I wouldn't say that it's a long road, because that's just how long real bear market recoveries take. But consensus didn't really have an affect on price, as you said, to the disappointment to some people. I didn't expect prices to be moved that much anyways, though.

A lot of people were getting excited when bitcoin was nearing $10k, even though it was clear that the bearish sentiment in the market was still there and isn't going away probably for a long while. The truth is, the rally that we saw in the previous rally a few weeks ago was just natural volatility, and wasn't indicative of bitcoin entering a phase of bullishness.

We will enter the start of the bull market most likely in early to mid 2019, after bitcoin prices bottoms. Definitely not this year.

If this actually leads to some sort of regulation regarding cryptocurrency exchanges as well as ICOs, then it can definitely end up being something significant. Regulation is after all, much better than a total restriction on these aforementioned things.

It's too early to tell exactly what the intentions are with this research project, but it's definitely a good sign imho that the Chinese government is even bothering to do these ratings.

The bitcoin price may not be affected in short term, but it could potentially have a profound impact on the prices mid to long term if these ratings and the research done end up helping the Chinese crypto market to exist under a regulated environment.

I don't buy it at all.

I think that he is completely ignoring the possibility that bitcoin may, and probably will, experience future bear markets that will take prices down unexpectedly to low levels. It simply makes no sense to guarantee bitcoin is going to stay above $10k for eternity, when we can't predict what goes on in future bear markets in which the extent of the crash may be much bigger.

Plus, with the correction that just came, it'll be hard for bitcoin to even get above $10k this month with respect to the lower levels that we are currently at, and the strong barrier of $10k. As I said, I don't see this prediction being realistic or even a serious one.

Anyone can make their own cryptocurrency, or even forks of bitcoin. That is common knowledge. However, you can't just keep making copies of "bitcoin", and value is assigned automatically to these coins.

That just doesn't happen.Iit's like someone trying to print their own fiat currency, but since the currency doesn't have anything backing it, it is intrinsically worthless and the markets will simply not recognize it as a form of payment. It's the same with crypto.

This argument against bitcoin is honestly purely ridiculous, and anyone claiming that bitcoin's currency supply can be manipulated this way is just spewing garbage.

Honestly speaking, bitcoin volatility isn't something that I'm particularl concerned about at all. I hear people talking about bitcoin volatility as a really serious issue all the time, but personally, I've never had problems with bitcoin fluctuating in the short term.

All it means is that bitcoin is decentralized, and is a free floating currency independent from anything else - that's actually something positive from one perspective. Also, just because bitcoin is volatile in the short run doesn't mean that it's not a store of value over the long term, which it is, and is much better at than government issued currencies.

The introduction of a central entity to control volatility of BTC would make no sense whatsoever. Nor will it ever happen. Bitcoin's speculative volatility will drop as time goes on, and more people adopt bitcoin as a form of payment. It's that simple, really. And it's not even a problem at this stage to worry about.

It's defintiely interesting to see how people's perception towards bitcoin can change so quickly. It's almost like the public and the press have extremely short term memory. Previously, people were accusing bitcoin of being a scam, being a ponzi scheme, etc., as you mentioned. But now, it is really legitimized as a currency, as an investment and as a financial asset due to it going mainstream.

It's all very good news, and it's steps towards the right direction.

There are still going to be doubters, as seen by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, two recent examples. But over the long run, the potential that bitcoin holds as a form of money will be realized. And that success shouldn't be measured by price alone.

Bitcoin is still within its early adoption phase, and whenever an investment is in that stage, it's always undervalued. Especially now that the correction came hard upon bitcoin markets and the prices are even lower, I think prices are definitely a good accumulation point.

We have seen financial institutions getting into bitcoin investments over the past months, so that's definitely saying something about the potential of bitcoin in the future. But that's only one dimension, bitcoin can realistically be an alternative to fiat currencies or even a global reserve currency which is honestly within my expectations in the future, in which case its value will skyrocket.

Current price levels are going to appear cheap in the long term, or even just a few years from now as the next bull market comes by.

I'd say probably not, $15k is almost double the current price and that's not foreseeable.

I think that Charlie Shrem said that May will be the last month that bitcoin is under $10k, which I simply don't think is true. I still feel like that the $10k resistance is extremely strong with a solid sell wall at the moment, and it'll be difficult to move beyond that level without sufficient momentum and support at higher levels, which we don't know currently since we're still in the process of consolidation.

I would say that more likely June and July will just be quiet, sideways movements as we consolidate after the recent fall. Nothing ultra-bullish, just yet.

The fall from $10k is probably not caused by FUD, or at least FUD alone. There was some uncertainty regarding Gox coins as well as Bill Gates/Warren Buffett openly condemning bitcoin, but the $10k resistance was pretty strong to begin with.

What people are claiming the Consensus event will do to bitcoin prices are merely predictions. I don't think that qualifies as FUD per se, otherwise, all speculative opinions would classify as FUD which is simply not true.

BTC prices will be influenced by what goes on in the Consensus, though. I don't think you need to worry about it too much, I wouldn't panic sell at this stage since prices are so low.

Spot on, I actually forgot to mention the fact that bitcoin is irreversible.

The buyer's protection that Paypal offer is honestly just extremely inconvenient for the sellers to deal with, as constantly, they are charged back and they are the ones that have to cop the losses. And most times, the people using the chargeback features are scammers that profess in the area for a living.

Bitcoin is irreversible, and in that sense, is closer to a digital form of money than Paypal or even traditional banking as no third parties are able to give a potentially biased or incorrect ruling to a dispute, because there are simply no disputes. And that's a good thing, in my opinion. It's not just about chargebacks either; if third parties hold your funds, and can rule over what is done with these funds, then is it even your money anymore?

