Although I really like etherdelta, since it's a decentralized exchange. I think we actually need these exchanges to get more popular, because they would solve a lot of security problems with exchanges, and would avoid scandals like we had in the past, but I understand that they are still not viable options. Etherdelta is basically used for ERC20 tokens, and Bittrex is a very well know exchange, just like coinbase, and it's the best option if you want to trade altcoins, because not only has a lot of liquidity, it also offers a huge list of altcoins for you to trade.

I wasn't saying there were no transactions. I was saying that right now, the only real use for BTC is to be uses as a store of value. Even gold, that is also a store of value asset for excellence, has many other applications (like electronics, medical, dental and is even used in aerospace industry). The energy cost to mine gold, and to keep it safe, is probably bigger than the energy to mine bitcoin. But if we analyze all the practical uses gold has, then we will probably accept that it has a reasonable cost, to all the benefits it provides.

What I was saying about bitcoin, is that if BTC only works as an asset, and has no other practical uses, then one could argue, that it's costing much more than what its actually contributing to society. Like you said this is hard to analyze, and I'm not saying I agree with it. I actually think that bitcoin mining has a fair cost to benefits BTC brings to our economy.

What I was also saying, is that this last "argument", used by many, might fall completely if BTC manages to solve it's scalability problems (probably with the LN), and can present itself as a form of payment widely accepted by merchants.

As for how mining works, I think I have a basic knowledge about it. I know that blocks act as ledgers, and the transactions are stored there. A block can only be "added" to the blockchain, once it has been "validated". In order for that to happen, miners need to confirm transactions and put them in those blocks, and when everything is done, a hash is created and is also stored in the block. That hash itself is used to create the hash of the next block, so everything is "connected" and it's impossible to forge fake blocks because "everyone" would know that and reject them.

Miners "compete" with each other during this process, and who ever finishes it first, gets the reward.

Now, like I said I have basic knowledge about this, and as far as I know, this process of creating a hash would be way to easy, and all coins would be mined in minutes. This is where "proof of work" comes into place. A hash needs to look a certain way, and miners can change some part of data on the block, in order to keep trying to generate a hash that is valid.

Basically miners keep the network secure. I probably said a lot of bad things here. Like I said this is just my basic notion of mining, but even if any of this is wrong, I know that miners are crucial to keep the network safe.

I don't think bitcoin is here to replace dollar or any other currency. I think bitcoin is here to coexist with other currencies. The power of a currency normally represents the economic power of a country, so governments can't really stop backing a currency. We will always use fiat for payments, but now we can also have bitcoin as an asset to keep our economies safe. Bitcoin is a very innovative asset that can be used as a safe haven, and that also has the potencial to be used as a currency as well, but it is not meant to replace dollar.

I think this is incorrect, and if you compare bitcoin network electricity cost, and the fiat network electricity cost, you will probably realize that fiat is way more expensive than bitcoin itself. Electricity management is a problem for the environment, but every case should be analyzed by it's ratio in energy cost/utility for society. Bitcoin has an amazing potencial, and it's energy cost is justified for it's uses, and like I said, it's probably less than the cost to support our broken fiat model. Renewable sources of energy should be used, but that is important for everything and not just bitcoin mining.

I don't know how you can even say this. There is plenty of evidence that should alert you to stay away from bitconnect. Right now some of it's major promoters are cashing out (Trevon James, Sunny decree, cryptoNick, are just a few examples). Why are they doing this, have they stop believing in the project? I think the main reason for them to do this, is of course that they know this is just a ponzi scam, and since other users are realizing this as well, it's time to leave the boat before it sinks. This is just one of the reasons to stay away from this project right now, but even if you just look at what they are offering in their lending option, you should never get into it as well. What they offer is just impractical, and it's the same scheme as any Hyip out there.

I don't think it will ever come to that. I'm not saying that cryptocurrencies are not complex, we know they are because they are quite recent. Most people don't understand it's value, and have different ideas about them. Some call it a bubble, some say it's the revolution we needed in our financial lives, and regulators still don't know what to do with it.

So a lot of ground needs to be covered here, and we will definitely see some studies and education associated with crypto, and that will probably be held in several Universities and in different areas (economics, law, and why not computer science because of the blockchain, and electronics because of mining, etc, etc.), but I don't think there will ever be a major or a college degree dedicated to crypto. It's study will just be split among all the areas it relates to.

I'm divided here, and I think we need to have an open perspective about this. I know some of you already said that "a lot of Bitcoin mining is sourced by non-polluting renewable electricity", but if we consider that China is still the country that most contributes to mining, and that it's main source of energy still comes from coal-fired power stations, then I'm not sure we can really say that bitcoin mining is that environment friendly. I could be wrong of course, and let's not forget that China is also the worlds leading renewable energy producer, but these sources of energy still represent less than 16% of it's total energy production.

