Everyone before me seems to be quoted, here's mine!

175tVkmMKwwEppDRNnBY2SnTzFUmJJhzZ7

Looks like plenty of liquidity on Finex - the rate is at a low point, too (0.0055%): https://bfxdata.com/swapstats/btc

I saw an article on Slashdot in 2010, found Gavin's faucet and got 0.5 BTC, saw that people on Bitcointalk were spending way more than 0.5 BTC when they bought things, so I tried mining - CPU mining. It took me a whole 4 days with my PC on constantly before I found my first block, and got a 50 BTC reward. Then I checked out exchanges - there was only one, it wasn't in my country, and 50 BTC was - after FX costs - practically worthless. I lost interest.

Some time during early 2011 I saw another article on Slashdot - 1 BTC was approaching the $1 mark, and - even better - there were now exchanges and over-the-counter options in my country! I quickly discovered that mining was now much harder, but I bought a fast GPU are started mining again. Another 4 day wait, but I mined another block! And another! And more! But you know how this ends - difficulty rose constantly. I tried mining pools, and they helped for a while, but in the end GPU mining was no longer profitable for me and I stopped. In hindsight mining was exactly the wrong decision - I should have spent my GPU money (and my electricity money) on buying BTC outright. Most of the BTC I mined I sold (long ago, long before the price was anything near $100, let alone $1000) to pay bills. But I did have some left over, and this time I didn't lose interest but kept half an eye on Bitcoin.

My next burst of activity came in late 2013 - I'm sure you all know what prompted it! I considered - and rejected - selling my remaining BTC. When I thought the price was low I bought and other times I looked for ways to increase the BTC I had. I wasn't prepared to gamble, and I know from experience (2011, MtGox) that I am not a good trader. But I found Bitfinex, where I could lend out BTC, and Coinut, where I could hedge against price changes. So I'm in the fortunate position of having made and lost a fortune (and not realising it at the time), but also having enough left over to be able to accumulate more. Not enough to retire anytime soon, but enough to let me think that I could maybe retire someday!

You can insure the current value of your BTC!

There are a couple of Bitcoin Options exchanges - options allow you to hedge against a fall (or rise) in price. Basically you buy a contract (cost around 1% of what your "insuring") called a "Put" that allows you to sell your BTC for $300. If BTC/USD goes down then the value of your contract goes up, allowing you to sell it and offset the BTC/USD fall.

I think there's a real need for a user-friendly BTC insurance experience, and - to be honest - Bitcoin Options aren't it. Over time I believe they'll develop, and new businesses will develop around them, but for the time being this may be your best option for insurance.

Anyway - if my explanation or the words "options" and "exchanges" don't put you off - here's a couple of links:

• https://quedex.net is new, and not trading yet, but worth keeping an eye on.
• https://coinut.com has been trading for a while now. Their website is a bit primary-coloured and "Bootstrappy" but seems very functional. This link is referer-free; there's a full-fat link in my sig if you'd like to show me some love!

PS. "Options" can be terrifying, and people will caution you not to trade options. This is good advice (unless you know exactly what you're doing: don't trade options). Buying an option, as outlined above, however - now that's using options as they were intended, and the risks and rewards are clearly defined: the risk is that BTC/USD remains static or rises - if that happens you'll lose the money you spent on insurance. Exactly like the insurance premiums you pay for home insurance, or car insurance. (The "reward", of course, applies when BTC/USD falls - your "reward" then offsets that loss).

I'm not sure. What I can say is that bank transfers seem to be a viable way to pay for BTC in the UK. I use LocalBitcoins (in the UK) for purchasing BTC, and the quickest way to pay seems to be "National Bank Transfer" - usually a two-hour (max) wait for the funds to transfer, then LocalBitcoin release the BTC from escrow.

I gather it is not this straightforward in the US? (And, to be fair, this is all a rather recent innovation in the UK - two hours seems mind-blowingly fast after the three-five business days we've had to tolerate for most of UK banking history!)

Having said all that - for a UK-UK transfer of your hypothetical $400 - if both parties have UK bank accounts, the cheapest and probably quickest way would be a bank transfer - no fees, and the recipient should have their money in a couple of hours. (Assuming your $400 had been converted into GBP - if not, then add on FX charges etc). Anything more complicated than a UK-UK transfer, however, and I'd look to use BTC.

I didn't trade on Gox (well, not since 2011) but I followed their BTC/USD exclusively until it became obvious something was badly wrong. It was around then I realised that BTC/CNY volume was higher than BTC/USD, and I started following various Chinese exchanges (I understand the arguments about fake volume - I just don't think they're relevant for my purposes.) These days I tend to follow OKCoin for that reason, and Finex and Stamp because any trading I do is likely to be in BTC/USD!

You mention Western traders trading on Chinese exchanges - any recommendations? Even for somewhere online such traders hang out...

Volume (fake or otherwise) is my guess. It's easier to dump into an exchange with high (or at least, consistent) volume.

It's useful if you get a few seconds/minutes advance notice of what's about to happen over on Finex and Stamp...

