(12-13-2016 06:06 PM)SunW Wrote:  

(10-26-2016 02:38 PM)SunW Wrote:  

(08-04-2016 09:14 AM)SunW Wrote:  

(08-03-2016 08:36 AM)SunW Wrote:  Bought 20 @ 521. Ridin the wave

Got 1000 ether at $8. My guess is year end, bitcoin will be 900+ and ether 25+.

Only 230 more to go for btc and 14 for ether with 2 months left.

Fuck, I was wrong about ether. Got some more @ $6 tho. I think I'll be right about btc at year end.

(12-22-2016 03:10 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  Don't many of us wished we would have picked up more coins through most of 2015 in the $200s?

Been a good year. Last two years gave us good times to buy!

Thanks JJG.

Edit: was at first skeptical of the rally but now buying in more.

Already hit $900.

Just skimmed a bit off my BTC holdings into USD to lock in some profits, which will pay my rent for the next 2-3 months.

Will buy more at the next dip.

(12-22-2016 11:11 PM)Seth_Rose Wrote:  Thanks JJG.

Edit: was at first skeptical of the rally but now buying in more.

These rallies are quite amazing, difficult to sleep, and we can never know for sure how much legs they got.

I really did not think that we were going to get past the upper $800s without a decent sized correction, yet there seems to be a considerable amount of passion and a certain level of large buys at the top of various sticking points that allows for additional confidence concerning the amount of legs in this rally.

Nonetheless, the overall BTCV trade volume is not really high (at least not on a weekly basis - even though it is kind of picking up in the past couple of days.. but that is not really showing up on the weekly volume charts, yet.. .

good luck to anyone buying on the way up.. .. and this time, it could be a decent play... I'm not sure.

Actually, I made a few local bitcoin's trades today .. several folks reaching out, and I made some mistakes on my calculations of all the trades that I did around the same time..... and as a result I had not bought back enough.... and I was contemplating what to do... and as the price was teetering in the $890.. I said fuck it, and I bought another bitcoin to lock in my sale and to correct the calculation error that I had made in order that I had not oversold and sufficiently bought back in.... so yeah, even though the price might drop back down, I locked in a portion of one of the sales and bought back in the $890s...

(12-22-2016 11:35 PM)CleanSlate Wrote:  Already hit $900.

Just skimmed a bit off my BTC holdings into USD to lock in some profits, which will pay my rent for the next 2-3 months.

Will buy more at the next dip.

next dip...


could be. hahahahaha


And seems like it almost has to happen... but who knows?


When these rallies are going on, sometimes, it seems as if the price is never going to dip.. or at least a dip is waaaaaaaay into the future.

Those of you using Coinbase to buy your BTC, have you had any problems selling them off recently?

The sell button sometimes doesn't load or show up on IE, but normally works on Chrome. I haven't actually tried to sell it completely though.

MatterMark has a decent perspective on bitcoin.. and difficulties in attempting to figure out bitcoin's value in relation to other enterprises (comparing the value of twitter).

https://mattermark.com/bitcoin-tests-new...lue-highs/

(12-23-2016 01:12 AM)Mr. Scumbag Wrote:  Those of you using Coinbase to buy your BTC, have you had any problems selling them off recently?

The sell button sometimes doesn't load or show up on IE, but normally works on Chrome. I haven't actually tried to sell it completely though.

It is probably good to go through a few practice runs, and even selling smaller quantities in order to be sure that you are operating the system in the right way, when push comes to shove (or if you feel a desire to sell quickly during a peak).

Also, it can be good to have many options, because exchanges can go down at any time and you may want to take advantage of a peak or to get in or out quickly during some volatility period (hopefully before others).

I used Coinbase a lot when I first started in bitcoin because they were one of the best options available, then, to onboard into bitcoin. I don't use coinbase too much these days, but I recall when I heard about the bitfinex hack, I sold 10 coins on Circle, and then after the price dropped by more than $100, I made several attempts to buy back on Coinbase, and it took me about 10 minutes to get my transaction to go through (and the price had moved from about $480 to $507)... Anyhow, sometimes it is not easy to have a variety of options to either buy or sell your bitcoins, but I do recommend that you attempt to keep a few options open to you and then practice using them in order that if you want to sell or convert a part of your coins, quickly, you are able to do that through one or more of your available options.

