I think it's fine what they are doing.
If they put bitcoin exchanges under anti-money laundering/know-your-customer rules, they give bitcoin some kind of trust reputation.
And trust is something bitcoin can use very well!
I think it's a good step, especially in an industry nation such as japan!

Wow, that really went quick!!
After all it was a lot of money lost!
Imagine how high their profit in a normal year must be, when they do not have the damaged reputation of a theft!
And this is not only good for bitfinex, but for the whole crypto world as well!
It shows that even under difficult circumstances there are honest people in the crypto world!

I think that often it's not bitcoin that is pumped or dumped.
It's the altcoins, and bitcoin is the center where the money is usually parked.
If an alt gets pumped, the money goes away from btc, and it comes back when the alt is dumped.

I think as well that every money that goes into crypto anywhere else than bitcoin is pure speculation.
I mean, why on earth would ETH be worth 4 billion dollars? I somehow do not get that.
But at least there is one positive effect I can think of: sooner or later a good part of that money is going to flow into bitcoin!

Every money that goes into altcoin is pure speculation.
Altcouins are backed up by nothing. Bitcoin can be used as payment, but i do not remember that I have seen more than two shops accepting a any other coin than bitcoin.
That's why I think sooner or later the money that goes into alt will go out of it again. Maybe into btc, maybe back in fiat.

I think the main reason btc price has recovered is because right now it's gone quiet around btc.
There is no imminent threat of a fork, everybody has realized that dash & co got pumped, transaction times are back to normal.
Combined that makes bitcoin a save haven under the crypto currencies.

The mem pool is not filled up too large, the fees are acceptable and the transaction times are back to normal.
And the threat of any kind of fork seems to be reduced as well.
Those are circumstances that are good for bitcoin users. So I think the price will go back up, at least for the short future.
Conclusion: now it's buy time!

I really was not sure what should be done, segwit bitcoin or unlimite it.
Right now I think that there is no reason to change anything.
For some days now, the fees are back to normal and the memory pool has an acceptable size.
Is it just me or does somebeody else see a connection between the rejection of bitcoin unlimited by the exchanges and the decline of the mem pool?

I'm not sure if it's even the people who were selling their coins.
I suppose it's mainly a relatively small groupe of traders who were dumping their coins.
hopefully they have to buy them back at a higher rate than they sold it...

I must say as well that this is (in many places) a free world.
If somebody does not like crypto it's his right to do so.
Of course it would be interesting to know the reason for his rejection of bitcoin.
Maybe that person is open for reasonable arguements.

Eth and dash have been pumped very hard during the last week.
I can imagine people put their bitcoins into those altcoins with the intention to make more profit than with btc.
If that was true, those people will come back as soon as the pump is over.

Of course the best time to invest was several years ago, when the bitcoin was brand new.
But if some time in the future will be the best time to invest is questionable.
Right now we are facing a general problem with the BU/Segwit debate.
If bitcoin can manage to keep its way up is at least doubtful.
I would say, if you want bitcoins, buy bitcoins.

I'm always reading about this Segwit BU problem that could lead to a hardfork.
At the moment i'm trying to get an overview about what both things would do with bitcoin.
But do we have some kind of time frame where the hard fork could happen?
I mean, are we talking about weeks, or years??

Unfortunatelly scams are part of bitcoin since the beginning.
And the way bitcoin is designed, it makes it attractive to sellers.
Personally I don't use direct payment to a seller, only bitcoin payment service provider.
Sooner or later one of them will come up with some protection for the buyer, like paypal does it.

I don't think they are losing controle.
In case of emergency they print some fresh money and pump it into the market.
In case of real emergency they even help one another because in the end they are all depending on each other.
Central banks are in the game now for a very long time.
Maybe one day a scenario will occure they can not handle. But right now we are not in it.

I don't think that the high fees will kill bitcoin, but I can imagine that they will put an end for bitcoin being used as a payment system.
Many of the purchases made are just too small to pay those fees.
So the increase of the fees would direct bitcoin back into the corner of speculation and investment.
Unfortunatelly that sounds more like an altcoin to me...

But one thing I am wondering: the fees are actually connected to the amount of transactions, not the bitcoin price (at least if I understand it correctly).
Then the fees would have to go down if the number of bitcoin transactions decrease.
Do they really do that?

I can't agree to this statement.
I would only save as much as it's absolutely necessary in younger age.
You're young only once, and you will grow older sooner than you realize.
Do something useful with the money have at that age, and that is enjoying life!
Putting all your money into bitcoin to save it for later, even if the bitcoin price goes sky high some day, you would regret it!

First of all taxes are necessary.
There are so many things he consider to be just given, but they all come from somewhere and have to be payed as well.
And most of that money comes from taxes.
Then, if it would really happen that taxes are avoided through bitcoin in a bigger number, that would be quickly the end of the line for bitcoin.
The governments would suddenly find a way to cooperate and stop the possibility to exchange bitcoin into fiat and back anywhere.
No, I do not see bitcoin to become a tax killer.

You can look at bitcoin as an investment, even a stock, or it can be seen as a currency.
It has qualities of both. The definition what it is in the end lies with the governments, the courts or the central banks.
So it can be different in every country.
Users don't have much of a say how the definition will finally be. But it would be good to have one in order to give the people some security of how to handle it.

I do not think it will crash.
It might drop a little, but it will not crash.
Most of the guys who know what they are talking about already predict that ETF will not be approved, so it will not be a surprise.
Maybe a few of the small speculants try it anyway, and they sell after a negative vote. But I can not imagine big investors moving in when chances are against them.