Once you have got your funds, please make sure you use an exchange that's properly licensed, which isn't the case when it comes to Bitfinex. I know it's one of the largest exchanges, but there are much better alternatives than that.

More reason to ditch that exchange. If you continue to have banking difficulties for a longer period of time, you know that not much is going to change, especially with how they don't have any licenses.

Processing Bitfinex USD transactions requires banks to comply with the laws within their specific jurisdiction, and since Bitfinex isn't really compliant itself, difficulties will continue to happen pretty much for ever.

A few more years of bear market? That's highly unlikely with how we're moving forward technically and also based on the events that we have to go through. The block halving is the most important factor.

The block halving is pretty much the only event that's guaranteed to take place, and it has also proven to lift the market up far before the halving actually kicks in. In other words, I'm more confident about the market than you are.

Obviously, that doesn't mean the price can't go down in the coming months, but we're not endlessly going down. The process that takes the most time is the run-up to the actual all time high, but that's a concern for later.

Reaching $10,000 within 12 months from now is what I consider to be an all time high, based on normal demand.

It depends on what you mean with unregulated. If it means that governments are letting everything crypto related grow and develop freely, then it can just as easily be used by hundreds of millions of people.

Another thing is that the more governments are trying to regulate this industry, the more they stimulate decentralized platforms to emerge and take over rapidly. This is quite a favorable option too in my opinion.

Crypto has been hard coded in people's brains by now, and there is no way you can get anyone to discard it entirely, regardless of how much people have lost due to bad investment decisions. We'll grow in any scenario.

Crypto needs time to grow and scale and not necessarily more regulations.

His main incentive is to make sure that the value of his massive stash of coins goes up even further throughout the years. His Bitcoin holdings are worth a few hundred million dollars at today's prices.

If I was in his place I would be shilling the crap out of Bitcoin as well. We will find out what's left of his bullish nature when Bitcoin ends up hitting his targets. Will he cash out entirely or actually use it as a form of money.

Litecoin founder Charlie Lee found it necessary to dump his holdings at peak levels, which might happen with more of these high level promoters of crypto in general. It wouldn't surprise me if T.D. follows.

These threads point out why it's so difficult to act, not only from the side of the governments, but also from the side of finding a way to eradicate poverty in a manner we all are happy with.

Governments aren't just one body. It may look like so, but there are so many different streams of influences and opinions, that it's next to impossible to expect them to jump in and offer a helping hand.

In other words, it's up to you to make the best out of every situation, because only you knows what's the best for yourself, not a bunch of politicians in suits only out to score cheap points.

Even if the environment around you doesn't offer many opportunities to improve your situation, doing something in an attempt to change your life is better than doing nothing and thus not change anything at all.

I was literally about to speed up my dollar cost average purchase by two days because of the dump to $6100 and when I was about to buy Bitcoin from my local exchange, the price instantly shot up to +$6400 lol.

I still bought in since I'm buying for long term purposes, but that was definitely an interesting development. Should we feel bad for those who got their shorts demolished by that peak or should we say f.you bears!!

Either way, the price is still hovering far below the $7000 mark so we haven't really booked much progress in the grand scheme of things. It's a tiny movement that gave some people a form of hope and others frustration.

It depends on how long people are willing to wait for second layer solutions. Technically people can use the lightning network already, and while it's not completely safe, it's safe enough for low value transactions.

There are currently a couple (some better than the other) of mobile lightning clients available in the Google play store, and while it requires using a third party node, it does work flawlessly.

I'm currently using Bitcoin Lightning Wallet from anton kumaigorodski (search for it in the Google play store, it has a 4.7 star rating) and I personally consider this one to be the best. Only test it with lower amounts just in case.

If someone manages to empty your wallet.dat file then it's your fault entirely for being exposed to external risks, and not the bug that has been discovered. The bug only causes your client to crash, nothing more nothing less.

I completed the upgrade of my potentially vulnerable client, thanks for the heads-up. If these updates weren't conveniently placed on top of the forum page it would probably take a while before people actually know what's going on.

International payments is where Bitcoin really separates itself from the crowd.

If we look at every day aspects such as local payments and paying all kinds of bills, I don't see much use for Bitcoin to be honest. Fiat infrastructure here has never been as solid and convenient as it is right now.

Conducting payments based on fiat in my case means instant transactions, zero transaction fees, and various degrees of buyers protection. Bitcoin can't match any of this and for that reason doesn't stimulate me to use it.

Bitcoin's volatility makes things even worse. I like Bitcoin in more than one way, but we have to remain realistic and not hype it up where it doesn't outperform fiat. Bitcoin is and will remain the underdog.

The only downside of Coinbase in my opinion is that it isn't really a wallet, but a digital currency bank, which means that you don't own any of the coins until you withdraw them to your own wallet.

I use Coinbase quite frequently myself and it works incredibly well. In case my aforementioned point wasn't what you meant as being a red flag, please explain what you mean. Maybe that I missed something important.

Right. It would only make sense to upgrade your entire platform before severe network congestion occurs once again. Scaling to handle peak traffic as company is one of the most important aspects.

