It seems that people have forgotten that bitcoin still has flaws that need to be worked on under the hood... all of this price increase is due to hype and the "fear of missing out" effect. It might reach past $1-2K, but at that point, people will be questioning why they are buying bitcoins for this much and not getting a quality product at the end of it.  So no, I don't think that bitcoin will go up to $1 million, unless there are changes to the code.

You have to look at it this way, there will probably be another big bubble coming up and the price will sky rocket and then ultimately pop at some price point; which will A) make people lose a lot of money (again) and/or B) make governments feel the need to restrict bitcoin or other crypto currencies even farther to help prevent this from happening and from allowing the majority of people to realize the power of a finite money system.

So are you saying that this "bubble" bitcoin seems to be experiencing will go above or below the $1K mark?  It's really hard to tell with all of this because there are a lot of factors to consider with the uncertainty of the MMM ponzi or the speculative price of the halving coming up soon... who knows what will happen, but it's been a fun ride this far.

Honestly I can see it being everyone just hopping on the BTC train while it's going up, plus you have the halving coming up, so people would want to grab as much relatively "cheap" coins while they can when speculating what the price will be during and after.  But honestly after the steam bitcoin seems to posses right now and come crashing back down, I would speculate that a good chunk of bitcoins will go back purchasing other altcoins other people seem to have promise; either that, or a new pump and dump coin that will attract attention to it.

But like you said, at least we are keeping above that high percentage of dumpage so we can at least maintain our fiat price for right now... not that it really matters, just more of a small "win".

Man, that would be nice if I could afford a weeks worth of food of signature campaigns lol... but seriously, when you think about it, how great is this?  I mean what seems to be worthless in one country could feed a family of 4 just by posting on some forum?? That's insane... I mean, think of the possibilities of charities and fundraising projects for developing countries around the world.

I feel even more sad/depressed when it's not just a gambling site, but something like a ponzi "doubler" site... a while back, I thought, "mehh, what the hell... I mean it's something I can 'afford' to lose" ... then lost it when he ran away.  I didn't think much of it at first, but then I really started to feel absolutely idiotic for trying something like that again (have done it twice now, worst decisions ever).

Just because "a lot" of people bought at $270, doesn't mean that "everyone" bought at $270... I mean hell, I remember buying some at $250 and though I was late to the party.  And also, I don't think you can just generally say that "everyone" who has bought at that price has sold by now, I mean technically I haven't really sold yet... What you said is too broad of a statement, so therefore to me, your post doesn't really make sense at all.

This is why I believe that any PoW coin out there that has limited supply is better than fiat in every way imaginable... people have been lead to believe that there NEEDS to be a third party to control the money supply and print out money when they seem fit, which is the biggest ruse placed on humanity since, well, ever.

I truly believe that all this price increase is people trying to gather as much bitcoins as possible before the halving speculation pricing begins... Now that is going to be a shit show in itself, and the exchange sites might collapse from so much traffic coming in lol... but seriously, a long with the sketchiness of the MMM ponzi thing that no one really seems to know the actual truth of what their intention are coming out of china; I think that a majority of people are just eager to grab as many coins as possible for the cheapest price that they can afford at one given time.

I wouldn't necessarily say that it would be "less sophisticated" because there are a lot of strategies to a lot of casino games... maybe not dice per se, but poker and black jack hold some sophistication to it.

By the end of November it could definitely be possible for the price to rise so far as $450, but $700 is a pipe dream and a dangerous one at that... a price spike like that will in fact cause a major correction, which might make it go past $270 or so.

It's about people believing in a pipe dream that if they go "all in" on a game they can double or quadruple their money... it's why people play the lottery, just putting in a small amount and getting a huge return.  This is alright in moderation, but when overdone it's horrible... people hang on to that dream as long as possible and therefore becomes addicting.  It's all they think about, and when they run out of funds they think that that if they had some more money, that they would definitely rebound and make up what they lost.

Digging a deep hole like that and trying to make it out is what keep people addicted, as long as they don't accept the fact that they lost and can't move on in life.

Wow, did anyone else just see that 500 BTC sell on bitstamp?  This is going to get rediculous,  hopefully we can get a stable footing soon... just not so sure about this rise any more...

Hillary won't even get the democratic ticket to run IMO... I have a strange feeling it's going to be between Trump and Sanders, which will be the BIGGEST division in the political spectrum for any Presidential election in US history.  Not to mention that we've never seen a true socialist running that has a lot of support from the younger voting group.

Honestly, I can see it going a little bit higher, but for some reason I just see it going back below $300 again soon.. It might go up just a little bit more, but I don't see it going above $350 in November.

Now when it gets closer to halving, then that's a different story... but that's next year, and all this price rise is is speculation of what the Chinese are doing and how much the MMM ponzi will keep going strong.

That's what I really hope is going on... I mean hell, earlier this morning I saw it go down $7 in a matter of a minute or two... I feel that maybe we'll be alright after all now that I think about it more.

Haha, nice... I'm working towards a promotion that will probably happen sometime in 2017, so I'm hoping that it will be enough time for monero to stay atleast under the $2 mark before I can really start throwing around some money... but for some reason, I don't see this happening. *sigh* oh well..

Jesus AP, I wish I had your job to be able to fork over that kind of cash whenever I wanted... how are you able to survive bills and food/alcohol expenses when your throwing that much money into cryptos?

China is scaring me a little bit as of right now... they currently aren't holding that $30 gap any more between bitstamp prices... What do you guys think? Is this the top?

That would definitely be the most optimal way for bitcoin to grow... but let's face it, people are panicking and buying as much as possible, because they don't know where this is going.  I can honestly see it shooting up to $500-$600 by the end of the year, and maybe keep climbing some through January, but by February I can see a good dump back down to $400 or so and stay there because people will be interested what will happen during the halving.