The world is run by the state-bank alliance.  The top politicians and bankers jointly profit from inflating the values of money and debt with state power -- this system couldn't survive without either side.

See Dissecting the Parasitocracy.

The interesting thing is, if you buy and hold gold and Bitcoin for the long term, you can benefit.  (Just make sure you don't buy when the global empire is rising, like the 1950s or early 1990s.)  The reason is also due to the nature of the state-bank alliance.

Note that, in this alliance, the top politicians contribute state power, while the top bankers contribute financial know-how.  The politicians, being totally ignorant in this high-stakes and specialized game, are basically led around like children.  They just go along because they benefit from issuing huge amounts of public debt without being punished by the 'markets.'

So here's the problem with this alliance.  When financial asset values collapse (and this day will come, due to the incentives faced by the elites) and everyday people suffer, the politicians will put all the blame on the bankers.  The reasons are obvious (and there is no loyalty in that game,) and the politicians are going to win that argument.  The biggest such events in history include the Spanish Inquisition and the Nazi Holocaust.  In our day, politicians like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have already gone after the bankers.

Knowing that, the bankers and central bankers must prepare a last-ditch rescue for a worst-case scenario, when all trust in the system is gone.  That rescue will be some non-state-issued asset, like gold, silver, and Bitcoin, that the elites can peg their money to (at a high price for the non-state asset,) stabilize their system, and ease the suffering.  Even if the bankers think there's only a small chance for such an occurrence, it will be so devastating to the bankers that they must prepare for it.

So, the elites will try to suppress non-state assets, but won't kill them, even when given a chance.  In the long run, this presents something like a one-way bet for these assets, at current prices.

...
I am not finding much interest on chasing a man who is no more. I want Satoshi to be unveiled and he needs to be active here in this forum for some guidelines through which I believe bitcoin will get wide spread to new people.  

...
Shame on you, CSW!

Bitcoin 2017 year has been great gaining momentum from the previous year. Getting ATH this year is an accomplishment. Experienced a lot of ups and downs, but still bitcoin is standing. Their's still a major roadblock ahead, which is the scaling issue. Debate has been going on, but I hope when the dust settles, we will see bitcoin ecosystem to flourish more. We are not even half of the year, but the price of bitcoin is looking good. We all hope that the price will continue to rise so that another ATH will be achieved at the end of the year.

Still no updated figures from US .gov to allow an update to my projected
2017 economy. They are still changing their figures back to 2013, so final
figures for 2017 may not appear until after 2020. If your income depends on
updates to US CPI for increments, suck it up, buttercup.

The reason for this update is a couple of news items on productivity:

"Yellen blamed the recession and lack of productivity for poor earnings growth. Greenspan blamed the aging of baby boomers. Given real earnings have been nearly flat since 1979 while real output is up 94.9%, those theories are obviously faulty. Doesn't the Fed bother to test their theories against actual data? You have the answer."
"Output per hour has been growing at approximately 1/2% annually in the US and other developed countries over the past five years, compared with an earlier growth rate closer to 2%. That is a huge difference, which is reflected proportionately in the gross domestic product and in people's standard of living."
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-05/productivity-myths-shattered-productivity-rising-or-falling-why

You might not immediately see the connection to this item:
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2017/03/27/These_2_Charts_Show_Just_How_Close_We_Are_to_Healthcare_Collapse1.png
"The United States is in the upper right, which shows that our per-person healthcare spending is significantly higher than that of the other OECD countries. Switzerland is a distant second place. Our extra spending doesn't help us live longer. We actually die a little earlier than our peers in Japan and most of Europe. You can quibble over details in this data, but the broad facts are inescapable. We spend too much on healthcare relative to the health it buys us. As long as that is the case, no reform plan will work."

Fix healthacre, and pensions will implode .... oh wait ...

Add to that the US "Education" System, and if you are an American, you're screwed.
But you knew that already. Maybe lying down in a darkened room will help you
feel better. It's much cheaper than Valium.

Meditate on the productivity graph. Note that each data point is an average of
the past five years. Note also that the last year plotted is 2015.

