Bitcoin is volatile and, yes, unstable. This is because the price depends on the supply and demand in the market. With that, any form of price crash or surge is very possible every single day, the only thing that is needed is a strong trigger. The very significant decline in the past is because of the Mt. Gox issue. So if ever a similar or worse event than that happens, we will definitely see Bitcoin to have a massive price reduction. Well, that is a good thing

The processing of transactions are done via mining. So a transaction will be successful after a new block has been mined. In Bitcoin's case, a block is mined for every 10 minutes so you have to wait a minimum of 10 minutes before you can say that the transaction was a success. However, because mining is done by miners who intends to gain more profit, they give priorities to transactions with a high transaction fees. So when you include only a small fee or no fee at all, it may take hours and days before the transaction succeeds. It may even end up returning to your wallet because of the very low fee. So you do not have to worry if your transaction failed, you'll get your funds back eventually.

The main factors that affects the price of Bitcoin is the supply and demand, that is because Bitcoin is decentralized. And since the price depends on the demand and supply, Bitcoin's price is very volatile. The issues happening, bad/good news about Bitcoin, FUDs and trolls, they are all factors that affects the demand and supply. So basically, they are just an external factor for Bitcoin's price.

Based from my observations, when you ask someone who has Bitcoin what Bitcoin is, they will tell you how to earn some. Yes, they do not know what it is but they know how to earn it. This is because they learned that the purpose of Bitcoin is to earn some hard cash and nothing else.

Redirecting people to google and let them have their own research will surely make them confuse since some technical stuffs will appear in the contents of some articles discussing about Bitcoin. So if someone asks me what Bitcoin is I say that Bitcoin is a digital cash, based from Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. It can let you manage your own asset without the help of an existing third party such as banks. It lets you to have transactions over the world quickly with no third party company or entity.

Post the image here even though you're a newbie. We'll just quote your post so that we can see the image.

If the Chinese government took over the mining facilities and companies in their country regardless of what scheme they've done to do so, they will not get the majority of Bitcoin. Even they literally own the 50%+1 of the hash power required, a Hard fork will be made immediately and will kill the chain which China holds. This is the most probable defensive act that will happen. So in the end, Bitcoin will still be decentralized.

If Bitcoin gets regulated by the government, I think the people will get interested in Bitcoin. This is because their government has paid much attention to the said coin and it will become hot on the people's eyes. However, I cannot think of a way where the government can do some regulations in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is decentralized and it will be difficult for the government to do such thing.

Nothing is surprising about this for me. Corrections happen occasionally so sooner or later, we can see Bitcoin recovering. And reaching the 4000 dollar mark again proves that. Though, we might see some slow uptrend and minimal downtrends, all the price changes are normal. I do not pay much attention to any form of attacks and thank God for that.

Bitcoin has always been treating hardfork as a last resort. If there are any possible way to cope its issues, Bitcoin will never fork. So having speculations about Bitcoin will have many hardforks in 5 years, that is doubtful. Hardfork is bad for the health of Bitcoin so do not expect many hardforks in the future. On the other hand, the price will likely to increase. 5 years is a very long time so the price hike is to be expected. 300% may be too small for that, though.

I expected nothing less from Japan. After its proclamation about the acceptance of Bitcoin as a mode of payment within its jurisdiction, I know that Japan will continue to embrace Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency. Regardless of the issue in China, Japan can easily cover the issue. Japan just might be just like China, or even better.

The only basis for this ranking is the total marketcap of that specific coin. As to what I know regarding the marketcap, they are not necessary when it comes to cryptocurrencies. It is just a mere multiplication of the circulating number of coins and its current price. So this does not justify anything at all. Maybe the percentage of acceptance will be a good basis for this ranking and not the marketcap.

It happens a lot that when we wait too much for Bitcoin to go down, we end up loosing our opportunity. Some even sold their BTC at the wrong time. They end up selling at the bottom because they thought Bitcoin will go even lower. These mistakes are normal since the action were not based to anything but to their feelings.

As a matter of fact it is. Every transaction of Bitcoin is recorded on a public ledger of some sort where the public can see each one of them. So with this, it is highly justifiable that transactions conducted in Bitcoin are traceable. This is unless the user know how to cover his tracks. Early investors as you've mentioned had Bitcoins through mining, some obtained their coin from p2p transactions.

Personal information could not be easily be traced just by using your public key. However, if your public key is linked to your email then you personal info may be found.

It would take more than the issue on China to make Bitcoin fall. China is just a single country and is not that a very big for Bitcoin to be a serious threat. Yes the majority of Bitcoin miners are in China but we cannot neglect the fact that many more country can do what China can do. Other companies might build their own mines so that they can cover the issue on China. The price decrease is not a good basis to predict such end. It is illogical and very unjustifiable.

Bitcoin's price depends on the supply and demand in the market. The demand does not go down easily so we cannot deduct demand from it so instead, we increase the supply. We've known the law of supply and demand so we should use this concept to manipulate the price. Increasing the supply would definitely make the price to decrease. And the best way to do this is to sell your coins. Not to anyone but to the exchanges. Minimal amount may not affect the price that much so a big amount will do the trick. Goodluck encouraging others to dump their coins, you need luck after all.

I also want to see Bitcoin within those range, even lower is much preferred. Bitcoin is much expensive now so buying some will give you small amount of bitcoins. If ever the price goes to the 3000 dollar level or beneath it, many will start to buy in some more. It will be a one way ticket in having many Bitcoins. These are rare cases so when Bitcoin goes down, I hope I will have the money I need.

You have a wrong perspective about the cryprocurrency system. The event happened in China shows how cryptocurrency depends on the demand and does not show any weaknesses. This happening you are saying shows how strong Bitcoin is regarding having an immunity from the power of a government. It indicates that the government truly cannot touch Bitcoin so their last resort is to control their citizens. If you see price drop as a weakness then you must learn more about cryptocurrencies.

I prefer Bitcoin > Gold.

Bitcoin is on a different level compared to Gold when it comes to its price. Bitcoin is far too volatile so it can easily surpass any type of asset, like gold. If everyone will use Bitcoin then the demand will soar high and along with it is the price of Bitcoin. Stability is another story. If people will use Bitcoin for transactions and will not hold it as an asset then we can say that Bitcoin might get stable. But if it will be treated as an asset until that point, the volatility will just increase.

A 500 dollar decrease on Bitcoin's price within just a few minutes is the effect of what happened in China. The stopping of operations of the exchange affected the balance of the demand and supply, mainly the demand. So the price decrease is not that surprising. Even the drop itself is not so surprising, Bitcoin does that occasionally so there is nothing to be afraid of. Things will be back to normal, eventually.

Well this is a bit too much for Bitcoin. Bitcoin just achieved its all time high just weeks ago and if Bitcoin increases that much within this month, we will be subjected on a major crash afterwards. It is not healthy for Bitcoin to go soaring up quickly. It is much healthier if Bitcoin will increase in a slower manner but with stable increase. We do not want to have a crash, do we? (Except to those who wants to buy some cheap coins)