Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: seatturtle on April 12, 2013, 07:11 pm

Title: Some thoughts on the recent bitcoin events
Post by: seatturtle on April 12, 2013, 07:11 pm
Hey all. SO, if you have been paying attention, this has week has been bedlam in the bitcoin community. In the last week, some people became millionaires and cashed out, some people dropped their life savings into 260$ coins and are now totally ruined, and a whole new league of highly skilled hackers/phishers, finance sharks, and general media attention has been focused on our little buddy (maybe your worst enemy) the bitcoin. I bought a fair amount of btc at around 15 dollars each months ago so i have been paying attention to the market fluctuations. What happened this week will go down forever in economic history. The media is calling it a bubble, and are using this event to discourage people from wanting to get involved with bitcoin. and fairly so, many people SHOULDN'T. There are a few lessons i'm sure we've all learned and could learn from this event.

1. While the idea of Bitcoin is fucking romantic, and trust me, i was woo'd at first, by a currency with almost no oversight and regulation. While allowing us to safely and quickly move funds, obtain very frowned upon items, and store our money free from banks, all of which is truly awesome, people need to remember that on the other side of the 'coin', is that this is a playground for predatory traders and finance sharks, that can do shit on the btc xchanges that they cannot by law on Wall Street (where they still get away with murder). Many of these sharks cashed in BIGTIME this last week and are laughing their asses off all the way to the bank. LESSON: if you see bitcoin rising meteorically, stay away. It will absolutely fall again. Many in the btc community are attributing the crash to what is called a "pressure test", one or multiple VERY powerful financial entities were buying  large amounts bitcoin all along, and then started selling them en masse, simultaneously making huge amounts of money while 'testing' the resiliency of the currency by causing a massive panic sell. by all means, bitcoin passed the test with flying colors. It is hugely resilient, and now has leveled out around 70$, more than double it's previous record. THIS TEST WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. MAJOR BANKS, THE FEDERAL RESERVE, THE IMF, and other hugely powerful companies could even cooperate to do a massive pressure test in the future, large enough to completely take down bitcoin if it shakes people's trust enough. BEWARE. (also use this lesson to maybe make a little money, and sell some btc when its waaay too high to be real and teach some greedy dickweed out there a lesson)
2. When bitcoin value rises like that, and gains massive mainstream media attention, major n00bs are going to flock in (TO OF COURSE ONLY THE MOST POPULAR EXCHANGE, MTGOX DERP) trying to greedily make a buck without knowing really what bitcoin is, how it works. They just see that they can invest some money, and make more, so when btc rises fast (maybe because of a pressure test, or increased interest from wealthy corporations) itll rise even faster because of teh n00bs. and guess what, they are just waiting for the right time to sell. so when the panic starts, it goes out of control. in this case, mtgox had a lag from over 20,000 n00b accounts being made, causing a ton of n00bs to get scurred and start selling. fucking stupid. its fucking fragile, especially when these idiots get involved. Luckily, alot of them lost everything they had trying to get rich off btc, and good, because fuck them. LESSON: n00bs don't understand the value of btc, and will sell at any sign of trouble. and shit can hit the fan fast.
3. Be safe. While all this went down, tons and tons of people got hacked and phished. If your going to invest money in btc, invest some time in learning some security measures! back up all of your wallets frequently, use paper back ups, use encryption software to encrypt a usb, and put your bitcoin wallet inside of a hidden file container in it, and only use it when you need to, and otherwise dismount that shit and keep it offline and hidden somewhere safe. and make several back ups of that too! Many people fell victim to the java applet that installed a malware on peoples computers when they went to a mtgox phishing site, which drained their bitcoin wallets immediately. LESSON: back up wallets, use encryption, disable javascript when trading btc. (you should always disable java and similar softwares when doing this type of stuff. evil evil evil. There are alot of very smart people out there looking to get yo shit. There are also very smart people who create amazing and easy to use tools to help you fight back. do what you can to prevent it.
yep. its a crazy fucking world. if your gonna get into it, do your research. I'm just scratching the surface here.
Title: Re: Some thoughts on the recent bitcoin events
Post by: donatto on April 12, 2013, 07:25 pm
DDOS AND A BUNCH OF SMART GUYS MADE TONS OF MONEY, period.
Title: Re: Some thoughts on the recent bitcoin events
Post by: SirBaxter on April 12, 2013, 07:39 pm
some thought, I'm on SR to buy drugs, period. If I wanted to invest and lose money I'd get a 401k.
Title: Re: Some thoughts on the recent bitcoin events
Post by: HelloMolly on April 12, 2013, 08:12 pm
 :'( will be a interesting month or 2 that's for sure! :)
Title: Re: Some thoughts on the recent bitcoin events
Post by: some_douche on April 12, 2013, 08:17 pm
When I was first told about SR, the value of BC was ~£30 and in the month or so that I have been watching it, it has been spectacular.  I am very glad I didn't decide to take a punt until rates were corrected.  My problem is that Mt. Gox seem to lie at the centre of this and until there are other major players to provide viable competition, Bitcoin will always be at it's mercy
Title: Re: Some thoughts on the recent bitcoin events
Post by: seatturtle on April 13, 2013, 01:08 am
some thought, I'm on SR to buy drugs, period. If I wanted to invest and lose money I'd get a 401k.

yeah no shit, that's all anyone is on SR for, to buy and sell drugs,  just warning people not to buy btc when its going for a ride, and to warn new people what they are getting into with the bitcoin market, and to be wary of some of the tricks out there
Title: Re: Some thoughts on the recent bitcoin events
Post by: PB on April 13, 2013, 01:50 am
I bought the most expensive drugs of my life last month...
Title: Re: Some thoughts on the recent bitcoin events
Post by: gwendlesphere on April 13, 2013, 07:52 am
Why most of you are treating it like a WallStreet stock exchange is beyond me.

You spend small amounts of bitcoins on drugs, of which you eat, inject, snort or shelf in your ass.

Don't be so uptight. Just buy smart, don't make massive deposits and treat it as what it is: drug money.

You arent big time investors in BTC, and if you are, you deserve your losses.