^ Evidence please?

You'll have to dig very deep to back up those claims! 

I'm imagining internet connected socks with secure wallet backup facility. Maybe a deterministic pair of socks that unlock your private key if you click your ankles together at the correct rhythm.

What has Christmas got to do with the dollar value of Bitcoin?

Do you think that the whales (who are the only ones that can directly sway market price) care about trading during their holidays? They've probably got parties to go to.

Do you think big business announcements will be made by Amazon/Google/Microsoft during the Christmas period?

Nope. Their employees/business strategists are on holiday and getting together with families too.

Wait until after new year for speculation on price movement. The only thing that will sway price during Christmas is unavoidable economic failures such as the current situation with Russia etc.

Even if the people of these debt stricken countries were buying up BTC (which I would consider a smart investment) it may be that they are poor and buying fractions of a BTC. Maybe the average poor household can only afford to save 0.1 to 0.2 BTC and need the rest of their money for food/rent.

I think it's the whales that move the market. And also mass adoption by those of us fortunate enough to live in a fully developed country: USA/UK/France/Germany etc.

That's what I was thinking. Not even a top end gaming rig would cost that much. Save some BTC dude.

To me it's simple: the IRS want taxation on Bitcoin the same way as they want taxes on everything else. So that they can use your money to try and prop up their failing economy and squander the money on every other ill-advised government expenditure that they've been doing for years: lucrative salaries for bankers and government officials, overspending on military projects that have spiralling costs. The military industrial complex etc etc etc.

If taxation was being used correctly (and collected correctly from vast corporations who dodge it) I don't think people would mind paying their taxes.

Does anyone feel the way I do and wish the price to stay as it currently is, with a gradual, steady increase in value for the whole of 2015? (I guess there will always be $30 ups and downs due to whales moving BTC, but it's swings and roundabouts, right?)

This would help settle the nerves of investors that worry that Bitcoin is going to "fail" and also allow those of us with a modest amount of BTC to gradually buy throughout the year with what we can afford monthly; effectively using Bitcoin as a savings account, but an investment that isn't controlled by dishonest banking establishments.

Can anyone see any flaws in this strategy?

Personally, I'm a believer in paper wallets over gadgets like the Trezor. I must admit I don't know much about how it works. Does it have a recovery seed or backup function?

At least a paper wallet that is well password protected, well stored and duplicated at least once won't break and if it does (fire, etc.) just use the duplicate.

Inspect the paper wallet every couple of years and if the print seems to be fading (laser printers are supposed to be superior to ink-jets) then simply generate new paper wallets and transfer your BTC to the new ones.

I would generate 35 paper wallets with the private key BIP38 password encrypted. Making sure it's a very familiar/simple password that I will never forget. The password would be known only by myself and a loved one: long term girlfriend/mother/father/sister etc and would be personal to both of us. Maybe the name of a street we grew up in together.

This will protect against thieves using my paper wallet if I got burgled and also if I got dementia or hit on the head and lost my memory.

Print two copies of each wallet and keep one in my home and one at the loved ones home in case of fire/theft.

Send 1 BTC to every wallet.

Sit back and forget about Bitcoin for ten years. Or just enjoy reading the forums and the interesting technology and culture building up around Bitcoin.

35 well secured BTC should give you a very comfortable life in 10 years time.

I feel sorry for those using DarkWeb markets if they've got a habit to feed and already have a stash of BTC. I don't mean porn, by the way.

I suspected (maybe from a post somewhere on these forums) that BTC-e was Russian hosted.

Is anyone able to confirm this? Should we be worried about using BTC-e since Russia has a bit of a currency crisis going on at the moment?

I'm thinking along the lines of the site suddenly being unavailable etc.

Or is it thriving so much that it should be OK to use?

How are they able to manipulate the price of gold and silver? Surely they can only make them more scarce by hiding them, unless they have hidden reserves and suddenly "introduce" more precious metals?

I ask this because I'm concerned about the economy and beginning to become interested in keeping a small amount of gold/silver in addition to BTC.

If you don't want to use a paper wallet (and I can't see why you wouldn't) and have a significant amount of BTC in your Electrum wallet you could always use Tails.

Download the latest .iso and create a Tails live USB stick. Then boot into Tails, connect your internet, go to the Electrum page in Tails' web browser. Download and run Electrum and restore your wallet from your 12 word seed (written on a piece of paper, or however you like to store it).

When you're done using Electrum, close down Tails and it wipes everything it has done. It doesn't touch your hard disk and even performs a memory wipe. There is no trace of what you have done in Tails anywhere on your computer.

When you reboot back into your usual OS there is no trace of anything you've done in Tails.

I would use this method if you have a large amount of BTC in a Electrum wallet that you only use once every couple of days/weeks.

You can have a permanent Electrum wallet (with a different seed to your big one, containing a smaller amount of BTC on your regular OS for shopping etc.

You've logged into the wrong socko account, "FatherBob".

I agree. Google seem to promote open source technology through their own distribution of AOSP (Android Open Source Project) and their Nexus range of phones are well known as being easy to unlock and install customised firmware.

You'd think that, rather than inventing some kind of GoogleCoin, they'd be embracing Bitcoin in the race to beat Apple's proprietary system.

Google are smart and know that they have to keep up with Apple so why are they so hesitant? It does seem like they have a bad feeling about the success of Bitcoin. Anyone agree?

It's alright. NotLambchop talks of technology being out of date once it's over five years old, just after ranting about a motor vehicle produced in 1975.

I'm guessing that the vehicle in question failed because it was about 70 years out of date.

Don't underestimate my knowledge of the basic English language please.

You're right about the sarcasm, though. It was intended, indeed relevant, to your ridiculous comparison of a consumer product launched within a market already saturated with similar products, to that of a relatively new form technology that currently dominates any of its competitors.

I'm not saying that Bitcoin will always be the number one crypto but I'll speculate that it'll be the first decentralised crypto used by Amazon. That's at least pertinent to this thread.

Huge green volume bar just appeared on Bitcoincharts.com/charts

Yes, what a relevant comparison.

You're exactly right in comparing a global payment system to a model of automobile.

Got any stories about briefly fashionable toasters or grilling machines?

Then wouldn't Amazon having a Bitcoin icon on their payment options list inform more people that there was this thing called Bitcoin?

This is partly what we need, right? We need more people to at least be aware of Bitcoin. Even if 95% of people see the logo and shrug it off, the other 5% that show interest (possibly young, tech fashion conscious people) could amount to a lot of new Bitcoiners.