People deposit money in bank because they need liquid cash. If you face any emergency situation, then you can quickly withdraw them. But if you convert them to Bitcoin, and suddenly the prices fall by 30%, what you are going to do? I strongly advice everyone here not to invest more than 10% of your net wealth in to Bitcoin.

It is possible only while using a third party payment processor (such as Bitpay or Coinbase). Transfer between two Coinbase accounts attracts no fees, and the transaction will be over in a few milli seconds. But then, you can't say that a particular store accepts BTC. You must say that the store accepts BitPay payments.

I agree that some of the drug dealers accept payments in Bitcoins and other form of crypto-currency such as Monero, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. But I have never heard of the mafia gangs and cartels using Bitcoins. That is because they are having far better options. Many of the mainstream banks help the mafias to launder their money.

I have Bitcoins, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Byteball, Bitsend and Litecoins in my wallet. Therefore I check the prices of all these currencies several times a day (I am not sure, may be 15 to 20 times every day). They are very important for me, as crypto consists of more than 80% of my net wealth. And none of my assets have given the sort of returns which BTC gave me.

You can't compare equities with crypto-currencies and use the past equity price change to predict the future crypto prices. The equity price is not solely dependent upon the supply-demand equilibrium. Other factors also play a part, such as the strength of the national currency, foreign relations, level of federal debt.etc. But with Bitcoins, it solely depends on demand.

As we debate about this, the exchange rates of all these currencies are at historic peaks. Bitcoin crossed the $8,500 per coin mark for the first time ever a few hours back. ETH is also back in the race and it is rising even faster than Bitcoin, with the current price at $470 per coin. Litecoin may have gone down against Bitcoin, but right now it is trading at $82 per coin, which is its highest ever exchange rate.

The basic difference is that even at current prices, Bitcoin is heavily under-valued. And stocks / real estate looks over-valued right now. Just check the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It has increased from 6,700 in 2009 to 23,600 as of now, which represents close to a four fold increase. The profits for major corporations hasn't risen by that much.

Now it seems like the economists have stopped complaining about Bitcoins. The reason is that no one is going to believe them. They were saying the same thing in June, when the exchange rates were around $2,000 per coin. But the prices have climbed by 325% during the last 4-5 months. Those who believed the words of these "ëxperts" are ruing at the lost opportunity.

Bitcoins can have positive as well as negative impact on the economy of a particular nation. The positive benefits include creation of jobs and increase in tax revenue. However, there can be negative consequences as well. If Bitcoins get too popular, then the national currency can lose its value.

To tell the truth, Bitcoin is one of the most effective tools in the hands of corrupt officials. If they accept bribes in the form of BTC, then it can be extremely difficult to trace the transactions back to that particular individual (especially if they put the coins in cold storage and refrain from converting them to fiat).

Even here in India, the exchange rates in Localbitcoins is around 10% higher than the global exchange rates. One reason may be that the demand far outstrips supply. I think that the case will just be the reverse in countries where the demand is less than the supply (I am talking about countries such as Russia and Ukraine).

You have to pay taxes on profits from Bitcoin. That means that the government recognizes Bitcoin as an asset with some value. Therefore it is illegal to hack in to someone's wallet and steal the coins. But in reality, you will be left with few options if your coins are stolen. If the hacker is from some foreign nation, then getting back your coins may be next to impossible.

Do Moroccan citizens require visa to travel to Algeria? If you are a Moroccan citizen and want to trade in Bitcoins, then a good option would be to travel to the nearby Algerian cities (such as Tlemcen or Oran) and make the purchase/sale there (if the amount is big enough). Why risk legal action in Morocco when you can do the same in Algeria?

When I first started collecting coins, this forum used to be full of threads in which users were lamenting about their coin stash getting stolen by the hackers. I still remember one user, who had BTC25,000 stolen from his wallet. If he had those coins now, then they could have been worth close to $250 million (including the price of Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold).

Don't be too sure about it. Although Bitcoin is now treated like an investment asset, if third party payment processors such as BitPay gets popular, it may be used for normal shopping and bill payments. At least in some sectors, it will be able to replace fiat cash. By fiat cash, I don't mean banknotes and coins. Rather, I was referring to PayPal/Visa.

Even at these prices, Bitcoin is under-priced, IMO. So I would advice everyone (including the noobs) to purchase at least some coins, if they can afford the risk. The future prospects looks bright, with Japan legalizing the crypto-currency and CME adding BTC futures to its list of trading pairs. I think that investing in BTC is more attractive than investing in equities or bullion as of now.

I would like to give advice to purchase as many coins as possible, but this mad rise in the exchange rate scares me. Bitcoin has risen by almost 750% so far this year, making it one of the best performing assets. And we are yet to witness any major correction. Even the China exchange ban didn't had an everlasting effect on the prices.

Be patient. If your coins are in Blockchain.info wallet, then after 2-3 months they are going to add support for BTG. You don't have to do anything. Exporting the private keys can be risky anyway. And the exchange rates are not too high to claim the coins right away. The prices have fallen by as much as 50% during the past 3-4 days.

People are holding their coins because the fundamentals are quite strong and the future potential is great. Everyone want to become rich and they are not satisfied with the current exchange rates of Bitcoin. Most of the users are waiting for prices of $50K per coin or even $100K per coin.

Don't be so sure about it. Bitcoin is facing a lot of competition from Bitcoin Cash, due to the scaling issues. A few days back, the exchange rate of BCH even reached as high as 0.4 BTC. A lot of the experts were claiming that BCH was going to overtake BTC in terms of market cap. But BTC somehow managed to survive, thanks to the reduction in the number of unconfirmed transactions.