At that point it will be even more useful as a currency.  People will start to spend it, use it, and transact in it, not having to trade out to fiat.  Whether that point will be $500,000 or $5,000,000 is an open question, but it will probably be in that range. (Excluding of course the effects of inflation which will make it higher). The sooner it gets there, the better for everyone who owns it, and most importantly, better for the world.  Bitcoin takes power from those who have used government to seize it and gives it back to the smallest minority in the world, the individual.  

As above, to the OP, bitcoin is freedom.  Every person can use it as they wish, however and for whatever they wish.  Bitcoin isn't about "control" or complaining about someone using it in a way about which you don't approve.  Don't like it?  Too bad.  

The only quibble I have is that you called them journalists.  They are not journalists, they are political hacks and operatives who want power and want to support those who would do things like regulate bitcoin instead of letting people be free to live their lives as they see fit without taking directives from Brussels or DC.  In short, they want the ant heap of totalitarianism instead of the freedom that many other people want. 

Of course a statist authoritarian like convicted felon Lagarde would want to regulate something that gives people the freedom to live their lives and allows them to protect themselves from criminals like her.

Then again, Europe continues to keep her in power, so what does that say about them.  Kind of like the US electing a corrupt individual like Biden.  The difference is that Biden has a ton of protectors, at least for now, until they are ready to get rid of him for his equally corrupt and power hungry VP.

Hong Kong, etc too. Pretty much anywhere where it could happen people should own some bitcoin.  If the President of the US who has billions can be blocked by Stripe for payments, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc, then no one is safe anywhere. The fascists are having corporations do their bidding to cancel anyone who dares object.

Digital Chinese or other state backed cryptos are worthless since they are centralize and can be frozen.

The odds are that *investors* won't be selling.  The companies you see buying it, GBTC etc are buying for the long term, not trading.  They are buying because of the long term benefits - protection against inflation, appreciation, protection against seizure, capital controls etc.

The traders on the other hand are buying and selling daily, maybe hourly, maybe quicker.  There is place for trading for sure, but there is a big difference between trading and investing.  The traders who are buying on the margin and then getting wiped out when it drops to low before rebounding are just compounding the volatility.

If you are hesitant, don't do it because you might get scared when it goes from $40k to $30k in two days and then sell at 30k, and miss the rebound to $36.2k now.

Or just buy 10% now and 10% each week.  Sure, you'll miss a run-up if it goes up, but you'll also miss the down if it goes down. 

I'm talking about pretty much all of the alt coins - they are centralized either in mining (or equivalent) or in the developers etc.  Even ethereum is highly centralized although it is one of the better alts.

I know 34k and 1 are different, but you can buy $20 worth of bitcoin as easily as $20 worth of something else.  You do not have to buy a full bitcoin.

The alt coins are almost uniformly just trash.  Little innovation, centralized or both.  At worst, 90% bitcoin, 10% alts.

As far as bitcoin being "too high" at 34k, people said the same thing at $1, $10, $30, $100, $1000, $2000, $10000, $20000.  Really, go back and read the forums.  Look at slashdot when it hit dollar parity and then gold parity and the milestones in between.  People may still be waiting for it to get "back under $1"  (or $100, or $1000).  The correct answer is that NO ONE KNOWS.  

If you believe in the use cases for bitcoin, of which there are numerous, then the price will be higher in the future.  If you don't, then you shouldn't be in any crypto at all.  At worst, dollar cost average into your position.  Of course if you started that in November or March of 2020, you'd have been better off going all in.  No one knows the future though.

Market timing is only luck.

Exactly.  Technical analysis is akin to reading tea leaves, you can find something to justify pretty much any position or goal by just tweaking the parameters.

No one knows.  Just remember that every so-called bubble in the past - $1, $10, $30, $100, $1000, $2000, $10000, $20000 - has had pullbacks.  However, everyone who bought (or mined) at any of those points has done tremendously.  Will that be the case here?  Yes, if all the uses for bitcoin continue.  However, no one knows that for sure.

I never know what to tell people except that everyone who purchased at any time except a few days ago has done well in fiat terms.  I have said the same at $10, $30, $100, $1000, $2000, $10000, $20000.  

I see no reason why big companies wouldn't continue to use bitcoin to add stability and performance. 

No one knows what will happen then, but every increase in price means higher demand which should lead to more stability.  At some point the price will likely be pretty stable, in the 500k-5 million range, since people will be using it for asset protection, transactions etc.

Either that or it will be nearly worthless.  To me, every year that bitcoin survives decreases the likelihood of the "zero" scenario.

Check out here, about 3 pages in:
https://www.oanda.com/register/docs/divisions/oc/risk_disclosure_agreement.pdf

Yeah, leverage is usually a very bad idea unless you are Warren Buffett and can withstand a huge drawdown.  You are right, the stupidity of equating it only to crypto is immense.

This is exactly right, I mentioned it to people earlier today, the question i had for them was how could one get the message you have above to him or to people around him.

Anyone who cares about freedom should be concerned that a head of state and billionaire could be cut off by banks, and censored on social media. Hence the need for things like twister, telegram and the like.  If he isn't safe, no one is and everyone should be terrified that they'll be on the receiving end of cancel culture if they step out of line.

Decentralized, censorship resistant apps are the key to protect everyone from totalitarianism or authoritarianism (socialism, fascism, communism etc) of any form.  

Bitcoin being the best example because if the products of your life can be seized at the whim of someone, your life isn't yours.

Agreed.

Bitcoin is the freedom for each person to use it as they see fit, making their own choices and their own decisions.  Bitcoin allows people to protect themselves from the looting socialists, fascists, communists or any other authoritarian collectivist.

What i would say to them is:  with a volatile thing like bitcoin, who would be crazy enough to gamble on the margin?  :-)  But you are right, don't invest more than you can afford to lose.  

Most importantly don't use margin in general because it is like playing with dynamite.  Margin with bitcoin is like playing with nitroglycerin, riding in a Jeep on a bumpy road while bees are flying in the vehicle.

They are right, you could lose all your money.  To me though, every year bitcoin has survived has increased the likelihood that it will be worth more vs zero.

Yeah, it is all over today, they said the same thing every time bitcoin had gone up since 2010.

Volatile, yes, but one long upward trend from less than a dollar.

The snowball effect.  Some selling which liquidated people who were trading using margin, which dropped it more, which liquidated more etc...

People buying using leverage got liquidated (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5308605.0 ).

Then people panic. This is and has been a long term hold, not a short term trade.

From the article linked above, it seems lots of people were buying on margin and then got liquidated causing more of a drop, liquidating more, until all the leveraged folks got taken out.

And you are exactly right about the real news.  Bitcoin is still above where it was last week.

And this is why drops are intensified, people buying on the margin and then getting liquidated when they don't have sufficient capital to cover their positions.  I am not sure why they think this is/was a smart idea, but I doubt people will learn anything from it.

Exactly.  Never mind the fact that bitcoin is still higher than it was a week ago.   The same nonsense which makes people panic and them missing the bounce, or panicking and not buying when it is low while waiting for "lower".  

Supply and demand.  Demand will remain high as long as the thesis hasn't changed, and it hasn't.

The kind of leveraged trading here, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5308605.0 , exacerbates drops.