(02-25-2014 10:20 PM)Apollo Wrote:  New to this thread, followed one of the links and saw that bitcoins trade for different values on different exchanges. I saw one spread that was about 25 points apart. What is to keep one from buying 1 BTC @550 and selling it in another exchange @575?

Also, what is the best method to educate yourself regarding bitcoin?

Thanks in advance.

Apollo:

I would suggest starting out by reading the two main RVF threads on bitcoin... this one and the other one:

http://www.rooshvforum.com/thread-29818.html?


Figure out how to buy your first bitcoin, or fraction of a bitcoin.... You do NOT have to buy whole bitcoins to get familiar with the process.... but setting up accounts and buying bitcoin will force you to learn the basics.

If you are in the USA... then maybe set up an account on localbitcoins and also another account through coinbase. A lot of us also have accounts set up on BTC-e.

Additionally, Maciano has asserted to give new RVF bitcoiners a portion of a bitcoin (less than a dollar) if they set up a wallet through Blockchain.info... He may even walk you through the process, never know?

Regarding buying BTC on one exchange and selling on another.. it is generally too cumbersome b/c the easiest and cheapest way to transfer value is through using BTC... so NOT easy to take advantage of the differences in prices .... but likely the fees would eat you up if you were to transfer through fiat and cannot find a large enough difference in prices... and $20-30 does NOT seem to be a great enough price difference to make it profitable... especially given the volatility and the time that it may take to accomplish a transfer.... ...

I'm curious.

For those that own BitCoins? Lets say the price rises and rises and you end up making ten times what you invested (and I hope you guys do - btw!). What would be the reason for that rise? Is it simply the 'greater fool' theory - with the hope being you can make a killing and leave somebody else holding the BitCoins when the crash?

At the moment - this is how it seems to me. I cannot see what economic reason would justify the price rising ten-fold. Other than bubble like speculation.

As for it being a major currency one day. Surely that would only happen after a price crash - when the coins are no longer worth hoarding and instead only have worth as a currency which can be exchanged for goods and services.

So - for those wanting to make a killing on BitCoins - and also touting it as the next major currency - is there not a contradiction in these two goals?

The above are some questions that keep bugging me. Like I say - I hope I'm wrong and I hope you guys make a fortune.

(02-25-2014 11:04 PM)cardguy Wrote:  I'm curious.

For those that own BitCoins? Lets say the price rises and rises and you end up making ten times what you invested (and I hope you guys do - btw!). What would be the reason for that rise? Is it simply the 'greater fool' theory - with the hope being you can make a killing and leave somebody else holding the BitCoins when the crash?

At the moment - this is how it seems to me. I cannot see what economic reason would justify the price rising ten-fold. Other than bubble like speculation.

As for it being a major currency one day. Surely that would only happen after a price crash - when the coins are no longer worth hoarding and instead only have worth as a currency which can be exchanged for goods and services.

So - for those wanting to make a killing on BitCoins - and also touting it as the next major currency - is there not a contradiction in these two goals?

The above are some questions that keep bugging me. Like I say - I hope I'm wrong and I hope you guys make a fortune.

I believe that I have addressed these kinds of questions, even in this thread, a zillion and one times, so anyone else willing to entertain these questions is welcome.

Personally, Cardguy, you are polite enough in the way that you pose your questions, but really, I get the sense that you have NOT tried very hard to look through various information, even information contained in this thread, that address those kinds of basic questions that you are raising.

(02-25-2014 11:04 PM)cardguy Wrote:  I'm curious.

For those that own BitCoins? Lets say the price rises and rises and you end up making ten times what you invested (and I hope you guys do - btw!). What would be the reason for that rise? Is it simply the 'greater fool' theory - with the hope being you can make a killing and leave somebody else holding the BitCoins when the crash?

At the moment - this is how it seems to me. I cannot see what economic reason would justify the price rising ten-fold. Other than bubble like speculation.

As for it being a major currency one day. Surely that would only happen after a price crash - when the coins are no longer worth hoarding and instead only have worth as a currency which can be exchanged for goods and services.

So - for those wanting to make a killing on BitCoins - and also touting it as the next major currency - is there not a contradiction in these two goals?

The above are some questions that keep bugging me. Like I say - I hope I'm wrong and I hope you guys make a fortune.

Bitcoin is a technology, the value is in part dictated by the infrastructure around it. Hundreds of startups are building around the Bitcoin technology, creating hundreds of jobs.

