I am from Europe myself. I have been doing some research where I also contacted my local government to see what their stand point is on holding crypto in general. I have been told that if I ever was to hold whatever amount that is in the tens of thousand range, then even holding them will be seen as something that they can charge tax over. It's part of my wealth. That's however not the case when it comes to virtual profits (e.g. coins having gained value after buying without selling). Tax on profits will apply at the time I sell these coins at a price higher than what I bought them for. Either way, you having plenty of coins, or just a few coins, declaring them is a must.

Merchants have no interest in accepting Bitcoin as form of payment without a third party payment provider in between. Mainly due to the fact that there is plenty of volatility that they will be exposing themselves to. That's why it's a safe bet for them to use a payment provider that will convert any incoming Bitcoin transaction directly to fiat. That aside, people from third world country find it worthwile to farm their way through faucets for 500-1000 satoshi rewards. How do you expect them to keep up with the average transaction fee of at least 20,000 satoshis? Especially when it comes to buying their daily needs in their local area.

Care to explain why you think there will be a big drop in the coming days? Because as it stands right now, there are zero indications of such a thing to happen. Even stronger, the price will most likely remain moving in the same repetitive way as it has been doing for the last few days. People at this point prefer to continue holding as they feel that the price might be due for another increase in the coming weeks. And if the price happens to go down significantly from current levels, then of course it's a good opportunity to scoop up some extra coins. But I don't think it will go much lower than $870-$880 for now.

Nothing new. It's almost a common occurrence that there are entire groups of whales teaming up at various major exchanges to manipulate the price into a certain direction. Insider information plays a very important role here. Well coordinated attacks on exchanges are also part of the plan here. It's no surprise that exchanges miraculously get hacked, or experience heavy problems when the price has gone up in a solid manner. But it's not all that bad as it allows traders to greatly benefit from these heavy fluctuations. Make something bad turn out to be an advantage for you.

I was pointing at doing daily shoppings in physical stores. In that regard, fiat through cash, or fiat through payment via NFC with phone or bank card are superior. Benefits are that everything is instant, no fees involved, people enjoy insured payments, etc. If you look at Bitcoin when it comes to transferring money from one point to another, then yes, it's surely superior to what fiat related infrastructures can offer.

Banks can't do much without guidance from the government, and thus it's not the banks, but the governments that have the final bit of saying here. Banks don't only serve as an easy way of transacting, storing money, taking loans, etc, but also as a tool for governments to determine who owns what amount. It's not in the governments benefit to replace or change the current banking structure. But that's also not something we as Bitcoiners should be focusing at as it's quite pointless.

That has nothing to do with the tax that governments apply. It's just the company in question taking its cut by offering you a certain service. It's called a fee. Governments can only make you pay tax when you declare your holdings and profits in a honest manner. If that doesn't happen, then the governments don't stand a chance. That's why they have changed their approach on how to deal with this matter. They now target exchanges to force them to release user information. From there they can more or less calculate how much tax you owe to the government. Sad reality.

It won't be solved as in block times getting lowered. In some cases your transation will also get accepted without any fees, but that's mostly only the case when you purchase digital goods that can be withdrawn by the merchant in question. That being said, Bitcoin is not the ultimate currency tool that you can use for your daily shopping needs. Just keep using fiat as that offers a far better/faster payment experience. Bitcoin usage nowadays has to come from people looking to use Bitcoin as store of value, or as an investment tool.

Gambling should in no shape or form be seen as something that is close to whatever investment or doing trading. Especially when you look at the most popular gambling games. It's pure luck that people depend on. I often hear people saying that they found a dice method to constantly win, but that's simply impossible. It may work out for them at start as the luck is with them, but at some point their luck runs out, and thus that method will be worthless. It's of course always a great thing to learn from mistakes in trading that resulted in you losing money, but the point is that you actually learn from what you did wrong. In many cases people constantly make the same mistakes, and end up losing money. It doesn't always work for people as some of them don't learn anything.

Putting your money into ICO's is basically the same as you gambling. Especially where nowadays the far majority of the ICO's are nothing more than empty projects with false promises just to make themselves look interesting. From time to time they release some sort of an interesting feature to keep people interested and attract potential "investors", but it's just hot air. Nothing exists. This doesn't mean you can't make a decent amount of money when you enter and leave the market at the right time, but it's a gamble with a massive risk ratio.