And another thing, when you are invited to "share" your anonymity with a bitcoin exchange KYC ....
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/04/the-bankers-free-lunch-continues/
"The overwhelming evidence provided by the above-mentioned (and other) economists is that once a particular speculative round runs its course, this ´investment¡ is converted into 'gains' directed, almost entirely, at already existing assets (primarily real estate), and so does little or nothing for the productive economy."
"A couple of weeks ago, for instance, the Guardian published a long investigative piece, titled the 'Global Laundromat', detailing how 17 UK banks laundered £20/$25bn, mainly for Russian oligarchs with criminal links. The same Guardian article estimates that around £100/$125bn a year is laundered by UK banks for shadow and criminal entities."
"This though is the tip of the proverbial iceberg."
"According to the right-wing tabloid, the Daily Mail (always slavishly beholden to the Conservatives), Javid was a senior executive at DB in 2004 when it funnelled bonuses through the Cayman Islands to enrich 300 senior staff in London."

Ok, there is exact fiat value to online brokerage accounts, why cant we use this to buy coffee? Yes, theres some volatility in value, but isnt that volatility less than bitcoin?

I think the drama is over, for now. The price is increasing in a steady phase. So it likely that the price will surely pick up to where it was pre-ETF and maybe more. If I have big money to invest, I would go to real estates. Because real estate rise in value overtime so this is a good investment options.
You can even rent it to others so to generate more income.Once you have several properties, it becomes easier to purchase and manage more properties. So for me, houses or real estate for long term investments.

I held off responding hoping others would reply to the thread.

You make a lot of excellent points. I wish I had something to contribute but not so much.

If I was to apply an economic model to this discussion, I would aim for a type of thermoeconomic context. I believe that's the future and the best model to use.

But to be honest, I'm an amateur when it comes to economics/markets/trading & I've been severely slacking off for a long time now.

This is nowhere near either fast or quick

And this is a difference of kind, not of degree. When you pay with cash, the transaction takes up the amount of time required to count the bills. If you pay with your payment card, the transaction time includes contacting the payment processor (in most cases it will be the bank which issued your payment card) and confirming the transaction. In both cases, it takes no more than a few seconds to get done with. No one is going to wait even a minute to get Bitcoin transaction confirmed. Until there are instant payments via Bitcoin as well, Bitcoin is totally useless in anything which involves immediate payments (e.g. at a cashier's)

In my opinion the phrase the future of money directly indicating that  what the bitcoin will be in future .
No doubt that​ Currently the bitcoin have many advantage over any other type of currency but here we should keep in mind that the future of the bitcoin will be More better then what in the current time .
Here currently the main reason to use bitcoin is it simplicity of earning money .
Because earlier I was wandering in my field for earning but this field proves the best for me to make earning .
Due this this earning reason I am using the bitcoin more .
Because in small transactions I can do everything with my bank mobile banking Service but I can make earning only with bitcoin in better way .

Every year migrants around the world send billions of USD/EUR back to their families.The cost of sending cash via Western Union and Money Gram averages 10-20% in fees. However bitcoin is emerging as an alternative which offers lower fees and faster payments.

Bitcoin also helps allot for countries with high inflation to store value in Bitcoins.
Bitcoin helps for millions of people worldwide.

How bitcoin helps for your life?

Op made the source font size too small thats why only a few people have seen it and forgot the most important part and that is, It is a list of cash trades statistics from localbitcoins which was pretty outdated now, I guess it is because this was the third time it was copied and pasted . I'm not really familiar with the word cash trades but the people on the source said that it happens when you trade bitcoin personally (face to face) which kinda makes sense why my country PH is in the last place .

Quoting OP sauce:

looking at the dates of when the most spam spikes are

june/july 2016
and then
a long constant go at it from octobre onwards..

it appears obvious that anyone offering something from those particular dates that want to sway people into thinking their features are needed to remedy the spam would benefit from creating spam to then point out that something needs to be done.
https://blockchain.info/charts/mempool-size?timespan=1year

june/july 2016 = core CSV
october+ = segwit

ETH: gone down -40%

Bitcoin has no competition in what race?

speed?
scalability?
remittance?
acceptance?
utility?
brand recognition?
most nodes?
carbon footprint?
anonymity?

There are many races, and rarely one contender is best at all.

OP needs to define question please

Blockchains solve many problems, and you are correct, bitcoin is solving some better than most.

Yeah unless people will continue to use bitcoin will survive and no Government can interfere in it as it is a decentralized currency and it can die in future only the demand of bitcoin goes to zero and everyone stops using it but I don't think it will ever happen.