They declared it virtual property several years ago unless I'm talking out of my behind. It's the trading that's scuppered.

I do wonder what the deal is with the extension for OKcoin and Huobi is though. What's different about them? Some people reckon they'll get some form of reprieve but they were also responsible for parking customer funds in dodgy investment schemes which isn't going to do much for their long term credibility.

It reads like self justifying bilge. If people want to gamble then that's fine. Dressing it up as something remotely worthwhile is somewhat pathetic. It has no redeeming value. It employs people and provides a bit of fun for some. That's it.

The primary problem that seems to have been going around is phishing sites. There've been multiple examples of this recently. If you are on a phishing site and you don't know it then your 2FA will be useless because the attacker can copy it live.

If you're using Authenticator or similar and going straight to the site within your address bar then most of the problems are dealt with right there.

They are complying with the laws available to them. Anyone would do the same given the opportunity. If people don't like it then they need to get in touch with their local lawmaker and tell them to do something about it. It's within every government's power to make them pay a fair amount. The fact they're not paying a fair amount is down to them too.

There's European action but for whatever reason Bitstamp, the biggest EU exchange, chooses to do the majority of its business in dollars. Kraken's the only really big EUR market and that's American. I assume they chose it for ease of banking. Kraken's hopeless so their volume must be falling.

All the other EUR pairings on big exchanges seem to be microscopic. You'd think BTC-e's would've been huge but it was dwarfed by their USD business.

People will go where the volume is so if it isn't EUR then they'll convert even if they are in the EU.

Outside of Kraken the biggest EUR markets would probably be Bitcoin.de and maybe bitcoinic. Neither of them are exchanges so they won't show up.

And there's no GBP exchange with decent banking. GBP has to be wired to Europe.

I thought the EU was supposed to be all united and stuff. It's bizarre how different tax treatments are especially when people can just move.

If I had enough BTC I'd definitely relocate for as long as it took to pay the tax if I needed to cash out. If I'd held for less than a year I'd head to the Netherlands. The capital gains there is less than 2%.

The more forks there are, the more lovable LTC looks. Then again if it got big enough forkers might descend on that too.

I agree that it's not benefiting anyone but anyone is also free to do it and it can't be stopped. 2X is the big one though. That could be far more damaging than BCH. Because of that I think we'll see more supporters chickening out near the time.

It's a fine move and people need protecting from themselves. But if they carry on doing their jobs then ICO teams will simply move offshore. There are too many stupid people wanting to throw their money at any old shit and there'll always be scum willing to give them what they think they want.

The only ICOs they've banned are Korean domestic ones. Can anyone name a single Korean ICO? I can't. All the usual junk will continue unabated so this is a non issue though no doubt traders will attempt to capitalise on it while it lasts.

Err, so what? That's what most companies do.

Bitstamp, one of the biggest and most legit exchanges, was registered to a small post box on an industrial estate in England for several years. They registered where it's most convenient regulation and cost wise. And this has been known about Poloniex from minute one.

Credit doesn't matter. They're all prepaid. Xapo and a few others are out for non EU residents. The Coinbase Shift card and Bitpay card have different arrangements for US residents and there's Wagecan which costs a lot more.

In the UK at least banks are now obligated to provide accounts to anyone regardless of their circumstances. I'm not sure where that leaves you if you have no address though. If I remember rightly in Rome there was a priest who provided an address that was linked to a park bench.

Cashlessness is bad news for everyone, from the poorest to the richest. It hands over complete control over every aspect of your life to people who can't be trusted with it. It's bizarre places like Scandinavia are actually running towards it with enthusiasm.

What total bollocks.

It's just the same as Cyprus and Greece. Maybe a couple of people persuaded their friends to put a fraction in. Everyone else prefers dollars. In the meantime Bitcoin fans jump up and down and shriek about it taking over the world.

The easiest metric is Localbitcoins volume. In Venezuela its weekly volume is about 400-500 BTC. That doesn't seem like quite enough to service the needs of tens of millions of people.

I wonder what their attitude will be to ICOs and so on. Is there a preapproved list of coins they're permitting to trade or do they have to meet a generalised set of criteria? Unless it's a wider framework I don't see how they can keep ahead of the pace of development.

if it's a specific list they may end up with regulated markets for coins no one has any interest in trading.

If you're freaked out by a coin's individual units being worth more then you should abandon Bitcoin right now because there've been more than a few already. 42 coin stands out as the main example. That's because there were 42 in total. Kiddies should do their homework and figure out how many there are in total.

As for market cap, I think it's quite possible something else could go past on a run. Would it be the end of the world? I think it's time people let go of the idea of it being all about Bitcoin. There are projects that have no aspiration to be a currency or store of value that could be worth more. The only competition they're in with BTC is the funds sloshing around exchanges.

In that scenario I wouldn't care.

No one has yet to explain to me fully how hubs and channels will work. Are channels restricted to only one payee or can the hub route them elsewhere? If you have to open and close a channel to pay only one person then I may as well just use the regular blockchain as it's likely I'll only ever be paying that person once. That reduces on chain transactions to just the one rather than two for opening and closing a channel.

If the hubs can route payments elsewhere then it's a whole different ballgame.

It's ICOs, not Bitcoin so I don't get why your knickers are in a twist.

If countries can be bothered I think ICOs will probably be banned everywhere. The potential for disaster and scamminess is just too temping and people are too stupid to resist. They're not funding new and interesting projects, they're just piling up money for junk.

That doesn't mean they won't continue, but it'll be interesting to see if exchanges reject the results of ICOs when they're trading or will treat it as a separate thing.

Presumably most people bought with a bank account and spouses talk to each other. The likelihood is that your beloved knows you bought some bitcoin and can point to when you bought it which can then be linked to a transaction.

You can of course claim that your coins were tragically lost in a hardware failure. Courts have heard every excuse in the book. You may well get away with it but expect to be put under some major pressure.

If submitting your financial records was optional then non one would get anything. If you lie during the process and it's discovered then expect plenty of legal unpleasantness.

Ideas are fair game no matter how dear they are to your heart.

You can go about this in two ways. You can increase your knowledge of crypto and execute it yourself, you can find someone who already has what it takes and ask them privately.

Throwing it out in public isn't going to do your idea any favours if it's that unique.

Anyone who believes a Bankcoin can murder Bitcoin should leave this forum and not come back.

The central point of Bitcoin is that it isn't subject to the whims of some overlord. A Bankcoin vastly increases the ability of the overlord to execute their whims. It could be done with a few clicks.