Bitcoin, the war on cash, Clif High, and the NSA's long range plans

[apokalypse]

according to my tradview drawings it seems bitcoin going up even tho seems like going down hill...i think there's head and shoulder right now which something like on the picture below happen...what happen after that?

CaueLacerda tradeview user:

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Flash (here)
I was wondering where cryptocurrency idea / creation and the blockchain were from and whom they were serving. At first glance it truly looks like it has been created by people, for people, to avoid Bank's heavy handed power over financial transactions and people lives. My naive wishes for the better world for all humanity.

Like most significant technological advances, the Internet, including its shared data protocols such as what we now call the blockchain, is a mixed blessing.

This is true of fire, the wheel, the printing press, guns, internal combustion engines, electrical motors, generators, distribution lines and lighting, radio, electronics, computers, television, mobile phones, ... and so forth.

My take is that human civilization is in the process of moving from a planet wide civilization to a solar system wide civilization, and that as part of this transition, the means of sharing data and arriving at a concensus has to change from the electronic sharing of emulated double entry bookkeeping that we're currently using, to distributed ledger technologies such as what we call the blockchain and variations such as in hashgraph.

The "nervous system" of the solar system spanning civilization that we are becoming has to handle a much richer set of shared data, over larger distances, between both humans and bots, in an efficient manner and at higher data volumes, without dependencies on "central authorities", and with efficient evolution over time.

The current crypto-currencies, such as Bitcoin, are a means of prototyping and funding the large scale development of this "nervous system", and of gaining sufficient interest in such technology from a wider audience of people, corporations and governments so as to motivate their begining to adopt and adapt to such technology.

As I've done most of my life, I look to see where "things are headed", in the larger picture, and then to find my way through that future, in ways that best represent my own nature, interests and values, and the nature, interests and values of that in which I part of or participate.

As always, the future will be better for some, in ways that matter to them, and worse for others in ways that mattered to them. Our future is a cooperative unfolding between ourselves and our surrounds. We have choices, limited by both our awareness of them, and by the world we find ourselves in.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by apokalypse (here)
according to my tradview drawings it seems bitcoin going up even tho seems like going down hill...i think there's head and shoulder right now which something like on the picture below happen...what happen after that?

I thought that head and shoulder patterns were topping patterns, with the chart lower on both sides, rising into left shoulder at the beginning, and falling back down from the right shoulder at the end. In this Bitcoin pattern, the potential head and shoulders pattern you've drawn is entered from above, falling down from the $20,000 peak that Bitcoin briefly hit.

I also tend to think that it is usually premature to see a head and shoulder pattern when it is less than half way done, before the head even reaches the prospective peak.

[Anchor]

The B2X fork of the Bitcoin blockchain is expected to happen on the 28th December, which for me is tomorrow.

IF this follows previous events of this nature (BCH, BTG, SBTC etc) then you may see that many crypto holders that are not just in bitcoin will move alts into bitcoin to get the benefit of as many free coins from the fork. As this happens it can raise the price of Bitcoin (and reduce that of the alts) until after the fork block is mined, and then it goes back the other way as people move back from Bitcoin to the alts. This is the sort of thing that seems to break traditional technical analysis (unless you are going fast at a high frequency).

Personally I will take a contrarian approach, and if it occurs as expected I will just use the reduced price of alts to get some more with the cash I have from the last round of profit taking. (I don't trade Bitcoin except as an intermediary when exchanging alt pairs).

---

I have a disclaimer of sorts here.

All this stuff I am doing for fun, my cost base has already been recovered and most of the profits from this have all been cashed out and will be spent on farm equipment.

Consequently I do not fear losses for what I have left in altcoins and so I trade more aggressively than I would if I was trying to mitigate the huge risks of trading in an obviously manipulated market of illusions.

---

The lessons I have learned from this game so far is that it is essential to have a plan and stick to it.

If you don't have a plan you will be rudderless when things get crazy - and they frequently do: with flash crashes, suspended markets, stuck deposits, blockchain congestion, simultaneous multi-market manipulation by whales etc - you name it, it will happen to you sooner or later.

This can cause panic born out of fear of missing out or fear of loss - leading to irrational behavior that is invariably costly.

I have done all these things and experienced the feelings that come after - they are unpleasant. If you trade crypto for long enough you will probably find out.

