Used to go through localbitcoins wayyyy back using alipay vouchers, but have now progress to using local exchanges which are much more convenient, especially in the fiat aspect. Most exchanges now connect to bank transactions or even credit cards, and this makes purchasing of bitcoins really easy.

Gold has very high historical value due to its lustre and attraction as a precious metal, as well as its historical use as a store of value in mayn different cultures. And as you would know, human habits and cultures are hard to change. Both bitcoin and gold can be considered equally scarce and difficult to transacton, however gold has an advantage of being so established and the institutional backing behind gold trade though many different exchanges.

It will take a long time for bitcoin to catch up.

Please don't do that. The volatility of bitcoins is still way too high to consider it as a cash alternative for all your net-worth. Diversification is always good and it always pays to have cash. If you dont trust your local currency, then hold USD or some other reserve currency like Euro, S Franc or pound. Way too risky.

Speculation of Satoshi is always an interesting read I always wonder why if he was a single person, why wouldnt he not come out to claim the credit of bitcoin's founder. All the reasons of "he doesn't want to be hack/draw attention" doesn't really hold water in this day and age. Whatever it is, I hope he is alive and living in the free world to enjoy the fruits of his labour. He truly started something that has grown bigger than he had ever imagined.

Sounds like you are looking for alternatives to just holding/investing the capital. I would suggest purse io as one avenue where you can spend your bitcoin on amazon products. Depending on the shipping costs, it could be worth while comparing the price through purse and buying it locally. it might make sense as there is a discount purchasing through purse.

Failing which, you could just continue hodling

Banning ICOs is slightly different from banning exchanges and trading platfroms, which is what China did. Certainly not very positive news from an advanced country like South Korea, though I would want to know whether it is an outright ban or just waiting for more regulation. Altcoins certainly thrive on the ICO markets.

It certainly is a great idea but until traditional banking allows easy exchange of fiat to bitcoin and vice versa, it is unlikely that major companies will take bitcoin, especially if they are listed companies on the stock exchange. Accounting and auditing will be a nightmare for just an incremental, if at all, adjustment of revenues from cryptocurrency. Most will adopt a wait and see approach no matter what kind of lobbying they receive from bitcoin communities, as they know that it represents a small percentage of their client base.

Good idea, but it will take time.

This is the reference link https://cointelegraph.com/news/japan-considers-launching-j-coin-eliminating-cash-before-tokyo-2020-games

The article states that it "may" be based on blockchain technology, while the comment on the maturity of blockchain technology came from BOJ rather than part of the article. Otherwise its a cool indicator that the scope of blockchain technology is increasing and getting wider acceptance. Very positive beginnings.

All I would say is that things take time. The internet didn't take off until many years after; how many people can even understand the blockchain, lest code actual working products for it? The technology is still in its early infancy and only the greedy are impatient for high returns. To put things in perspective, who would have known a perfectly good company like netscape, which has browser dominance, to disappear or myspace to be totally eclipsed by a more superior facebook?

Same thing for all new technologies: it just takes time.

Well why do we need Amazon to accept bitcoin? Anyone could use bitcoin to buy off amazon for many years already! You can google "bitcoin amazon io" and you will be brought to the purse website, which has been around for the longest time allowing users to purchase amazon products using bitcoin at a discount. The only concern is the legitimacy of the funding source (whether people are using scammed amazon gift cards to buy the products on your behalf), but I think most users have had fairly decent experiences buying off them.

Perhaps we are judging too soon what taxless means. For a functional group of individuals to live together, let's say in an apartment, there must still be some collective activity to maintain the household and pay for common goods. Everyone otherwise works in their own self interest and would rather get the other person to lay while enjoying the outcome.

It might not be called tax but some form of funding mechanism is needed to pay for public goods, if not the society will soon crumble under its own weight due to poor maintenance and lack of public utilities.

