So now, let's not review every definition of a ponzi, instead let's cherry pick details to offer a valid comparison? That's the common theme of every failed thesis paper... Even if you use the main characteristic you just pointed, out, as I said, then every trade of every asset can "look like" a ponzi. That's a poor way to start an argument. Definition is usually the starting point. Clarify it, then go from there.


Bubble symptoms I agree with, in fact, even the most ardent advocate will feel Bitcoin is in a kind of bubble (that doesn't necessarily mean it crashes to zero with every burst) but not ponzi. A ponzi is not a bubble... You might have confused yourself trying to describe a bubble, somehow thinking it looks like a ponzi.

A Ponzi pays out profits to early investors by using the money of new investors. New investors, are promised the same profits, but the system eventually cannot pay it out when outflow overcomes inflow. A ponzi is managed by a central system that determines who gets paid, that processes profits.

There are no promises in trading Bitcoin, except for the ones that investors imagine for themselves. There are no benefits for recruting newcomers, you don't earn referral fees for new people buying Bitcoin. There is no central scheme in Bitcoin, traders decide between themselves what price the buyer is willing to pay to the seller. For as long as someone is willing to pay the seller's price, a trade happens. There is no exchange of new or old money, there is exchange of existing value.

If Bitcoin looks like a ponzi scheme, then in general, the trading of every stock, commodity and asset can be seen as a ponzi.

Oh, I'm definitely both, but not really for any specific reason. I generally have about 24 to 48 hours I give myself to complete trades (I trade on Localbitcoins especially), so always start by opening an advertisement setting a small fee to cover 1% maker's fee. So that makes me a maker first. As the window closes, I tend to want to close up shop quickly and sell the remainder to a trusted trader. That makes me a taker at the end of my window.

Makers get a lot of credit for applying value (price?), and I suppose in this current condition of high demand, they're appreciated. But I actually make a small percentage more as a maker, even after fees. So there's no real altruism motivating me there.

End of the day, none of this matters. A taker when convenience matters, a maker when not rushing for time.

Good analysis, TraderTimm, that's really not a clever way at all to cash in. It's really a lot like the gambler's fallacy, where small profits seem attractive due to the seemingly unlikely chance of massive losses. Even this article from Bloomberg quotes a business professor saying that futures "reduce the friction of going short". It just makes it easier, that's all.

To be honest, am not really sure why people seem to think Bitcoin futures are the best thing since butter. Yes, perhaps it will draw in more investors (in my mind, gamblers) who see Bitcoin as an incredible shorting opportunity, but people don't realise that there already is a huge and active shorting instrument. It's called the altcoin market. Ask anyone who's bought alt/btc pairs in the past months how well shorting Bitcoin's done for them

You're right... the bookies must know something we don't to back Shakhtar Donezk here. I know they've been lucky to snatch games three in a row at the death, but that kind of performance tends to boost morale and result in even better performances.
ML at Nitro for ManCity is 2.83 but my favourite BitcoinRush is still the best at 2.84.

Not sure about the Napoli game... we know they're focused on the league but they have no better chance than to beat Feyenoord and go through to last 16 if City beats Shakhtar, so they'll want to hammer home the goals... Bitcoinrush offers under 3.25 at 1.79.

It is absolutely possible and there was already precedent I believe in 2013/14 if I recall correctly. The Chinese govermentt through Bank of China outlawed Bitcoin as a means of payment. At the time, Bitcoin was above $1000 and used by Baidu for a massive amount of transactions. Immediately after the ban, Bitcoin nosedived more than 50%... languishing in the hundreds dollar values for years.

When I entered properly in 2016, the 1000 mark was a huge barrier to break, and break it Bitcoin did eventually in 2017... well the rest is history as we are living it.

Took so long to restore confidence after MtGox, Silk Road, the China ban, but just goes to show how vulnerable Bitcoin was and still is.

Hi there. Sorry took a while to respond. I *think* I finally understood your situation, and yeah it looks like Coinpot is headed the way of Xapo, needing to raise fees and limits, if not just fold like Faucetbox some while back. Like I said before, these microwallets are in their twilight, one of the unfortunate casualties of rising costs of transaction. Perhaps once everyone is on Segwit, things might improve, though I doubt it will do little more than prolong the life of these services.

Anyway, no, these txs won't be lost forever, not as long as Coinpot broadcasts them. But since you'll be switching over to LTC (good idea), I've submitted all these txs for acceleration but can't say if they'll be accepted since they are QUITE large (100k or thereabouts?). Let's wait and see now.