I have used this analogy before but think of a Bitcoin as a stake in this technology. Domain names and the internet are an easy comparison. Did you foresee 10-15 years ago domain names being worth $100k+ ?

As more businesses and people get to use the Bitcoin network, the value of the network increases along with you share.

Now if your belief is Bitcoin is "fake money" and has "inherently" no value. Please refrain from people having to spoon feed you every bit of knowledge they have and if you are truly interested, research it yourself.

Bitcoin is used every day as a currency for transactions. Its usage for that purpose will only get better and more efficient as the network grows. (reduced volatility)

There is no contradiction at all. The hoarding argument you are using (relating to the deflationary nature of Bitcoin) has nothing to stand on. People will be hoarding coin, but will be spending them too. Hoarding is not a bad thing within the Bitcoin economy.

(02-25-2014 11:04 PM)cardguy Wrote:  At the moment - this is how it seems to me. I cannot see what economic reason

One last thing about this. I stumbled upon that quote today and thought it was a fine answer for your misunderstanding

Quote:You can't apply "stock knowledge", or "money knowledge", or "commodity knowledge", to something that is all three at once. BTC is more like art... Doesn't matter what the majority thinks, someone finds value in it, so it has value. If it has use, as it was intended, then it has a wider audience of those who make it valuable. If it is limited in supply, then demand will add additional value to all those who find a use for it.

I'm rather uneducated in general regarding Bitcoin, so I won't make any grandiose or inflammatory statements about it. But one thing I realize based on my previous knowledge and after having studied the Forex a bit is that Bitcoin isn't a currency, at least not based on it's behavior thus far. Bitcoin's behavior IMO resembles more that of a tech stock. I suspect, but I'm not certain, that that's mainly to do with investor speculation.

(02-26-2014 01:24 AM)Sugar Wrote:  I'm rather uneducated in general regarding Bitcoin, so I won't make any grandiose or inflammatory statements about it. But one thing I realize based on my previous knowledge and after having studied the Forex a bit is that Bitcoin isn't a currency, at least not based on it's behavior thus far. Bitcoin's behavior IMO resembles more that of a tech stock. I suspect, but I'm not certain, that that's mainly to do with investor speculation.

People who say that bitcoin can never become a real currency are disregarding the fact that it already is. It is volatile for sure, at the moment, but as said millions times aready, the price will stabilize when the market grows, amount of bitcoins increases and infrastructure gets bigger.

I encourage to read bitcoin wiki, and previous posts of this thread -- you will surely find out that bitcoin is much more than you could ever imagine.


Bitcoin at 604 bitstamp. I am so glad I bought yesterday at 430

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs6F91dF...ata_player

This is a good explanatory video of the value of bitcoin

(02-26-2014 02:00 AM)strengthstudent Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 01:24 AM)Sugar Wrote:  I'm rather uneducated in general regarding Bitcoin, so I won't make any grandiose or inflammatory statements about it. But one thing I realize based on my previous knowledge and after having studied the Forex a bit is that Bitcoin isn't a currency, at least not based on it's behavior thus far. Bitcoin's behavior IMO resembles more that of a tech stock. I suspect, but I'm not certain, that that's mainly to do with investor speculation.

People who say that bitcoin can never become a real currency are disregarding the fact that it already is. It is volatile for sure, at the moment, but as said millions times aready, the price will stabilize when the market grows, amount of bitcoins increases and infrastructure gets bigger.

I encourage to read bitcoin wiki, and previous posts of this thread -- you will surely find out that bitcoin is much more than you could ever imagine.


Bitcoin at 604 bitstamp. I am so glad I bought yesterday at 430

I DONT really appreciate the Bitcoin as a currency FUD claims that tend to be thrown about b/c it seems to attempt to simplify bitcoin into something that it is NOT... or at least NOT only.

Like BRG444 mentioned in his earlier post, bitcoin can serve a variety of functions... including the amazing aspect of the public ledger... which could cause BTC to serve many functions that may NOT have been contemplated in the original white paper or in early develpment discussions.