I found the below-linked article to be worthy of a post, even though it seemed to be published yesterday but probably written two days earlier.


https://fee.org/articles/at-new-highs-bi...n-asset/#0

The article mentioned that Bitcoin prices had met a price of nearly $890; however, if we were watching the prices, we know that it reached $920 on several western exchanges. Furthermore, if anyone looked at the M1 ranking, you would have seen that bitcoin reached at least number 68 at one point, which is also a pretty impressive measurement.

Here's a decent and brief status snapshot article:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/another-1...-the-rally

Here's a good article for guys who are considering various ways to become more private with some of their crypto transactions.


https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-hea...currencies

For those guys who may be more visual in their preferences, here is a short little bitcoin discussion clip from CNBC - about 5 minutes from a couple of days ago.



http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000578893&play=1

Here's an interesting thread about BTC trading.

Don't do it... hahahhahahaha

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comment...s_my_drug/

I think that another point is to not get greedy.

You can buy on the way down and sell on the way up, but you should only sell small portions of your holdings, unless you really have some strong insight to the price direction and a decent size correction that will be taking place.

Also if you sell a little bit in increments all the way up, then you can buy back using money that you acquired through sales.. and be prepared to leave that money on the table in the event that the price of bitcoin keeps going up.

So for example, if you hold 10 bitcoin's and the price goes up $10, you have $100 profits, I trade profits and not principle and I actually trade only about 30% of my profits (and mostly, much less)

Here's a "cute" little animation of the feeling of a rollercoaster ride within bitcoin.


https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comment..._this_guy/

It is great how creative some folks can get in helping to illustrate life experiences.

I got into Bitcoin last year after reading two books in quick succession, one detailing new and emerging technologies, and the other strictly covering the rise of Bitcoin.

What sold me on the latter was actually a section in the former which introduced the Gartner Hype Cycle. I mentioned it in one of my first posts in this thread, back in January of this year:

(01-22-2016 10:08 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  The Gartner Hype Cycle describes the visibility and adoption of a new technology over time:

Quote:1. Technology Trigger: A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.

2. Peak of Inflated Expectations: Early publicity produces a number of success stories—often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; most don't.

3. Trough of Disillusionment: Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.

4. Slope of Enlightenment: More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallize and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.

5. Plateau of Productivity: Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off.

Here's the Hype Cycle in visual form:



And here is the price of Bitcoin in USD, 2009-present:



There have been quite a few reasons put forth as to why Bitcoin has done so well this year, including the Halving, Brexit, China's devaluation of the yuan, Trump's shock victory in the U.S., Venezuelan collapse and resulting hyperinflation, Eurozone destabilization, demonetization in India, and general worldwide economic FUD.

But regardless of the reason(s) that Bitcoin has been doing so well, I think it is safe to say that my theory has held up. Bitcoin has broken free of its trough and shows no signs of stopping.

So having had a year to test my theory and immerse myself in the world of Bitcoin, here are my thoughts going forward into 2017:

1. If my Hype Cycle theory is correct, buying ASAP and HODLing is the only logical investment strategy.

I did very well this year by buying the bulk of my coins in February, shortly after the Hearn letter dropped the price back below $400. The guys I know who dollar cost averaged still did well this year, but wish they had bought earlier. The guys I talked to that never bought are kicking themselves.

Many say they want to get in, but are hesitant to buy at recent highs. I think part of this timidity is due to Bitcoin's price history: folks look at the 2013 spike and subsequent crash and are scared off by what looks like a similar bull run here at the end of 2016.

They don't understand the history behind the technology; they don't follow the drivers behind its growth; and they don't take that data into account when viewing Bitcoin's price history chart. To them, Bitcoin goes up, it goes down, it goes up again...so hey, who's to say it's not going to go down again?

