yep
16 years ago a 3.2GB yes GIGABYTE hard drive was a couple hundred£$
now 4TB is $150

another dooms day based on picking a random number out of a hat and then throw in some sprinkles of nonsense to spice up the doomsday
how about use rational numbers that are in context and part of current/known future discussions

this has been answered many times.
summary
countries have laws (minimum wage, tax, court fines, licences, mortgages, debt) that keep fiat LEGALLY binding to have usefulness in a country.

you can happily work from home in america working for a european company who pays you in euros which you then spend on european retailers websites. but you still end up having to convert some euros to dollars to pay taxes. which in short means that they still get their taxes.
EG america does not care about its residents using the euro because of the LAWS that keep dollars in default usage in america.
even if everyone in america started trading euros, those euros need to be converted to dollars to pay taxes, court fines and licences.
so most countries do not care because they will still receive fiat tax, even if people are personally using something else.

but lets say they did try..
governments prohibiting alcohol last century didnt stop the moonshine and private drinking clubs business
governments prohibiting drugs hasnt stopped anything
governments prohibiting guns in schools hasnt stopped anything.

they can try, but i dont presume they want to stop bitcoin out of feat of fiat value dropping*.. but even if they did prohibit it. people will still use bitcoin. and the price (just like moonshine, guns and drugs) will just go up the more its prohibited, due to peoples perceptions of how much supply is being restricted.

*because due to government debt, governments love fiat losing value because they can pay off fixed debt amounts faster. its why they went for a inflationary model in the first place. (research Zimbabwe dropping from 147% GDP debt to 75% GDP debt in one year2008-2009 thanks to the drop in "value" of their currency to make debt repayments easier)

computers are made using binary logic. and as such a computer cannot be d-wave resistant per-se because a binary(normal) system can only work within its own limits (1 byte=256 possible switch combinations).
Dwave still has 8bits but 4 possibilities(0-1-2-3) per bit bit instead of 2(0-1), allowing for quantum computers(QC) to have 65536 combinations.

however QC cant simply throw its result into a binary system "as is" because the data would get lost in translation(binary:'WTF is a 3?'), it requires QC to calculate a solution, and then convert the result back(like an analogue/digital modem) to binary before a normal computer would understand it. which limits QC capabilities when solving binary logic problems

in short
efficiency due to the limits of binary bytes and logic of such, it only allows d-wave a 2x efficiency at solving binary logic problems and requires translating QC result back to binary result to be accepted by and have impact on binary based systems. (so im not worried)

it simply means unspent transactions.
when you download the entire blockchain not only is the blockchain saved. but a second list is formed holding only the transactions that have not yet been spent/used.

think of it as a summary of the blockchain to help nodes make faster searches to validate any new transactions

im talking more about the comedy of the D-wave CEO doing TED talks and magazine interviews trying to sell d-wave using words fit only for a sci-fi novel

in regards to quantum computing people need to get their heads out of the sci-fi section and into reality.
quantum/d-wave (once you wash away the foolish buzzwords of it) is simple. instead of a micro transistor having 2 options(binary).. it has 4.

and here is where the magic evaporates.
in binary
imagine 0 volts is 0(false/off/no/negative/dark)
imagine 1 volt is 1(true/on/yes/positive/light)

now.. imagine instead of 2 options. there are four options 0 1 2 3
imagine 0 volts is 0(false/off/no)
imagine 0.33 volts is 1(not false not true/not off not on/not no not yes)
imagine 0.66 volts is 2(false and true/off and on/ no and yes)
imagine 1 volt is 3(true/on/yes)

now imagine all this shit about trans-dimensional space, time travel and parallel states as just bait, to keep the very simple logical process from being revealed(avoid corporate competition by not revealing the simple secret sauce ingredient) of micro transistors with 4 options instead of 2

the whole "new states of both on and off" is just wishy washy wording, meant only for sci-fi movies because its not actually any magic of
binary "off / on"
dwave "off / not off not on/ off AND on / on"

as these are just attributes(names) and those 2 new options in the middle can mean anything you want it to mean.
yes / maybe / not sure / no
yes / sometimes / not often / no
night / morning / afternoon / evening

all you need to know is a micro transistor in a Dwave has 4 options instead of 2.
an 8 bit dwave 'byte' allows for 65,536 possibles(4^8) instead of 8 bit binary 'byte' allowing for 256 possibles(2^8)
this allow a hex to be stored using just two bits instead of 4bits
meaning you can store FFFF(33333333) in one dwave byte instead of just FF in a binary byte(11111111)

its utility for compression and speed improvement of data is limited. but its utility in logic problems opens up immensely.

its just going to take time for then to think up some logic problems that can utilise the 2 extra options.

