True. So long as a few more people become aware of Bitcoin every day and realise its potential as a store of value.

I initially wanted to put only what I could spare from my monthly pay into BTC but recently it has become a little more obsessive and I find myself buying up slightly more than I wanted to.

I can always sell it though, so long as we aren't due an almighty crash. I don't believe that will happen. A drop to $300 will make more people buy and bring the price back up.

I'm not an economist in the slightest but I can see that it's a great store of value and the long, boring sideways movement we've had a few months is probably down to those with large quantities of BTC manipulating the market.

I'm also sure that the US dollar is doomed within the next couple of years and that can only raise Bitcoin's position in the game.

No they don't. You could run a TOR exit node at home if you wanted. There are guides freely available on the TOR project website.

People tentatively giving trading a rest due to the upcoming auction results.

The results are released this week and BTC price corrects itself by a modest amount (+/- $50). From then on it'll carry on as it has been for the last couple of months ($20 price swings here and there).

I don't get it either why Bitcoin hasn't taken off yet, as I've mentioned in a previous thread.

My guess is for a few reasons:

     I've always been into computing and although I only understand the basics of security when it comes to Bitcoin (keep the important amounts in cold storage, spread across many paper wallets) and use an online wallet for day to day transactions. For someone that isn't into computing it would seem like a strange fad, rather than a realistic change.

     It's pricey. To try and get someone to pay £250 (at current rates) for something they won't really use for a couple of years takes some doing.

     Lack of consumer options to spend. Here in the UK there's only a niche market for actually using the damn things. I've spent BTC on computer hardware and used darknet markets to get hold of pharmaceuticals but that's about it. If only Amazon UK would start accepting BTC directly I would be using it loads more. I bought most of my Christmas shopping from Amazon and I would definitely use BTC instead of debit card just to propagate the change we need.

     Isn't it fashionable yet? I thought teenagers loved new technology but I don't see any fashion trends toward using Bitcoin. Not that I'm particularly down with what youngsters are doing these days.

    People are too willing to believe government spin that the economy is slowly getting better. If people were prepared to read articles and watch documentaries about how rife corruption still is then they may think differently. They're far too willing to suck up whatever so-called impartial mass media is telling them, which is mainly led by government party policy. I'm looking at you, BBC!




I'm not really complaining about the slow adoption we're seeing because it allows me to slowly acquire more BTC with every pay cheque but it is somewhat astounding that average people aren't buying into Bitcoin. It seems to be the whales that have them all and that's the opposite of what Bitcoin should be about.

If anyone has an idea about when the tipping point will occur or what it will be I would like to know.

Could the governments of the US/EU fuck up Bitcoin if they wanted to, by buying and selling to play with the price?

I would have thought that the US economists have been thinking of ways to do this, but as to whether they have come up with a feasible plan yet remains to be seen.

I should imagine that they're secretly in so much shit with their national debt that they haven't the money to buy up enough BTC in order to screw the prices.

What if they've been secretly/steadily accumulating large numbers of BTC over time so that they own a large proportion of coins in existence? Could they then use that as a threat?

I think that they have so much expenditure just to maintain law and order and the military industrial complex that they haven't the spare cash to buy a significant amount of BTC (apart from what's been seized from the drug markets).

They could always print more dollar and quickly buy BTC like crazy but then the price would escalate too fast for them to buy an amount big enough to control Bitcoin.

Just my thoughts. As you can tell, I'm no economist.

Good quote.

I've recently been watching some pretty hard hitting documentaries by Adam Curtis, the British film maker. The average person could do with some eye opening documentaries to see just how we've been held in the grip of power for so long.

I'd like to pay for my utilities with BTC and buy food with BTC. I eagerly await for that day to come. Even if it's just a start.

Do you think there is also a lack of knowledge in the masses about how central governments control the masses with money? The average Joe is still blind to the way we are subjugated by world banks?

Or is it a case of the ability to freely spend BTC not being there yet?

I used it on the original Silk Road about 3 years ago, but purely as a transition between fiat and buying weed.

I must've actually held something in the region of 20 or 30 BTC at some point. I wish I'd not smoked that BTC now!

I just didn't see the connection at the time that this was something that could change the world. It was just a sketchy way of doing business anonymously back then.

With the mass communication we have today how come Bitcoin isn't already widespread news?

I can type a few characters into my phone and the whole world can potentially see it (if enough people were interested in me).

How haven't people realised what a great store of value BTC is now that the price is relatively stable?

Is it scepticism? Stupidity (people want easy apps without understanding anything about the underlying technology behind BTC)?

It seems to me like BTC should be heading to mass adoption NOW, rather than in 5 years time as some people predict?

Personally, I don't want it to go viral too soon though; I would like some more cheap BTC before that happens.

