Good talk, but the part about Western Union and the like being "evil" and "stealing" people's money is ludicrous.

I don't think you can.  I'm just saying--Carper is not someone I want to give money to. 

The discussion that followed with Peter Todd was sobering.

Any thoughts on his concerns?

This guy wanted the govt to have an internet killswitch:

https://i.imgur.com/4TYjQRQ.png

Remember, he's a politician - the lowliest of creatures in the moral menagerie.

Wow, 7% picked the high to be >$100K.

I said 40k-50k because I think the total market cap has to get much higher to achieve any sort of price stability.

What will be the high price for bitcoins in dollars on Bitstamp during 2014?

We know that the price can peak and then be cut in half.  So I'm not asking for the price at the end of 2014, but rather, the peak price in 2014.

The poll has a lot of options due to exponential trends; I wanted granularity.

Thanks to the OP for maintaining this observer.

Where do you get the NAV chart?

Thank you for the post.

One thing I find fascinating is the idea that the govt has the best interests of China as a whole in mind.  To an American like me, that seems too unbelievable to be true.  We are used to our govt using power to help themselves and their cronies at the expense of the people.  A libertarian like me believes everyone in govt is screwing the majority to help the few.  Democrats believe the Republicans are screwing the majority to help their few friends, and Democrats vice versa.  Either way, most Americans think they're being screwed.  It seems strange that people in the Chinese govt place loyalty above profit.

A question for you regarding the future.

What if Bitcoin takes off in the rest of the world?  What if it reaches a much higher price, i.e., $100,000, or similar, and achieves price stability, thereby making it a useful medium of exchange?  What if Bitcoin actual does what us dreamers desire:  a replacement for the dollar, euro, etc.?  

Will the Chinese govt still ban Bitcoin even if it looks like China will be "left behind"?

Thank you!

I assume the fact that the lines overlap so much is due to inclusion of Mt. Gox data.

OK cool, that's basically what I was trying to say in my first post.  There's a financial incentive toward a single fork (the longest fork).  Consensus for the "correct" blockchain is achieved via financial incentive.

Has anyone ever created a site that has the cumulative walls for the top exchanges added together? 

I.e., total bids at $800 at Bitstamp + OKCoin + BTC-E,
total bids at $801 at Bitstamp, OkCoin, and BTC-E,
etc.

(I left out Mt Gox because of its large differential in price)

Thanks.

But what incentivizes miners to mine on the longest fork?

If they have raised cash but haven't bought coins, that's a huge deal.  $150 million would raise the price of bitcoins massively.

If they've already bought coins, they probably had a lot to do with the runup from $100 to $1000.  It's less of a big deal.

How likely is it that they've already bought their coins?

Anyone?

It seems like the consensus boils down to the fact that miners want to make money. 

In other words, no miner wants their work to be for naught, so they want to choose the same version of the blockchain they think everyone else will choose.  If they did choose the wrong version of the blockchain, their mining rewards would be rendered worthless. 

This results in a "lots of versions of the blockchain" being an unstable state, and "single blockchain" being a stable state.  Consensus is achieved.

It's all because of the incentive to make money.

Is this correct?

Would a trust like this ever need to sell its bitcoin holdings?

I believe you. But I'm wondering why the words and letter say 1:1.

If I understand what you've said, traders at bitfinex are more bearish than you've seen. That, my friend, is bullish.

So why does the pic say 1:1?