If the hack was not an inside job then this should be viewed as a desperate last effort for Bitfinex to recover the stolen funds. This means that they might be having financial and liquidity/cash flow problems and the exchange might even shut down in the near future. It would also mean that there might be a group of whales in the exchange who might press charges if they do not get their Bitcoins back in full.

If the hacker does not communicate with Bitfinex then I would expect a bad press release from them in 2 or 3 months.

To be honest here the lucrative businesses in Bitcoin are still based on the darknet businesses. The idea is to look for markets where there are inefficiencies regarding payment matters. Bitcoin fit perfectly well in the darknet because there is no way you could get paid for illegal goods using legal payment processors. The other idea to look for is to find how Bitcoin can open up new markets. An example is an exchange for multi player online game items. I believe trading Warcraft and Diablo 3 items is still popular online? A successful exchange market for that using Bitcoins would be really good to see happen if someone can find a way to set it up.

Could this be a possible attack vector on Bitcoin? We have seen a motivated government put pressure on some business institution before to get its agenda going. So let us say if the banking cartel pressured the governments around the world and then in turn these governments pressured the ISP's to disallow Bitcoin nodes to have internet access, would that be a possible scenario for the start of the Bitcoin witch hunt taking Bitcoin underground?   

I agree with your assessment but I disagree that just because the hurdles of entry to buy Bitcoin is low then the big players of Wall Street will all automatically go for the "real thing". They might not be willing nor do they care. If they do decide to go for the real thing, we do not really have a legal exchange large enough to accommodate the amount of what they might consider to use on their average investments. Of course these big players would want to get in without making the price jump very high. They want to get in is quietly as possible.


I believe the Winklevii ETF could do a better performance because as you said, they already have the name. So that really markets itself already. But also there is a more important reason. The timing. GBP and the Yuan are going down and there are speculations that some are converting to Bitcoin as a form of protection. The USD could be next so I would assume they too would turn to Bitcoin and all the Bitcoin based derivative investments. The Winklevii will be there waving their hands to say hello.

 

That is a very interesting turn of events. But before knowing that the owner was going through a divorce, many of us from the community have already been thinking that an inside job is very much possible considering that they were using multi-sigs and other security measures. Only a person who has inside knowledge and access would be able to touch those Bitcoins.


Then the affected users have every right to get the authorities involved. People with criminal minds should not be allowed to get away with their exploits.

Yes it could be too soon, but not entirely impossible for Bitcoin. We have seen it jump higher before. Ok so now we know that there is demand for Bitcoin, the problem now is the "why"?

What is causing this rise? I have read an article that the big Chinese miners are becoming optimistic about Bitcoin Unlimited and that they are insinuating that they are supporting bigger blocks, ending the scaling debate.

Yes I am aware of the atomic cross chain transfers already developed in a couple of altcoins. But I forgot the names of those altcoins. Now that is where the difference of a Lightning Network based blockchain bridge and an altcoin ACCT based solution would come in. That big difference would be in the popularity and the marketing of the blockchain bridge implementation. Because it is developed on top of Bitcoin and for Bitcoin, that will make the whole difference. The developments of new technology done in altcoins could be looked at and seen as testnets for Bitcoin at best.

This. But we all have to realize what the reality is here. The site itself does not care about Bitcoin. It only cares about expanding its markets and having another source of money influx from another currency. Do not forget that the British Pounds is going down and also there are news coming out that the British banks are buying Bitcoins to "pay off ransomware demands". But I do not think that is the case, banks are smart, so I think they are hedging and that they are protecting themselves from a falling GBP.

Not only will it apply in the subscription based video/audio streaming businesses, but this type of subscription based business model might even be applied successfully to online poker and online sports betting. Instead of collecting money from the users thru the rake or the vig, the users can pay the gambling site ahead of time thru a monthly or yearly subscription. This could make it cheaper for the more active gamblers and it is also an opportunity for the online bookies to offer better odds because there is no vig.

