The boom, bubble and bust cycle can't be avoided, it is the history of innovation. But Bitcoin is, I believe, in the early part of the process which means it could go very high indeed.

No. There are two big problems with bitcoin as a currency: its value is unstable and its transaction processing is too slow. The most important feature of a currency is that it be a stable store of
Over the past year and a half Bitcoin has been on a spectacular run, rising in value 140% in 2016 and now an additional 49% in just the past month. This surge in value has invigorated Bitcoin backers convinced this boost in value makes Bitcoin a more credible currency, that it is a sign of the cryptocurrency’s strength. Yet the wild swings, both up and down, in the value of Bitcoin do not make it a more plausible substitute currency; they make it a speculative asset, a get-rich-quick scheme.

Bitcoin might be expensive according to Vítor Constâncio, Vice President of the European Central Bank. In his interview with CNBC, we read.
Bitcoin price is showing a classic correction to a former resistance level as it waits for more bullish momentum to sustain the climb.

Let’s go through the arguments that many people on Twitter (not exactly a brain trust) have made:

“the cryptocurrency bubble started from a much lower base of $10 billion market cap at the start of the year, so it’s unfair to use percentage increases and compare them to housing, biotech, tech.”
I actually agree with this. NASDAQ, real estate, the biotech index all start from a much bigger USD base. I’d like a comparison to tulips and private dot com startup valuations that went public in 1999 because I think all of them are grossly overvalued. (Yes, it’s unfair for me to use a misleading chart but tough luck - cryptocurrencies are in a massive bubble and I am going to do my part to pop it before more people put their life savings into cryptocurrencies.)

Bitcoin prices reaches reached £7,529.77 ($10,009) on the CEX trading platform earlier today, before slightly dipping in value.

Since the start of the year, the cryptocurrency has achieved the incredible feat of increasing more than 1,000 per cent in value.

But despite the incredible growth, economists are still apprehensive of the token’s inherent volatility and signs it could be a price bubble.

Just two weeks ago, bitcoin investors took a hit when the token’s prices plummeted over 20 per cent before bouncing back.

A lot of people still struggle with the concept of how traditional fiat currency is "centralized", and digital currencies like Bitcoin are "decentralized".

. Decentralized
Bitcoin is a decentralized currency. No central entity regulates it or controls it.
2. Free to Transfer and Hold

Remember, Bitcoin is not a company or a business. It does not charge its customer to use the service. It is an open source technology. As such, bitcoin is completely free to transfer and hold.7. No Chargeback Risk

Bitcoin does not subject merchants to chargeback risk the way credit cards do.

 There is a bitcoin craze at the moment, with prices of bitcoin skyrocketing. Bitcoin is still far from ready for prime time, but as it matures, it will change society’s fundamental operations much more than the Internet did. The net, after all, only allowed people to talk and shop more efficiently. By comparison, bitcoin eradicates the government’s ability to operate.

Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Julian Hosp says bitcoin's rapid rise isn't over yet. But there's a catch.
"I think we're going to see bitcoin hitting the $60,000 mark, but I also think we're going to see bitcoin hitting the $5,000 mark," said Hosp, co-founder and president of TenX, a firm that wants to make it easier for people to spend virtual currencies.
"The question is though, 'Which one is it going to hit first?'" he said.

First, a brief overview on how futures work: Let's say that I think that the price of XYZ which is currently trading at $50, will go up to $100 in two months.
Someone offers me the chance to commit to paying $80 for XYZ in two months' time. I accept, which means that I’ve just "bought" a futures contract. If I'm right, I’ll be paying $80 for something that's worth $100. If I'm wrong, and the price is lower, then I’ll be paying more than it's worth in the market, and I will not be happy.
Alternatively, if I think that XYZ is going to go down in price, I can "sell" a futures contract: I commit to delivering an XYZ in two months’ time for a set price, say $80. When the contract is up, I buy an XYZ at the market price, and deliver it to the contract holder in return for the promised amount.

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   The world’s largest banks are pushing back on the introduction of bitcoin futures, raising concerns with US regulators that the financial system is ill-prepared for the launch of the contracts as the value of the volatile cryptocurrency has soared.

The price of bitcoin has risen to a new high of more than $15,000 on several exchanges. Institutional investors have been keen to trade the asset but only via a regulated market.

However, the planned launch in the next 10 days of futures contracts by the Chicago exchanges CME Group and CBOE Global Markets, given a green light from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission last week, has prompted a backlash among the major brokers who backstop trading across the industry.

According to a letter from the Futures Industry Association, the main futures industry lobby group whose members include all the largest Wall Street banks, to the CFTC, the rapid introduction of bitcoin futures “did not allow for proper public transparency and input”.

Recently leaked computer vulnerabilities Meltdown and Spectre offer yet another reminder of how hard the digital age makes it keep private information – even cryptocurrency private keys – safe.

Unveiled Wednesday, the widespread hardware vulnerabilities simultaneously impact Intel, ARM and AMD computer chips, which power the vast majority of the world's computers, mobile devices and servers, making it possible to steal private data such as passwords, financial information or just about anything stored on any device that uses one of these chips.

