Which means this is your quarterly reminder (or if you prefer, annoyance) that despite the 1 billion+ actual dollars invested in Bitcoin-related startups, the virtual currency is still used less than Linden Dollars, developed for a virtual world now over 13 years old and sellable on the open market for US$ for at least 12 of those years.
Despite that (and despite years of marginal growth), hope remains eternal among Bitcoin evangelists:
Several sources have stuck with bitcoin, claiming that a sudden rise is inevitable. Several charts have singled bitcoin out for a monster breakout, and analysts point out bitcoin’s competition against printed fiat currencies, which are vulnerable to inflation and related problems.
Erik Grill of Coinoutlet explains:
“There is a limited supply of Bitcoin, and recently that supply has been reduced, while the demand continues to rise. Bitcoin is typically traded against currencies that continue to increase in supply (printing more money) which will make the value of bitcoin relative to these currencies’ increase in value over time.”
For the 77th time: Increased value of an object of barter does not in itself prove the object's utility as currency. That's like arguing that an increased value in baseball trading cards means baseball trading cards are about to replace money.
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From the very article you linked:
"Banks are investing in the technology that powers Bitcoin, but not the currency itself."
Everyone knows this.
Posted by: Ezra | Monday, July 18, 2016 at 06:55 PM
The reporting about Bitcoin on this blog is bogus. Hamlet isn't researching his topic in any meaningful detail, and does a complete disservice to his readers.
For a real view of on-blockchain bitcoin transactions see this graph: http://www.coindesk.com/data/bitcoin-daily-transactions/
L$ are not traded on the "open market". lol. only LL are allowed to exchange them since they closed down all other exchanges. Even LL consider Linden Dollars as "game tokens" and not a currency by any stretch.
Posted by: D Crystal | Tuesday, July 19, 2016 at 05:25 PM
That chart is using the exact same data. And it lists today's total Bitcoin transactions as: 149,000. In the entire world. Which is roughly the range it was trading in during July 2015! Aren't you even a little concerned hardly anyone is actually using Bitcoin as money?
Posted by: Wagner J Au | Tuesday, July 19, 2016 at 05:36 PM
Yes your graph is a segment of the same data, but you're cherry-picking just one segment. If you view the data in context with past quarters it tells a much different story, which it seems you want to ignore.
If you'd asked "Did Daily Transactions of Bitcoin Go Up in the whole year 2015?", the answer would have been "yes ... from approx. 80,000 to 180,000" (over 100%!)
To me it's like you're examining the growth in number of e-mails sent in Q2 1994, and declaring that technology isn't being used, based purely on that tiny snippet without looking at the wider context.
If you're going to comare Bitcoin to Linden Dollars then again, you shouldn't cherry-pick just the data that supports one side of an argument.
If you compare the total USD value amount being transferred on the Bitcoin network in 2015-16 it will be several orders of magnitude greater than Linden Dollars, and also shows a lot of growth. And this is the same year that you're talking about it going nowhere and stagnating. For example:
https://blockchain.info/charts/estimated-transaction-volume-usd
Posted by: D Crystal | Wednesday, July 20, 2016 at 06:36 PM