I don't have the guts to trade BTC-proper - I know from bitter experience that I'm part of the reason exchange owners make money - but I do occasionally dabble with options. Yesterday I had enough time to take out a long straddle at 280 (profit if BTC/USD went beyond ~290, profit if it dropped below ~270) before the USD exchanges properly reacted. I didn't get a chance to repeat the trick at 270, because that time round the CNY exchanges gave no early indication.

I dunno, it was a pretty good post. He seems to have timed it perfectly: after his post there were 18 months where BTC stagnated. It wasn't until February 2013 before there was any upside on July 2011.

Are you talking about the last dump - the 21:45 UTC one? Because the dumps before that all looked they were like China-led. I had 1-minute charts open for OKCoin, Finex and Stamp, and the latter two definitely followed. Not saying OKCoin necessarily led, but it definitely looked to me like BTC/CNY leading BTC/USD.

My bank forces me to use "security" questions like "what is your mother's maiden name?" As a point of principle I avoid anything easily guessible or socially-engineerable, so brain wallets probably aren't for me. But to be fair - Ryan Castellucci's estimate of a botnet taking a day to crack 8 character passwords isn't a huge concern to me. People are going to use crap passwords - at their bank, or on their brain wallet. It's a social problem.

The reddit thread is quite a good introduction to the issue. It seems it's not an issue with Brainwallet as such, but rather with people - instead of using a decent passphrase, some people were using trivial phrases. "Empty string" is a passphrase with no length - the simplest, easiest-to-guess passphrase possible. (Another example of a bad passphrase that people have used is "cat" - not an empty string, but a very short (3 character) string. And broken in seconds, apparently.

tl;dr - nothing new under the Sun, and this was a social problem not a technical problem.

An alternative approach is to lend through Bitfinex - they take on the counterparty risk, ensure that the counterparty has collateral, etc. The lender can either accept a demand from a borrower, or set a rate (and amount, duration) and wait for a borrower to accept the offer. Over time the rate tends to gravitate towards 0.0055%, though I've always been lucky enough to get a better rate.

Obviously there's still exchange risk with this approach: I'd advise against putting all your coins in one exchange.

I've found lending out BTC on Bitfinex to be easy and apparently risk-free (as far as that's possible). Bitfinex provide "total return swaps" - basically the lender sets a rate, amount and duration (say: 0.0055%, 1 BTC, 2 days) and waits for a borrower to accept (or the lender can set a rate that a borrower has already demanded).

Bitfinex cover the counterparty risk - the borrower is borrowing on margin, and Bitfinex will do a margin call if the borrower's position approaches the point beyond which they could pay you back.

Obviously there's still exchange risk - Bitfinex currently seem pretty solid, but the usual rules apply: spread your risk, keep on top of information about exchanges you're dealing with, etc.

I don't know what rates to expect elsewhere (I suspect rates probably are better elsewhere) but the 0.0055% rate seems to be the long-term trend. It's still better than the 0% rate I was getting before I moved (some of) my coins to Bitfinex! (And I've been luck so far and always managed to get better than 0.0055%).

(No connection with Bitfinex except as a satisfied customer).

A few general recommendations that should apply whatever strategy you decide on...

• Consider keeping some of your BTC in an offline wallet, where it'll be safe and you won't be tempted to touch it!
• Spread the rest between exchanges - don't put all your eggs in one basket.
• Consider alternatives to basic trading.
  
  You can lend your BTC on Bitfinex.com using "Total Return Swaps" (you set a rate, an amount and a duration - say 0.006% on 1 BTC for 2 days - and an eager short accepts your loan, pays the rate daily, then returns your 1 BTC).
  
  Alternatively, if price is volatile but you can't predict if it'll go up or down - you could buy both CALL and PUT options at Coinut.com with the same "strike price" - that way you can only lose the money you spent buying the options. If the BTC/USD price moves enough - in either direction - you'll make a profit that'll cover the cost of buying the two options.
  

Good luck - I hope whatever you do you're profitable!

The links above are referrer-free, but if you wanted to send some love my way... https://coinut.com/?r=807

No, the SI base unit for mass is the kilogram, and it's the only base unit not defined by a fundamental physical property - though that may change very soon.

I'm UK, works for me. Maybe try through a proxy if your ISP is limiting what its paying customers can access. (And maybe consider switching to a different ISP).

Back on topic, what do one word replies like "satoshi", "bit" etc add to the discussion? I assumed it was posters telling us how they voted (which I guess they might have thought other people would find useful). Since we're talking about it could you maybe fill in the gaps and explain why you voted for "bit"?

If it was it seems fixed now: https://filippo.io/Heartbleed/#www.multibit.org

This reminds me of the old thing about "this year being the year of the Linux desktop". It never happened - instead desktop PCs stopped being particularly relevant, and now we're all wandering around with Linux on our (Android) phones, watching TVs that run on Linux, driving cars that have embedded Linux control- and entertainment-systems, etc.

tl;dr - I don't think Bitcoin will go mainstream, either. I can't wait to see what amazing things it does instead!