Mourinho's not like that. He makes jests at press conferences, that he himself alludes to being a message to his players. I think he's managed to turn Pogba into a more mature player, putting a damper on some of his rather wild instincts without dulling his footballing acumen. Mourinho will know very well that Pogba knows very well he made an awful mistake, so he still has a lot of bad decision making simmering beneath that cool cat.

But Jose's a wily, wily wolf. I think he'll get into Pep's head with a few comments (watch out for the news this week!) and then I just hope for the league's sake he doesn't go to claim a draw. Frustrate City, yes. But nick a few counters along the way or we'll know the EPL Champions on Boxing Day.

I think Pursuer's suggestion is the best, and works for me. I trade regularly/periodically on Localbitcoins just as my regular scheduled cashouts, though my trades are much larger, not usually less than EUR200 worth of Bitcoin per trade, and I can generally sell almost my entire sum if I wait long enough. Based on the interest I receive and offers made, I think you could do very well with small trades (depending on your location). You have to put up a flat 1% maker's fee, but I always add that 1% to my price anyway and it's still usually one of the best offers, and since you only pay per deposit, you can just deposit a large amount, and keep an open advertisement to sell (you can set it to auto adjust to market rates). The advertisement is hidden automatically when your coins run out, so you never risk overselling. I haven't found a better way to sell Bitcoin securely, while getting a respectable price.

Bisq has a very similar method, except I find it to be slightly slower, and you have to keep it open all the time (it's a separate app), whereas LBC is fire and forget.

@Here4Trades. Yeah, I jumped the gun by giving hilarious the crown of Bastard of the Week, when it is rightfully yours. Congratulations, you slimy hat.

@malrboroza, I made the same 2:1 prediction, thought Man City were stuttering and time to take advantage, and ALSO switched to 3-1 before kick off. Can't say I'm too pleased with myself, would have made a decent 140 points otherwise.

@tokeweed: I hope we're not adding extra pressure on our sidehorses to win. OR, maybe the get so pressured they drop points so we can leapfrog them

I've put in all next week's predictions early and for once will do nothing to change them. A United win and Liverpool 3-0 will make my day. See you guys til then!

It's actually a little strange that Regular fee setting would set it to such a low fee, but blockchain wallet's been known to have problems with its dynamic fee setting. I second the recommendation by onnz to use Electrum. This, along with an estimator like bitcoinfees21.earn.com, have helped me hugely in getting transactions confirmed in the time I want.

Anyway, to answer your other queries:
1. No time limit on transactions. Bitcoin transactions cannot be cancelled, and they cannot be refunded or reversed. Transactions simply remain in the network until they are picked up by miners or are dropped when there too long. But as long as you keep broadcasting it, it will be there indefinitely waiting to be confirmed.
2. The accelerators that do work and are free (with conditions) are confirmtx.com, viabtc and antpool. Google those for the links =)

You're at a point in life where you probably feel you have to set yourself up for financial freedom. That is good. But you have a bit to learn about risk and security. You must have savings, tucked away and secured and guaranteed in some form by insurance. Don't confuse that savings with your nest egg. Take some to invest, sure, but never go all in.

Secondly, you already have trading experience so you know never to put everything in one basket. You want to trade, fine, but use the same principles of diversification.

The simplest diversification to do now is to invest part of your savings into Bitcoin. That's the only advice I will ever dare to give.

Trading crypto is riskier than anything you've encountered!

Are you kidding? I've been worried ever since Bitcoin set off unfettered past the $4,500 mark! I'm still waking up most days wondering if it'll be the day I login to see Bitcoin back at that price. And when it did threaten to touch 9k, I thought that was really it. But here we are...


Exactly! All the bubble symptoms are there, yes, we're (I am) happy Bitcoin hasn't run out of steam, and it probably won't because every single day, someone is asking me now how to buy Bitcoin, or has told me they've already bought some, and some are preparing to go into it. I'm at a loss really at what to say, suddenly friends are poking me asking why I didn't tell them to jump in earlier. I fear for all of them, but when they're enjoying profits within days and weeks, hard to put a brake on that. Basically, there is a steady stream of new Bitcoin buyers and this is going to up the price for a very long period.

The correction... I can't predict it any longer.

