Bitcoin BTC

[Modee]

Bitcoins may be of use to us here as we pay for goods and services, but besides that, they may actually be an investment:
Norwegian man buys flat with forgotten $24 bitcoin investment - Yahoo News
A Norwegian man bought just US $24. worth of them in 2009, and they appreciated today to over 500,000 Euros (about US $690,000.)!

There have been issues with Bitcoins, including the Silk Road scandal
Bitcoin Price Shock - Are Bitcoins Safe After Silk Road Scandal?
where Bitcoins were being used in the drug trade,

and Pirate Ponzi scam
Bitcoin 'Pirate' scandal: SEC steps in amid allegations that the whole thing was a Ponzi scheme – Telegraph Blogs

both of which put into question whether the whole Bitcoin system would survive, but so far so good and Bitcoins do remain up and running.

[Modee]

U.S. Agencies to Say Bitcoins Offer Legitimate Benefits

U.S. Agencies to Say Bitcoins Offer Legitimate Benefits - Bloomberg

Well if Uncle Sam likes it...so do I!

[American Psycho]

I've been staying well clear of Gold, Silver and Bitcoins, and I'm very glad I did looking at how they've performed!

[Modee]

Most of the bitcoin I received were around 200ish and now after all this time they're back to about where I got them.

As far as gold and silver (precious metals in general), a well balanced long term investment portfolio should include about 10% of these.

[American Psycho]

Something that really concerns me about Bitcoin is the fact that these kind of payment systems will always be the obvious choice for illegal activity payments due to the inherent anonymity. Just look at Liberty Reserve for one of the many examples of what the government can do when they decide to act on things like this. Egold is another example.

I like the idea of Bitcoins and I'd like to move more into it but this fact really worries me. Do you think this is a legitimate concern?

[Modee]

Actually bitcoin is eminently traceable, every transaction is recorded. Not sure why people think it is so anonymous. Now, if you use a proxy every time you login to your wallet, as I do, and never cash in the coins, I suppose it can remain anonymous, but convert to cash and there remains a trail all the way to you and back to whoever sent, proxy or no proxy.

[Modee]

Incidentally bitcoin has about doubled since July 2015 when I posted about it being around 200.

[American Psycho]

Well yes there is a route to tracing Bitcoin owners in the way you describe, but for the majority of people who would be tempted to use Bitcoin for an illegal purpose it would not lead back to them.

If someone buys something illegal on the dark net there is no way to trace their connection if they had Tor configured correctly, and then if they use Bitcoin just as a payment method and not to withdraw funds in the way you describe then there's no route to trace them down there either. Perhaps the sellers might be at risk of exposure if they don't cover their tracks properly but if they're sophisticated enough to be running any significant operation then they're likely to have some more sophisticated methods for liquidation too.

This is the issue I'm talking about the law enforcement will not like - the potential for misuse for illegal purposes. And we know what happens when the government takes a dislike to something like Liberty Reserve.

This is my real fear for the future of Bitcoin.

[Modee]

If the recipient of bitcoin needs to convert it to hard currency, there is no way to do this without being completely traced all the way back to the origin of the coins. You're thinking too hard, and not hard enough at the same time.

[American Psycho]

Well I won't drag this out but there are still hints of Liberty Reserve risks hanging around, but anyway...

If anyone is unclear, are you absolutely positive that Bitcoin is not at risk of being shut down by the authorities?

[Modee]

Bitcoin back up over $400. lately. Looking solid.

[Modee]

Over $500. now.
Bitcoin price jumps 21 percent over 4 days, reaching a 21-month high | TechCrunch

[American Psycho]

Is it a good time to buy bitcoin now?

Is the only way to buy Bitcoin by bank transfer or can you use card?

[Modee]

BTC hit $700. Then the price sold off some. The halving date passed! and that should have jumped the price again, but we had some bad BTC news about another hacked site.

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-pric...itfinex-close/

Is rebounding again now.

[Modee]

BTC back over $1000. again. Been holding and accumulating for about four years now, all good so far.