<story><title>Bitcoin Trends in the First Half of 2015</title><url>https://blog.coinbase.com/2015/07/15/bitcoin-trends-in-1h-2015/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Animats</author><text>The main trend for Bitcoin in 2015 is that not much happened.  The price is within 10% of where it was at the beginning of the year.  Transaction volume in dollars is flat, or down a little.  Many of the companies which were accepting Bitcoin no longer are; those that are report low transaction volumes.  (There are lots of merchants which &amp;quot;accept Bitcoin&amp;quot; because it&amp;#x27;s an option in some shopping cart programs, but those just send the Bitcoins to Coinbase, which converts them to dollars and sends the funds to the merchant.)&lt;p&gt;The big trends in Bitcoin seem to be:&lt;p&gt;- Amateur hour is over. The remaining exchanges are bigger and seemingly more stable, although none of them are up to bank-level yet.  New York&amp;#x27;s Bitcoin regulation seems to have been accepted.&lt;p&gt;- Mining is more centralized than ever. Most of the big Bitcoin miners are in cold areas of China with cheap power. China has well over 50% of the hash rate now. This may just be a way to convert yuan to dollars.  (China has currency controls, but encourages exports.   For a few months, it was legal in China to buy Bitcoins with yuan through regular payment channels, then sell the Bitcoins outside China for dollars. That drove the $1000 Bitcoin bubble, and was shut down by the People&amp;#x27;s Bank of China last year, causing the Bitcoin crash. &lt;i&gt;Mining&lt;/i&gt; Bitcoin in China, and selling it outside China, is considered &amp;quot;exporting&amp;quot; and is a legal way to convert yuan to dollars.)&lt;p&gt;- Since the shutdown of Silk Road I and Silk Road II and the related arrests, Bitcoin is no longer considered a safe way to buy drugs. This doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to have affected the price much one way or the other.&lt;p&gt;- Bitcoin ATMs are disappearing.  In the SF bay area, Hacker Dojo and Workshop Cafe got rid of theirs, and Nakamoto&amp;#x27;s doesn&amp;#x27;t have theirs working.  Hero City (a co-working space) may still have one.&lt;p&gt;History of Bitcoin:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    2013: Wow!
    2014: Aargh!
    2015: Meh.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Bitcoin Trends in the First Half of 2015</title><url>https://blog.coinbase.com/2015/07/15/bitcoin-trends-in-1h-2015/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>ceallen</author><text>No mention of the &amp;#x27;stress test&amp;#x27; that&amp;#x27;s brought the network to its knees the past few days, or of the soft fork that resulted in suggestions to wait for 30+ confirmations? Puff piece.&lt;p&gt;C&amp;#x27;mon Coinbase, at least spin them into a &amp;#x27;&amp;lt;X&amp;gt; is actually good for Bitcoin, because &amp;lt;Y&amp;gt;&amp;#x27; format.</text></comment>