Miners at current levels don't really need the fees, it's just an extra bonus for them. At some point in the far future when the block rewards have become so low, the fees will more and more be the main part of their mining income. Currently, 12.5BTC blocks are worth +$50,000, which is the highest ever block reward value in fiat terms. Imagine how things will be when we *potentially* reach the $10,000 level next year - miners (especially the larger farms) are literally spoiled with the income they generate. No need to have any sort of compassion for miners.

In recent months (mainly due to the increased price) there have been a huge load of these so called self-appointed-experts popping up, throwing around with their baseless thoughts and predictions. None of them have actually made any sort of significant contribution to understand what Bitcoin is, or why it has value in the first place. The news sites these "experts" are working for, are only out to jump on the next big thing in an attempt to gain visitors and subscribers, and that next big thing happens to be Bitcoin. If we had to believe these idiots, Bitcoin would have been worthless already. Always do your own research instead of taking things coming from whatever news source for granted.

It surprises me that you made use of a large list of exchanges that time on time again messed up big time. I have been using Mintpal, Cryptsy and MCxnow as well back in the days, but I stopped using these exchanges after a few red flag moments that made me leave these exchanges for ever. If I look back, I did the right thing as they all went down with user funds being lost as result. The only exchange that got me to swallow losses, is the very recent shut down of BTC-E. Regardless of the exchange is properly registered or not, as trader you have to keep a certain number of coins on-exchange, and thus they are always at risk, unfortunately.

People for years have literally been hoping for some proper decentralized exchanges, but as pointed out, it's an insanely thin market with no real usable functionalities for those looking to experience a service similar to what the centralized exchanges offer. I am a privacy minded person, but I am not at all interested in making use of the handful of decentralized exchanges, for the simple reason that there is no way to exchange fiat to crypto and vice versa in a totally decentralized manner. Unfortunately, the only thing that's truly decentralized are the crypto to crypto trades, and that's really it. I am glad that there is at least one good mixer after Bitmixer having shut down all their operations. ChipMixer is now my main mixer to provide me that necessary bit of privacy when I need it.

If we had to believe various 'high level' speculators and other market analysts, the Bitcoin price has been in bubble territory at the time it broke through the $1000 level. In recent years there hasn't been any real moment where I considered the price to be at least close to a forming bubble. The only ever moment I legitimately considered the market to be in bubble mode, was back in 2013 when we experienced an all time high of nearly $1200. We had to thank MtGox's bots for their significant contribution back then. Currently, the price in my eyes is decently overbought (probably 25%), and for that reason I strongly believe it will correct soon.

No one in his right mind will ever ditch Bitcoin for Bitcoin Cash. Who's going to trade a Ferrari for a simple and rusty Toyota car? It just doesn't make sense. Bitcoin Cash is being pumped by its wealthy holders because they want to trap in people to buy their *at some point to become worthless* coins at top levels - don't fall for it. Bitcoin Cash is nothing more than a nasty way of becoming even more wealthy, where they potentially harming Bitcoin isn't anything of importance to them - greed is the only thing they live for. If they managed to pull this off once, they will be doing it another time for sure. I have only my cold storage wallets left containing a decent number of BCC, but I don't want to touch these coins as they are all from sub 2015, and a few even 2013. If that wasn't the case, I would have dumped the BCC's at current levels without thinking about it for even a second.

What a flashing title... The main part of the revenue terrorist groups gather comes mainly from drug sales, oil sales, donations coming from very wealthy individuals residing in countries not being impacted by them at all. Bitcoin is basically an open book, and for that reason I believe terrorist funding through Bitcoin will diminish slowly, and will be done through various other crypto currencies (think about Monero for example) that offer a far better form of privacy. That being said, most of the times Bitcoin is being mentioned in these articles, but another easy way of funding comes from prepaid debit cards. It's insanely easy to obtain and fund them, where after that the funds can be spent basically anywhere in the world. I barely see that being pointed out in related articles.

It's funny how the focus is constantly being pointed at the market cap of Bitcoin, and not the actual level of usage, or what's driving the demand to make Bitcoin grow to newer highs continuously over the last several years. First Bitcoin was heavily being put against the value of one troy ounce of Gold, and now stocks - what comparison will be next? Oil market cap? US total debt value? You know what is a worthy comparison? Bitcoin's market cap surpassing the total market cap of the NYSE, or NASDAQ, or DJI, etc.

Paper wallets are cheap and quite effective, but isn't really the ultimate form of cold storage. I personally give my preference to the Ledger Nano S. When it comes to cold storage, I always prefer security over convenience. In that regard, the Ledger Nano S is the perfect piece of gear that will give you that extra bit of security, and won't be costing you a whole lot. The most important thing the Ledger offers, is that you aren't setting everything up on your computer like is the case with other hardware wallets.  Everything happens on the device itsef - most importantly think about importing seeds. It has two buttons that require a whole lot clicking in order to get the job done, but again - security always over convenience. Unfortunately for people looking to buy one from the Ledger wallet site itself, due to the popularity of these devices, they aren't directly in stock - earliest shipping date is September 15th this year.

I think that's exactly the reason as to why they didn't respond to you, which of course doesn't justify them to discard your query like they have done. I have been using Bitstamp for plenty of years now, and never have I enountered difficulties aside from them at some point required my to re-verify myself. It took me weeks to submit all documents they were asking for in ultra high res, due to them not accepting 'lower' res scans (while in reality these scans were high res). Sign up and sell whatever number of coins you want to unload - just make sure you submit all your documents in the highest possible resolution, because even when things according to our personal standards are high res, they will likely still not be accepting them. It will safe you plenty of time.