Yeah the eventual outcome for bitcoin is that once POW mining is done, the transaction fees will be good enough for miners to continue supporting the network. Nobody knows for sure if this will be a viable outcome, and alos how POS will fare as an alternative to POW. Not much written on the future outcome of POS systems, definitely an area that needs more discussion.

It will be interesting to see how this"reverse" pump and dump by JP Morgan and perhaps China at large plays out in the next couple of month. Everyone knows that China has a massive interest in Bitcoins, and though the relationship is probably ambivalent, China houses the largest mining pools and also has the greatest need for decentralized currency. I do not see cyptocurrency just fading into the distance just because of 1 or 2 government rules.

The article itself tells nothing new. Just a summary of events of recent happenings.

That was such a poorly written article with a jumble of pseudo finance, would not take it seriously at all.

But in terms of the idea that was brought up by OP, it is something worth discussing. I do see crypto as a viable asset class for diversification, together with art, real estate, stocks, wine etcetc. Diversifation is part of any sound investment strategy and therefore we might be seeing more of such ideas coming into play.

I agree that this is a good rebound and again this contributes to the resilience of the crypto-market. Investor confidence is important in nascent technology markets and products (just think the volatility of early days NASDAQ in the 90s) and investor confidence in such early days makes or breaks the market. This can be paralleled in the crypto markets where there are wild and unpredictable swings in response to the slightest news. This will only stabilize once bitcoin gains wider acceptance and the technology matures, rather than a function of market cap, so I do see investor confidence playing a LARGE role in crypto markets at present, while allowing it to survive long enough to deliver mainstream value.

Hence such resilience displayed is very encouraging.

Depends on your geography; you can look for an exchange in your locality. If you already have a source of Bitcoin, you can transfer to Poloneix or Bittrex or any other exchange and exchange Bitcoin for Ethereum. You can also buy Ethereum at spot at coinbase.com/cex.io if you in live in US, that will allow you to purchase through a bank transfer of funds or credit card. Hope it all goes well!

The argument here in the article is abit tenuous. It says that the basic unit should be satoshi, then a satoshi should be worth X amount, there one bitcoin will be worth a gazillion dollars. It has no rational basis and sounds very arbitrary to me. What determines value is its market value and basic economic supply and demand, not what 1 arbitrary unit should be worth. Taking a similar argument, one could say that 1 gram of gold is worth 1 cent, therefore 1 kg of gold should be worth 10 dollars. Doesn't really hold water. Sounds like this artcile is just trying to be sensationalistic.

Unlikely to be implemented if you ask me. Capital gains are taxed in the US and I do not see why they would find bitcoin capital gains any different from other investment vehicles; in fact it will be very unfair that bitcoin as an asset class does not get taxed. One of the disadvantages of being subjected to US law I suppose. Mind you not all countries have a tax on capital gains, for example Singapore has no capital gains tax no matter what asset class. It just depends on how "friendly" a country want to be with regards to investments.

Not surprised at all. Exchanges are completely unregulated and while they do provide a service, they can also do whatever they want with "inactive" fund, whether to invest in other structured investment products, high risk investments or just themselves (aka embezzlement). And this should be seen in the context of the high risk -  high reward crypto space as well.

My only advice is to go in with your eyes open; there's never a perfect risk free world, and by choosing to be in crypto, you have just gotten into one of the most high risk investments in terms of potential fraud, regulatory risk, exchange risk etc. This will eat people alive who do not do their own due diligence, while there are high rewards to be made for the brave and continually informed.

And that's kinda fair in the long run.

Agree with the posters here that we should not be sucked into the FUD that is going on regarding China.

Nobody knows the eventual plan and outcome. But taking China's track record, it will definitely not give up something in can make money out of. The state just needs control, and control us what it will get from regulation.

This to me does not spell the end of btc. But rather a pause for the regulators to take stock before continuing in this blockchain journey. And perhaps for their own insiders to get a good low entry point as well.