Yes, Bitcoin transaction fees can be reduced. Right now, Lightning Network which can make transactions almost free and instant is being tested on the testnet. Unfortunately, it will take some time before it will be implemented on the mainnet. It is mostly because of the fact that every wallet needs to implement support for Lightning Network. Fortunately, neither hardfork nor softfork is needed for implementing it on the mainnet.

It will take a lot of time before Lightning Network will be introduced on the mainnet. Currently, Lightning Network is being tested on the testnet. I did some tests by myself and it works great. However, LN is not secure if you don't understand how it works so if I were you, I would use this time for trying to understand it. Neither hard forks nor soft fork is needed for LN implementation. The biggest flaw is that wallet providers will have to update their wallets in order to make them compatible. I guess it will take half a year starting from today.

Oh please, don't call Bitcoin dead because we didn't make it to solve the scalability problem in time. Bitcoin developers still haven't introduced full support for SegWit transactions. I wouldn't be surprised if Lightning Network went live before the next update of Bitcoin Core which is scheduled somewhere around May. Bitcoin has a great potential and we can't get rid of it, not yet. If we declared our defeat, banks would be content and become confident of themselves.

I guess that many people here dreamed about Bitcoin many times. I also did and there were many different situations such as increasing/decreasing price, random incoming transactions to my wallet or successful trades with a huge profit. I'm not surprised because I spend a lot of time daily on reading news regarding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It would be great to see one of my dreams to come true. I would love to see Bitcoin reaching a few million dollars price.

I don't think we should advertise Bitcoin on TV. I personally stopped watching TV a long time ago because the Internet access become easy and cheap. I think we should leave Bitcoin advertising to people who are running exchanges and other businesses related to cryptocurrencies. I have seen a ton of advertisements on the Internet. Some of them were great, they showed the benefits of Bitcoin in less than 2 minutes. Unfortunately, some of them focused on profits, that's why many people start to become interested in crypto.

People won't stop sending transaction mostly due to decreasing Bitcoin value. After a while of thinking, I decided not to sell my BTC because of expensive and slow transactions. Bitcoin price should be back to normal soon. As far as I remember, Bitcoin value vastly decreased in September. It took 2 weeks before Bitcoin price was back to normal. What a shame that many exchanges still don't support SegWit, it could help a little. I hope that Lightning Network will be introduced soon, I have used in on the testnet and it worked great.

I'm very optimistic about Bitcoin's future in the next year. Bitcoin, this year, started to become more and more popular and that is a great sign. People started to understand that we need to get rid of current financial system which will probably fall apart soon. I can't wait for both wide SegWit adoption and Lightning Network which will definitely increase Bitcoin usability and popularity. Now, it's a hard time for Bitcoin which we have to survive. I hope that 2018 will be even better than 2017.

Online wallets aren't as safe as you think. You are not the owner of private keys if you use an online wallet. You won't be able to claim unsupported Bitcoin hard forks and the website you are using might get hacked some day. Offline wallets are the safest method for now. There are plenty to choose from. Software, hardware and even paper wallets which are much more safe than any web wallet such as Blockchain.info and Coinbase.

A lot of ordinary people who have heard only once about cryptocurrencies will probably give Bitcoin as an example. Bitcoin is the widest known cryptocurrency right now. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency so no wonder why they heard about it. Bitcoin got a lot of attention recently due to its increasing value. There a few good alternatives to Bitcoin but why would we abandon it if we can upgrade it and make it faster? Bitcoin is being used by hundred thousands of people, that's why it has problems with scalability.

It will interesting to see people paying with Bitcoin for their meals at McDonald's. I will probably try it to test how it works. Transaction fees are quite high right now but in the 2018 we will have both SegWit implemented by Bitcoin Core team and Lightning Network which is currency being tested on testnet and works quite well! Other fast food restaurant will probably adapt this idea right after McDonald's introduces it.

Yes, even though Bitcoin has just reached another ATH, it is a good idea to buy Bitcoin. Bitcoin value has been increasing a lot recently and this trend should continue in the next year. I was surprised when we passed $15000 mark. I was quite sure that Bitcoin will reach the maximum of thirteen thousand dollars. Bitcoin started to gain a lot of media attention which might result in wider acceptation and bigger demand. I wouldn't be surprised if we hit one hundred thousand dollars by the end of 2018.

Bitcoin has not failed yet. Did gold fail because of its high price of storage? No. We can't just abandon Bitcoin only because its transaction fees are high. We should focus on making Bitcoin cheaper in use. Transactions are expensive but we can't do anything if Bitcoin Core team still haven't implemented SegWit to their client. That's why many services don't use SegWit addresses. As far as I know, they claimed that the next update would be released somewhere around May.

I would recommend three ways of storing Bitcoin. The first one is using Electrum. Electrum is a free, open-source program which allows you to create an encrypted Bitcoin wallet. You will be given 12 word seed which will be useful in case you lose your computer. The second one is a paper wallet. It's also free and you don't have to use computer! The only thing you have to do is to generate your wallet and print it. The last one is a hardware wallets. In my opinion it is the safest and the best method to store your BTC. It's more convenient than paper wallet and also comes with a backup seed.

Why are you so stressed? Take it easy. If you are afraid of being hacked, buy a hardware wallet which will guarantee you security of your money. No one will be able to extract your private keys. I used to check exchanges rate a few times an hour but fortunately, I got over it. You don't need to check your PC all the time. There are many apps on Android and iOS which allow you to set an alarm when the price surges or reaches specific value.

I'm impressed that so many people use Bitcoin. I have been watching this community for a very long time and I have already seen a few important hard forks which were a serious threat to Bitcoin stability. Fortunately, Bitcoin is still in one piece. It's quite impressive that Bitcoin has become so popular this year. It gained a lot of media attention recently. I think that's good and it will have a good impact on Bitcoin.

I think that banks are already afraid of cryptocurrencies. Simply because it is a huge threat to them. Banks might be replaced in the future by them. The only purpose of the banks could be long-term storage of money. Bitcoin allows us to be our own banks, we don't have to trust third party anymore. I feel much more confident when I'm responsible for my life savings.

Why are you trying to compare things that were created for a different purpose? Ethereum is faster than Bitcoin and supports tokens (also cryptokitties!). I'm not interested in investing in tokens because you will profit more from Bitcoin. Bitcoin value is more probable to increase in the next time. The value of Ethereum strongly depends on Bitcoin. However, it doesn't mean that ETH is a waste of time. Take a look into it and you will love it!

In my opinion, social media have a great impact on Bitcoin growth and popularity. Many young people use social media every day so that is why it is a great place to advertise Bitcoin. However, we would have to try to think of a good ad which would encourage young people to invest in Bitcoin. Talking only about profits isn't a good idea because there is always a small chance that Bitcoin will crash.

It will be interesting to see eBay introducing Bitcoin as a form of payment. How would Amazon react? I wouldn't be surprised if they also decided to work on Bitcoin implementation. I'm looking forward to seeing it and I will definitely use Bitcoin as payment for what I order on the Internet. I'm only afraid of high transaction fees. Visa has introduced credit card based on Bitcoin Cash, hasn't it?

Why would we even try limiting Bitcoin use for only certain people? It would be disastrous. It takes a lot of time to understand Bitcoin but basics are easy to explain. There will be always some people who will say that Bitcoin is too complex but do you know the whole process of creating and distributing paper money? Not to mention managing the economy of the whole country.