It depends on how you see Bitcoin in the first place. Arguably, it already alienates an entire generation of people who aren't technologically inclined for this new way of perceiving currency (as a 2014 social experiment even with MIT students implied). But I've always seen a slight difference in Bitcoin users and Bitcoin investors. Investors may have driven up the price recently, but it is the users who are to be credited for long-term implications of recognition, acceptance, adoption... legitimisation.

Even the most novice of Bitcoin users (I see myself firmly in this category) had to learn everything from scratch. The time users invest into learning, researching and understanding Bitcoin - to only be able to scratch the surface should be enough to use its most basic functions, and then later to learn intermediate knowledge of accessing forked chains, wallets, exchanges...

Hopefully, our learning and onward sharing of that knowledge with others can encourage more people to actually use Bitcoin, not simply "invest" in it.

Not sure if people will learn, or will even realise there were lessons to be learnt. What happened with Bitcoin Gold is still not fully out in the open. Were there really malicious developers involved? Or were the team behind really as clueless as to what happened? Whichever the case, this simply proves several things: firstly, that not all cryptocurrency projects are as simple as creating tokens on blockchains, you can't just fork off and make a few tweaks and think you're all set.

What people have yet to concede is that the core devs of Bitcoin are just about the very best in the business. So yes, they can be ultra conservative when it comes to forks, but that's only because forking consequences are extremely difficult to predict, and should only be done after much testing and reviewing of code.

Yeah, actually I don't think there's any real Group of Death in this edition of the World Cup. Of course we're not writing off Morocco and Iran but every one and their mother's bookie will have this group clearly headed by Spain and Portugal.

My dream match-up would be for England to top their group and for Senegal to get second in their... setting up an England Senegal Last 16. I'm putting in an early bet on both Senegal and Iceland to win it. Yes, I know it'll never happen but if it does, I'll be one happy punter! I am Liverpool and Mane is a central player for us, so Senegal going all the way would turn our beast into an unstoppable demon.

My more realistic ambitions would be for dear Messi and co to lift the trophy, but a lot of stumbles are to be expected from the other giants before this can happen.

And this is the entire basis for holders, the special breed of extremely long-term Bitcoin advocates who don't just see Bitcoin as an investment but an ideology and a way of life. It has never mattered to them what price Bitcoin is. $100, $1000 a year ago, or $12,000 today. They will accumulate Bitcoin as much as possible, but will equally see great value in selling, using, spending, transacting as every use aids the cause, increases adoption, spreads knowledge of it and ultimately self-serves their interest.

If you believe in it, then it's never a question of when or at what price. If you don't, then this is just a fleeting game for you to make you dollars.

Indeed! To be honest, I can't really get over the fact than even 1,000 satoshi now - by most standards dust - is worth more than ten cents now. I also now view some site services I use with some disdain, with so-called low fees of 20k satoshi and up meaning I'm paying more than $2.50 for every withdrawal. With Localbitcoins I just paid more than $10 for three DEPOSITS even.

My advice: if your seller can send you the coins for next to nothing, while keeping the input low, then go for it. I actually accept plenty of "dust" txs with near-zero fees, and just wait out the week... when the network is below 10k transactions, that is. They have eventually confirmed for me.

If not, accumulate the funds and then request when you've got about $100. It's a seller account so you will expect to sell more right?

P.S. I'm also an accumulator, or an earner rather. And I do earn in small amounts too, so don't mind accumulating to save on txs/outputs.

I've thought about it before, the day when we start expressing things in terms of Bitcoin price, rather than in fiat price. I'd love for the day when BTC becomes the major pair, even, for example to look at a money changer's board and see everything listed against Bitcoin... USD/BTC, EUR/BTC, CHF/BTC... we probably will never live to see that day, even if it will come, but it'll be nice to know we were part of the very beginnings.

And agree: satoshis are good enough and will always be good enough for me. Today, 25 satoshi equals the smallest denomination in my local currency, so it's no longer implausible to think that even 1 satoshi will soon have economic value in some countries within a few years.

OK, that's what I thought. So the problem doesn't seem to be with Coinpot, rather with how you're spending them... As I said, the low-fee, unconfirmed transactions actually involve spends FROM that address, not TO the address. So it would appear you are the one responsible for the low fees, not coinpot, since the txs coming TO the address are fine, and confirmed with good fees.

They'll eventually go through (or rather, they'll always be in mempool waiting to be picked up by miners) as long as the txs continue to be broadcast, this depends on the wallet you're using. If you've already submitted all of them for acceleration, then all should be fine, eventually.