That's what I have been reading throughout the various articles that had him as subject quite some time ago, but the main point isn't anymore what he had back in the days, but how much he is still holding today. I wonder if there is anyone with a list of addresses from which it is near-certain that they belong to him. I know for sure that a large chunk of his stash has been eaten through as he has made some solid investments into various sites and services throughout the years. It will take a while before he reaches a point where he at least breaks even.

I think they could have better waited a bit longer as it will likely not take that long before we finally hit the much waited for $3000 level. It's another rushed article since it doesn't contain anything interesting, nor has it any length - it's probably one of the shortest articles I have read this week, or even in the last month.

If it was them "just" blocking Segwit from activating, then things would be less worse, but they are largely responsible for the major influx of rubbish transactions that they use to choke the network, and via that way artificially boost their income through fees. In that regard, these bastards are willingly holding back Bitcoin's growth just for their own financial gains. If it is up to the miners, they will prefer this situation to remain for plenty of more months as they get more income through fees than ever before.

To add; If people end up transferring their coins to exchanges in order to dump if the price happens to go down (or for whatever other reason), people will not have coins sitting in both chains, in case a chain split becomes reality. You'll basically hand over the exchange in question free coins/money - don't do it. Coins should be kept offline under your own control.

Correct. However, if you make use of certain wallet services that happen to provide you with your private keys, then you'll be able to access the coins in both chains (obviously, that's assuming the wallet service in question doesn't claim/steal them).

It could be seen as such, but in order to avoid being the loser, everyone should withdraw their coins from ANY site/service. Better safe than sorry.

There is no point into looking at the large number of unconfirmed transactions, since the far majority of them are rubbish spam transactions. People constantly talk about having to wait for nearly days to see their transaction finally confirm, but I today have put it to the test.

The transaction size was 3586 bytes, which according to my client at that time would require me nearly 0.017BTC in fees, which equals around 475 satoshis per byte. I on purposely included a much lower fee, namely, 0.003596BTC, which equals slightly over 100 satoshis per byte. Guess what? It got confirmed within 6 blocks. If I agreed to pay the 0.017BTC in fees, it would have cost me +$44 in fees. I did it with just over $9 in fees.

If Segwit activates this year, then I have no doubt about seeing $4000 levels. However, we have to remain realistic, and also look at the potential negative aspects such as a chain split. In case a chain split becomes reality, it will massively impact the market in a negative manner. People tend to only focus on the positive aspects, where they completely ignore/discard potential negative aspects that are equally as important, and also very realistic to happen - that's what I consider to be a very dangerous habit. Yes, Bitcoin's future looks bright, but never underestimate how hostile this market can be from time to time. There is absolutely no mercy for the weak handed people here.

Everyone is worried? Well, not me. I am happily looking forward to the potential activation of Segwit. If there happens to be a chain split, then so be it - it's a now or never situation as there is no way on earth that Segwit will ever happens to gain enough miner support to activate. Important is that if you have coins sitting in exchanges, wallet services, gambling sites, etc, you should withdraw them as soon as possible the closer we come to the UASF day. It will make sure that in case there happens to be a chain split, that you are holding value on both chains, and not that the mentioned services will walk out with the alt-Bitcoin, and just let you only cash out the real Bitcoin. Keep that in mind.

Everything that comes from Russia should be taken with a truckload of salt. Another factor that plays an important role to the inconsistencies in the news articles (e.g. one day being Bitcoin friendly, and the other day not), comes from the fact that quite some articles get poorly translated. Plus, "writers" add an extra layer of nonsense to maintain a certain form of uniqueness, in order to avoid plagiarism.

You don't care whether or not fiat becomes worthless? If fiat becomes worthless, and Bitcoin reaches $10,000 at that time, what does it say about the value of 1BTC then? Haven't you thought about that? It's a very short sighted way of thinking, really.

