Many people look at the https://coinmarketcap.com price chart and see this:
Nothing really happening for 4 years, then a massive explosion and a drop at a level never seen before.
But this point of view is really an illusion, because we actually have had drops that are bigger than the one we are in, and pre-2016 price action for Bitcoin was exciting.
A massive gain in the past, where the price was very low, shows up as a blip in the chart.
This is a linear chart, and is very deceiving. Let me introduce you to a logarithmic chart.
A linear chart displays the price such that for every vertical length, the price moves up a certain amount.
For example, the right side of a linear chart might show:
| Price (USD) |
|---|
| $250 |
| $200 |
| $150 |
| $100 |
| $50 |
| $0 |
This means that a 100% gain when the price is at $1 barely even shows up on the chart, while a 10% gain when the price is at 150 is much more noticable.
A logarithmic chart displays the price such that for every vertical length, the price moves up a certain percentage, usually 1000%.
For example, the right side of a logarithmic chart might show:
| Price (USD) |
|---|
| $1000 |
| $100 |
| $10 |
| $1 |
| $0.1 |
| $0.01 |
This basically shows every percentage gain to look the same, while the linear one shows every numerical gain to be the same.
Let's look at a logarithmic chart of Bitcoin!
It looks very different. One of the first things you notice is that the price went up massively at the end of 2013.
If you look back at the linear chart, that is just a little bump in the price, barely noticeable. But at the time, that had similar percentage gains to the recent massive rally.
If you look at the recent dip, we see that it isn't that large percentage-wise compared to everything else! It really just seems like a bump in the road, a correction. It fell nowhere near to where we were before this big rally.
Never thought about it this way. Really to me there isn't a way to chart Bitcoin that isn't going to be deceptive. The only reason why to be in something is if you have some knowledge that tells you there is a advantage.
For me the fact that Bitcoin is being used to get people involved in digital currency so that the fraudulent governments wont' have to admit there fraud and change is the reason to be involved. Everyone claims it is decentralization while having the exact same requirements of the old centralized system.
It is obvious to me that if Bitcoin fails so does the bid to digitize currency to hide the fraud. I can think of a lot of Elite necks that are not going to let that happen anytime soon. LOL
kewl chart, man - good way to look at over long period of time