Developer Chris Belcher thinks he's found a way to fix bitcoin mining – and it notably takes its inspiration from the network's much-discussed Lightning Network proposal. The idea is notable in that it showcases both the evolving nature of bitcoin as a technology, as well as how its developers are finding new ways to explore long-established issues. For example, while the Lightning Network was proposed for tackling bitcoin's infamous scaling hurdles, Belcher believes the concept could help decentralize mining, thereby strengthening the protocol's value proposition as an censorship-resistant money. CoindeskUsing LN to pay small miners seems like a perfect fit -- small, recurring payments between directly connected LN nodes are like the picture-book use case of LN. But while it may solve one of the issues that make P2Pool less attractive than centralized mining pools, I doubt that this improvement would be enough for a significant number of miners to switch to decentralized mining pools. Centralization concerns tend to fade-away once it's less convenient than the other options.
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government regulation of major countries such as china, us, russia will shake the market
if the cryptocurrency could not attach in
you mean the same shake as the "government regulation of Japan" did to the market? then yeah, it will shake it pretty good. the market will wake up from its sleep of small rises and will shoot up to the moon if they do what Japan did and regulate bitcoin. we can expect $100,000 per coin by that time. Ah yes. This is actually good news!™ While I generally find it very positive that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies start to find their place in the legal frameworks of the world, not every regulatory attempt may be as sane and benign as Japan's. I doubt that the USA, Russia or China will try to kill off Bitcoin any time soon, but politics can be fickle if you're on the wrong side of whatever is currently being lobbied.
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As I have understood, in order for one to be able to buy Altcoins, one must first own BTC or ETH. What is the reason for this?
Many of the larger and more established alt coins can get bought directly via USD / EUR as well. Kraken for example has fiat trading pairs for LTC, XMR, XRP and a few other alts. Bitstamp offers fiat trading pairs for XRP and LTC. I guess a lot of alts don't have enough volume to warrant dedicated fiat trading pairs however, so naturally BTC or ETH are the better fit. Also note that the exchanges with the largest selection of alt coins usually don't have a direct connection to the traditional banking system.
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I think BTC has a fair chance of reaching USD 30k,- at one point, but I'm not sure whether 5 years are going to be enough. It will largely depend on whether Bitcoin manages to become a more mainstream mean of payments / established form of investment. The first requiring a solution to the scalability issue, the second requiring a stable market for the bigger part of the next few years. It depends on if Bitcoin solves its scalability issue. If it does, it will rally much higher. If not, it can potentially be taken over by another coin.
The good (or bad) thing is, that I'm not seeing any of the alts solving this problem much better either.
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1- ETF: if it gets approved we might easily go to 10k
Most likely already priced in, unfortunately, so might not help us short term. In the long term however, very bullish of course. Yes, but there is a big reputation gain if and when it will get approved. Maybe you are right, it will improve over time The infrastructure has come a looong way since 2013, that is very true. However definitely not the only reason for the crashes of days of yore.
Don't forget localization. in 2013 if my memory serves me right was almost non existent (english or die) Regarding market cap Bitcoin is already in the ball park of S&P 500 companies. Unless you mean the whole market of course ![Grin](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/grin.gif) I am thinking in terms of .com bubble. During that time there were some pretty crappy companies that had much less usage and utility than bitcoin with billions of market cap. Not comparable to our crypto space, where just a handful pass the billion. And regarding the growth, don't forget BC never had an 'IPO' or an analyst that said... this should start from 5000$. It started from 0...With 0 investments. Good points. Keep in mind that crypto has its own little dot-com bubble of crappy companies right now (*cough* ICOs *cough*). I'm positive that the long-term effect on Bitcoin itself will be limited though. For the rest I guess mine are only opinions to balance the overly pessimistic view of the OP (which might well happen). But when I hear that bitcoin will go down to 200$ I can't but think that there is a bit of schadenfreude (again to use the op language) because noobs (including me as I never really invested in bc before) did not pass those painful 3 years.
I think it's less about Schadenfreude and more about preparing newcomers for the worst. Making sure that people don't overreach in their investments and keep a level head. It's all fun and games until the bear market strikes and I don't think many of the new community members are fully aware of what they are potentially getting into. Seeing how some people get skittish when Bitcoin makes as much as a sneeze a reminder like OP's seems well placed. A stable market needs strong hands and clear heads, everyone loses once things get emotional.
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[...]
