No I did not. If I use a wallet like electron I take a risk of a third party getting hold of my keys and I don' t want to risk that. It's less than 10% of the value in BTC and since BTC is rising 6-7% on average per day it makes more sense simply waiting a day or two. All those forks will end in disaster anyway. Not worth the hassle. But I appreciate your warning.

If they are only betting with contracts and pay each other in dollar or euros but don't actually buy BTC how could it possibly effect the market?
For example: if I make a bet with someone how many BMWs will pass through a particular street and the one who gets closest wins, how could that possibly effect the sale or price of BMWs?
I don't know much about the stock market so maybe someone can give me a better example.

Did CME announce when they would start, early next year?

It will reach $20000 somewhere next week. At the end of this year it will most likely be closer to $25000 if not more.

I'm glad I bought a couple of years ago, a very small amount just for fun. I now wish I had bought more. If only...
It's way past my bedtime in this part of the world but I may stay awake all night. Call in sick tomorrow. Heck, who needs a job when we have bitcoin. 

This last week I got a nice surprise almost every morning. The value increases most during the night (in my timezone) which leads me to believe that a lot is traded during late afternoon and evening in the US. Maybe people are talking about it at work or hear about bitcoin on the car radio. And after dinner they may go sit behind their computers and buy some bitcoin. What do you guys think, could that be the reason?

Just to clear up the Multibit part: there was no seed back then. I can't remember which version but not HD. You simply installed it and that was it. It came with it's first address installed and you could add more if needed.

Thank you both for the information and suggestions, I really appreciate it. A newbie like me needs some help and it is great to have a platform like this with people who have a lot of experience. Unfortunately I have no friends or relatives who own bitcoin but they are getting mighty interested now.

For now it might be best to wait and see how BTC develops, it has been doing great for the last couple of days. And at some point it might be best to cash in completely, then try to get to the BCH and after that start a completely new BTC wallet with new address . On a brand new laptop thanks to bitcoin.

Thanks for the warning, I will be careful. Another option that crossed my mind. Cashing in everything and put it on my bank account. I already had an amount transferred in batches of a few hundred dollar into my bank account, it is a local trader who takes a very small profit margin.

But the BTC is doing very well at the moment, maybe I should wait a while. The BCH is only a fraction of that and it is not going anywhere, maybe I should try to claim it later. In this case greed can be bad.

That sounds like a good idea, why did I not think of that myself.   I still don't think the seed will show imported keys in Electron cash (why else would it have given me that warning) but at least I could try. Thanks!

But it would be a bit of a logistical nightmare. Could I not simply enter the keys into Electron Cash just like I did in Electrum, or is that not possible? I have both my public and private keys.

Thanks AdolfinWolf. No, I have not tried it yet. I made some stupid mistakes in the past and almost lost my bitcoin. That is why I want to make sure I don't make a similar mistake again.
The keys were generated with Multibit long ago. When I recently entered the keys into Electrum it gave me the message: Warning, imported keys can not be recovered using the seed!  That gave me the idea that the keys must be generated by, and somehow connected to, Multibit. And when I would enter the seed into Electron Cash, it would not see the imported keys. Does my reasoning make sense?

I could simply try it, if you think nothing bad will happen. I hope you understand why I am being very careful here, I got my bitcoin back and don' t want to jeopardise that again. Is Electron Cash dedicated to Bitcoin Cash only? Can it in no way interfere with my bitcoin BTC?

With the help of some members on this forum I was able to retrieve my bitcoins, simply by entering the keys manually in Electrum. I can now send and receive bitcoins. I cashed in some of it and will keep using Electrum as a kind of savings account.
While I was entering the keys in Electrum I got the warning that imported keys could not be recovered using the seed.

After the fork of August 1 I also have a nice amount of BitcoinCash BCH. Is it possible to use a program like Jaxx or Electron Cash on another computer so I can use it for daily transactions? I don' t want to make a stupid mistake and lose all my bitcoin in the process.

I found a video on Youtube explaining how you could use the seed of Electrum and import it into Electron Cash to claim your BCH. But in my case that will not work: the key was not generated by Electrum but by Multibit years ago.

Any ideas/suggestions on how to solve this problem? I would appreciate it very much. Maybe there is another way I can access my BCH.

There was a small dip 20 minutes ago but it's back up to 12,500 USD. You can see the live ticker here: http://bitcointicker.co/stamp/btc/usd/

Which forks are upcoming this month?

It's getting very close to 13.000 USD right now so it could hit 14k by Christmas, maybe even more.

I get it now, I will triple-check every setting in Electrum before I start using it. First I better catch up by reading a lot and watching some Youtube video's before I spend any of it.
Thank you all for helping me out!

This sounds confusing to me: have things changed these last years? The 15.... key is my public address right? That should not change when I make a transaction is it? Maybe I was never aware how a transaction really took place.
How can I check this in Electrum?

Good point LoyceV, what is at stake is the current value. Back then I had high hopes for bitcoin and tried to get others interested. When the value dropped I lost interest. myself I can see I made 5 transactions but can't remember what they were. And I remembered having printed the keys and put them somewhere. When I couldn' t find it I assumed I had thrown it away. Glad I still found it.
What do you mean by ' change'?

Is it smart to put Electrum on a thumb drive, if even possible?

Thanks LoyceV, I took your advice and just checked the balance. And I was pleasantly surprised. No I am not a millionaire but a few thousand dollar was much more than I had expected. Looking at the value it had in 2011  (it turned out to be later then I remembered) I must have spent most of it back then except for a few dollars, maybe even less than one dollar. I contacted the friend I remember sending some, to get him into bitcoin, be he sold his years ago. And now regrets it of course. Since I have a low income and money is very tight at the moment I am tempted to sell them but I may regret that later.
What do you guys think: hold on to them a bit longer and see what happens? Since I invested only a few dollars back then there is not much risk in keeping them and see what happens in the future. What would you do in my position?

Thanks all. Something came up but I will try it later today, and let you know if it worked.

Thanks for your reply. I used Multibit at the time and never bothered to use a passphrase or password. It was such a small amount and I only sent a small amount to a friend just for fun to see how long it took to arrive. I soon lost interest and forgot all about it. At the time it was worth 10 dollars or less but a lot has changed since then. I just counted the characters of the key and it has 51 characters so I'm sure it is the private key.
I understand Multibit is not even used anymore. What program could I use to enter the keys in?

Hi all,
Somewhere around 2009 or 2010 I bought a small amount of BTC. Forgot all about it and later gave my old laptop to a cousin who formatted it and put Linux on it.
On the radio I heard Bitcoin is doing really well and I remember having printed both public and private keys on a piece of paper, but I could not find it anywhere. Until yesterday, coincidentally found it between some old bank statements.
So here is my question: is there a way to retrieve the bitcoins and put them in a new wallet. It should be worth at least a few hundreds of dollars. No QR codes, just characters on paper so I will have to type them in by hand. I hope it is still possible. Please keep in mind that I am still a newbie, any help/suggestions would be very much appreciated!

Dutch