I should have gotten in earlier.
When should I be buying in at this point? Should I be buying in at all? (assuming of course that I would spend no money which I wouldn't mind losing...)

Count me in the excitement.

BTC isn't "worth" anything beyond what people on average will pay for it. From what I can see, BCH has not been doing that well. Perhaps it will improve in the future; in any event, I was happy to get free BCH on the off chance it does well.

I would not buy now. I'm actually offloading a bunch in the form of Newegg/Steam purchases. If the market panics around $10k and drops significantly, you may want to buy for fun. I would fully expect to lose whatever money you put in, although in my case I did accidentally make a fair amount. The more BTC is worth, though, the more the IRS might start getting serious, which is why I'm offloading some now.

Overall, I still think BTC is a pastime in the form of a technological oddity. The fact that you might make money off it is fun, but I wouldn't recommend it as an actual investment.

I'm excited! But bittersweet because I spend most of mine last year when it was only 1k each. I got a car and a bunch of sweet games but in hindsight those have now ended up being pretty expensive things lol. (Although for doing practically no work I can't complain even though I should have waited longer)

If it crashes a fair amount which it very possibly will soon, I'd recommend buying. Granted I know a couple friends who were waiting for a dip at around 6k and regretted not getting some. You can always buy fractions of bitcoins if you can't afford to invest in one fully.

Might want to look into bitcoin cash, or bitcoin gold as well. Litecoin is another one that's still relatively cheap but I personally think will take off since it's basically an improved variant of bitcoin that does transactions faster. Still pretty cheap and early.

I'm more excited about there being a currency potentially existing in the future that a government won't have the power to inflate and stop them from essentially stealing money from society. Aren't taxes enough for them?

How did you buy a car?

Also, it's still fluctuating enough and not certain at all how crypto-currency will end up. For every economist who is predicting it will reach 1 million eventually, you have another one predicting it will crash like the tulips did.
So definitely do not invest anything you're willing to lose.

I traded it in for cash and used the cash to buy it. :P

I mean, which service did you use to transfer that much cash? Most I have seen seem wicked sketchy.

It was BTC-e but the damn feds have since shut it down.
Although they reopened it on a New Zealand server now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Company

More bubbly than champagne and the hang over will be much worse...

Guys, I am organizing a conference on crypto currencies for young bankers and such.
As you can imagine, all that is still relatively new topic here.

The idea is to have 3 parts:
1. introduction lecture on technology, blockchain,
2. talks on trading cripto currencies
3. presentation of different c currencies.

If you have any idea on this, please let me know, since all this is a bit new to me, so it would be very useful. Thanks.

I'm planning on starting my own crypto-currency called biocoin. As you may have guessed based on the name, it is rooted in complex biology. To mine a biocoin you simply slaughter a large mammal, take a blood sample, and cut off its front left paw before burning the body. The unique combination of the pawprint and dna code from the blood is your biocoin.

I reckon this will be marginally less environmentally damaging than the ridiculously pointless energy wasting pyramid scheme that is bitcoin.

We had a hyperinflation in my country when I was a child. If we had a bitcoin, we would be able to produce and exchange more, and less people would have died of malnutrition. Similar to todays Zimbabwe and who knows which nation next.
Even if BTC colapses, there will be other c currencies.
Crypto curr have the ability of liberating people from bad monetary policies and corrupt governance.

I quess that its not easy for a person from a country without hyperinflation where everyone has a possibility to reach banking system to recognise that, but you can if you try.

Preach!

Yeah unregulated currencies are a dangerous thing. Just give it a few decades and we'll see how many people lose their shirts.

Since the invention of modern monetary policy, there has not been a significant hyperinflation event in an advanced economy. As much as y'all hate them, central banks are around for a reason. Currencies need to have someone in control of them.

Like, you all are very happy about the appreciation of the currency and everything, but if Bitcoin was at a point where it was actually used widespread in the economy, this would've caused a depression.

the market provides the regulation. government currencies are truly unregulated because government constantly devalue them by printing money. Bitcoin is set up so nobody can devalue it. That is why it appreciates. It is going to go even higher, imo, because it is competing against government backed currencies.