How does silver compare to gold in terms of rarity and the ability to mine?

I haven't got the money to buy loads of gold, but I have some BTC and would be interested in silver if it is seen as a sound investment. Or is it better to buy a small amount of gold together with BTC?

What about moving hidden services to i2p?

I understand it's a lot harder to set up. Is there any work going on to just download an "i2p browser bundle"? Or is it more complicated than that?

I sincerely hope this is true. The US government are often ran by privileged egotists (see the Neo-Cons) and wouldn't have the insight or intelligence to create Bitcoin.

Nakamoto could be a gifted US student, though.

Maybe he doesn't want or need the extra money?

Maybe he has enough to survive on for the rest of his life and is watching his creation unfold?

Maybe he does not care about being branded a genius or being famous?

Maybe he has destroyed the keys to his fortune so that the first blocks will never be spent?

Not everyone wants to live a spiritually vapid life filled with luxuries they don't need.

An idea or a legacy can be far more important to some people than getting rich.

Maybe he has set up a time delayed post that will identify himself to the world after he's dead.

Any thoughts?

Tails is excellent. It does all connections through Tor unless you click on the clearnet browser (correct me if I'm wrong) and great for accessing an electrum wallet using just your seed written down on paper. It even wipes your RAM on shutdown so that no trace of your transactions can be recovered. Every time you boot it starts from scratch (no wallet.dat file or any history left lurking) and doesn't touch your hard disk unless you tell it to through the file manager. It has everything you need for a quick online transmission to the Blockchain and then reboot without a trace.

It gets updated regularly (about once a month) to ensure any security flaws are dealt with and there's a BTC donation address on their home page. If you have a spare $20 worth of BTC to donate I'd recommend you sent them some BTC to keep this gem of an OS going. I've donated in the past and will do again.

It's a little bit slow booting from USB but worth it. Better still, install it on a lockable SD card and flick the switch to 'lock' mode so that you're doubly sure that nothing is altered. Then when a new version comes out unlock your SD and install it before locking it again. Sweet!

Anyway, I don't want any animosity here. I'm interested in theorising what will happen with cyber-currency and it's been interesting and left me with a disappointing thought that those in power could have the capacity to control what could be a revolution in the financial world. In fact I feel like I'm going round in circles. Good argument Devin Chow.

I can only imagine that the banks must be furious of a system that they don't control. I'm pretty sure that much is true.

I addressed the owning issue earlier though. We both know that Bitcoin has no theoretical upper limit with regards to other currency (it could shoot to $1000 or $100000000000 per coin) and if some kind of tipping point occurred then the government (or anyone else for that matter) wouldn't be able to keep up with buying enough of it to maintain control.

Theorise what you like about if and what such a tipping point could cause this but it does render your argument that Bitcoin is currently irrelevant, umm, irrelevant.

Then why the talk of "skinning a cat" if you believe that Bitcoin will fade into obscurity due to it's supposed impotence in the market?

You seem confused about your own theory. Not to mention coming across as a bit of a know it all. I admitted that I know little about economics and am trying to speculate/gain some insight into the future of Bitcoin, while you persist in gobbing off with these certainties of yours about how the government (who we all know like to keep their innermost dealings secret) are going to react.

You're just as speculative as I am. The difference between us is that I admit it.

I'm no economist but I am deeply sceptical about the way our goverments have been running things (not just recently, but over decades).

Bitcoin may not have the market cap of USD but it has potential and, being open source, can be developed upon.

These are very interesting times we live in and I admit that the idea of owning a handful of BTC making me wealthy enough not to work in a crappy job again appeals to me but it can mean so much more than that.

I like the world I live in, even if it is by no means perfect and if Bitcoin is to have a future (it has to be better than the corruption that we're currently entrenched in) then we need to organise taxation and healthcare, law enforcement, education etc which is included within a crypto-driven/financially decentralised economy.

We need to organise sidechains and policies that fit in with Bitcoin, not just smugly sit on our BTC thinking about how clever we were that we bought into something early.

Like I say. Interesting times. I hope the banks fail but I don't want riots in the streets. Just fairness.

Anyway, It's 0130 here and I'm tired now, so I'll leave it there.

Do you mean they would start prosecution orders against everyone that used Bitcoin? That would take some time to organise.

How else do you think they could destroy the Bitcoin infrastructure?

I'm not trying to test your patience. I'm genuinely fascinated by what may happen.

Why would any of us normal folk, who know about Bitcoin and the power of a decentralised currency start buying state sanctioned crypto, with a blockchain run by the government, who have been proven to be corrupt with money for years? It would be like throwing your principles away.

Why would we bother buying a US sanctioned crypto if our open source Bitcoin network, based on freedom, was currently going through a massive wealth increase?

I hope I followed your post right, BitMos.