This is an impossible question.  I would say not many because the value should go way up.  But it could go down to nothing as well.  I dont think it is likely but the point is tha tyou should never put all of your eggs in one basket especially where retirement is concerned.

It isn't a conspiracy theory that Goldman Sachs basically runs the USA government.  Why did no one go to jail?  Hank Paulson was CEO when Goldman was making all of these derivatives and then betting against them with AIG.  Who got appointed to government to oversee the crisis?  Paulson.   Look at who is appointed to what, and if it is a financial position it is usually held by a former goldman guy.

So yeah, Paulson isn't going to send himself to jail.  If you want to see a really good documentary on the subject check out "Inside Job."  It is a really good film, but also frustrating to watch.  And this is a global problem not just a USA problem.

Bitcoin banks would be an interesting thing.  Unlike traditional banks people seem to not care all that much where the bitcoin bank is located.  So if a government places regulations into effect that the bitbank does not like, they can just move their business somewhere else.  It might not even be all that difficult to do, at least compared to moving operations for a traditional bank.

I don't meet too many people tha tthink it is a scam, mostly I meet people that don't understand what it is or why it has value.  My general answer is "it has value because people agree that it does."  To this they may respond by saying its not backed by gold, or whatever.  But then I say that gold is only valuable because we all agree that it is.  Anyway that is hoe the usual conversation goes.

I don't think that you have to know anything about cryptography to understand how it works.  Its the same as your car motor: most people are not chemists or physicists, but you can still explain the basic mechanism to most people.  If the blockchain is explained in a way that is accessible then most people should get the idea. 

BTW am I allowed to be in two of those camps? 

So it seems to be true then that the distribution of bitcions is very concentrated to a few individuals.  This doesn't have to be a bad thing.  If you think about it the holders are not likely to dump large quantities.  Even an idiot would not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs like that.  There must be some "lost" coins as well, like that poor guy who accidentally threw away his hard drive.  So if you assume that the large owners will not willingly cause a crash, then what you have is an artificially created shortage of bitcoins.  This should make the price go up more quickly then it would otherwise, but it should also increase the volatility of price.  Smaller dumps would effect the price more than they might otherwise with a larger supply of available coins.

I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but when I was young the t.v. taught me that knowing is half the battle.  So I guess it is a good thing?

Guido that is exactly what I thought when I saw the thread title. 

I don't know if it will be specifically VC but it seems obvious to me that money will come pouring in at some point.  Banks, individuals, investors, hedge funds, who knows.  There stands a good chance to see a full blown bubble some time in the near future.  I only hope that we have a few years first so I can accumulate some more bitcoins.  I didn't really get in until the price when up so I am not holding very many of them.

This is sad but inevitable.  I don't believe bitcoin itself has anything to do with the decision to hack, it just makes collecting the money easier.  I am sure that there are other ways to transfer money.  This should be (another) wake up call for businesses to shore up their security against these attacks.

Because he is just spamming fud nonsense.  Feel free to ignore him, he clearly has no idea what the fork is or why it is being done.  His account along with some others here appears to have been created for the sole purpose of spreading fud.

That is a significant number.  I didn't realize there were so many people from Indonesia working abroad.  Is this unusual for a country?  It seems like more than an average country would have working abroad.  I think you are right and perhaps this is the reason for bitcoin's recent popularity in Indonesia.

I wish they would hold off for a year publishing this stuff on major financial news networks to give me time to accumulate more.  But this is good news to see it reported on in a positive light like this.  If it keeps up we can expect some positive action on the bitcoins and maybe even alt coins seen.

Bummer I was hoping this guy would quietly ride off into the sunset without screwing things up for everyone.  Fingers crossed over here that what he has to say isn't horrible, but I somehow doubt it will be good.

It is hard to say, being a nerd has become cool now a days so it might not be a horrible thing to do.  It also depends on the goal of the date.  If you are out for some tail then dont bother to mention it.  If you are looking for a relationship then mention it.  You want to find out right away if you are compatible and getting to your nerdier hobbies is a great way to filter out the shallow ones.

How cool would that be if we all woke up one day to an alert from Satoshi?

Excellent!  I wish more companies would accept bitcoins here in the usa.  I wonder if the classification of bit coins as an asset was a calculated move to prevent more companies from accepting it.  I imagine this might be a real headache for accounting departments versus just using cash.  Its great we see more and more of these stories all the time.  Thanks for posting it!

Good catch, that is pretty tough for me to see on that graph.  Will have to wait and see if the trend continues.  Usually some fluctuation is normal and nothing to worry about.  Plus the trend you point out seems really quite modest so let us hope that it is not significant.

I hear more in the news all the time.  I feel like there is a snowball rolling down hill right now and it is slowly turning into a monster.  I just hope I have a chance to accumulate some more coin before the next price jump.

I use it about the same.  I don't pay much attention to the price fluctuations.  I let the machines deal with that.  Besides most of what I do involves buying/selling hash on hashnest and things like that so it isn't a huge deal if the price fluctuates a little bit.

I for one certainly hope that you do not lose the value of your coins.  This whole things is a tempest in a teapot that is threatening to break free and become a full fledged storm.  My hope is that more people will bother to read up on what is actually happening, and then as a result will calm down.  I will admit that I was a bit panicked when I first heard about this.  But then I went through the trouble to read up on the details in stead of getting my information from a bunch of noobies posting on the forums.

Bigger block size is the obvious solution.  Higher fees might reduce congestion, but the fees would likely turn many off to bitcoin.  Problem solved? Sort of but the goal should be more people using bitcoins not less.  And higher fees only means one thing: less people using it and less people jumping on the bandwagon.

That is a complete misunderstanding.  Coins will not be doubled.  This is the kind of nonsense that is being spread that Litecoinguy is talking about.  Check out this thread.  There is an interview with Gavin and he explains everything pretty clearly.  It seems that our backs are against the wall and we can not afford any more delay on the issue.  That migh tbe why Gavin is being so aggressive:  something needs to be done soon or we will have real problems

Thanks that is a good story from a (sometimes) reputable source.  I agree 100% and I have no idea what these fudders think they are going to accomplish.  If they had been more subtle then maybe they might have convinced some people.  But they spread their crap around this forum in the most obvious ways possible.  Clearly someone didn't do their homework.  Its not a bad thing I guess. 

Thanks again for the story, and a sensible non-insane thread for once.