Where this is important for cryptocurrency in particular is, hackers can potentially use the specific attack vector to pinch the private keys that allow users to control their bitcoins on the blockchain.

The first and foremost piece of information all bitcoin holders should know is that in the event of a hard fork that splits the blockchain, bitcoins you possess will be perfectly safe.

Over the past year or so hard forks have gotten a bad reputation for political reasons, but in actuality, most types of forks are merely protocol upgrades. A blockchain split occurs during a hard fork which in turn branches the chain into two parts. If this happens, there is nothing a bitcoin holder has to do but wait and watch the fork unfold.

The folks at the subreddit r/btc have compiled a very well written frequently asked questions post concerning protocol upgrades and how users are affected. The thread gives details about the hard fork process and what to expect.

Bitcoin is one of the wildest trades in the market today, delivering sharp gains and losses that defy explanation. Trading has been expensive and difficult, with brokerages offering limited access and specialist websites like Coinbase reporting regular outages. Top voices on markets from economist Robert Shiller to JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon have warned people off buying bitcoin.

Yet asset managers have been racing to design more than 10 proposals for bitcoin funds that are currently before U.S. regulators.

New ETFs could make access to bitcoin easier and, in the case of the Direxion product, mean bigger stakes for investors, with a 25 percent gain or loss on one day doubled to 50 percent.

No one knows for sure (with any degree of certainty). Having said that, most agree the future is bright. That statement does have a few caveats. The following is my prediction:

Bitcoin itself as a protocol will evolve. Many people forget the simple fact that it is a protocol first and the money part just happens to be the first app written on it. Think of it like the Netscape browser written for (predominantly) HTTP. It was good at its time, but then other browsers took the mantle and Netscape was dethroned. The same analogy could apply to bitcoins (the money). It could be dethroned and for all, we know Dogecoin or Litecoin could prevail.
The Buying process of Bitcoins will have to be made much simpler than it is at present. All indications point that the process will get more streamlined, so buying bitcoins will be an easy task.
In most countries (US included), companies that trade Bitcoins onto the local currency would be regulated. More exchange companies will mushroom.

The "price" is usually based on the most recent trade in the specified exchange pair (e.g. LTC BTC). The most recent trade is simply two other participants on the exchange, the seller, and the buyer. The seller (also called a "maker") offered to sell a particular coin at a particular price in a particular currency (e.g. to sell some amount of LTC for a specific price in BTC). The buyer (also called a "taker") offered to buy a particular coin at a particular price in a particular currency. The trade happens by the exchange when a buyer and seller's orders are matched.

Can you make money in these price differences between multiple currencies? It is possible, this is called an arbitrage. However, don't forget that the transfers usually take a bit of time and the arbitrage opportunity may have passed by the time you've made some trades because rest assured others are looking for these arbitrage opportunities as well. Additionally, there are usually fees for each trade that eat into any earnings you might be making.

Also, this isn't that different from Forex Arbitrage trading in fiat currency markets so it is a well-studied discipline and we can certainly learn from the practices established there.

Well, before 5th October 2015, I did not know that there is something called Bitcoin. Then, Bitcoin was worth 233$

On 11th November 2015, I came to know how can one really bank on Bitcoin. Then it was worth 356$

I researched a bit about it and finally on 10th December 2015, I got first Bitcoin payments to the xapo wallet. That time, it was 400$.

The year 2016 was full of a lot of opportunities and observations. I invested in a lot many schemes, some work (some pay to date) while some turned scams.

Today, as I write Bitcoin has already touched 1111$ and is rising further. I am Indian and I know that the rise of Bitcoin has something to do with the Prime Minister’s demonetization and cashless India. A phenomenon which even Forbes Magazine admitted.

An international group of quantum boffins reckons Bitcoin could be broken by the year 2027.

The researchers from Singapore, Australia also France say that scenario represents the worst case and would see a quantum computer able to run Shor's algorithm against the cryptocurrency's protective elliptic curve signature quicker than the 10 minutes Bitcoin needs to record a transaction in the blockchain.

There are two items of good news in the paper for Bitcoin: its proof-of-work isn't as vulnerable to “quantum speedup” as people think, and the signature can be replaced with something more quantum-resistant before the day of reckoning.

No one can predict the future however analysts are expecting Bitcoin to be worth $15,000 by next year, $50,000 in 5 years and probably $100,000 in 10 years.
This question can’t get a correct answer.
I can speculate it will keep on going up.
But based on current growth, and the likelihood of Wall St starting to directly buy Bitcoin next year, I’d say roughly $50k in on year (+/- $10k), well over $100k in 5 years, and in 10 years hmm well if Bitcoin succeeds in becoming a global banking and payment system then it could be over $500k possibly.

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Entering with the help of bitcoins is a very obvious and expected process. Now every week there are many new wallets, new projects. In crypto currency, many millions of dollars are invested every day. But from the work of hackers and scammers, no one is 100% insured. It's just now that this is a new direction for them.