I think that it strongly depends on the country you live in by when the cashless form of payment will take over nearly completely.
In some northern European countries that has nearly happened.
They even accept credit cards in churches or have some kind of ATM there, because nobody has cash in the pocket anymore to give as a donation.

I do not think that it will be the privately founded crypto currency that will be the main payment method.
The majority of the people love their fiat, they will not leave it.

In Dubai 50 luxury flats were sold for bitcoin.
One single guy even bought ten of them.
From what I have read a company that has its residence on the Isle of Man was offering that and will make similar offers in the future.

I think that I have read a statement of Satoshi himself where he says he finds it a good thing that bitcoins can get lost.
If he would have wanted it differently, I suppose he would have implemented a way to avoid that.

By the way, if all wallets give away a small percenage of their balance, you would create a massive amount of new transactions the network won't be able to handle.

I think that diversification is an important instrument in an investment plan.
However, the major coins already have a good value. I really do not expect that one of them will make a rally like we saw it in the past six years.
I expect them to increase in price, but not as drastic as they did.
So small investments there will bring you profit. But I do not see that they will make you rich if the invested amount is not sufficient.

When I look at the current size of the mempool, the transaction times and the fees, I am pleased, not discouraged.
At the moment I think the bitcoin system is working as it is supposed to be.
And even the price we see at the moment is something I can really live with.

There are many ways bitcoin can bring you income, not only by holding or trading.
Bitcoin offers a whole new area of economy.
All those things you can do with a dollar, that can be done with bitcoin as well. But first it takes somebody who makes that possible.
That is why I think setting up a business that deals with bitcoin in some way is easier than setting up a business anywhere else.

I suppose that most of those scropts are even hidden in ads.
So you get both, the anoying advertisement and the script using your computer what you are not aware of.
It would be fair if they asked how you would want to contribute to the website you are visiting. Either by watching advertisement or by sharing computer power.

Diversification is an important thing when it comes to an investment plan.
Regarding crypto currencies I would say it might be a good thing to hold maybe the top four or five of the altcoins.
I think that these coins will grow when the whold crypto market grows. But I think as well that the whole market does not need a large number of coins.
So investments in smaller coins to me only make sense when you are a trader or you plan to sell in the near future.

I think that by now every central bank has its own opinion about crypto currencies and most of them are not too good.
But I think as well that their opinion does not influence the bitcoin price a lot.
Central banks are usually too far away from the peoples lifes so that a statement from them would really influence the buy/sell decision of a normal person.
Most people actually don't have a much sympathy for central banks themselves. So warning statements from these institutions could have the opposite effect they were intended to have.

I think that profits made with crypto currencies are usually taxable in nearly every country.
But due to the anonymity of the crypto currencies it often depends on the willingness of the owner if he really pays the taxes he is supposed to pay.
Unfortunatelly that is not always the case.
To me that is sad, because by paying those taxes the crypto currencies could gather more trust of those people who still are suspicious about crypto currencies.

When I think about bitcoin in five years, I always have the next halving in mind.
The last halvings always were accompanied by an increase of bitcoin price although bitcoin at that times did not have the public attention it has now.
I have no reason to imagine it would be different this time.
If the supply of newly mined bitcoins drops by 50%, then I think it is only fair to assume that the bitcoin price has to increase.
By the way, in five years we are already heading towards the next but one halving.

Bitcoin went from 1K in January 2017 to about 10K at the end of december 2017. It multiplied its value ten times.
Call me a pessimist, but I do not think that will happen in 2018 again! We would be at 100K then, and that is not a number I see for the price of one bitcoin in any near future.
But of course I can imagine a fair increase of the bitcoin price, maybe to about 20K by the end of the year.
I think that the conditions for a slower, but steady increase of bitcoin price are now better than ever.
The more regulations we get, the larger the acceptance will be in every population, and the more new people will join the crypto community.

I would say that fighting drugs, terrorists and money scams really is a good thing. So far I agree with Mr. Gates.
But putting all that on crypto currencies is a little far fetched in my eyes.
From what I can remember all those things have already existed long before bitcoin was created. And I am not aware of an increases of those activities since we have crypto currencies.
By the way, I am missing the positive effects that crypto currencies offer the world in his statement. Like creating jobs, for example.

I think that every country who gives out regulations on how their citizens have to handle crypto currencies, that government gives the people as well the security that they do not do anything illegal if they apply to those rules.
I see the positive thing about regulations: they put crypto currencies from from the grey area of legality into pure legality.
By the end of 2018 nearly every country will have made regulations for crypto currencies.
That is why I think we will experience a calmer ctypto market, because the speculation aspect on how the countries will handle crypto currencies will become smaller.

When people are doing something officially legal, I think it will encourage more people to try it. So maybe we will see a more steady growth.

From all I know bitcoin was created for two reasons:
Everybody should be able to send funds online, even if banks reject you.
And then you have to keep in mind that bitcoin was created in 2009, shortly after the financial crises for which the banks were responsible a lot.
Bitcoin was Nakamotos answer to that crisis.

Well, a bank can make transactions reversible. And it is fundamental to bitcoin that exactly this is not possible.
The only way I can imagine how that can be established is that you have some kind of account that is not a real bitcoin address. It only shows how much coins you have transferred to the institution.
But then again, this all would remind me of something we already have: an exchange.
And I think we all know how protected our coins are when we keep them at an exchange...

One advantage that bitcoin has compared to the other crypto currencies is that it is not as volatile as the others. Of course that is only an advantage for the holders, not for the traders.
When I remeber correctly the last larger drop, the altcoins had a bigger movement in price than bitcoin had.

I would even go so far that bitcoin is less risky than the altcoins because it has many supporters.
There are many long time holders who will not give their bitcons away. These people will not throw their coins in the market no matter what.
I do not think that there are many altcoin owners who have such a close relationship to their coins than many bitcoin owners have.
That limits the supply even in critical times, and that is a price stabilizing factor.

One advice in case you are successful with bitcoin and you earn a few of them:
Don't tell the people how much coins you have. I think it's best to keep a low profile from the beginning. As soon as people start thinking you have money, some will try to get it!
And because bitcoin transactions are not reversible, your coins would be gone for good if those people are successful with their stealing attempt.

I do not think that pairing fiat with every altcoin would make a big difference to what we have now. The major altcoins can often already be traded against fiat.
And as soon as you have bitcoin, you can trade that against every other altcoin. The fees that have to be paid for that additional transaction usually are not very high.
Most people only want bitcoin, because it is by far the biggest brand under the crypto currencies.

I can imagine that for the moment regulations can drag the bitcoin price down.
People think through regulations it will become more difficult to buy or sell bitcoins. Maybe they even have to pay taxes.
But when you look at it closer, you see that those regulations make it more difficult for the scammers as well to play their game. And nobody likes to get scammed!
That is why I think regulations make the crypto currency market safer. And because of that, more people will stay invested.
And that leads in the end to a higher price than without regulations.