Of course that I wont just start criticizing bitcoin mining right away, because I think that we need to look at it's energy cost, and evaluate how useful it's energy consumption is to our society. Only after doing this, we can see if we are wasting energy or not.

Right now we don't really use bitcoin and we just store it. So from this point of view it could be kind of a waste of electricity. Obviously that we can't forget the potencial for bitcoin to be used as a currency as well, so if we ever get there, then it's energy consumption wouldn't look that bad anymore.

But let's imagine that bitcoin ends up being "just" a digital asset. Can we criticize it's energy consumption? All the other assets are tied to banks, exchanges, brokers, and then need to be converted in fiat in order to be used and are also tied up to services like Visa, Paypal, ATMs, etc. I don't know if anyone made this calculation already, but I'm quite sure that the energy cost of all these services together is much larger than the energy spent in bitcoin mining.

So, although we must not forget about the environment, and we should try to use as much renewable energy as possible, I think the the energy used to support the actual fiat system, is way larger than the energy used to support the bitcoin network.

Yes I understand that, and I agree with you right now. The thing is, that with larger adoption, and with a bigger market cap, bitcoin would get more stable. This is actually one of the problems that will always exist with the other coins like dash, bcash, etc, that are trying to become currencies before they become a real store of value, with a huge marketcap. US dollar alone has a marketcap worth of 1.5T if I'm not mistaken, and bitcoin is only at 130B. It's not even close to dollar, so of course BTC can't act as a currency with such a low adoption and marketcap right now.

The thing is, that even with slow transactions speeds, and moderate fees, there are people already using it to buy stuff. At least expensive stuff like houses for example. So it's already working as something that has value and is traded by goods. I don't need to use BTC to buy a tooth brush. Like I said it wont replace cash, and it doesn't have to.

If I can hod BTC as a safe haven, because it's decentralized and immune to inflation, and in the future I can buy expensive goods with it (not everyday grocery, because I can just use cash for that), then BTC will continue to have a future, and more people will adopt it. And yes, I used the word "adopt", and not "buy", because I think they express different concepts and points of view here.

I think the price would increase a lot. You can look to what normally happens to gold when a war is imminent. People normally buy it, so they can keep their investment safe, because they know their currency will probably be weaker during that war.
Since bitcoin is decentralized, people will do just that with bitcoin, and since it's easier to buy than gold, we will probably see even more people buying BTC than gold. You can also analyze what is happening in countries that are dealing with crises and inflation right now. The effect on their economy is the same as if they were facing a disaster on their country, and you see that they are turning to bitcoin as a safe net.

So if you go from local events to global ones, the effect is the same, but at a larger scale. So if what you are describing would happen, the price of BTC would have a huge increase in my opinion.

I like NEO, and it might still have a future but I think ethereum is better. It has good potencial with the raiden network, and yes I know it will take some time to deploy that, but Vitalik is probably good enough to deliver that. But for me, there is one huge thing that you just can't ignore on ether, that is the "network effect" or the "brand effect". People keep raising funds for ICOs through the ethereum platform, and they see it evolving, they see that institutional investors are starting to look at it, just like they are doing with bitcoin (although for completely different reasons), and in the end they will choose ether over Neo, because they will have more profits there.
You can change NEO for Dash, but I would change it for ether if you really want to sell your NEO. It's cheaper right now, I think it will be very strong in 2018, just like BTC.

I can tell you what helped me, when I realized that the exact same situation was happening to me. I told myself that if I wanted to get real about this, and risk my money, then I would have to spend more time studying bitcoin. How it works, what it is good for, how it is being developed, etc, etc. The thing is, that we all read news from different sources, and we just don't know in what to believe. There is a lot of FUD in crypto, and we can only feel confidant in holding once we make our minds about the investment we are doing.

Once we achieve that, and learn to filter the information, we see the price dropping because Jamie Dimon said some stupid things, and we just don't care. Now we are seeing that JPMorgan will probably issue bitcoin futures as well and we think I was right to hold. Don't get me wrong, I could still be completely mistaken about bitcoin, but for better or for worse, I have an opinion on BTC, that is strong enough to filter some of the FUD in this market.

Once you are able to do that, you will trust yourself more, and be able to decide based on your knowledge if you should hold or not.

You are correct, most users probably see bitcoin as a form of investment and not as a real currency. You can't really blame them, and although bitcoin may have been created to act as a currency in the first place, it is now following a different path. It's becoming a commodity that acts as a store of value. It actually suits perfectly in that category, and that's one of the reasons why everyone is getting crazy about it in Wall Street. It's gold 2.0 as a lot of people call it, and I think they are right for now.

Bitcoin can still work as a currency in the future, because it has potencial for that, if the network problems are fixed.
For me the big question is: if the network problems are not solved, will bitcoin have real use value, if it works just as a store of value asset?

