Bitcoin Forum

Due to other commitments in life I haven't really been keeping upto date with what has been happening in the world of Bitcoin for the last year and a half. What all have I missed? What all is happening on August 1St and will it have a negative affect on bitcoin?

You didn't miss much, Steam is now accepting bitcoin, Japan regulated bitcoin and It's now legal, the ETF by the twins got rejected. I believe that's everything that worth mentioning.
Back to the 1st august, the thread  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2012799.0)made by theymos should pretty much explain everything. It shouldn't have any negative effect on bitcoin as long as there is no chain split, as for the long term, SegWit is definitely going to help bitcoin.

You forgot to mention Bitcoin Unlimited,or perhaps BU isn`t worth mentioning? ;D
Year and a half is lots of time.Bitcoin went from 450 USD to 2600 US dollars during that time.
If you have some bitcoins in your savings, you are lucky.
Let`s hope that the btc price won`t return back to 450 USD during the next year and a half. ;D

Yeah I noticed the prices, crazy are more and more businesses accepting bitcoin as a form of currency? Bitcoin unlimited ? What is that? I haven't heard of it.

Yes your positive approach of saying segwit is going to help bitcoin is very good. I'm sure it will not split the chains but will create something in combination. There will be resetting of price for bitcoin back to what was it before few months ago. I think it will go more than that because big investors will start their investment again which are currently halted. This will change the bitcoin way faster than anything.

you should see BTU at hitbtc.com bull here I think it looks chain split. the current down in bitcoin prices now is the negative impact of segwit later on august 1st? BTU is new here so I think the dominant holder will still choose btc.

You have come at right time as biggest revolution in the bitcoin industry us yet to happen in august 1st. As you are early bird here you will face the situation by yourself. I'm sure about the rest year that bitcoin moved from $2k to all about 2900 dollars to give many people a chance to earn huge profits. Most of them were enjoying this rise. But as if now we are in the phase of holding where no sell occurs until the august shows us the future. :-)

Social Fintech is exploding and more and more blockchain businesses are springing up everywhere. Now not only speculators are interested in Bitcoin, but real long term investors and big venture capital is coming in and making a show. There will be more and more tech and non tech start ups happening around this space I am sure over the next five years.

Besides all of those informations about what you've missed all this time, you have to aware about bitcoin if you hold/have it and prepare your cash to get more profits. First move, export your private key or do not save bitcoin on exchanges at least until segwit or segwit2x things are clear due to chain split that will be happen. Sec, buy and sell bitcoin before it rise rapidly in the next month or just in case it decline even further then its current price. People could make profits even if bitcoin price fall down so hard obviously, it just matter of time to buy and sell.