2014 is going to be a GOOD year for bitcoin they said...

[Mayuyu48]

hope BTC price stable and increase (slowly)

It should be pointed out (yet again) that saying the fraud/theft involved $500 million worth of bitcoins is rather meaningless, since it presumes to value every single lost/stolen bitcoin as worth the last trade price... whereas of course such a large amount of bitcoins could not have been sold at market value without significantly crashing that market value before even a small proportion had been sold.

And, as drrussellshane didn't quite say loudly enough,

if you aren't the sole holder of your own bitcoin (private keys) then you don't own any.

Being your own bank has its ups and downs buddy.  Having all your money in your house which could:

A.  Burn down.
B.  Be robbed.  If you had a lot of BTC then you might see family held hostage for ransom.
C.  Your toddlers could destroy paper wallets worth thousands experimenting with the shredder.
D.  Always being leery about using your computer with the QT funds for internet surfing.
E.  Using Hive, or Multibit?  Then read, new virus steals either wallet.  Then running home from work to move all funds.  Lotsa worry.

It could be a bit of a hassle, generating/hiding all these paper wallets, usb backups, updating them all with every change.

wow i just know any virus steal from multibit
try googling it
thanks

[V4Vendettas]

I guess I got my hopes up. So much drama and we're only in March! Although I still have full confidence in bitcoins future, I can't help but think the publics perception of bitcoin has been damaged a lot recently. Lot's of thefts/fraud/possible criminal activity being reported, of course that's all the media report on anyway. But damn, when do you ever hear of a 500 MILLION DOLLAR THEFT in the real world? Blows my mind! This has affected a lot of bitcoin users too. I for one lost all but 2btc of my holdings thanks to mtgox (and 50btc). Not only did I lose a fair amount of confidence but I am also no longer a strong holder of coins anymore. With no fiat to buy back in again I just feel like an outsider looking into the bitcoin world. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I wonder what drama will unfold next...

(No FUD intended)

All these are not problems with bitcoin itself!!!!

Yea I know that and I'm sure the OP knows that still we are both as he said outsiders looking in now.

The little I have left I was going to get some mining gear but for the life of me I'm finding it hard to find some that's not vaporware/preorder/outright scam.

oh pls..... i can have sympathy for the OP, but you...? nah....

You lost money because of greed. The sooner you admit it the faster you can move on.

You were the one thats fcking wiring money into MtGox hoping to buy cheap coins....(after they stopped btc withdrawal) despite many warnings on here. Stop who gives a shit about your lost now?

Lolz not after sympathy was my own fault for trusting anyone but myself and yes I traded my way up from £1000 to 73 goxcoins because I wanted to have some money and ( yea it paid for me to live too) call that greed sure I suppose it was. That was my job and I can tell you its kinda hard work day trading if your a noob with no trading experience like me.
Only thing i ever sent to gox was 2 years ago I was not one of those wiring in money looking for more cheep gox coins.  I already had more gox coins than I wanted. So kindly fuck right off I'm moving on and trying to get back into bitcoin.

[DrBitcoin]

We need more charitable stories.  Like the Dogecoin bobsled story.

More stories like this:

"Learn how Bitcoin donations helped one lucky family fulfill their dying teenage daughter's last wish!"
"Thanks to Bitcoin, a local mom and pop store were able to stop Walmart from taking away their business an closing their doors"
"Thanks to crowd-funded Bitcoin donations, a former meth addict was able to fix his teeth, and is starting his first day at his new job"

Bitcoin is amazing...but it has a public perception problem.  The Bitcoin foundation should hire a PR firm to right the ship.

[Predatorian]

We need more charitable stories.  Like the Dogecoin bobsled story.

More stories like this:

"Learn how Bitcoin donations helped one lucky family fulfill their dying teenage daughter's last wish!"
"Thanks to Bitcoin, a local mom and pop store were able to stop Walmart from taking away their business an closing their doors"
"Thanks to crowd-funded Bitcoin donations, a former meth addict was able to fix his teeth, and is starting his first day at his new job"

Bitcoin is amazing...but it has a public perception problem.  The Bitcoin foundation should hire a PR firm to right the ship.

good point, i'm sure btc will be more famous and in value in future cuz it's just great thing.

