The reason for BTCs drop.

Ejarwan · Jan 16, 2015

Apith said:
With the recent tension going on in Russia and their currency plummeting, I'm sure there have been quite a few who thought it would be a financially better investment to have their money in Bitcoins or any other currency than in rubles.

yeah.
not to forget that MANY russians are steam traders (due to lower prices), and that they accept BTC.

Apith · Jan 17, 2015

Ejarwan said:
yeah.
not to forget that MANY russians are steam traders (due to lower prices), and that they accept BTC.

That doesn't make much sense. Bitcoins is somewhat hard to get a hold of. Don't expect that those traders have enough bitcoins to make a dent in the BTC market. Maybe if you counted their Paypal, Skrill etc. funds, then maybe a bit. But traders don't have a big BTC reserve as you'd like to think, with BTC being somewhat volatile I'm sure traders would like a solid profit and stability.

I was talking about rich people that deals beyond game trading.

Ejarwan · Jan 17, 2015

Apith said:
That doesn't make much sense. Bitcoins is somewhat hard to get a hold of. Don't expect that those traders have enough bitcoins to make a dent in the BTC market. Maybe if you counted their Paypal, Skrill etc. funds, then maybe a bit. But traders don't have a big BTC reserve as you'd like to think, with BTC being somewhat volatile I'm sure traders would like a solid profit and stability.

I was talking about rich people that deals beyond game trading.

I am sorry to say but you're mistaken buddy.
Tons of cash is traded everyday.
Traders do accept BTC, I know traders that get $1k+ a day in BTC.
not sure what they spend it on, but don't forget that they might use btc for it being safe (no chargebacks)
they can then transfer it to other forms of payments like paypal/skrill for a small rate of exchange fee.
i.e THEIR $100 BTC for $100+fee skrill/paypal

Apith · Jan 17, 2015

Ejarwan said:
I am sorry to say but you're mistaken buddy.
Tons of cash is traded everyday.
Traders do accept BTC, I know traders that get $1k+ a day in BTC.
not sure what they spend it on, but don't forget that they might use btc for it being safe (no chargebacks)
they can then transfer it to other forms of payments like paypal/skrill for a small rate of exchange fee.
i.e THEIR $100 BTC for $100+fee skrill/paypal

There is no market on steam that gathers enough interest to continuously earn merchants $1k BTC on a daily basis. Sorry to break it to you, but you do know what the average steam user that purchases off sellers like this are, don't you? They're not some big shot, they're normal people that would struggle to find Bitcoins priced at an acceptable rate.

Have you heard of Samalex and Ether? They are the most well known traders in the CSGO market (I believe one or both has dwelled into the dota 2 market scene as well), and they would laugh at a statement saying traders gets daily sales in Bitcoins alone for $1k+. Considering the profit margins a normal trader sets (~10%), and obviously having to play it safe due to BTC's volatility, and then thinking how much of trades are paid with Bitcoins and Paypal. The latter would outweigh the former by a huge margin, you're essentially saying that from BTC sales alone these sellers make ~$100 a day, which doesn't sound out of the ordinary, but there's no way it's constantly from Bitcoins alone. Even if they sold $2-3k in items (assuming they make $200-300 profit daily) on a daily basis, I'd love proof that 30-50% of their sales are due to bitcoins.

Russians getting a cheaper price on games means nothing. Those are region locked. They pay the same price for keys. The one time there was an error due to Rubles prices being volatile due to the recent tensions, they got keys off the market for $2.15 a piece off Steam itself, that was quickly fixed on the same day. There is no way you can tell me that Russians are bigger traders than the most well known traders internationally. My statements above were also assuming those traders you mention are as big, if not bigger, than people like sam and Ether.

Here is Ether, at his peak, mentioning his sales here. 1200 keys in 2 days. You're telling me that Russian traders sells the equivalent of 500-600 keys on daily basis using Bitcoins alone when it takes one of the most well known traders that long to sell it while accepting various payment methods. I'd be surprised if Bitcoins even accounted for 30% of anyone's total sales.

It took you 2 minutes to read my post and come up with an idea to add to my post. That alone tells me your opinion wasn't even thought out very much.

