It's normal that people expect the price to drop after such a decent upwards rally. Especially when you consider that we yet have to experience a solid correction... Other than that - Very strong buy support? I am constantly looking at the levels of buy support at major exchanges, but I don't see anything other than a few sloppy buy walls that will most likely get pulled by bots as soon as the price is dropping in their close direction. Would you mind telling me at what levels you spot this "strong" buy support?

I don't think the current four figure levels can be maintained for too long as the buy support doesn't show any signs of getting stronger. And the buy support that is clearly visible, will be pulled by bots as soon as they notice that the price is about to eat through it. Either way, right now it's a perfect moment to cash out some profits, and to keep holding the other part of your coins to see where the price is heading to. But one thing is very important, don't get greedy to a point where you constantly keep holding your coins without cashing out some profits. The price can't go up endlessly. At some point we'll fall back to levels well below $1000 and perhaps below $900...

It will happen, but the only question is when... Every hacking incident has been nothing more than a well coordinated attack by wealthy individuals operating from several major exchanges. In reality there is nothing that is getting hacked as everything happens from within these exchanges. It's just easy to blame hackers as they benefit from the mostly anonymous nature of Bitcoin. People take everything for granted, plus the fact that the FBI and other related government forced organizations are lacking the knowledge to properly research everything in terms of Bitcoin.

Governments indeed won't find out what you are hiding, but the recent news of the IRS and Coinbase is just a first sign of what governments are going to do in the coming years. If we don't declare our coins, and I am sure the far majority won't be doing that, then the governments will come after us by forcing exchanges to hand over every bit of important user information. I just wonder what the next actions of the governments will be once they investigate user information. I think they will force people to pay tax plus a penalty for tax evasion. It's an extremely sad outcome if this turns out to be reality, but governments see tax evasion as a serious crime.

Don't focus too much on the 10 minute block times. Bitcoin having 10 minute block times doesn't mean your transaction will get a confirmation every 10 minutes. Assuming you included an above average fee, then it may take anywhere from 1 to +60 minutes to have your transaction confirmed. This 10 minute block time thing is just an average number that is the outcome of every difficulty adjustment that is meant to keep the average block time at 10 minutes.

I never understand why people force themselves to choose between banks or Bitcoin, as both can be used alongside each other without any problems. Bitcoin will be more and more an investment and store of value tool (more than is the case already). Bitcoin as currency for doing your daily shoppings is just not interesting. For that we have fiat as that offers people a far superior payment experience, where people also enjoy insurance on their purchases, etc. Whether people like it or not, fiat will always play a role of importance in our lives.

Exactly that. It's surely not a necessity, but more something that quite some people find interesting to know. I too would find it interesting to know even though I won't gain anything from it directly. If you purely look at the number of transactions, then yes, it's fairly easy to assume that the adoption/usage has gone through the roof. But as always, you have to rule out a large portion of these transactions as they are dust or coming from one or more entities.

It just depends on what people you are talking about. People with insanely large amounts of black money have plenty of options to reinvest their money, or to buy expensive paintings, Gold, etc. Money moves mountains. There is nothing that can't get done. If you're talking about people with small chunks of black money, then yes, the options to escape will be on the lower side. But still, if you act wisely, there will always be options to buy Gold or whatever other valuable item face to face. It's not the safest option since you don't know what the intentions of the other party are, but at least it's something that you can use in your advantage to cheat the system.

I usually would say no as we have gone up considerably already, but this bull run has no end it seems. It's a bit too soon to hope for the price to remain above the $1000 level, but that would be a nice target for 2017. Other than that, my feelings that a deep correction will show up any time soon have not gone away. Nothing goes up without a correction in the runup to even higher prices. I don't take any price for granted. I'm too long in Bitcoin to know that anything can happen.

I am also waiting for another bit of drama that will take the price down as it has been happening everytime already. If it happens, then for me personally it won't be that big of a deal since I anticipate on these things to happen as a trader. It means profit. I am sure other regular traders won't mind a massive correction as well. But we'll see what happens. Right now the focus is pointed at having all exchanges operate above the $1000 price level.

