From all I have read, countries like France and Germany have nothing against crypto currencies, in contrary.
But they want regulations. One statement of their finance ministers is the following:
"Tokens and their potential for financial innovation should not be left to those who make the worst use of them."
To me that shows how much they appreciate crypto currencies. But they have recogniced as well that many scammers use them.

In a point of market capitalisation? Well maybe.
ETH blocks are mined in average every 15 seconds. And the supply of ETH is not limited as far as I know.
So I can imagine that ETH will become something like the future form of crypto payment, while bitcoin is a crypto investment.

With enough people are willing to pay with crypto currencies, the combined value of all ETH can be higher than combined value of all bitcoin.
But that will take a very long time. If the current prices would stay stable, and number of newly mined blocks as well, lets say about 15 to 20 years.

I think as well this is not going to happen.
In my eyes there are many people who would never touch bitcoins simply because they want to stick to their fiat.
Unless something would destabilize that fiat, theose people would not use something else.

Another thing that is concerning for even more people is the high volatility.
Volatility is good for traders, sometimes even for investors. But not for people who want to use a currency.

A very obvoius solution against panic selling is not to panic.
You can reach that if you don't invest more money than you are willing to lose.
Another thing that keeps the selling impulse under controle is experience. That is why especially newbies suffer under the panic selling syndrome.
With time people get used to the fact that charts sometimes go down in a rush.
And then, you need to make profit on the way. Sell small amounts on the way up. The knowledge that you  have already made a lifftle profit can keep you calm.

I can imagine as well that for some companies it might be an advertising move. It does not even have to be profitable.
By accepting crypto currencies you can show that your company is working with the latest trends and technologies.
That attracts especially younger people, and among them are well earning people of tomorrow.
Establishing a connection to them today will be important tomorrow.

I think it is the high volatility that stops people to use more crypto currencies for payments.
And I must admit it is hard to explain to somebody why he should pay twice as much currency in crypto form today then he had to pay two months ago.
The explanation becomes even harder when the fiat price in that time did not change at all.

Even if it was the other way round and you only have to pay half as much today as you had to pay two months ago, people will find it difficult to understand.
In that case they will wonder why to buy at all, because in another two months the price will be even lower in crypto form.

You have to buy the mining equipment, you must have the knowledge how to use it and then there is the electricity to pay as well.
Keep in mind that the mining equipment gets old very fast, malfunctions happen as well.
And then you still depend on the price you get for your coins on the market, which is highly volatile.
All those factors represent the risk you take when you start mining.

We live in a time where social media influence almost everything.
Through the social media the public opinion is shaped in a great deal, and most things depend on what the people think about it.
Many people believe that even the last election for US president was won with campaigns on social media.
So yes, the growth of bitcoin depends on social media.
When the social media draw a bad image of bitcoin, people will stop buying it. And then we have no growth anymore.

We are approching the 10K again and for a good week the price is climbing.
A week is a very long time for crypto currencies, so I really believe that the trend has changed!

But what I see as most remarkable is that the mempool still is quite empty.
We are beyond 40MB at the moment. A few weeks ago we had 200MB.
Maybe that can be interprated that the people who buy now are not traders who cause many transactions, but investors who are here for a longer term.

I think that regulations are needed as well.
First of all I think that crypto currencies still have stigma of being used by criminals.
With regulations that could be changed. I'm sure the public image would enhance when it is shown that crypto currencies are not a field without laws.
And when I think about ICOs those should really have strict rules. At the moment it is way too easy to set one of those up and disappear with the money.

Bitcoin buy time is nearly always.
The only exception I would make is the middle of a dump. When you see the price declining for days, I would say it is better to wait until you are convinced the bottom has been hit.
But for every other case, I would say it's totally up to buyer. If you want the coins to hold them long, the price is something that should be less important.
For a long time holder it is important to have coins, not so much at what price you got them.
Personally I hardly remember at what price I got my first coins.

The really interesting question for me would be what happened to the coins.
In a best case scenario the coins are hidden in some wallets and will never survace again.
That would mean the 100K less bitcoins criculating, so less supply so higher price for the rest.

I do not think that the high fees or the transaction times will be the problem. From all I know the lightning network is capable to solve those problems.
If you want bitcoin to become a currency for daily use it would need to become stable at first.
When people have to pay highly different bitcoin amounts within a small period of time in order to get the same good, I am sure that not many people will do that.
But do we really want a stable bitcoin?
I suppose that Bitcoin will stay what it already is, a very profitable investment.

Stabelizing in these days means more that the down trend has stopped.
At least for the past five days the movement of the bitcoin price was within a range of about 1000 Dollars.
To me that still sounds pretty much.
I suppose these are good days for traders who can earn with every one of the small upward movements.

I suppose that the safest way to handle your coins will be an offline wallet.
An online wallet may be not as safe, but I think its usability is better.
However, the worst thing somebody can do is to keep the coins at an exchange.
As long as you don't do that and stick to the recommended safety measures, I think you will do fine with an online wallet as well.

I have read that story as well on coindesk and I assume it is confirmed.
Jeff Weninger, a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives said about that bill: 'It's one of a litany of bills that we're running that is sending a signal to everyone in the United States, and possibly throughout the world, that Arizona is going to be the place to be for blockchain and digital currency technology in the future'.

I think it is a clever idea. When you are convinced that crypto currencies will be a big part of tomorrows economy like Jeff Weninger does, it is natural that you want to have it in your state today.
There is no better way to advertise for crypto businesses to settle in your state than to connect crypto currencies to the authorities with a bill.

And the situation if we had only one currency worldwide would be a lot worse, especially for the poorer countries.
The world works and earns in different speeds. That would lead to a shift of wealth exactly towards the regions where people aready earn enough.
And regulations of the lokal currency would become impossible for the poorer countries. It would be like they are stuck with poverty forever with an always increasing gap to the industry nations.

Earning bitcoin is always a question of the skill set somebody has.
I suppose that signature campaigns or bounty campaigns are the easiest ways to earn bitcoins.
With some sarter cash and abilities in chart reading and market understanding, there is a good chance to earn decently with trading.
Capabilities in coding can give you a real day time job. A very well paid even.

I do not think that crypto currencies will ever be used more than the local fiat.
One reason is that a majority of the people will never make the step in the crypto world. To them it seems too risky. So all of their money stays out of crypto currencies.
Another thing is that even everybody who has crypto currencies won't have all his money in that form.

I just wanted to mention that the number of countries that really prohibited or banned bitcoin is very, very low.
Most countries do not recognize bitcoin as a legal tender, but that is something completely different. That simply means bitcoin is rated by the officials like a stock, for example.
Owning and trading bitcoin is not restricted in any way if bitcoin is not a legal tender.