You get high risk investments like Bitcoin and then you get low risk investments like gold. I think a lot of these guys have bought some bitcoins to toy around with, but will never admit to it, because Bitcoin has a bit of a reputation. They might say that they invested in Crypto currencies, but not in Bitcoin.

You can imagine if you bought Bitcoin 2 years ago for $1 000 000 and you sold it now. ^smile^ They might add some to their basket, just for the fun of it. ^smile^

The Blocks are not to large, it is too small. The capacity of these blocks are running at 80% of it's full capacity at this moment and at 100% when there is a spam attack. < percentages are on average > So we only have problems, when the network is spammed with fake transactions.

These attacks can still happen with larger blocks, but it will just be more expensive for these idiots. ^grrrrrrr^

The question is : Are we paying more, because Bitcoin reached capacity or are we paying more because someone is spamming the network to fake congestion for their hidden agenda? We are still cheaper than most banks and remittance services, but not cheaper than say PayPal.

The fact of the matter is, we are decentralized and our security is much stronger than any of these other alternative out there. ^smile^

Ok, So we know most miners are against the implementation of SegWit, so they are just continuing as normal. We also know that some entity is spamming the network to force nodes to make a decision. < SegWit or BU >

The result of this spam attack, is higher fees for the users and not more nodes changing their stance on the issue.

The outcome of this situation results in miners making more profits from the fees being inflated from these spam attacks.

The irony : Spam was supposed to fast track a decision for SegWit or BU, but resulted in a situation where the miners are laughing all the way to the bank, because of the higher fees.

The only people suffering from this, is the users and not the nodes that needs to make the decision. < Most users do not run a node, but rather use online wallet services >

The other side of the coin might be that a bunch of miners are exploiting the gridlock in their favor, because they can fund this spam attack in a situation where the blocks are too small to handle all the transactions.

The other irony is, this gridlock was supposed to address scaling, but by the time that the decision was made, many people would have turned against Bitcoin, because of their experience during these spam attacks and the scaling will not be needed, because a prior negative experience would have chased away the target market.

We are digging our own grave, fueled by greed. ^hmmmmmmm^ 

Agreed, but the $0.2 cents miner fees is not their primary expense, they still need to add the cost of the electricity to hash the blocks. So if the cost of everything else is calculated with the cost of their own <fake> miners fees, then this might not justify the expense.

These miners also have other expenses to operate. < Cooling / employee salaries etc. >

I think the people behind these spam attacks, might just be someone that needs SegWit / LN and this is not the miners.

Yes, we had a site running behind Cloudflare and we got hacked 3 times in 2 years. You get a false sense of security, when you use them and you think you are bullet proof. I am glad this forum decided not to use them, because it will keep the admins on their toes.

Most "hacks" are done through social engineering and fooling the employees working for Cloudflare.

I am always inspired by the story of the founder of KFC. Mr. Sanders was 65 and reliant on a $105-a-month Social Security check when he incorporated Kentucky Fried Chicken and began driving his 1946 Ford around the country signing up new franchisees. {Most people his age goes on pension at that age}

If you are down and out, you fight the hardest to come back again, no matter what the outcome was of any of your previous failures. Learn from your mistakes and improve on your methods.

It is never too late to start over. { The price is $1200+ now and in 5 years the price might be $4000 or more, what will you say then, if you did not invest now? }

I read somewhere that the Mempool are flooded and almost $30 000 worth of fees has accumulated for the miners to clean up. As long as Blockstream is deliberately dragging their feet, we <users> will suffer the most. The miners are getting the reward for not doing anything. < Not choosing BU or SegWit >

This has created a gridlock that benefits the miners the most.

I hope this is not a psychological barrier for investors, but rather a break out point where we will see record high prices for the coming months. Once people see that we can go past the gold price, they will start talking about this technology that are more valuable than gold.

Let's hope the SEC see the same value in this and approve the damn ETF, so that we can fly!

The irony is, miners are getting used to milking the users of this network now. They might not be the people behind these spam attacks, but they are definitely the only people smiling about this. Once people get a taste for extra money for whatever reason, they will want to retain that extra money at all cost. < So you might get miners that starts funding this in future, to bump transaction fees >

It is a cycle that needs to stop, and I agree with you on that.

Tell that to a customer that for example just bought a 64" LED TV and he cannot take possession of the TV until the transaction has been confirmed on the Blockchain. Some of these transactions are currently delayed with almost 24 hours to 48 hours.

