Platinum as a store of value is not very popular here, gold and silver are the main precious metals trading at the pawn shops and jewellery stores. Platinum is mostly used in the industry as far as I know. I should do a research to see if I can find some place that is selling it as coins or bullions around here. Thanks for the resourceful thread.

Mate aren't you a little bit pessimistic? Wow do you really expect Bitcoin price to crash down to $230 after the halving? I think it will go at least 25%-50% up not down but that's just my honest opinion. By the way some people believe Ethereum is artificially inflated and the balloon will soon pop.

If the price is really $8 per unit it's not going to be very cheap for a disposable wallet. I wonder if we could use it as a permanent hardware wallet for long-term if we just keep depositing coins to it? I would prefer a USB stick rather than a paper wallet.

I suppose Microsoft decided to stop accepting Bitcoin payments probably because there were not enough Bitcoin users to warrant the expenses put into running the service but apparently they changed their mind. It's always good when big companies like Microsoft back Bitcoin.

I just got an email from them a few hours ago informing me to withdraw my funds... I feel a little bit bummed because I have been using the Coinkite web wallet for a few months and it started to grow on me. Coinkite has some unique features not present on any other web wallet I have tried. Well I guess I need to choose a new wallet soon.

I think gold is a bit harder to keep safe unlike Bitcoin where keeping the private keys away from people is enough to ensure a high chance of not getting robbed. However the value of gold is more stable than the price of Bitcoin which tends to fluctuate greatly. Everyone needs to decide which is better for them I guess.

I have had bills in almost perfect condition rejected by banks just because of a small crimp or a little tear in one end of the banknote. Good luck trying to pass such written on bills in a store. Why not using other kinds of marketing material like printing out business cards with the public and private keys on them and handing them out to people?

I don't completely understand why they are manipulating the Bitcoin trading volume. Aside from the bragging rights of having the most fake trades what kind of advantage will this bring to OkCoin or Huobi? Will they get more real customers that way for being on the top?

I have been using the Copay wallet for a couple of months and I am very fond of it. It's the only wallet available for Windows Mobile and it has a version for every platform out there. It has a clean user interface and does a great job of paying for stuff on the go.

If the testing institutions get rid of the paper certificates altogether would be great. I think there is a limited amount of copies you can make from your original certificate for some of the most popular tests like TOEFL and IELTS. Digital certificates are just more convenient than paper-based ones.

OP it depends on where you are based in. If you are from the USA then Coinbase is your best choice to buy Bitcoins with a vcc and if you are from Europe then I would recommend checking out the Bitstamp site. But I particularly like to use Coinimal because you have a lot of buying options to choose from including Neteller and Skrill.

I don't think this thread is useless as some members have mentioned already. What OP is trying to say is that Bitcoin for some users is free money from the Internet but as we all know there is no free lunch and we have to work hard for our cash be it digital or physical. You would earn way more money if you have a high-paying job and convert a portion of it into Bitcoin as per your needs. Time is money so we need to spend it wisely and maximize our earnings.

If I had one chance to influence a friend of mine to get into Bitcoin, I would say that it's new innovative digital money that can change the way we exchange money worldwide and that Bitcoin holds a great investment value in the long-term.

I don't think mining is suitable for newcomers to cryptos. There are so may quirks to iron out before you could get a decent hash rate going both from hardware and software standpoint. And I have done cloud mining before on Cex.io and I didn't get a big profit either. It was more like because I didn't have the mining hardware at that time I decided to give it a try to see how mining would work. And of course with the increasing difficulty my bought hashing power didn't make the cut any more and I just withdrew everything. If you want to see how mining works don't invest a lot in mining hardware if you are a novice and buy some hashing power instead and enjoy the ride.

I think printing out the text file with the keys and laminating it is the best way of keeping it away from harm. You could never be 100% sure it will not get compromised if it's encrypted. I would put it somewhere safe the location of which only I know . Encrypting it and storing it on a usb stick works too but then you would need a computer to access the data and it's slower.

If there are no alt coins in existence then there would be no trading to and fro and a lot of crypto exchanges will not be what they are today because people will use them only to buy Bitcoin and that's it. To me Bitcoin is like the Sun in our Solar system and all the altcoins are like the planets circling around it. I think all the alt coins are benefitting from Bitcoin's popularity and some of them come closer to it like Ethereum for example  

Paper money used to be necessary to carry around to do your daily business around town but nowadays people prefer to use credit and debit cards to shop around. In Scandinavia Norway, Sweden and Denmark are preparing to be the first 'cashless' societies where all of the transactions will be done electronically. This will increase the security of your funds and there will be less chance of getting robbed on the street

Buying Bitcoins the Bitit way is great for people who don't want to use their credit cards online to buy the crypto out of caution. But the $25 limit without documentation is kinda low if you ask me. What if I need around $60 to buy a game on Steam with Bitcoins for example. Can I just enter 3 different stores to take advantage of this so I don't give out my identity? I guess so.

This topic about the lost coins is very interesting. I haven't thought about this phenomenon till now at all. I wonder whether these inaccessible coins will have an impact on the price of Bitcoin in a couple of decades when the adoption will be way bigger and there will be a higher demand for coins. I would guess a higher demand and a lower availability would mean a higher price.

I think it's important to feel happy at your daily job and if you are not satisfied with your working conditions and want to pursue an employment in the Bitcoin industry then by all means I think you should go for it. There are a lot of job openings in the IT related to the development of Bitcoin projects.