I think that right now people are buying bitcoin for two reasons.
One, they just think it's price will go up (and this is of course a bad option in my opinion, because if the price stops rising and there is no real use for it, then there is no reason to hold, so people will sell and the price will drop).
Two, they think bitcoin will get mass adoption eventually and will act as a currency as well, that is way better than fiat because it solves many of it's current issues right now (I think i fit in this category).

So for me, the explanation of the bitcoin price, is in it's potencial to act as a currency in the future. It will not replace cash, but it needs to be able to be traded by goods or fiat, so it can really work as a safe store of value. People that buy bitcoin just because they think the price will go up, are missing the point.

I think that is just more FUD as usual, and the article finishes by saying that the story is not confirmed so I think we should discard it for now. Even if it was true, that would just mean that the miners would have to move to another country, and I'm sure there are plenty of countries that would welcome them right now. Russia still doesn't have a clear position on bitcoin, but it still seems that they are welcoming miners right now. If China follows this path, it will be their loss again, and I don't' think they will do this.

I think ether will cross the $400 mark soon, and will probably reach $600 or something like that. Regulation is helping both bitcoin and ether in my opinion. Big investors will love to invest in ICOs if they consider them safe. ICOs facilitate the fundraising process of new companies, and the only setback right now, is that there are still plenty of scams in ICOs, and financial authorities are still trying to solve these issues. If they succeed, then ethereum will have a massive rise.

ICOs are here to stay, and this is why Ethereum is here to stay as well because it's closely tied to them, so investing in ether is always a good option.
Vitalik is also well respected, and we all know how a good dev team is important for the success of any project. I 2018 will be a good year for both BTC and Ether in my opinion, and I'm quite bulish on both of them.

What you are asking is incredibly hard. I would suggest you look at the top20 coins of the coinmarketcap and study them. I would also exclude any coins that are "brand new", unless you are very familiar with the project. There are plenty of coins out there, that have been around for quite some time now, and could be trustable. You don't want to get caught in the next "bitconnect ponzi" coin.

I wont talk bout Bitcoin or Ethererum because you already have them, and they are of course the main choices right now, and have the greatest potencial. So for other coins, I would keep my eye on Dash, IOTA, Qtum, Monero and LTC. Any of these coins could be good for a long term hold, and they could actually take over bcash in my opinion.

I used to play in a lot of fiat poker rooms like pokerstars, FullTilt, bet365, titan poker, betfair poker room, party poker, and plenty of others, since some shared the same network and actually just used "skins" for their site. I ended up with your problem, and the majority of pokers rooms stop operating in my country because of license problems, and the same things happen with bet sites actually. This is when I started looking for bitcoin gambling, and I'm quite pleased with it for the moment. You won't find many poker players in these rooms right now, so it wont work out if you are a multitable poker pro of course, but it's still good to play from time to time and I would suggest you to try them out.

I used to play at betcoin.ag, but I stopped given the "scam reports" from users. Don't know if they are true or not, but I prefer not to risk it until their reputation gets good again. I would recommend you nitrogen poker, since the site is quite popular now, specially because directbet has closed. I heard decent things about cloudbet as well, but I would try nitrogen first.

Thanks for accepting me, already changed sig, avatar and personal message.

That is not necessarily true, because I think It all depends on the type of the investor. Some investors are very attracted by the bitcoin price fluctuations, because they know how to profit form it. It's not by chance that we are seeing more and more demand of bitcoin among the institutional investors, and for that reason we will now see bitcoin futures, and eventually bitcoin ETFs.

Also, if you look at ir carefully, although bitcoin has it's swings, it's overall trend is to increase its price, so it looks like a very good investment for long term. The only reason it has it's big dips and rises, it's because it's marketcap is still very small, when compared to god, or fiat (forex markets). For me bitcoin has way more potencial than gold, and people are starting to realize that.

I'm not really concerned about that war. Since bitcoin is decentralized, there is not really much governments can do about it. If they ban it, people can still use it behind their radars. If we don't mind paying fair taxes regarding bitcoin gains and expenses, there is not reason for governments to ban bitcoin, and it's better for them to keep it legal, so they can collect something out of it. As for banks, they just have to adjust, because they monopoly is over, now that we have the choice of using bitcoin.

For me the victories that need to be won are inside bitcoin. We need to solve the scalability issues, and we need to make mining environment friendly. Once developers manage to solve that, then we will be in the bitcoin era.

hmm I'm sorry but you are not making much sense here. Why do you say that those who were in bitcoin are broke now? Bitcoin is still way ahead bcash in price and marketcap. I was one of those that dumped bcash, and to be honest I don't really regret it, even thought I sold them around $600 and they are now close to double of that price.

I'm not in crypto just for trade and profit, I actually want to use them in the future, and although bcash might be better now, in terms of transactions and fees, the increase in block size is just not a good solution for long term, because it promotes centralization. Bcash is to centralized already for my taste, and it will get worst in the future in my opinion.