Why would you short Bitcoin? In a way, it is like betting against it and the potentially big price jump to $1000 and possibly beyond. The coins to short sell or bet against are the over priced and the over hyped ones like Ethereum or Dash. Bitcoin should be held, and if it goes down, you should buy more. But doing the same to altcoins is not advisable.

It could but we should also not forget that it will have its own flaws and shortcomings when we actually start seeing it used in practice. Both core and the big blockers have their implementation set in their minds and can already see how beautifully it would work in theory.

I mentioned before that the Lightning Network might mean heftier transactions on the blockchain that might cause bottlenecks, limiting the opening and closing of payment channels. There is also the question of fungibility as LN.BTC's price could be more or less than "real" BTC.

One great potential for LN is the possibility of it being a bridge to other blockchains. I am very excited for that use case.

Open Bazaar is going to be so great once the upgrades are done that makes use of the Inter Planetary File System for storing the data for your online shop.  Yes, that means you can turn off your computer, no need for leaving it on just to keep your store online 24 hours a day/7 days a week.

The cool thing about IPFS is that your privacy is protected just like you would be when using Tor. Does anyone have any idea how many users there are using OB?

Why is there no BTCe in that list? For me they are the only exchange that is doing it right in terms of user privacy and security. I believe they have not been hacked before and so far they have not asked for documents from me to make trades and withdrawals with them. Their cashouts are fast and their support team is knowledgeable and response times are ok.

Also they have proven to be trustworthy even if the owners and the people who run it are anonymous. They have remained true to the Bitcoin way and that is to protect everyone's privacy.

You mean to say you want 100% ROI on your $100k in 365 days and do it safely? Good luck with that as it is close to impossible that it would happen "safely". Asking for a 100% return in a year is already pushing it too far as it is. Also even if you are willing to take a little risk to reach your goal you might end up with less than what you have started with.

Sometimes hackers and intelligence officers need only the metadata to have some knowledge of what is in the message. They do not even have to know what exactly is the message to have some sort of inkling of what is really going on. If emails were in the blockchain then all the details of the metadata will be available openly to the public. That is a big nono if you want to keep your privacy.

Forward to over 1 year after creating this thread and it is obvious that your prediction is very optimistic. The price is not really doing that well where it was expected to reach the all time high and go over it. We are only half way there. On the topic of mainstream adoption, Bitcoin is very far from achieving it. It may not be even achieved because of the infighting and the technical limitations of the Bitcoin blockchain.

I believe this topic should be locked when the year ends.

This thread escalated quickly into a word war between core and the big blockers. While I do support both movements and could see the advatages of both, I do like to see Segwit and then the Lightning Network be implemented first. I just think avoiding a hard fork for as long as possible as a safety measure must be the path to follow.

I am excited for 0.13.1, let's all hope everything all goes as planned and as smoothly as possible. From a speculator's standpoint, the potential for the Lightning Network is more promising and exciting for me.

I would not blame them and who could? The Bitcoin network should be used in a way that would help their business more efficient in the processing of payments and to augment it in a way that is giving them more freedom and a choice away from traditional payment processors. This is still a plus for Bitcoin.


For me this makes the gambling sites open to new markets. Everyone could already see the potential of Bitcoin. We have the dark markets to thank for that.

This is very true. At least for me I have found out the hard way that I cannot predict the price of a cryptocurrency, I cannot speak for forex. I have tried every indicator that would make sense to me like trend lines, moving averages, momentum oscillators and a bunch more of others. I have lost a lot of money trying to trade well so I have concluded that a buy and hold strategy is best for me. It is more relaxing. My first longterm crypto is ETC and I am slowly buying right now. My sights are also looking at Lisk to acquire next.

We all end up loosing in trading because our emotions get the better of us. When the prices go up very fast we tend to chase it and buy at whatever price there is available because we are fearful that the "train will leave" without us. Then to only see that a fall in price happens making our trade a losing one. So one trait that would be good to have as a trader is to be calm in the face of the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies.