I actually like that. It will add an extra layer of convenience for several sorts of people. Think about wealthy individuals not being interested in buying a serious number of coins on-exchange, but for example want to buy 1000BTC at a fixed price of $4000, and then walk out of the service center with exactly that many coins. If you were to do that on-exchange, you would have to buy the price up significantly, which might cause you to pay a premium of 10-15%. Other benefit is that the older generation is highly valuing one-on-one support like they are used to when visiting their local bank office. Every exchange should be offering such a service. Bithumb is currently the nr1 exchange in terms of volumes - $1.09 billion in the last 24 hours.

Purely short term talking, as long as we have the activation of Segwit (there are five days left till activation) still ahead of us, the market will remain holding its position at current levels, and may even end up touching the $5000 level in best case - after that a correction is inevitable. How much the price will end up falling back down remains to be seen, but I don't expect a whole lot drama. My personal guess is a test of $3000 to be very realistic. This will be a perfect buy back opportunity, or a perfect moment for waiting people to enter the market at a bit cheaper levels. If people don't make use of that opportunity, it's really a shame as people have had enough chances to buy at lower levels.

If we look at one of the more recent major events, the block halving, the price indeed happened to increase in advance of the actual day where the block halving kicked in. People were even disappointed that the price didn't increase anymore from that point, because that's what they were assuming. In that regard, I am quite on the same side when it comes to there being a correction somewhere before or shortly after the activation. I must point out that the correction will be of short term, where not long (perhaps a few weeks to a month at most) after that, the price will start to increase beyond the previously reached ATH. Bulls are here to stay.

People must understand that Bitcoin isn't anymore the plaything that it was years ago. Every exchange will face difficulties if they don't properly register their activities - especially when it comes to allowing people to exchange/trade crypto versus USD. If an exchange isn't willing to go through whatever is needed to be allowed to run a platform that involves USD, it will experience what BTC-E has gone through, what Bitfinex is, or will go through, Poloniex, etc. BTC-E however is reported to be involved in the MtGox theft back in the days. I don't like the government shutting exchanges down, but in case of BTC-E, if they are really one of the master mind behind the MtGox theft, may all involved entities burn in hell.

No one really expected this to happen, otherwise people wouldn't leave their millions worth of crypto and fiat funds there. BTC-E was offering quite the bit of privacy people were looking for, but turns out, it came at a very high price. On the other hand, the lack of proper communication from BTC-E's side, zero licenses, in some cases even shady behavior, was something that should have made people move to other exchanges. In some cases exchanges do not deserve a second chance (Bitfinex fits in that category as well), and for that reason people shouldn't put themselves into an unnecessary risky position by making use of whatever platform BTC-E comes up with as alternative. If they ever going to return, withdraw what you can and close the BTC-E chapter for ever.

What's exactly the main point of your focus that you think will justify you cashing out that large of a percentage of your holdings? I personally have my focus pointed at far beyond the coming ten or so years. Sure, cashing out is part of the game if you look to benefit from various wild price swings, but that's only a viable option if you understand how this market works. Nothing guarantees the price to fall back to your targeted buy back levels. Realistically speaking, there is no way we'll be even close to the (in my point of view ridiculous) $100K price levels within the stated time period. But then again, what else can we expect in extremely bullish time periods. I wonder what will be left of these predictions at the time the price is going down again - not much I guess.

Reaching $5000 is nothing more than a formality it seems. I am quite sure that (short term speaking) it will be a fantastic moment to cash out slightly below or over the $5000 level. If a correction of 20% is to kick in, you'll be making like $1000 in a matter of 24-48 hours per Bitcoin. That's what I consider to be a more than decent profit from an event (the correction) that is pretty much destined to happen. People must realize that nothing in the world goes only up in value without a correction here and there. At some point investors will start cashing out a certain part of their massive profits, because don't forget that as long as one isn't selling, one hasn't made any sort of profits. In the same way people aren't losing if they aren't selling.

If you look at how Gold has been performing throughout the last years, it hasn't been all that great at serving as an effective and worthwhile way to hedge inflation. Bitcoin on the other hand, experienced a massive amount of growth throughout the years, and has plenty of more growth potential in the forthcoming years. People will more and more realize that the good old and often seen as safe Gold asset, isn't all that beneficial for them anymore. In nearly all aspects, Bitcoin surpasses Gold effortlessly. The only handy advantage that Gold has over Bitcoin, is that it can serve as a currency tool in physical form in offline circumstances. I am not a Gold holder at all, but if I was, I would immediately convert +90% of my Gold assets to Bitcoin back in the early 2013 days.

Within a few years from now, I am quite sure that most of the modern economies will have done the same. Negative aspect is that exchanges and services will require all sorts of personal information. Funny thing is that in quite some cases you can't withdraw any funds unverified, but you can deposit them. Result is that people end up in a big disappointment because their funds are stuck/frozen until verification is completed. In that regard, exchanges shouldn't be accepting incoming deposits from unverified accounts, it's that simple. In current form, this is even misleading, but obviously, exchanges do this on purpose to trap in user funds.

The media always plays an important role. It's almost insane to see how the mainstream media news sources that were hammering down on Bitcoin back in the days, are now extremely bullish on Bitcoin. On top of that we have Goldman Sachs contributing significantly as well. It's pure madness. This kind of bullish sentiment is very important, because the average joe more often than not, adds a lot value to what's being covered in the news. In most cases them taking everything in the media for granted so easily isn't really something to cheer about, but in this case it's all positive for once. It's safe to say that never before, there has been this much fresh money flowing into Bitcoin - its effect on the market is clear for every one.