That sounds extremely stressful. No thanks. I'll buy and hold when we start running up a new bubble.

Meh, set your targets and sell. > 13% is nice. No need to be greedy. I knew we might break 100 (and felt we'd fall right back down), but felt pretty shaky at 90, so I unloaded everything at 89. Can't play 'em all perfect. But I feel good about 22%. 

Hehe.

It was a lot of fun riding this bull trap. It's gonna be a blood bath out there.

I think we are speculating on different time frames.  
But why bitcoin -- from a layman's perspective? That you and I see the benefits does not guarantee anything. There are obviously many options to hide / store money besides bitcoin. You make it sound like the Cypriots themselves probably bought up the bubble to 266.
This. You can't stop speculation, you just need to roll with the market.

Personally, as far as encouraging people to get involved... While I enjoy discussing bitcoin with people that don't know about it, I must emphasize the risk involved, not only re volatility and the recent bubble, but also the tense regulatory atmosphere and potential for government interference, as well as what the quasi-regulated and unregulated economy means to them -- the lack of recourse they may have when when accounts are hacked, shady companies run off with their money, people defraud them, etc.
No, it is not a 50-50 shot. It's not just "buy, buy, buy." And where do you get the idea that people will perceive bitcoin to be the best possible choice? Why is BTC not skyrocketing in prevalence in Argentina? Because people want dollars.
That is a very unrealistic hope, though. Until this market matures, the "army of dedicated believers" bit is irrational and will be perceived by many as such. People want to maintain or grow their portfolio -- you can't simply expect people to hold when they perceive the value to be in decline, particularly when much of the economy is comprised of speculators.
I think we may have seen the top here... maybe a couple more pushes into triple digits, but I don't think it will last. Starting to see sell pressure and not from whale dumps. I didn't think we could break out for long above 100, but we'll see. I think if the whale continues to push the market up, he is definitely playing with fire at this point.

I think we're starting to make some pretty sweeping generalizations here. What makes you think that they would do so? We are talking about the same bitcoin that recently lost almost half its value over a 2-week period, right?

Potential... that was my point -- that in a discussion about the present-day utility of bitcoin, unrealized potential does not apply.
Yes.

Yeah, well, this is pretty much the list of countries that Paypal does not serve. Certainly you would expect a US payment processor not to serve countries on the embargo list? However, I am curious as to evidence that bitcoin is more liquid in Belarus and Somalia. Or that bitcoin adoption has taken off in North Korea and Burma.   I mean, Iranians have paypaad / mpaad, Bangladeshis have payza, etc... so comparing bitcoin to Paypal in that context isn't relevant. Naturally, it's not about being more liquid than Paypal. Paypal is just one of many, many examples, as stated earlier.

Why the hell would they do that?
REVOLUTION!!!  

You definitely bring up some interesting points. My feeling is that bitcoin is too illiquid and volatile at this point to serve these purposes on scales worth mentioning, though I agree, the potential is there. Indeed, people are becoming perpetually poorer because of destructive monetary policy, but that doesn't address what I was saying. My frustration is with the tendency to speak of bitcoin's potential as already having been fulfilled -- and that by its potential alone, it is useful. This forum is awash with that sentiment. It's funny, but frustrating, when people ignore everything you say and reply, "but, bitcoin revolution!" or something similar. The early discussion re utility is a good example of how irrelevant that can be (and how cult-like it comes off).

Bitcoin is actually extremely illiquid in much of the world. Are you actually suggesting that bitcoins are more liquid than Paypal $? What evidence do you have for this?

"Locked" in a Paypal account? According to Paypal, there are 110 million active accounts. There are what, 1.5-2 million funded bitcoin addresses? Are you aware of what Paypal is, and that large, reputable businesses accept it (unlike bitcoin)? It's accepted point-of-sale in 2 million retail stores.

Why do you seem to think exchanging bitcoins locally would be more useful or prevalent than exchanging Paypal currency locally? In the context of developing markets, why would you assume that bitcoin is more liquid?

