It's a good but complicated explanation, I was hoping more for a layman's explanation. I guess what I really I want to know is what and how do I upgrade? Upgrade my wallet?

I just want to know. I saw this thing happening, and I went for it, its my first big trade, I put everything I had, my whole savings into. I bought it too late because I was scared. But it kept growing. I bought at .0269, it barely got any higher, then it started to drop. I feel like such a fool. I thought this was the answer to my prayers. I have a baby daughter and a wife. I blew it. Darkcoin f**ked me. I don't know what to do now, I'm still holding my coins. I feel I need to vomit.
 

Can someone please explain to me exactly what is a hard fork? I said fork, f o r k.

I want to make a trade, I sent btc to my account on an exchange, and it got 1 confirmation but then nothing, so its still pending.
I've been waiting more than an hour. Why does it take so long to confirm payments in the chain?

Whats your favs? Which ones have the lowest fees?

I will say what I don't like first. I don't like the hype that it's going to equalize wealth in the world because I know that will never happen.
I don't like political motivations for it.
I don't like the fees to fund an account with fiat and withdraw.
And I don't like that it's not as safe/secure from hacking as it could be, and you can wake up one morning and your life savings is gone.

What I like about Bitcoin:
I like the way you can instantly send money to anyone, anywhere and check the transaction in the blockchain.
I like the thought of paying for everything in bitcoin, so I dont need to carry a wallet with cash and credit cards, debit cards, etc everywhere and also my phone. I can just carry my phone. One thing, and do anything with it.
I like that I can spend and make money without it being monitored by people in power who are corrupt and only want to take money from me which I earned simply because they are in power and it is a tradition for people in power to take money from people who are not.
I like the novelty of it.

When it comes down to it, you are dreaming if you think digital currency is going to replace banks anytime soon. Banks have been around for centuries securing money and they do it well. And I think no one in this forum can argue that they would feel safer storing dollars in a bank than bitcoins in awallet. That's the biggest weak point for digital currency. Overcome the risk factor, and I think you will have no more resistance from critics.

Why is anonymity (did I spell that right?) so important? If you're not doing anything illegal or some kind of perv, then why would you care if people can track your purchases?

Sounds great in theory, but it seems some of my fears are coming true. Check out xnigma.com and c-cex.com, in the chatboxes, people are having a problem getting their withdrawals.

       

I'm a noob, I admit that. But when I get interested in something, I immerse myself into it and catch on pretty quickly.
I have a fundamental problem in theory, which I cannot work out.
When I think about the long-term success or failure of Bitcoin, it seems to me that other cryptocurrencies are hurting that possible success.
Now the mainstream is starting to accept Bitcoin. The branding is showing up everywhere. There are bitcoin ATMs, etc.
And then another coin, a better coin, maybe, in quality, but not a popular coin with the mainstream, starts to rise in value and overcome bitcoin.
Then what? Most people are just getting used to the idea of Bitcoin, then they are going to have the rug pulled from under them, when Bitcoin is beat out by another coin...with a different look, different branding, and maybe not as acceptable to the mainstream as bitcoin.
Now are the going to have redesign all their ATM machines for this new coin? Take down all the Bitcoin symbols and put up the branding for the new coin? How is that going to work exactly?

Seems that bitcoin has to stay number one to be accepted on a wide scale, or everything else is lost. Any feedback?

Ok I installed Electrum portable on a USB stick, I have a balance on an address that i made offline with the bitaddress.org webpage and has never been imported anywhere.
Now I want to import the public key for that address as a watch-only but I can't figure out how to do it. I can only see options to import files and private keys.

Hm, Maybe I should post this in technical support.

The best way to build markets for bitcoins in other countries (or any country) is by making it as easy and brainless as possible to use. That means 100% secure, simple-to-use android and iphone apps, and for those without smartphones, Bitcoin ATM machines. That, or teach the money changers already doing business to how to adopt bitcoin.

Yes that's what I mean. What if those traders have all these people who just made a huge profit and trying to sell back to them for fiat before the rate drops, and no one is buying coin, but everyone is selling it, then how can the trader afford to pay so many people at such a high rate in that situation?

Oh....just curious...what's the difference if you download bitaddress.org from github or if you just navigate to the bitaddress.org webpage in your browser and save the page, then use it offline?

Most of the exchanges I see online for Crypto and Bitcoin are run by a couple of guys only.
Let's say a lot of people buy Bitcoin when its at a low price, then it spikes up high and starts to drop again...and now everybody wants to sell it before it drops back to the exchange, how can the exchange afford to pay all these people double or triple the price of what they sold them the coins for?

I don't get it.

I was basing it on a comparison between Dabs' BTC/PHP exchange and Xoom.com:

Dabs' exchange charges a fee of 10% of Philippine Pesos on the sell, and also 10% of the Pesos on the buy.
(If you buy 4 bitcoins for 84,616 PHP (about $1,935 US), you pay an additional 846.16 PHP fee to the exchange (about $20 US fee).
(If you sell 4 bitcoins for 81,737 PHP (about $1,870 US), you pay an additional 817.37 PHP fee to the exchange (about $19 US fee).

With Xoom.com you can send up to $2,999 US to the Philippines (about 131,100 PHP) for a $4.99 US fee (about 220 PHP).

 

No that's wrong. It's not cheaper than some remittance services. And even if was a little cheaper, and cheaper than the banks or wires, how long do you think that will last. Once using bitcoin gets popular for remittances and becomes the preferred remittance method, the fees will shoot up to the same amount as their former competitors, maybe higher. That's business.

The problem is that 99.9999% of the people who receive remittances with bitcoin are going to trade it immediately for their own country's currency.
And that's where the fees get to be almost as bad as all the other remittance services. So what's the point of remitting with bitcoin if the exchanges are charging the same amount in fees as moneygram, western union, xoom, etc.?

And buying bitcoins is not cheap either. Sellers on localbitcoins.com have very high rates. Buying online is expensive because there are fees for bank wire, or EgoPay, OKPay, etc.

So that's the problem. Sending bitcoin is cheap, buying product with bitcoin is cheap, recieving payment for product with bitcoin is cheap, trading bitcoin into another crypto is cheap. But trading national currency for bitcoin or bitcoin for your country's currency is NOT CHEAP.

I have a very small balance of bitcoin in c-cex online address, its a very small amount but it is showing up.
However, if I search the address in blockchain.info or blockexplorer.com, it says that the address has never been used, balance is zero.
Its been about 3 days already since that small amount of bitcoin was sent, shouldn't the balance have shown up on blockchain and blockexplorer by now?

Facebook is now...just like a white/yellow pages telephone book for the internet. IMHO.

Exactly. Rich get richer, poor get poorer, where's the decentralization and altruistism? There is none. It's just another Wall Street fueled by greed.