[fcmatt]

Are we to judge bitcoin based on its price at the exchange or how often it is used to pay for services and goods?

Seems to me a lot of us, myself included, judge it based on price and that may be why we become negative in our way of thinking. Perhaps it is time to start using our bitcoins instead of hoarding them. Even if that means selling for fiat and doing something with the money if you cannot find something to buy directly with bitcoins...

[bountygiver]

Being your own bank has its ups and downs buddy.  Having all your money in your house which could:

A.  Burn down.
B.  Be robbed.  If you had a lot of BTC then you might see family held hostage for ransom.
C.  Your toddlers could destroy paper wallets worth thousands experimenting with the shredder.
D.  Always being leery about using your computer with the QT funds for internet surfing.
E.  Using Hive, or Multibit?  Then read, new virus steals either wallet.  Then running home from work to move all funds.  Lotsa worry.

It could be a bit of a hassle, generating/hiding all these paper wallets, usb backups, updating them all with every change.

Being your own bank has its ups, if you:
A. Take backups.
B. Use encryption.
C. Take backups.
D. Don't be stupid.
E. Use cold storage/Don't use Windows.

for E, just cold storage, changing OS is not a smart move.
If enough people uses Linux thinking it is safe from virus attacks, hackers will move the focus to develop Linux virus instead.
Remember the only reason windows has more virus is that there are more users. period.

[V4Vendettas]

We need more charitable stories.  Like the Dogecoin bobsled story.

More stories like this:

"Learn how Bitcoin donations helped one lucky family fulfill their dying teenage daughter's last wish!"
"Thanks to Bitcoin, a local mom and pop store were able to stop Walmart from taking away their business an closing their doors"
"Thanks to crowd-funded Bitcoin donations, a former meth addict was able to fix his teeth, and is starting his first day at his new job"

Bitcoin is amazing...but it has a public perception problem.  The Bitcoin foundation should hire a PR firm to right the ship.

Don't forget the more bitcoin survives the tougher it looks and/or is.

I have a few friends who heard about bitcoin a few years ago come to me recently and say wtf that bitcoin stuffs still around? Wait didn't gox kill it all ? Didn't it like crash already?

I just say yea it crashed a few times since you last looked hey take a look at the numbers for your self.

They mostly then say wtf its worth that much now ?  Fuuuuu I could have got in when it was £2... but I don't get it after all this bad stuff has happened why is it not close to zero if its all over.


I do agree tho some cat getting urgent heart surgery funded by bitcoins or other news might be nice once in a while.

[Operatr]

I'd say 2014 is starting out pretty great:

The market price is about the poorest indicator of Bitcoin's health. Yes it took a dive, but mostly because of Mt.Gox, again. Now they are finally dead and we can all move on, it's only a matter of time before bullish sentiment returns to pre-Goxxing levels. Distributed exchanges will debut this year to displace the private exchange issue once and for all, circumventing FinCEN and other financial regulators with it.

These are all tests of Bitcoin's resilience, and it keeps coming back stronger than it was before as the holes are exposed and plugged.

Overall though, we are seeing 1000's of new businesses entering the fray from small to large, tons of development work on the protocol itself and surrounding technologies. Mining itself is a multi-million dollar industry in of itself now.

Beyond Bitcoin, we're seeing 100s of new currencies coming out of varying merit, and a lot of dev work there too. This is all bigger than just Bitcoin, this is the emergent birth of an entirely new kind of economy.

We're at "Internet in 1990" stage with all of this, just give it some time to mature, and watch the entire world change around it into something much better.

[freebit13]

We need more charitable stories.  Like the Dogecoin bobsled story.

More stories like this:

"Learn how Bitcoin donations helped one lucky family fulfill their dying teenage daughter's last wish!"
"Thanks to Bitcoin, a local mom and pop store were able to stop Walmart from taking away their business an closing their doors"
"Thanks to crowd-funded Bitcoin donations, a former meth addict was able to fix his teeth, and is starting his first day at his new job"

Bitcoin is amazing...but it has a public perception problem.  The Bitcoin foundation should hire a PR firm to right the ship.