It won't stay like this for ever. Bitcoin right now badly needs Segwit to be activated in order to cope with the demand. After Segwit is activated, Lightning Network will make most people here very happy. Not only will Bitcoin be able to process an insane amount of transactions per second, but the most interesting thing for me is that miners will lose their importance when it comes to being the central point in allowing people to transfer value from one place to another. No longer will they form an obstacle in the way that they ignore transactions with a lower fee. End result - Lightning Network is great for the users, and not so much for the miners themselves. Exactly how I like it - they caused enough damage already.

4 - If you look closely, the number of unconfirmed transactions has gone through the roof, and it didn't have a single bit of negative effect on the price.

5 - Altcoins have been experiencing a tremendous amount of growth during the last years, and especially this year, but again, it didn't have a single bit of negative effect on the price.

In general, the interest rates have taken a massive dive in the last few years. If I look at the banks I am using (I have bank accounts at two different banks), then the best interest rate that they can offer me is 0.3% annually. I can go even one step further and get 1% annually, but I would need to kiss my money goodbye for at least 3 years... In that regard, it's indeed a better option to invest (could be anything). It's not only because it yields you better returns, but also in order to avoid depreciation of your wealth. The only justifiable way of saving is solely to have money aside in case you need it.

Bitcoin in its current form just isn't a good currency tool in local situations, that's a fact. In that regard, the longer current situation doesn't change, the further away we move. That's why it's utterly important to have Segwit activated. It won't only allow Bitcoin to cope with current demand in a better manner, but it also means that we are closer to the implementation of Lightning Network - that for me is the ultimate target. I personally don't see any point in spending my coins on local level, but Lightning Network will make sure that the huge gap between fiat payment systems and Bitcoin will largely vanish. It will allow micro transactions to take place again without having to worry about greedy miners that will ignore your transaction till it drops...

Every user in this forum? It all doesn't matter. Asics have taken over the mining industry to such a level, that even if all users here in this forum will point their mining home PC to one pool, it isn't enough to even dent something so soft as butter. We need larger blocks, and pools that aren't filling blocks with rubbish transactions to choke the network for their own benefit. We also don't need those bastard pools that are mining empty blocks regularly.

It depends on your targets. If you're thinking about opening long term positions into Bitcoin, you can basically buy at any time. But if you just look to make some quick bucks in the coming few months, then things are different. Curren't levels require a good level of buy support to maintain, people shouldn't forget that. If the price remains stagnant for a while, it will start tickling people's nerves, and at some point they just sell. If we manage to move up slowly, then we'll likely break through the $3000 level before the end of next month. If the market doesn't go up much higher than current levels, I believe the chances are high that we'll be testing $2000 again.

That was exactly my thought! It's not just this article, but something that happens also in their non Bitcoin related articles. I guess the writers on rawstory.com get paid with alcohol - 10 article clicks equal 1 beer as reward I guess. And yes, more and more of these sites start reporting about Bitcoin, but only not in the right way, unfortunately. Free publicity is good some people say, but only if everything is factually correct, and no unneeded drama is being added like underworld, dark markets, drugs, etc.

No one knows what will happen, but to be on the safe side, you just need to hold your coins offline, in case a chain split becomes reality. Selling them is pointless in my eyes as you will miss out if there happen to be a real Bitcoin (the one with the majority of the support), and the alt-Bitcoin a.k.a the altcoin (the one with the lowest support). Or if you don't want to deal with this situation at all, you can use certain altcoins to hedge Bitcoin (least recommended option). Or... You can wait on the side line with fiat stacks ready to enter the market at discount levels.

Actually, you only make profit when you sell your coins. Currently, you only have made a statistical gain, and exactly that isn't really something that has much value on its own. It's basically the same as when the price suddenly drops to the $1500 level tomorrow -> you only lose when you sell your coins. Again, in this case, the statistical loss has no value.

My apologies for being late with announcing you as winner of this auction. I'll be sending you a PM with all details right now.

Auction has ended.