Antivirus companies should start accepting Bitcoins. If you are a Windows user and installed or reinstalled the operating system, what software do you install first? It is an antivirus software. The cracked ones are very very unreliable because it could be the source of the backdoors and the virus in the first place. The free ones are great and they could get you started to secure your computer but most people would tend to go for upgrades but cannot because they have no credit card which is what is the most accepted payment method.

This is funny and it also shows their hypocrisy. The main reason why they want to regulate and "limit" cryptocurrencies is because it has the potential to make inefficient markets, that cannot be reached by your everyday legal payment networks and processors, more efficient. A prime example of this is the dark markets. If Bitcoin was not invented the darknet markets would have not been efficient because there are no reliable payment methods. The legal ones have no choice and will stay away because they might lose their business and that is where the hypocrisy comes in. If they only had a choice without risk of losing their business, those same banks and credit card companies would absolutely LOVE to be used in the darknet markets. What they only care is profit.

Another fear is these unregulated markets might develop for the buying and selling of regular items. Imagine you selling your old ipod in Open Bazaar. The trade is and payment are all direct without the banks. It is like you sold the item in person. That is very empowering and that is what the banks want to prevent us from realizing. 

Then nothing has changed. Fiat money is now truly just numbers in a computer screen like it is now in the banks' databases. They just improved the database, renamed and rebranded it as something called a "distributed database" but with the validators and the nodes controlled only by them. It is nothing new. They only made their system more efficient but it does not mean it is a good system because the banking cartel still has the power.

Bitcoin is still the system to beat and may it live for more than a hundred years.

If you are thinking of arbitrage opportunities then I suggest you take a look at Localbitcoin's prices. Sometimes you could get cheap Bitcoins over there and sometimes you could sell at a premium. This is mainly because of the low volume of some trades created there but if you are patient and motivated you could make a decent profit. Notice the regulars there who have made over 1000 trades still active thru all these years. They must be making some money.

It would be really bad for their business for sure because the would have lower revenues and profits and the service could stagnate due to a competitor taking charge of that hole in the market. But remember Visa is a centralized service, run by a few people making decisions in what direction to take their company. If you are trying to say that hitting the transaction limit is bad for Bitcoin, it is not. It may be bad for the price or bad for the growth if its user base but this also should be seen as an opportunity on how to improve the technology. Let us all wait for LN and see how that comes out.

That is a lot of ICO's. I am wondering how do you study each of these ICO's and know that they will return a profit? For me personally I think it is very dangerous because we do not know what will happen and if the team behind each of them will run away with the money. Also from my research most of the ICO's are scams. After 1 year or 2 years the developers leave the project with a profit by dumping their coins in the exchange.

So in each of those ICO's what makes them a good investment for you? Do you think all of them will gain traction and adoption in the future?

How can Segwit be implemented when it needs 95% of the miners to reach consensus? The last time I checked Core has 85% of the miners while Bitcoin Unlimited is with 15%. I believe it is gathering some momentum for now but we'll see what will happen in the coming months. I personally would like to see Segwit and then the Lightning Network because the potential for LN as a layer and a bridge to other blockchains is a very exciting prospective use case.

Getting a bit carried away and also a little bit extreme there, aren't we? The importance of Bitcoin is it has shown us a glimpse of what will be a few decades from now. Do I believe Bitcoin will be the main cryptocurrency in that future? No, I believe not. But it is the experiment that has preceded the open and decentralized payment network in the future. We have witnessed a breakthrough and "Bitcoin is our tour de force" according to Bill Gates. May it continue for as long as it takes for people to be shown the right way forward not only in finance but also in the power of decentralization as well.

Yes I just did that and I am reading thru your members page. https://www.bitcoinunlimited.info/members

I have no idea who these people are and I hope they are all qualified to develop and bring Bitcoin forward for the sake of the whole cryptocurrency community. We do not want to look like a group of inept people in a community full of infighting, mudslinging and fudding for lack of a better word. That will not bring Bitcoin in a good light and will not make it attractive in the mainstream's view.