...

Well, I am sitting here in Peru (for almost another day before returning) with well over $1000 worth of BTC in a tiny Ledger Nano.  It takes up less space than 10 C-Notes do.  Think about that for a moment...

OK, Peru is not a BTC-aware place yet (a little, but not much.  US$ and Peruvian Soles are both easily bought and sold freely and easily here.  Legal & easy foreign exchange makes BTC unnecessary here.  Businesses, for the most part, are NOT interested.

But, would I be feeling better with BTC in Venezuela, say?  You bet.

...

At $575 (last I checked, up $100 in the last three - four weeks or so), I would not say BTC is destroyed, yet.  I hope not!  I really DO hope that Bitcoin works out OK like the optimists say.

But, as the technical issues seem to be getting UNresolved, and the lead developers appear to be in profound disagreement over important technical matters I don't pretend to even half understand, well, um...

I will HODL on at least for a while.  But, the SECOND I get overwhelmed, whether by FUD or not, my BTC turns into gold.  

I am one of those guys who seems to be becoming a take the money and run sort.  Now that I am finally ahead in BTC (in US$ terms, at just under $500), I have more incentive to leave Bitcoinistan if things look like they might be going wrong...

I had a big problem with blockchain.info once.  "They" took my BTC straight out of my wallet, and it was not a hacker.  According to them (at that time, maybe two years ago), I owned the private key...  There was an error message of sorts on the tx advising me to contact them, which I did, and all eventually got straightened out (I got my BTC back).

Soooo, I would be cautious about having any kind of large balance with them unless it was for a quick transfer, say, to a hardware wallet or to spend (make a purchase).

One man's experience and opinion.

...

Now that $hillary has "won" her nomination, Armstrong focuses in on what may happen in the US Congress:

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/north_america/2016-u-s-presidential-election/now-congress-is-at-stake/

TL;DR

It might not be pretty.

*   *   *

Moi?  I wonder how things would go if Trump wins yet the D-Team takes both houses of Congress...

...

I'll just chip in an observation I have come to based on my own life experiences:

Trying to predict the future is hard enough, trying to predict what changes there will be in technology (almost any technology) beyond, say, two years is nigh impossible.

While Bitcoin seems very strong to most, a lot can happen that cannot be anticipated ("Black Swans").  That is why I do not recommend BTC holdings over 1% unless you are very committed to it and don't mind the (high) risks.  It is an interesting technology though, and I obviously wish it well.

...

nvK

It sounds like your new wallet is moving along very well.  Congratulations!  I strongly suspect that once several reviews of OPENDIME appear here at this forum (reddit too I suppose), that your sales will be excellent.

But, I agree with above comments that as soon as possible you should have a Bitcoin payment system for purchases.  I hope to be one of the first to order once you have a secure system in place.

I mentioned your product once at Zero Hedge a few weeks ago.  Even though ZH members tend to be against Bitcoin, s knowledgeable member or two thought that your product was a most excellent idea.

Get that production cranked up, resolve the security doubts that some here have, and offer BTC payment as an option, and I suspect your product will FLY....

...

Unless you really know what you are doing (I do NOT include myself in that group), I would not have more than 1% - 2% of net worth in Bitcoin.  In my eyes, there are too many factors, Black Swans if you will, that could happen.  .gov is a major threat, and even a Black Swan...

So, yes, BTC is an interesting speculation, an interesting technology, but I would keep my holdings small, like I do (1%).

Gold at 5% or maybe more of net worth would be my other suggestion.

hdbuck & STT

I wrote somewhat resistant to manipulation, which is true.  If you buy physical gold, you are all set, resistant to manipulation (assuming you do not need to sell it soon).  And if the price has been held down, then you get your gold a little cheaper.

Re the Bank of England, that was (IIRC, which maybe I don't), that was more to save a bank or two over there.

Re almost everything else traded actively, yes, I agree that they are all manipulated.

*   *   *

The British Pound is going to be interesting to watch.  I heard at CNN that BREXIT now seems MOAR likely than BREMAIN.

We'll see.  Welcome to iamnotback to the Armstrong thread.   

...

Most economists who dare to make predictions have pretty poor records.  This has been studied to death, including (especially) economists and analysts at Goldman-Sachs.  At G-S, they issue their predictions, front-run their "muppet" clients, and then cash in.  Goldman is also the investment bank that paid Hillary $675,000 for three "speeches", funny how no one can produce a video or even ONE transcript.

It's really pretty disgusting.

Yet there are so few investments now that yield much, and yet the economy could go anywhere (up, down, inflation, deflation).  In many ways this is not a good time to invest for most.  Maybe the very well connected can make big money now.

At least Bitcoin and (physical) gold are somewhat beyond the range of the market manipulators.

...

You raise an interesting point, that even though (until this past week) BTC prices had been stable in US$, that is not necessarily so for weaker currencies.  This is another reason to add Bitcoin if you do not own any (or extremely little), it is good diversification.

