Looking at the charts for the whole year, it did look as if the recent bull run could be the start of a sustained recovery. If you fit a line down from the December 2017 peak, then it did look as if the drop had finished, and it could start going up again. But, with the current fall, it looks like just another up/down bump on the graph. It just shows that simply looking at the graph isn't enough to predict price movements.

I'll predict that within the next month the price will go down to break $6000, and then go up to over $7000 again. I make these predictions only to see how my predictions come out. I want to have more accuracy in predicting the market before I commit my money.

I predict that even though the current bull run appears to be over, that BTC will not be down significantly below $6000.

This prediction is just based on looking at price variations in 2018. $6000 appears to have support.

Note: Don't anyone trust my prediction. I'm just learning more about price movements and making predictions to see to what degree I'm able to predict the market. Or not.

Is there any evidence that these mysterious 'whales' really control the bitcoin market, or is this a myth generated as people try to understand why bitcoin prices go up and down?

Which will happen first? Bitcoin's price will fall to less than $5000, or it will rise and break $10,000?

One problem with Bitcoin becoming a world transaction is the amount of energy that must be expended for each transaction.

This would mean that the energy costs required if Bitcoin became a major currency would be immense.

How can this problem be solved?

There are lots of threads where people predict that Bitcoin will go up in price, or go down in price. Many of these simply claim that to be true without actually giving any reasons. Sometimes it's just based on the poster's feeling or unexplained belief.

What are the actual verifiable arguments based on verifiable evidence to predict the future price of Bitcoin?

Can someone please explain '1 Dogecoin = 1 Dogecoin' to me.

I see this posted all over the place, but am not sure what they mean by that.

Since the price went down to under US$6000, then recovered to the $7000s, it's stayed in that area for a few days not. Not making any predictions, but this is a longer lasting more or less stable spell than we've seen for a bit.

Bitcoin is right at this moment US$8230.

By midnight GST tomorrow, will the value of Bitcoin be lower or higher than that?

Please make your predictions.

Assuming that one currency doesn't become a perpetual digital currency, how will digital currencies change over time?

E.g. when Germany moved from marks to euros, people were able to change their marks to euros at a plausibly fair exchange rate so that they didn't lose out.

Digital currencies are decentralised. So, if digital currency X loses market share and is supplanted by digital currency Y, then all that will happen is that the value of Y will rise, and X will fall. So, people holding X will have lost their value.

This means that anyone holding digital currency does not know that in the long term it will have any inherent value at all. It could become valueless, and those involved in mining could switch to other currencies, making it useless.

People holding X can only exit by selling their X to other people. So, if a currency did fall out of favour, someone would have lost value. This value transferring to the early adopters of Y.

Real currencies can become valueless, e.g. the currency of Zimbabwe. However, this is quite rare.

My concern is that it is to the financial movers and shakers' advantage if currencies wax and wane, as this gives the opportunity for people to make money on the fluctuations in value as X depreciates and Y appreciates.

Of course, with more than two currencies on the market, it's likely to be even more complicated than that. But, I think the example above is sufficient to illustrate my question.

In newspaper comment columns etc., I see people frequently criticising others for commenting on the Bitcoin market without an understanding of how it works.

I spent some time studying the technology of Bitcoin, and I feel I now understand digitally signed transactions, how Bitcoin mining builds the blockchain, and how distributed mining and rules to prefer longer chains creates security.

But, I still feel that the market itself has detached from the underlying value of Bitcoins.

What is it that I need to understand Bitcoin fully so that I can comment on the market?

What is the lowest that Bitcoin can go from now on?

Within the next 10 year or so, what is likely to be the absolute bottom from now on?