Bitcoin just doesn't deliver what he promises, cheap and fast money transactions. Transactions via BTC network are not cheap at all ($55 per transaction and raising), they are the most expensive transactions around, plus you can't even make a transaction because network is clogged, 282 000 unconfirmed transactions, we only have a promise of Lightning Network as a solution for this problem, solution that is not fully implemented, solution that is not Bitcoin, promise is not a solution, promise in software industry is called vaporware. In my honest opinion, after 5+ years of using BTC, currently it's worth $0 (ZERO).

[Bitcoin price and volume across Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges]

I mean, as soon as PBOC started their investigation Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges turned off their fake volume engine

We are not just talking about fake volume, fake volume == fake price == bad reputation == another Gox.

We all followed what Chinese Exchanges was doing because of their volume, they were No.1, BTC/USD volume could not be even seen on the pie chart compared to BTC/CNY volume.

Did anyone asked Bobby Lee yesterday during his AMA on Reddit about this volume issue?

I mean there is no logic that halted withdrawals could influence volume at this magnitude, just look at the photo below.

Bitcoin price and volume across Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges

[Gone are the days using Alipay/Wechat-Pay with no fee in China. Central Bank new policy to be effective tomorrow.]

Gone are the days using Alipay/Wechat-Pay with no fee in China. Central Bank new policy to be effective tomorrow.

Mid/large payment must through bank account. Cannot use 3rd party like Alipay/Wechat to do free transfer above ￥5000($750)

Non-verified users can only transfer ￥1000($150) for the whole lifetime.

Bank UKey or Bank Apps are mandatory for any online payment above ￥200($30)

source:https://twitter.com/cnLedger/status/748445824137342976

Bullish if you ask me

UPDATE

CnLedger here. The policy was drafted last year and will officially become effective starting tomorrow.

To help you guys understand it, here I link a wsj article which explained some contents of the policy:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-proposes-to-keep-online-payments-in-check-1438593958

This Central Bank's policy itself is not meant to promote bitcoin (of course). But it will push lots of people to start looking for better ways -- convenient, censor-less, and efficient ways to transfer money.

Bank transfer is known to be slow, expensive and cumbersome. That's why Alipay and Wechat Payment (Tenpay), the two convenient and (almost) fee-less tools are extremely popular. But now they're strictly limited by the policy.

It is clear that with this policy in effect, banks want to force people go back and use their already heavily criticized systems. But history never goes backwards. Without Alipay/Wechat-pay, Bitcoin is one of the only few promising choices left to the public. That's why I tweeted it.

Ethereum price is falling because of the potential flaw in the soft fork solution.

In short, attacker could start a free DOS attack.

This might push Ethereum in the state of uselessness for a while.

I assume that this will push BTC price up.

source:
http://hackingdistributed.com/2016/06/28/ethereum-soft-fork-dos-vector/

Is this it gentleman?

Where this rollercoaster is going?

Where is the end of this free falling?

Maybe someone pushed the wrong button or he knows something we don't know? What is your theory?

http://www.businessinsider.com/ebay-is-considering-integrating-bitcoin-into-paypal-2014-5

Considering that they don't act as a exchange anymore...

Determine what is the dominant opinion and do completely opposite

Dear Bitstamp clients,

After rigorous testing, we have restored fully automated processing for Bitcoin withdrawals.

Unforeseen incidents like this DoS attack against an edge case in the Bitcoin protocol are to be expected with such a young technology. The core protocol remains sound and the world has seen how these incidents are addressed by the Bitcoin community. Every challenge that is successfully overcome is a milestone that allows the world to grow their confidence in Bitcoin.

We recognize that for many of clients the inability to make withdrawals may have been stressful and we are thankful for your patience and understanding.

Best regards,

The Bitstamp team

https://www.bitstamp.net/article/Bitcoin-withdrawals-are-once-again-fully-automated/

Hackers used transaction malleability to steal BTC from exchanges (yes, plural, it's not only Gox, read the Bitstamp statement)

Consequence:
1. Exchanges have the fiat they say they have
2. Exchanges don't have the BTC they say they have

Conclusion:
1. Some users don't have reported BTC on exchange they think they have

Speculate how this could be solved

https://www.bitstamp.net/article/bitcoin-withdraws-suspended/

Ripple Labs is now official partner with the World Community Grid (WCG):

https://ripple.com/blog/world-community-grid-welcomes-ripple-labs-as-a-partner/

Do you know who WCG is? Remember SETI project... Basically this is the next step in evolution and CPU power is donated to research projects like analyzing aspects of the human genome, fighting HIV, dengue fever, muscular dystrophy, cancer, influenza, rice crop yields and clean energy.

