The positive thing about Bitcoin is the fact that it gives people a alternative technology to choose from. Previously most people only used centralized services and they did not know how bad centralized control is, but since the introduction of Bitcoin, people can now see that things can be done differently and much better than before.

We will have to see, if this will be embraced and tolerated by the governments. ^hmmmmmm^

Does it have a sealed hologram at the back? If it does and the seal is broken, then those coins are worthless. If it does not have anything at the back, then it is probably just a blank token or a souvenir like the previous poster said. The private key, must be intact for it to be valuable and even then, you still need to transfer those coins to another address to make sure that the owner or manufacturer of the token did not have access to that private key. ^hmmmmm^

If it is made of gold, then it is obviously valuable. ^smile^

Where did you get it?

Your shit is safe with a hardware wallet, but I still feel uncomfortable about third parties being involved with my coins. I prefer to transfer all my bitcoins to paper wallets for long term storage and not into some hardware device that might fail when you need it the most.

I own a Trezor and it gives you more flexibility than these paper wallets, so it is not a bad choice. It is much better than the online wallets, where you have no control over your own private keys. ^hmmmmmm^

It is still cheaper than M-Pesa that are used more frequently down there and also cheaper and more accessible than banks. The problem comes in when you make small purchases on a regular basis and these micro payments will quickly turn into a fee nightmare for them.

Most of their purchases is micro payments, so this is already not viable for them to use Bitcoin at $0.50 cents a pop for single micro transactions.

The remittance market on the other hand, is definitely a better option for them, because Bitcoin is much cheaper for that. 

In an environment when a new technology are introduced, some definitions and regulations will take some time to be properly defined and regulated. The problem with Bitcoin is, it has several "utilities" for which it can be applied and this makes it more complex.

You will have one country defining it as a commodity and another as a asset and some even a currency. So as time goes by, the regulation will catch up and the definitions will be clearly defined. ^smile^

Remember, we do not have a bank or some financial institution to validate that you have the money that you want to spend. So the Bitcoin nodes does that for you. These nodes compare the data and when that data correspond to what they have, they confirm the transaction and it goes onto the Blockchain.

The Blockchain is public for all to see. ^smile^

Bitcoin in the early days spread via Word of mouth and some obscure cypher forums and chat newsgroups. Wences and those guys were very exited by this technology and they spoke to many people and these people spoke to other people and some of these discussions ended up in news papers and online articles.

They did not have to pay for advertisers that early, because it was still relatively small. ^smile^

Wow, that was harsh.  

I have not committed any crime and I have been using Bitcoin mixers for several years now. I doubt that Bitcoin's pseudo anonymity is enough to protect you from good hackers and people who wants to steal your money. So you add a extra level of anonymity to protect yourself from these types of people.

A criminal will be stupid to think that they might use Bitcoin mixers to hide their criminal actions, because law enforcement agencies can subpoena these companies for this information and if they cannot provide the information, they can be prosecuted in future.

You have the right to protect your financial information from people, who wants to steal it. The banks does that for you, or so they say. If you use cash, you have even more anonymity than people who use Mixer services and that is why cash is still more popular than Bitcoin for criminals and money launderers to use.

You definitely set the bar high, by excluding all casino sites. I must say, I share your opinion on this matter and Bustabit was the most "abnormal" and interesting site I have seen so far, but it gets boring after a while. Why can they not make sites like Bustabit, but not the same concept for a fun experience. < something unique >

A site must keep your interest and push the boundaries for a real adrenaline rush. I liked the site that was based on the old "Battleship" board game, where you tried to sink other people's boats, but I cannot find it anymore. < PVP game > 

You can have Alt coins with built in mixers, but you will get strong opposition from governments for that. Satoshi implemented pseudo-anonymity to protect your financial privacy from the average Joe, and possibly knew that 100% anonymity would not fly with most governments.

So Bitcoin gives you almost the same anonymity as you get with cash transactions. If you need more anonymity, you use Bitcoin mixers and you pay a little fee for that. ^smile^

Just imagine using such a service now, with all this scaling problems. By the time you get your first confirmation for paying for the gas at the gas station, you would have been able to walk home. < Some confirmations takes hours > This will only work, if you use a token based off-chain solution, where you fund an account for tokens way in advance and then deduct tokens from that account with instant transactions.

