Just because of what happened yesterday doesn't mean that something has changed and whales are less relevant now.

We can only guess what happened just because it's likely to think in a certain (obvious) direction, while we might be completely wrong on this. It's easy to say for people here that bears got burned because they tried to trigger this or that reaction, but there is so much more that we don't know about that might have triggered that reaction, that blindly assuming x happened isn't the right way to move forward.

Psychological manipulation is just as important as physical (actual spot market) manipulation.

Oh ya, that's a possibility too, right? Imagine there being people that actually hold their Bitcoins because they believe that it will be a unit of value on its own. They must be crazy! 

Once people slowly but surely start ditching centralized exchanges everything will look a whole lot different. I'm sure articles will pop up stating that Bitcoin's userbase has increased with 1000% just because value-address distribution looks so much more healthy. Or what about articles by that time stating 'Large number of whales left Bitcoin'. 

No matter how intense the regulations overseeing exchange security are, they aren't able to detect bugs and whatnot that may lead to hackers stealing significant numbers of coins. The only thing these regulations in reality do is make it less likely for inside jobs to occur, but as we see frequently, hackers are just as much of a threat. You can't weapon yourself against that as exchange.

The only "good" thing about these thefts is that it decreases people's confidence in centralized exchanges, and motivates them to look into decenteralized exchanges. People really need to see centralized exchanges mess up in order to realize how bad they are and that their funds aren't safe over there.

I know we can't banish centralized entirely, but we can make people more aware of their importance. The more people start using decentralized exchanges, the faster they'll develop because more usage means more incentive to boost development of these exchanges.

Bitstamp is by far the best and most consistently stable exchange I have ever used. I signed up back in 2013 and there hasn't been one single moment they made me want to leave. It also happens to be one of the very few exchanges with actual USD volume that isn't insanely inflated by fake trades as all the other USDT garbage exchanges tend to do. In other words, it's the perfect exchange to benchmark.

The worst exchange I have ever known and actually used was Cryptsy which rightfully doesn't exist anymore, but the gap it left behind has been filled up by exchanges that are ten times worse than Cryptsy. I consider exchanges as Yobit and Cryptopia to be one of the worst ever exchanges I have seen, and the most ridiculous part is that they keep growing. It's pure insanity.

I don't think that legalty is the main obstacle, but rather a lack of understanding.

If you ask most stores if they are willing to accept Bitcoin as form of payment, they'll probably say that the volatility prevents them from doing so with how it is a serious concern. The lack of understanding comes down to the point where they don't know that there are payment gateways willing to take that risk away from them, and also that there is no need to deal with Bitcoin 'physically' if you don't want to.

By using a payment gateway as hedge, you in most cases aren't even subject to what the government thinks is right or wrong. You just receive every payment in fiat. That's how merchants in Russia are doing it to avoid government intervention and it seems to work extremely well for them.

Being regulated is a very subjective matter.

Most exchanges are operating on illegal basis because they don't comply with local laws that requires them to register and obtain the necessary licenses. Adding KYC/AML policies is only a smoke screen 'solution' to temporarily keep the authorities outside your operation. It really boggles my mind that the authorities have been so soft regarding how shitty the situation around current exchanges is.

Once authorities start to wake up and take their job seriously, we'll see what's left of the current exchanges. Binance will definitely feel it.

Coinbase and Gemini are the only exchanges that are truly licensed and regulated. They won't have to fear about anything.

It's not really related to manipulation why they don't want to deal with actual Bitcoins.

Most important factor is that there aren't any legacy players offering custodial services, and with how most investors can't be bothered with all the hassle that comes with storage, it's just not a viable option for them. Another factor is that most of the investors just want Bitcoin's exposure, and if cash settled products can deliver that exposure, there is no need for them to buy actual Bitcoin.

The same applies to myself as investor in the crypto space. I go long and short on altcoins frequently, and that without needing to buy the actual coins and install all sorts of buggy clients and whatnot. It's convenience.

Not only that, but 99.9% of the people here (goes up for miners as well) won't find out that there is a relatively serious bug if you don't shove it under their nose.

Good thing is that people are starting to pick up on this to update their clients. Bitcoin Core 0.16.3 is nearing 10% coverage as we speak. I hope before the end of the week that we're over 25% at least. I swiftly updated all my nodes to support the new changes and make the network a bit safer than it was.

I'm glad we have the most capable developers on our side that we can count on to deliver the best and safest possible software. Imagine how many bugs might be nested in BCash where their hill billy developers aren't even able to detect the most basic bugs. They owe the Core developers a lot for conveniently pointing the idiots over at BCash what's wrong with their software.

Tom Lee has done enough to lose most of the credits that were appointed to him months and months ago.

People should stop giving these people attention, because that's what they are after at the end of the day. Bitcoin is all about being responsible for your own actions and money, so what's the point of looking at these public faces and think they know more than you and me? They don't know shit. The louder people trying to 'sell' you any sort of advice are, the more desperate they are.

While everyone is talking about the bear market and how bad the situation for them is, smart/silent money accumulates more coins on the way down. Smart money doesn't need anyone to tell them whether or not it's a good time to buy, they can figure it out themselves.

It's not even partly solving the 'issue'.

If we look at how much money globally has been donated to charities of all sorts, and the problems these charities are meant to tackle but aren't tackling in reality, it's pretty much a waste of time and money. How is it that after a few decades you still don't see that you're not solving the underlying problem, but just delay it at most in some fields?

People need a platform to build on so they can develop themselves and spread that positive vibe (remember, positivity and productivity incentivizes others to follow), not be pampered with pocket change and be left in the same situation for many more years. Or perhaps it's part of the system to keep people poor, because remember, poverty is a form of suppression in itself.

