At the end of the month, I'll fly to Budapest for some heavy dental work, and I'm planning to pay with BTC. Has anyone ever paid his/her dentist with BTC? The dentist I'll see mostly has foreign patients traveling to Hungary because it's much cheaper, so BTC would be convenient for many of them. Any argument I could use to convince my dentist?

I've noticed that some people sell Amazon gift cards at Paxful and LBTC for crazy rates.  For instance 1 BTC can be traded for $600 in Amazon gift cards.  What's the catch   Why are they selling so cheap?  It appears that the work from feedback. 

The thing that will destroy Bitcoins is simple. It will be the bloated size of the blockchain. Soon the blockchain will be so large, that we will need centralized "housing" to hold it. We will have to trust "Central" to state what is in the blockchain every time we want to use Bitcoin. And, this is the thing we are trying to get away from - centralization.

The blockchain is almost 70 gigabytes large right now. Imagine what it would be like if people around the world traded something like the Forex on it.

Someone better figure out a way to make it a whole lot smaller, and fast. Why fast? Because when fiat collapses, a lot of people will jump into Bitcoin. The blockchain will surge in size. In a short time it will be too large to use.

One solution that I can see would be to keep the current blockchain in total, on several servers around the world, including any person who thinks he has enough hard drive space to store it on, and enough bandwidth to handle all the transactions that hit Bitcoin at once. At the same time, implement a new kind of blockchain that keeps only a record of the first use of a new address, and, say, the last two uses of it. Everything else is deleted. This will be a reasonable solution, I think, until a better kind of blockchain can be developed.

What does anybody think about this?

What ideas do you have for overcoming this problem?

---

Okay. From the comments we have more points. So far we have...

1. Blockchain size for storage and downloading;

2. Number of transactions causes impractical updating of the blockchain because of bandwidth limitations;

3. Impractical confirmation time without a fee;

4. Unreasonably long confirmation time even with a fee;

5, (more?).

Have you dreamed about Bitcoin before? Well, recently I dreamed that someone sent me 5 BTC to my Mycelium wallet. I told my friend (in the dream) that those Bitcoin worth around 3000 USD. If that was true ... One Bitcoin is equal to 600 USD in my dream.

Well, I hope the dream come true one day - be it free 5 BTC or 600 USD per Bitcoin.

Without a defining killer app, I am confident that Bitcoin will, in fits and starts, inevitably return to its 2009 levels. It would be pointless to guess how long that process will take; or when that killer app will appear although I am also confident it will appear at some entirely unpredictable point.

I'm easily old enough to remember the very early days of personal computers. I remember a story from The Wall Street Journal in which a reporter interviewed a small-business owner (I think an auto-repair shop) who had bought an Apple II. The reporter asked the man what he thought of his purchase. The man stared glumly at the Apple for a moment and then sourly commented: "The damn thing just sits there."

Exactly. The world was just never going to buy into a command-prompt environment in a really big way. But the Mac came along and then the world began to change. (Be like the Mac! Bill Gates commanded his troops developing Windows 95.) And so it will be with Bitcoin. The world will never buy into it until an environment comes along that makes it easier, safer, and a lot more fun to use. Until then, the price will suffer periodic whale-dumps and then sort of bounce, spurt, and finally just roll along long enough for people to start talking (again) about "Bitcoin's recent price stability." And then yet another whale-dump will splash the water and the retroactively obvious cycle will begin again.

If you decide to go, then you will miss out on the killer app that will send Bitcoin to the moon and beyond. If you decide to stay, then you will watch the value of your stash just ebb away before your eyes. That choice defines your control.

As for me, for now I'm going to stay. But I've got Coinbase and can go in a second. That could happen at any time too.

[Comment added June 23, 2015:

My conclusion: stay. The blockchain itself will be the killer app upon which all other apps and bitcoins' fiat value will depend.]

but nobody gives a shit about it:

It seems that experts say that Bitcoin 'Here to Stay,' But Banks Could Disappear.


"TheStreet: How do you think FinTech will impact the way banks operate?

Frank Schwab: Banks either react on, or they will disappear. Anyway, the consolidation of the banking industry accelerates as the behaviour of people changes. Some banks will benefit from [FinTech], some will be pushed to the back end, and some will disappear."
http://www.thestreet.com/story/13419089/1/bitcoin-here-to-stay-but-banks-could-disappear-says-fintech-expert.html

What's your read on that?

