Anything...and I mean anything that is getting FUD'd this relentlessly...while simultaniously being pushed down by whales I might add...is something you really want in your portfolio.

The dev team is 100% open with the coin and upcoming plans. There's no shady rumors to toss around, so they are literally resorting to almost childlike taunts. It's quite adorable really. And I'll keep accumulating more VRC out of their conveniently offered sell walls.

Darn. I was just about to x-fer some BTC and see exactly how badly that whale wanted to keep pushing the price down.

Who knows, there's a lot of variables. Google 'Executive Order 6102' and then tell me what you think.

Fun fact: Out of the amount of US dollars 'on record', as in sum total balances of accounts etc, there is only enough physical money to represent 3% of it.


People are already accustomed to not being able to touch it...they just don't realize it.

I think there is much truth to this. Even though Bitcoin has the long term capability to largely render a massive amount of PayPal's business obsolete, they are a trusted household name and by integrating Bitcoin ahead of the crowd stand a very good chance of gaining a large market share. Adapt or die, and they are opting for adapt. In a speculative 'down the road' hypothetical situation, where mass adoption of Bitcoin has become a reality, I suspect it will look much the same as the history of credit cards.

With credit cards, each store had their own at first, mostly large department stores. This is the equivalent of the individual businesses accepting Bitcoin. Then came the "Diner's Club" cards, which could be viewed as the equivalent of PayPal becoming involved, wider range of use, but still somewhat limited. The next step then would be sometime later major financial institutions getting on the Bitcoin wagon, essentially paralleling the birth of Bank Americard...or what we now know today as Visa. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Breaking news...Last night someone sneaked into the Library of Congress and chiseled all 73,954 pages of the United States tax code into stone tablets. More at eleven.

I could think of a dozen different perfectly rational reasons for that dump that would all be completely lacking in any evidence to imply a strong and sudden reversal.

Besides, if we really are repeating history and do for another spike soon, we're also due for a couple days of pretty impressive flash crashes. I would not be surprised to see a price under $480 one or twice in the near future before the spike.

I think this is correct.

When you want to catch a train, you don't show up at departure time and jump on as it's pulling out of the station. You get there early enough to make sure you have a nice seat. I think when we broke the down trend May 19th, a lot of people decided they wanted to make sure they had a good seat. Timetable therefore accelerates somewhat.

Relatively speaking, I think we are essentially in right about the same place we were on October 20-22, 2013. Wouldn't be surprised to see a bear trap in between now and then either, though I'm not going to count on it.

They don't have to. The financial industry shares so much information about account holders amongst themselves that a bank halfway around the world that you never even heard of knows more about your financial history that you yourself probably know. That system and way of doing business has been in place for so long it is second nature, borderline hivemind, collected about you since the day you first had an account anywhere in your name.

Bitcoin exchanges are newcomers to this arena and way of doing things, and have to 'start fresh', so to speak. Hence the invasive seeming questions.

Most of the questions fall into the 'cover your ass' category of information they need to have available to provide in the event of a regulatory inquiry. Almost any BS answer will likely be acceptable for them, as they simply need something to 'fill in the blank' that looks somewhere within shouting distance of accurate. Having a massive blank there is a huge red flag that is a liability for them, having literally anything there allows them to meet their regulatory obligations. It's the job of the regulatory agencies involved in any inquiry to play connect the dots, should there ever be reason to do so. Bitstamp's only obligation is to provide dots.

While you might consider it anal, the plain and simple fact is that should Bitcoin ever gain true mainstream traction, you will see more of this simply due to the fact that no financial system of any sort is going to go mainstream without meeting some level of regulatory standards. All of this is information that is the same type of information that is 'free-floating' in the mainstream financial system, you simply aren't regularly asked questions like this because the banks already have a system in place that creates the obligatory paper trail and have for years. It's so interwoven into the fabric of international banking we don't even notice it anymore. Bitcoin will need to step up to this level to become truly 'mainstream'.

I mostly lurk, rarely post, but as someone who has been involved in the KYC compliance changes for one of the worlds largest financial institutions, I'd just like to say this:

This is quite literally textbook FinCEN foundation, and I would actually take this to be a good sign. It means that Stamp is taking the necessary steps (including a fair bit of 'catch-up') to be in compliance with US money laundering regulations that would place it on the same level of credibility as an international bank. Personally, while it might be a bit of a chore at the outset, I consider this a very good sign long-term.

Your logic is something akin to saying "If Exxon goes bankrupt, the price of oil will crash completely and it will be pennies per barrel".

Call me crazy, but I think your theory might be slightly flawed.