Your argument is invalid if you don't think gold was ever used in scamming people. I hate when people say that Bitcoin is a scam coin. No one is forcing people to buy it. Gold and fiat currency is used just as much, if not more than Bitcoin, to scam people... Ever hear of Bre-X? The $6 BILLION scandal? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bre-X

I don't know where you're getting your "12 years tops" information from, but you're saying that we only have 5 years remaining of the Bitcoin "trend"?

Honestly, the best advice I can give you is to hold off and hope that the mempool decreases over the next few days/weeks. Otherwise, I was able to make a transaction yesterday for $150 for about $7 in fees (at 210 sat/byte). Still higher than I'm used to (100-150 sat/byte), but not bad considering that a lot of others have been paying much higher fees. I got 3 confirmations within an hour.

My transaction for reference: https://blockchain.info/tx/4a47a39ae0a667e1dd050a4e206519dd78b606c9bd022acef62901c5fc0f1b17

I'm looking to buy 20 Ripple so I can activate my Ripple account. Is anyone willing to sell me 20 XRP at CoinGecko rates for the equivalent value for preev.com rates for BTC? I'm willing to send first if you have positive default trust or can reference a couple of successful exchanges on the forums.

Let me know if this is something you can do. Thanks!

Just kidding; closed.

Be careful when using lbc. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine carelessly sold some bitcoin to a high-reputation buyer with hundreds of transactions. Turned out that the buyer had purchased the account. My friend ended up only losing a couple hundred bucks, but it could have been much worse for her. Just make sure that there aren't huge gaps in the buyer's history. I've done over two dozen trades on localbitoins myself, ranging from $50 to $500+ in transaction sizes, and haven't had any problems myself. But better safe than sorry!

I'm not that familiar with Coinbase's vault features, but is there any way to withdraw the bitcoin directly from Coinbase into another wallet? If so, check out this article: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

Once you've created a wallet, you may explore other options of getting your money out after you transfer your crypto to your newly created wallet. The best? Look for a trusted reputable bitcoin buyer here to do an exchange for you. You may have to send the bitcoin first, but make sure that the buyer is very reputable.

Don't sell your bitcoin and try to withdraw it from coinbase. Simply withdraw your balance to your own wallet ASAP.

I generally don't keep anything on exchanges, with the exception of LocalBitcoins.com. I don't play the market or do any short trading, but I used to, until YoShit (YoBit) locked my account for no reason. Since then, I just focus on hodling, which has done much better for me than having the risk of trying to find the right altcoins to net some quick profits. But I will say that I never kept more in the exchanges (YoBit, Bittrex, C-Cex, Poloniex) than what I was willing to lose, which for me was around $1,000USD at the time. And now? I've heard horror stories about each of those exchanges, so I'm glad I don't have to worry about that headache anymore.

To my knowledge, there are no reputable exchanges that do not have a limit to withdrawals. Once a Bitcoin transaction is confirmed, there are no refunds or chargebacks, and most exchanges are not willing to take that risk of having to front the liquid capital to cash out on someone's investments at such a high risk.

I asked a friend who has quite a few Bitcoin how he is able to buy the things that he buys with Bitcoin, such as his house and a couple of Teslas, and he referenced two things:

First, that he has a guy that will buy the bitcoin from him and just wire transfer the money into his account. I imagine that relationships like that are hard to find, but feel like you can manage to find a trusted and reputable buyer here on the forums if you are truly looking. Or possibly on localbitcoins.

Second, he has a company that gave him a credit card where he deposits bitcoin into, and the company offers the balance as his credit limit for any purchase where a credit card is accepted.

I'm sure there are many services out there for pulling your Bitcoin out; I personally have never sold more than $500 positions, so I couldn't tell you exactly how large conversions are done, but I can't imagine that the whales are using exchanges to draw their bitcoin out...

Can someone who is versed in the knowledge of the technology behind the Lightning Network put a scenario into layman's terms of how the LN could be of high-risk? I'm not referencing the actions of those ill-willed scammers and hackers, but a possible real-life scenario like a semi-large online merchant and how the LN could compromise the security of our bitcoin for purchases in their store. Would we have to completely put our trust in this second layer form? I guess it's a double-edged sword, from what I understand of LN. We have to put our trust in a centralized solution, and hope that it's a reputable company that we put our trust in, but that means that the technology behind it is far from being decentralized, which is the very reason why Bitcoin became so popular.

