i keep alot of wealth on something worth half a penny..

its called a piece of paper (wallet) and no one can hack it unless they are physically at the location.. and even then it would be hard to obtain

people dont buy just 1 share. thus numbers of tx's will be far less than you predict. also companies can send out tx's in batches to reduce data volume.

also most tx's would be done offchain. EG people deposit onto the nasdaq and then mysql databases log most daytrading transactions and then only do onchain tx's when people withdraw funds to make their own personal bearer certificates or to move between exchanges (LSE, NYSE, etc)

take for instance current bitcoin exchanges. more tx's happen offchain due to coinbase, btc-e, bitstamp, etc than happen onchain (person to person)

correction
That's right, I've seen some girls selling skype shows for Bitcoin in the services section. Strip clubs are a thing of the past. To part Bitcoin nerds with their coins you got to have a webcam ..cos they sure as hell wont leave the basement.

most people in bitcoinland cannot even have the guts to visit a retail store and ask the shop to start accepting bitcoins, and you think they will have the guts to talk to a woman, in real life with her boobs hanging out..

bitcoin has no arms and legs or mouth to sell itself.. its the bitcoin users IE YOU, that need to promote bitcoin.
have you talked to the shops in your town about bitcoin?

unless shops see that there is a demand/need to offer bitcoin, they wont bother. so start asking shops about bitcoin to try showing them there is a demand.

after all if the shops YOU visit don't even know YOU want them to have bitcoin payment options, its unlikely that they will offer it to YOU.

this is not a personal attack on anyone, just a hopeful realization to anyone reading this that you yourselves need to do the work, because bitcoin is just code.

its been 6 years and bitcoin is 33 gigabytes, thats because although 1mb blocks have a potential of 52gb a year fill... so you would think bitcoin was 300gb... yet so far most blocks are only 20% or less filled (on average).

even if bitcoin moved to a 20mb block is only a 1 terrabyte a year POTENTIAL fill. these days a 3TB drive (atleast 3 years potential) is available in most shops and in 3 years time even bigger sizes will be available.

its like people complained that the internet wont expand due to 56k modems.. yet ADSL and fibre came along..

all you need to know is right now the blockchain can fit on your finger

the 51% attack is not a "hack".. but if you think about it analogically, a laymans geek speak would be a DDOS attack.

it can only affect bitcoin if someone has enough hash power to control it, and can only last while those that have the power can maintain it.

it can only affect incoming transactions as they appear, and attempts to change old transactions would require alot more hash power and computing to attempt to alter past blocks, confirm them and then catch back up to the latest block number.

to change the last block the hash power needs to be 2x the 51% to be able to confirm last block and current block before other pools. to change a block 2 blocks back requires 3x the 51% hash amount .. so if they only have 51% they can only change live blocks. if they have 102% hash they can only alter transactions from 10 minutes ago..
in short, the only possible attack damage would be a DDOS type (denying users tx's to be added)

and if a 51% was to happen. most retailers and exchanges would become very cautious about deposits and withdrawals, and retailers would become cautious about purchases. but as fast as an attacker can try getting control there are many moral miners who would throw all their hashpower away from the dominating pool to counter the 51%.
aswell ofcourse, as many programmers that are all looking into different methods of preventing a dominating control.

meanwhile in new york the first government allowed bitcoin exchange opens..
so this next year of bitcoin is going to move at a faster pace, due to exchanges opening that banks wont block and of course the 2016 block reward halving that will send the bitcoin price into another spike.

dating a slut can be the same.. everyone knows she puts out ... but it takes a couple days to get her to warm up to you.

having a bank account can be the same.. they allow instant ATM withdrawals and cash deposits.. but it takes a few days for the card to arrive in the post.

though there are some places that accept bitcoin.. the whole point of going to a strip club is to step away from the screen and look at real women and to use bank notes as the only excuse you geeks will get to touch a girls skin...

.. seems like some of you are too afraid to touch a real girl and want to hide behind your screens too much..

bitcoin has its place in the world but avoiding female contact is not a good thing to use bitcoin for

bitcoin is not an 'it'.. bitcoin is a 'we'

too many people think that bitcoin is a self managing AI that communicates to merchants and teaches/incentivizes merchants to adopt bitcoin.

when people holding bitcoin realise we are the people that need to expand bitcoins reach ourselves. then bitcoin will grow faster.
so anyone complaining that you cant use bitcoin in your neighbourhoods, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

get your landlord to set up an account with bitpay or coinbase...
tell them it wont cost them anything and if they do, you'll pay them a few months rent upfront, or some other convincer.

