Well, I have 2 BTC. I am working on a regional developement and charity project. Non profit. But some aspects of this project are not cheap and I hope that bitcoin will rise in value and I will be able to finance the project with it. But will not hold it for long. I expect that the price of BTC might rise as soon as February comes and USA has problems with it's debt and government - ''The dollar crash apocallypse'' chapter XI. If the market is right - I will sell. Maybe the big players are aiming at similar events as well?

But do these big players possess a threat to the independancy of bitcoin? It's decentralization and function?

I am curious about bitcoin and am considering to start another project that would help the bitcoin grow. But I am not sure if I believe in the idea as much as I did a few months ago.

I see how this can sound good - the price will rise and we'll get rich. But bitcoin might become an easily manipulated tool for the incredibly rich.
There are some heavy weight speculators/investors in the bitcoin market already. What you will see is that they control the price of bitcoin by driving it down with what looks like a panic sell and speculations on forums/other media about a crash. But before that they will make a headline about how BTC gonna be worth 100k soon, how promissing it is, expecting the price to rise. But when to sell, sell, sell ? - Once the good news(foundation for the rise of bitcoin price) stops or a big negative event about bitcoins appears in media. The 'china banning' thing? It was not that bad, but the trolls tried their best to make it look so and the investors were dumping bitcoin like mad. This resulted in an artificial panic sell mixed with real panic. But now everything is calm. The price is rising. There are hardly any ''the end is nigh'' trolls as they would not want to see the price of BTC fall just as they have bought it for 'pennies'. And now groups with even bigger appetites are here for a slice of the pie. Or atleast that is what the news say. Maybe they are already heavily invested. Feeding us up with hope - buy, piggies, buy - and they will crash it from 7000 back to 2000, just as we were expecting the price of 10k or even more. And the cycle will start all over again.

This view on things might be not so far from the truth and it might very off - it is my speculation on the events and environment of the bitcoin market. I am not a person you would consult with about any market events if it really mattered to you.

But if we assume that something like that might be happening. Does this mean that the bitcoin is gonna be controlled by the big banks? Does it destroy a fundamental part of the bitcoin idea? Or the price of it is not that important?

What worries me most is that the big banks will invest heavily, trip themselves and simulate a lot of damage and how this could harm the economy. And ask for regulations on bitcoins from the governments, but, of course, they will be the ones who gain something out of that deal. Could and will this happen?

This was very entertaining. It is a great perspective to look from at the US dollar. Very clever and actually a bit educational as well. Thank You, OP, for sharing.

Yup, I have had only bad experience there.
I use bitstamp mostly now. They do have some ''bad gateway'' moments when there is a lot of activity, but it is nothing more than a little annoyance. Most stable bitcoin exchange experience I have had so far. This is a well developed exchange platform. Mt. Gox, on the other hand, is just awful. I do not think there is anybody who is actually completely satisfied with their service.

Good advice, but I do not think that my nerves are suited for serious BTC trading. I feel like relying too much on luck and too many possibilities. Besides, if you are not dealing with really huge price swings, the transaction fees might eat up all of your profits. And many of us are not dealing with a lot of coins, so the gain would not even be that noticable. I think the best option for new, small investors would be to look for commodities that they need an are able to purchase with bitcoin. Or hold on to their coins and sit through all of the price swings, as bitcoin will become more valuable.

That is terrible. A lot of fresh bitcoin investors might have lost some BTC by bad timing and/or panic selling. I did. And learnt from it a lot. But this guy got burnt bad. No second chance for him, I guess.
Some of the users on this forum are actually really inspiring by how they handle panic situations and deal with crash trolls. Some of those ''chill, this troll is just trying to get in your panties'' replies helped me to to find confidence in bitcoin and this community. They saved me a lot of bitcoins. Too bad that the person you are talking about did not stumble upon them.

I invested in bitcoins only recently, in August. Purchased shares of group-buy mining equipement and just plain bitcoins as well. Since then I have had some light panic attacks while following BTC price charts. But the ''it's gonna crash!'' trolls made me actually go in full panic and lose a little bit of my bitcoins. My fault, indeed. Live and learn.  
It helps to think about what person would actually post about the imminent crash of bitcoin here on this forum. Let us make a list with our observations. I have noticed this guy a lot:

1) A person who wants to participate in the market speculation by driving the price of BTC down with panic. They will rumour and blow some events out of proportion. Then they'll buy bitcoins when the price has been driven down and wait for it to rise. Then do this all over again. They could be small speculants or represent a larger company that specialises in BTC market speculation and exchange.

There are many variations of this particular individual. I think it would be educational to discuss them and find other species of this ''The End Is Nigh'' troll. 

It is a panic price drop. Pure speculation. Most of these threads about mt. gox and the trolls that try to convince you that it is the end ar actually working for their own gain. Why? Because they want to drive the price down, buy bitcoin cheap and wait until the price rises again. Get used to this. Then they do the cycle all over again. This is how they work. They are probably more invested in bitcoin than we are.

It is just heavy speculation. Do not worry. If you do have some bitcoin - hold on to them. They will be worth a lot more by the end of the next year than they were even a few days ago.

Start studying these things. It is never too late.

I do pity the people who got ripped of by them Their offer was great and I wads tempted to buy from them, but then I searched around and found out about their situation.
This happens, productions gets delayed. But you do not keep on receiving new orders and promise to ship them in about 2 months. They are not trustworthy and you should not buy from them.