I, meanwhile, look at the past year and see my theory playing out exactly as I predicted. Bitcoin is following a very predictable and logical pattern, and all available evidence suggests that the price will continue to rise exponentially.

So for the newcomers: don't be afraid to buy at the top. If anything, the high price should serve as a reminder that the market values this instrument right now more than at any time in the past three years.

2. Bitcoin will not break through to mainstream consumers, but instead will grow primarily by providing a reliable and appreciating store of value.

No soccer mom or sorority slut will be buying their pumpkin spice Starbucks sugar bomb with Bitcoin any time soon. The technical infrastructure isn't there, and the price is still too volatile for mainstream adoption. The Bitfinex hack and old media talking head fearmongering haven't helped either (my grandparents don't know what Bitcoin is, but they do know a bunch of people lost money because of it).

That's not to say it won't happen EVER-but I doubt it will take place in the next few years. Instead, Bitcoin will grow by providing a safe haven for billions of people whose governments continue to mistreat their currencies or restrict traditional avenues of capital flow.

Gresham's Law states that "bad money drives out good." If you're a middle-class worker in Venezuela that gets paid in rapidly depreciating bolivars, you're not going to store them under the mattress. You're going to trade them as soon as possible for something that WON'T lose half its value by next week: food, medicine, gold, Bitcoin. And you'll hold onto those items for as long as possible before you're forced to used them.

This disincentive to sell, combined with Bitcoin's ongoing appreciation and recent supply restriction due to the halving, ensures that demand will continue to outpace supply and thus its price will continue to rise.

I expect $1,000 to serve as the next psychological price barrier, and then the one to follow will be the price of gold. Once a coin is worth more than an ounce of gold, the media will make a huge deal about it (I imagine we'll hear the phrase "Gold 2.0" tossed about quite a bit) and investors (especially those who had been buying paper gold instead of the real thing) who suddenly find themselves contemplating an upgrade from their usual shift into the safe haven asset.

3. The next "big thing" in Bitcoin will be applications (products and services) built on top of the bitcoin protocol.

JJG linked an article a few posts back that highlight's Bitcoin's value as a protocol, similar to TCP/IP or HTTP:

Quote:When a token appreciates in value, it draws the attention of early speculators, developers and entrepreneurs. They become stakeholders in the protocol itself and are financially invested in its success.

Then some of these early adopters, perhaps financed in part by the profits of getting in at the start, build products and services around the protocol, recognizing that its success would further increase the value of their tokens. Then some of these become successful and bring in new users to the network and perhaps VCs and other kinds of investors.

This further increases the value of the tokens, which draws more attention from more entrepreneurs, which leads to more applications, and so on.

As these applications grow in popularity, the users they draw in will increase demand for the bitcoin tokens upon which they're based (think carnival attendees buying tickets to use on various attractions). Meanwhile, Gresham's Law and the continued appreciation of the currency ensure the majority of stakeholders are unlikely to sell, constraining the supply.

The result will be a positive feedback loop, where a continued increase in price will incentivize additional entrepreneurs to create more products and services which will further increase demand and drive the cycle anew.

4. Thefts and hacks will increase in proportion to the rise in price.

The more valuable bitcoin becomes, the bigger the target on its back. Personal responsibility will be paramount, as users will increasingly move away from exchanges and hot wallets to secure storage at a personal level.

I am still on vacation visiting family, but when I get home at the end of this week the first thing I plan on doing is familiarizing myself with paper wallets, in order to move my coins out of Circle and Coinbase and into my own hands. I'll post a data sheet once I feel comfortable enough with what I'm doing to share with others, although there are plenty of resources available online for those who feel like doing a little Googling.

...

All right, that's enough for now. It's been a great year for Bitcoin, and hopefully 2017 continues that momentum and then some.

I look forward to hearing what you all have to say about both my predictions as well as the crazy year we've had so far.

And if there are any newbies out there who would like to get into Bitcoin and just don't know where to start, feel free to shoot me a PM and I'll have you addicted in no time.

^ that's it. Finally someone who gets it.

Hey Isaac,

Thanks for your very detailed and insightful post.

