The funny thing is, most long time bitcoiners know that this is no bubble. Even if the price walked back down 20-25% from here, we'd still be in the midst of a rally, or at least in of some kind of growth pattern.

It's only a bubble if it takes off and triples or does a 5-10X in the span a month.  Now THAT is a bubble. (*cough* Altlandia *cough*)

Thank the gods that China was pressured to get rid of the shitting trading practices that have plagued the Bitcoin market for so long...

Safer to go with the China price, lol

When I first invested in Bitcoin, I told myself that one of three things had to happen first before I started to take advantage of my investment:

1) 7 years have passed (target: 2020)

2) A minimum of $5K/btc (stable exchange rate, not just a brief peak)

3) I can buy the house of my dreams directly with bitcoin and no middle man. Also merchant adoption everywhere in the world, and all major online merchants.

None of these conditions have happened yet, so we'll see how it goes. Still waiting...

A perfect example of what I'm talking about is late 2013. There was a U.S. Fed meeting that appeared suddenly on their agenda in Nov 2013 to discuss to legality of cryptocurrencies in general, and Bitcoin specifically.

Insiders knew of this meeting well ahead of the general public (possibly up to 12 months in advance), and these wealthy insiders knew that the U.S. would not try to ban Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency (because lets be honest, they can't), but instead give it a favorable greenlight.  So they ran up the market for almost a full year well in advance, culminating on the positive news.  

They also knew that at the same time, the FBI would soon be closing in on Mt. Gox (because they knew it was an insolvent exchange) and shutting it down, which would give them a perfect reason to short-dump bitcoin into the ground.

They also whipped up media sites and online forums into a frenzy to feed into the run-up. It all worked to their advantage.

Agreed. Past history shows that whenever the price of bitcoin began to rise dramatically, it was being driven by wealthy insiders knowing something waaayyy ahead of the general public. In hindsight it was never just completely random, or preceded with a string of good news.

My bet is on a major world market meltdown coming, possibly in the Fall or by end of year. If not this year, certainly in the next. Here's hoping that it'll be seen as a life raft for the rats jumping from their sinking ship.

If you and everyone else keeps saying this to yourself, then you'll never get or understand what Bitcoin is now, or will be in the future. How do you think Bitcoin will survive in the future when it's exchange rate = $10K/btc, or $100k/btc? You think that will somehow prevent people from buying and using it? On the contrary, it will be the exact opposite.

Satoshi could have just as easily launched with 1 BTC as the cap, and there is still enough bitcoin for everyone in the world to buy and use it. The whole fkn point of having 8 decimal places, with room for 8 more with a single line of code change.

You obviously still don't get it.

People are not going to stop buying and using something nearly infinitely divisible, just because the single unit exchange rate is showing something more than they can afford. The amount of world merchant adoption will be the only measuring stick for any cryptocurrency's popularity and usage at world scale, not the exchange rate.

Bitcoin is not a form of "bling" and there are no bragging rights. It's simply money, to be saved and spent. You can buy any amount of it now, or in the future, no matter what the exchange rate is.

Notice that without any more hacks, bug exploits, exchange insolvencies, fake news, Satoshi unmaskings, fork threats, govt bans, altcoin flippenings, and other crap needed as reasons to crash the Bitcoin market or try and dilute it's market, now the 'media machine' is going to just continue to make up new supposed threats to Bitcoin out of thin air.  They are getting desperate. This will continue ad infinitum. The full court press against Bitcoin will never end.

Well let me get this logic straightened out.

Craig Wright is the man who spent soooo much fkn time and effort trying to convince everyone that he is really Satoshi.

And Satoshi's creation is Bitcoin.

Something near and dear to Satoshi's heart. He loves Bitcoin, it is his baby.

So presumably, it's Wright's baby since he tried to convince everyone that he invented it.

So what does he try to do now with his own beloved creation? Disown it completely by creating a competing blockchain called nChain.

Yeah if I really loved something that I created, that I spent sooooo much time trying to convince others that I created it, and believing that nothing else that came along after could compare or compete, that's exactly what I would do too. /s  

^{(God the fkn balls of that delusional retard scammer...and the depth of his insanity is bottomless)}

You really don't know? They logged out of the bear troll accounts about 18 months ago, logged into their bulltard accounts, and have been laughing right along with you ever since then.

This is the big deception here that most people don't get.  The trolls play both sides when it suits them.

Other than to signify an exchange rate, a 'bitcoin' is simply an abstract unit of measure, and a pretty meaningless one at that.

Saying there are not enough bitcoins is like saying that there aren't enough bars of gold, or barrels of oil, for everyone in the world.

Stupidest. Thing. Evar. To. Say.

Right next to "Bitcoins are too expensive." Yeah, so are bars of gold, but that doesn't stop people from buying smaller amounts, or keep them from buying gold at all.

You guys wondering why this thread isn't like the old days, I'll tell ya.

There was a year that Bitcoin seemed to pump to the moon. Long time bitcoiners believed that it might actually be the start of what is inevitable 'S-curve' adoption. They felt euphoria and rejoiced. The time had finally come.

Then later they learned, painfully, that they had been deceived. The lesson was that, apparently with enough combined $$$$ and enough leverage, the world's whales can pump any small market to the moon.

Now they gaze on with a mix of bemusement and sadness as THE EXACT SAME THING is happening to the alt market. For they know that over in altlandia, there will eventually be tears.

You won't really be able to get the old timers excited about bitcoin again, as the market is really too big now to get pumped to the moon like in the past. A black swan event only happens once a decade or so. But it's not like +50%/year is anything to sneeze at, still spanks every other existing investment out there.

Are you saying that it's too late to trade all my BTC for DOGE?!?!?!?

Damn... just damn... missed the boat again    

First time was during that NASCAR stuff. Man, just look at all the industry adoption of DOGE since then!

^{Oh wait...}

Wow, and here I was thinking that if we ended 2017 @ ~1600 it would be a great year.

Now at 1480 and the year is hardly half over yet.

Is anyone else getting that "Somebody knows something" feeling? I sure am.

I guess we'll probably pull back some now, the fkn media is back with their bullshit sensational postings:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/27/bitcoin-jumps-to-a-new-all-time-high-above-1300-capping-20-april-surge.html

I really wish they would just not

Not to mention, the Chinese exchanges did so much damage to actual price discovery with wash trading and 100X margin (and most likely naked short selling, secret insolvencies, insider trading, greasing banker palms, etc.). The wealthy assholes taking advantage of this could give two shits about Bitcoin's long term viability, much less the value of cryptocurrency in general.

Just look at the Chinese stock market over the last three years, compared to the last ten. Talk about a completely fabricated super mega- pump and dump, with a market that is artificially propped up by their gov't and still WAAAAYYYY overvalued.

... and just sayin, the pumpers will sell on the news...

Yep, just look at those crazy insane investors...

https://gemini.com/auction-data/

Lol @ ETC continuing to prove why contentious hard forks are bad.

So stupid that something that should have been completely abandoned keeps getting pumped.

Actually other than finding the true market value, I hope we don't find a 'clean' ATH. Keeps the stupid media away from headlining anything sensational (e.g., "Bitcoin Hits New All Time High!"), which always precedes a crash a few weeks later.

Can't wait for that day.

But tbh, the deluge won't be started by Average Joe. It'll be the wealthy investors first.

Probably just before a world market crash (because insiders *always* know when it's happening well in advance).

Average Joe will, of course, come in late as the last bagholder in a market gone nuts crazy.