The more financial possibilities people have, the more power they obtain, and governments might not want that to happen.

Why not? It may indirectly happen at some point.

Governments are tied to each other when it comes to conducting business on various levels, and the most convenient way to settle transactions is to use something that doesn't favor any government specifically. Bitcoin is neutral and that offers the possibility to conduct fair transactions, while right now every government is subject to potential shenanigans from a banking system that can't be trusted in any shape or form.

I'm actually expecting this sort of activity to take off in the coming few years. In other words, it's not only we as in the normal folks that are in need for decentralization.

It all depends on the domain extension, so it would help if you can point out which extension you want to know the value of. But then again, even if people here say it's worth $100 (could be any amount) the price in reality is likely to be far lower because in +95% of the cases nothing is being done with them.

The higher valuations mostly come from businesses wanting to develop themselves around a specific domain, and in case these businesses aren't in the market for your domain, you'll be left with something that has (mostly lower) speculative value only.

Well, less Bitcoin will reach x level before y date would put him in a better day light. 

I'm not really convinced of stock market crashes being a contributing factor either, especially with how they don't highlight why Bitcoin is a good asset to park capital in. Some of that money might flow into Bitcoin, but that money will flow out once the legacy market starts showing signs of recovery again.

You can't time it, that's right, but if you think logically, you shouldn't even want to time it. The only thing people need to do is to act right now and hedge fiat by allocating a chunk of their savings to Bitcoin. In case fiat really implodes, you're good. If fiat doesn't implode, you're good too with how Bitcoin will organically increase throughout the years. In other words, there is nothing to lose but everything to gain.

I have currently close to 75% of my net worth sitting in Bitcoin, and it feels great. I don't have to worry about fiat currencies imploding, no more forced haircuts (which is straight theft regardless of how one looks at it), and no more exposure to how shitty banks are, etc. This is freedom.

Bump.

I think you did a pretty good job for someone who hasn't even tried BitMex. It points out that you have the ability to calculate risks beforehand, which not many people can say about themselves.

BitMex is doing so well, that they can afford to settle themselves in an office that costs $5 million per year, which is mind boggling. This to me sounds rather like 'hello I'm rich now, so let me do whatever I want with my money' behavior, which isn't really convincing in my opinion. Considering that they are generating all their profits solely in Bitcoin, they are cashing out a large chunk to fiat in order to fund their expensive habits.

Correct. I think we are the point at which the network won't experience ridiculous amounts of growth anymore while the price isn't doing anything other than jumping up and down within the $6000-$7000 levels. By now the majority of those who ordered their hardware during the bull run last year have received everything and their hardware is up and running now.

It's good for the miners to have a relatively stable difficulty development during a market that's not willing to go up. There has only been one difficulty decrease this year, which was 3.45% back in Juli, but 14 days after that the difficulty jumped back up with nearly 15%. It ain't easy being a miner. One day you're counting your profits during a bull run with a thick fat fee reward on top of it, and the next day you're back into reality hoping for the price to go back up.

It depends. People are very easy tricked into believing that they will hold no matter what, but when the price goes down people start stressing out, and when bills pile up the far majority of these smaller miners will choose to liquidate some of their earnings to not end up in red numbers. Only the most hardcore hobby miners will have the patience and dedication to keep holding through a bear market, but there is a limit to all of it.

Cheaper electricity isn't always the leading factor. Large miners even with higher electricity rates can still be more profitable than those with lower electricity rates. One of the most important factors is how frequent a miner generates its blocks, and in case of Bitmain's pools, their operational costs are far under $5000 per coin.

I like Tim, but he's preaching too much speculative oinkie oinkie language in my opinion.

I rather see these perma bulls actively highlight how important it is to have people at least hedge a part of their fiat wealth using Bitcoin. Governments will mess up, and we'll yet again face tough economical times which as always, hits the normal folks the hardest. I did so years ago already and I'm pretty close to a point at which even if the economy around me collapses, I'm not much affected by it.

I'm not going to wait for governments to mess up. I know that it will happen so I took the right measures beforehand. People should do so too.

With all coins minted, and a value of $1 per coin, we're talking about a $21 trillion market cap. Based on Tim's $80 trillion estimate, that would put Bitcoin's market cap dominance close to 26%. Gold's current market cap is $7.3 trillion.

Let's first see Bitcoin hit $100,000 first before dreaming of $1 million.

In the end there is a party that broadcasts the transaction to the network through the internet, so it's not entirely bullet proof. I have yet to come across something that's truly censorship resistant. That however doesn't mean these semi offline networks aren't useful. I have seen a demonstration where its usefulness peaks in areas hit by natural disasters and whatnot.

What I am looking forward to is the day that a wide range of compatible hardware wallets will allow you to swap preloaded private keys in a direct peer to peer manner. Benefit here is that no one externally will notice that coins have been put to work because nothing happens on-chain, while in reality the coins may have had hundreds of different holders already. I don't think we're that far away from seeing this become reality.

That's not a reason. At any time a spam attack or a massive increase of use can get initiated and we're back to square one. If you look back at the mempool charts, it's clear that it happens periodically, and we're not that far away from our next transaction peak cycle.

In the end, it's all about increasing Bitcoin's throughput, and by not allowing Segwit to be utilized more widely, you are basically contributing to people paying unnecessary high fees.

Lol, a domain change is peanuts. Don't act like it's something that causes significant delays when it comes to more important matters.

Coinbase in the last 12 months went through way more fundamental development and changes than Blockchain in its entire existence, and Coinbase still did it.