I do think that each of us, who are paying attention to bitcoin or even those who are first learning about bitcoin, are subject to a lot of learning potential and even tweaking our ideas as we go along with applying our experiences to the whole situation of bitcoin.. and its many applications and potential use cases.

Overall I agree with a lot of the various points that you are making.

Sure, in some areas, my perspective varies a bit, so I believe that it can be useful to point out some of the variances.

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  I got into Bitcoin last year after reading two books in quick succession, one detailing new and emerging technologies, and the other strictly covering the rise of Bitcoin.

The second resource looks pretty cool.

I am wondering if you have either a link and/or a name to the first book that you had read?

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  What sold me on the latter was actually a section in the former which introduced the Gartner Hype Cycle. I mentioned it in one of my first posts in this thread, back in January of this year:

(01-22-2016 10:08 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  The Gartner Hype Cycle describes the visibility and adoption of a new technology over time:

Quote:1. Technology Trigger: A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.

2. Peak of Inflated Expectations: Early publicity produces a number of success stories—often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; most don't.

3. Trough of Disillusionment: Interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.

4. Slope of Enlightenment: More instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallize and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious.

5. Plateau of Productivity: Mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off.

Here's the Hype Cycle in visual form:



And here is the price of Bitcoin in USD, 2009-present:

Definitely bears repeating, and I am thinking that the whole concept may also have varying generational components.

In bitcoin, for example, there have already been 5 or so bubbles between 2010 and 2013, and maybe we could assert that bitcoin went through broader phases a couple of times already (if we were to combine bubbles), but each bubble (or exponential growth phase) gets bigger as more industries take varoius stakes in bitcoin.

In that regard, I could see a bubble coming in the near future and then another one or two more bubbles coming later as more and more parts of the economy onboard, and each bubble (or growth curve) would be greater than the preceding one.

It can take a bit of time for these bubbles and growth curves to play out, yet it does seem that we may be on the cusp of having another bubble and growth curve in the near future.. maybe within the next 1 to 12 months or it could be delayed, though it seems that the odds of such exponential growth curve (and/or bubble) taking place in 2017 seem pretty decent.

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  There have been quite a few reasons put forth as to why Bitcoin has done so well this year, including the Halving, Brexit, China's devaluation of the yuan, Trump's shock victory in the U.S., Venezuelan collapse and resulting hyperinflation, Eurozone destabilization, demonetization in India, and general worldwide economic FUD.

But regardless of the reason(s) that Bitcoin has been doing so well, I think it is safe to say that my theory has held up. Bitcoin has broken free of its trough and shows no signs of stopping.

Sure. Those are great reasons for the 2016 uptrend and also great reasons to suggest that bitcoin may be on the launching pad to experience even more vertical price movement. And, as you suggest, there are other similar behaviors (and reasons) going on in other places around the planet too that seem to be causing additional adoption and additional development.

Furthermore, segwit having had gone live in November 2016 and around the corner of potential adoption will also be very good for bitcoin in a large number of ways.

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  So having had a year to test my theory and immerse myself in the world of Bitcoin, here are my thoughts going forward into 2017:

1. If my Hype Cycle theory is correct, buying ASAP and HODLing is the only logical investment strategy.

I did very well this year by buying the bulk of my coins in February, shortly after the Hearn letter dropped the price back below $400. The guys I know who dollar cost averaged still did well this year, but wish they had bought earlier. The guys I talked to that never bought are kicking themselves.

I don't think that it is necessary to compare and contrast individual bitcoin portfolio performance because each guy can kind of chose his level of investment and his strategy to suit his own situation and perspective.... but I do agree with the concept that taking at least a small stake in bitcoin would likely be good for a large number of folks, and if a guy is really timid when it comes to risk, then such a guy could just invest $10 a week or some really manageable amount instead of regretting the lack of investment down the road.

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  Many say they want to get in, but are hesitant to buy at recent highs. I think part of this timidity is due to Bitcoin's price history: folks look at the 2013 spike and subsequent crash and are scared off by what looks like a similar bull run here at the end of 2016.

