I don't really intend to ever cash in if it can be avoided. I want to spend it on other assets such as property et al if and when the need arises. The day a seller gives me preference because I'm paying in BTC is the day I know it's really arrived regardless of price.

If that happens then it won't be the end of the world by any means. The most common estimates are that Chinese mining makes up 60-70% of hash rate.

A vast amount of mining machines will be sold or moved from China to other countries. I really don't believe someone like Bitmain hasn't planned for that eventuality.

In the meantime there are many miners elsewhere who'd be salivating at the idea of China disappearing.

Bitcoin might be sluggish for a while but a month or two down the line it would pick up speed again.

I am a true believer in Bitcoin as store of value/digital gold. I do not believe it'll ever become P2P cash en masse, though obviously there are some people here who are using it as such. They're an exception and always will be.

The deflationary aspect means that 99% of people will look to spend the other forms of money they have access to before spending their BTC, and that's without taking into account the future waves of adoption which'll drive the price higher until it saturates to an extent.

That's human nature and it won't be changing ever. If the cash aspect was the main intention then human nature should've been taken into account when defining its qualities.

Did anyone fail to notice that we only got beyond 2013 price levels when China was shut down at the start of the year?

If the Chinese zero fee exchanges still existed we would be nowhere still. The rest of the world slavishly followed them for whatever reason even though it was four teenagers and their bots. As soon as there was a rise in the West, China shat on it and it was back to square one for weeks or months.

We only managed a new ATH because China was out of the game. When it came back into the game it was just another market that the rest of the world wasn't paying much attention to.

Bitcoin's price would never reach its potential with China in the frame. It has no purpose or use there other than gambling. We're well rid.

Why on Earth would one single person entrust their funds to you? Right off the bat your idea sounds insulting and hopeless on top. It takes years and years to build trust to attract a large number of customers and you kick off with expecting them to trust someone they know nothing about for several months.

The reason Coinbase costs so much is partly down the millions or tens of millions they've had to spend on compliance, security, back end and customer service. Come back when you have $50 million to invest and then you might have a chance.

In the last few weeks Visa has stopped the issuing of these cards to anyone outside Europe so if you're not there then you might be in trouble. The only other one I know of that's non EU going into the future is Wagecan or something but it seems very expensive.

And I'm not so sure they have much or any protection if the provider decides to disappear. They'll issue cards to any old donkey. Perhaps they have to provide some sort of bond but don't go assuming it's as solid as a bank card.

I've used them in the past without issue but I'm not sure id do it again. That's not because they're dodgy but their kyc questions are ridiculously invasive and they rescind verification and ask for more if you go over unknown limits.

I'm buggered if I'm getting tied up in their secret policies.

Bitmixer was the flagship service so it would be the first to attract a huge amount of heat.

I assume the operator's assertion that Bitcoin should be nice and public is utter bilge and intended to make him look good if he's ever tracked down.

The new mixers are either more confident of never being traced or steering clear of tracably naughty coins.

Five years ago there was no chinese involvement in crypto. The rise of asics and their markets only happened in 2013. Funnily enough they mangled that rally and then put out a documentary outlining the risks of bitcoin without mentioning they themselves were the risk.

There are plenty of S9s outside China and then there's Bitfury too who had a quarter of the hash rate at one point. I think they sell most of it to other people now.

I think an absolute worst cast scenario would be BTC slowing by a 2/3rds, but even then there's a lot waiting on the sidelines outside China. It would be a sluggish few weeks and then a gradual return to normal.

Well, John McAfee reckons it's not happening but he is out of his giant mind these days.

https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/910252562124648448

He will obviously be far better placed to have an opinion on this than us deadbeats in this thread.

It's this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China

And it's just about the biggest deal in Chinese politics, though of course it's not an election.

There's been a lot of theorising about this coinciding with all of these shenanigans. I think it's looked on as a time to take stock and come out with some clean slates.

Some people reckon that once it's out the way they may come  back with some clarifications and refinements such as the mooted CNY Tether.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/What-are-the-Causes-of-ICO-Ban-in-China-and-What-Happens-Next

Interesting one, that.

I suppose it depends on how much in the dark you've kept your beloved. If you were jumping up and down with excitement for years on end he or she is going to be rather more interested in getting their hands on it.

If you mainly keep your gob shut and have the occasional moan about these weird strings of numbers you can't figure out how to get rid of, your post split future will be all the brighter. They can keep the yacht and feel like they got a deal.

You sold at the bottom, you big poo.

That wording would not be reassuring to a Chinese miner. They're the pesky fellas issuing it.

I used Circle quite a bit when it was operating. That really was the ideal solution especially as I'm in the UK and options are shite compared to almost everywhere else.

Other than that the majority of my buying is done on Localbitcoins via bank transfer. The premiums go through the roof when there's a hype train. When it's quiet it was actually cheaper than Bitstamp a few times.

I tried it out of curiosity once. I found it borderline unusable but of course there are sound reasons for that. I don't see how it could be viable for fast moving stuff like trading or gambling.

And I've heard so much about TOR honeypots and leaking IPs that I'd never have full faith in it anyway. It's always going to be the number one target for cracking. On top of that I don't really give a shit about anonymity. If I did it's almost certain I blew that years ago.

You're better served asking here - https://forum.nem.io/

and here -

Red (on topic): https://t.me/nemred551
Nemberia (off topic): https://t.me/nemberia381

They'll have the most active NEM folks you can tap.

I'm not convinced merchants will ever be able to entice people to spend Bitcoin, certainly not people who don't already own it. Very few of them will have margins big enough to be able to discount enough to make up for the inconvenience.

Widespread merchant adoption will be one of the last things to fall into place. It definitely won't drive adoption.

I'm pretty spend happy with it because it's basically free money at the moment. There's no way I'd bother if I had to buy it to buy something.

Does it really and truly have to be card only? You're humongously restricting your choices and throwing away vast amounts in fees most of the time. It's not as dire as Paypal but it's still far from ideal.

It's a huge shame about Circle. That was the only one really worth shit. You can still sell to Circle which is a little publicised fact.

Checking on my localbitcoins market a cash deposit only attracts a tiny premium at the moment.