Quote from: BTCmoons on October 14, 2014, 03:04:37 AM

Quote from: pitham1 on October 14, 2014, 01:20:44 AM

Quote from: xinxi on October 13, 2014, 05:21:31 AM

Quote from: BTCmoons on October 13, 2014, 04:08:30 AM

Quote from: pitham1 on October 13, 2014, 01:16:13 AM

Quote from: Zoznoz on October 12, 2014, 02:06:14 AM

I could be completely wrong but from observation, it seemed as though BTC/USD increased to $1,000 each last year because most of the speculators (particularly the newest speculators) hoped that people would develop more and greater services which would be centred around bitcoin. Which has happened but not quick enough then most had hoped and this is completely due to Government intervention, particularly China who is trying to eliminate it completely and the US Government would love to do the same thing but instead they will keep crippling the unregulated financial services offered in bitcoin. Now, I might be wrong but I believe that the fact that these asset exchanges and lack of banking services is a major contributor to why the price isn't higher than it is now. If everyone believed they could get huge returns quite easily using bitcoin then of course the price would be back to where it was beforehand. If people were so scared about the volatility then they would just hedge.

The increase in price last year was due to market manipulation by bots.

The bots were purchasing on behalf of speculators with a lot of money. It is not a conspiracy.

Zoznoz is likely correct to say that speculators were trying to profit from quick and massive bitcoin adoption but the chinese government was able to stem this in their country. I would anticipate them easing off these bans/regulations over the long term as they become more of a free market economy

Is there any evidence on the use of bots?

It was covered widely in the media.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/29/bitcoin-bots-bought-millions-in-the-last-days-of-mt-gox

I agree that bots were certainly used, however I don't think there is evidence that the bots were used to manipulate the prices. From what I can tell the willy bot was only a way that whales were able to buy up large amounts of bitcoin without suffering excess slippage.

So the willy bot wasn't huge manipulation for a manipulated exchange that stole everybody's coins???