If you want that, go ahead. I'll just keep my own wallet and avoid it all.

A conversation about Bitcoin with an economist that states up front that he doesn't know much anything Bitcoin isn't very interesting.

It's notable, but he/she/they have no chance of winning because it is still new. Whether or not Bitcoin has actually changed anything has yet to be seen.

Your reasoning doesn't make sense. The situation with Coinbase bears no resemblance to Mt. Gox. Unlike the obvious signs of impending failure at Mt. Gox, I don't see any indication that Coinbase is going to collapse any time soon.

I was banned from Coinbase, probably for trading too much, but it doesn't affect me much, though it is annoying.

As for them wanting to "fork Bitcoin", you might have a better understanding of the situation if you ignore the hysteria on reddit.

Sitting on your ass and counting your coins doesn't help. If you want better markets, spend bitcoins to buy stuff through the places that accept them, like Cheap Air, Overstock.com, NewEgg, etc. Or if you want to save lots of money using bitcoins, buy stuff through Purse.io and foldapp.com and save 20%.

Holding bitcoins provides no benefit to Bitcoin. While buying and selling at least contributes liquidity to the markets, which in turn increases the utility of Bitcoin, simply holding bitcoins contributes nothing at all.

HODLers are nothing more than lurkers and leeches.

HODLers like to fantasize that they are contributing by supporting the price, but we all know that Bitcoin works well regardless of the price of a bitcoin. Supporting the price does nothing for Bitcoin.

Furthermore, a stable price results in increased adoption, but HODLers don't want a stable price, they want an increasing price.

HODLers are anti-Bitcoin.

HODLers like to fantasize that the are promoting Bitcoin by recruiting other HODLers, but (again) simply holding bitcoins does nothing for Bitcoin, so more HODLers only means more lurkers and more leeches.

The truth is that HODLers promoting HODLing are really promoting a pyramid scheme based on Bitcoin. In a pyramid scheme, members recruit more members in order to make money for themselves.

HODLers are basically members of a Bitcoin pyramid scheme.

If you want to contribute to Bitcoin, use Bitcoin and convince other people to use Bitcoin.

But did you know that you can get a 20% discount at Starbucks with bitcoins using foldapp.com?

It's funny that RawDog (of all people) gets it, but others don't.

Last communication was 3 weeks ago: http://www.maxfield.me/2014/09/04/kialara-coins-shipping-info-updates/

The price has been below $1 before and look where it is now.

Strictly speaking, Bitcoin works no matter what the price is. It doesn't care one bit about speculators.

Your strategy of buying on the way up and selling just before the bubble bursts won't work because you don't know when the bubble will burst, so you will be buying at the top and selling at the bottom.

My strategy is a hedging strategy. If there is no bubble, then the value of my bitcoins will be higher, but lower than it could have been. On the other hand, if there is a bubble, then the value of my bitcoins will be higher than if I did nothing. Either way I'm ahead.

"i can be sure that we won't see again 1200-230 ..." <--- Pure speculation.

Bitcoin cannot be a ponzi scheme for reasons repeated hundreds of times over the last 6 years.

No doubt in my mind that this is a bubble. Unfortunately, there is no way to know how high it will go before it pops. My strategy is to hedge by selling small amounts on the way up and the buy it all back after the bubble pops.

Banks must maintain a certain balance (their "reserve") at the central bank. In order for a bank to prevent their reserve from going below the limit, they borrow the money from banks with excess reserves. By competing with banks for those excess reserves, the central bank can influence the interest rate that a bank must pay another bank. A bank will then lend to customers at a higher interest rate in order to make a profit.

In short, one way the central bank controls interest rates is by indirectly controlling the interest rate of money available to banks for lending.

Ants are not decentralized. They are controlled by the queen.

In my view of a pyramid scheme, the value rises when people join in the hope that other people will join. If that is all Bitcoin is (hoarding in the hope that everyone else hoards), then it is nothing more than a pyramid scheme.

If someone believes that the only way to gain value from bitcoins they hold is to encourage other people to hold bitcoins, then they should realize that they are participating in a pyramid scheme, and should be ready to accept it's eventual collapse.

In other words, you think the only way Bitcoin can succeed is as a huge pyramid scheme.

It seems like an odd request. You could send a paper wallet with an encrypted private key, and send the password once you have the cash.

It isn't a big difference, but it is notable because Circle makes money from the spread, while Coinbase makes money from a 1% fee. So, it would be more logical for Circle's price to be lower than Coinbase's price.

Things to note:

• Circle is not an exchange, and if you buy from Coinbase, you are buying from Coinbase and not on their exchange.
• Because of Coinbase's 1% fee, you can only make money from arbitrage if Coinbase's price is at least 1% lower than what Circle will pay, though Coinbase's exchange has lower fees and a different price.
• Circle limits you to $3000 per week (or something like that), so if you can make a 1% profit on arbitrage, that's only $30.

Approximately every 4 years, the subsidy to miners is halved. Eventually, it will go to 0 and miners will only be paid from transaction fees. The subsidy is the method of creating new bitcoins, and the halvings limit the total supply to 21 million bitcoins. Other than ensuring that the supply of bitcoins is limited and some economic effects, the halvings have no direct effect on you or your bitcoins.

People like to celebrate Halving Day, so get ready to party next year!