They're going to be even more of a joke than the vast majority are now. The legit ones will close down. That's if there are any.

As long as the mining's there, China will still be the large swinging dick. The Japanese are probably a bit too conformist to get into Bitcoin in a big way but it doesn't take a lot of them.

Roger Ver said the average reaction to an explanation around the world when he went into the lack of state control was intrigue, in Japan it was fear.

So Europe has five or so months left? I'd better get interrailing then.

Colonising Venus is a little bit of a stretch. Your average armoured probe lasts around twenty minutes before being squashed flat.

I can't see Paypal ever taking it on officially. Bitcoin's too anonymous and not reversible so there's no way they can offer their users protection (rape). They'd have to become a full on escrow service and that's a lot of work for anyone.

The Coinbase arrangement is about as good as it'll get but I'm willing to be surprised.

I believe we've seen most of the price action re the halving now. we'll see the real action once the market has digested its effects which may be many months.

If there's an alt you believe in then go for it. If you bet right bitcoins potential upside is pathetic in comparison.

We're fat pussies compared to them but in a few more generations we'll have more flexible thumbs and develop biological selfie abilities.

You could google - site:bitcointalk.org yourcoin and see if there's a thread on here for it. If it's alive then you'll know from that.

I don't know if coinmarketcap covers absolutely everything but it probably does.

Quite a few coins seem to attract a new developer and come back from the dead. Others may indeed be long gone.

What do you need a consultant for?

See if they're alive here - https://coinmarketcap.com/

Click on the live ones and they'll tell you what exchanges they're active on.

Sign up and sell. Or not.

It's a few minutes' work.

Yes, but only for small amounts. And I'd never deposit or withdraw fiat. It's just too convoluted and insanely expensive there. Never had account related problems but you do hear of a few. I think the main problem is that support is very sluggish and it prefers Russian too.

I would tell the bank where the money was coming from? If it's my property then it's my right to sell it and pocket the cash, not that I would. No laws are being broken.

Yup. Last time I was in Vegas everyone was talking in blank verse.

I always find it fun explaining to foreigners that your average Brit can barely understand one fucking word of Shakespeare. They get spoilt with translations that, y'know, translate it. I'd like some too.

I've no intention of ever selling and whatever happens after the halvening is noise in the greater scheme of things.

I'm going to take a proper stock of things in 2020 and then decide what's what. If it's not flying by then then I think it'll be time to shop elsewhere.

American English is closer to 'real' English than the version we speak in the UK. We speak debased techno junk. Theirs is closer to how we spoke it when they all cleared off on the Mayflower.

Next time you slap a valley girl so hard her brace flies off for talking appallingness you'll know to hang your head in shame.

You could say the same for every single asset and currency on the entire planet. There is no currency for the people. It always end up in a small number of hands without fail. I don't think it's a good thing but it's consistent with everything else. Bitcoin can't beat human nature.

I think we've had most of the excitement we're going to get already. Now let's start touching ourselves at the prospect of 2020. That's going to be the halvening from hell.

Let's be honest with ourselves and permanently set the exchange rate at 666. Then we can get on with the rest of our lives.

$50 to 20c in good old Mazacoin. And in an impressively short space of time too.

I deeply respect Mr Banks's consistency. I have never received a reply from him that wasn't dripping with contempt and condescension. What a guy.

It stands for Initial Coin Offering. The developers ask for a pile of money upfront to 'fund' their setup. Sometimes they run off before the coin even gets going. Other times they know the coin's going to sell for a certain amount at its release and dump their own holdings before it collapses as everyone else dumps. It might also attract a small number of very large investors so it'll centralise the distribution.

Maybe the poster is thinking primarily of the NXT ICO which was cut short before a lot of people had the chance to get in. It was also one of the very first so there was a lot of scepticism. The end result was that all the coins were distributed to a tiny number of people, less than seventy some think.

NEM's equivalent was much lengthier and there was more scrutiny so it was spread further and wider. There might be more major holders now than when it was launched as it's been around a while now.

Yup. Volume is insane. It did hit over 1000 BTC on there a few times before but fell back very rapidly. That could happen again.

Asia in general is where most of the developments are happening. Private versions of NEM are being experimented with and a couple of deals have been signed to use them.

They're NEM based, but not on the NEM chain itself so it's a vote of confidence in the tech but not much else yet. Perhaps there'll be applications that cross over.

And I second the above. Those buying in after a ginormous pump are likely to end up feeling sad for a while at the very least. Only you can decide.