Their answer is: "That is impossible"!  lol. 

How would they hide their corruption then?  How would they hide all the graft?  How would they pay off others to hide what they are doing and retain power?  :-)

So let's get this straight: CSW had no backup, that is no cold storage backup of the private keys.  Does anyone think, given Satoshi's comments about wallet backups on here and elsewhere, that Satoshi (a) had his private keys online, and (b) had no backup?  CSW, yes, he seems like an idiot.  Satoshi, no.

Anyone who believes CSW's BS is just asking to be taken for a ride.

Bitcoin has the potential to destroy the ability of authoritarians and collectivists - whether socialist, fascist, communist, totalitarian, any of that group - to enforce their will upon people who want to be free.  Look at how it helped some people in Cyprus when the establishment gave depositors a haircut.  Look how it can help people in Hong Kong or Taiwan protect their wealth from the Chinese.  Look at how it can help people in the EU, US etc protect their earnings from huge, controlling governments.

Bitcoin has the potential to help reinvigorate civilization, not destroy it, but destroying the myth that one person has the right to use force to make another provide for them.

People want to be free from the control freaks in charge of much of the world today.  Even the US is/was close to electing an anti-liberty President who wants to control everyone and everything (e.g. fascist, socialist, communist, in short, any form of authoritarian or collectivist). 

It isn't a "form of protest" (per the article), it is just people telling other people to leave them alone and stop trying to run their lives.

As Abraham Lincoln said:
“It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.” - The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

One group believes they have the right to force others to provide for them and Lincoln was right about it being evil and wrong.

It would be interesting to see/know if 1200 years from now that will still be the case.

Perhaps Hal Finney will be able to find out the answer - https://www.alcor.org/blog/hal-finney-becomes-alcors-128th-patient/

It wouldn't surprise me if it hit between $20,000 and $40,000 within the next 12 months (e.g. June 2021) given increasing demand, the halving, and increasing use cases.   It wouldn't surprise me either if it was double that.  

The thing is that no one knows, if they did, they could short it now or buy it up now and the price would reach the point sooner than they "knew".  It is entertaining to speculate, but that is all it is, speculation as to the future.

The information about Grayscale absorbing 25% of the annual new supply is important.  If an ETF is approved ever, just think about the supply it will need.  It will be a tremendous amount if one or more ETFs are approved in the US, let alone if similar vehicles are approved around the world.  Sure, people can buy individual coins and they do, but if you are sitting at the computer and want to buy $10,000 of bitcoin in your IRA at anything close to the spot price, it is a royal PITA.  And ETF opens worlds of possibilities, so whenever it happens, it will have a big impact.

It is always important to remember that prices are set at the margin, so the halving in new supply plus even a small increase in demand can have an outsized impact on price.

The SEC needs to think about this.  Sure, there could have been (and may still be) manipulation of the BTC fiat price on some exchanges, but ETF demand will dwarf much of the exchange demand and as ETFs come online, the ETF price will be more likely to impact the exchange price than the opposite.  The SEC has it backwards over any reasonable timeframe.

As far as McAfee - Carlton is exactly right.

McAfee and his comments are just idiotic.   "Ancient technology," "worthless," "least used" just shows his own lack of technical understanding not to mention understanding of the genesis of bitcoin.  The rest of the crypto-sphere is extremely centralized, one person (or a very small group) can pretty much control most (perhaps even all) other cryptos.  Look at the ether split from a few years ago.

He just likes trolling people and getting press.

With more use cases, more widespread ownership etc, yes.  It may not occur for another order of magnitude or two in fiat price though.  e.g. It won't be stable at this price.  ETFs and similar vehicles enabling widespread ownership will help.  A need for truly censorship resistant money will help - Venezuela, NK, China/HK are great examples for where it is needed.

As if there was any doubt to this.  The thought that CW was Satoshi was ludicrous on the face of it.

I still haven't seen any confirmation or denial yet regarding the JPM bitcoin stuff, so I'd think that in all likelihood it is true.  Often companies are much more likely to deny false information vs confirm true info.

