Not much of a clue. Going above $600 and staying there would be a worthy reward for our suffering. Anything beyond is a bonus.

The Estonian government appears to be one of the least BTC friendly nations of all by quite a long way.

http://basedreport.com/2014/12/bitcoin-under-assault-in-estonia/

http://www.coindesk.com/estonia-vat-apply-full-amount-bitcoin-trades/

If one doesn't then we might as well all go home. I assume the Bitlicence will open the way to something worth trusting.

I'm looking forward to the present generation of exchanges turning into irrelevant dust very soon. They're not good enough.

Lots of tax?

Absolutely not. It was a smart TV. My grandmother had the soles of her feet whipped until she successfully converted it into a bitcoin node.

This xmas I didn't give any actual presents.

What I did give my family was a three hour presentation on crypto. After that I hosted/ insisted on a four hour discussion on what they learnt. To round off the day I forced them to do coding until bed time to relax.

I think they all had a lot of fun. Or I did. I have a full menu of extra reeducation for tomorrow.

I dabble in writing and have created a successful Kickstarter campaign in the past. PM me with some details if you need some help.

There'll always be a few purists, fantasists and nostalgists who'll keep it ticking along even at piddling value levels.

If it were me I'd just suck up the tax for the sake of a quiet life. Having a pile of cash and blowing it around the world is one thing, but a property is rather hard to hide from the tax man. Depends how lax authorities are wherever you reside.

If I wanted to cash out an amount that large I'd forget about going directly on exchanges. Talk to a broker like SecondMarket to arrange a straightforward sale at an agreed price or some of the exchanges may have customers looking to buy a decent amount without the risk of slippage.

I opted out of Christmas several years ago and feel all the better for it. It doesn't have to be compulsory.

I think they're likely to be ever so slightly more savvy than that. That's if they have the need to go anywhere near an exchange these days anyway.

Err, in this case I tend to agree. I'm sure amazing things will be built on top of it.

As an actual transactional platform I found it pretty agonising to use. Joe Public would run screaming he tried to use it in its current form.

Very few have put money into actually buying any. It's all going into the companies in the ecosystem.

I think Bitcoin fans are humongously overestimating its position in the world at present.

Similar to the Cyprus thing. I seriously doubt more than a tiny handful of people in the firing line there put a bean into BTC. It was a catalyst for a reasonable number of people elsewhere who were already ideologically inclined to get into it.

We'll see real flights into it a few more years down the line.

There's no way BTC will ever approach 10k without exchanges that are audited and regulated up the arse.

I think it's gone as far as it can with the exchange infrastructure we have now. None of it's anywhere near solid or transparent enough to service millions of buyers and sellers.

No idea what the near future holds. Next year might be flat or more of the same. I'm not too bothered.

Our trolling friends may well have had a point and/or leg to stand on post the 2011 fall and the resulting lull, but these days it's becoming harder to deny that BTC will establish some sort of position in the wider world. It may be gargantuan, or just a handy niche, but it will serve a purpose for many.  

It would've been fun to be in on a pump before it arrived, but I've learnt my lesson. Systems with a proper future from now on only for me.

Well, it was only about $70 or so. I remember reading at the time of people putting in 5 or more BTC. As the price is now 25 Satoshis that must sting a bit.

I've been in on Node and NEM since the beginning. In theory I'm already well ahead but I've no plans for selling or trading. I think they'll both go a long, long way.

My other dabbles were in PPC. I broke even after a few weeks. My slam dunk was Mazacoin. I think I bought in at 17,000 Satoshis and the next time I paid attention to the price and got out it was 280.

Hmm. I think if you decide to base the direction of your life on this fella's ideology then I don't think it's going to make for a very happy journey.

And the OP ordered a temporary womanfriend and she tried to get herself pregnant? Either she was an enthusiastic amateur, or he/she/it needs to shop elsewhere. Not that it actually happened of course.