This fear of getting dumped on is certainly reasonable for guys to experience.. and getting dumped on does happen, but ultimately it still seems good to attempt to take some kind of stake in bitcoin and then just work the situation for the next period of time (rather than just jumping into whatever investment balls to the walls)...

Don't get me wrong, any guy can still end up profiting nicely with a balls to the walls investment approach, but that approach seems very luck oriented and prone to stress and disaster (some guys like that, but that is not necessarily a prudent approach when it comes to finances)

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  They don't understand the history behind the technology; they don't follow the drivers behind its growth; and they don't take that data into account when viewing Bitcoin's price history chart. To them, Bitcoin goes up, it goes down, it goes up again...so hey, who's to say it's not going to go down again?

I think that those kinds of hesitancies can kind of be reasonable perspectives because it does take a real long time to attempt to figure out bitcoin and to sort through a lot of the misinformation that is out there.. and false analogies, too.

People even have tendencies to mix bitcoin up with other crypto currencies.. misleading names and all kinds of stuff… and maybe only having a small amount of capital to work with.

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  I, meanwhile, look at the past year and see my theory playing out exactly as I predicted. Bitcoin is following a very predictable and logical pattern, and all available evidence suggests that the price will continue to rise exponentially.

I agree with you that there is a lot of potential, and the upward BTC price trend is quite strong, but I really don't think that either bitcoin's current price position or its future price position is certain in any kind of way. Sure we can assert that the current price is certain because it already happened, but the position that we are in was not any kind of inevitable position for bitcoin.

I also think that whenever we approach any investment at any particular point in time, we have to prepare for price movement in either directions.

I think that it is good to prepare for longterm and ongoing upward price trends, because I agree that is where I believe bitcoin is likely to go, but there remains some chances that bitcoin could get dumped on again and again and again and that a lot of money could be spent (and lost by powers that be – banks and governments) to attempt to keep bitcoin from going up (and such attempts could be successful). There still remain a lot more ways to short bitcoin these days than there were in place in late 2013 and prior to that.

I agree that the odds of short term BTC price suppression may well be less than 50%, and maybe even lower than 30%, but such suppression possibilities are still there.

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  So for the newcomers: don't be afraid to buy at the top. If anything, the high price should serve as a reminder that the market values this instrument right now more than at any time in the past three years.

My own historical actions demonstrate that I agree with this overall idea that you can (and maybe should consider) invest at any time, and you can start to buy more slowly if you really believe that bitcoin’s price has a chance to go down. Accordingly, bitcoin remains a viable asset, and taking a stake and getting started is much better than sitting on the sidelines.

I also agree that bitcoin is in a many folds better place than it was in late 2013 (when the price was $1,200 for a short period of time and when I started buying BTC).

If a guy has $10,000 that he could invest today, and he calculates that he is going to have another $5k come available over the coming six months, he still has to decide for himself if he invests the whole $10k that he has available or creates some kind of reasonable plan that is more suitable for his perspective.

Also, I certainly don’t recommend leveraging, even though lots of guys would attempt such a thing, which may pay off handsomely, but is very risky (and I personally think not necessary in bitcoin in order to make decent money). So a guy may have access to another $10k or $20k that he could borrow, and he has to decide whether taking such risk would be prudent for his overall finances and his views of risk and up and downside possibilities.

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  2. Bitcoin will not break through to mainstream consumers, but instead will grow primarily by providing a reliable and appreciating store of value.

No soccer mom or sorority slut will be buying their pumpkin spice Starbucks sugar bomb with Bitcoin any time soon. The technical infrastructure isn't there, and the price is still too volatile for mainstream adoption. The Bitfinex hack and old media talking head fearmongering haven't helped either (my grandparents don't know what Bitcoin is, but they do know a bunch of people lost money because of it).

That's not to say it won't happen EVER-but I doubt it will take place in the next few years. Instead, Bitcoin will grow by providing a safe haven for billions of people whose governments continue to mistreat their currencies or restrict traditional avenues of capital flow.

