Well, you say it is not that hard to declare possession of cryptocurrencies to be illegal under sanction. But how would governments and other authorities be able to fiscalize it? There would be Constitucional rights at stake here...

Answer seems pretty clear to me:

"The upshot? Use a simple password, which many people have done, and it's easily cracked despite the appearance of complexity.

Castellucci and his co-authors checked a trillion passwords for $55.86 and recovered 18,000 wallets.
Ryan Castellucci of White Ops presented some of his research into this area last August, and is the common link between two new multi-author papers—one out this week and the other available and being presented in two weeks—that dive even deeper into the problems with brain-wallet protection and the techniques which bad guys have used to empty such wallets. Also last August, he released Brainflayer, a tool for automatically testing passwords against brain-wallet encryption keys."

Since you've stored the private keys inside the blockchain, you wouldn't need a transaction in order to brute force it.

LOL nice way to get non-crypto people to like a video!!

I'm a little worried about the heat from the miner though... Couldn't it harm the cat?

Hell yes I am! Currently I am treating BTC as an investment and like to hold my funds for a possible price increase. bitcoins seems to have some great potential currently and more price rising seems possible nowadays.

Well, in my opinion people thought that bitcoin will disappear from the economy a while ago, however the coins have passed the test of time and it is even growing at a speed rate know could ever imagine of. Now that big financial institutions in the world are supporting and investing in bitcoins, it is a indication that they will not run out of market. It is a force that is here to reckon. I am so sure that by the end of this year, the digital currency might have been allowed in  many nations worldwide. 

I think big miners concentrate a lot of the % of the total hashing power in the world, hence they have the power to influenciate the prices as they seem fit.

Well, I don't think it will be like that, I think it would be a top currency and the top in online transactions but not to the degree of being that expensive. Let's hope this is true.

My method has always been working hard in a factory...


Now i'm retired and I can claim satoshi for the fun... if you want my satoshi you can get them on my sites.

My guess is no!

Banks have different roles with bitcoin, as reliable storage for public money, the making of money, and borrowing money in the real world and if the bank does not exist, there may be economic damage to all involved.

We could have an ideia of how many people are really using by looking at the estimates of exchange users. In my country, the second largest exchange has more than 100k users...

I really can't believe someone is actually seriously thinking about voting for this guy. This guy is a joke and a threat to world peace!

Bank institutions, USA government or other powerful organization could bring down bitcoin if they wanted to. It's not that strong yet.

I'm not an expert on it, in fact my knowledge is very limited, but I don't think it's possible for a single coin to have multiple blockchains!

I wouldn't say 1 group of people, but only a few families control the majority of it. Remember the 1%/99% thing...

Uow this wold sure be a very nice and welcome bump over bitcoin price! Let's hope for it, eveyrone!

I honestly doubt any republican would ever support the concept, since banks are among the main donators for their campaigns.

How fast is Africa's mobile money market moving?


ICT analyst Adrian Schofield says the mobility of labour in Africa between the poorer and more developed economies has traditionally created a strong remittances market, much of it in cash, carried across borders in person or using "trusted" carriers. More formal transfers using companies like Western Union and the banks would be more reliable, but the charges were expensive.
Schofield adds that the arrival of the mobile phone began to change the market and from the early days of airtime transfers, has developed to the emergence of money transfer systems like M-Pesa, MTNMMO supported by the network providers, and also alternative money systems like Bitcoin.


http://www.itwebafrica.com/mobile/339-africa/235816-how-fast-is-africas-mobile-money-market-moving

Bitcoin Jesus

I recently spoke with Roger Ver, entrepreneur, bitcoin investor, bitcoin evangelist, and voluntaryist. If you thought we were just going to talk about bitcoin on this episode, think again.

Roger Ver, nicknamed “Bitcoin Jesus” is a facinating guy. Credited as the first person in the world to invest in bitcoin startups, he’s been the leading voice and catalyst in bitcoin ecosystem for years. Why? according to his website, Bitcoin is the most important invention in the history of the world since the internet.

http://www.davelerner.com/david_b_lerner/2016/02/bitcoin-jesus.html

Hey there OP, I've been upgraded to member, would you be so kind as to update my status in your table? Thanks a lot!

I wasn't aware of bitcoin's existence on the previous halvings. Now, thinking about it, I think I'll celebrate being part of history with a bottle of a fine Cabernet Sauvignon