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by gigitrix
4843 days ago
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There is of course hype but the past few months do represent real growth: see [here](http://blockchain.info/charts/n-unique-addresses). Now obviously that's a very gameable graph but there is little incentive to do so (and I was trying to pick something that would remove services like SatoshiDice from the equation since that heavily skews transaction count etc. There's the fact that the Euro is in trouble. There's the fact that provable odds gambling has been implemented (a powerful factor in the US). There's the fact that ASICs are coming out. There's the fact that it's becoming countercultural and hip to accept them (see Mega and Reddit) There's the fact that every time the price goes up more mainstream articles are exposing people to it's concepts, driving demand by more. Now it could well be bubble mark II and I DEFINITELY expect a correction: it's a volatile market. But there's certainly some massive growth underneath the massive speculation. |
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Avalon, the first ASIC producer to market, require payment in bitcoin. I believe BFL require payment in bitcoin for orders outside of the US.
This created demand for bitcoin, which raised the price against the dollar. Others saw the rise and were encouraged to buy in or order ASICS, rinse and repeat.
As far as I know the only service that is turning over serious numbers is Silk Road. I guess you could also count Satoshi Dice, but I am sceptical about their long term future.
Due to the nature of bitcoin, it's entirely possible that the black market and wealth transfer functions of bitcoin have grown to support the current value, but the arrival of ASICS is too big of a coincidence for me.