There are no disadvantage in a cryptocurrency exchange since it helps people acquire the coins they want and need to hold. In using it, however, there are certain disadvantages in which, IMO can be avoided if the end-user knows what he's doing. Keeping a huge amount in cryptocurrency exchanges had always been a bad thing since crypto exchanges are prone to hacks. Apart from that, anything is good in using crypto exchanges. Keeping yourself safe and vigilant in using these platforms would ensure that no unnecessary loss of funds will occur.

There are some cases in which a certain altcoin go against the current trend of the crypto market, most specially the newly-created coins which only recently went live on crypto exchanges. Technically, these coins are still not distributed and only a handful of people have the coin in their hands/pockets. It has the tendency to be pumped initially, and after the coins are distributed to new users, that is when we can safely assume that the coin will now start to follow the general trend of the crypto market.

In specifications, yes, bitcoin fulfills all three of these. However, due to the fact that there aren't enough places to spend bitcoins and use them as currency, it cannot display how good and effective it will be as such. Due to this, people outside the ecosystem think that bitcoin isn't an effective means of payment because there aren't sufficient data existing about the reliability of the coin. Most retailers and services who removed bitcoin on their method of payment feel that it's tanking because it's not wante, but that's not the case in actuality.

As the world shifts towards globalization and e-Commerce heavily, there will come a time that cryptocurrencies, mainly bitcoin, would be legalized and be made some special regulations which ensure that it will not be used into money laundering or any other illegal activities but rather on legal stuff such as a substitute to fiat if it isn't available. Many governments are already considering creating their own crypto which I think is a hypocritical move if they still decide to ban bitcoin in the process. Needless to say, the legality of bitcoin in the coming years would be more defined than ever, knowing that the government is also inclining towards a crypto-run future.

In part, yes, since you will be dealing with bitcoins which is mainly utilized as an investment vehicle rather than a currency nowadays. We all know that every investment carries a certain risk with them, and bitcoin is no exception no matter how successful the asset had been for the past 10 years. Legally, you might be in trouble if there's a certain law/regulation which you break in dealing with cryptocurrencies. The general gist of the governments about crypto is that they are vehicles for money laundering, but so far, there aren't laws that exist which severely affects dealings with cryptocurrencies, only regulations that remove banks out of the equation for the end user.

The transaction fee of bitcoin is one of its impressive edges against other payment processors. At different times of the day though, the fee might increase depending on how many transactions are being processed. Naturally, the miners would opt for transactions with higher fees, so it might take a while for some of the low-fee transactions to get confirmed, but eventually it will pass through. There are also cases in which the network is filled with spam transactions, though doing this in the current times would just be a dire effort in making a point.

At the current state of the world's politics, I don't think we will achieve a harmonious living relationship with each other even in the next 50 or so years. Countries are still power-hungry albeit doing it discreetly, seeking power sources here and there and making sure their enemies won't get to their objectives before they do. Also, we certainly don't need a unified religion since it's just something you hold onto when you don't want to face your problems head on.

I don't know what would bitcoin's role will be in a one-world government: the new authorities can just create a simplified, one-currency that people can use without having to trade it into a local currency. Bitcoin wouldn't be able to cater all this world needs if ever we shifted into a one-world government (hint: we'll never reach utopia). If anything, the world will crumble in the next generations knowing how ego runs in the veins of world leaders right now.

What happened? Strong force from the bears happened. Also, there are still newbies and weak hands that are pulling their assets off of bitcoin, adding up fire to the already raging flame. There's also not that much reason to move the price up; the news has been stagnant lately and literally no good news had been appearing in the past few days. Selling pressure is still there despite the support levels sitting idly. Overall the market is in the bears' control so there's literally not much the bulls can do, just let the days pass by and trade whenever the moment is opportune.

As was always said by CyberSec experts, there aren't any hack-proof systems or perfect systems, only systems that are tough and hard from the outside. There will always be a small hole in which hackers can enter and exploit without the admins notice, so there's always a chance that something can be hacked no matter how 'secure' the system is. Or it can also be an inside job from rogue employees that want to have it all, but most people in the bitcoin ecosystem nowadays jump to the conclusion of an inside job without looking at the facts.

The growth and money would only revolve within the confines of the platform who facilitates the futures and derivatives, but the original asset which is bitcoin will not gain anything apart from the press it will generate. Nonetheless, it goes to show just how interested any other people can be on the market and wants to get involved, just not directly. Scaling how the market works and gauging how the trading action happens in a market is one sign of unique interest, and that is what we can see on institutional investors testing out the futures.