I would guess BTC is very strong vs. Venezuelan Bolivares too.  There are a lot of bad things happening in Venezuela, so Bitcoin offers some protection.  The problem would be HOW anyone in Venezuela could get (and pay for) BTC.

...

I have no idea where BTC price will go in the weeks/months ahead.

That said, were I more of a speculator (short-term actor, buy/sell to make profits) I might sell some if WAY ahead (I am just barely ahead at >$500).

But, if you are going to SELL BTC, where would you put your profits?  Into investments?  Spend it?

The only time I have "spent" Bitcoin was for gold.  Works for me.  I will hang on to my BTC for a while yet.

That's rather scary for the Yopeens (that's genuine Ebonics for Europeans in Philadelphia dialect), that will make it harder for anyone to free themselves from a BIG European Superstate.

Perhaps a whole lot of people will take careful note if there is a Brexit.  Were I British (nor do I know all the facts), I would vote "AMF" (Adios Mothaf***ers).  If the UK leaves, others will take note and likely become more interested in not having BRUSSELS always telling them what to do, what taxes to pay, etc.

In the USA, we all have a number (Social Security number, which originally meant NOT to be an ID number..., sure, sure), but I would *guess* that Brussels will keep growing their tendency to becoming a powerful & scary centralized Superstate.

That does seem to be a pattern seen in places sympathetic to Socialism.

sockpuppet1 ought to toss in some comments now...   

*   *   *

Yet Yurp keeps letting in Muslim rapefugees.  WHAT is going on inside their little old brains...?

...

Well, yes, to me it is obvious that price of Bitcoin is important!

If BTC goes up, you can buy more with it.  If it goes up faster than the price of gold went up slower than BTC's, well then you get more gold!  That matters!

Moves upward may wind up attracting more attention and users to BTC, which also matters.

...

"Venezuela" is really all you need to know, just that one word, about Socialism.

Socialism works great until you run out of other people's money, as Margaret Thatcher once said (not exactly, but pretty close).  Socialist systems tend towards larger government, and a large government in almost all cases works very poorly.

Even Socialist paradises like Sweden and France are having problems, as their .govs have no problems about letting in so many Muslim rapefugees...

And I will scream if I hear that term Democratic Socialist again, Vladimir Lenin invented that term, Bernie.

...

Hazir and jacee

Ah!  I did not realize there was a review thread, thanks for letting me know.

Competition is usually a good thing for us consumers, not necessarily for suppliers (as we are finding out with a new entrant into the Korean automotive market here in Peru).

Has anyone run a Taint Analysis on crypto's service?  That would be interesting to know that too.

...

I was not the first to use bitmixer.io, only trying it after many others had, and hard reported good service.  And, yes, bitmixer.io has always served me well.

My guess is that [banned mixer] needs REVIEWS from users, perhaps some of the Signature Campaign users could try the service out and report back?

Without hearing some pretty good things about them, I will stick w/ bitmixer.

blockchain.info is EASY, which is important to beginners (like I was say a year or two ago).  That said, I have not used their new wallet because I have read about the problems that you all post above.  "Legacy Only" for me at least for a while.  I only keep small amounts at blockchain.info.

I suppose the best way to use the New Wallet would be to transfer all of your BTC somewhere else (hardware wallets work for me) from your legacy, then take your chances with the new one.  That's probably what I will do once blockchain.info starts telling everyone that they will no longer support the LEGACY ones.

...

Most of you guys are saying that there are quite a few avenues of attack to get your Bitcoin.

I am pretty well convinced that the math of the system means that the cryptography cannot be broken yet.  That may change, but it does look pretty strong for YEARS (Satoshi thought ahead).

But, there are all kinds of other threats: keystroke loggers, bad on-line wallets, the disturbingly common exchange thefts, smartphone vulnerabilities, etc.

I like the hardware wallets Ledger Nano and Trezor for storing the bulk of my BTC.  I keep just enough at blockchain.info to spend or to transfer when I want.

...

Great news item, xht.

9.4 billion is indeed a huge amount of money.  But, the biggest financial problems in Italy are the BANKS.  The banks have their grubby little fingers in all sectors of an economy.  And of all the large countries, I hear that Italy has the most severe problems with their banks.

But, should the Italian banks fall hard, that would spread to France and then to Germany, especially Douche Bank (Deutsche Bank) which has gigantic derivative exposure.  I do not see how Europe avoids big problems if Italy's banks fall...

...

I would have to do a lot of onerous calculations to get the exact number, but at $500 I am sure than I am finally in the green, ahead on my BTC investment.  The range would be $480 - $500, I do know that.

I started buying after the peak when BTC was in the $700s, and bought fairly steadily all the way down.

Since I am on a visit to Peru now, I cannot (easily) spend them, so maybe when I am back in the USA I can buy a tiny amount of gold.  

Or maybe not!  With "The Halving" coming up, maybe I should just sit back and watch the show...