Actually, that's an excellent point.  Were there to be any kind of grotesque BTC problem (security breach, an effective government ban, etc.), or even a serious threat (say, discussed by people more knowledgeable than me here at bitcointalk), that might get me to bail...  It would have to alarm me quite a bit though.  The various somewhat scary BTC issues we have all seen have not been "serious enough" to drive me out.

The problem with that line of thinking is that should someone ID a really grave threat to the Bitcoin Ecosystem, the price would likely go down faster than the British Pound in a flash-crash...

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I got to the Bitcoin game rather late, certainly long after you trailblazers got in when BTC was in the single or double digits, good on ya...!

The only thing I have bought with BTC is gold.  I did that a few times, bought from Provident Metals and from Veldtgold (latter here at bitcointalk).  Both accepted BTC and both delivered just fine.

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I don't know if I ever would sell all of my Bitcoin!

I have only (and not lately) used some of my BTC stash to buy gold, mostly as an experiment to see how BTC works and to balance out (diversify) my holdings that include gold & BTC (and of course other assets).  When I had a lot of BTC, I bought some gold.  As I am now comfortable with my gold holdings, I am HODLING all of my BTC.

But, I would likely do something like this if the price were to rise enough:

-- sell some 25% if/when BTC reached, say, $3500
-- sell some 25% more at about $7000 - $10,000
-- sell the next 25% at about $25,000
-- sell the next 10% at $50,000
-- sell the next 10% at $100,000
-- MAYBE sell the rest at $250,000..............

OROBTC wants to ride the Bitcoin Train for a long time, bitchez...

I have no way of knowing (arguably not even certain of making a good guess), but I would thing that most of us having bitmixer.io signature are pretty happy in the Campaign, and so would be unlikely to sell their account, except if they want to bail-out of bitcointalk (for whatever reason)*.  As long as bitmixer will have me, I am staying in, I like their service (used it many times) and their payment policies.  

It would take a lot more than BTC0.5 to buy my account...

* As an example: if we got fed-up w/ BTC and just decided to abandon the hobby

^^^  Yes.  That's exactly who those of us concerned about privacy are willing to pony-up a little bit (typically under 1%) to hide our tracks some with a mixer.  It's nobody's business where my BTC are.  I paid for them, they're "mine".  And hidden is better.

+ 100 re .gov wanting to eventually control payments to anyone they do not like or FROM anyone they wish to punish.*

Those of you who do not understand this aspect of BTC mixing should think long & hard about this, unless you're comfortable with government monitoring (and later control) over all you buy & sell...  And I have not even mentioned hackers...

* Note that .gov likely has some great tools that would uncover even extremely clever mixing and/or other ways of obscuring BTC transactions.

Well, I didn't need any ID when I visited and bought.  I bought twice that evening (the second time after visiting a regular ATM nearby for more Canadian dollars).  This was in late August (2016).

I do not recall the premium over "spot", but if I do not remember, it's probably because it was in the 9% - 14% range that seems to be rather common now.

I'll pay 14% more for non-traceable BTC...

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Ahh, vokain, we need fact checkers here at least as much as in the Trump - Hillary debates.  Thank you.

I just post Armstrong material when it looks of interest to people reading this thread.

Armstrong now (Friday evening US ET) has two items on the strong US$ and the British pounds "flash-crash".

*   *   *

Zero Hedge and CNN both have stories out on both Trump's 2005 tasteless comments re Trump's "lewd locker room banter" on women and excerpts (80 pages) of "sensitive" items of Hillary's Goldman-Sachs speeches.

We're getting some real mud slinging now.  Looks like this is going to be down-and-dirtier than even I expected.

The loud-mouth fool..., or the arrogant liar...

With no ID needed, I wish I wasn't located thousands of miles from Vancouver.  Anyone who likes BTC and would be near Vancouver should consider visiting the coffee shop and buying BIG if they like privacy...

Once, years ago, I used a BTC ATM in NYC that did not require ID either.  I'm sure that has changed.  Pity.

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Ahh, money...  For me, money really plays three roles (I did not come with this, but this makes the most sense to me):

1) Money should be a Unit of Account, a measure of how much something is worth, currency is good here.

2) Money should be a Medium of Exchange, you give money to someone for something in exchange (currency is great in this role)

3) Money should be a Store of Value, worth about the same a month, a year or a decade from now, currency is NOT good at this.

