I predict as the 'real' economies get worse and worse, more people will be driven to Bitcoin out of hatred and fear of the current system, even at this price I'd say Bitcoins are still cheap.

The ironic thing is when we started having problems I received a booklet in the mail from sky saying we should switch to them if we're fed up of Virgin lol anyway the engineer is supposed to be coming today, so unless they use the excuse of getting bogged down in snow they should be here.

Let's be honest, it does have all the makings of a religion, let me just go through the list:

. Mysterious creator that has suddenly vanished off the face of the Earth or doesn't exist  - Check

. Celebrities are endorsing it to give it more legitimacy - Check

. Multiple sects splitting off from the main beliefs because they disagree with them or want to form their own cult instead - Check

. Lots and lots of conspiracy theories surrounding it - Check

. Persecution from government organisations that fear it - Check

. Crazy evangelical fringe believers who run around and try to harass people into following it - Check

. Extremely negative mass media attention - Check

Yep, I'd say we're a religion now

That sounds like something very worthwhile to invest in actually.

That's what happened with me, when I turned off that stupid box I realised they were full of shit.

You guys should all know by now this is the media's game, they want to portray us as terrorists and criminals so people will be more hesitant to put their money in it or think it's a scam.

There's actually a whole sub-section devoted to it:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=77.0

While stuff like this is horrible and precisely what made me stop watching mainstream news channels of any sort, you'll find that the majority of people aren't actually like this. Granted, it's going to get pretty bad as the economy gets worse and paper money collapses but for the most part, people are pretty passive and just want to get along with their lives.  If you bother to question what you watch and read you'll discover that these kind of murders and the like are usually isolated the problem is though that the news very often goes out of their way to find them, their primary purpose in life seems to be to scare the shit out of people and provoke reactions out of them.

It always amazes me how news reporters etc. will go to the ends of the earth to find out about violent murder in the world but they won't even report something nice happening in their own back yard.

So I'm speaking to you now from a very shaky internet connection, I'm sure anyone from the UK will immediately know how bad Virgin Media is when it comes to their Broadband but the damn thing just decided to die on me as we got a ton of snow here ( Yes, at the end of March I know ) engineer is on the way on Sunday but fuck me it's annoying. While they have gotten better with their support since I didn't have to argue with the moron on the other end of the phone in order to convince him we had nothing to do with the connection going down they still have the same problems going on after all this time.

Turns out our stupid box developed a fault, something Virgin Media is already notorious for really, I'm glad the internet is at least partially working so I can go on forums and stuff but ARGH so bored! I have work to do and money to make When I move out I'm staying the hell away from Virgin Media.

How do we know the people aren't just buying up Bitcoins in secret anyway?

I know English but I'm trying hopelessly to learn Japanese lol

I wouldn't use that money on speculation unless you really know what you're doing and can accept the risk, or mining for that matter, I'd just set up a business that accepts Bitcoins.

If the infrastructure cannot even handle a few million people how do we expect to ever hope to have global trade and take on the USD? The people who are against raising the limit and fixing things seem pretty short sighted and greedy in my opinion, Bitcoin was designed to be a currency, not a way to get rich quickly.

I've gotten some better photos now, sorry about the quality of the last ones, also added some Amethyst claw settings I did for necklaces.

What you're proposing sounds like a flat tax rate, I wouldn't distribute it equally though, I'd just have it across the board at about 5% or 10% and then that's it, I think I'm right in thinking that Switzerland has a flat tax rate, not sure about other countries though.

Build up my stash even more and sell some surplus to buy a house I would also buy a wacom cintiq and a shiny new computer which can run anything.

You damn troll! I meant the country and you know it!

My parents think it's a scam.... LOL suckers

These people really do live in their own world, I can't help but smile when I read this kind of stuff because it shows just how fucking clueless they are when it comes to technology.

I would sell them in smallest lots you can deal with if that makes any sense, that way you get your profit and also don't fall for a scam you also won't end up borking the Bitcoin economy too much either if you sell the coins in batches rather than all at once but I think the volume is a lot bigger now so it may well be that the price won't get affected as much by large trades.

Sage pretty much has the right idea as well, it might be a good thing to diversify in precious metals too so your fiat doesn't immediately lose value the second you cash out.