I think the biggest problem with bitcoin is that most people don't understand it.

I'm a programmer and a nerd and I don't fully understand it. This is a problem that assumes bitcoin should be a widely adopted currency, used by the mainstream (as I do). This problem is large, but solving it is easy. Most people only need to know how to use it. All currencies are complicated, like dollars, but once you use them a few times it feels like second nature. People will be a bit awkward using bitcoin at first, but they will get the hang of it. Most people don't know how U.S. dollars work either, they just know they can spend them, how to spend them, and if they are lucky, how to make them.

Another big problem is that governments can't control bitcoin like fiat currency. They can't print it up to go fight wars whenever they want (could be a good argument for bitcoin bringing peace). This is a problem because it's made bitcoin even more volatile, made bitcoin out to be a house of cards that the government flick over with one finger. The government is the elephant in the room full of bitcoin.

(It's a good thing there aren't a lot of Americans who know what went down with Chinese QQ coins, because I think they would have even less confidence.)

The infrastructure is super weak, at least for now. People aren't going to give a shit about bitcoin until they can buy their Starbucks with it. With a whole community full of hackers, there doesn't seem to be very many solutions. We should build something like Square (product) that accepts bitcoin credit cards. Or, better yet, skip credit cards altogether and process bitcoin payments from smart phone to smart phone.

I'm not super worried about the weak infrastructure because I can see how much capital is being dumped into building the infrastructure. For example, Coinbase and Bitstamp seemed to spring up overnight. After using Coinbase to buy, sell, and transfer coins, you'd be pretty stupid to ever want to use Wells Fargo or Bank of America's shitty systems. For now, I'm just waiting for the storm of bitcoin infrastructure solutions to hit the market... it's going to be crazy.

Bitcoin itself? I don’t know but the tech behind crypto. I don’t think so, it will just evolve and adapt like anything else until the right one comes out on top and becomes widely used.

Samourai for mobile
Ledger or Trezor as hardware.
But ask again in a few months, when there are lightning wallets on the market

The most blockchain-friendly country in Europe - with the exception of Japan, which, as always, chose his own path. It is therefore right that Europe really soon become the center of blockchain industry, and one of that countries will be a hub of new technologies. In the near future we are waiting for countries will publish their crypto strategy and publish the laws about Blockchain technology.

Crypto market young and not properly regulated, today investors need to take special care to protect themselves from high risks. However, in general crypto industry is growing, there are services and tools for market regulation and protection from fraud. For example, prepared to launch the Safinus platform which implements mechanisms to protect novice investors and increase profits for experienced traders and crypto funds.

Step by step blockchain ecosystem will create the immune system against unscrupulous community members. Will not only improve the market, but also flow of investments will be distributed in favor of really useful projects for blockchain, and investors will be able to earn more and more secure and profit.

You should understand the fundamental situation we are in right now as holders of any of the cryptocurrencies:

less than .1% of the general population are using bitcoin in one capacity or another.

The growth you've seen was that number coming from .00000001% (nearly a billionth) of first-worlders to the present .1%. Remember, 10,000 bitcoins would have hardly bought you a pizza when the adoption rate was so low.

The reason is simple: supply and demand. There are a limited supply of the cryptocurrencies, and therefore with an increasing adoption rate, there must be skyrocketing prices until it reaches it's true value, somewhere around $1M USD estimated to be about 2023-2025 by the current growth charts extrapolations by trends. This assumes 25% of westerners use the coin, with average holdings of $1000. This is a several trillion dollar market cap increase projection from current $250 billion market cap in a short time. It's a literal digital gold rush, and right now, you are in the first .11% of people to get on board.

Tomorrow, it will be a .12% saturation. That's already another 8-10% growth in your portfolio, just from holding, as your coin gets rarer. Imagine another year of adoption rate. Go to your favorite exchange and look at what a million people with a thousand dollars ( a billion dollars) would do to the price.

Then times it by ten.

Bitcoin isn't going to 9k. Bitcoin is going to 90k now through spring. It will probably break the $400k barrier by August or September 2018 as the adoption rate reaches the .2%-.4% saturation. The market cap should surge from $250 billion to $2.2-2.5 trillion by then. This is about a 1/4th of the global gold market cap. Which performs at a few percent a year, eaten mostly by fees and brokers. Bitcoin's growth is very attractive, and the Fear of Missing Out may be powerful enough to accelerate these projections, but there is no doubt they are steps along the way to something like PayPal's adoption rate, which is around what, 35% saturation? Could you imagine if bitcoin reached an adoption rate of 35%, over the .1% current? That's 350 times growth, 350000%. Probably a 3-5 year plan for a bitcoin holder.

That's what's happening: the adoption rate is growing everyday, as well as the market cap, versus a limited number of coins.

Every aspect of life changes with the development of the internet, and of course, technology. People can work from home more easily, buy stuff online, use real money online or even find a date without leaving their home. Social and work life are adjusting to the use of the internet, and in the middle of all of this is the financial aspect of life. Money reserves are often saved in gold, but in modern days that’s not very practical so it’s easy to understand why something new will come. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are novelties that can replace gold. Of course, there are many other reasons why people believe in Bitcoin, but the premise with which they begin is that the future will be made out of digital currencies. And if we listen to our common sense, it’s not too far-fetched.

If you consider the fact that a digital currency might make a jump forward sometime in the near future, Bitcoin’s features can make some believe that it will be a main cryptocurrency for the following reasons. First of all, Bitcoin is the currency of the internet and unlike real money, Bitcoins are issued and managed without any central authority whatsoever. Second, for this reason, it is more resistant to wild inflation and corrupt banks. Third, from the beginning of the year, Bitcoin has consistently risen in value. That’s surely what makes people have faith in Bitcoin.

