have an ideal cite?
There are four of them in this thread alone.
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### Author:  [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitcoins-drop-50-today/655350/40 "2013-04-14T18:59:00Z")
_sigh_ nevermind, I am losing interest in this funny money. Let’s just break it down to this question: can I safely ignore the Bitcoin phenomenon, or by doing that will I find myself on the wrong side of some cultural/fiscal divide a few years from now?
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