I largely agree with these points. I also think that bitcoin is going to continue to develop more and more use cases in the short term and in the long term, so little by little there are going to be more and more use cases for bitcoin beyond mere storage of value (and those ongoing developing additional use cases complement bitcoin's storage of value functionality to bring greater value to the storage of value component of bitcoin - including a lot of the bullshit experimental and pump and dump practices of various altcoins)

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  Gresham's Law states that "bad money drives out good." If you're a middle-class worker in Venezuela that gets paid in rapidly depreciating bolivars, you're not going to store them under the mattress. You're going to trade them as soon as possible for something that WON'T lose half its value by next week: food, medicine, gold, Bitcoin. And you'll hold onto those items for as long as possible before you're forced to used them.

This disincentive to sell, combined with Bitcoin's ongoing appreciation and recent supply restriction due to the halving, ensures that demand will continue to outpace supply and thus its price will continue to rise.

EXACTAMENTE!!!!

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  I expect $1,000 to serve as the next psychological price barrier, and then the one to follow will be the price of gold.

I understand that a lot of folks get caught up on this $1,000 BTC price as a point of resistance, and I have quite a few doubts about that $1,000 being an actual resistance point.. although, BTC’s price having had gone from $600 to $920 in about three months without any meaningful correction has kind of messed up my previous working theory (in that I was thinking that we were going to have some kind of meaningful correction (somewhere in the 15% to 25% arena) in the $800s or before that price, which did not happen)...

Now, that BTC prices shot right passed those levels to $920/$930 and appearing to continue to have very decent upwards price pressures causes the $1,000 resistance theories to become a lot more plausible (because of what has happened in recent times, and not that such $1,000 price resistance points were inevitable or that they were very plausible before the unfolding of recent BTC price movement events).

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  Once a coin is worth more than an ounce of gold, the media will make a huge deal about it (I imagine we'll hear the phrase "Gold 2.0" tossed about quite a bit) and investors (especially those who had been buying paper gold instead of the real thing) who suddenly find themselves contemplating an upgrade from their usual shift into the safe haven asset.

Sure the media will say all kinds of shit, and a large number of mainstream outlets have been becoming a lot more receptive to bitcoin, the inevitability of bitcoin and even recognizing some of the upside potential of bitcoin (even though they do frequently mischaracterize and even have a frequent tendency to get in a variety of sometimes not so subtle and inaccurate digs into bitcoin here and there).

I personally don't think that gold prices are actually any kind of barrier, threshold or measuring point for bitcoin (including a resistance point); however, the previous ATH does seem to be an interesting psychological price point - but I really don't think that the previous ATH is a resistance point, but instead a likely springboard point for BTC prices to have the potential to move much higher once going past the previous ATH…..

Then, if BTC prices go sufficiently beyond the previous ATH, then that previous ATH could likely turn into a kind of support point. Sure there are a lot of different theories on how this BTC price performance might play out.

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  3. The next "big thing" in Bitcoin will be applications (products and services) built on top of the bitcoin protocol.

JJG linked an article a few posts back that highlight's Bitcoin's value as a protocol, similar to TCP/IP or HTTP:

Quote:When a token appreciates in value, it draws the attention of early speculators, developers and entrepreneurs. They become stakeholders in the protocol itself and are financially invested in its success.

Then some of these early adopters, perhaps financed in part by the profits of getting in at the start, build products and services around the protocol, recognizing that its success would further increase the value of their tokens. Then some of these become successful and bring in new users to the network and perhaps VCs and other kinds of investors.

This further increases the value of the tokens, which draws more attention from more entrepreneurs, which leads to more applications, and so on.

As these applications grow in popularity, the users they draw in will increase demand for the bitcoin tokens upon which they're based (think carnival attendees buying tickets to use on various attractions). Meanwhile, Gresham's Law and the continued appreciation of the currency ensure the majority of stakeholders are unlikely to sell, constraining the supply.

The result will be a positive feedback loop, where a continued increase in price will incentivize additional entrepreneurs to create more products and services which will further increase demand and drive the cycle anew.

Oh yeah… this development does seem to be playing out in bitcoin on an ongoing basis, and we can see investment continuing, too.