In your opinion (as someone who is well educated about LN; no noobs please), does the Lightning Network seem like a viable solution to the current blockchain difficulties with transactions?

I love this topic.

I often make comparisons of Bitcoin to Gold whenever I'm introducing someone new to Bitcoin. Usually, the first question that I receive is that gold is a physical asset while Bitcoin is not. I usually answer that by using an analogy (vs. trying to explain to them the reality and tangibility of the blockchain) by asking if they use cloud storage, such as iCloud or DropBox. If they answer yes, I then ask them if they use the service to host pictures that they take from their devices. If they answer yes, I tell them that the photos aren't physical. They're also digitally produced, but feel real because you can see them and store them on their devices and cloud storage.

When these people ask me how Bitcoin is like money, I kind of shape the conversation into saying that Bitcoin is like gold; that it's more like a store of value and investment versus a currency.

Personally, I prefer to store Bitcoin as a personal asset over gold. Why? Here's the reality of a hypothetical situation that could possibly happen within our lifetime:

If the economy crashes, and the currency of your country becomes worthless overnight, what will save you? Gold bars? Imagine trying to buy a loaf of bread with gold. How do you do it? If your economy is worthless, how do you convert your gold? Into what form of currency? Do you use the gold AS currency itself? How do you weigh it? How do you measure it? Do you carry the gold bar with you, along with a chisel and a scale? The risk of the physical bar being taken from you is high.

Now, with Bitcoin, you can send an allotted pre-designated amount from wallet to wallet. Risk of theft is low. Yes, someone can put a gun to your head, but if they murder you, they will never be able to access your bitcoin. You can make an instant (dependent upon transaction times lol) transaction for any goods or services.

The only downside with Bitcoin is the volatility of it, unlike with gold. How will it fare? No one can say, for certain, but I feel that Bitcoin is the "gold" standard of cryptocurrency. Yes, it sucks as a currency exchange, but I truly believe that BTC will become the store of value leader for crypto.

Fudders gonna fud, I guess...

I just created a transaction for $100 BTC between addresses to test the current fee structure for myself. My friend just told me that he sent a "Standard" transaction on Blockchain's web wallet yesterday, and upon viewing his txid, it shows a dozen confirmations... The best part? His fees were only 96 sat/byte. I set a custom fee of 240 sat/byte, and I had my 3 confirmations within an hour.

The fees are dictated by miners, yes, but ultimately, the users are the ones who choose to pay higher fees in order for their transactions to get included in a block first. I think more and more new users are finally learning about transaction fees, and realizing that they don't have to send ridiculous fees... Or it's just costing them an arm and a leg to continue creating transactions with such high fees.

Stop fudding. Yes, $7 in fees for a $100 transaction is still high, but it's not nearly as bad as it was a week ago.

Great idea for a thread and I hope more people take these resolutions serious.

I, for one, was all about HODLing, but here are my resolutions for Bitcoin:

1. Learn about upcoming technologies regarding Bitcoin, such as Lightning Network, and how it will positively/negatively impact the future of BTC.
2. Research and study the volatility comparisons between Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Cash, and make a decision on which to follow, based on MY personal understanding and outcome of the research.
3. Introduce more and more people to Bitcoin and help them to understand why cryptocurrency is the next wave of money as we know it.

Do you have any more information about what kind of website or service that you want to run? And what will be the point of your website? Do you have any example websites that you're looking to mimic? Just stating that you're looking for a "world class website" doesn't really tell any qualified web developer what it is that you're looking for.

Also, you say that you're looking for a website partners. Does this indicate that there will be ongoing residual income from this project?

Please advise!

I’m curious as to whether there is an official thread to follow for the production updates for the Lightning Network. There was an article about BitRefill successfully using LN to confirm a transaction which was done INSTANTLY with no fees. How were they able to do this outside of a testnet environment?

It’s been a few months since the rise of transaction fees for the bitcoin core network, and I think it’s safe to say that most people won’t mind the high fees if they knew that a solution like LN was on the way. We just need to ensure that most laymen know that it’s coming, and what to do to prepare themselves for making sure that they are knowledgeable in what to expect for the network to operate smoothly.

