In 2013 $100 Investment in Bitcoin Equals $5,000

Forbes has an interesting chart showing the performance of a $100 investment in Bitcoin, Gold, Litecoin, Netflix, Twitter, etc. A $100 investment in Bitcoin in January would be worth $5,000 today.

Read More at Forbes.com

How You Should Have Spent $100 In 2013 (Hint: Bitcoin)If you could get in a time travel machine and head back to the beginning of the year, you would best do so with Bitcoin on the brain. We took a look at how the major tech stocks performed this year in comparison with digital currencies, and for comparison’s sake, threw in gold and the best of the staples, cocoa (thanks to chocolate eaters in Asia).

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via Forbes

Bitcoin Exchanges In India Shut Down

Following in China’s lead, India’s banking regulator warned users of security and financial risks associated with virtual currency. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Had the following to say:

“There have been several media reports of the usage of VCs, including Bitcoins, for illicit and illegal activities in several jurisdictions. The absence of information of counterparties in such peer-to-peer anonymous/ pseudonymous systems could subject the users to unintentional breaches of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws”

Read more at TechCrunch:

Bitcoin Exchanges In India Shut Down After Regulator WarningBitcoin exchanges in India are shutting down days after the country’s banking regulator warned users of virtual currency against security and financial risks associated with them. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had remained silent on Bitcoin over the past few weeks, even as China started clamping down on the exchanges, sending the virtual currency into a downward spin earlier this month.

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BTX Trader – Beta-Version

WPCS Launches a Beta version of Their Bitcoin Trading Platform. You can download for free here: http://www.btxtrader.com

The software appears to be for Windows machines only.

“WPCS said BTX Trader is the first trading platform that lets traders and industry researchers access market data and execute orders on the five most popular Bitcoin exchanges in a single application.”

Read more at Fox Business.com:

WPCS Launches Beta-Version of Bitcoin Trading PlatformIn another sign of how cyber currency Bitcoin has moved into the mainstream, WPCS International ( WPCS) this week unveiled the public release of a Bitcoin trading platform. The late Thursday announcement drove thinly-traded shares of WPCS 80% higher on Friday morning.

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Bitcoin at eBay and Amazon with SnapCard

Just in time for the Holidays, you can use SnapCard to purchase on amazon and eBay. There is a 2% fee for the service. Read more here:

 

SnapCard Lets Bitcoin Users ‘Skip Merchants’Online startup snapCard wants to make it easier to use bitcoins online by skipping merchant integration altogether. SnapCard users can purchase items from major retailers, even if their e-commerce platform doesn’t accept bitcoin. Users can also avoid logging into a retailer’s website.

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Bitcoin vs. Gold

MarketWatch takes an interesting look at Gold and Bitcoin. Gold has been on a downward slope yet Bitcoin is on a rocket ship ride to the top. Bitcoin is touching $947 as of 11-27-13.

“The point about bitcoin is that it is designed to be all the things that gold was back when the precious metal was a currency. It has a limited supply. It is not controlled by governments or central banks. It is not anonymous, as some people occasionally claim, but it is a lot more private than money held in a bank account. It is a store of value.”

Who knows if bitcoin is a fad or if it will mature into a serious decentralized alternative digital currency. However, the popularity of bitcoin proves the demand for a digital currency. Maybe it will be bitcoin, litecoin or bbqcoin… only time will tell.

Remember, what Napster did to music or what Amazon did first to book sales and then to retail and finally all of online sales? I’m excited to have a front row seat as we watch this new disruptive technology roll out in the financial sector. Grab your popcorn!

Bitcoin, not gold, has the Midas touchIt’s an alternative to paper currencies. It can be traded anywhere in the world. It has a limited supply. And it should be a secure haven if financial markets start to crash. That is a fairly accurate description of gold. It is also an accurate description of bitcoin, the digital currency that is gaining in popularity all the time.

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Bitcoin Targets $1000

 

 

Bitcoin is Heading Toward a New High – and It Could Go to $1 MillionThe value of the electronic currency Bitcoin is creeping back toward $1,000 again. People keep describing this price behavior as “crazy” and “insane,” but it’s actually not that surprising. Earlier this spring, when Bitcoin was trading at about $90, I “raised my Bitcoin target” to $400.

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via Yahoo

Why do bitcoin exchanges quote different prices?

I found this Washington Post Blog post dated 11-24-13, which tries to answer this question.

Quoting Michael Frank of the Washington Post:
“That price difference persists because it is extremely difficult to actually do the arbitrage, since Mt. Gox’s banking relationships in the U.S. were terminated by the Feds, so it’s difficult to get US dollars out of Gox and into the US. To do this you would probably have to shuttle the funds around through Japanese banks and/or by way of other intermediate currencies. This process is expensive (the banks will take a cut at each step) and so that’s why the price difference persists.”

Money and Legal issues abound
In 2013 the United States Federal government seized $5 million dollars from Mt. Gox and they are in the middle of $75 million lawsuit with a former partner. All of this has made it rather difficult for U.S. users to get their funds out of Mt. Gox. You can read more about MT Gox’s financial woes here. I highly recommend you read the entire article about Mt. Gox before you invest any of your U. S. dollars in that exchange.

A few excerpts from the Wired Article:
Mark Karpeles, the CEO of Mt. Gox gave an interview to Reuters in April 2103 sitting on a blue exercise ball, which did not spark a lot of confidence.

“The CEO of the most important business in bitcoin sitting on top of a bouncy ball talking about world-changing ideas, says Roger Ver, an early bitcoin investor who knows Karpeles well and considers him a friend.” You can see the Youtube video here.

“Prices on Mt. Gox are higher than they are on other exchanges — a reflection of the difficulties customers have withdrawing their funds.”

“Dan Held, the founder of bitcoin market data company, Zero Block, has less sympathy for Mt. Gox. He points out that the US government warned businesses like Mt. Gox that they’d need to register as money services businesses in March of this year. But Mt. Gox didn’t do this until months later — after the feds has seized its bank accounts.” “A lot of it, I think, is incompetence,” he says.

“They just think Mt. Gox is the biggest and the best, and they don’t know…”

I’d consider this a must read if your are thinking about investing your money at Mt Gox.

You can also read first hand from disgruntled MT. Gox users. This is a long forum thread from actual users.

Bottom Line, buyer beware!