Bitcoin doesn't seem to be going away. Many people seemed to think that the pump and dump earlier this year would be the stake through the heart of Bitcoin, but here we are half a year later reaching new highs.
Yes is is relatively volatile. Yes there is an upward trend. Both statements are true and not mutually exclusive.
The question that interests me is what is the trend in purchases using Bitcoin? This would surely be the key pointer as to where Bitcoin may be headed.
Also, I liked Liam Halligan's article in the DT and
I thought it was a fair summation for the uninitiated:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...-laugh-Bitcoin-is-making-a-serious-point.html
An interesting development:
That is typical of much reporting "for the uninitiated" which is actually "by the uninitiated". As you quote:
That said, it represents a remarkable conceptual and technical achievement, which may well be used by existing financial institutions (which could issue their own Bitcoins) or even by governments themselves”.
No, the banks or the governments could not issue their own bitcoins. There is no "issuing". There is only the discovery of the bitcoins from the latest additions to the blockchains.
If it is presumed that the author means to say that banks or governments themselves would create a similar system to bitcoin, that fails the test of logical understanding of the bitoin algorithm. It is a system that does away with 'trust' and thus with 'trusted intermediaries'. Those include banks and governments. They will not create a system that does away with themselves.
Can I ask where you would keep them? Not trying to be clever, just genuinely curious what is considered a safe way to store your life savings.
This is a question that can be reduced to where would one put a 31 digit and a 50s some digit number where they would be safe. A piece of paper? Engrave them on a piece of stainless steel? Put that in a safe deposit box? It is a simple question with a simple answer.
One method is to use a self booting linux usb with the blockchain and the bitcoin program resident. But storing and managing the blockchain is not required to simply have bitcoins and store them safely. It is in fact, unrelated and possibly not safe. This is because a bitcoin wallet may not expose the private keys to the owner of the wallet. Thus if the wallet is corrupted, the owner never knew his own private keys. If on the contrary he printed them out on a piece of paper, then he has them on hard copy. That's much better.
Originally Posted by psionl0 
The weakness is still having to convert to and from other currencies.
Well, it's one of the weaknesses.
.....
What psion0 implied was that for a inter currency transaction the parties at the two ends may still be obliged to transfer the bitcoin to and from the local currency, rather than using the bitcoin down and upstream.
This is no different than the situation with many currencies in use in the world. For international transactions they must be translated into something that's commonly used or accepted, instead of said currency being used up and downstream. This is no big deal at all.
I think we're done here, unless you'd like to burn a few more strawmen about things I didn't say.
You were done to a crisp six months ago, but keep coming back. Quit, keep your money in fiat, and deal with the consequences. Other people are moving on.