Several times, I had expressed some concerns about the deflationary aspects of BTC.... ... Yet, even when I go through some of the calculations and scenarios about how "bad" deflation could get for BTC that would potentially cause appreciate in value of BTC by enormous amounts b/c of its scarcity...., the problem does NOT seem as bad as it is speculated to be. I had thought that with ups and downs of BTC prices and maybe averaging 10% to 20% appreciation per year for many years into the future.... However, then I thought about the stock market used to claim to have 12% returns over its lifetime... And, there are a variety of other asset classes that have maintained fairly high appreciation (including various stocks). (I am NOT sure whether the stock market on average is currently claiming such overall averages of 12%)

NONETHELESS, the deflationary aspect of BTC does NOT seem to be as big of a problem as I had speculated it to be, and anyhow, that deflationary argument is used a lot to criticize the initial adoption of bitcoin.... yet, deflation, to the extent that it exists in BTC, seem to remain a potentially far into the future problem, if at all ... NOT a short-term problem..... b/c like I mentioned there seem to be quite a few asset classes that seem to have considerable appreciation in value in their early adoption phases and even on a long term basis.

Finally, the current increases in price of BTC, to the extent they are ongoing and measured from 2009, do NOT really seem to be driven by the deflationary aspects, but instead seem to be driven by increased adoption, expansion of the network and speculation, as well.

In spite of El Mech's assertions of BTC to the moon... Currently, I keep thinking that we gotta get at least one more dip in BTC prices, maybe into the low $500s... based on the remaining uncertainties involving GOX and the quantity of BTC that could be at stake in those shenanigans.. Yet, there seems to remain quite a bit of upward pressure on BTC prices.. and a desire to move into higher price ranges...

Has there been any good books written about the history of BitCoin?

(02-26-2014 03:09 PM)cardguy Wrote:  Has there been any good books written about the history of BitCoin?

If you really get to know the dynamics of Bitcoin... you will realize that it is fast moving, the history is short and "in the making" and most of the relevant resources are on the internet about what is important to know regarding bitcoin in the here and now.

I personally do NOT know about any good books about the history of btc. Also, various trustworthy and knowledgeable people in the bitcoin scene have likely NOT yet had time to publish books.

(02-26-2014 01:57 PM)brg444 Wrote:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs6F91dF...ata_player

This is a good explanatory video of the value of bitcoin

Excellent video - I can understand what the excitement is about now.

I always thought BitCoin was bascially PayPal without fees. But I can see it is alot more than that.

Aaron Brown had a chapter in his book 'Red-Blooded Risk' about the real economic value that can be unlocked by replacing money with derivative swaps. It felt like a free-lunch when I read it and I still don't fully undrestand the details.

Nevertheless - if there is something in what Aaron Brown advocates - it would be good to see it encorporated int the BitCoin infrastructure.

I will be interested in seeing how BitCoin plays out. But I am still a little wary. It is very reminscent of the idealistic hype that was touted at the start of the interent boom. When people were lead along into thinking we could quit our jobs and sell pet food over the internet.

I know that is a harsh way of looking at it. I am just saying that it has a similar feel. Seems every bubble is sparked by the thought "This time it is different".

(02-26-2014 04:08 PM)cardguy Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 01:57 PM)brg444 Wrote:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs6F91dF...ata_player

This is a good explanatory video of the value of bitcoin

Excellent video - I can understand what the excitement is about now.

I always thought BitCoin was bascially PayPal without fees. But I can see it is alot more than that.

Aaran Brown had a chapter in his book 'Red-Blooded Risk' about the real economic value that can be unlocked by replacing money with derivative swaps. It felt like a free-lunch when I read it and I still don't fully undrestand the details.

Nevertheless - if there is something in what Aaron Brown advocates - it would be good to see it encorporated int the BitCoin infrastructure.

I will be interested in seeing how BitCoin plays out. But I am still a little wary. It is very reminscent of the idealistic hype that was touted at the start of the interent boom. When people were lead along into thinking we could quit our jobs and sell pet food over the internet.

I know that is a harsh way of looking at it. I am just saying that it has a similar feel. Seems every bubble is sparked by the thought "This time it is different".

Well in a way the hype around the internet was warranted in the sense that it obviously changed our day to day lives. from the failure of Pets.com came the success stories of amazon, ebay and what not.

As you might've learned from the video, Bitcoin offers that kind of paradigm shift.

IMO it is not a matter of "this time it is different" but more "this time it is possible"

(02-26-2014 04:30 PM)brg444 Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 04:08 PM)cardguy Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 01:57 PM)brg444 Wrote:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs6F91dF...ata_player

This is a good explanatory video of the value of bitcoin

Excellent video - I can understand what the excitement is about now.