if you want to think of it like a switch.
bright light on / romantic dim setting / movie-gaming dim setting / light off.
if your light switch in your living room or den only has on or off. your missing out on 'mood lighting'. get yourself a dimmer switch
and then spend some time thinking about what you will use the two new dimmer settings for, but be warned they are not for trans-dimensional wormhole jumping or parallel universe hopping

in short
core releasing 0.13.2a with 1base 4weight AND releasing 0.13.2b with 2base 4weight

that way core fanboys dont have to defect away from core to get real capacity, they can choose freely while remaining with core dream team
that way the community as a whole have an open choice without having any bias
that way you can finally be happy of your dream team having code for all the features the community have been requesting.
that way you can chill out your doomsdays because core is no longer vetoing the 2mb base option, to cause controversy

in short
a block is just a clump of data. it can be anything
a blockchain group of blocks where the identifier is made by including the identifier of the last block, which includes the identifier of the previous block.

meaning block 400k's single hash represents the combined data and collection of 400k blocks.. if 2 people recognise that single hasn they both know they have all the exact same data contained in 400k blocks and it all matches

long version in laymens

block is just a block(clump/batch) of data.. which can be anything. a list of favourite songs. book where each block is a chapter of text.. or a batch of transactions.

this block of data then has a hash to identify it.
this way you dont need to send the entire data to someone else. you can just send the hash and if they say they have the same hash, you both know you both have the same block of data and the text is exactly the same. this is because change any of the data changes the hash..
eg - very laymans
data: Joyful Artistic Nice Energetic, hashes to JANE
no need to say do you have data: Joyful Artistic Nice Energetic...... but instead do you have: JANE

next lets describe the chain.
by including the hash of the previous block with the data of the next block.. the new hash not only can be used to say you have the second blockdata but also the first. and both are complete


EG - very laymens understanding
imagine you had 4 people..
now imagine their personality was a long story(i just got lazy and put in 4 words for dummy example)

person 1 is named by hashing their life story (joyful artistic nice energetic, hashes to JANE)
person 2 is named by hashing their life story (joyful artistic caring kind, hashes to JACK)
person 3 is named by hashing their life story (brave intelligent loving lazy, hashes to BILL)
person 4 is named by hashing their life story (joyful obedient honourable nice, hashes to JOHN)

blocks work because instead of asking others do you have data:"joyful artistic caring kind"... you simply ask do you have JACK

and chains add another layer

first we see JANE you tell the other person i have JANE.. they then know you only have one person
next we create JACK.. we combine the hashes.. to get a new hash JJAANCEK you tell the other person i have JJAANCEK.. they then instantly know you have 2 people and their data are complete and correct

now imagine time went on, you dont have to ask for JANE or JACK or even JJAANCEK .. if you now have 4 people you can just ask for JJBJAAIONCLHEKLN and the other person recognises your now at person 4 and all the data is correct for all 4 people without you ever needing to tell them at some point you got person 3 by transmitting any information about person 3 prior.

so say you had 400,000 blocks.. you just need to send ONE hash, that is a chain of all 400,000 blocks that reveals that:
1. you have block 400k
2. you have all other 399,999 blocks too
3. that all 400,000 blocks are complete and the data is valid

bitcoin vs blockchain:
bitcoin itself has atleast 8 other security features ontop of blockchain.. but dont confuse bitcoin and blockchain.
bitcoin uses blockchains and another 8+ things.. but blockchains are not bitcoin..

the data in the blocks dont need to be financial data, the hashes can be made using any algo (doesnt have to be sha256)
the data doesnt even need to be double secured (POW or POS), hense why i didnt mention that part.

its just a way of batching ANY data into blocks/clumps/groups (it all means the same thing "blocks") and then chaining each block together to speed up the checking time.

anything else ontop of what i have said is outside of the "blockchain" descriptor, but can be added to give extra security features to do certain tasks(as i said it takes atleast 8 things to make bitcoin what it is, 7 things to make a POS coin what it is) but they all fall under the umbrella of blockchain because they all use a blockchain as PART of their feature

i think the point of the localbitcoins is to not think of it as a business with 100 customer service staff with a policy to answer calls in 5 minutes.
local bitcoins is a skeleton crew (like most bitcoin businesses) and to expect a few days reply but be extremely happy to get resolved in a day.
rather then saying expect it in a day and get frustrated if a few days. EG dont over promise and under deliver.. under promise and over deliver

and if you want your local store to accept bitcoin.. dont wait for the magic fairy tales of rich dudes on horses to come riding into your town.
go to your local independant store and talk to them about bitcoin, costs nothing to talk

also worth adding
if you dont know enough about someone to slap them with a wet fish should they do you wrong. you might aswell stand in the road and throw mony at people you will never meet ever again.

