At this stage of the game it's still microscopic and it needs to be supported. There's no more than a few thousand people involved and anyone getting wiped out costs NEM an ally.

3 million coins doesn't make anyone a psychopathic bankster. It was a few grand. And it would've eventually been spread far and wide. Someone with that much skin in the game is going to work a little harder than some guy on Poloniex with 500 XEM on his balance.

That's said a great deal about Bitcoin as well but unless everything's circulating all of the time it's a bit of a reach.

Either way I'd prefer to be a little poorer so the unfortunate fella can have his private keys back.

And Mike Pence will commandeer some Navy SEALS to sneak him on there for some greasy night time action when the mood takes. We all know what people like this get up to when they think no one's looking.

There's a balance to be found. Bigger blocks, or rather any type of scaling, keeps fees reasonable and increases capacity. That in theory should attract more people and reward miners equally or better than the current situation.

I think the attempt to introduce a fee market now is insanely premature. People will just ignore Bitcoin or bypass it completely before it even gets going. Most first worlders have no use for it at present. Making it even more expensive to transact on top of the cost of obtaining it in the first place and the hassle of keeping it safe makes it a giant turn off.

The real potential lies in the less banked parts of the world. If they're priced out before they become aware of it then I think it's fated to remain a noble obscurity.

It doesn't have to be bigger blocks that cures this, but something needs to roll into action relatively soon.

That's over $6000 that you're trusting

a - to some website that really you know nothing about. A giant security hole could be found any moment.

b - your own security measures. Even if LBC is bulletproof, how sure can you be that you yourself won't be infiltrated from your end?

Effectively anything is better than your current setup. I use paper wallets myself. There are lots of hardware options too.

If you're posting only to get some cashola then yes, it's going to get boring very quickly and your posts will reflect that. If you'd be here anyway then it's all gravy.

However, check the meta section for reports on the account farmers and sig spammers. There are some people farming hundreds of accounts at once out there with not too far off industrial operations. It's hard to tell whether there's much middle ground between people like that and those who'd be posting anyway.

Hey, there already is one on here. If Kanye West gets a crypto shut down then most certainly Donald will as well.

As for his campaign pledges re China, like everything that comes out of mouths during campaigns, I'll believe it when I see it. Foreign trade these days is unfathomably interconnected and untangling it will be a monster of a task.

Yup. I'm getting all sorts of weirdo bitcoin carding related emails too. So be it. It's clearly from the hack back in the day.

It's a junk email address anyway but it's so offensive that I won't be able to open another of a similar ilk so I'll be rather sad if it has to be retired.

Long term I think it's conceivable. For that to happen Bitcoin would need to be far bigger than it is now and the rest of the world much more comfortable with blockchain type stuff.

NEM's applications are a huge potential market.

Perhaps the first area will be all the ICO rubbish. Developers seem to think they operate in a vacuum and they're likely to get a nasty surprise at some point.

Trading regulations? Dunno. It's so international and all the exchange would try would be to bar all Americans and carry on as before. And as far as I know there's little or no regulation regarding forex trading which Bitcoin may well fall under.

One of the fun things about reading the Guardian at the moment is the sheer fury of the bubblehead neoliberal arsehole writers who can't believe there's a real world out there that doesn't want to sent to hell in a handcart or patronised any more.

Almost every single comment below said articles is ripping the piss out of them.

And some with considerably more value don't even have a Windows wallet.

Has any Bitcoin ATM operator ever posted some stats? I'd be dead curious to know how much some of these things turn over.

It's great for visibility and availability but I really wonder how many of said gas station punters know what it is and take the time to actually use it.

It's future potential, innit. Anyone with some foresight realises that Bitcoin has the potential to become a vast deal if it survives. Far easier to take measures now to deter the masses than when they're all balls deep in it.

Indeed. It's not as if crypto reporting has much or any relationship with reality most of the time. Even if he himself is whiter than white, he seems to have gathered enough weirdoids to whip up pointless strife without his consent for no constructive ends.

Even if they have a point sometimes, it's only the nutters on here who believe that. Most people aren't going to park grandma's operation fund in Bitcoin.

The price tripled because of many factors. Governmental policies are likely to be minor factors at best.

It's the threat of a hack. That's rather easier to do than actually carry it out.

However nothing much about Bitfinex would surprise me any more. I think to stop using it the Bitfinex team would have to personally visit each of their users, strangle their hamsters and dig up their internet cabling. Even then I'm sure a few people would come crawling back for their fix.

Go to Northern Ireland. They look the same, smell the same, eat the same, talk the same and worship the same fictional entity in the sky. Does that stop them from slaughtering each other? Well, it's on hiatus for now. Humans seem to be hard wired to get tribal and if there aren't enough differences then they'll invent them.

Far better for Jesus to come back and tell everyone that it was all a bit of fun that got out of hand. Now go and become rational and sod off.

Yes they can. It won't stop the current users and believers but it'll suppress the interest of many possible future users and almost everyone in China is still a future user.

People often seem to make the comparison with dollars in wobbly economies but that's as close to universal money as possible. Maybe in 20-30 years Bitcoin may have a status not too far off that but much depends on other jurisdictions too.

I think the way Core has gone about things in the past has left a nasty smell occasionally, however I don't think it's been as consistently pathetic and vituperative as their opposition. If they wanted the moral high ground they could've chosen a better way to go around it by actually seeking it out.

Much of the 'consumer demand' is probably big blockers nailing the network to make a point. And shit like this is contemptible http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/11/06/roger-ver-considers-offering-double-block-rewards-bitcoin-miners/

I'd favour larger blocks as a nice can kick but perhaps that ship has sailed. If only Satoshi had rolled it back to 2-5mb this would still be a non issue and perhaps in reality it is still a non issue that's easily bloated and hijacked by people with an agenda.