I don't know about $20k by the end of 2018, honestly. We have seen that the psychological barrier (and a solid sell wall) at the $10k mark, as well as the overall bearish sentiment in the market has kept prices low, and I don't think that's going to change just yet. The recovery will take some time, as the bull market last year was extremely long and prices went up by many multiples.

But, $36k by the start of 2020 seems possible to me.

It's nothing crazy like the $1 million by 2020 that John McAfee is predicting, and I think that 2019 will be the start of a market wide recovery. Thus, with the right market conditions, it's definitely doable.

It seems like a pretty unlikely scenario for sure, and if it really happened it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Paxful support should be able to resolve all the disputes in your favor, provided that you provide clear proof that nothing was sent to you as a reward.

Blackmailing you to lower your rates is definitely the first time I've heard of this happen on any P2P trading platform.

I don't think that there is an IP restriction on the number of accounts on Paxful, which explains the numerous alts the person used to attack you. Unfortunately, having buyers marking payment as paid without sending anything is a thing that you have to cope with on Paxful, that's just the truth. Just wait for the support's response, it'll pretty much definitely be ruled in your favor.

Yeah, unfortunately not all bitcoin mixers are legit, and there are a ton of scam and phishing mixing sites out there that is trying to get you to send them money which will never be returned to you again. Sorry for your losses.

You should have honestly done some research about the site before you sent money, though. The bitcointalk thread that they linked to is nonexistent. Also makes 0 sense for a mixing site to have an account system, where you can be easily tracked and be deanonymized.

I'd recommend Chipmixer to you if you're looking for a reputable bitcoin mixing service, speaking from experience and from reviews from countless others. But again, do your own research before deciding on any service that relies on you trusting them.

Spot on. Venezuela is a warning for what could happen to any of the world's economy at one stage, if fiat currencies go into a cycle of hyperinflation, or we run into a major financial crisis. When government issued fiat doesn't work anymore, people will seek alternatives.

And in some extreme cases like this, bartering may have to be resorted to.

Bitcoin actually would benefit the Venezuelan communities a lot, in my opinion, as it is a much better store of value than their government issued paper bills as well as their Petro cryptocurrency. I think that bitcoin adoption may actually rise in Venezuela as a result, after the word goes out.

Exactly. People forget that fiat currency may be currency, but it isn't money. Money is currency, except it is also a proven store of value in the long term which is something that fiat currency definitely is not, since there aren't any fiat currencies that have survived for long over the course of history.


It may not be used as money, but it is still money.

Even though I see bitcoin potentially overtaking gold in the near future as the most popular "safe haven" asset, gold will always have its place on the international stage as money. Yes, you don't use gold right now for purchases, but that's just because people are choosing not to use it, and it's not the most convenient or technologically advanced money there is. Its supply is still decentralized however, and that's still vastly superior to fiat.

It's definitely a positive one.

It's rare these days to see a country that is actually interested in cryptocurrencies, because almost all countries are actively trying to persecute crypto businesses and users and trying to limit their existence within their country.

Again, regulation is fine. As long as it's not restrictive of people accessing cryptocurrencies with overly strict rules. But I do believe that countries which adopt or support cryptos the earliest will benefit the most over the long run.

Good to know that your issue has been resolved.

However, it took more than 3 weeks to resolve a deposit issue which says a lot about their support efficiency and how their entire site is run. Definitely does not look like a trustworthy exchange to me to use for large amounts, since your complaint isn't an isolated incident.

For small amounts, I guess it's alright as long as you know the risks. But I'd still recommend going to another more trusted exchange (Binance, Kucoin, etc.), Cryptopia has quite a shady past and are still persistent with problems.

Dang, one account per person as well as a lot stricter KYC, it really means that the EU is regulating crypto trading platforms with much more force than before. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a ban altogether in the future, because I can only see these regulations getting stricter.

They actually started limiting people before the new terms were updated, as well.


Whatever reason these regulations are for, it's definitely not to address scammers. LBC was functioning perfectly with its escrow system to deter scammers, and I don't see how forcing people into ID verifying at certain limits would do anything to the scamming problem (which was pretty much nonexistent on LBC anyways) on a large scale.

In reality, these laws are extremely hard to enforce.

First of all, it's not actually illegal to have or use bitcoin in Venezuela. In fact, mining is actually completely legal as well, which is better than some countries even. The government has its own crypto as well, so it would make no sense to ban BTC which is the major crypto.

A government can pretty much only trace you down with leads from third party exchanges, etc.. However, even then it'll be hard to actually see for a government whether you hold any BTC and how much BTC you're holding. Practically speaking, it's simply not worthwhile for them on a effort and money basis to enforce these regulations if you're just an average Joe using bitcoin. Again, it's the beauty of decentralization. Governments can't just say one day that they want to shut BTC down and do so, since it's decentarlized.

I've never see any actual bitcoin adopters say that they have an issue with bitcoin volatility. In fact, most are perfectly comfortable with putting the majority of their wealth in bitcoin for the long term, or accept bitcoin payments at face value (i.e., not converting/fixing BTC transactions to fiat value).

However, it still seems to be a constantly discussed "issue" by some, which I don't understand.

Yes, BTC is volatile, but it's still a long term store of value. They are not mutually exclusive. Bitcoin can still function as a currency, while being volatile, as proven by thousands of bitcoin accepting merchants and traders worldwide. It's all about perception, even though you perceive fiat as being not volatile, it's not a long term store of value at all. If you really do't believe in BTC at all, and you want to facilitate transactions, that's alright as well. You can always hedge your bitcoin transactions, it's easy as. It's literally the same as forex risk management if you're that concerned about it.