We like it because we can actually use it without going through shady middlemen (who sometimes disappear with the money).

It depends if these people can have access to something like USD. BTC price will stabilize as it grows and there becomes incentives for legitimate financial instruments to come into play, laws become more clear, etc... I don't expect people to hold Bitcoin unless things grow and stabilize. The exception is if their alternative is even worse. Say something like Argentine Pesos or in an extreme case Zimbabwe dollars. The swings Bitcoin have had are still nothing compared to those currencies.

Paypal has nasty fees for this type of thing, other than paying your friends. Why wouldn't they pay in fiat? Because it's too costly.

When have *I* ever suggested world currency or that Mt. Gox won't happen again? I don't trust the exchanges out there now. I cautiously trust places like Coinbase and Circle, but still only keep minimal funds there.

I still believe the biggest use of bitcoin will be a decentralized stock market based on the bitcoin protocol without changing much code. PPcoin is my favorite coin because they put a high transaction fee $.02 as result you don't need multibit or electrum, you can just download the entire chain. Using the bitcoin protocol and crowdfunding you can create a coin called say moonbase. The goal of this coin is to put a base on the moon. Thus the coin is funded via ipo of 1 btc for 1 mbc. The stock will have high transaction fee like .01. All profits only need to delete mbc and it is the exact same thing as issuing a dividend. The name of the game is deletion. Most of these alt coins are foolishly based of Keynesism/Krugclown. The idea that you need to print to improve or secure the coin. Fortunately bitcoin only really has only 2 more years of inflation. Thus you can buy a stock on the NYSE for $5 or buy a MBC for $.05. MBC foundation would operate as a non-profit a separate entity in no way affiliated with MBC. Their sole purpose would be to make money off the moon and delete MBC. The bitcoin would be considered the currency and MBC the stock. Thus anyone could be an investment banker and start a stock.

Much of the poor performance of the economy (other than government) over the last 20 years, is that the stock market is controlled by the elite. Due to private equity scams and insider deals of large shareholders the number of stocks on the exchanges has dropped from over 40,000 in the 1970s to about 3,500 on the Wilshire 5,000.

IMO the major use case for Bitcoin in regards to gambling isn't its anonymity (regulated gambling won't go for that) it's the savings in processing costs it will bring to operators. I see operators offering bigger bonuses to incentivize people to deposit using BTC.

I think alongside the ETF launch, the major regulated gambling sites starting to accept BTC will be a catalyst for the next price increase.

I'm a little surprised this tweet hasn't been commented on more:

@GoCoin: GSC Isle of Man publicly "Green Lights" GoCoin to take #Bitcoin for their licensed #igaming operators #iomcryptovalley

Does that not mean what I think it does ?

Doesn't coinbase offer multisig now ?

• Projects have already raised millions with crypto IPOs.
• It will be much easier for people to buy crypto security than WallStreet funds once the right infrastructure/software is in place.
• It costs a small fortune to launch on Wallstreet. Small companies will be able to crowdfund by selling cryptoassets.
• The CEO of Overstock believes the whole Wallstreet system to be hopelessly corrupt so he won't do it there.
• Reddit want their users to share in 10% of their shares, which is possible with crypto assets.

Just a small note on the last point. I think Reddit wants to initiate the value of their security with 10% of a $50,000,000 funding round at a $500,000,000 valuation. The $5,000,000 in Reddit equity that would theoretically be distributed to community members would be about 1% of Reddit's total valuation.

I haven't followed super close, but you don't even control your keys at Coinbase. If anything, they might support sending to multisig. But I haven't been super close in here.

I think multi sig makes it that you're in control of your keys

Sorry looks like it's only an api for now : http://blog.coinbase.com/post/979297...g-accounts-api

Only problem with this explanation is that the biggest runup came from the chinese exchanges with gox following with a significant lag. Gox prevented this bubble from bursting sooner by intruducing fake coins and money but it did not create the bubble.

The last couple pages have been insightful, appreciate all the analysis.

My understanding is that the "wash rule" does not apply to bitcoin, does anyone know if this is correct as of now? I am a long term holder of bitcoin and am not particularly concerned if short-term outlook is poor but I don't see any downside to selling in order to lock in a capital loss and then buying back whenever I want... thoughts?

Hoping Counterparty (XCP) gets the nod on at least one of those projects. I think it's one of the leading contenders at the very least.

Overstock is basically 100% happening on Counterparty with the announcement coming this Monday. After the announcement and a successful rollout of whatever they have planned, Counterparty will very likely get Reddit as well, if they go with something on Btcoin's blockchain.

Heritage Sports has joined 5Dimes to become the second major offshore sportsbook to accept bitcoin (both in 'beta').

Can you also cash out in bitcoin?

nobody in here trades btc? i closed out my short at 366, was too tired to monitor my futures, slept, now sitting on the sidelines wishing i was still short as we just broke 350

They are always related because there is arbitrage opportunities. Sure, China was a part of the run-up, maybe even the catalyst to starting it. Look at the assets of Gox compared to what they thought they had. This clearly happened in some form, just a matter of how the price changed from many different forces. The China part likely was out of the price after the first crash.

AFAIK, Coinbase controls all your keys and you never see them. They pool all funds together as well. Would be nice if they switched to a better model.

Yes, if you used it to deposit (subject to availability). This is identical to 5Dimes.

i've been trading since 2011, but never on leverage. ive been buying all the panic dips since early this year. sold some when we went back to ride the 200MA and now buying again. i still have enough fiat to catch a few more waves down. just trying to be patient. holding tight. taking abuse from my friends.

Seems like everyone thinks it's gonna keep trending downward in the short term which is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The bulls are even dumping to buy back once it "bottoms out", causing a bigger dump. Gonna be interesting to see what triggers a stabilization. I don't want to try to time this, just acquiring with time.

Agree with this. I've been buying all the way down but I just don't see what is going to stop the sell off anytime soon. It seems like using btc for solving some "real" problem (ie something that significantly impacts people who aren't already aware of btc) is a long way away.

I have also had thoughts of selling now and trying to get back in lower but my track record with trying to predict the future isn't so hot! However if I'm thinking it, others probably are too and that snowball effect combined with no clear reversal catalyst is quite worrisome indeed.

Bought more at $335 from Circle. Just a bit of probably worthless commentary, but I do find sentiment to have turned negative over the last week or so which usually is when Bitcoin does the opposite. I think we're near the bottom but who knows.

New Counterparty site is live: http://****************/

i signed up/made a wallet and played around. very cool.

a question on the value proposition (if thats even the correct term). XCP has a value, and the assets its hosting have a value. they are intrinsically tied at the time of transaction/purchase of the asset. IE, the asset has a value in BTC or USD and you pay with XCP at the time. However, the value of XCP is also an independent asset is it not? i guess my question is, do people speculate on XCP and is there likely to be volatility in the XCP/BTC price such that it affects holding the overlaying asset?