after all, just waiting for your landlord to magically come up with the idea themselves without even knowing their tennants even use bitcoin, wont happen anytime soon

because alot of people are sat on their hands waiting for someone else to make bitcoin acceptable in their local area..

it's kind of like waiting around all year hoping someone will knock on your door wanting to mow your lawn for free, instead of getting off your ass and cutting your own grass..

luckily i done my bit and im living happily off of bitcoin and buying what i need using bitcoin. my fiat bank account has been left derelict for a few years now. if you too want a life without fiat, then you need to speak to your local shops and inform them about bitcoin. else the only thing you can do in your area is treat bitcoin like a stock.

if 12 million people are using bitcoin.. then on average people are only investing $263 into bitcoin..

bitcoins in circulation:14,078,100
possible population: 12,000,000
=average person holding: 1.173175btc each
bitcoin price $225
average investment $263.96 per person

just wait until just 1million financial firms invest $10k each.. the price will rocket

the market has decided.. thats why people prefer the convenience of paypal and banks, instead of using bank notes.

the future of consumer friendly (non-geek) bitcoins will be in the third party services. the blockchain protocol does not need to change.
the problem is that third party services can become as corrupt as the fiat system. so although blockchain protocols do not need to change and regulations of the blockchain do not need to be implemented.. regulations of businesses do..

lets just hope the regulations are not corrupt.... oh wait.. it seems new york regulations might turn out to be corrupt.. lets wait and see

chargebacks are not a feature of any money..
not banknotes, not gold, not coins and certainly not bitcoin. nor should it ever be.

however escrow services that store money on behalf of people, EG banks, paypal, gold investment companies. they are the chargeback services.

the bank accounts we all have are not safety deposit boxes of bank notes or gold, coins. they are just separate databases of balances to represent what someone has and these services can change the balances at will.

bitcoin protocol itself does not need any "chargeback" coding, but the feature can be implemented at the businesss service level via offchain transactions within the businesses offchain database of customers balances.

in short. programming bitcoin protocol to void transactions is a recipe for scammy disasters. but webwallets that use offchain balance databases can impliment their own service under the pretense of consumer protection.

bitcointalk (this website) which is only a forum and NOT a blockchain NOT a currency.. just a website... was down for several hours a couple days ago...

seriously people need to learn the difference or if they know the difference, atleast explain it better.

its like saying wall street trading markets stalled.. where the reality would be that the financial times newspaper was late to press

some say no because:

3 years ago it took ALOT of effort for prices to move from $6.20 to $6.60 in a month ..
but now prices are moving $225-$270 every week roughly.

$50 dollar movement as oppose to 50 cent movement means that alot of dollar is moving about...

.... or (my theory) not much bitcoin is on exchanges allowing movements to be rapid, without much dollar involvement

speaking as a non american that didnt get to see the superbowl.. it makes it not really international hype.

secondly. anyone got any screen shots or footage of the supposed advertising the sponsorship paid for. because some non americans are still interested in how many nano-seconds of screentime half a million dollars of bitcoin bought

if you collect stamps, toy trains or other stuff.. you dont report it till you sell it.

unless your using a government registered financial instrument (stocks shares bonds) then its not financial.

in my eyes bitcoin is an asset, thus just like a car or any other antique, you dont need to announce you have it until you sell it and then announce the income (profit) you got for it.

but its best you speak to a financial advisor before making a possible expensive decision. as different countries not only have different rules but also different columns on tax forms of what needs declaring and what doesnt need declaring

yes.

even i said bitcoin can do that years ago.

for instance right now bitcoin is stupidly pegged to the US dollar.

this means that based on minimum wage bitcoin is worth:
USA: washington 26 hours 26 minutes labour (washington: min wage $9.47 / btc $250)
USA: california 27 hours 46 minutes labour (california: min wage $9.00 / btc $250)
USA: multiple states 34 hours 29 minutes labour (multiple states: min wage $7.25 / btc $250)
UK: 25 hours 41 minutes labour  (UK: min wage £6.50 / btc £167)
china: shanghai 90 hours 25 minutes labour (shanghai min wage 17yuan / btc Y1537)
china: hainan 170 hours 46 minutes labour (hainan min wage 9yuan / btc Y1537)

but imagine that bitcoin was not pegged to dollars.. but instead pegged to a universal measure of X minimum hours worldwide.

EG today imagine bitcoin was measured as being 40 hours minimum wage labour.
that means everyone around the wold no matter what would get a bitcoin for 40 hours work.
of course as deflation occured and demand rised a bitcoin would be worth 41 hours, 42 hours. etc etc.

which people could easily convert into their local currency without having to think about converting to dollars or worrying about dollars stability