This will not work now, but possibly in the future when scaling has been solved.

Now, I am not a big Roger Ver fan but I think we should stop this smack talk from both sides, because it is not constructive to finding a solution in the long run. We clearly have two groups forming now and this is not healthy, because in the end only one side can win this argument and this will be decided by the miners.

Roger believed in Bitcoin, when Bitcoin was still relatively small and he pushed capital through the network to keep it alive, when other people abandoned the idea. Let's give credit, where credit is due and acknowledge his contribution. Yes, he has his reasons for doing what he is doing and we should respect everyone's stance or opinion on a subject and debate that in a civilized manner.

No, I do not think people is negative. They only highlight the fact that seen in the bigger scheme of things, Bitcoin is still relatively small. Doing a comparison with other systems would be fair, if we had the statistics of these systems at the same stage where Bitcoin is now. < Did they process the same amount or less than Bitcoin at the time >

I spoke to a banker a while ago, and we talked about Bitcoin and he was saying that Bitcoin was still too small to make a global impact and to play with the big boys. < In a way he was right, but we are catching up to them >

Because this does not fit Blockstreams agenda to implement the Lightning Network. Their investors wanted them to come up with a long term solution for scaling Bitcoin and not just a temporary patch. A lot of salaries were paid to develop this solution and a lot of pride is involved too.

So in the end, it boils down to money again and not what the people wants.

The miners wants miners fees in the future and they do not think running payment channels off-chain will sustain their business in the future. < money again >

No Buddy, the onus is on you to "police" fraudulent Ads and to keep your site "safe"

The same thing happened to Freebitco.in {oldest faucet on the Net} where people paid for Ad's which pointed to  scams and fraudulent sites. Wetsuit {owner of the site} decided that it was too much work to "police" this and he stopped all personal ads on his site.

You will build up a reputation that your site hosts scam sites and then your project will fail. You just need to make the executive decision not to host these sites. < most of them are easy to spot and common sense will help you to identify them >

Here is a site that will also help you to spot some of them ==>> http://www.badbitcoin.org/thebadlist/

Do not be greedy by allowing any sites, just to reach your advertising goals, it will cost you in the end. ^frown^

Ok, what most probably happened was that the person in the chat box, gave you another Block explorer to track your transactions on the Blockchain. Danny already explained to you that the site Blockchain.info is not the actual Blockchain, so I hope you got that.

The site Blockchain.info has a block explorer function added as a feature to help users track their transactions on the Blockchain and this person just gave you another site, with which you can track your transactions.

The Blockchain.info site has had some problems lately, and people noticed that other block explorer sites, shows their transactions, but Blockchain.info does not. < There seems to be a long delay, but it eventually shows the info > So people switched to other sites that updates immediately. 

Hope that explains it. ^smile^

The Private key is the same as the password for your bank account. You can do whatever you want to do with the Private key, if you have access to it. This is why it is so important to safeguard that private key and why it is almost impossible to accidentally have someone generate the same Private key.

Do you want to share the private key with someone? or do you want to use {Multisig}  

Peter Schiff is scared. He wants to protect his investment in gold, by spreading FUD about Bitcoin. The more FUD being spread about Bitcoin, will in his mind cause a bigger investment in gold and a higher profit for him. Bitcoin has been the best performing commodity/currency in 2016 and this is a threat to Gold bugs.

Bitcoin has been used as a Safe haven in countries where there have been "currency" issues and it has proven that it was more effective than gold.

We are a cult? Since when is Bitcoin a religion?

The government has a obligation to protect consumers from fraudulent operations and any information that would help to inform gullible people, will help. Most people's judgement is clouded by greed and then they make bad decisions. Just look at the success of MMM for instance and with a simple "Google" search, losses could have been avoided.

There is a difference between being gullible and being greedy. ^hmmmmmm^

Bitcoin will push forward against all odds and become the "default" option for all online payments and eCommerce. The scaling problems will be a thing of the past. Bitcoin transactions will once again be the fastest and cheapest option out there and micro payments will be the norm. ^wink^