One thing should be noted - people who believe in Bitcoin the most are people who invest in Bitcoin and people who invest in Bitcoin are mostly not professional investors. So, one of the reasons for believing in Bitcoin is not it’s characteristic, but the characteristic of the people who believe in it.

On the other side, there are experts who have more grounded reasons to believe in Bitcoin, and that gives other’s a sense of legitimacy. The future is always uncertain, so it’s safe to say that maybe Bitcoin will be a long-term success. If that happens, the current believers will probably make more profit.

Some of them, perhaps. But USD/EUR/CNY/JPY are going to be around for a while.

Generally, it's advisable to keep your funds safe in wallets which you control. However, for small amounts (i.e., anything you could stomach losing) I don't see a problem holding in an online wallet. Set up 2-factor authentication, move it to the Coinbase vault, and leave it alone. If you transfer out to your own wallet, you'll lose 10% or more of a small £10 purchase - so I just don't think that's a wise choice straight away.

This gets your skin in the game ASAP, which is the main obstacle. Once you're in and have purchased whatever you're happy with, then you'll have the freedom to research more at your own leisure (and get the systems in place).

What I hope to see is golden mean between regulations and freedom. For example, not so long ago one regulator informed users that one of the ICO's is a potential scam. It didn't ban it, didn't punished, just informed people about a possible threat. I think it's a perfect middle ground.

"Freedom is used buy criminals", lets face it if we embrace the surveillance state, and everything everyone does is constantly monitored by the state... there would be a lot less crime. Less crime perpetrated by the subjects of the state at least, the governments will still be allowed to get away with murder of course.

Soon: 10000 pizzas for 2 BTC.

Not sure how a centralized company like Facebook, which depends on owning your data and attention in order to profit, could benefit from blockchain...

You must understand that the majority of the media is controlled by the same powers that control the western central banking system. Bitcoin being a finite, decentralized, transparent system is inherently against the current centralized private banking regime. As such, there are countless articles that cast negativity on Bitcoin, but fail to make any strong arguments. These articles are propaganda at best. It is crucial to read critically during these times.

I have always said , although it is now getting harder and harder but still withing reach get 1 bitcoin, you will be one of 21 million on the PLANET out of 7 billion people to own one.

actually even less, I think 2 million coins are lost forever

leave it to your kid to cash in in 20 years.....

A blockchain is an immutable (unchangable), decentralized open ledger.

In year 2140 the mining subsidy stops. this means that no more new Bitcoins cannot be created.

However all spendable Bitcoins still exist. I can imagine parents giving Bitcoins to their children. If they don't lose it, the coin can last for many generations. The coin lasting for 1000 years is only 20 generations and this is easy to reach.

This means. Bitcoin will still exist in year 3100 or so.

Everytime somebody says useful features will be merged with Bitcoin... we've been trying to implement a scaling fix for almost four years. Now an Altcoin that is pretty much just a few magic numbers away from Bitcoin (meaning it is easy to swap in every well written Bitcoin app) implemented the fix in under 6 months.

Sidechains are the only solution to that, and at this rate Trump's second term will be done before we get anything changed in Bitcoins codebase.

People have the audacity to suggest a POW change, why would any miner pour capital into Bitcoin when even if they agree with consensus, their entire investment could be thrown away overnight. A POW change would kill Bitcoins only actual advantage (hashrate).

Watch Bitcoin videos by Andreas Antonopoulos to gain a better understanding of Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Do as much of your own research and reading as you can. As for getting started, I would recommend Coinbase, as this is the easiest and most secure way of putting money into bitcoin at the moment.

Whether it gets fixed or not, bitcoin will survive.

You may not need an unseizable asset, but other people do. Nobody needs bitcoin to pay for coffee, so it doesn't really matter that much that you can't.

Nope. Here's why.



1. Cryptocurrency has only just begun to enter mainstream awareness never mind adoption. By the year 2000 when the dot-com burst was in full effect, over 43% of the United States population was using the Internet. In contrast, after roughly eight years Bitcoin is at best in its early adopters phase. It is estimated that only .046% of the target population of crypto users has adopted this technology. We are not at the peak of this cycle as mainstream media would like to suggest, rather we are just starting up the bitcoin adoption lifecycle.

2. The Internet was a collaboration of universities and government institutions. These institutions were well funded. Once the potential of the Internet began to be understood mass amount of investment from government, education, and private institutions followed. In stark contrast, there has been little to no investment by any of these entities in cryptocurrency. In great part Bitcoin and cryptocurrency has been supported by small individual investors who support the technology and/or want to make money. The day will come when mainstream investors and possibly even governments will make a big move into cryptocurrency. When this happens the market will explode higher.

3. Almost every government around the world has put roadblocks in front of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency development. This too is in stark contrast to the Internet where almost every government assisted their people and businesses gain Internet access. Bitcoin has had threats made against its existence since day one and countless times thereafter. The Internet never faced such a constant threat. In fact I believe it is a testament to the power of Bitcoin for having survived.

4. Bitcoin threatens banks and the entire financial system for that matter. The Internet promised ever greater profits for the banks through huge cost savings and investments. Bitcoin survived a direct assault from one of the greatest bankers in history, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan - Bitcoin survived and Dimon backtracked. Think of the potential investment when banks and other financial institutions begin adopting blockchain technology - and this is already beginning.

5. The first ICO occurred in 2017. The ICO is an entirely new use for cryptocurrency. To say something that has not even been around for a year is in a bubble is difficult to understand. By the time the dot-com bubble burst in 1999/2000 almost all of the foundation technologies of the Internet had been established. Crypto wallets and payment systems are just beginning to become available to mainstream users and businesses around the world.