Second, the law is flawed. If I want to pay cash for something over 3000euro I could just arrange installment payments...I'll pay you half (or whatever denomination under 3000euro) today, another installment tomorrow or next week and so on.
How could they police this shit?
Such a silly law.
Good luck trying to find a merchant willing to do this. And if you have to pay a large sum, say EUR 10k,-, it will take you a lot of roundtrips until you have paid off each installment. They know that there are ways to move around laws like this. They are just trying to make using cash as inconvenient as possible, to nudge consumers towards payments they can more easily track, ie. credit and debit card payments.
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The final paragraph of the article regarding the end of Bitcoin by 2040 is a bit weird: Der Experte nennt ein Datum für das Ende der Bitcoin: Da derzeit etwa 16 Millionen Bitcoin im Umlauf sind, die Obergrenze jedoch auf 21 Millionen festgelegt ist, wird das Ende der Bitcoin-Schöpfung seinen Berechnungen zufolge etwa 2040 erreicht sein. "The expert calls a date for the end of Bitcoin: Since there are currently 16 million bitcoin in circulation with the maximum supply being 21 million, the end of bitcoin-mining will, according to his calculations, be reached by 2040." I wonder if the conclusion that the end of block rewards automatically means the end of Bitcoin came from Schamir or from Businessinsider. Either way yet another prime example of a fundamental misunderstanding of how Bitcoin works.
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A few counterpoints to ragnar0k's additions: So, a couple of points that were not considered 1- ETF: if it gets approved we might easily go to 10k
Most likely already priced in, unfortunately, so might not help us short term. In the long term however, very bullish of course. 2- Bearish market: I don't think we know where we are... Countries are legalizing bitcoins as we speak and the only real crash we had was because infrastructure at the time was pathetic (I mined a bit but I lost the coins when the hard drive died, don't think there was even a reliable wallet back then without downloading the full blockchain) The infrastructure has come a looong way since 2013, that is very true. However definitely not the only reason for the crashes of days of yore. 3- Market standard: The current bubble is high for bitcoin standards, but we are a long shot from wall street standards...
What do you mean? ![Smiley](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/smiley.gif) Regarding yield I don't think any wall street stock has seen growth like Bitcoin in such a short timeframe, not even during times of bubble. Regarding market cap Bitcoin is already in the ball park of S&P 500 companies. Unless you mean the whole market of course ![Grin](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/grin.gif) 4- Financial attention: We might get into trade market. Russia is looking into this and US might get there too... First lobbies are starting to form on a government level for bitcoin support I believe it when I see it. But true, things are moving in the right direction.
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Excellent post and I fully agree with OP. Keeping a level head and having realistic expectations is important for the community. The more people kick common sense out of the door, the more likely it is for Bitcoin to spectacularly crash. The harder Bitcoin crashes, the longer it will take for the market (including alt coins) to recover. So stay safe out there, fellow Bitcoiners and crypto-enthusiasts! Don't let yourself go into a bubble mania when the price rises and keep calm when the big dumps come! [...]
I am doing USDT.
USDT is a ticking timebomb, be careful with that. I wouldn't be surprised if the next major crypto crash / bear market would get triggered by USDT running fractional.
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USD 5000,- will be a tough nut to crack for 3 reasons:
1) There's only so much fiat that can enter the market and right now it seems like most prospect investors have already invested as they seem fit.
2) Short to mid-term there's little room to grow past USD 5000,-, so risk / reward is not as attractive as a few months back.
3) USD 4000,- still needs to establish as a new, stable bottom. This will take time.
However once USD 4000,- has become the new baseline (if it becomes the new baseline) prospect investors will have reloaded on fiat and the risk will be seen as lower, making risk / reward more attractive again.
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Alright then, very bullish. I guess it's time to lock some profits in and sell some BCH now. Thank you for your service, kwuk!
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Hi,
Do you believe that the price of bitcoin could rise so much to become 1 satoshi = 1 US cent? Some folks are saying BTC will reach 25$K in 2 years and Half a million in 5.
Wake up and be realistic as much as you can. Bitcoin can't be $500k and 1 satoshi will never be equal to 1 dollar cent. Within 5 years, we can see bitcoin as $50k at most if we don't be affected by governments and countries. Yep, while pretty much everything goes in crypto, 1 BTC = USD 500k,- is completely off-limits unfortunately (unless the USD gets hit by hyper-inflation, of course). With 1 BTC being worth USD 500k,-, Bitcoin would roughly equal the estimated market cap of gold, which, while awesome, is rather unrealistic. But even keeping this in mind there's still a lot of room to grow compared to traditional investments. Assuming that USD 50k,- are within the ball park for BTC, that's still an incredible value proposition given current valuations.
