I'd like to know more about the company... there is nothing on your website about the company itself other than "EQUICEX GROUP LTD", such as business address, registration as a financial-services organization, or the names of the people behind it. And also, why is your domain name equifax.com using "Whoisprotection.cc" privacy protection? And from what I could find the company's industry classification was "Wholesale of clothing and footwear" and "Other service activities not elsewhere classified"... is that right?

No, not by January, but very possibly by Q3/Q4 2018, when Dash Evolution launches. I think two main things contributed to the recent price increase:

1) The whole BTC scaling debate - BTC is already slow and demands high fees, and is not expected to scale significantly any time soon. Segwit will alleviate some issues, but will not solve them. The forks that have happened and might still happen undermine confidence in the coin. BCH and Litecoin addresses some problems, but they are not different enough in a meaningful way, i.e., there is not enough of an advantage to justify using an alternative chain with unclear future. Dash has a distributed governance system that is able to reach consensus where bitcoin was not able to. In fact, a block size increase was approved and is being implemented right now, which brings us to the second point below:

2) Dash version 12.2 has just launched, bringing 2MB blocks (even though they are not yet needed for the volume of transactions),  reduced fees (10x smaller), and a step further on the Evolution roadmap, that will bring things such as named addresses on the blockchain and a light wallet with friendlier interface, which will increase usability and adoption. All these will be possible thanks to the incentivized masternode infrastructure already in place, that is already used to optionally confirm transactions in seconds (InstantSend) and to do trustless coin mixing (PrivateSend) directly on the blockchain.

I sent some to HitBTC soon after the split (they only require 2 confs) and managed to dump, but it was too soon since the price went up afterwards... nevertheless I bought again in a low and sold again on a high, averaging a good rate.

What I find weird about the BCash chain is that the blocks seem to come in bursts... one block takes hours to mine, then one or two blocks follow in 10-30 minutes time.

There is some talk about intentional block time manipulation (https://www.coindesk.com/even-miners-hate-bitcoin-cash-might-want-mine/), but that does not explain the bursts.

And yes, I did deposit BCH to Bittrex, but they wait for 20 confirmations! On that chain, by the time I was able to trade the price had dropped by half... I still have not withdrawn the BTC, still waiting for some trading opportunity, although I have ID verification there.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/russian-national-and-bitcoin-exchange-charged-21-count-indictment-operating-alleged

The release specifically mentions BTC-e.

Let's hope that's simply the time it takes for the Feds to snapshot their data and return the servers... My altcoins there have nothing to do with their shenanigans.

Newest tweet @ around 18:43 UTC july 27:

Update2: На данный момент ведутся работы по восстановлению работы сервиса. Примерные сроки от 5 до 10 дней. Спасибо за понимание

From Google translate:

Update2: At the moment, work is underway to restore the service. Approximate terms from 5 to 10 days. Thank you for understanding

The things that makes people believe bitcoin is valuable is not that the idea (nowadays) or the software are precious, because they can and are cloned relatively easy. What makes bitcoin specifically valuable (makes people believe they're valuable), apart from the obvious usage factor (it can be used to transfer money from one place to another, especially among different countries, and people and merchants accept it as payment), is that people trust the network that runs it's blockchain (i.e.: miners and full nodes). As both said, basically anyone can create an altcoin. But in order for it to gain value, first people need to trust the network. If BTC "forks" to BCC, BCC will only have value if others accept it (give "money", goods or services in exchange for it), and for that they need to trust the network that validates the transactions. Who would trust a network run by a rogue team, a handful of miners with old equipment, and, since the hashing power will be low, that can be easily attacked?

It has been resolved now, card can be funded now.

I have been receiving an "User_Not_Active" error when I try to fund my activated plastic cards. So far I haven't been able to transfer any funds to my cards (and thus use them). I have created a ticket (ID 20737) on Dec. 21, but I haven't received any answer so far, and the error persists.

