Especially not a free service or even the search engine example.   I did provide the example of paid online dating and hotel and airline clubs and those people are definitely paying substantial $Fiat for those memberships.  Bitcoin doesn't have to conquer the world but it could definitely become a tourism currency or a remittance currency.



Then we have Jeffrey Robinson, the author behind several Bitcoin books, who claimed that the Bitcoin membership could be as low as 250,000 people.


To me this isn't really acceptable over 6 years and it does beg the question where Bitcoin went wrong.  Is it the kooky internet libertarians? Is it the "Get quick rich kids" (as Robsinson had put it in interviews - although a lot of them fit into the kooky internet libertarian category).  Is it the security vulnerabilities?   Is it the scammers and MtGox?  Is it the half hour confirmations and 24gb blockchain?  Is it Satoshi being anonymous and the allegations he could own 5%-10% of all Bitcoins.  Is it the allegations and rumours that Bitcoin could be a NSA plot?


 If people were optimistic about Bitcoin itself then all that $1.6 billion that has gone into the ecosystem as venture investments would instead had gone into actual Bitcoins.  As well main street would be racing in and sending Bitcoin to the moon.  

I watch the Financial Channel / Radio in the background and I always hear "Bitcoin Bitcoin Bitcoin" but the market itself isn't reflecting that hype.  Mainstreet obviously does not like Bitcoin.

Wasn't Mastercoin another Israeli development?  Huge IPO, huge capitalization ($100+ million) for awhile, spammed the hell out of the media (media connections / corrupt media).. and today it's less than $2 million..

makes you wonder if it was some sort of scheme or scam.  Developers and inner circle of Mastercoin got very rich and everybody else got to hold the bag.  

Gems is Mastercoin 2.0?    $1.2 million IPO?    

Jeff Garzik (Bitcoin developer) made allegations that Mastercoin and NXT are scams and I agree with him.  I bet he'll think Gems is a scam for wanting a $1.2 million IPO (3000 BTC) for something that's programmed in the proverbial basement and has no user base / no working proof of concept.

You live in Guatemala, brew?

Hey that's kind of mean to the butters!

Yes it's technically true *technically* that Bitcoin is only 500K - 2M users and it's been almost 6 years now.   Whatsapp came out in the same year as Bitcoin and has over 600 million users.

 If something couldn't go viral over 6 years, despite it being all over the news (I hear about Bitcoin on television more than Whatsapp and Facebook), then it's proof that Bitcoin is good concept butpoor execution and mainstreet isn't going for it.


 Nowadays there's something like 1500 alternates in total - *of course* most of them are $hitcoins but there's 6 to 12 good ones with new code and new ideas.  If an alternate does go viral then it will surpass Bitcoin's userbase in months.  Bitcoin's 500K - 2M users is smaller than club membership at hotels, airlines, online dating sites, et cetera.

Patmast3r to be nominated

On a library login account too that he signed up with government ID, wasn't it?

Well that comes down to scale.  It's alleged the exchanges are already exchanging in fractional reserves and manipulating the price of BTC.  Wait until the bigger real world whales start coming in like private funds, banks and governments who can crush those exchanges in a heart beat.

It's disappointing this is another big ICO that will likely end up as a scam or vaporware.  Maybe this French guy is Mark Karpeles' cousin, could be possible as a lot of French people are related and this is a small industry.



The viral marketing idea is crap.  Stellar did a $10 give away and even gave out the monies for invites and guess what?  It was all exploited and gamed by blackhat professionals all over the world.   This Gems viral idea is so easily gamed by macros, scripts and bots.  So the end result is some guy in Russia will be getting all the rewards and authentic people, who were expecting to make $5-$20, don't get a thing and thus stop inviting their friends.

Full employment economy ended in the mid 1990s when NAFTA was signed and it became socially acceptable for companies to outsource their manufacturing plants to China and Mexico.   This is when the "depression" started for people on mainstreet and it has been going on strong for over 20 years now. 

The math also doesn't account for it.  NEM distribution had 1200+ veteran accounts on Bitcointalk back in March 2014.  If those 1200 had 1800 socks then it is still an initial distribution of 1200 which is better than the initial distribution of Bitcoin and every other alternate.

I wonder if this is equity purchase or a royalty based on transaction income or some other agreement like a loan.

For Bitcoin to hit $Trillions (let's pretend there's no inflation to make it simple) then the only ROI left is like 1000x.  Still a good buy if $100 does end up making you $50K - $150K after 10 to 20 years.


Of course this has to be contrasted with the reality that Bitcoin could simply be replaced by another coin better at marketing and user base expansion.  Bitcoin is only 500K - 2M users so it's technically smaller than the internet in the late 1980s.  There's a lot of people who sold their cars and homes and bought in at $1200 and that was almost a year ago and they have been bagholding ever since.

And the internet.  Imagine if they had internet or CNN during WW2?   

Might be brutally honest, although it can be curiosity-entertaining, the news all the way in the Middle East is often not relevant to your typical life in America.  Sure if somebody blocked the Gulf of Persia then we'll return to horses or buy electrical cars but otherwise don't wake me up until they're beheading people across the street from me.

Not even 1994. Bitcoin currently has 500K-2M users when the internet back in 1989 (years before 1994) had up to 3 million.  Internet in 1994 had up to 12 million.


Far as I am concerned all this merchant adoption is too early and it's hurting the price as companies are going to dump 95%+ of any BTC they receive.  Just as bad as those high class mining hookers who are dumping 80% of the coins they mine just to pay for the electrical and hardware upgrades.

eGold is a good example as to why it is difficult to have a crypto currency backed by a precious metal - tempting raid target once you get too big.


A safer alternative, although not quite the same, would be to have a coin backed by a redeemable silver & gold token that is recognized by a third entity.  Especially if this token acquires value itself then more third party gold and silver dealers would recognize it too.

Will she still look this good at age 30?  Or will she morph into a Babushka?  

Yeah its typical of Russians ever been there?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=590421.0

NODE coin to surpass NxT?!