I want to see more of these bearish predictions. The more bullish drivel I read (and there is a lot of it that can be found here) the longer I think the bear market will last, especially without any event to trigger a rally.

Markets tend to do the opposite what the mass expects it to do, and right now they still aim at a bull run before the end of the year, and this can only work against them. It's pretty frustrating to see how ignorant some people are.

Maybe that a dip to $5000 will be enough to have them realize that we're not in a position to demand anything from the current market. I don't take anything for granted as long as we haven't broken out in a bullish manner.

Fiat has no equal at this point in terms of usability and relative stability. I see no reason for anyone in a stable country to use crypto over fiat, and I don't see it change in the foreseeable future.

Those in unstable countries will obviously need an alternative, but I'm not sure if crypto is that helpful to them. I have been to South America a couple of years ago, and most local stores were literally begging me to pay in USD.

The currency that people here dislike the most is offering more usefulness than crypto at this point. Crypto enthusiasts can disagree with this all they want, but there is no other way to put it.

It does concern actual Bitcoins.

Even if the demand is on the lower side, it's better than nothing. Everything that might help to reduce the availability of coin supply is a plus in my book, and remember, this only concerns one country.

In the coming years more countries will follow and offer people the same options, and the US might not even be that far behind when it comes to their 401k. Imagine what happens if it takes off based on solid demand.

I'm extremely bullish on Bitcoin and will continue to accumulate more. The lower the price sinks the more coins the same amount of fiat will allow me to buy, so bring it on bear market!

The past is the only way to somewhat understand what thrives this market and how likely or not likely it is to go through a seasonal run in the future. Guarantees don't exist here, but what else is there to fall back on.

Based on the past, we might be due for a run up in the coming month or so, and it seems that it's starting to pick up on social media as well. Not sure how effective that run will be with people expecting it, but we'll see what happens.

It won't wind me up, but certain people here can definitely use some positive vibes with how the bear market has done everything to test their patience to the maximum. Poor rookies.

I think it's time for people themselves to stand up and take things into their own hands, because there is no way that banks will help you to get involved in decentralized crypto currencies.

They are out to continue to function as central party where each transaction requires a certain form of permission and fee to boost their revenue and profits. Crypto goes against everything banks stand for.

Crypto is far from perfect as means of payment, largely due to the volatility and very limited scalability, but with second layer solutions we should at least come a little closer to our end goal.

People aren't yet interested in using crypto as means of payment, and that gives Bitcoin enough time to have the lightning network mature even further. Bitcoin's future looks brighter and brighter as time goes by.

Waiting for good news is pointless during a bear market with how every bit of positivity will be nullified in an instant. I rather see people remain realistic and not expect outrageous prices movements on the higher side.

I have lowered my expectations to such extent, that even if the price falls down to $5000 it won't bother me much. I'm literally prepared for anything and will only become bullish if we finally smash through the $10,000 mark.

Reaching the $10,000 mark is such an important psychological achievement, that it will bring the positivity back without the need of good news. Til that time keep dollar cost averaging.

The problem with crypto currencies isn't really how useful they can be, but more so their volatile nature. I honestly don't think crypto is a good form of payment, regardless of how fast or convenient they are.

Yes, you could say that crypto in general increases in value throughout the years, but people need a stable value currency day in day out, and not somewhere in the next couple of years. I wish it was different, but it isn't.

I think it's better that communities have their own stable crypto currency issued that at all times has an 'agreed' value of $1 per unit. It won't solve centralization completely, but everything is better than fiat currencies.

People here never fail to surprise me with their posts. If this was 2013 and maybe even 2014 the market might have given a shizzle about merchant adoption, but we're way past that stage already.

I remember how people were spreading fake news that Amazon was about to accept Bitcoin, lol. Noobs at some point really believed that. Threads were flooded with generic 'this is good news for Bitcoin' posts.

So much excitement but none of these noobs even use Bitcoin as currency. For them it's just good news because they think they can sell at a higher price. Say thank you to mainstream adoption to have these people here.

That's a pretty safe assumption, isn't it?  

Fact is that the more stable an asset becomes, the less relevant the spot market of that asset is. The majority of the trading and volumes will then grow around it just like what happened with gold. Bitcoin will follow that path.

Not sure if that's good or bad for Bitcoin per se, but it will will for sure make Bitcoin's limited supply less of a thing with how cash settled products have an infinite supply. The futures market is an early sign of what has to come.

The thing with people is that one day they believe that a stable price is important, and once we have a stable price for a longer while, they suddenly start to get bored and want the volatility back. People don't know what they want.

If something becomes so predictable that even lower tier traders start to pick up on it, we'll likely be close to a point at which the market will no longer react. I don't think we're very far away from that stage.

As far as I'm aware of, this month marks the last Vaneck ETF decision of 2018. If they once again delay their decision, it will be moved to Q1 of next year. I rather see them reject it entirely to make an end to all this speculation.

Most of what I have been reading here and on social media is whether or not the SEC will approve an ETF. It's working against the market with how everyone is overly bullish while there is no reason to be so.