Ejarwan · Jan 17, 2015

Apith said:
There is no market on steam that gathers enough interest to continuously earn merchants $1k BTC on a daily basis. Sorry to break it to you, but you do know what the average steam user that purchases off sellers like this are, don't you? They're not some big shot, they're normal people that would struggle to find Bitcoins priced at an acceptable rate.

Have you heard of Samalex and Ether? They are the most well known traders in the CSGO market (I believe one or both has dwelled into the dota 2 market scene as well), and they would laugh at a statement saying traders gets daily sales in Bitcoins alone for $1k+. Considering the profit margins a normal trader sets (~10%), and obviously having to play it safe due to BTC's volatility, and then thinking how much of trades are paid with Bitcoins and Paypal. The latter would outweigh the former by a huge margin, you're essentially saying that from BTC sales alone these sellers make ~$100 a day, which doesn't sound out of the ordinary, but there's no way it's constantly from Bitcoins alone. Even if they sold $2-3k in items (assuming they make $200-300 profit daily) on a daily basis, I'd love proof that 30-50% of their sales are due to bitcoins.

Russians getting a cheaper price on games means nothing. Those are region locked. They pay the same price for keys. The one time there was an error due to Rubles prices being volatile due to the recent tensions, they got keys off the market for $2.15 a piece off Steam itself, that was quickly fixed on the same day. There is no way you can tell me that Russians are bigger traders than the most well known traders internationally. My statements above were also assuming those traders you mention are as big, if not bigger, than people like sam and Ether.

Here is Ether, at his peak, mentioning his sales here. 1200 keys in 2 days. You're telling me that Russian traders sells the equivalent of 500-600 keys on daily basis using Bitcoins alone when it takes one of the most well known traders that long to sell it while accepting various payment methods. I'd be surprised if Bitcoins even accounted for 30% of anyone's total sales.

It took you 2 minutes to read my post and come up with an idea to add to my post. That alone tells me your opinion wasn't even thought out very much.

well Russian steam store isn't 100% region locked.
1) not all the games are region locked
2) they do get cheaper keys, by selling "cheaper games" for keys, thus they get cheaper keys.
3) I didn't say ALL traders make $100 a day, but making $100 a day isn't that hard for large traders, by large traders I mean suppliers that supply other trades with stock.

Apith · Jan 17, 2015

Ejarwan said:
well Russian steam store isn't 100% region locked.
1) not all the games are region locked
2) they do get cheaper keys, by selling "cheaper games" for keys, thus they get cheaper keys.
3) I didn't say ALL traders make $100 a day, but making $100 a day isn't that hard for large traders, by large traders I mean suppliers that supply other trades with stock.

All games are region locked. All your points are immediately invalid.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/17/steam-region-locking/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/17/s...-purchases-in-wake-of-crashing-russian-ruble/

I currently live in the Philippines where games are as cheap as they are in Russia. They are region locked.

Ejarwan · Jan 17, 2015

Apith said:
All games are region locked. All your points are immediately invalid.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/17/steam-region-locking/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/17/s...-purchases-in-wake-of-crashing-russian-ruble/

I currently live in the Philippines where games are as cheap as they are in Russia. They are region locked.

this hasn't been since ever.
I used to deal with russian dealers before.

Apith · Jan 17, 2015

Ejarwan said:
this hasn't been since ever.
I used to deal with russian dealers before.

So what's your point now? It's been like that for a month, which is before this recent heavy BTC crash.

http://www.economist.com/news/unite...te-trial-what-about-others-bitcoin-buccaneers

Read that and you'll laugh at how insignificant your overemphasized russian friends' roles are compared to when that site shut down. Then think about the damage it could have, then take a look at the BTC history chart.

Ejarwan · Jan 17, 2015

Apith said:
So what's your point now? It's been like that for a month, which is before this recent heavy BTC crash.

http://www.economist.com/news/unite...te-trial-what-about-others-bitcoin-buccaneers

Read that and you'll laugh at how insignificant your overemphasized russian friends' roles are compared to when that site shut down. Then think about the damage it could have, then take a look at the BTC history chart.

damn lol.

Superfluous · Jan 17, 2015

+1 with almost everything Apith has said on this. I still think this mini-crash is a product of the currency being what it is, not market conditions, and until someone thinks of a really novel thing to do with cryptocurrency, I don't expect the price to spike like it did last year; it's just a lousy investment right now, imo.