Using Bitcoin is risky? Risky in what way? I think you are talking about trading or investing, right? If so, then it surely is risky. Especially when it comes to investing your coins in whatever project or site. From time to time something is popping up that people fully jump in with their money. Currently it's hot to buy yourself into an ICO. Aside from the fact that the majority of the ICO's are nothing more than empty projects with fake promises, it's like a gamble. With trading you can develop skills that will help you into making the best possible moves. It of course doesn't guarantee you any profits, but it's a great source of help.

It's great to see a major non Chinese exchange touch the $1000 level for the first time (in recent times of course). Right now it's waiting for Bitstamp and BTC-E to follow as well (and yes, Bitfinex as well). But looking at how far behind BTC-E is currently, other exchanges need to touch $1030-$1040 before BTC-E is finally joining the four digit club. But then again, BTC-E's price is perfect for some arbitrage trading as we speak. It's always good to have some fiat sleeping there waiting for such opportunities.

Every exchange employee/operator with access to all the real time information, is purely basing its trades on the information that no one else but themselves have access to. In that regard, every exchange can be held responsible for allowing whatever entity to make use of insider information. If I was in such a position, then I would of course gladly welcome every bit of insider information that will help me to maximize my profits. It happens everywhere.

Greed would be an easy guess, but the thing that is different this time, is the fact that we have not yet seen the price go back down significantly. Part of this is due to the fact that there has not been any drama such as an hacked exchange, but I think people at this point prefer to keep holding instead of securing profits on a massive scale. But I think the economical situations in various countries are playing an important role as well. Governments are doing their best to sh*t on their people with ridiculous sanctions. I think at this point we should be happy and enjoy current levels as at this point literally anything can happen.

Money laundry and hunting down money streams leading to the financing of terrorism, are just excuses that governments hide themselves behind. It's once again their hunger for control that is leading to all kinds of ridiculous policies. Bitcoin is getting bigger with the year, and so does the wealth of people holding Bitcoin. It's the pure smell of money that is making them want to know who you are, and what you hold. Because if they know, you can't avoid the point where you have to pay tax over what you hold, the profits that you have made, etc.

It's not only difficult to name up the exact number of people that are using Bitcoin, but another difficult point is what people think a Bitcoin user is. Is it someone that is using Bitcoin once or twice a week, is it someone that is using Bitcoin at least once a month... I think the closest point where we can get an answer to that, is when wallet services, exchanges, gambling sites, etc, bundle their power to share user information with each other to come up with a number. It won't be fully accurate, but at least much more accurate than all the guesses we find here.

If you take the right precautions, then it's peanuts to keep yourself hidden from the public. But the thing is that some dealers and other people take the anonymity aspect of Bitcoin too serious. They make the mistake to directly use these "dirty coins" to send them to the exchange they are verified at with all their personal information. That's where things go wrong. It sounds stupid and dumb, I know, but these things happen as people just assume Bitcoin will help keep their identity hidden for the outside world. Something simple as running their coins through a mixer doesn't come up in their minds....

The price has gone up considerably already, so in that regard we have done exceptionally well. You can't just assume the price will continue to go up without experiencing corrections or slow periods where the price isn't moving much. I personally don't think we'll stay at current levels for very long as I expect to see $800's back, but enjoy current prices for as long as it's possible. It's a fantastic achievement that we manage to sit above $900's with the current poor level of buy support. But then again, it also depends on what price levels you entered the market. If you bought at current levels of ~$950, then yes, I understand why you aim at the price to reach $1000.

Even if it does reach $1000 today, then still there isn't any fireworks for me. I cashed out my profits already around $960-$970 so there is not much more to gain for me. Right now it's business as usual where I am pointing my focus on the volatile aspect of the market. That's the only thing at this point that gets me excited for now. On another note, the title is a bit harsh as the negative tone overrules what we have achieved so far.

The majority of the people here don't have 0.5BTC for whatever purpose. If you talk about people using low amounts for their trading sessions, then it's even less than 0.05BTC in some cases. That's why they mostly jump into altcoins as they are subject to regular pumps and dumps where some coins gain like 100% in a matter of days. I personally find that it is more gambling than actual trading, but it's their choice to do whatever they want with their coins. High risks means higher possible profits, but it also means that the losses can turn out to be way more severe.