Beside market understanding, common sense is a great thing that prevents people from doing something they will later regret. If the price seem to be on the higher side already, then just wait on the side line for the price to come down again. Don't gamble on the price going higher than it already has gone. It's dumb. Look at how it makes you feel. Plenty of people then make another mistake, and that's panic selling to prevent further losses. That's dumb as well. Keep in mind - You don't lose anything if you aren't selling your coins. Just wait for the price to go up again, or try to average down your buying price by taking advantage of the price that has gone down. Panic selling only make things worse.

What will according to you cause the massive up swing to $1300-$1500 where later it plummets with ~50%? Differeces are too extreme without anything severe happening such as another exchanges getting hacked. In my view, the price dropping to $600-$700 without a reason would be weird unless it's pure manipulation. But that's something you and I can not see coming. And yes, if you look for whatever form of stability, then people are indeed better off looking for stability elsewhere. But I think quite some people beside noobs and rookies are already aware of that.

If you didn't enjoy the price going up to the levels above $1000 due to you having a small amount, how can it make you sad that the price then dropped to $900? Not much gained is also not much that has been lost. That aside, everything that is being seen as a small amount today, can turn into a large amount (value wise) after a few years. Just make sure you keep holding on to your coins as this is by far not the all time top that we will see. If Bitcoin lives up to all its realistic expectations, then every small amount that you manage to scoop up right now, will add up to a decent number a few years later.

Bubble hasn't popped because it wasn't a bubble. If it was a bubble then we would be sitting at much lower levels. It's just a healthy correction that the market badly needed. That's why it doesn't look all that bad. If we maintain the $800 level, then I am fairly sure that we'll rise above $900 again. But then the next thing will be - Will we manage to maintain the $900 level... Either way, current volatility lends itself perfectly for some profitable trading. I have nothing to complain about.

Not necessarily. Timing is everything when you enter and leave the market. Take the current dump as example - People that have bought above $1000 and even above $1100 because they were thinking that the price would increase further, are now heavily disappointed in themselves. Perhaps they even blame Bitcoin for their own bad investment timing. Tell me, who on earth enters the market above $1000 while it was so obvious that the market was about to correct significantly any time soon? It's gambling that these people have been doing. Serious people leave the market at such positions, and rookies enter the market....

Getting rich times are over unless you have hundreds of thousands of dollars as investment/trading balance. Keep in mind that nowadays people can't even afford to buy themselves 0.5BTC, so how do you expect people to get rich with such an amount? It doesn't make sense. Getting rich will only be possible for certain brave/smart investors/traders. The average person just needs to make sure he makes profit, and that's it. Rich shouldn't be on the list.

It's very simple, the price went up in a pace that everyone with at least some level of market understanding could see that it wouldn't last. I am very happy that we're experiencing this correction right now. It means large players have done their best to cash out as many profits as possible, where we will soon enter the buy back phase. It's however not certain yet that we have seen the bottom already. I just hope the $800 level will hold, but I wouldn't put my money on it. Always make sure you have money left so you can buy in case the price does happen to dive below $800.

Never buy with all your money at once. Do it in steps of 10% each time, as that will basically allow you to buy all the way down if you time it right. That's exactly what I have been doing since 2013. Same basically goes up when it comes to cashing out profits. Sell in steps of 10% each time all the way to the top. If you buy or sell with all your money at once, then you miss out big time if the price keeps going up or down further. I won't be surprised if the price will dive below $800 any time soon. No guarantees of course, but have some money aside for when that happens.

I am not discarding the existence of web wallets, nor am I against them. But it's a fact that a lot people use them as a long term storage solution. That's what I consider to be a wrong thing. I definitely agree that for day to day transactions these web wallets come very handy with small amounts in comparison to system heavy desktop clients, but then in combination with small amounts only, and not where all people's coins sit there doing nothing. It's an unneeded risk people expose themselves to. But they somehow don't seem to realize that. If you look at blockchain.info, then it's a great thing that they supply you with your private keys. In case the site can't be accessed, you can still access your coins. That's not the case with all web wallets, and especially not with exchanges. That's basically what my concern regarding storing coins elsewhere is, and not small amounts that people use on a daily basis for whatever purpose.

Honestly, how can you regret something that you couldn't do anything about? It doesn't make sense at all. It's not like you have made a mistake such as gambling away your coins, or by mistake delete one of your wallet files containing a certain amount of coins, or selling your coins at a very low price as an early adopter. That's when regret kicks in and you rethink what you did wrong. But not in this case.