I always thought BitCoin was bascially PayPal without fees. But I can see it is alot more than that.

Aaran Brown had a chapter in his book 'Red-Blooded Risk' about the real economic value that can be unlocked by replacing money with derivative swaps. It felt like a free-lunch when I read it and I still don't fully undrestand the details.

Nevertheless - if there is something in what Aaron Brown advocates - it would be good to see it encorporated int the BitCoin infrastructure.

I will be interested in seeing how BitCoin plays out. But I am still a little wary. It is very reminscent of the idealistic hype that was touted at the start of the interent boom. When people were lead along into thinking we could quit our jobs and sell pet food over the internet.

I know that is a harsh way of looking at it. I am just saying that it has a similar feel. Seems every bubble is sparked by the thought "This time it is different".

Well in a way the hype around the internet was warranted in the sense that it obviously changed our day to day lives. from the failure of Pets.com came the success stories of amazon, ebay and what not.

As you might've learned from the video, Bitcoin offers that kind of paradigm shift.

IMO it is not a matter of "this time it is different" but more "this time it is possible"

Yeah.

This technical reporter Stefan Molyneux (in the youtube video) has been linked to in earlier parts of this thread in his interview of Peter Schiff and another interview that he did. I would NOT describe this youtube clip as basic; however, Molyneux gives a good explanation of broad general principles about the reason why bitcoin is a "thing" and surely his presentation is compelling.

I have been looking quite a lot, in recent days, at the BTC-e troll box and also at this thread that Friheten provided: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=...msg5395698

There are definitely differences in value in each of the mediums of obtaining bitcoin information, and also mentioned by Cardguy, there can be certain values from the thought, analysis and world view that may go into the writings of books.

Even comparing the information on the bitcointalk thread to here (RVF) is at a different level. On bitcointalk they write about 10 pages for every one page that we have posted in this thread, and it is just way too difficult to keep up with all the information on that bitcointalk thread (even though up to 50% of the information may seem to be tangents, trolling or personal battles - which may NOT be too much different from here on RVF... though maybe, overall, we seem to have a little less of that on RVF).

These continue to be dramatic times for bitcoin in trying to figure out mechanisms to move forward from the GOX situation... and the BTC community seems to retain pent up demand to want to move beyond GOX... but CANNOT really move beyond GOX without some clarification of the status...


I cannot recall if this has already been posted here.. .or maybe I posted the latest statement from MK on the Mt. Gox website:

Quote:February 26th 2014

Dear MtGox Customers,

As there is a lot of speculation regarding MtGox and its future, I would like to use this opportunity to reassure everyone that I am still in Japan, and working very hard with the support of different parties to find a solution to our recent issues.

Furthermore I would like to kindly ask that people refrain from asking questions to our staff: they have been instructed not to give any response or information. Please visit this page for further announcements and updates.

Sincerely,
Mark Karpeles

Surely this statement is more specific than the previous one.. and also, it is nice to have MK's "signature" therein.




Regarding the concept of whether Bitcoin is going to fix all world problems, that leads to too much speculation and in my view fantasy about the possibilities of any technological break through or paradigm shift.

There may be ways in which BTC or some other cryptocurrencies may lead to liberation of the people - but I cannot see that liberation of the people through bitcoin taking place in the near term. There are too many ways and too large vested interests that will keep matters related to bitcoin complicated and difficult to liberate real people for quite some time (even though there may be some people who are going to become liberated through bitcoin or some other crypto currencies). I agree with BRG444's sentiment of possibility through bitcoin.

Quote:The theory is that sometime in 2011--probably after the crash from $30 to $10--MtGox was lax with security and a group of thieves or hackers was able to steal about 500,000 to 1,000,000 BTC. At the time, this only represented $10 million dollars.

To avoid discrediting bitcoin and embarrassing himself, Mark pretended that nothing happened. He knew that BTC withdrawals were roughly balanced by BTC deposits (typical fraction reserve banking) and he hoped to slowly earn back the bitcoins through trading fees.

Meanwhile, the thieves worked to mix their coins with non-stolen coins and slowly sold them off, thereby driving the bitcoin price eventually to $2 later in the fall of 2011. It was this extra selling pressure that continued through the remainder of 2011 and 2012 that kept the price of bitcoin artificially depressed.

Meanwhile MtGox was buying coins whenever it had spare cash. But as the price of bitcoin exploded in the spring of 2013 they saw their liabilities in $ terms increase tremendously. But at this point they had to keep going, even using customer deposit money to buy coins from other exchanges or individuals.