We will not penetrate mainstream adoption with competitors blowing in our neck with near instant transactions. If I walk into a shop, and I pull out my credit card or debit card, I get near instant transaction verification and relative cheap transaction fees. < Some banks even give X amount of free transactions >

Your mindset will not lead to mainstream adoption in a world where people want instant gratification. ^hmmmmmm^

The Blockstream guys are pushing for technologies where transaction fees on nodes might end up like this,
http://fox40.com/2017/02/22/big-banks-rack-up-6-4-billion-in-atm-and-overdraft-fees/

The combined fees of these banks works out to $25 in fees annually for every adult American.   This is definitely not the solution for third world countries, if we go that way.

The latest spam attacks are causing fee spikes and massive delays in transaction confirmations for people paying the recommended minimum fees. < I guess if everyone is paying the higher recommended fees, then nobody will jump the queue, because there are just that much space in every block >

So while Blockstream is waiting for consensus for SegWit and miners are profiting from these higher fees, the customer has to be satisfied with poor performance and high fees. ^hmmmmmm^

How many new adopters were faced with these challenges and decided to dump this technology, due to this situation?

Yes, the banks are raping us with high fees, but is Bitcoin doing anything better at the moment?

What will a hacker do with your Bitcoin address? I have tons of Bitcoin addresses and none of them are linked to my Bitcoin hoard. The majority < more than 80% of my coins > are stored in cold storage. < Paper wallets etc. >

You should never have all your bitcoins in 1 address. I did the same with my bank accounts with my fiat savings. I have a account at 1 bank, where all my money is deposited and then I have bank accounts at several other banks for saving and other purposes.

If 1 account is hacked at the bank, I will not be without money. If they put limits on withdrawals, like they did in Greece then I will have money in different banks and I can withdraw what I need. ^smile^

Bitcoin address = bank account
Private key = password

You can give your bank account to anyone, and they can do nothing without the password. ^smile^

I cannot see why they would ban you for this :


I also cannot see why Wetsuit is talking about posts in the Meta section, so I suppose that was deleted after you posted this. I can tell you one thing, Wetsuit allow for open discussion and criticism in his threads, and I am living proof of that.

I have been discussing the fairness of the Lottery system for a while now, and he has not influenced this discussion in any way.

You might have transgressed the forum rules in another post and now you want to put the blame on Wetsuit for this. I make screen captures of my daily posts to prevent situations like this in future. It takes 5 minutes ^smile^

This thread is open for constructive criticism and discussion of this service.   

Jacques it is good to see some people in the US has seen the opportunity that Bitcoin offers them to make some decent money, whilst the Chinese are busy regulating Bitcoin in China. Most of those miners will soon feel the heat from their government and when that happens, some of them will exit the scene.

This will open up opportunities for other miners in other countries. Now the US must just start R&D into ASIC manufacturing to compete on this front too. ^smile^

Keep us updated on the progress please and invite some credible members to your site to validate your story. ^smile^

1. There are CCTV everywhere at ATM'S or banks, so that would be your first mistake.
2. The person who you are selling to might be a undercover cop.
3. Signing up for any credit card or debit card will leave a paper trail.
4. You will once again be identified from CCTV footage.

Your best bet would be to meet people at Bitcoin meetups and establish a "trade" relationship with a trusted member, and then to trade in and out of fiat that way. < Just hope that this person is not a government agent too >

Yes it will, but it would also strip Bitcoin from all the pseudo-anonymity it might have offered it's users. If you read between the lines, you will see what their aim is. They want to control the people that are using Bitcoin and monitor every aspect of their finances.

I would much rather use cash, than having to explain to some Chinese government agent, why I bought scented panties or a Dildo for my spouse or girlfriend. ^hmmmmmm^

I would surely want to see some evidence that this is a true statement, because this sounds a bit fishy to me. Yes, there are currently spam attacks and miners fees are higher than usual, but 48 hours sounds like a huge exaggeration to me. I have send tx's with much less fees, and it was confirmed.

Take a screen capture of the tx's and blank out the Bitcoin address, so that we can confirm this please.

If they mine only their own tx's to cancel out the cost, they would eventually run out of money. Mining is expensive and they have to make a income to make their mining operation sustainable. An attack like this will only decrease their profits and give other miners the opportunity to surpass them.

A lot of the profits are spend on expanding the operation to accommodate for difficulty increases, so they will lose a lot of money, if they spend it on worthless attacks like this. ^hmmmmmmm^

What do they not get? They offer these to introduce players to other types of slot games to get people to play all their games on offer and not just the 1 or 2 they usually play. I know I play my favorites and seldom move over to any other new games, but when they give bonuses like these, I give them a try with their money. ^hmmmmmm^

I know they do this to market new slot games too, or to get people to play games with a lower payout.