Remind me not to piss of Patrick Byrne. He is surely stepping on some big toes, in doing this. Will the middleman take this laying down? It has definitely have some perks for everyone now, and not just for the Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley's of the world.

I guess Wall Street will just counter this, as the banks did with Bitcoin. Steal the concept and apply it themselves. Why do they need to work through Patrick Byrne to do this, if they can use the Blockchain to do it themselves.
It's going to be interesting to see how this play out. ^hmf^

I would offer this as a paid service on a website. Instead of taking donations, just ask a few Satoshi's for it's use.
Once people get familiar with the service, and experts have checked the code for security issues, this might become a profitable venture for you. 

I will not go through all the trouble to pull the code and execute it through a website... but I will visit a website and use the service, when I need it. I love my account too much to sell it anyways, but I guess there are a need for it
out there.

More people will do this, if they know how valuable accounts can become.

If you do the math and you scale it to BTC you would see very little of these Alt coins stand a chance to make it, without being a scam. <Pump n dump> How much daily trade must there be for a coin with a total supply of say 400 000 000 coins? for it to reach the level where BTC is right now?

This is why so many of them fail... They simply have no future and have to resort to pump n dump schemes to make a profit. If I know a coin will release 400 000 000 coins and rarity will not be a issue, I will not invest in it.  

You have a choice to invest in any commodity, and if you invest in it, because it's available on a exchange, you will
burn your fingers. Do the research and do the math. 

It seems as though this was only a security check and a spoof on block explorers, and not a double spend on Satoshi's address. It's becoming a concern that Blockchain.info has had so much security flaws. Just another reason not to store huge amounts with these services.

The Blockchain CEO Peter Smith characterized the event as a "publicity stunt", but it was a security bug and they admitted to it. Yes it was not confirmed, but what other security flaws are there, which will compromise our coins? It just shows you how much attention those coins are getting.

Strange how fast things have changed within a few months. At first the banking sector was totally against Bitcoin and now it's making up cute new definitions for it's stolen innovative ideas like "distributed ledger technology", "limited supply digital entitlement", "digital scarce asset" and "mathematical commodity" and "Private ledger".

The most disturbing part is this, "The ECSDA, which represents 41 central securities depositories in Europe, said that it supports a regulatory regime for digital currencies, adding that such a framework "needs to be developed to avoid ... disturbances to financial stability"

They want governments to regulate crypto currencies to give them the advantage with their new technologies, which will adhere to regulations, so that they could not be disrupted by the <non-regulated> technologies.   

Do you really think his intention was to hide or was his intention just to stay private, because this technology was so disruptive? He was active until talks with the agencies was established, and then he disappeared. The shelf life of Bitcoin will be gone, when the first regulated <BankCoins> comes into circulation. Take my word for it, it's just a question of time, who will win the race. Ripple has a clear start.   

I do not see it that way. The big advantage Bitcoin has over it's competitors / Alt coins is the huge merchant network it has built up over the last 6 or so years. Without this network accepting Bitcoin as a payment method, Bitcoin would have been useless as a currency.

We do not give enough attention to this network, and if it stops supporting Bitcoin, we would see a massive drop in it's value. There is no use in storing coins, if there is no place to spend it.

This should not have been funded or done by philanthropists. The misinformed media that sparked this craziness should foot the bill. It's a damn shame, how someone is just randomly harassed, because he had the same surname as the creator of Bitcoin.

We have no clue who Satoshi Nakamoto is, and we must be careful to point to someone random and totally disrupt their life. I am glad they did this, but the real culprits was the media, and they should have made the gesture. One day, we will know the truth and until then, we should stay calm.  

I hope you not a student in your parents house, because someone will have to pay for that extra usage. Sticking your parents with that bill and taking the profits will just be wrong. The same goes for the people who mine from their workplace, without their employer knowing it.

The free electricity definitely gives you the edge over other miners out there, so you should reach ROI so much quicker than where you had to pay for the electricity. Would you care to explain to us, how you get FREE electricity? I would move their tomorrow, because my electricity bill takes a huge chuck out of my earnings.

This will kill Bitcoin as a currency. Everyone hodl and nobody using Bitcoin. The store of value must be the secondary consideration for Bitcoin, because the value of the currency is also linked to it's use as a payment method. In that scenario it would act like gold.

I would think, people will have a <selling limit> at which they would start selling again. The speculators will constantly buy and sell at the low and high ends. The advantage Bitcoin has, is it's ability to have both these characteristics in one technology. 

This is what I think... When Satoshi wrote that six years ago, he never thought that he would need to hide, and basically abandon his creation. Now his Blockchain technology is going to be used against Bitcoin.