If you are interested to join Ripple Labs team and to be the part of the next scientific breakthru, you can join here:

https://www.computingforgood.org/

Good thing is that you will earn XRP while doing something for the World.

All you need is a BOINC client and you connect all the machines you have, for example, desktop computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones... etc and control them from the single web page. Every piece of technology you have in your home can mine Ripple XRP for you.

Cheers!

I'm impressed that dump like this didn't harmed BTC price at all, in the past this kind of dump would trigger panic and desperation, now it's just a hump on the road, BTC continues like nothing happened

Jed is a living legend: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/09/jed_mccaleb/

[700 000 cash-in location in the U.S.]

Another BIG NEWS for Ripple XRP:

Mr. Stefan Thomas, CTO at OpenCoin, Inc. (Ripple Labs) announced that Ripple is about to go live with provider providing 700 000 cash-in location in the U.S.

I think that he is talking about ZipZap, so rumor is almost confirmed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fTUiSqS5sU&t=1240 Watch the next 30 seconds!

EDIT: After all, Mr. Alan Safahi, CEO at ZipZap, Inc. is also at Advisory Board at OpenCoin, Inc. (Ripple Labs), so I'm 99% sure that Mr. Stefan Thomas was talking about ZipZap  



Timer removed. End time: 2013-10-10+18:20:00UTC

[spend some time learning]

Well, before I said anything you will need to spend some time learning, that is unavoidable, but when you learn, you will be thrilled about Ripple and what he can do.

We live in a fast-paced crypto-currency world, things get changed in a blink of an eye and the one who can not follow get left behind. I don't want to argue about what you should do, I will just give you my opinion. If you want to fork Ripple, it will take you a lot of time to even understand the code because it's not documented as much as it could be, then you will have a lot of investments because you need a fairly good number of servers, it will take some time to attract the customers of your forked network, in summary, you will spend a lot of time and possible you will be late and I said at the beginning of this post, what will happen when you late.

I understand a urge to make a fork of Ripple, because most of you think that Ripple is something like Bitcoin and Bitcoin has alt-coins, but you are wrong. If you want to have the same approach to alt-coining Ripple, better solution for you is to develop a RIPPLE GATEWAY. If you already have your alt-coin, you can serve as Ripple Gateway for your alt-coin in the Ripple network and attract more customers. Developing Ripple Gateway is very well documented and your gateway can be up in no time.

For all Ripple critics, don't fight the tide, stop for a second and try to learn. Ripple is a swiss-knife, it takes time to learn what he can do. Most of your critics are tied to one of the features and you don't completely understand how system works. First learn, then try, then make a critics.

For all people completely new to Ripple, Ripple is a P2P network, let me repeat P2P, let me repeat again P2P. It's also decentralized currency exchange exchange, yes I wrote it twice because it is that. Everyone was dreaming about decentralized currency exchange and here it is, no more MtGox and centralized Bitcoin exchanges. Contribute to the Ripple P2P network, host a rippled server, be the part of the future. Ripple brings complete freedom because Bitcoin P2P currency just got a P2P Currency Exchange.

I think I said enough, if you spend some time learning, I think you will think the same, don't spend time listening to what someone will tell you, have some patience for a few days, learn it yourself:
https://ripple.com/wiki/

Ask people on Ripple Forum especially on Developers section, I'm sure they will give you explanation for things you don't understand:
https://ripple.com/forum/index.php

Cheers!

[at no cost]

SnapSwap largest U.S. based Ripple gateway announced that they will not charge in-Ripple fees, so anybody can send USD within the Ripple Network absolutely free. Additionally, it was announced on @SnapSwap Twitter account that it will be possible to move USD from SnapSwap to Bitstamp and back at no cost through Ripple Network.



From the SnapSwap blog:

Sending USD within the Ripple Network is now free
Today we are eliminating transfer fees for balances issued by SnapSwap. We previously charged 0.2% on each Ripple balance transfer.

This means that anybody can send USD within the Ripple Network absolutely free. Essentially this change in fees makes the money in the Ripple Network as efficient as cash in your real wallet.

We will continue to charge bank transaction fees of 0.99% + $0.30 per transaction for depositing money from a bank account into the Ripple Network and for withdrawing money from the Network into a bank account.