Therefore, I would like to see a different "system" (for lack of a better word at the moment), where something like gold is freed from its role as "backing" a currency.  Why should gold back anything?  It is its own worth, an independent value vector if you will (as an asset or investment).  Gold is the best Store of Value, and has been so for 6000 years.  NO currency has long survived...

Currency for marking value and conducting transactions, gold for store of value.  Currency cannot perform all three roles of money.  

Currency != Money, as it fails as a Store of Value.

Reference: extensive & long articles by anonymous blogger "FOFOA".

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RocketSingh!  That music is kind of awesome.  Does sound at least semi-random, but catchy too.

"Someone" should be keeping track of awesome creative BTC-related websites like that one -- I have seen various creative ones but never got around to bookmarking or otherwise saving them.

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I can see that defining the word "scam" might clarify some above posts.

But as far as I am concerned PayPal is not a scam at all.  I have used it twice for eBay purchases (both times it worked properly), no other experience.  My payments were backed by a credit card, and it was fast.

However, I would much prefer that eBay sellers accept Bitcoin!

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I have used localbitcoins about five times successfully (buying BTC in person with cash).  But, I have tried many more times!  Perhaps it is my city.

I arrange to meet at a Starbucks or similar.  CA$H for BTC, wait on the confirmation.  Only once did it not work out, we had a misunderstanding over pricing (he wanted a higher premium to market price than I had been led to believe).

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Gold and education are both great ways to invest, and great ways to diversify as well.  Diversification in investments is perhaps the single best way to solidify one's financial situation.  Gold is relatively uncorrelated to most other investments like stocks, real estate and bonds.

Education can take various forms: formal college or trade schools, informal hardcore learning (for autodidacts), interning, etc.  Invest in yourself!  That would be particularly good advice to young people. 

A nice example (for me anyway) is learning about Bitcoin here.  NO ONE I know is into it.  But, by learning and posting here at bitcointalk, I can get a little "return on that education investment"...

Yep, I agree re Trezor and Ledger Nano.  Both have worked well for me as well.

There is no way I would pay for an expensive Trezor near-clone, although I do recognize the benefit of using open-source code (to discover security weaknesses, etc.).

But, I would think that there would be a good market for a solidly built (and nice-looking item like the BWallet appears to be) hardware piece if the price is right.

A bitcointalk app would be of great interest to me!  There are many times when I am away from my computer (stuck in line, eating lunch by myself, out of town ("Where can I find a BTC ATM in this town?"), etc.) when I could be posting here...

Even now the internet has been down at home for two weeks, grr....  I would then be able to post here via my mobile.

achow101, I hope that your plans re the forum having an API work out and that app writers get on this.

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I am mostly online when waiting on a confirmation.  Typically when I send or receive BTC it is "important", so usually I do not leave to go on errands or similar.  If I am using bitmixer.io, that takes more time (call it 30 minutes for everything to clear), then perhaps I will leave to go do something "productive".

Often I check the financial markets or financial websites (Zero Hedge, etc.) while waiting.  Or even post here at bitcointalk...

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I continue to believe that Bitcoin will only succeed when both of the below show more success:

1) More merchants of all kinds accept Bitcoin.  Ask those with whom you do business if they would accept BTC!

2) More people start buying and using it.  Tell your friends and family.

Large upward price movements certainly would increase visibility of BTC, which would be somewhat positive.

I agree with the above who write that BTC promotion is of little use.

Yes, the usual definition of money laundering is the act of turning "dirty money" (from illegal operations) into clean money.

However, as a user of mixing services, I now note that the term "money laundering" is being changed by our government from the above to:

""Money Laundering" is having money the government does not know about."

A big ugly difference.  Privacy <> Illegality

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I don't earn much here at bitcointalk, but earning BTC is not my only reason for being here.  Mostly I am here to learn.  But, earning BTC is a Signature Campaign helps keep my interest up.

Bitcoin could wind up being BIG (I have to mention that?).  BTC is a fantastic speculation, and has the possibility (although not probably IMO) to change the financial world.  I want a piece of the action.

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I looked into cloud mining when relatively new (say two years ago) as well.  I read NO success stories among those (non-tekkies anyway) who tried...

So unless things have changed (probably not), I would stay away.  

Keep reading the threads though, maybe someone will come along and offer a legit service that promises a real (= low) rate of return.  

Interest rates are extremely low now (and so any passive income at reasonable risk would likely be low), and recall:

"There is no such thing as a free lunch."