We are waiting for news. The long flat lines are often due to no good news. Lately, there have been 4~5 good news in a row, that drove the price up. Now it's all waiting. And it's the week-end, everything is pretty stopped news-wise.
I think that when BFL confirm they start shipping ASIC though, people will anticipate difficulty rise. And, remember when Avalon was confirmed working, they had what? 1 or 2 system? Now, when the media everywhere take on the news that a few people have confirmed working BFL setup, and dozens/hundreds are expected to have the same setup in the coming days, then just watch it! Should be pretty soon now... I would say that if BFL start shipping, then expect difficulty to raise to 100M+ in a matter of weeks. Their latest status on their forum say that their first batch of ASIC are fully packaged, being tested on proto test rig. There are about to make boards pretty soon. After that, by May, I would expect difficulty to go easily 500M+
Yes, that looks impressive, but ASIC are impressive devices. When they come in mass, it will be like when GPU mining came in mass. Only difference now is that, as opposed to GPU rising age, a LOT more people are in Bitcoins now. And a LOT more people will switch to ASIC (compared to when people jumped from CPU->GPU). So the rise in difficulty WILL be much sharper.
I think that not only Bitcoins will raise to 100$, it may even hit easily much higher in the coming months.
Want to invest? I would have said that the best time was a year ago... When we were at 8$. However, now, with ASIC coming, I say the best time is NOW!!!