These bankers saw it as a threat, then they saw a loophole <Nobody can claim it's intellectual property rights> and now they are going to change it a little bit and use it to crush Bitcoin with the help from the governments. As soon as their newly developed blockchain technology is released, they would work with the governments to regulate Bitcoin use, and to make their technology the de facto technology. <Because it adheres to the governments regulations>  

The current tax regulations actually put Australia at a disadvantage to the rest of the world. If they change these regulations now, a lot of businesses will return, and it would boost their economy. When anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations are applied to Bitcoin exchanges, it would stimulate a growth in that area of the world, like we have never seen before.

Ripple will definitely get a foot hold, when the banks accept it as the default currency and the technology to invest in the future. In it's very nature, it's everything that Bitcoin does not want to be. We need the freedom to have full control and some anonymity. The centralized nature of these regulated exchanges are a mayor risk factor <MtGox> and a source for government monitoring over financial matters of private citizens.

We already had all that with VISA & Mastercard & PayPal and we decided to use Bitcoin, because it offered us a different way to control our own money.  Why go back to the old ways, when we have a brand new technology?   

This is the true story behind this, " According to Bobby Lee, CEO of the world’s largest bitcoin exchange BTCChina, Chinese users who like to gamble enjoy the strong volatility in bitcoin prices. For many, buying low and selling high offers the opportunity to make quick profits. "

This is also why they love Bitcoin mining. Low input and high yield. Seeing that their electricity cost is so low and it gives them the advantage over the other mining operations. They will manipulate the price and cause high volatility and it will scare away merchants and companies, who wants less volatility.

All for a quick profit. ^hmf^

It's a start, but it's a pity they are jumping on the Blockchain bandwagon and not onto the currency that started it all. Surely Bitcoin has proven itself as a crypto currency already, and a new technology has to go a long way to cover the steps Bitcoin has already walked.

I have started to focus my charity efforts on Bitcoin donations only, to stimulate it's growth and acceptance and because I feel, the money channeled through the banks going towards charities, should have zero fees. Bitcoin gives me the opportunity to do just that. If I give $100 to charity, why must $20 go to banks for fees?

If they create another Blockchain type technology for banks, I will still only use Bitcoin out of principle or I would not support any charities at all.   

You do not need a computer to do that.. if you have a smart phone, you have Bitcoin. If your community have access to one computer, all of them have access to Bitcoin. How do you think things like Mpesa thrive in Africa?
If you use paper wallets, you would not need any electronic devices for a long time.

A computer crash should not be the end of the world for Bitcoin users. If it is, you are not using cold storage and paper wallets.

If we are realistic, only a small percentage of people in the world understand or trust Bitcoin now, after what happened with MtGox and Silkroad.

Your best bet, is to ask exchanges adhering to the KYC/AML regulations to post their totals on the forum. Duplication and sock puppets are then eliminated and you would get some clear totals of Bitcoin users per country. I have seen some totals being quoted within articles, but I do not know how accurate and updated they are.

I have 5 Facebook accounts, and I will join with 3 of them, just to inflate your totals a bit, how does that sound? 

Exactly, most celebs only look at something to see what they can get out of it. The people I mentioned, have another goal in life. They want to give back to the people in need. Bill Gates is doing this with his Bill Gates foundation, and he has already seen the impact, it can have on the poorest nations on earth. <Remittance>

Same goes for Sir Richard Branson, he is used to taking on the giants in the corporate world. His reputation as
a Pit Bull in this field, is what we need to take on the giants <eBay / WU / MoneyGram / Banks>

Elon Musk have the experience of developing ground breaking payment methods and his developments in cheap electricity and alternative energy, makes him ideal, for Bitcoin Mining solutions.

We do not need people like Kim Kardashian with her sex tape background and reckless spending habits to represent us, we already had enough of that. ^hmf^

I would prefer someone with a sound financial background and/or successful business career.

a. Elon Musk <History of knowledge of payment systems>
b. Bill Gates <Most successful entrepreneur and a vision to improve the world>
c. Sir Richard Branson <Risk taker and alternative thinker>

We need people with vision, and a true interest in making a difference where it counts the most.  

The site should have a referral option showing how many referrals you have, but I do not know of any service, where you can trace, who is profiting from you using their referral link. I join a gambling site affiliate system, and it shows me the username of the person who signed up with my referral.

It's also a pity that they do not make provision for a chat utility where you can communicate with your referrals. I would like to have weekly bonuses or cash back competitions for my best referrals, but I do not have a way to communicate with them.

Bitcoin is not like Ripple. We do not link social media accounts to our use of crypto currencies. It makes the targeting for hackers easier, if they can link you to Bitcoin and stalk you, to get to your coins. You might not care if it attract criminals, but most of us do.

Would everyone who are asked to join a group that own $100 000 in fiat, do that on social media? No, You would become a victim of a kidnapping or some other criminal action. Anonymity is there for a reason, it protects your financial privacy.