Full nodes are a little more secure and private because they access the blockchain directly.

First, check the address that you sent to and make sure the bitcoins are there. You can use blockchain.info or blockr.io. Then, check the address in the wallet to make sure the wallet owns that address. Use dumpprivkey <address>.

FTFY. Bitcoins are not consumed. The number of bitcoins in circulation will continue to grow despite the subsidy being halved.




"Scarce", in the economic sense, means "limited". Bitcoin is "scarce" because there will never be more than 21 million. It is true that if demand is very high then bitcoins could be hard to obtain because of their limited nature, but bitcoins are "scarce" even if the demand is very low and they are not hard to obtain.

During the time when the subsidy is 12.5 BTC, the rate of increase in the money supply will be about 4% per year.

I would like to see that comment at its source. If it is real, then I have no doubt GAW that is running a ponzi scheme. Pirate also claimed his Ponzi scheme derived its profit from day-trading. When they start obscuring the sources of their profits, then you can be sure that it is a scam.

When the demand exceeds the supply, the price rises. If the supply of new coins is cut, then the supply will rise more slowly, making it easier for the demand to exceed the supply (assuming that the demand is rising). Because the supply of new coins is such a small part of the total supply, the effect of the halving is not very significant.

The one that makes the most sense is the exchange that you use to buy and sell bitcoins.

"Elastic" means that the price doesn't change much as the supply or demand changes. One ideal for a currency is for the value to remain constant (a.k.a. stable). A non-elastic currency has a difficult time doing that because the supply cannot be easily adjusted in response to changing demand. Bitcoin is fairly non-elastic because the total supply is fixed.

Note that the OP assumes that a central bank has the ability to correctly adjust supply to match demand. History has shown that to be false -- all those failed currencies, and inflation has been a major problem in the U.S. ever since the Fed was formed.

The video is pretty basic and the information is good. However, the video fails beginning with this line: "if one link in the debt chain fails, the whole system falls apart."

Debt is not a chain. It is a web. It is decentralized. Of course, if a big player (such as the U.S.) fails, everyone will be affected to varying degrees.

1. A wallet does not actually hold bitcoins. It holds private keys. The private key is used to send bitcoins stored at an address. If the blockchain.info wallet does not hold the private keys that you printed out, then the wallet's password won't help he hacker get those private keys.

2. Blockchain.info stores an encrypted copy of your wallet. When you access your wallet, the site sends you the encrypted copy and you decrypt it with your password. If someone steals your password, they can log into your account and access the wallet, too.

3. Cold storage is a wallet that is not accessible from the internet. It can be stored on paper, or a USB flash drive, or a computer -- as long as it is not connected to the internet. A "hot wallet" is a wallet on a machine connected to the internet.

4. The term "online wallet" is ambiguous. A site that holds your bitcoins for you (e.g. an exchange or Coinbase) has full control over your bitcoins. You have to trust that they will give you your bitcoins when you want them. All sites accessible using a browser have some security risks (primarily phishing).

5. They know who you are by giving you a unique address. Every order gets a different address. They know you paid when the see the transaction sending bitcoins to that address.

Transactions are public information and they are secure because they are signed.

There could be a danger of a MITM attack, though. The sender must be sure they are sending to the correct address.

Astrology, dianetics, ghost hunting, homeopathy, and technical analysis are all well-known and somewhat popular tools and/or processes.  I am completely comfortable denying that they are each based on anything more than fantasy or superstition. Of course, I can accept any tidbits of fact that they might contain (if any), but to wade through a sea of nonsense to find those truths is a waste of time.

An amusing contradiction.

#1

A. You believe that inelasticity is a problem only because you believe that central bank control of the money supply is a benefit. However, to many people, the central bank is the problem that Bitcoin is trying to eliminate. The idea that an organization can have enough knowledge of the economy in order to control it is preposterous. The central bank only adds another element of instability.

B. Your "problem" of inelasticity is only temporary. I believe that fractional reserve banking of Bitcoin is inevitable, and with FRB will come the inevitable central bank. It will be limited compared to a fiat central bank because it can't print money, but it will give the central planners something to keep them happy, hopefully not enough to really screw everyone.

#2

The difficulty self-adjusts to maintain an inflation rate that eventually goes to 0. The idea that "[when] miners halt their progress, [it] will create more inflation because they can mine more BTC now" is simply wrong.

#3

There is too much speculation and too many unsubstantiated conclusions to comment on. Plus, it depends on #2, which has been shown to be incorrect.

TL;DR: people lost interest.

Market cap is a much better metric than price because the price is proportional to the the number of bitcoins.

Basically, you are saying that mining will collapse because the hash rate has increased faster than Moore's Law, but you have not explained how you arrived that questionable conclusion..

In short, yes.

I can tell by the words you use that you are an investing newbie. Here is my advice to you: Investors make money because they learn, they do research, and they uncover opportunities. There is no magic formula. There is no secret system. People that believe that they can predict the future by looking at charts are nothing more than financial astrologers. Technical Analysis pretends to be a science, but the truth is that it is based on fantasy and superstition, and it is supported only by confirmation bias.

It's an old joke/hoax.

Charts tell you nothing. The value of an investment depends on it future value. It's past value is irrelevant.

The simple answer is that every miner has a different merkle root hash because the address in the coinbase transaction is different. This guarantees that no miner is duplicating work.