Today, bitcoin jumped in value - over the weekend, it could be purchased for under $200 USD in some places, and at the moment (around 10:30 am PST / 1:30 pm EST) it has jumped almost to $260. If you have not yet purchased bitcoin and are looking for a way to do so, you can watch the ticker and wait for the drop that is bound to come - it is known to fluctuate. The short term outlook for bitcoin is a sharp increase in price, and the long term outlook, as usual, and based on its history over the year, reveals a constant climb in value marked by periodic volatility. Even with this volatile activity, bitcoin has remained remarkably stable over the past 60 days, with the net climb in value trumping any periodic loss.
In this post I'll mention a few ways that you can easily get yourself set up to purchase bitcoin, as well as present a brief compilation of some new tools that provide privacy and anonymity of bitcoin transactions.
As well, a brief comparison of gold vs. bitcoin is provided today, along with some commentary on how decentralized virtual currencies are developing (predictability and random walk).
If you are new to this blog and do not yet have bitcoin, after clicking on 'Read more' below, you can see the rest of this post for free. The BitMonet setting for this blog currently allows one article view without charge or paywall. Additional posts can be seen by selecting the blue button under 'article access,' then click on the tweet button (tweet this article to read) in order to bypass the paywall, alternatively, you can pay in bitcoin equivalent to 5 cents (USD). (This supports my work on this blog, as do any contributions received through the 'Donate Bitcoin' button at the top of the blog). In case you are wondering why the paywall only has a bitcoin or tweet-to-read option (no $USD option to pay), just look at the performance of bitcoin. The BitMonet quasi-paywall is designed to encourage you to use bitcoin and demonstrate how it can be used to request or accept payment.
[[ Philosophical addition as of Nov. 7, 2013: @tristan_winters has released a very insightful post breaking down the "us vs. them" myth associated with schools of thought on the direction of bitcoin. ]]
In this post I'll mention a few ways that you can easily get yourself set up to purchase bitcoin, as well as present a brief compilation of some new tools that provide privacy and anonymity of bitcoin transactions.
As well, a brief comparison of gold vs. bitcoin is provided today, along with some commentary on how decentralized virtual currencies are developing (predictability and random walk).
If you are new to this blog and do not yet have bitcoin, after clicking on 'Read more' below, you can see the rest of this post for free. The BitMonet setting for this blog currently allows one article view without charge or paywall. Additional posts can be seen by selecting the blue button under 'article access,' then click on the tweet button (tweet this article to read) in order to bypass the paywall, alternatively, you can pay in bitcoin equivalent to 5 cents (USD). (This supports my work on this blog, as do any contributions received through the 'Donate Bitcoin' button at the top of the blog). In case you are wondering why the paywall only has a bitcoin or tweet-to-read option (no $USD option to pay), just look at the performance of bitcoin. The BitMonet quasi-paywall is designed to encourage you to use bitcoin and demonstrate how it can be used to request or accept payment.
[[ Philosophical addition as of Nov. 7, 2013: @tristan_winters has released a very insightful post breaking down the "us vs. them" myth associated with schools of thought on the direction of bitcoin. ]]
