As time goes by, I don't think Bitcoin will become obsolete because of its high power consumption, but the computers that mine Bitcoin will become more and more efficient, leading to an equal or lesser amount of power consumption we see in the status quo.

The media has been screaming about cryptocurrencies for the past few months or so, especially when Bitcoin skyrocketed in December. Everyone and their dog are finding out about it everyday from this coverage, or other sources, such as by word of mouth -  and after they hear about it, most are bound to join. But hey, the more the merrier right?  

Look, I get the FOMO, but I think now the hype has kinda settled down. After the spike seen in the past few days, you probably won't get much back, perhaps in the longer term if your wait a bit - if that. Invest in Bitcoin for a stable long-term investment. But hey, if you've done your research and think it'll go up, go for it mate!

I think you'll find that this general topic has been discussed into the ground around here. And really, its for good reason. Bitcoin is definitely becoming a lesser-dominant cryptocurrency, especially when so many are being developed and started as we speak. You've got high and slow transaction fees, high competition to Bitcoin and a growing investor interest in these altcoins. I wouldn't worry too much about it now however, with bitcoin still maintaining itself as the cryptocurrency with the largest market cap - with that rising. If we see competition such as Ripple take over - that's when we'll know we'll be in trouble.

It's these long and expensive transactions that Bitcoin has, that are making different altcoins more and more attractive for users. An example is Ripple, where instead of 7 transactions per second that Bitcoin offers, it is capable of 1500 transactions per second. This also means cheaper transactions. Soon we will see that Bitcoin will eventually become less popular, mainly a store of value, with these altcoins taking over for everyday use. They still offer the features that Bitcoin was first famous for, but offer solutions to many of the problems Bitcoin is facing in the status quo.

Bitcoin transactions aren't completely safe, etc - they can be traced and whatnot. However, they are a lot more secure than payments through things such as PayPal, for example, and to the average user, Bitcoin is pretty much anonymous.

As for how it can be used harmfully - unfortunately that's how things just work out with this type of technology - to fund something in full secemret or whatever. Things are being done to stop illegal activity and Bitcoin, with an example being laws being passed in Australia to make it harder for things such as money laundering to happen with Bitcoin (don't remember the specifics, a quick google search away).

In the end, it's inevitable that tech such as Bitcoin is going to be used for bad, and it's best we just accept it.

Yes, if someone dies, or even if someone loses their private keys to their wallet - the bitcoins in that particular wallet are lost forever (basically). In the future we will probably see more and more people inherit bitcoins, so that they aren't lost. If someone with 1 million bitcoins dies and the private keys are unknown - then yes, those bitcoin are pretty much stuck where they are.

It's unfortunate, but people have suggested for inactive bitcoin to be able to be re-mined and other such ways to make sure amounts of bitcoin aren't lost forever. There are of course issues with this to do with security and otherwise so we will probably see the status quo for this scenario to stay the same for a while.

Sadly, with the bad scaling of Bitcoin, expensive transactions were inevitable from the start if Bitcoin were to become as popular as it is today. 33 dollars sounds like way too much that Mycelium is wanting, however with Mycelium, you are able to change the transaction fees to whatever you like - with the transaction time obviously changing.

Don't sell, this is the perfect time to buy or just hold - because the price will go back up soon.

People are now realising that Bitcoin is soon becoming the lesser cryptocurrency with its tech lagging behind. Increasing transaction fees and the network becoming slower are two big issues that are making people move to other coins such as ETH or BCH.

Not only this, but the media has also brought more attention to these other coins, as well as the idea that Bitcoin is unstable and ready to burst - where you should invest in so and so coin instead. Overall, there are a heap of factors that could cause BTC to be less dominant nowadays - and honestly, more competition, the better.

Look, I think you'll find that many investors are skeptical of these new types of investments, and that they stick to traditional assets, such as shares and whatnot. Warren Buffet isn't the only well known investor who doesn't believe in Cryptocurrencies, just look at Jamie Dimon (CEO of JPMorgan) and all the news articles about him and how he calls it stupid or whatever.

I don't think we need to worry or care at all about what Warren Buffet or whoever thinks, just look at how well Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies are doing - and they will continue to do well even with the continued skepticism.

If we look to a few weeks ago, where Steam (The PC game platform) cut off BTC support, the people at Valve justified this with two main reasons. The volatility of the value of Bitcoin and also the almost stupidly high transaction fees. On a place like Steam, where games can be from a few cents, this is ridiculous.

Places like eBay and Amazon see Bitcoin as a large issue in terms of logistics, as their systems are wired up for money - and implementing a solution for bitcoin may not be worth it for them in the long term. But hey, we might be surprised if they do start to support it, as there may be some advantages for them too.

For Bitcoin, the wallet that I would recommend for the desktop is Electrum. Its light, simple to use and secure. Other alternatives include Jaxx and Exodus, which also support a variety of altcoins, whether it be Ethereum, Litecoin and others. However, wallets such as Exodus are known to have high fees for Bitcoin (as explained above) so I would recommend using Electrum for Bitcoin.

Be sensible, post on topic, don't spam and don't scam.
Put in your full effort when writing posts.

Make sure to also do your research if you're posting about a topic you might not be as knowledgeable about.

That's pretty much all, good luck!

Anywhere in the world, there is a community and marketplace for Bitcoin to fiat currency. I myself use localbitcoins.com but there are many other places online that offer trading such as the type you want. Where I'm located, Bitcoin ATMs (like mentioned above) don't exist, and these services are very useful to myself and other Bitcoin users in the country.

Yeah it's pretty good that it has started to stabilise, but I wouldn't call it unstoppable yet. I don't think it'll be absolute smooth sailing from now, with China perhaps continuing its regulation on Bitcoin. Just expect there to be a few bumps on the way, but eventually, I reckon we'll see a full if not excellent recovery from Bitcoin.

This is a bit late, but still applicable to the current situation. One rule with me, is that I will never sell my bitcoin for a loss, and right now I am just holding.

If you have some spare money I would recommend you buy some bitcoin. This is one of the last chances to get some cheap bitcoin. After this whole China situation calms down a bit, I reckon bitcoin will go up back to around 4.5k USD or so.

I really doubt that it would go beneath 2k or 1k any time soon - maybe if some other crash happens. So, buy up bitcoin now and see how it goes.

Name: Straux
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Yeah, I agree with using Linux for Bitcoin. At the moment, I dual boot Linux and Windows. I mainly use Linux for things such as programming and also cryptocurrencies and use windows for main use, such as browsing the web, Adobe Creative Suite, etc. Linux is super safe, but I still like to use windows for its features and app support. With dual booting, I suppose you get the best of both worlds.

Name: Straux
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WAVES is a great project, I even have some Bitcoin invested into it.