Predicting future bitcoin price related to fiat currencies is silly. Any value is possible, if for example USD enters hyperinflation.

It's more reasonable to relate price predictions to commodities like precious metals or basic foods (wheat, sugar...).

You can have working amicable agreements among parties of equivalent power...

The government will keep the peace as long as none of its interests is at stake (main interest: stay in power). Negotiating with government for allowing fiat-bitcoin trading is like a slave negotiating with his owner for a more humane work schedule.

You will gain nothing from lobbying for bitcoin.

Bitcoin is superior money. It will push governmental fiat aside. Governments will not like this, because it is an important source of power. Conflict can only be avoided by destroying bitcoin through allowing full "regulation". Then bitcoin will be exactly like fiat.

Thank you for speaking out.

Unfortunately many people value their identity even less than 10 USD.

The US military complex employs a lot of people and war can be very "profitable" for the victorious party. So the US have good reason to stay in the intervention business.

In addition they have to protect the dominance of the USD as world trade currency which is crucial for their survival.

Based on my experience I think it is highly unlikely that this initiative will lead to any tangible benefits. Software is not some magical item to solve all problems (assuming there are problems that really need to be solved). You can have good software without anyone using it.

I also think we don't need a replacement for The Bitcoin Foundation, because TBF was not needed in the first place. TBF should be disbanded and replaced by independent developers that can self-organize to collect funds for important development goals. For collecting funds they can just post their donation address - problem solved the bitcoin way.

Believing that problems arising out of governmental interference can be solved via negotiation are short-sighted and naive. We don't need lobbying for Bitcoin, we need strong bitcoin technology that is 100% apolitical and offers cash-like privacy, easy access, high fungibility and is resilient to governmental control ("regulation").

Imho the funds would be better spend by funding a Core developer.

I'm not an expert, but increasing blocksize is not without problems, because as a result blockchain size and bandwidth requirements will grow. This will lead to a reduced number of full nodes in the network and therefore more centralization around high bandwidth, high storage capacity nodes.

I couldn't agree more. Having Paypal as an intermediary will be similar to handing your coins over to MtGox in the past. You will experience the full set of braindead KYC, AML, and Anti-Terrorist schemes to take away control of your funds.

Don't use Paypal. Bitcoin makes it obsolete anyway.

It's possible that Paypal integrates some bitcoin feature. Maybe acceptance and exchange.

But in the end Bitcoin will render Paypal obsolete. So all of ebay's efforts to stay in the money transmitter business will be in vain. Of cause not before they've introduced some more annoying features that restrict bitcoins use to serve their profit.

Bitcoin will be the end of Paypal. Quote me on that.

Es bleiben aber nicht alle anderen Faktoren gleich, wenn Ripple Labs dicht gemacht wird. Wieso sollte XRP ohne funktionierende Community aus der Masse hunderter alternativer CC's irgendwie hervorstechen und sich behaupten können?

Ohne massives Marketing durch Ripple Labs wäre XRP schon längst Geschichte.

Exactly what I was saying since the beginning of TBF.

But I would like to add: TBF is not only unnecessary - it is outright dangerous for bitcoin, because it offers a centralized access point to the bitcoin protocol. This opens the door for political / regulatory influence on the bitcoin protocol. Since TBF members are not anonymous they can easily be blackmailed or persons can be introduced into TBF to promote a political agenda.

I repeat myself here:

Ever asked yourself why Satoshi stayed anonymous?

TBF must be disbanded asap.

Greed can't be solved. Greed lies in human nature - it's driven by the desire to survive in face of competition around limited resources which is shared by all species. That's how evolution works.

Capitalism is not bad. Capitalism favors the smart and industrious over the dumb and lazy. And that's a good selection. Of cause there are cases when capitalism fails due to an abuse of rights. But overall capitalism offers much more freedom to the individual than any alternative.

The comment is not only wrong in relation to 51% attack. Even it were true it wouldn't be an argument for gold backing bitcoin, because if the system is somehow "compromised", how can you verify securely that anyone really owns the gold behind the bitcoins?

You can also produce counterfeit gold bars and coins (for example put some tungsten in it). In future gold might be produced as a by-product from nuclear reactors. So there isn't a 100% value guarantee neither.

To be clear: I'm not against precious metals. I just want to point out, that it makes no sense to back bitcoin with them (or with anything else).

I think that ATM manufacturers will have a great impact on bitcoin adoption. I especially like the modular concept of Lamassu.

For me, adding more options to buy bitcoin is of higher importance than having a fiat-out option. If bitcoin succeeds, fiat-out will be unneccessary.

I've heard of similar scams targeted at elderly persons before. There's always a phone call of a fake relative that needs help in an emergency situation.

I find it especially disgusting to exploit persons by inducing worries and addressing their wish to help others.

Such deadhearted criminals deserve to burn in hell.

Exactly. People that do not understand the fundamental importance of unhampered fungibility should use government fiat only. Blacklisting would render bitcoin unusable.

No, I think he knew that there is no way out of the QE-Experiment his predecessors have started. Yellen will be the scapegoat when this giant ponzi-scheme collapses.

Yes it's total nonsense.  You can always ask: What's backing gold? And then you will come to the conclusion, that gold is backed by nothing else than the effort needed to extract it from rocks. Creating bitcoin requires effort (energy), too. So bitcoin mining perfectly resembles gold mining on a virtual level (hence the term "mining" is used).

The concept of backing only makes sense when you have items like paper money that you want to have high trade value but that do not need much effort to create.
Bitcoin is unlike fiat money that can be created at will. So Bitcoin does not need backing.

Bitcoin is sound money like gold.

Fiat is not a safe investment. Bitcoin is not a safe investment.

I'd say, there exists no such thing as a "safe" investment. Every investment involves risk.

In Bitcoin's case risk does not come from inflation but from technology/adoption. I would say Bitcoin involves a lot of risk and I would only invest what I can afford to loose. On the other hand the potential reward could be very high - so I would say one should not ignore Bitcoin as an investement either.

Wow, was für ein Investment! Jetzt ganz schnell alles Ersparte reinstecken, denn vielleicht zuckt die tote Katze noch mal....

For me Brock is mostly irrelevant (he's innocent until proven guilty), it's not about a single person it's about the very structure and central aim of TBF that contradicts essential characteristics of bitcoin: decentralized, trustless (in relation to people) and apolitical. It's the entire TBF that is ill-constructed, undemocratic and a gateway for political influence on the bitcoin protocol. Therefore the whole thing must be disbanded.


Proof? Who thinks  that? TBF represents only itself - its board and its members. These members are certainly not anarchists nor revolutionaries but well adapted to societal norms.


An outrageous and impertinent claim. They've enthroned themselves as bitcoin overlords with ZERO legitimacy.


You state obvious facts which never have been disputed and are in fact a counterargument against your defense of TBF.


It was never claimed that regulators would go away. They will try to enforce regulation with or without TBF. But with TBF it will be much easier for them to accomplish their destructive goals because of the central TBF-bootlicker-access-point. And when they have achieved a bit of regulation they want more...

The problem of regulation must be circumvented and made obsolete through the advancement of bitcoin technology (>> enhanced privacy and decentralization).

You can't negotiate with people that have all the power who either don't understand bitcoin, are ignorant, or are actively combating bitcoins promise for the majority. To trust in the word of such people is plain dumb.