I don't really trust that article. China's household debt is still very low:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_household_debt

What people do borrow is usually for property. If you believe in bubbles then maybe there is a problem there.

But Chinese never got big into credit cards like the west. Yes there's some credit cards but most people in the country never owned any kind of card. They went straight from cash to smartphone payment which is linked to bank account so more like a debit card (no debt).

Yep, some people do this as a method of cold storage.

How do you know this?

How do we know yours isn't?

I agree with you that it is not only the halving, in fact I can believe that is already priced in.


Well realistically it cannot achieve 1 billion dollars in the next few years. Who knows within 100 years maybe is possible!


I don't think it will solve poverty but surely it will help the poor, yes.


That will take more than bitcoin.

Depends.

Are you in it for making short term income or would you rather buy and hold over years?

Sounds like you just want to make short term money. Then you should learn how to trade or you are destined to lose money/cash out again.

Definitely it can and I believe it will but it's not clear how long that will take.

If you're in it for investing, I would suggest not to obsess over it too much as we could be waiting a while.

Actually, better to concentrate on fiat earning endeavors and then convert some of that fiat into crypto.

Wait MINIMUM 5 years if HODLing. It'll go past not just 20k but probably 100k too.

Doesn't surprise me that everyone there applauded it, they're already holders and now is a reduced supply.

Such a sudden decision and not by any consensus either. If you're going to do something like that, why not do it in steps instead of just one fell swoop.

I sure as hell won't go near any project with the names of those attached ever.

The market just isn't mature enough yet. We are still in the volatile phase of crypto, it might honestly take years to go mainstream to the extent that it will support a freelancer platform.

Another issue is lack of escrow.

But really it's the same reason why there aren't so many other mature services for crypto.

Even though bitcoin is almost fully mined, it's still volatile.

Things will only change when the masses can easily get their hands on crypto and I don't mean via an online exchange.

It's a shame that there isn't a whale out there who could just give away say 100 bucks of bitcoin in some kind of postcode lottery. Not too much that people would use an exchange but enough that people will just spend it instead.

I disagree with you, investing is always for the long term. You need to almost forget about your investment and ride it out, be willing to wait years.

It's ok to later liquidate very small amounts for income, maybe for an emergency. Otherwise you need to leave it alone and keep adding to your position. That is investment.

If I'm selling artwork, unless it's dirt cheap I am not going to let the buyer skimp on fees. I want a quick transaction.

If the art is worth like 5 bucks, then that is the use case for another coin, not bitcoin.

I think most of the market understands this already.

Skimping on fees is fine for moving between your own wallets but not for trading.

Every altcoin is different and while they often correlate, a single coin needs only to have a massive, stable use case. Think about it, the average person does not own bitcoin or altcoin. This is why I like Brave Browser but it needs way more partners before it becomes stable.

Two reasons really.

1) there is a lot of new money in China. Hundreds of millions lifted out of poverty, more millionaires than in the USA. Tight capital controls mean it is difficult to diversify and move your money out of the country. Bitcoin helps with this. Unlike Korea, it is not your average middle class who is holding bitcoin, it is the richer folk.

2) cheap electricity from hydropower. They have more electricity than they can use themselves.

Whenever I want something to happen, it never happens! 

On that basis, I think it could dump but only after a pump e.g. 40000 to 30000. I can't see it dumping from where we are now.

No i won't switch yet because there isn't yet any credible alternative to existing social media sites.

Steemit is the leader (yes I have seen publish0x but it is nowhere near as good) but it is plagued by:

1) primarily the early distribution went to a few whales who would only upvote their own friends and countrymen. Basically, everyone writes there to try to grab whales' attention. Owners of Steemit destroyed it before they could even develop it further.

2) also it needs some moderation, the categories are awful.

Honestly, it would not be difficult to make a competitor that could dominate the market.

I totally agree with you. I see it as a temporary necessary evil until there is greater adoption.

But what happens then, will they one day outlaw ATMs.

I mean, there are no KYC rules for buying/selling gold as far as I know. Maybe one day when it becomes easier to buy and sell coins, they will have to abandon KYC for everyone except the people who are already doing it for fiat (big banks) or say anything over 10,000 USD (amount of currency you can normally cross a border with without declaring it).

I'm interested but I need more information.

I don't work for free though. Doesn't need to be fiat or bitcoin but I expect something back, even if it's just a link to my site in the footer of the article.

I believe the halving is already priced in but I also think that it will moon simply to get closer to fair value.

It will need a spark though in the form of some major economic or political incident like a big bank that the government bails out or some incident in the derivatives market. Something where the Fed fears a knock-on effect. Swiss Francs will pump but bitcoin will pump even higher!

I think it's a nice idea to drive adoption but there are already plenty of courses, albeit no single 'bulletproof must recommend' course.

Great if you want to do it as a charitable course but no way it would have any significant impact in the wider market.

Where I think this could be quite effective is in a local community.

In some localities I have seen people promote it and now quite a lot of stores accept bitcoin. Makes it not only easier to spend it for existing holders but also makes a lot of new holders i.e. more liquidity in the locality.

What scares me most is missing out on opportunities.

I was a reaaaalllly early adopter but never committed (admittedly, I wasn't convinced).

I don't want to make that mistake again. I'm impatient now but that's not fear-driven.

I don't know but I actually hope not, I want it to dip a little so I can get some more for cheaper.