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Yeah, I also don't think you should do trades at the moment if you feel uncomfortable with the market situation. One can only trade well when one is confident. It's absolutely okay to wait on the sidelines from time to time and its absolutely recommended if you're not at the top of your game.
That being sad, if that looks like a bear market to you, you're in for a treat once shit gets real.
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Look at the bright side, getting rid of weak hands ensures healthier growth and helps Bitcoin in the long term. You gotta prune the tree every now and then if you want to see it grow high and tall.
Has anyone kept count how many times China "banned" or "unbanned" crypto? I kinda lost track over the years.
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I completely agree. If mixers like ChipMixer start getting more popular and even possibly get fully integrated into wallets such as was attempted with the Electrum wallet it would completely change the meaning of using one. Rather than them being seen by the average person as trying to hide something or as possibly money laundering, it could completely remove the negative stigma held against it.
Future of bitcoin mixing is mixing embedded in the wallet. It is hard to imagine browser without https support. It will be hard to imagine bitcoin wallet without mixing. Any interesting projects that are currently working on this? Adding a mixing layer on top of Bitcoin doesn't sound like a trivial task.
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No they will not. Most other countries are likely to follow the same course of action or at least put some form of regulation on ICOs. Most ICOs are garbage altcoins to begin with so there isn't anything to take advantage of.
Exactly. The same is unfortunately true for crowdfunding in general, not just ICOs. While I love the idea of innovation through grass roots movement, the sad truth is that most of those "innovators" wouldn't pass even early VC rounds for a reason. So in the end ICOs do little for meaningful projects that would get funding or at least community support anyways and do a lot for scammy ventures that purely feed on greed without offering anything in return.
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I have not posted here before, so maybe no one will reply, but I'm still trying to wrap my mind around why China's decision to ban ICO's had such a huge impact on the value of cryptocurrency in general. Seems unrelated in a sense...I am a huge believer in what bitcoin can offer...are ICO's undermining that effort?
It seems unrelated because it most likely is. To be honest, I don't think China's ICO statement was the cause of the current dip. It's only natural that a correction would occur after a new ATH, especially with a psychological barrier such as USD 5000,-. People always try to find an explanation after the fact and sometimes occurrences such as China's ICO statement simply seem to fit.
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This party is going to end -- or rather, take a break -- sooner or later.
So I'd say USD 3.5k,- with people panic selling under falling skies on one side and people scooping up coins for the next rally on the other. The question being how far up we can go before that.
You are into a everlasting party and I guess your life time will not be enough when this party will be ending lol. It is too early to call for people to get panic. Even some people will get panic, rest of people will cope up the downfall to keep bitcoin prices to sustain. This way I am not seeing any possibilities for prices to come down in near future. I am staying with OP as there are plenty of possibilities for the prices to hit $10,000 levels once the scheduled November month enhancements will be implemented. Like I said, the party is more likely to take a break than to end. Someone's has to go for a beer fiat run sooner or later ![Smiley](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/smiley.gif) November is still going to be critical though, with SegWit2x vs SegWit I'm afraid the community divide is even bigger than last time. Unless you're referring to Lightning Network, in which case, yeah, once LN is live the party will just get started.
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It sort of gets rid of all the tension and makes it look more realistic, and wipes out a lot of the irrational actors...
I still don't know if the is a bump on the way to the ATH though.....
Well they do say that Markets "climb a wall of worry". The bitcoin price rose too fast - from $300 to $4900 in just a month. So if it consolidates for a while at the current price, it will allow it to form a new base price on which to build further rises later in the year. Definitely. The current price levels still need to sink in as the "new normal". Knowing Bitcoin though, it won't be long until it tries to make another break for USD 5k,-. Question being, where we'll go from there. Breaking through too soon could lead to an unhealthy mania. Failing to break USD 5k,- could turn the sentiment bearish and lead to a reversal.
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This party is going to end -- or rather, take a break -- sooner or later.
So I'd say USD 3.5k,- with people panic selling under falling skies on one side and people scooping up coins for the next rally on the other. The question being how far up we can go before that.
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