Exactly, they aren't even comparable. And bitcoin today can't even be used as micro payment transactions because of the current high fees which a lot of users are complaining. I think they are trying to compare them in terms on their ability to send and received money. But it is still up for debate, because the original design of bitcoin is P2P however, it has evolved now as being a form of investment. What I like about bitcoin though is that we don't have something in between and you are your own bank, unlike in Paypal, in order to have one, at least you need to present like a credit card or bank account for verification and approval purposes.

Looks like you intentionally set the fees so low. So what do you expect? I can't remember how much I set with my recent transaction but it took me around 48 hours if I'm not mistaken. I'm frustrated of course, but when I checked mempool its clogged with more than 200,000 unconfirmed transaction that time. But I'm happy that I get it in 2 days, unlike Western Union or Paypal which would allow you to get in 3-5 business days. Well, Lighting Network (LN) is being tested right now so it ever this will be implemented, this whole issue will be minimized.

I'm also thinking that same. Just like in gambling, you need to have luck in your side in order to at least earn a decent. This is the only reason I can think of not gaining bitcoin in the span of 1 year. Heck even if you start claiming faucets, you will at least have some satoshi's in a year. There maybe something that the OP is not telling if he's not profiting at least in his end. Or if you are not putting enough effort of course you will not get that reward. But it's really hard to imagine being in the crypto world and no luck of earning bitcoin. He's case is really odd.

Of course reading and studying what ventures you what to enter is the first thing you need to do. But for me, its better to really "put your hands" on it and not to spend much of your time reading, let say in trading. Its better you experienced it as early are you can so that you will have gain much experience early as compare to those "bookworm" and learn all everything in theory, but in actual, they all failed because its 2 different world. That's how I did, although I may have incurred losses in the beginning, it teaches me valuable lesson - Experience,  that no amount of book reading will do.

He ows you, then you have the right and get it back. But with the current price, do you think he will pay you back? And does he still have the ability to pay you? It's been year already and what makes you think that he will pay you back now? Did you lend him in fiat equivalent or just pure bitcoin. There's a lot of parameters that we need to factors here. But to be honest, with the current price, I doubt that your friend will pay right now. And you shouldn't allow him not to pay you maybe in a month or two. You have waited too long. But if he is a "true friend", then probably he/she will pay you back. But based on my experienced, people tend to forget their loans, much more if it's only a verbal agreement.

Is this true? I'm been waiting for this to happen as I believed its a best solution to the current problems that we are seeing. I think its not being run on the network but only on mainnet. But if ever this will run on the bitcoin network itself, it will help unclogged the mempool to an extend. Although I'm seeing that the network clogged is down from more than 200,000 unconfirmed to 100,000 so its already cut in half. Let's see how it goes though, but I haven't seen any impact on the price yet, at it continues to go down as of the moment. This has been proposed on 2015, I think its about time to really give it a chance and see if it gonna solves the current issues (which I think will do). Maybe they are just ironing out few things before the actual implementation.

We have seen corrections already, but the price is still too steep in my opinion. I heard that bitcoin reaches its peaked at $18,000 yesterday but its a psychological barrier for most traders that's why they have cash out some and the price is "down" to $15,000. But its not comfortable seeing a correction at a price of $15,000. LOL. The real target before the end of the is $20,000, but I'm not sure if we are going to hit it though. But to answer the OP, yes, the best choice is to hold on our coins, because for one we still haven't seen the bitcoin future offering. I see that the current price is driven by all of this. And CME and CBOE haven't officially started it yet, so for me their still someone out there who are willing to buy and doesn't want to miss the opportunity (FOMO). Let's see how it pans out, just days before CBOE starts its offering on Dec 10 if I'm not mistaken.

And now the price is just hovering above $15,000 and I think you should not fell bad at getting it at $14,000. Yes, its definitely not a bad investment but it still has risk, we can't never predict where the price is really going. But don't worry personally, I think this madness will not stop until we see bitcoin hits $20,000, and because of all this financial institutions offering. And as far as the bubble being pop, historical data says that it can quickly recovered and even go further and establish new all-time-high. So you are still on the positive as far as profit, let's see how it goes on Sunday/Monday when CBOE officially offering bitcoin contracts, it may go either way, but I have a feeling that this bull run will still continue at the end of the year.

Still really fun to watch Manu pulling such clutch baskets. Yes, 40 and still have it!!!. I still remember his block on Harden last playoff. LOL. Lamarcus Aldridge though has a monstrous game with 27 points and 10 rebounds. I hope that Leonard will come back soon. Its a balance attack though and Manu just put the final nail in the coffin with the 3. There are rumors as well that Leonard will be playing on the next game. Remains to be seen.  Looks like Celtics is on a skid right now, although they are still on top of the East Conference. But a lot of teams are crawling and trying to challenge them for the top spot.

Yeah. seeing Steam stopped accepting bitcoin is quite sad, but we can't blame them because of the ever increasing transaction fee that we are experiencing. I guess this is the same reason why Amazon is still contemplating of accepting bitcoin and quite frankly as much as we want them to accept it, we could blame them at all for not doing it. From a business point of view, there's little money to make with, maybe they need to upgrade their infrastructure as well and the returns is that that good. I also agree with the Lighting Network alternatives, but its gonna be a uphill battle if they are going to implement it as sidechains to bitcoin.

Hey, you raised a valid point here. Bitcoin has really alleviate most people's lives, specially in third world countries. Imagine those people get x4 or even x5 of the basic salary in their country. It's a huge boost to them, their life has somewhat turns upside down before of their involving and earning with bitcoin. But why government's are anti-bitcoin. I speculate that with all the negative news about bitcoin, used by criminals -  this is what made them go against it. We all know that the government mandates is to protect their citizens, so if they consider bitcoin as being used for illegal activities, they will ban it whether it has also a positive things that can bring to their people.

