Seems like basic marketing, that you want those noobs no matter what.  Any popular invention wants people who absolutely no clue to be using their product everyday anyway.   The burden of proof is on the seller, stupid noobs is eventually going to be about 99% of your market if you make it big.    People really dont care how crypto works, it just has to do what they want because their the ones with the purchasing power I guess they are what matters.


I personally think their should be a tequila test to see just how easy is your product, how many shots can you take and still send the currency to somebody new without screwing it up, taking too long / falling asleep.      Its like when your Grandma starts using Facebook, that is both terrible and a mark of a billion dollar product

Would be a good idea if a lapdancing place took BTC which if it rose that much, I think they might.     Also a restaurant which Im sure there must be.
I do know of some models who would do photo shoots for BTC I think, you would be richy Rich :p

10k this year only if it was exponential, I think 2016 is more likely.   Just recovering the previous high would be grand enough for most people in any year now

I didnt even realise it was POS now, I just bought some to use on Reddybet which is a great site.   I'll send some of my winnings back to my wallet if there is interest.  I mined Redd ages ago, what % is it currently

Branson is an investor in Bitpay I think?   Of course its working for him, I expect he is making money and would like to continue doing so hence his public backing.    In most new industry its the entrepreneurs and innovators who develop it further, then make most money in a technology.  Whoever brings that product to the masses has the most to gain, like Ford and the model T.   Wasnt necessarily the best version of motor carriage but he had it all regulated to a profit, I guess Branson knows what he is doing

silver wasnt an alternative to dollar, its more like a reversion.   Dollar was originally founded as a clone of the Spanish silver bits (pieces of eight!).   So I think its slightly poetic that we could come full circle and go back to silver or gold which was most recently the backing.  Its not really alternative imo

BTC is something new and deserves that title far more, Im not sure it is an absolute contrast between the two metals vs btc.  They do different things, BTC is far more useful for extremely fast, cheap transmission.   Metals still have a place, always will so far as I can tell (of course people can transmit metal value digitally also dollars, btc is just the purest form of that)

50% of the economy is government, what would you rather call it.   Its very much a thing at least economical, the other doctrine to go with it might be missing but you could argue the same is true of China and its alledged communism yet it appears more capitalist then the USA at least economically.    Things are not as they are labelled in many areas, I'd guess that was the same at least to start off in the last century also

Thats a great run down, yes Im fan of advancement and acceptance of change through technology and obviously we are no longer all in the fields picking potatoes.  So some see gold as similar waste of time and effort but my point would be we still (desperately) need it  

Iam still going to switch back and say the biggest change to money was not this current development but something like what Nixon did in 1972 and has been built on since.   That whole focus switch over to debt, away from productive assets and to stop the distribution of capital among people by centralising money production (ie no link to assets) this meant the failure of capitalism itself .    I dont think bitcoin fixes that, it may bypass some of the effects however which is helpful, but the biggest changes are to democracy and various 'rights' perhaps.  

I dont think this is a mainly technology change occurring now, we are just the side menu

If only it were possible Populous style to make a small volcano rise up just inside the main facility, turn that place like Pompeii.  A lasting warning to all other shell companies that profit from deception and 'deposits' to not be evil

Cash costs money for a business to process, its possible bitcoin could be more efficient for them though Im not sure thats the case. Its no surprise tech companies are first to trial bitcoin as it garners alot of attention so they can divert some of the advertising budget it can be argued!

Richard Branson didnt have to take bitcoin and Im not sure its an advantage for him really however think of his product in contrast and it totally makes sense.  He wants to capture some of that spirit for customers to feel when buying into his project also.  Its not finished, its very much a vision he is carrying out and very grand as is the concept of bitcoin and its usage.    Neither product is absolutely essential, both are flights of fancy

Well evidentially not as gold usage has declined dramatically in the last century despite being used for millennia.   Certainly in proportion to the amount of cash used this is true, ie. western countries do not value gold where as eastern cultures may still retain and use gold in more regular set patterns still such as the Indian wedding season, etc
 If I estimate any great rise its likely a large reversal of this decline



No I think this is a fallacy.   Im all for technology but some things are constant like human nature and elemental properties.   Every generation thinks they can discard mistakes made previously as obvious and easily avoidable but we havent got past political bias and interference in economies yet.    
Gold is inverse in its function, so yea its nothing new but look at the world now and effects in progress.  Such as the ECB moves recently to increase the magnitude of negative rates and so on.    The need and possible usage for gold or any steady medium of exchange is rising in proportion to systemic failure implemented by unproductive elements of the economy like government or general beaurcarcy.   At some point they'll be so much crap the demand will break badly in favour of any competitive free medium of value exchange

Seems to me the April low could be the despair part of that cycle.    The general trend both on the example and real price graph is an overlying rise, the overblown volatility above and below that slow appreciation is the where the speculation and emotional fallout occurs.     The best idea is to be involved regularly if possible, not buying once and hold waiting as it can take a while for any real gain or progression to the phenomenon as many 'investments' do

Most traded currency for major drug deals ?  That would be dollars and so on for every crime you can think of.  The largest source of liquidity and available easy distribution and liquidation for criminal assets is of course the dollar, as many millions count as very little in the background of such great usage

https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FuWiRcOR.png&t=544&c=F19hzAOM0iF-fw