The problems at MtGox (probably due to extreme stress of MK) got worse, and MtGox lost market share, slowly dwindling down MtGox's small supply of coins.

MtGox purposely mixed immature coins into withdrawal transactions, and later used the malleability excuses, all to buy time to somehow get more coins and make good on withdrawals.

But eventually all hope was lost. Their supply of coins dwindled down to 2,000 BTC while their bitcoin liability were a huge 750,000 BTC.

That theory makes a lot of sense. And if it is real, we're looking at Bernie Madoff scale fraud. Short term this would be reallly bad for Bitcoin.

(02-26-2014 11:15 PM)brg444 Wrote:  

Quote:The theory is that sometime in 2011--probably after the crash from $30 to $10--MtGox was lax with security and a group of thieves or hackers was able to steal about 500,000 to 1,000,000 BTC. At the time, this only represented $10 million dollars.

To avoid discrediting bitcoin and embarrassing himself, Mark pretended that nothing happened. He knew that BTC withdrawals were roughly balanced by BTC deposits (typical fraction reserve banking) and he hoped to slowly earn back the bitcoins through trading fees.

Meanwhile, the thieves worked to mix their coins with non-stolen coins and slowly sold them off, thereby driving the bitcoin price eventually to $2 later in the fall of 2011. It was this extra selling pressure that continued through the remainder of 2011 and 2012 that kept the price of bitcoin artificially depressed.

Meanwhile MtGox was buying coins whenever it had spare cash. But as the price of bitcoin exploded in the spring of 2013 they saw their liabilities in $ terms increase tremendously. But at this point they had to keep going, even using customer deposit money to buy coins from other exchanges or individuals.

The problems at MtGox (probably due to extreme stress of MK) got worse, and MtGox lost market share, slowly dwindling down MtGox's small supply of coins.

MtGox purposely mixed immature coins into withdrawal transactions, and later used the malleability excuses, all to buy time to somehow get more coins and make good on withdrawals.

But eventually all hope was lost. Their supply of coins dwindled down to 2,000 BTC while their bitcoin liability were a huge 750,000 BTC.

That theory makes a lot of sense. And if it is real, we're looking at Bernie Madoff scale fraud. Short term this would be reallly bad for Bitcoin.

Some variation of that theory seems plausible based on the information that we currently know.. ..

What is the source of this theory? From where did you get it?

(02-26-2014 11:25 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 11:15 PM)brg444 Wrote:  

Quote:The theory is that sometime in 2011--probably after the crash from $30 to $10--MtGox was lax with security and a group of thieves or hackers was able to steal about 500,000 to 1,000,000 BTC. At the time, this only represented $10 million dollars.

To avoid discrediting bitcoin and embarrassing himself, Mark pretended that nothing happened. He knew that BTC withdrawals were roughly balanced by BTC deposits (typical fraction reserve banking) and he hoped to slowly earn back the bitcoins through trading fees.

Meanwhile, the thieves worked to mix their coins with non-stolen coins and slowly sold them off, thereby driving the bitcoin price eventually to $2 later in the fall of 2011. It was this extra selling pressure that continued through the remainder of 2011 and 2012 that kept the price of bitcoin artificially depressed.

Meanwhile MtGox was buying coins whenever it had spare cash. But as the price of bitcoin exploded in the spring of 2013 they saw their liabilities in $ terms increase tremendously. But at this point they had to keep going, even using customer deposit money to buy coins from other exchanges or individuals.

The problems at MtGox (probably due to extreme stress of MK) got worse, and MtGox lost market share, slowly dwindling down MtGox's small supply of coins.

MtGox purposely mixed immature coins into withdrawal transactions, and later used the malleability excuses, all to buy time to somehow get more coins and make good on withdrawals.

But eventually all hope was lost. Their supply of coins dwindled down to 2,000 BTC while their bitcoin liability were a huge 750,000 BTC.

That theory makes a lot of sense. And if it is real, we're looking at Bernie Madoff scale fraud. Short term this would be reallly bad for Bitcoin.

Some variation of that theory seems plausible based on the information that we currently know.. ..

What is the source of this theory? From where did you get it?

Got it from the bitcointalk forum, not sure the exact source.

