Hi Guys,

Since I chose to invest in bitcoin I have seen it fall, other than one peak from 275 to about 440 however the underlying principles have not changed and my confidence hasnt changed.

In the last few days I have listened to a plethora of doom slayers saying its going to drop to ZERO and its a fad.

I find this funny as it is so in its infancy its unreal.

My major concern over the last few week was a real lack of trading leading to a slow decline followed by some panic.

Finally I have watched, when BITSTAMP hit 160 a trading turnaround equating to about 8,000 BTC changing hands for over 2 hours and the price rise, and rise and rise.

This is what I have been waiting for, finally some trading activity because until we see VOLUME then we will not see confidence.

Bulls are bliund and struggle to see. Rather pointless standing in the middle of the ring and pulling out a small red hanky and waving it... If you want to entice a Bull to run then you need a "Feking;' great big red blanket and wave it like mad.

I just caught a glimpse of it this evening.. Lets hope it continues and all those traders now revert their FIAT back to BTC and drive it skyward.

If you are a pessimistic troll pleae explain 20,000 btc in 2.5 hours and 45 point rise if its dead!!!!! and no dead cat bounce because thats just an excuse and not applicaple to something new in the dawn of its life... They dont say Dead KITTEN bounce, do they!!!!!

I come here to listen to considered arguements or opinions put well and yet in every thread I come across NotLambchop troll spouting rubbish and doom and gloom.

He is actually ruining this site therefore I would ask that the moderators stop him from trolling and commenting and restrict him to his own post withing "Speculation"

This way instead of ruining a thread he would be more than welcome to copy and paste it to his own thread and we, IF WE CHOOSE can go and read it BUT we wont be exposed to his bullshit in other people's posts.

All those in favour of restricting him to his own "NOTLAMBCHOP" post within "Speculation put your ands up.

Happy New Year

At 19:00 hrs GMT+1 bitcoin price rose dramatically from $395 to to north of $440.

In recent weeks everytime good news appears on the horizon bitcoin price has slumped.

Please speculate on today's bad new which created this Insta Rise!

I think it may have something to do with Tesco's in the UK having to announce a profit warning and sack some senior management causing an 18% drop in share value!

Any other suggestions, funny or serious

["Transaction fee"]

Today, I had issues with my new Macbook Pro. I really know my way around Apple but am by no means an expert.

It all started a few days back. I decided to watch the live streaming video of the iphone 6 and apple pay. In short, I use Firefox and was having streaming issues so launched Safari. Whilst clicking on the browser I found I was getting advertising pop ups and realised my comp had managed to catch a bit of an internet cold.

Earlier today I started the process of locating the offending files etc and undertaking a general clean up, health check. After an hour I was struggling and then i remembered i have 90 day online apple support and arranged a call back.

Immediately the call came through on my mobile and I was speaking with a Senior Technical Advisor and he knew his stuff and was impressive. So we set up remote access and he did his magic.

We started chatting about the streaming event and quickly got round to ApplePay. We both agreed that ApplePay is a payment method and NOTHING to do with actual currency. Apple are not interested in the currency. It can be your dollars, pounds, rubles etc. What they do care about is creating a recognised worldwide method of payment and receiving a "Transaction fee" from the banks.

This model is the same as iTunes. Apple don't create music, they just facilitate the sale/purchase of music and get a nice "Transaction Fee"

The conversation moved to Bitcoin. I asked him what Apple's views were on the subject and his reply was: Apple is considering bitcoin but waiting until it matures and there is a need. As this need arises then Apple will implement it.

He also confirmed that the consensus by his colleagues is Cryptocurrency is the future.

Finally we touched upon adoption and both agree the following. Bitcoin will develop fastest in those areas where the need is greatest and the financial infrastructure is at it's least.

Your British or USA neighbourhas little need, or desire, for bitcoin at present because he is happy with his 'safe' FIAT method. He has dollars or Pounds in his pocket. He is blissfully ignorant of the benefits and far more worried about risks and the unknown.

The Pakistani farmer, the Mexican immigrant has no bank account BUT.. once you give him a simple phone suddenly he is in control of his financial destiny and this is made possible for 2 primary reasons.

1. Digital Technology bypasses the need for physical financial infrastructure (No need for a corner Bank)

2. Financial transaction cost ceases to be prohibitive for micro transactions or, Western Union don't eat up $6 out of the $10 the mexican immigrant wishes tosend home to support his family.

Finally, the Apple chap sent me some links that he, and his colleagues follow:

http://www.techinasia.com

http://techcrunch.com

I have deliberately left out his name for obvious reasons. I hope this story illustrates that Apple is a Tech company with lots of tech savvy employees and when the time is right they will be supporting cryptocurrency as they aslo see it as the future!

If you like this then you will find it on Twitter at UK Harvey Please RT.

Good afternoon all.

If the Bitcoin community really wish us Non technical mortals to adopt Bitcoins then they should educate easily and simply. Or, in other words, why don't the techies behind Multibit (and other wallets) define a simple backup process on their website!

To lose money due to technical issues will scare off most people therefore everyone really needs to explain, in simple binary steps, the Correct process to protect yourself and thus provide reassurance.

I am saying this as I really want as many people to get on and adopt cryptocurrency for 2 reasons. I love deregulating something which a few people control, the Fed etc which will ultimately benefit the masses (reduced control, reduced fees etc. ) So to all the Crypto techies.. Keep it simple! Stupid and Easy! and 2. The faster the masses adopt the faster my coins will increase in value and higher the likelyhood for bitcoin being permanently adopted and accepted.

This now leads into my question.

I have downloaded Multibit and wish to ensure that if my computer goes up in smoke and the HDD is damaged beyond repair I can quickly and easily rebuild my wallet on another computer and access my funds.

I have decided that my preferred method of backup is, as follows

1.  Export Private Key
2.  Encrypt file using AESCrypt
3.  Save encrypted file to `Dropbox

Questions

1. Is this sufficient to rebuild a new wallet from scratch on any computer (assuming I can remember the password to decrypt file)
2 Do I need to save any of the backup files as well to dropbox
3 If I rebuild a new wallet just using my private key will the wallet contain the transaction history or purely show the amount of Bitcoins contained within
4 If no to 3. What files should i also save to rebuild history
5  Is my method a good method and considered correct, If not, please elaborate including which files etc need to be saved.

Thanks all