I highly doubt that's the reason.  The average person still has no use for a fiat alternative and won't until fiat currencies crash all over the world--and if that happens, there probably won't be internet or electricity anyway.

Though I'm not a big fan of finding reasons for market movements (I think it's futile unless there's an obvious cause), I bet it was one or two really large players pumping a lot of money into bitcoin very quickly that pushed the price up this much.  And what probably helped was a bunch of smaller investors who saw the moon rocket starting to take off and decided to jump on board.  That's usually what happens when the price starts to increase. 

If this keeps up, pretty soon we'll start seeing threads about fools mortgaging their houses to buy bitcoin, people selling their kids' toys, and all the other bull market euphoria craziness that comes along with it.  Ah, the good ol' days.

Holy crap, that's incredible--I can barely remember the last time bitcoin was this high.  Last year, maybe?  As I just wrote in another thread, I woke up and bitcoin had jumped to just over $4700, and it was a very nice surprise.

Definitely agree.  People seem to be going bonkers over this, and although it's a very welcome change it's way too soon to tell if this is going to be the start of something or whether this was just a trader with very deep pockets who moved the market.  I've been around bitcoin long enough to know that a one-day price pop might not mean anything.  It could be back at $4k or even lower by the end of the day, but we'll see.  Hope it at least stays high for now.

Holy crap, I woke up this morning to bitcoin at more than $4700!  That's quite an increase--but I'm still not convinced that this is an actual trend or if we're going to end up back where we started in a week or so.

As far as FOMO goes, I bet it played a part in this recent rise.  It always does when the market really starts to move.  People get impatient and start remembering all the times they missed out on profiting from bitcoin's crazy swings, and they start throwing money into the market.  It's all good, though.  I'm sure this is making a lot of people a lot of money.  And I don't have a clue when the next leg up is going to be at.  Not even sure what that means.

When I think of people making a living off bitcointalk, usually what comes immediately to mind is signature campaigns.  The other things in that list are kind of specialty work which isn't as common as simply putting advertising in your signature space, which most members here do.

As for myself, no I don't earn my living on this forum.  I just discovered early on that it would be leaving money on the table if I were to be an active poster on a forum that I liked and not join a campaign.  Not only does it provide some extra spending money (which isn't peanuts, by the way), it gives me some bitcoin to play around with.  It's much easier to try my hand at altcoin trading with what I earn from campaigns than to use the cash I have from my real job--I don't even have a way to buy bitcoin with cash unless I do it here with PayPal, and that's often problematic.

OP, I've always had the impression that a lot of people use this forum as their place of work, but I'm betting that most of them won't bother to stop by this thread and tell you about it, likely because they're so busy shitposting in one of the mega spam sections and won't notice a thread like this in Meta.  But I've come across lots of members who are probably relying on the money they earn here to support themselves.  I can't tell you how many PMs I've gotten from people I've negged, telling me how badly they need their account to live, etc., etc.  I don't know if they don't have enough education or skills to hold a real job or what, but I'd say at least half of the bounty-hunting population is doing it as full-time employment.

My gender fluid leaked out a long time ago, and now I'm just a confused attack helicopter, which I duly notified Theymos of.

And yes, bitcointalk is an equal opportunity forum--any member is fair game for trolling and serious post dilution, and good luck trying to get anyone to discuss things of importance.  Heh heh.  But I still love it.

Agree.  The technology is revolutionary and is robust enough such that it will survive a financial crisis--and remember, it was created right at the beginning of one.  I've long suspected that bitcoin was a reaction to the housing/banking crisis and that Satoshi is not a single person, but I have no proof of that.  It certainly was one hell of a coincidence that a bankless form of money was rolled out right when we almost had all of the banks collapse.

My real concern is not a financial disaster, but one that knocks out either the internet or our power grid.  Obviously bitcoin would become extinct very quickly if either of those things occurred.  But as long as we have electricity and internet, bitcoin is going to be there.

Plus they're probably not providing their own dox anyway.  You can't tell me that bounty hunters couldn't and wouldn't either just fake it or have some forged documents on hand for just such an occasion.

And yes, if someone was boneheaded enough to fall for an April fools day prank like this one, when most people in the know had seen it coming since at least last April, they deserve whatever's coming--and I suspect nothing's coming anyway.  I doubt Theymos would keep the dox and I think he respects everyone's need for privacy.

Yeah--I'm sure the ones who believe Theymos would randomly roll out a KYC requirement are the ones who've never been involved in any Meta drama, else they would have read that quote that he'd only require KYC when hell freezes over.  It's been requoted many times, and personally I'm happy for that.