I haven't actually used any of them yet, but from my research after registering in a some of the providers, reading faqs, and experimenting with their platforms, here is my opinion on some of the particularities (whether pros or cons) of the best ones for my usage (for instance, I do not care about ID verification requirements):

e-coin:

• USD/EUR/GBP MasterCard chip-and-pin card issued by MyChoice  in Gibraltar
• Cost: 12-17 USD/EUR issuing + 1 USD/EUR / month
• Account balance in bitcoins; funds can be instantly transfered to card (fiat conversion) once you have BTC in your account
• While they say there are no hidden fees, the exchange rate once you are logged in is about 2% lower than the exchange rate displayed on their front page before logging in - very misleading in my opinion!
• 3 USD/EUR/GBP virtual card with option to upgrade to plastic

advcash:

• USD/EUR/GBP MasterCard chip-and-pin card issued by MyChoice in Gibraltar, personalized (Advcash graphics)
• Cost: 5 USD/EUR issuing (within 7 days of registering), no monthy fee; 1 USD/EUR fee per loading; 14 USD/EUR card closing fee; low ATM withdrawal fee (2 USD/EUR); 0.5USD/EUR ATM balance check
• Account balance in fiat (BTC exchanged for fiat when you load the account), that can later be transfered to the card or back into BTC (good for hedging)
• BTC/fiat exchange rate about 2% lower than market, but that rate is displayed right on their home page
• Lots of funding options in addition to BTC
• 1 USD/EUR/GBP virtual card (total cost at least 3 USD/EUR/GBP: $1 for card issuing + $1 to load + $1 loading fee)

ANX:

• USD only MasterCard, no chip, magstripe only (lower security), issued by SuraGlobal in HK
• Cost: no monthly fees, but high issuing + shipping cost (which, with a 3 year validity, comes out to more than the 1USD/month others charge)
• 1 business-day loading
• Android app available

WageCan:

• USD only MasterCard, no chip, magstripe only (lower security), issued by SuraGlobal in HK
• Cost: 0.1BTC issuing+shipping (37USD); no monthly fees, but has monthly inactivity fee after 12 months of inactivity; 50USD(!!) for transfering card balance to another card (which you need to do even if you order another card when yours is about do expire
• 0.06BTC virtual card (about 22 USD)

SatoshiTango:

• USD only VISA chip-and-pin card issued by MyChoice in Gibraltar
• Cost: USD15 issuing+shipping, USD1 monthly fee, 2% loading fee, USD/BTC at market rates
• Bitcoins transfered to the card (automatic BTC-fiat conversion when loading card), probably have to wait blockchain confirmations
• Option to fund account in fiat using international wire transfer or local payment in some latin-american countries (through payment gateway, but probably with high fee or bad exchange rate)
• Balance can be transfered out of the card (I don't know if there is a fee) and into your account for conversion back to BTC
• Free virtual card
• Android app available

I did not do much research on Xapo or Bit-X because I do not want a card which would expose me to all the volatility of BTC (as the convertion is at the moment of the transaction, I would not have the opportunity to choose a good moment for fiat purchase). I guess most of them would only charge the monthly fee if there is balance on your card (I know SatoshiTango says so). The other cards listed were all worse in one way or the other than the ones I listed above (mainly higher overall cost, especially loading and other fees, or high minimal loading).

EDIT: edited some SatoshiTango information.

Check this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1242788.0

The main difference between Xapo and Bit-X from the others is that your bitcoin balance is converted to fiat at the moment of the transaction (e.g.: purchase), as a real debit card. The other cards have to be preloaded with fiat, i.e., they are prepaid cards. One some of them (e.g.: e-coin) you transfer bitcoins to your account and they are converted to fiat when you decide to load the card; on others (e.g.: advcash) the bitcoins you transfer are converted to fiat when you load the account, and then you have a balance in fiat which you can transfer to the card.

Note that most (I think) don't let you take your funds out of the card and back into your account, once you load the card you have to either spend what you loaded or transfer the balance to another card (for a fee - US$50 in case of Wagecard!).

Also note that while many cards say there are no loading fees, the exchange rate they use while loading the card is much lower than the market. Check the websites (after registering and logging in - e-coin is particularly misleading in that aspect).

A hosting company that displays a "Database Error" when you try to access an url... not a good sign ;-)

http://www.arvixe.com/bitcoin-hosting