Sometimes, we also may not even recognize such development that is going on, and then bamm… the impact is felt somewhere down the road or we see some chart that compiles some of the data to show the cycle of development and adoption and development, etc etc..

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  4. Thefts and hacks will increase in proportion to the rise in price.

The more valuable bitcoin becomes, the bigger the target on its back. Personal responsibility will be paramount, as users will increasingly move away from exchanges and hot wallets to secure storage at a personal level.

I am still on vacation visiting family, but when I get home at the end of this week the first thing I plan on doing is familiarizing myself with paper wallets, in order to move my coins out of Circle and Coinbase and into my own hands. I'll post a data sheet once I feel comfortable enough with what I'm doing to share with others, although there are plenty of resources available online for those who feel like doing a little Googling.

I look forward to hearing more about that.

(12-26-2016 12:41 PM)Isaac Jordan Wrote:  ...

All right, that's enough for now. It's been a great year for Bitcoin, and hopefully 2017 continues that momentum and then some.

I look forward to hearing what you all have to say about both my predictions as well as the crazy year we've had so far.

And if there are any newbies out there who would like to get into Bitcoin and just don't know where to start, feel free to shoot me a PM and I'll have you addicted in no time.

Thanks again Isaac. You made a lot of great points, and surely bitcoin continues to be a very provocative investment with a lot of strategies that guys can apply to their personal situations and perspectives.

For me, I have always thought that bitcoin was even a better investment for RVF guys who may engage in quite a bit of travel and/or aspire to future travel.. … and that was one of my motivations to begin to look into bitcoin as a way to diversify my various investments including hedging against my various dollar based investments.

Accordingly, there are a lot of ways to either transport bitcoin value or merely to have access to bitcoin value while travelling with more and more options coming available on an ongoing basis. I think that the travel component or aspect of bitcoin should end up causing a lot of experiences for RVF guys – however, we may not know how easy or difficult BTC is usable in certain locations unless we have travelled to some of the locations and attempted to use it.

The below-linked article points out an interesting Bitcoin business partnership development in India..

http://bwdisrupt.businessworld.in/articl...16-110282/

The maps in this below link are quite amazing to highlight (and even give gradients of) places in which individuals are much more benefitted by the storage of value aspect of bitcoin.


https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comment...countries/

Seems like that we may even hit $1k before 2017. Who knows?

(12-27-2016 01:30 PM)luckskywalker Wrote:  Seems like that we may even hit $1k before 2017. Who knows?

I know... $1k is coming more and more within reasonable reach, and it is becoming possible to even happen within the next 2-24 hours.

I have had to revise my thinking several times in recent days because this most recent bull run has considerably surpassed the bullishness of my expectations of short-term upwards probable outcomes.

I'm certainly not complaining to see such bullishness playing out.

Do you have an investment in bitcoin luckskywalker?

GET YOUR COINS WHILE THEY ARE STILL WITHIN 3 DIGITS!!!!!!!!!!...



Hahahahahahaha

buy today or cry tomorrow!

$1000 by midnight!

(12-27-2016 05:39 PM)Satoshi Wrote:  buy today or cry tomorrow!

That what I am talking about!!!!!

(12-27-2016 05:40 PM)Satoshi Wrote:  $1000 by midnight!

Certainly, you have already been in this gig long enough to already understand that there are no guarantees in this bitcoin or crypto business, and frequently, we are merely talking about momentum and probabilities when it comes to BTC price predictions and expectations that may or may not materialize depending on a variety of factors (factors that are known and unknown, understood and misundertood, etc.).

So, yeah, look at the package of situations that are currently in front of us, and we could experience a flattening or a reversal of BTC prices, but currently we have very decent, strong and upward BTC price pressures and momentum that is putting $1,000 and even the ATH of $1,163 in very close proximity and having very decent odds of being tested in the coming hours or coming days.

We will see how the price momentum and pressures and trade volume plays out in the coming hours and/or in the coming days and figure out whether we need to revise our thinking based on such factors, however.. as I already mentioned, we gots ourselves some decent momentum and ongoing buying pressures at the moment...