It would be beyond ironic if a forum dealing with discussion about a currency used by a bunch of people who want to remain anonymous decided to require KYC in order to post.  Forums like this aren't required to "know their customers".  That's for financial institutions, and that's where the KYC abbreviation came from.  No way would anyone in their right mind give up their dox to post on a forum.

I just filled out the KYC verification, and I am extremely offended with the gender pull-down menu.  So offended that I am going to file a lawsuit against Theymos, and you better believe I'm going to get everything he has, including (but not limited to) this forum.  All y'all bitches better get ready for a forum controlled by me, and the shitposters, spammers, and signature campaign idiots are in their last days right now.

It's all one big gender joke until someone gets their feelings caught in a meat grinder.  I've never seen a drop-down menu so ludicrously un-inclusive as what Theymos has created, and before I file the lawsuit I DEMAND he remove that list and simply put a box where one can write in their gender freehand.  Thank you Theymos and I'll see your sniveling ass in court.

Edit:  I'm outraged!  I feel like I've been raped!

I think that pencil ought to be about 1" long and say "Bitcointalk:  Write diffrntly.  We get pump and forum dump" or something similar.

By the way, I assume this is an April fools joke--but I'd actually love a t-shirt like that or a bitcointalk mug.  However I wouldn't pay out merits for physical goods, especially not merit source merits.  

LOL. 

Isn't he going by the name of cryptohunter these days?  OOPS.

Hey Chris!, haven't seen you around in a long-ass time.  Nice that you're still here.

My name is Satan Jr., and you can find me in hell.

Happy 4/1/19!

I'm the OP of this thread--you're not talking about me, are you?  I don't speak German, never did.  Are you referring to supermine, by any chance?

Oops.  I'm a dummy, you obviously meant the OP of that thread, but then you'd be referring to yourself unless I'm missing something.  You mean the member in question, not 'OP'.  Just woke up, brain is fuzzy. lol

Of course there's more accounts connected.  Isn't there always?

Ugh.  I'm a collector of fountain pens, and there has been a trend in the past 5 years or so of making a lot of rose gold parts, and I've grown very tired of it--I much prefer real gold color on things, but that's just me.

My vote from the distant peanut gallery is for the antiquated finish.  It's beautiful, but I've never really been a fan of proof coins.

Those things are not mutually exclusive, and my vote is that he's both.

I'm not removing my feedback on this guy, as he's done absolutely zippo to change my opinion about him.  In fact, this thread has reinforced it.  Do these people really believe crap like this is going to work?  I'm sitting here bewildered because I can't wrap my head around the 'logic' that must be running through OP's head, and I wonder if he has a hard time functioning when he leaves his house/apartment/hovel.

This is one of the most ridiculous accusations I've read on this forum--the post that got merited was far from a shitpost for one thing, and for another it was one single merit that was given.  With all the abuse, cheating, scamming and everything else that's going on here, this is a non-issue.  People are free to do with their sMerits as they please, and unless you're seriously abusing the system there aren't going to be consequences.

What this thread is about is getting back at Coolcryptovator for a negative feedback.  That much is obvious, and OP should be ashamed of himself.

Bro, I can pretty much guarantee you're not going to get much sympathy because of the comment bill gator made in your thread, and I'm basing that prediction on your trust page, which is mostly red.

People need to be warned about doing Paypal deals for the exact reason bill gator stated.  There are always going to be noobs who see threads like yours and don't look at members' feedback and don't know about the potential for chargebacks.  Can you not see past your own greed?

By the way, this is an empty threat and does nothing but make you look unappealing as a trading counterparty.

Maybe, but I don't see this as a huge issue.  If you haven't given out your airdropped merit already, you probably never will and I highly doubt there's that much still available to abuse even if it were all used for that purpose (which it won't be).

OP's situation is just a consequence of people being free to do what they wish with their sMerits, and I have no reason to doubt his story.  Not everyone realizes the value of merits and a lot of people just don't care about the system.  It's really only the shitposters who could earn more money if they were able to rank up who obsess over merits.

Yes it would.  But there would be a lot of pissed off Legendary members being demoted in signature campaigns, and they're usually not the ones making the garbage posts and all of the problems around here.

Thanks to DirewolfM14 for the smooth transaction!  Locking the thread now.

Exactly.  I don't think newbies realize how new and different the merit system was when it was introduced.  There were a lot of people giving out massive amounts of merit for posts that nowadays probably wouldn't earn any.  I don't hold anything against the member mentioned in the OP, as it was February 2018--right after the start of the merit system.  Yeah, looking back at it from today's perspective that post was certainly not worth 50 merits.  It wasn't worth any merits IMO, but times have changed.

OP, if you look hard enough you could find many more examples like that from early 2018.  Don't bother, though.