How about "Thanks to bitcoin and no thanks to Newsweek, Dorian Nakamoto is now a millionaire" 

[Kazimir]

Remember how 2013 seemed total crap in April?

[cr1776]

... But damn, when do you ever hear of a 500 MILLION DOLLAR THEFT in the real world? Blows my mind!

This has affected a lot of bitcoin users too. I for one lost all but 2btc of my holdings thanks to mtgox (and 50btc). Not only did I lose a fair amount of confidence but I am also no longer a strong holder of coins anymore. With no fiat to buy back in again I just feel like an outsider looking into the bitcoin world. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

1. Usually you don't hear about $500 million nationally or around the world.  Usually it takes a lot more.  Madoff took $18-65 Billion.  Banks take billions in bailouts.

2. You lost confidence?  In what, your ability to protect your coins with a non-exchange wallet?  Losing confidence in bitcoin is like saying you lost confidence in the Euro because the convenience store was robbed.

No one likes the fact that Mt Gox was either incompetent or criminal, but with the Euro/Dollar/Yen/Yuan, you KNOW that every year someone is going to be stealing money from you via inflation, bail-outs, and bail-ins.  At least with bitcoin, you have the ability to protect yourself - provided you don't use an exchange as a bank.

Remember: if you don't have the private keys, you don't own bitcoin, you have an IOU from someone else.

:-)

Sorry you got gox'd

[Beliathon]

It is unfortunate that you got Goxxed, but it would be downright shameful to let your one-time mistake of trusting a dishonest exchange turn you away from the most trustworthy financial tool ever created.

This. If you got GOX'd, it's your own fault for not paying attention. The red flags were visible since summer 2013.

[Lauda]

Being your own bank has its ups and downs buddy.  Having all your money in your house which could:

A.  Burn down.
B.  Be robbed.  If you had a lot of BTC then you might see family held hostage for ransom.
C.  Your toddlers could destroy paper wallets worth thousands experimenting with the shredder.
D.  Always being leery about using your computer with the QT funds for internet surfing.
E.  Using Hive, or Multibit?  Then read, new virus steals either wallet.  Then running home from work to move all funds.  Lotsa worry.

It could be a bit of a hassle, generating/hiding all these paper wallets, usb backups, updating them all with every change.

B doesn't apply to BTC, it applies to every currency.
C no. If you leave it laying around just about anywhere, there is no point in making them.
E no.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

One large positive event could send bitcoin skyrocketing.. The public believe what ever they are told.  It's very possible a game is going on right now to drive the price low to open buying chances for the top %.  Then they release news such as the states will allow all bitcoin transactions, no regulation, just want tax on things bought with bitcoin.  I am just speculating but that's what I would be doing if I was in the top .001%.

There is a positive event in the works: Jimmy Wales may be buying BTC now, getting in position to have Wikipedia accept bitcoin donations. Via testing the waters, he personally garnered $12K+ of BTC, of which he said will be donated to Wikipedia after being converted back to fiat.

In fact, it's not a stretch to envision a myriad of millionaires buying bitcoins now to easily earn at least a million dollars profit this year, some of which probably not paying taxes on their windfall due to creative accounting practices, read omission.

[AT101ET]

They said that about 2013 as well.
In January it was at around $40 and by December it had reached $1100.
Be patient. Good things come to those who wait.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I only know one person that can predict the future   and he says bitcoin is for fools.

Jesus Christ, you back again.  

[BitCoinsLOL]

if you aren't the sole holder of your own bitcoin (private keys) then you don't own any.

Lets just make this saying a sticky at the top of BitCoin Discussion. Sorry to hear your one the many who's funds were stolen by MtGox.

[jayson001]

let's pray the btc go up to 10K!

[Dalmar]

I made quite a bit of money shorting bitcoin frequently throughout most of Q1 of 2014. Not complaining.

[Lauda]

I only know one person that can predict the future   and he says bitcoin is for fools.

Jesus Christ, you back again.  

There are many of him.