BTC volume is rising or is this just showing local bitcoins is becoming a more popular site despite the decline.   I read in a newspaper, which is ironic as its national publication but anyway they said BTC is a declining medium ever seen December price peaked. 
  This would match up with the clampdown in China on business use of BTC.  Previously China private industry had tried to use tons of copper as proxy currency and were also blocked from this practise, some say leading to a serious decline in world copper prices as so much building and construction is done in China especially

Does the blackcoin wallet use much diskspace when staking.   Just thought I'd ask what its maximum requirements could be just in case Ive not left enough leeway in the temp directory or something

I'll know when the world is maybe changing when USA is somewhere on lists like this people make.     Its not even feasible in peoples minds at the moment.
   I mean we could still have Lehmans trading in theory, if they had just got the same finance from their creditors it would not be a problem for them but they got caught out and it was bad luck and of course awful company operation.   USA needs that debt so badly, it can switch to a nasty situation very easily and only massive export production could counteract that kind of effect.  

Not  just USA but any country with over 100% debt vs their GDP.  Japan has a debt problem, their government would go broke but Japanese businesses still bring alot of money to the country, because of that their government siphons off value by issuing more currency.
Also Japan has 1 trillion of USA debt so maybe people should look at this list above and see how much dollars or bonds they hold, its possible they would flush out problems elsewhere as did the Lehman effect

Ecuador and Venezuela have massive oil reserves.   They arent bankrupt with such big assets per capita, more like insolvent perhaps and if it was a company it would reorganised to strip out the wasteful parts like excess bloated government which is not profitable to a country or its people

Theres nothing in EURO that prevents bankruptcy from excess spending.   The real dynamic is these are small countries so the stain they would leave behind on the remaining members is worth avoiding for relatively little cost.   If France were to trip over in a similar fashion and it does have problems, then Europe cannot save them.    Consider that Greece is unable to support others, it has not recovered and the debt it has will be there for decades.    Other nations are similarly weak. 
 If you told me the solution given was an immunity type cure, Greece could be scaled up and so France or similar large failure would supported by previous success then I could see it but nothing was resolved

Alot of people would like to reduce the amount of dollars they keep so paying a premium might even be feasible.      You could say the same of people who buy gold, why would you do that when the price dropped since 2011 now but they see it as a hedging positive to have in security, not reliant on just dollars to hold value (might even appreciate in value as might btc but unlikely for dollars).
   Maybe if I can pay in BTC then my wallet has no dollars in it and I can feel more secure in some ways certainly from physical loss



If its a percentage discount then yes people will do it.    This offer is done with credit cards and store cards, apply today and we'll give 10% discount or whatever.  I'd do it for bitcoin even I'd not heard of them.   Really do need to make applications or setup easy for people to do, btc is still a bit esoteric I think possibly

Yea that is just how it is.  You cant expect people to think, people dont go for a burger to do maths.    I know its so silly people would rank 3 below the 4 but thats the general standard of education now, I would guess most people know the right answer but not when they are not even thinking.

The whole 99,999.99 sales tags are also stupid but they work!     Could get a long list of stupid advertising tricks that should not work but they make alot of money combined for those that know how to use them.      Anything BTC does has to be paint by numbers simple in its implementation and just maybe it'll take off properly one day.   The whole hash code thing we got now should be relegated to the background mechanics, just like most people likely do not know their own registration plate on a car

Growth can occur during inflation of the monetary base and growth can even occur during deflation.
  Politics doesnt want you to realise that but its another confusion put there, similar to triumphantly saying 'we reduced the deficit'  well thats still crap because a deficit means you are increasing the debt still.
  A reduced deficit is alot of trouble because one day we have to run massive surplus and for many years now it has not happened, we just increase debt and hope to heck inflation will wipe out the value

The reason for poor growth is a reduced currency value realised in exchange for good business but government always has enough money to spend too much.  Most business is forced to cut back varied by its sucess


If they each diverge 2% then the value of gold has not changed

The cat is made of pure rubber, who knows where it'll end up :p  volatility is high

That is not unfeasible.   The use of silver in the early eighties as a proxy for failing dollar, caused a very large spike in that market.    There is some history on that and of course in that case a billionaire backed the idea plus silver was the original backing for the dollar. 
  Bitcoin would be a much bigger leap to make but sure its possible if bitcoin can make itself credible as an alternative, it would probably help alot to sell it in actual coin form as has been done a few times

He could have used a cold wallet and hidden that somewhere.  I think he got careless and arrogant maybe.     Both items can be stored elsewhere.

The 70bn world market for gold is really tiny, I think bullion exchange must amount to more then that.   70bn is the revenue of a large global corporation.    


Gold has not failed to store value.   Its risen in the last five years, it is a long term asset and maybe thats inconvenient for most people.   I can easily see bitcoin as best for small transactions but for life savings I'd still rate gold.     To try and argue against more then 3000 years of successful use and storage of value is futile almost comedic
Of the last 15 years gold has fallen in value just one year which was the last year.
  We do have exceptional financial events occurring and I expect eventually more will rely on it again to avoid some of that large political influence we have in national currencies.   70bn is really small, Bonds are traded by the trillions every year and out rank even shares.  Any trend is probably best represented in the largest market.
When gold is 700 or 7000bn traded per year I think the price would reflect better peoples use for it