Bitcoin races past US$13,000 as worries spike about a dangerous bubble

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To continue reading this article, please exit incognito mode or log in. Visitors are allowed 3 free articles per month without a subscriptionand private browsing prevents us from counting how many stories you've read. We hope you understand, and consider subscribing for unlimited online access. But the loose-knit community of Bitcoin users is not in agreement over how it should proceed, and the nature of Bitcoin, a technology neither owned nor controlled by any one person or entity, could make the impending decision-making process challenging.

Every 10 minutes, an operator of one of those computers wins the chance to add a new block to the chain and receives freshly minted bitcoins as a reward. That process is called mining. Under the one-megabyte-per-block limit, the network can process only about three transactions per second. Visa, by comparison, says its network can process more than 24, transactions per second. The problem is that a consensus is required to make a change as consequential as the one Andresen suggests, which would substantially alter the requirements for mining.

A popular argument against the change is that it would favor bigger, richer mining operations that could afford the increased costs that go along with processing and storing bigger blocks. The growing commercial ecosystem around Bitcoin is at stake. If the limit remains fixed, businesses hoping to store lots of transactions on the blockchain could be out of luck. If the test is successful, the exchange says, it could use the technology for all Nasdaq trades in the public market.

Will Bitcoin be able to handle that? For now, the debate will continue to play out on the Bitcoin development mailing lista forum that includes the core developers as well as the many others who contribute code. The core developers could eventually find it necessary to take matters into their own hands.

At least one of them thinks that would be a bad idea, though. Catch up with our coverage of the event. Experts suggest that having AI systems try to outwit one another could help a person judge their intentions. To make AI programs smarter, researchers are creating virtual worlds for them to explore. Data gathered by autonomous cars and shared with insurance companies could be used to keep the vehicles from taking undue risks.

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But is this a bubble? Are the gains real? And are the bitcoin whales in for a sad Christmas? First we must understand what drives bitcoin price and, in particular, this boom. The common understanding for current growth leads us back to institutional investors preparing for the forthcoming BTC futures exchanges.

The primary theory about the astonishing rally being put forward by investors on social media is that bitcoin will soon benefit from big institutional money injections via the introduction of the first BTC futures products. This ability makes bitcoin far more palatable to big investors who are currently flooding the market to make profits if and when the bitcoin price falls. This group of enthusiasts bought and held bitcoin and will not sell it at any current price. More and more bitcoin fans are entering into this group and they are driving up demand increases.

We see a common thread between these points: All cryptocurrency movements are based on domain specific media and conversations between traders. Bitcoin traders, it can be said, are now akin to the jolly colonists selling stocks under buttonwood tree. That is all coming and at that point the market will harden itself against panics and booms. Until then we enjoy rises and dips and volatility that puts most bitcoin dilettantes off their lunch.

Ultimately new and old users are testing the limits of a system that, for a decade, has been untested. The futures market will be a big driver in growth and bust over the next few months as institutional investors begin using the currency.

Yes, to those who are betting big on BTC. Again, I cannot tell you whether to buy or sell but the common expectation is that bitcoin raises to a set point and then fluctuates between a high and a low until the next run up. Many expect foul play. Now that Bitcoin futures are available it is easy to buy into futures market first and then create a massive number of buys or sells of Bitcoin to ensure the price swings in favour of your futures contract.

Is this a bubble? Many are disappointed in the moves, believing the rise is happening because of market manipulation.

But we must remember that the real value of a cryptocurrency is not driven by price but instead is driven by utility.

While bitcoin may always be the proverbial hidden pot of gold for early buyers the future of all cryptocurrencies is still being written.

Just as, in , no one could have predicted the prevalence and value of open source projects like Linux and Apache, no one can currently predict what bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will do for us in the future.