Currently i don't see there is any direct tie between usd and btc. Unlike gold which tends to move in the opposite direction with the demise of dollar, btc has not reach that level yet. Btc acceptance rate is still considered low which should be the main reason.

The closest that i get is when talking to fellow traders who trade real fiat currencies. Just told it work just like real currency and you can actually make money doing trading.

Your title seems to be very misleading as after i read your point of view, it lean more towards addressing the weaknesses in bitcoin rather than a ponzi scheme.
You are right to mention there are limited use for the coin but bear in my we are still at the development stage. The potential for bitcoin is endless.

More like a loyalty token that rewards buyers for making purchases at amazon. In the end it is more towards increasing sales on their product. Don't think they are interested to compete in the altcoin business... it's just they are creating the coin to support their core business.

Trading in altcoin. Some of the active pairs like btc-doge is worth going into and is the most active thus far. Or you could even trade directly on btc-usd. But before you start off make sure you are aware of the risk associated with trading.

Alibaba core business is not into crypto and they are doing well well as a wholesaler selling in bulk which are both totally not related. Furthermore Why do they want to allocate their resource to go into crypto when they can easily use btc or even any of the crypto for payment?

When you set the transaction fee to zero be prepared for the waiting time. Also you run the risk that the transaction might not get picked up by miner to be confirmed to the blockchain.

I believe when satoshi set the limit at 21mil, the additional 8 decimal number has been put in place as a contingency plan in case bitcoin value goes too high. He was right of course

Why risk putting your bitcoin into another investment scheme that promises return on your bitcoin holdings? If really you believe in bitcoin then you should know there is a potential for the coin itself to appreciate.

A big "Don't think so" but even if it is possible you might be working as a slave 24 hrs a day 7 days a week non-stop. In this scenario wouldn't it be better to just find a normal job and earn the money to get the bitcoin.

Gold has been considered the same haven and widely used ever since the beginning of civilization. Will this stature change even as our civilization getting more technologically advanced?? No i don't think so. As for bitcoin it will find its niche once more and more people recognize its existence but whether it can achieve the status similar to gold remains a question mark.

Not sure how this could be done because in order to get people for maintaining the ledger you will need to reward them. It will be difficult when it comes to permits, certificates and other public records One way to have this done is to have these ledgers backed by crypto. For example this would apply towards commodities. Will be checking this thread to see what solution the community can think of

I heard countless stories about cloud mining and if I were you, think it's better to just forget it. The thing about bitcoin is that you can earn by simply exchanging for it. Depending on what skills you have, get a job that pays well in fiat and then use the money to buy bitcoin if you believe in it. Always remember there's a potential in bitcoin, but there's no surefire or 100% guarantee that bitcoin price will one day go up so high.

It's going up right now as we engage in this conversation. The question is how high will it go? For the past few months, we have already seen the price rebounded back from the $300 support level at least 3 times, going up as high as $450 and then finally coming down again.

There's no way you could get an accurate information out of doing this. For me, rather than knowing how many coins a person owns, what I'm always interested to know is how many persons actually own coins.

Sometimes I face problem trying to load my multibit program but wasn't successful. After having downloaded and updated to the latest java version, everything seems to go back to normal. like what has been pointed out by MZ, I believe the problem lies in mismatch in terms of the version of java and multibit that you are using.

I always believe this is a very vast area to explore where bitcoin would certainly become very useful. For skill workers or professionals, that would not be an issue but for the rest, the main barrier when it comes to using bitcoin is that some of these workers are not so literate or having access to internet in foreign countries. What we need is a company to set up a service that acts as a middle person to facilitate the transfer.

Awesome and kudos to the guy who created that website. From the result, it shows that I'm one of those filthy rich bitcoiners at the top 90% bracket. 

PS for those guys viewing in firefox, you can try to load it in chrome. there's some rendering issue there but I think the dev should be able to easily fix it soon.

Define the word "value". What does in mean to us? If you have 320 in fiat and 1 btc which converts to the equivalent amount, ask yourself which one do you think is worth more in term of purchasing power and in terms of actual value measured as hedge against inflation? Market cap is just a representation when you compared it back against fiat. So why bother to use that?

What you say it's true BUT don't forget when the money get stashed away, eventually when the right time comes, you will still need to convert it back to fiat in order to spend. There are so many limitations right now on what you can buy with bitcoin. And what a coincidence that it's the holiday season right now and time to take the flight and go somewhere else in the caribbean to enjoy your life