There's a consistent theme that I see popping up on here that I find rather fascinating, and that is the way that many posters perceive BTC.

What do I mean? People doing things with BTC that they'd never, ever dream of doing with their dollars - gambling as an 'investment', or gambling at all, pouring coins into bullshit investment schemes run by totally anonymous showers of shit, lending on here to shambolic morons, asking the question 'where do I get free coins?'

Considering how much of a pain up the arse it can be to obtain coins and keep them safe and their future potential, I find it bizarre that there's such an extreme disconnect. I would've thought it should be at the opposite end of the scale but that's clearly not the case for many.

Why do you think this attitude has developed and where do you stand yourself?

I don't know about you guys, but more and more often I find myself dealing with numbers like 0.004 BTC, 0.05 BTC, etc. in everyday transactions. I hate decimals and I think most of you are in the same boat as me. Our brain works much better with whole numbers. Given that 1 mBTC is in the same order of magnitude as 1 USD, why don't we start measuring our transactions in mBTC?

I have considered telling my family and some of my friends about Bitcoin but whenever I've tried, they fail to understand why it does have value and why it is extremely important specially in the current socioeconomic context.. they don't get it and see it as something really strange. Needless to say I wouldn't tell them to put any money on it. In a way it feels like im keeping something amazing to myself, but at the same time, I don't want to put people into the pressure of holding through rallies long term because most people aren't cut for that.

How to introduce Bitcoin to absolutely clueless people and is there even a point? Should we just let time pass and wait for them to naturally learn about it once it goes more mainstream?

What are your opinions on paypal or bitcoin for online shopping?

I see more and more acrticles of bitcoin being used for illegal activities
will this hurt bitcoin in the long run , will governments ban this just like they started to do wih paying in cash for some services
to harden the use of illegal , and money laundering

so, we are the first "Bitcoin Generation" ?

i heard many Cryptocurrency but why people mostly use bitcoin?

The bear market has lasted long enough. I predict 2016 is the year where bitcoin finally breaks through, both in price and in mainstream adoption.

The fork issue is a distraction. It won't kill bitcoin. The majority will eventually choose what fork they want to use, whether it is the original, or XT, or some third option.

I see the fork issue as silly infighting which only hurts bitcoin. I want bitcoin to succeed, that's what I care about, not what version of BTC I use. I will go with the majority, whichever fork is chosen.

I feel so relieved that BTC is rallying once again. I was getting concerned, though my hopes were up that it would rally soon. I kept guarded hopes.

After all the drama, I wondered what would happen. With my mining altcoins and then turning them into BTC, I wondered if it was going to be actually

worth anything shortly after that bearish market recently. Also, I had invested some in Bitfinex and beared down to Minus 21 cents for a few days.

I was becoming VERY concerned. It recovered beautifully to Plus 21. I was so happily surprised for that. That indicated that the market went bullish

once again. Not going to reinvest, not likely until there were enough bears to justify to buy as low as possible then to pull out once it again goes

bullish.

what you will chose amomg them.and why do the banks are afraid of bitcoin.why banks are not much smooth and faster like bitcoin.if banks start accepting bitcoin as payments then will it became a revolutionary for us?can bank can solve our mining or money curculation probems.

I began my career in the bictoin . In 2010 the bitcoin was worth 0.01 euro , now a bitcoin worth 400 euros. I ask myself a question: what will be its value in 2020 ?.

A friend told me that its value will be 10,000 euros.

Sorry for the spelling for I am french .

Thank you for your replies

I know I have posted something like this before, but this time I'm adding more descriptions, because I left out lots of details.

I want to earn 0.1BTC-0.3BTC in a month at most. I am 13 years old, so I do not have any bank account, so I can't spend any $$.

I am willing to do activities such as signature campaign and stuff.
Things to answer for me:
1. What is the highest paying signature campaign that I can participate in?
2. Any place where I can loan Bitcoin?
3. Any other ways that I can earn bitcoins FAST?

Things To Know....
I can program JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Processing JavaScript pretty well.
I spend 10+ hours everyday on my laptop.
I'm very determined. (Willing to do almost anything.)

My address is: 15k9H74VrEVGndYrrgHoDBkzBv5CNY1ukc
and donations are very appreciated!