there is only certain things to reduce risk of people wronging you (staying away from reversible payments) but even then its best to be able to know you can slap then when/if they do

all im hearing from you is benefits of a FIAT price rise.
im guessing you are not thinking of the benefits of how many loaves of bread you can buy... and only thinking of the fiat you can grab. and not realising fiat wont buy you as much bread

in short.. if you can get your local store to accept bitcoin. you wont care about the fiat price because you just hand over bitcoin to the merchant.
eg now buy 3 loaves of bread for 0.01btc and in the future get more loaves of bread for your 0.01btc without even caring what the fiat valuation is. without needing to find a way to cash out to then buy bread with fiat.
you benefit by not having to care about negative fiat interest rate.
you benefit by not having to care about banker booms and busts.
you benefit by not having to care about banks losing your retirement.

but if all you care about is the fiat price so one day you can cash out and hold onto fiat.. then your missing the point of bitcoin totally

ethereum is not the new boss. it has many many flaws

but core still think bitcoin needs a boss for bitcoin to be a boss.

bitcoin does not need a boss. anyone thinking it does, needs to retry learning the purpose of bitcoin.
bitcoin should not have one group running the show. but several groups. letting people have open choice of who they like.
where these several groups have the current rules and then let the community choose the new rules, based on the rules not the groups.

not because one group releases rule 123 and another group releases rule 321.. but all groups release 123 and 321 and the community decide the rule without having to worry or favour or be biased towards one group or other.

this then makes its about the rules not the favour of groups

true consensus can then be reached based purely on the bitcoin rules.
if no rule gets majority based on the rule itself. then it doesnt activate. again its about the rules not the group

again this evaporates the fake social consensus and brings the decision and consent back to code consensus

and the big holders are doing it.
coinbase, bitpay.. have 300,000+ merchants
localbitcoin.. does millions of "escrows" a year

it is not because bitcoin itself paid them first.
it is not because bitcoin grew arms and made the businesses.

is because PEOPLE started businesses
so join them.. risk the most by talking to people and start a business (cost is negligible even for the unemployed) then work in the hopes of getting paid. rather then get paid in the hopes of getting work

you are just as much part of bitcoin as anyone else. it does not matter what your bitcoin balance is. you can start a business with no bitcoin, you can start a business with no fiat.
you just need to not wait for other people to do it for you

bitcoin is a currency.. not a business
dollar is a currency.. not a business

dollar doesnt have a pot for you to promote dollar.. people need to create businesses and offer services to earn their dollar

core are doing fine. they set up a business(blockstream) and have contracts to help code altcoins for private companies (insurance and banks) and allowing them time to code bitcoin on the side.

i digressed, so lets highlight the 2 businesses you mentioned.. escrows and payment gateways.

you dont need bitcoin to start these businesses.
because for payment gateways, retailers GIVE you the bitcoin, you sell 99% of it to give fiat to the retailer, you keep 1%
because for escrow services, buyers GIVE you the bitcoin, you hold it and later give 99% of it to the seller, you keep 1%

no one is asking anyone to get on a plane and spend wild amounts of cash to get a retailer to use bitcoin. but if you want your local shop
to accept bitcoin then next time you shop at your local shop (no extra cost) introduce them to bitcoin.
its like any job. you never get pre-paid.
you do some work and get paid at the end of the week or month..
dont do the work, dont get paid you get sacked.

if you want to get paid in bitcoin you need to do the work.
many people have been successful setting up their own payment gateways and escrow services..
its just NOT automatically handed to them on a plate, prefunded. all wrapped up in coded heaven

yep and as the title says bitcoin users are what is holding Bitcoin back, because it needs users to build the infrastructure

if the problem is simply escrow
the answer is that as a human. a human needs to set up an escrow service. a human needs to code an escrow service. a human needs to vet other humans.
bitcoin is just code. its the human need for humans to do things when interacting with humans that is the problem

humans=users

bitcoin is not an A.I, it cannot program its own escrow. it cannot have eyes or feet to deliver goods on users behalf to ensure its received.

the signature proof gavin and about half a dozen special guests seen (media too)
MEUCIQDBKn1Uly8m0UyzETObUSL4wYdBfd4ejvtoQfVcNCIK4AIgZmMsXNQWHvo6KDd2Tu6euEl13VT C3ihl6XUlhcU+fM4=

Converted to hex:
3045022100c12a7d54972f26d14cb311339b5122f8c187417dde1e8efb6841f55c34220ae002206 6632c5cd4161efa3a2837764eee9eb84975dd54c2de2865e9752585c53e7cce

this signature is not new though.. its been in our faces for 7 years. if showing the signature means the person is satoshi, then

i am satoshi
you are satoshi
we are all satoshi