Quote from: AlgoSwan on April 14, 2013, 11:56:41 AM

Quote from: chyort on April 14, 2013, 10:41:24 AM

But yeah, people like to talk crap about fiat... But the dollar in my pocket doesn't shift value from 2 to 260, and then crash back down into the 50's in the span of months. Tongue

You like charts and reality? Just check out historical charts on any fiat money to gold, silver, palladium or whatever like bread, gasoline, wheat, water.... should I continue? Is this crap talk?

Your volatility concern deserve attention. I'm with you on this.

gold, silver, palladium, are all sort of in the same group as bitcoins to me. People gambling on where the value of an item is going to go. Don't get me wrong, people do it on everything, but some items have some intrinsic value associated with them that helps to stabilize the price, and the first three you listed don't fall into that category to me.

But, looking at a 10 year chart, gold is fairly steady, silver a bit less. Palladium has spikes a bit more common with bitcoin, but it cant even come close to matching the swings/volatility bitcoin has gone thru.
Gasoline is fairly controlled and regulated, don't fool yourself there Tongue

bread, wheat, water are all much more tangible, and while i cant find charts for them as easy, i would be shocked if they shifted value more than 50% or so in the span of months without some massive storm/whatnot disrupting the system, and prices will return to the norm relatively fast after something disrupts the system.

That is the difference at the end of the day, bitcoins are entirely intangible. The value is strictly determined by what people are willing to pay. Much more of a "So says we all!" sort of thing, which leads to swings from 2 to 260's, and back down to 50's in months. That works out to be a what, 13,000% growth, then crashing down to 20% of peak value over a week, and i doubt we have bottomed out quite yet.

I dare you to find anything else that has the same volatility as bitcoin Tongue