Does anyone care to start a self-moderated megathread with updates about the Lightning Network that will only carry relevant discussion and news regarding LN?

I have never used bitcoin as a means for payment of any illegal goods or services, and don’t plan on using it for that purpose. To me, I use BTC as a store of value. I bought in at around $230, and unfortunately have used it as a form of currency for the majority of my holdings. I’m finding that I now use Bitcoin Cash as currency, and hodl Bitcoin. I essentially compare Bitcoin to being my savings account, while altcoins act as my checkings account. Just like in fiat bank services, I’m able to transfer from my “savings” to my “checkings” account, but cryptocurrency to me is mainly a holdings.

Safe haven? Yes. Because I know that no governing agency can access my bitcoin, I also know that to be able to seize it is a near-impossible feat. Although I don’t rely solely on Bitcoin for everyday life, I do find myself buying more (at any price) with whatever excess fiat cash that I have.

I trust Bitcoin more than I do banks, so for me, it’s easy to call it a true safe haven.

While this is great, I’m not sure that the article is accurate in stating that there is no risk to security to run transactions on the lightning network. If my research has been correct, there are new security risks involved with using the lightning network; can anyone embellish on this?
Also, I had read that in order for the lightning network to take effect, both the sending and receiving wallets have to be online simultaneously to effectively become nodes on the network in order for the transaction to complete.

I think this is a scalable option, but there is a lot of learning and implementation that needs to happen in order for the network to take effect, am I right? And to have a large network of nodes to run, does this allow for the risk of centralization? I’m interested to read more about the pros and cons of the lightning network as a viable option to help fix current issues with bitcoin transactions. Anyone have any articles to link that are relevant?

Even after all my earnings for the remainder of my contracts, I will not meet the minimum threshold for withdrawal. The only way I will be able to meet the withdrawal threshold will be to purchase another contract, which I do not want to do. There’s no telling what will happen in a year from now. Sadly, I think the beginning of the end for HashFlare is here.

I’d be down to kick you some DOGE for a re-audit.

My username is @FreeBTCExpert and I’m more than ready to send you doge when the re-audit is completed. Thanks in advance! I’ve got less than 4K followers so it shouldn’t be a problem for ya.

Stop giving advice. That is not why the fees are so high. Sellers aren’t so much the problem as the miners are. Miners are able to choose which transactions they confirm, which will naturally gravitate towards users setting higher fees, but the problem is rooted in the way that miners are rewarded in the first place, not how the sellers set the fees. They wouldn’t have to pay high fees if there was a hard cap on the cost of transactions.

If this problem isn’t corrected, there won’t be any demand for bitcoin in 2018 to become “the boom year”. Paying a $10 fee for a $6 cup of coffee isn’t what Satoshi Nakamoto has in mind, I’m sure.

I have 0.036btc in my account, and according to the revenue forecast on my account, I should make enough to reach the 0.05btc threshold in just over 6 months. Too bad my “lifetime” contract expires before then. I will never see my earnings because i won’t hit my threshold unless I invest more into another contract. If that isn’t the beginning of the end for this company, I don’t know what is...

Oh, and here’s a message I just logged into:

“Dear users,
Creating new Bitcoin withdrawal requests is temporarily disabled due to a very large number of not broadcasted and/or unconfirmed transactions still pending on the side our provider, block.io. Read more from our newsletter here.”

So just another excuse, it seems. Why should high fees matter, if we are able to set our own fees? We understand how high fees are at the moment, so wouldn’t we understand that paying the high fees is the only way for us to withdraw our earnings?

I no longer have any faith that I will realize the remainder of my earnings from this site. Please think twice before investing into this ponzi.

I hope you don’t believe that C-CEX is a big company... I personally think that it is one or two guys who are on their way to Mt. Gox’ing their users. Especially the way that they are behaving at the moment. Why aren’t withdrawals and deposits being honored? Are these normally done manually, or require “staff” intervention to process them? A month is a very long time to have your assets held hostage.

I thought I had cleared all assets from this exchange, but it still seems I have a few altcoins in there. Yeah yeah stupid me, but let’s see if I’m able to get them out when the staff returns, or if they’ll be delisted and stolen like they’ve done with many coins in the past...