Regarding the news section of the WSJ, it is quite left-center biased, but you are correct, some of the conclusions should be taken with a few grains of salt.  Often, but not always, the news section is pretty fact based although the news section has ignored facts that have been presented and documented elsewhere in the WSJ.

I wouldn't count on it short term.  Long term, much more likely.

It was nice to see the block pop up on the CLI.  Watching for a block is kind of like watching grass grow, but I've watched all three now just because it is an interesting and perhaps historical thing.

One thing that could provide it *if* the world were in depression is people who want to protect their assets from the insane amount of money printing that would then be occurring.  Heck, it is occurring now, but one suspects it would grow even more in the event of more distress.


However, I think that continued usage and tech improvements along with the halving of new supply is probably sufficient to support an increased price over the longer term.

This is a good point:  what would you want a stable coin to be stable against? 

Why though, would you want something that is stable with fiat which is inherently unstable over any longer period of time?  Why would you take one of crypto's strongest selling points - protection against the instability of fiat due to the whims of people/politicians - and neuter it?  Why duplicate the weakness of fiat in crypt when you can just purchase a basket of fiat currencies without the overhead of crypto?

To me it sounds like the illogic of having a centralized crypto, which is pointless, one might as well just use a database.

It seems to be an open question as to whether this will be a deflationary, an inflationary environment, or something not particularly different than the past few years.  I know some high value investors are betting on deflation, while some are betting on inflation, there is someone on each side of the trade.  I don't think anyone *knows* but a lot of people think they are right, and half will be. 

As far as its impact on bitcoin, the next halving, technology improvements, usage, etc will have a lot larger impact on the fiat price of bitcoin that inflation or deflation.

The key is one's time horizon.  If one is saying "the next few weeks/months" are going to be great for bitcoin's fiat price, one never knows.  Ditto for even the next year.  No one really knows.

If one is talking about the technology, every year has been a great year for bitcoin.  2020, 2021, 2022 will all likely have great advances in the tech and the applications of it.

Again, the key is that long term, the technology is important and the fiat price will likely follow advances in technology and usage.

More press for bitcoin is always a good thing particularly if it is positive.  The halving isn't a negative no matter what, a decrease in supply with a constant or increasing demand will result in higher fiat prices. 

Any adoption by the people of China will help both bitcoin and the people of China.  It will help them protect themselves from the collectivist who are intent on controlling them.

TLDR;:    The fiat price will go up, go down, or stay the same.  Previously it has gone up over time, particularly after a halving - within 6-18 months of the halving it has risen.  No one knows what will happen this time.  It might rise into the halving, or it might not. 

I think that sums it up.  :-)

The short answer is that if you believe in the ability of technology to protect people's assets from the authoritarians/totalitarians/socialists/communists and other elites, then bitcoin will rise over the longer term.

"Price drops" depend on your timeframe. Someone who bought or mined at any point before late fall 2017 is still doing great.  Anyway who panics at all should probably not be investing in bitcoin or they need to think of buying bitcoin is something they should do today and not revisit until 2025 or something. 

The halving and tech upgrades to bitcoin over the next 6-12 months are catalysts that could drive the fiat price higher.  Just remember no one knows though for sure what the price will do.  Plenty of people have said (since I started mining in July 2010) that Bitcoin was doomed etc, the same people are around today except that the price has gone up from way under $1. 

"Price drops" depend on your timeframe.  If you bought in Dec 2017, it is a lot differs compared to if you bought (or mined) any time before August/Sept/Oct 2017.  For me, if your horizon is weeks or months vs several years, that is the issue.

Bitcoin has been through a lot.  As time progresses and more people become involved the volatility in fiat will decrease.  The next halving, technical upgrades etc are really going to change things over the next year.

Anyway who panics should probably not be investing in bitcoin.

Giving people the power to escape capital controls is a good thing so that when the powerful and elite screw things up and then attempt to force everyone else to pay for it, there is an escape hatch. 

Politicians like to have mandates and controls without thinking of the consequences.  Things like requiring banks to issue loans to non qualified borrowers etc. Cyprus with its disastrous haircuts to accounts about 7 years ago etc.