At what exchange is it trading and at what volumes are we speaking about? If it is at Local Bitcoins, I would argue that all of the Bitcoins traded there are priced at a premium and that the volume there is not really that high compared to the exchanges like BTCe or Bitstamp. Chinese exchanges are also trading slightly higher than most because the Chinese traders are pumping the price. It does not necessarily mean that the ordinary people are buying Bitcoins with their savings.

They took it upon themselves to make it their job to know what their clients are doing. This is a very dangerous thing because they have the power to censor anyone and anything at the lowest level. OP, if you are speculating if Bitcoin could be "censored", the answer is leaning to no and maybe. But it would be harder for them if there are more full nodes running. Keep maintaining the node for as long as you can.

My question is are the exchanges really making enough money to make it an expansionary business? If it does not expand a new competitor can come in and get its share of the pie because they are competing in a small market. The Bitstamp pitch could mean that they are in need of new money to continue operating. There is also the hack last year to account for. Getting hacked out of $5m is still affecting them, I am sure.

It was all speculation right from the very beginning and those journalists usually end getting it wrong. Most of them are just paid to write something or say something in front of the camera that is why there is the term "talking heads". That is all they are, they have no real opinions except those from other people that are using them to say or write about it. Real journalists are a rarity these days.

I do not get why most of you think that Bitcoin will sky rocket because of the situation in India. There are some hurdles to overcome over there before they can buy Bitcoins. Do not forget that it is a third world country where most are not connected to the internet nor do they have access. Also most of the people there are poor and if they have savings, Bitcoin would be the last in their priorities.

I could maybe see Bitcoin getting valued at $10,000 but at $1m? That is far too reaching. Those "experts" are already making themselves look foolish stupid now because it is obvious that those are old clips from a year or 2 ago when Bitcoin was still being hyped by mainstream media. Now ask them again what they think now. Especially that Indian guy at the beginning.

The video is nothing but a collection of old clips of people babbling and they are not even Bitcoin experts.

It was not bullying. It was simply a sarcastic tone to get the attention of the people who keep hyping when there is nothing to hype. Also for your information it was not me who locked the thread. A moderator did. Someone must have reported the thread because that someone probably got annoyed.

But are all fiat currencies really independent of each other? The last time I checked most of the countries around the world consider the US Dollar as the reserve currency. Most of those countries hold their reserves in USD and GBP or even Euro. Once that happens a dependency will have to occur. International trade is also one way of making these currencies become dependent with each other, specifically dependency on the US Dollar.

Does everyone else have to think like you? So what if they treat Bitcoin like a "video game", whatever that means. Where is the bubble in that? If you mean it as having high hopes in the cryptocurrency then why does it matter? Bitcoin is and will be different for a lot of people. The important thing is there is growing Bitcoin awareness. If you do not think the awareness is growing then just wait until this blows up above $1000 again or maybe more. That should make the mainstream media start publishing stories about it in the news again.

Actually quantum computing technology can make blockchains stronger. Can you imagine how harder it will be to crack if quantum computing is implemented in Proof of Work? It might more so make PoW more efficient, using less power but make the cryptography part more robust. Surely there will be more positives than negatives.

This is expected and should not come as a surprise. Someone at Wall Street would sooner or later have to recognize Bitcoin as an asset that they could make money from. What I like about it is all the haters of Bitcoin will have no choice but to accept that it will be a part of society as the legitimization of the currency is shown thru the acceptance of the said ETF by more people at Wall Street. Plus points for a cryptocurrency used in the dark market and by criminals.

Does it really need to stop pricing itself in fiat? The current system is fine by me to be honest and I like the idea that I have a choice between fiat and Bitcoin. To all the people who are going for the "dream" of a world where there is only Bitcoin need to wake up. Bitcoin is only good when there is fiat and strict monetary regulations. Bitcoin is the cancer that every government and financial regulatory body has to live with. If I had my way, I would make more monetary regulations so that Bitcoin's use will be much more effective in circumventing laws. Do you know how hard it is to buy drugs online without Bitcoin?

Take of what I said as you will and see me as you will too. I do not care. It is your right and I do not judge all of you for it. The wrong thing to do is trying to discourage a person from expressing himself simply because he or she made a mistake. Get off your high horse as if you have not made a mistake yourself.

Yes Bitcoin is a giant bubble. Yes it does not have intrinsic value. But I sure can sell my Bitcoins at $750 per coin right now and that is all I care about.

The IRS has nothing on Bitcoin. But they are free to try to imprison all the Coinbase users or fine them if they were not paying taxes. Then what?

Back to bubbles. If you think it is a bubble now, you have not seen nothing yet.

Adoption of what? The mainstream? I would say that Bitcoin use is ok right now. It is funny listening to the thousands of people who are jaded because they expected Bitcoin to disrupt the banks and be in widespread use by now according to their estimations.

Bitcoin was not made for markets that are served by the banking industry. It will only be used widely in markets that are not served by the banks and markets that do not pay taxes.

Does the IRS snooping around Coinbase not bother you? I know they are there for only tax purposes but just to be safe, it would be advisable to stay away. What if the IRS finds something over there like some evidence of money laundering? That could be enough to lock down the site and have your Bitcoins trapped.

Stay away from virwox.com. That is not a good exchange for Bitcoin trading. Also stay away from Coinbase. The IRS are after them and they are demanding that they hand over the transaction records of all their customers. That is an invasion of privacy and if some users are caught evading taxes, they will be prosecuted. I believe Coinbase will also be prosecuted for being an enabler.

Bitstamp was hacked last year with $6m stolen from them. The same with Bitfinex, it was also hacked and some money was stolen. That leaves us with BTCe. The owners are anonymous but have been trustworthy so far.

I just read an article at coindesk.com entitled "What the IRS Summons Will Mean for Coinbase Users", located here.

It mentioned that (I will copy/paste below)

"The situation is reminiscent of the John Doe summons which the IRS issued in 2009 during the UBS Bank offshore banking scandal.

UBS had set up Swiss bank accounts to hide hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to US citizens. Swiss banking secrecy cracked, UBS sent a list of names to the IRS, and individuals were prosecuted.

UBS paid a fine of $780m and some Americans with UBS bank accounts paid fines in the millions and went to prison."

If the same were to happen to Coinbase then I would say they better close now or suffer the consequences if they continue on under the scrutiny of the IRS and risking the fact that Brain Armstrong and the rest could go to jail. So is this the beginning of Coinbase's demise or do they have a case to fight against the IRS?

What say me? I say they will be in for a challenge in taxing all Bitcoin users at Coinbase. That is just at Coinbase, so I cannot imagine just how insanely hard it will be to track the users of Bitcoin in all of the US. It will be a stupidly futile attempt to collect taxes from Bitcoiners. What they will end up doing is do what the US government does best, and that is fear mongering.

I would love to see them try taxing the Bitcoin dark market users. That is where the real money is.

As I mentioned before, please take what I say with a grain of salt. I will not refrain form "prophesying" because what you call "prophesying" is just speculation after all. This IS the speculation board of the whole forum, is it not? I am not afraid of losing face because I am not an expert and I have never claimed to be one. So take my "prophecies" as you will or just ignore them altogether. But that will not stop me from expressing myself.