It does look like it will be over 5% at this pace even three blocks changes the prediction a fair bit still.
Was thinking it would be lower myself but maybe it's a bit seasonal as the hot summer starts to switch into a cooler fall and the electricity costs go down a bit as those air conditioners turn off. (It is mining speculation ^^)
(Also got prediction sniped at 1.76%-2% with valkir but It looks like it won't trigger so no worries)

Bitcoin Difficulty: 54,256,630,328
Estimated Next Difficulty: 56,950,000,494 (+4.96%) 
Adjust time: After 677 Blocks, About 4.5 days 
Hashrate(?): 415,018,563 GH/s
Block Generation Time(?):
1 block: 9.5 minutes

The one with the lowest stated house edge
Or a game where you play against other players as the edge varies on their skill vs your skill and luck.

I would like to Join this campaign

Username:EternalwingsofGod
Bitcoin address:  12Ui3ssnJK71akxAgvVM3WtLa2EHidT3Xn
Post Count: 533

With China tanking and the economy slowing down what opportunites are there for Bitcoin to develop or will China force the price movement downward in the long term.
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The price of bitcoin fell more than 7% today

Commodities and stocks across the world have been dropping sharply over the last day, as investors questioned the health of the global economy—especially China.

The pain has spread to less-trafficked corners of finance, too.

The price of bitcoin fell by as much as 8% today, hitting an intraday low under $209. (At last glance, the crypto currency was down by roughly 7%.)

The decline comes amid a broad-based market rout that many trace back to worries over China. The Shanghai composite index was down by more than 8% Monday. Some analysts have noted increasingly close linkages between bitcoin and China. Goldman Sachs analysts mentioned back in March that 80% of bitcoin volume is exchanged into and out of the Chinese yuan, which implies that many bitcoin traders are based in the People’s Republic (or at least use the yuan as their preferred currency).

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Will the Chinese move from the Stock Market to Bitcoin en masse or will prices keep going down.

http://qz.com/486837/the-price-of-bitcoin-fell-more-than-7-today/



Some side topics that were to complicated to make as an OP topic but interesting.

(Inter Crypto conversions and price declines)
https://elidourado.com/blog/bitcoin-kareken-wallace/
(Bullet 2 is pretty much Core vs QT)

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1882388
http://marginalrevolution.com/?s=kareken

Well it looks like its a truce which is good another war would be a pain to handle
 (Especially considering one with nuclear powers involved on both sides MAD or not)

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/24/asia/koreas-tensions/

After marathon talks between high-level officials, the two bitter foes said in the early hours of Tuesday that they had found enough common ground to dial back the situation.

Pyongyang expressed regret over the serious injuries suffered by two South Korean soldiers in landmine blasts in the DMZ, and Seoul agreed to switch off the loudspeakers pumping propaganda broadcasts over the border Tuesday, both sides said.

Some differences compared to globalfirepower
http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-comparison-detail.asp?form=form&country1=south-korea&country2=north-korea&Submit=COMPARE

Also this video helped a bit to HODL didn't want to put an edit tag in the previous post
Good old Zhou Tong (The other one not the epic scammer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG1qooBzE2w

The Black Monday in China led towards strong corrections marketwise globally
Oddly enough due to the China connection it looks like some recoil leverage affected Bitcoin as well as we tread near the low $200 ranges.
Still not near the mtgox collapse levels but things have changed since then.

(While I think it will be near negative this round its very early in the cycle and someone left a tempting spot to occupy)

Going to occupy the +1.76-2.00% range
Lets see how it goes

Now seems like the best time to invest where the highest swings can occur, from a risk valuation this is either in Oil, Gold or Bitcoin
Where fear is and there are strong market crashes/corrections globally Bitcoin will start to shine.
(As long as they don't get their leverage eaten)

Finally think were seeing the bottom of the bottoms
Rationale: World markets are finally starting to take serious hits to the stock book this affects Bitcoin as well however this also provides a strong buy signal for those who want to trade volatility.
Starting to expect more rapid movements in the future from the stable point and downturn we are in now.