Dude. Are you serious? You are telling me that you can use bitcoins for P2P payments. I am telling you that you can do the same thing with Paypal, cheaper, in all of the places that you claimed that people couldn't. The only thing that matters is liquidity -- and there is no question that mobile/web payments providers will continue to ramp up services in developing countries.

You can't withdraw BTC to a bank account in your country, can you? Much of this discussion is about people without bank accounts. I really don't see where you are going with this. The point is that people can exchange value cheaply without banks.

No, look closer. Like bitcoin, no bank accounts needed. If the liquidity is there, there is no need for banking. It's just cheaper.

That's cool, I guess, but you saying so doesn't really make it so. I think I've made a case for why the former generally isn't true for most people. "A lot" doesn't really mean anything, does it? What is "a lot" relative to the rest of the mobile/cloud payment industry, or the banking industry?

LOL damn whales

I thought it would have been clear that I meant the number of bitcoin addresses used (nevermind that 90% of them are empty), not the theoretical limit. I was under the impression that there were 2^160 possible (2^256 for public keys).

Though digging around I may have been looking at old stats... I believe the 11 million number was from April 2013.

I already sold and am all out, felt the ground was pretty shaky yesterday and got out at 89. I see the top, if we haven't reached it, at 95-96 as that should be pretty key resistance. We could break 100 but I don't think we will break out above it on volume.

For real? You certainly didn't respond to much of my post. I will rebut you now, but considering your incessant whining about "swearing" and repetition of the same "revolution" talk, I'd drop the attitude. If you want to educate us, please go ahead. But don't repeat the same baseless shit over and over when someone rebuts you. Yeah, that's right. I said "shit." When someone asks about utility, no one cares about an "art experiment." If you want to spread gospel, take it outside the speculation forum, because we're not all pigs here.
That we disagree ≠ I haven't done research.
Again, that people can use bitcoin as currency doesn't mean that the unbanked and those who otherwise use mobile payments don't prefer services like payza, m-pesa, fortumo, text2pay, impulsepay, junglepay, onebip, boku, zong, venmo, dwolla, or dozens of other mobile services... or prepaid cards linked to digital wallets. There's only 11 million bitcoin addresses; zong has served triple that number of customers alone. Paypal has moved into mobile payments as well -- where is it "virtually impossible" to open an account? All you need is a phone and an email address.

Re fees, some of these services allow for free/cheap micropayments, or at least schedules that rival or best bitcoin. With e-commerce, these providers often charge the customer no transaction fees and instead pass them on to the merchant. Payza users can receive up to $400 a month free (sending money is free), which is significant in re to remittances. Certainly beats 7% or 15% you might pay on a single bitcoin micropayment, since you bring it up. Admittedly, once you start taking in enough money, you'll get hit with 25 cent transaction fees, which means you probably wouldn't want to receive less than ~$1.50 - $2 at a time to stay in that range. If you use Paypal as a digital wallet (not as a merchant), then transferring money to friends and family is free. Outside the US, 0.5% to 2%, tops. So let's say I want to pay someone $.50. If BTC=$100, and tx fee = .0005, you pay 10% / $.05 with bitcoin. With Paypal, 2% or less / $.01 or less.

Yeah, Paypal wins.
This "bitcoin revolution" stuff doesn't add anything. Like other web/mobile payment systems, you can send/receive money virtually instantly to an electronic address. Yes, it's not tied to a government -- but we're talking about utility here, not political philosophy and idealism.

Could you elaborate on the bolded? What analysis are you using to determine that those who think bitcoin is overvalued anywhere below $100 are wrong... let alone pigs? $100-200 seems like a very arbitrary range -- I see no basis for it.

This. Nothing to do with USD at all, methinks. Also, the push from 76 to 90 was put into motion with a single whale's 6k+ market order + xk (2k+?) bid wall -- makes the rally feel a tad artificial, don't it?

This.
This.
Cool story, but not really relevant.

Looks like a flag forming. Don't know which way it will break.... originally thought up to 96 after another oscillation down, but this rally has me nervous. Didn't reach my target but happy to take profits at 89.

All out, now dump please.