If depends how you suffered your loss. Did you lost before you are too greedy and didn't want to get out in time and you become too emotional? Or you just see that your investment just went down because of a crash. If I will suffer because of my clouded decision not to bail out and think that the price could still go up, then I will take this mistakes as a learning experience and could have plan a better exit strategy. Re-think but don't be discourage and just have a walk and comeback strong. But if a lost just because the price plummeted and seeing my wallet balance goes down, I will just continue to hold and do nothing and hope that the price will recover (which usually does btw). No need to be frustrated as well.

LOL at you guys falling for this. The article has nothing special or new to offer to us. This is totally rubbish. Every news agency are not riding on the coat tail of bitcoin because of its popularity. Russia will not even regulation bitcoin or crypto currencies in general. They even have their own crypto backed currencies to satisfy a few. But bitcoin? I don't think so. Don't believed everything coming from them, because they always contradicts themselves. Take everything with a grain of salt. I bet that in the next coming days another news will coming out saying that they are totally banning bitcoin. LOL. Don't be too excited about this unless we see at least 1 mining farm being put out there. For now, I really take everything coming from Russia with a bag of salt.  

If you bought bitcoin at cheaper price, and if you have any reason to dump it with the current price, then you don't have to ask questions. Make up your mind and sell it. Bitcoin now is not for short term investment, not for now. You should be it in for the long haul. What you saw yesterday might be people just want to cash it out and gain profits. But as I have said its better for long term investment. Just hold on it. The price might shot up once we inch closer to the CBOE on December 10. The sentiments of people are very positive and remains bullish. The price is above $15,000 which still high to buy. So take out the buying, its steep to me at least. So my only advise is just hold and observed how the price will moved on Dec 10-18.

That's good if you know how to prioritizes because this is the key to time management. Good thing that the company I used to work for before has put me to a good time management training. Imagine, there's actually a training to help you out make manage your time. And up to now, things that I have learn on that training is instill in my memory. Few tips though, before starting your day, just write down what you want to accomplish that day and try to prioritize things so that you won't waste much of your time. We all know that in our lives, "Time is Gold". Is that not difficult really, as long as you know when and what things are needed to be prioritize before others, I'm sure that you will have a lot of spare time for your families and love ones.

With the current surge of users today, not only Kraken but a lot of trading platforms is now facing a lot of problems. From being slow and not updated to withdrawal problems, high fees. This is the result of all the madness that is going on with the bitcoin ecosystem. Mempools are full and clogged, high tx fees needed just to see your bitcoin in your wallet. Everything is a domino effect now with the rising price of bitcoin. I don't know though why trading platforms hasn't anticipated all of this. This should at least upgrade their infrastructure to support the growing user based. Yes, I understand your frustrations, I have withdrawals stuck at well in the last 24 or so and I'm losing money by the minute specially the price of bitcoin is going down as I type this message.

I'm pretty sure you dump some of your stash seeing the price jumping to $16,000 good call because after that the price begins to slide to ~15,500 as out today. I don't know though why coins.ph (I'm assuming this is your trading exchange) is premium. One factor why trading platform price is different because of the volume, so maybe a lot of Filipinos are really busy trading of something. But as far as $20,000, I not really sure to be honest, I say this because of the current dump from $18,000->$15,000. The mental barrier at $18,000 is too much that most of the traders suddenly jump and dump it. So its gonna be hard to reach $20,000 in my opinion. It we test $18,000 in the next couple of days again sustain it then we can assume that $20,000 will be touch, but if we see another dump, then let's say that we can safely get there in 2018.

For me, its looks like that the financial institution driven price is already price in. I think we are safe at $15,000 for now. There's no more people who are willing to pour in their cash at the current price of bitcoin. Only those who are really betting that bitcoin could go up when those financial institutions open its door on bitcoin future contracts. And I don't know if we are going to see touch $18,000 again this year. I'm very bullish about bitcoin but I observed that many investors have dumped bitcoin already and those who are buying at the top price don't have a sound decision. They decision making is somewhat clouded with all the frenzy going around on bitcoin. From $18,000->$15,000 dump is a serious dump for me. Although the air within the community is positive, but I predict that $16,000 is the max price that we can reach in Dec 17, IMHO.

Instant solution payments in the future? I doubt that. Bitcoin is no longer what is designed to be, for micro payment transactions. Now it is being used for storing your wealth, and investments. And with the continuing price increase coupled with slow confirmation time. I really doubt that we can see it as mode of payment in the future. As for the timeframe to reach the much awaited $25,000, It could be next year. Bitcoin price is too far stretch already that I don't know if there's still someone to bought at above $10,00 now. It's really that expensive that a casual or ordinary person now can't even afford to get it.

I wouldn't be surprised in bitcoin is still thriving in China eventhough the government ban it because its really profitable on their end. Not only China but I'm sure that countries that ban bitcoin as well has a flourishing bitcoin community underground. That's how big influence bitcoin is to the ordinary citizens, changing how they live, lifestyle, kids getting good education. So how can you totally stop those people from getting into bitcoin? So as you guys pointed out, bitcoin cannot be stop, not even superpower China, who we all know if very tough and strict with regards to implementation of their laws. As for bitcoin leading the way for the new power and revolution? Of course it has already began and are happy that we are apart of it. Goodluck though to Chinese community wo do trading up until today. Proved to your government that they are very wrong turning their backs on bitcoin and cryptos.