bitcoin can be whatever you want. for me bitcoin is a currency, store of wealth, and an investment tool. that's what my bitcoin usage looks like. at this moment there is way too much demand, so prices of $100 and even lower will possibly never happen again, unless there is very bad news such as a huge exchange that lost all its coins due to a hack or theft from inside the exchange.

at this point i am not planning to sell any of my coins beside the coins that i have for trading purposes. i will start to secure profits as soon as the price reaches at least $700, and definitely not before that.

just explain that person everything in easy to understand words and terms, especially when it comes to people that don't know much about technology related things. if you explain just the basic things then that's more than fine. after that they will search for more information on their own if they so wish.

basically people playing around with a few thousand satoshi's are also part of the total bitcoin adoption. a few million of these people won't do much with the price. we need people with money that bring in tens of thousands of dollars. a few million of these will definitely help the price go up a lot. a higher amount of users is nice, but it's money that we need to see the price go up.

2020 is only 4 years away from now. in that 4 years the price will most likely not even reach $2000 (if ever). $10,000 to happen in such a small time frame will mean that the price must grow with around $2400 per year. do you seriously see that happen?

it looks simple now, but each year the price will increase and the amount of effort you need to do to earn just 1 bitcoin will most likely increase with at least 20 to 50% per year. especially with the upcoming block halving and the block halving after that. if any one with enough funds want to have at least 100 bitcoins, then right now is the best time to get them. the longer you wait, the higher the price will be.

"only" double? if the price would indeed double from the current price level, then it can be seen as a great achievement. it will make all people that bought at todays prices very happy. and those who waited too long with buying will end up being very disappointed as they once again missed a great opportunity to buy.

it's very difficult to get non tech people that have been brain washed by the media to give bitcoin a fair chance. if we want to reach user growth throughout the years, then we need these average joes to enter the bitcoin economy. it will be a real challenge getting them to give bitcoin a try. it costs only 30 minutes or even less to know the very basic things about bitcoin. there are very informative videos on youtube that explain bitcoin in easy to understand language. they just have to set the first step.

it's definitely possible, but as soon as we go up to price levels higher than $450 the price falls back to lower $400's as it happened several times in a row now. don't think this time will be much different.

for the short term the block halving is the only reason why people think the price will go up. but i also think the price will get a significant boost when the block size issue is being solved for as long as it lasts.

the current price isn't "really high" and it's not "low" either. bitcoin will only have troubles when there is something severe wrong with the network or when there is a flaw being found by some one... or when an alternative version of bitcoin such as classic or xt or whatever they are called win this long standing drama battle. that's when bitcoin is in real troubles.

you know why some people here think ethereum is great and might replace bitcoin? it's just because that ethereum is being pumped heavily and bitcoin still staying at the well known $400 to $420 price levels. they are bored because the bitcoin price doesn't move. these people are not real bitcoiners. i call them coin hoppers. ethereum will end up seeing its value come down significantly to more realistic levels. once the pump is over these people will look for other coins that are being pumped heavily.

new users will come when the media starts reporting about bitcoin reaching a new high or when we touch the $1000 price level again. and that might take years to happen. untill that time the media is only spreading negativity to mislead people that don't understand how bitcoin works. and these rookies take everything for granted that comes from the media.

the mike hearn drama made the price fall to just over the $350 price level, and that's still the bottom for this year.

good news has barely any effect on the price nowadays. beside that, the media is doing its best to make bitcoin look bad with only publishing bad articles and telling that bitcoin is only being used in the deep web to buy drugs and weapons. it doesn't have an impact on experienced bitcoiners, but it does impact the average joe. they get brainwashed very easily by the media. that's the whole problem.

that's just one aspect out of many. but it has a huge impact on the price, and miners and traders, and holders will benefit from it directly. after the media attention new people will make sure the price goes up, and that will trigger people to secure their profits. just look at what happened with mtgox. the media attention made the price surge to an all time high. all the people that bought back then are now waiting to see the price go back to the +$1000 levels as they bought at the peak.

the price may indeed stay at these levels for a few weeks, but eventually we will get some action back in the market. but i have to say that i like this stability. if the price will also remain stable like this at $500 and higher, then it will get even better for the most people here.

the price has been quite stable throughout the months, but it's definitely too late to buy. i still believe there is 50% profit that we can gain from the current price level this year. i consider that to be a somewhat short term investment. reason enough to buy and hold for some months. people that don't buy at current price level will regret not having bought at todays price after 6 months. regret comes always later.

bitcoin is open source, which basically means that everything can be implemented to fix flaws. beside that, bitcoin will only die when there is no internet, or when there is no power anymore in the world. but all these things can be solved in a quick fashion which will make bitcoin only "die" for a very short time.

fiat in the form of prepaid debit cards are also being used to purchase drugs or other illegal stuff. but it's always bitcoin that is blamed for all things that happen on the dark net. this only shows that bitcoin is growing throughout the entire internet. governments don't like seeing bitcoin grow as they see it is some sort of a threat to their economy. they just use the dark web as reason to blame bitcoin for being the currency of the underworld. the real motive behind this is completely different. and that is pushing bitcoin back.