I agree with you that nobody can predict everything in a precise manner. But I disagree that trading is a gamble and that it is all luck. While most aspiring traders lose money, there are a handful who make money consistently by using different strategies and analysis. The risks taken are all calculated even before you have made the trade. If you buy and sell cryptocurrencies because you "feel" it is the right move then yes it is gambling.

That is also my first impression. I believe MtGox also used the same strategy to attract people to deposit their Bitcoins to the exchange. It would not be really surprising if history is repeating itself in this scenario. Do I think that Bitfinex is deliberately scamming the people? No, far from it. But MtGox was also in the same position where they were operating a fractional reserve system to survive. They were desperate, Bitfinex could be desperate too. Be careful.

Why would you short Bitcoin? In a way, it is like betting against it and the potentially big price jump to $1000 and possibly beyond. The coins to short sell or bet against are the over priced and the over hyped ones like Ethereum or Dash. Bitcoin should be held, and if it goes down, you should buy more. But doing the same to altcoins is not advisable.

It could but we should also not forget that it will have its own flaws and shortcomings when we actually start seeing it used in practice. Both core and the big blockers have their implementation set in their minds and can already see how beautifully it would work in theory.

I mentioned before that the Lightning Network might mean heftier transactions on the blockchain that might cause bottlenecks, limiting the opening and closing of payment channels. There is also the question of fungibility as LN.BTC's price could be more or less than "real" BTC.

One great potential for LN is the possibility of it being a bridge to other blockchains. I am very excited for that use case.

Open Bazaar is going to be so great once the upgrades are done that makes use of the Inter Planetary File System for storing the data for your online shop.  Yes, that means you can turn off your computer, no need for leaving it on just to keep your store online 24 hours a day/7 days a week.

The cool thing about IPFS is that your privacy is protected just like you would be when using Tor. Does anyone have any idea how many users there are using OB?

Why is there no BTCe in that list? For me they are the only exchange that is doing it right in terms of user privacy and security. I believe they have not been hacked before and so far they have not asked for documents from me to make trades and withdrawals with them. Their cashouts are fast and their support team is knowledgeable and response times are ok.

Also they have proven to be trustworthy even if the owners and the people who run it are anonymous. They have remained true to the Bitcoin way and that is to protect everyone's privacy.

You mean to say you want 100% ROI on your $100k in 365 days and do it safely? Good luck with that as it is close to impossible that it would happen "safely". Asking for a 100% return in a year is already pushing it too far as it is. Also even if you are willing to take a little risk to reach your goal you might end up with less than what you have started with.

Sometimes hackers and intelligence officers need only the metadata to have some knowledge of what is in the message. They do not even have to know what exactly is the message to have some sort of inkling of what is really going on. If emails were in the blockchain then all the details of the metadata will be available openly to the public. That is a big nono if you want to keep your privacy.

Forward to over 1 year after creating this thread and it is obvious that your prediction is very optimistic. The price is not really doing that well where it was expected to reach the all time high and go over it. We are only half way there. On the topic of mainstream adoption, Bitcoin is very far from achieving it. It may not be even achieved because of the infighting and the technical limitations of the Bitcoin blockchain.

I believe this topic should be locked when the year ends.

This thread escalated quickly into a word war between core and the big blockers. While I do support both movements and could see the advatages of both, I do like to see Segwit and then the Lightning Network be implemented first. I just think avoiding a hard fork for as long as possible as a safety measure must be the path to follow.

I am excited for 0.13.1, let's all hope everything all goes as planned and as smoothly as possible. From a speculator's standpoint, the potential for the Lightning Network is more promising and exciting for me.

I would not blame them and who could? The Bitcoin network should be used in a way that would help their business more efficient in the processing of payments and to augment it in a way that is giving them more freedom and a choice away from traditional payment processors. This is still a plus for Bitcoin.


For me this makes the gambling sites open to new markets. Everyone could already see the potential of Bitcoin. We have the dark markets to thank for that.