The big bitcoin crash of 2014. That was last weekend and this week. Economist David Evans wrote a piece that put it in context. After 6 years, Bitcoin transactions remain flat, flat, flat. No other payments innovation on the face of the earth would continue to get tens of millions of dollars of investment in the face of such lackluster performance. Check out this chart for some amazing perspective.
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The big bitcoin crash of 2014. That was last weekend and this week. Economist David Evans wrote a piece that put it in context. After 6 years, Bitcoin transactions remain flat, flat, flat. No other payments innovation on the face of the earth would continue to get tens of millions of dollars of investment in the face of such lackluster performance. Check out this chart for some amazing perspective.
Bitcoin is now trading at $357.16 from $374.67 according to the PYMNTS.com Bitcoin Price index – and over the weekend, it plunged to below $300. Yes, just a year ago, prices were over $1,000. Evans sort of called out it out then too as a bubble.
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On the Plus Side …
Now we know. There’s an academic reason behind the eternal optimism of bitcoin believers, which Professor Statman at Santa Clara University explains as confirmation bias. Confirmation bias take root in communities that become echo chambers of optimism. A recent study of the bitcoin community by the University of Illinois supported Professor Statman in their findings that online bitcoin communities were far more bullish about the future of bitcoin than other bitcoin holders (or people in general).
- October 9, 2014 – Bitcoin Fans are always optimistic, perhaps due to confirmation bias. Bitcoin communities echo optimistic statements, regardless of whether or not they are factual.
- October 9, 2014 – The Philippine Government proposed a bill to create a government-backed “e-peso” to serve as a medium of exchange for domestic online payments.
- October 9, 2014 – Bitcoin evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos went before the Canadian Senate to make a case for bitcoin’s freedom, focusing on decentralized financial systems and calling for a better understanding of the technology before regulation is considered.
- October 8, 2014 – People in Venezuela that are tech-savvy, are turning to bitcoin to obtain dollars and make purchases online in order to avoid currency controls in Venezuela.
- October 8, 2014 – A bitcoin foundation launched to help send money to West Africa to help fight the ebola crisis.
- October 8, 2014 – Netscape founder, Marc Andreessen, says he wishes that he had invented bitcoin. He recalled that when they launched Netscape and everyone thought they were crazy, that bitcoin is most similar to back then.
- October 8, 2014 – The $2.5 M investment in Coinplug, a bitcoin multi-services company, signified an growth of Bitcoin in South Korea. The money will be used to develop a new services platform to combine bitcoin and online content and expand the bitcoin userbase.
- October 7, 2014 – Blockchain, the bitcoin wallet and data analytics provider landed the largest venture funding round in bitcoin ever, $30 million. The investment was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Wicklow Capital.
- October 7, 2014 – The Bitcoin Foundation announced that they have started working on the standardization of bitcoin.
On the Dark Side …
While the Silk Road may have been shut down, that didn’t put an end to the e-commerce boom in drugs and the black market. According to academics and researchers, dark web markets, which transact almost purely in bitcoin, have grown after the Silk Road bust. In fact, it is the creation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency and their growth in popularity that have been a crucial factor in the growth of dark markets. That and the big bitcoin bust made for a very tumultuous week.
- October 8, 2014 – Now that EBay and PayPal are splitting, it may take EBay longer to incorporate bitcoin into their platform, so the report says.
- October 7, 2014. Economist David Evans prepared a chart that showed that 6 years after its invention, Bitcoin transactions have remained flat as a pancake. No ignition, no transactions, nothing.
- October 6, 2014 – BearWhale struck the market offering 30,000 bitcoins at $300 each, driving the bitcoin price down.
- October 6, 2014 – Bitcoin plummeted over the weekend (even more!) to under $300.
- October 6, 2014 – Russian authorities confiscated four bitcoin mining operations from a checkpoint on the southern border with China.
- October 6, 2014 – Although the Silk Road may have closed, the market for illicit goods and services has grown in the forms of other black markets.
- October 5, 2014 – Economist Paul Krugman was correct about the outcome of bitcoin, but not necessarily for the reasons that he predicted.
