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by kdeforche 4590 days ago
Sounds like nonsense to me: if you buy 1 BTC from me, then at the same time I've sold 1 BTC? That makes it by definition as equally hard (or easy) to buy as to sell?
3 comments

No.

Try buying an iPhone 3g right now on Craigslist. I bet it takes you all of two minutes.

Then try selling it. I bet it takes quite a bit more time.

Asymmetry.

That would imply there are currently more people wanting to sell an IPhone 3G than people want to buy it. Certainly the price of IPhone 3G's isn't rising. And that makes sense.

Currently (and for the last years), the price of BTC has been rising implying that's actually easier to sell BTC than to buy? Moreover there are exchanges that are entirely symmetric (when opening accounts you do not need to qualify as a buyer or seller).

Asymmetry is a nice word but I don't see what's asymmetric here?

I'm not familiar enough with Bitcoin to engage in dialogue about its market dynamics specifically. I only wanted to point out that the mere fact that all sales involve both a buyer and a seller doesn't make it "by definition as equally hard (or easy) to buy as to sell".
Depends on who is in the middle of that transaction and how long that one takes to fullfill that operation, in this case, exchanges.
Are you all really having trouble understanding how instability in currency makes it difficult to trade in a currency?

Also there is some basic lapse in logic here. Just because a WoW nerd can trace the currency on a technical level, does not mean it is "easy."