The CEO of the Kraken exchange also wrote this blog post which sort of supports this theory as well (from his own conclusions)
http://jesse.forthewin.com/blog/2014/02/...ml?cpm=329

there's also the inaccessible coins theory

http://letstalkbitcoin.com/somethings-no...w7DFEJdW0z

both of these are the most probable IMO at this point

(02-27-2014 10:53 AM)strengthstudent Wrote:  

If that is a prediction as compared to actual... red being actual and green being a prediction, then that prediction seems reasonable but fairly conservative, and it appears to predict that we will return to all time highs of about $1,200 by the end of June 2014.

Who's making such a prediction?

Also is the December 2013 through February 2014 green showing what had been predicted in the end of November 2013?

It is not a prediction but the bubble we experienced in April(green line) 2013, the red line is from December to where we are now. It is confusing because instead of actual dates there should be just days from day 1 to X. They do look pretty similar huh?

(02-27-2014 12:28 PM)strengthstudent Wrote:  It is not a prediction but the bubble we experienced in April(green line) 2013, the red line is from December to where we are now. It is confusing because instead of actual dates there should be just days from day 1 to X. They do look pretty similar huh?

I do agree with the general direction - if the chart were a prediction... NONETHELESS, I have seen this done with charts before, and I just have troubles with them - b/c so frequently, they need explanation about the dynamics going on in the previous time as compared with the current time in order to understand how much weight to give to them.

The bitcoin network has grown quite exponentially since late 2013, and therefore, I would expect that there are some dynamics in place today that are going to bring differing variations of results (still unknown regarding the future)... and maybe the chart reflects a coincidence of ups and downs, more than anything else... By itself, it is still informative, to some extent.

So moon? Is that what you're sayin?

Quotes from the moon
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0052023/quotes

(02-27-2014 12:47 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(02-27-2014 12:28 PM)strengthstudent Wrote:  It is not a prediction but the bubble we experienced in April(green line) 2013, the red line is from December to where we are now. It is confusing because instead of actual dates there should be just days from day 1 to X. They do look pretty similar huh?

I do agree with the general direction - if the chart were a prediction... NONETHELESS, I have seen this done with charts before, and I just have troubles with them - b/c so frequently, they need explanation about the dynamics going on in the previous time as compared with the current time in order to understand how much weight to give to them.

The bitcoin network has grown quite exponentially since late 2013, and therefore, I would expect that there are some dynamics in place today that are going to bring differing variations of results (still unknown regarding the future)... and maybe the chart reflects a coincidence of ups and downs, more than anything else... By itself, it is still informative, to some extent.

I agree, they are mostly interesting to look at.

By the way, Bitcoin has gained pretty nicely publicity during the last past days. 1. in google trends, news everywhere and there is a nice rise in the most popular bitcoin communities like reddit/bitcointalk which although are just microecosystems but they reflect the larger scale. It seems that even bad publicity can be good, sometimes. The most optimal end for Mt.Gox scandal would be that they somehow managed to return the coins and then finish their business with bitcoin.

(02-27-2014 03:18 PM)strengthstudent Wrote:  

(02-27-2014 12:47 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(02-27-2014 12:28 PM)strengthstudent Wrote:  It is not a prediction but the bubble we experienced in April(green line) 2013, the red line is from December to where we are now. It is confusing because instead of actual dates there should be just days from day 1 to X. They do look pretty similar huh?

I do agree with the general direction - if the chart were a prediction... NONETHELESS, I have seen this done with charts before, and I just have troubles with them - b/c so frequently, they need explanation about the dynamics going on in the previous time as compared with the current time in order to understand how much weight to give to them.

The bitcoin network has grown quite exponentially since late 2013, and therefore, I would expect that there are some dynamics in place today that are going to bring differing variations of results (still unknown regarding the future)... and maybe the chart reflects a coincidence of ups and downs, more than anything else... By itself, it is still informative, to some extent.

I agree, they are mostly interesting to look at.

By the way, Bitcoin has gained pretty nicely publicity during the last past days. 1. in google trends, news everywhere and there is a nice rise in the most popular bitcoin communities like reddit/bitcointalk which although are just microecosystems but they reflect the larger scale. It seems that even bad publicity can be good, sometimes. The most optimal end for Mt.Gox scandal would be that they somehow managed to return the coins and then finish their business with bitcoin.

I agree, this is great to see.

I have come across a surprisingly high number of very positive and informed article regarding Bitcoins in major media

We're only going to come out of this stronger