The fun part is that the US is still saying their economy is recovering at a steady pace.
But this is a fairly strong domino effect so its only a matter of time till those high margin traders make a killing in this market.
(Good week to be short)
Black Monday 2015

This is a triggered event due to the Chinese stock market tanking from all the leverage and margin calls
The fact its this strong of an effect in Bitcoin as well makes me wonder how strong the
BTC/CHN pair is not the BTC/USD pair
(Although to be fair all the big indexes were bleeding today)

The number likely included a bunch of bots in the early stages of the site
Unconfrimed accounts, and hidden profiles so whether it really is roughly the size of all of Canada would be a bit extreme.
(Actually even a bit bigger)

Still from Police officers to law officials it really did cover all walks of life

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/newsalertunconfirmed-reports-of-two-ashley-madison-related-suicidespolice-322683191.html

U.S. government employees with sensitive jobs in national security and law enforcement were also among those found to be using government networks to access the website, including at least two assistant U.S. attorneys, an information technology administrator in the White House's support staff and a government hacker and counterterrorism employee at the Homeland Security Department.

It was only a matter of time, someone elses hack is a treasure trove of data to comb through and information to gather.
Add in a few other hacks (Targets webhack etc.) a list of names and profiles then combine the databases and look for matches to a Visa number and poof credit card fraud and identity theft become a lot easier.

I did find it amusing though that paying to delete a name from the Ashley Madison database did not do a lot, the feds will have a fun time looking at peoples dirty laundry I guess, not really a NSA related topic but as an extension that database is free for downloading and adding to their data coffers.

-
That said Have I been Pwned is the perfect domain name to squat for a database lookup ^_^.

WOOT
I finally caught one been close a few times but it's always been a tease
(Address in profile is good but 12Ui3ssnJK71akxAgvVM3WtLa2EHidT3Xn in case you wanted it posted here too)

Well with the world economy and US stock exchanges dropping 5 to 7 % this week
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2015/08/20/stock-market-pain-spreads/32047401/

For once both Bitcoin and the stock exchanges are in sync as they tend to be counter cyclical.
Whether it will reach 300 by the end of August I doubt it unless the world economy goes down more and people start looking at other options.

Not much of a Karma person but if they did not have the dignity to divorce their wife and get caught up in the Dox on the worlds foremost adultery web directory they deserved that one incoming from miles away privacy aside.

On a sidenote it has begun mumbles ....
http://gizmodo.com/extortionists-are-after-the-ashley-madison-users-and-th-1725675204

People are the worst. An unknown number of assholes are threatening to expose Ashley Madison users, presumably ruining their marriages. The hacking victims must pay the extortionists “exactly 1.0000001 Bitcoins” or the spouse gets notified. Ugh.

#134 Cavirtex is alive as they were acquired by coinsetter.
Been operating peacefully for a few months after acquisition so it was worth a relook.
http://fortune.com/2015/04/08/bitcoin-buyout-coinsetter-cavirtex/
https://www.cavirtex.com/home

Coinsetter, a New York-based bitcoin exchange aimed at Wall Street traders, announced Wednesday that it has acquired Cavirtex, a Canadian bitcoin exchange. “We expect to do and see more of this,” said Coinsetter CEO Jaron Lukasiewicz. “I look at this as the beginning of a broader consolidation of the space.”

Now Coinsetter is bringing Cavirtex back (the site reopens for trading today under the same name, but with a redesigned home page) primarily as a play for Canadian bitcoin traders, who Lukasiewicz believes have had no good options.

A walk down memory lane
I find i funny were not even at 1.0 in BTC yet haha

That was a surprise today, was not expecting to see it back at the low range of $210 even if it was a brief touch
Sitting at around $230 dollars now is not a great sign for upward movement but a potential sign of even further downward momentum
(That said bleeding aside it could stabalize again)

Wait for a nationalization, then make sure that your on the side of the government when your assets are invested and they start looking for capital, or perhaps have a local manage your real estate if you don't wish to live there.