Replying to the OP title, there's a lot of hassle when travelling into another country, specially in what currency will you be using. Credit cards do the trick, but most of the companies ask for some form of interest which doesn't sound good in any way. Bitcoin solves that problem and can be used anywhere provided that shops and stores recognize it as one of the payment options. Sadly though, not much stores and outlets consider looking up on cryptocurrencies as one form of payment due to its volatility and most of the concierges such as Bitpay also charges an interest when using their service.

Another thing: though people know and are aware about the existence of cryptocurrencies specially bitcoin, they still wouldn't bother buying it considering that there aren't that much use-cases for the said fad. You have very limited option to spend your cryptos to, and the only viable use-case for bitcoins is by holding it and letting it sit idly for a few months/years which I think most of the general public wouldn't like to do. You could also add news and announcements as one of the many factors affecting bitcoin price. We all know how important positive announcements are price-wise, and most of the time these news are market movers no matter how small or big the news is.

There are rumors that they are already in the works of publishing their own cryptocurrency which can be used in their social media services but as of now, the waters are still murky and the details are unclear. Lifting the ban regarding crypto-related advertisements could mean that they understand the implications of cryptocurrencies and can use them on their services if needed, or someone persuaded them in doing so. It could end up like the talks about Amazon bringing in bitcoin to their website but that didn't manifested 3 years after the initial rumors.

I find it funny that countries would relentlessly increase taxes thinking that it will help them increasing their budget and decreasing deficit while in reality, it only gives investors more reason to take their business elsewhere and profit from their operations. It's also a bad answer from an administration that's supposed to come up with ideas to stay afloat while keeping the burdens from its citizens at bay, and also an example of how incompetent the current administration can be. Increasing taxes only makes matters worse IMO and is not always the answer for a country spiralling into debt.

Not possible. Bitcoin was created back in 2009 and the first puzzle of the said group was published/revealed on January 4, 2012. If they were to create an opus together, they would have recruited people way earlier than their piece's inception date. Besides, it seems that the group is solely interested into cryptography, steganography and datasec, without revealing some form of interest in fintech and other aspects of the economy. The creator Satoshi Nakamoto, as regarded by some experts in the field of cryptography, has an "impressive amount of understanding of politics, cryptography and economy" that doesn't match the group's description and puzzles. Far-fetched, but still a possibility anyway.

Depends on your capacity to think clearly with pressure. Normally, the best answer is to just hold coins until you make a profit. It takes a long time to reap the rewards but it is there. But if you think you can do better and trade daily, do it while the moment is opportune. It's easy to short at the current market condition than to hold. I'm shorting on my extra money whenever the market is in a slump and halt whenever the price is making a turn upwards. I gain 2-3% every time I try my hand at shorting and to me, that's already an impressive result. It works for me though it might not work for you, so don't take what I said fully and still decide for your own strategy.

It's hard to make a generalization when only one data can be extracted. Also, the general notion of banks against bitcoin is to despise it and, as much as possible--specially if there aren't any clear incentive for them--stay away from any kind of transactions involving the cryptocurrency. There had been many instances wherein the central banks of different countries released a memo/circular describing bitcoin as a vehicle for fraud and money laundering without stressing any light on its positive implications when a person use it. It's good that this particular SoKor bank accepts and deals with bitcoin but again, we're still far from a society wherein the banks and the government are comfortable in having bitcoin co-exist side-by-side with their national currency.

I certainly wouldn't fight for anyone not unless they're close to me or I know personally. I will stand for open-source codes, freedom of information and what is basically right. They can utilize the blockchain in whatever way they want it, and that's not stealing since it isn't copyrighted by anyone. Most companies make variations of an open-source program with the correct citation/credits before copyrighting anything, so somehow, this will give bitcoin and the blockchain some credit in case we're in for a series of blockchain claims and copyrights. Also, there's no point doing the things on the OP since these big guys would likely not listen to any rants or protests concerning their agenda.

I don't think so. It's just that hackers are always on the lookout for any potential loopholes or vulnerabilities in an exchange before they carry out the hacks, You simply can't hack something without preparing or studying it, and in the price rises, you can't correctly time it or predict it at all times, so it's far-fetched that this is an attempt to demoralize traders and sell whatever they have. Governments, no matter how good their hackers are, simply aren't gods in terms of everything; it just so happens that some lucky hacker managed to full of a heist and get away with it.

Except that all things don't seem to follow what the charts of 2013 suggest. Do note that back then, only a handful of players are in the game, with most of the volume and market movement coming from the big fishes and the Willy bot. Having a market this big with lots of players to dilute the market will be a different scenario, and would surely not replicate what happened in 2013. Also only recently have we blown the ATH on a parabolic rise, and it is highly improbable for the market to reverse the negative trend that easily without reaching the absolute bottom of the parabolic curve. There's still a lot of money left on that ATH that needs to be 'mixed' before the accumulation begins again. Methinks that 2018 will be a lot of false hopes and fake bounces, but certainly not another run to ATH.