It is a myth that inflation is necessary for a stable economy. Government propaganda. In actuality, savings and capital accumulation are good. It is the government induced bubbles in the USA that are the real threats to our economy.

The risk for BT is not the crypto currency system, but that governments will take steps to destroy it. There is already a viable theory that the USG owns a lot of BT. With those, it could flood the market, create instability in price, to destroy BT reputation. The USG already aggressively prosecutes anyone involved in BT related markets. Federal courts have been handing out multiple life sentences for people involved. Charlie Shrem just got two years for speculating on BT and not paying capital gains taxes. Governments cannot tolerate competition or freedom in the market. They take extreme measures to preserve their corrupt government banking and political systems.

BT is a ponzi scheme

More money needs to be printed because the population and economy are expanding. The money pool has to expand with it.

And it's not government propaganda, it's basic fundamental economics. To believe otherwise is to be ignorant of history.

Assuming bitcoin lasts, it will keep adding money until 2140, (although the actual amount of bitcoin added will decrease, it was designed to account for becoming more valuable so the monetary value added would be somewhat consistent.) But it is a natural addition and not some bankers going "lol lets print 1000$ and loan it for the giggles"
And even in 2140, there will be other potential cryptocurrencies adding money into the economy. (And since it's entirely market driven, only the well designed/defined cryptocurrencies will become valuable)

Eturnage is right in that it is the market that regulates the currency. He's also right that the government (especially the American government) hates it and is doing steps to ensure it's not used. The USG has a lot of Bitcoin from seizing sites like Silk Road and if they wanted to flood the market if they could. I fully expect they will now that so many countries are distancing themselves from the federal dollar and looking for alternatives.
Like, they're seizing all the non-sketchy websites trading bitcoin to make it harder. You definitely should not be storing any of your coins long term on sites since you never know when the feds will take it.

Central banks were around when Germany enjoyed hyperinflation. And Yugoslavia. Venezuela right now, too. Sure, it now takes a major crisis to trigger it, but it's far from extinct.

And Central Banks didn't solve the deflation in Japan for 20 years, either.

"You definitely should not be storing any of your coins long term on sites since you never know when the feds will take it."

I look forward to the day when I can bury my Bitcoins in a hole in the backyard.

You can print them off if you want so you technically can.

Serial killers are more expensive now.

There is nothing wrong with deflation. US history show it improves standard of living. Increasing productivity and output of goods generated by free markets caused prices to fall. Deflation encourages saving and investment. Both good for the economy. Basic economics, forgotten in the age of Keynesiasm. We would be better off without a central bank. Let the interest rates rise and fall based on the market. Our entire economy is controlled by the federal reserve. We do not have a free market in the USA. Even the most basic economic tool--money--is controlled by the hand of our government overlords.

Flum, that analysis is wrong on a lot of levels (strictly the banking system stuff)

HR - Yugoslavia and Venezuela aren't developed countries. Germany was a special case since it was under such massive debt, still on the gold standard, and had very unique stresses. Modern central banking only really began after the depression.

You're correct on Japan, which is why Bitcoin should scare the shit out of people. Japan's whole situation will be magnified x10 under Bitcoin - a restricted currency built to appreciate. If Japan - trying at it's hardest for 30 years to depreciate it's currency and spur some inflation - could not get things to work, how much worse would a country fare under Bitcoin?

"We would be better off without a central bank. Let the interest rates rise and fall based on the market. Our entire economy is controlled by the federal reserve."

Yeah....now you're off into Mises conspiracy land.

It is not ignorant to question the dogma of our flawed educational system especially with regard to the wrong-headed keynesianism that is accepted without question. Critical thinking and logic by a person are not ignorant. Study of history, especially economic history, is a worthy enterprise. Don't assume I don't know history or economics because I am not a keynesian.