Your plan should include the criteria for rapid closure of your open positions even if you take a loss. Better to loose a fraction than loose it all.

Be fearless and emotionally detached - seriously, you need your inner psychopath fully online here I recommend you treat every trade or position you take as independent and each one should be "in the now"/present moment. Once they are done, they are done. Don't dwell on the past errors except in so far as you learn from them. If you do, you will get stressed and your heart will hate you.

I try not to loose my stash but if I do I don't mind - I lost a lot of it in November when I sold my LTC too early - so don't take any of my observations as advice and do your own research.

This hobby can be quite consuming but its pretty fun if you can stay away from the stresses and fear.

[Carmody]

Posted by Paul (here)

Posted by apokalypse (here)
according to my tradview drawings it seems bitcoin going up even tho seems like going down hill...i think there's head and shoulder right now which something like on the picture below happen...what happen after that?

I thought that head and shoulder patterns were topping patterns, with the chart lower on both sides, rising into left shoulder at the beginning, and falling back down from the right shoulder at the end. In this Bitcoin pattern, the potential head and shoulders pattern you've drawn is entered from above, falling down from the $20,000 peak that Bitcoin briefly hit.

I also tend to think that it is usually premature to see a head and shoulder pattern when it is less than half way done, before the head even reaches the prospective peak.

The vast majority (99%, not sure but it looks like it from the cursory glance) of trading platforms..in order to avoid conflation into finance as it exists and then suffer the problems of registration and control by said entities..are all running their trading platforms off Bitcoin.

Meaning, you bring a crypto currency onto or into the realm of the trading platform..and then you trade off the dominant coin as the point in value. Thus bitcoin is the currency, in all of them. all trading is done via the value of bitcoin at any given moment as a trade/swap. Like all trading being in US funds causes the value of the US dollar to naturally swell.

Then, cyclically, the money is drawn out and converted to fiat value...the value of bitcoin dips for the day, then they buy back in at the lower value (profit right there).. and then go out and trade with their newly inflated bitcoin. Start with high bitcoin, which gives leverage, go in, attack coins so they give up their value, and transfer it into bitcoin, bitcoin goes up.

Retire for the day, and decide to sell the coin for fiat, or leave it floating, so some floating some traded for fiat.

Repeat.

Each time, value slowly accrues into bitcoin and is pulled out of the other coins that people are investing in.

It's whipsaw gaming of value addition by the big players, stealing it from the small players.

When bitcoin hit the futures market, this created a level above bitcoin trade players, which attacks their control and manipulation of the market.

This will not stand. At least a few hundred billion of flow through fiat currency value is at stake.

Thus some other entity, some other coin, some other new king in the crypto world has to come forth that is central to the whole trading platform manipulation thing that has evolved for the past 3-4 years, that is what it is today.

The search is on, in the crypto coin system, for a bitcoin replacement, one that is not futures traded. and it must have the ability to handle the transactions required for expansion of the marketplace and have the ability to be faster in the 'in-out' of funds from the given chosen fiat (that bitcoin is now)..so that the chosen trading platform fiat has FASTER in-out times for transactions than the given coin being attacked.

There is a possibility that Bitcoin cash is something that tried to step in and be the bitcoin replacement. There are other contenders.

The game seems to be playing out around the projections of what the Verge (XVG) coin is proposed to be.

The given thing, the coin of choice for being centric to trading... needs to be inflationary for their purposes, so a set number of coins is a first requirement. Dogecoin (DOGE), which it (Verge-XVG) is based on, is open ended so it can't deflate (edit, get my terms correct!).. which does not work for the trading system as it is built up today. Verge is inflationary, to some degree. It is more closed off than dogecoin.

The space needs to be big enough for development of an ecosystem that is 10X larger, as a minimum. It needs to have a public vs black channel capacity and thus the washing of funds, for it to be effective for all potential players to be involved. It has to be about 10x faster than bitcoin is now, on the 'in-out' of fund from the central system. As, with 10x the number of transactions..and 10x the value in the system..and with other coins to develop the same speed of transaction or greater, then the chosen coin will slowly move to be as inefficient as bitcoin is today, with the same sort of problematic bottlenecks as bitcoin has today.

The single buyer of Verge from earlier has notably increased their hold and store of verge coins, by about 400 million since the original publication of the article I posted. The big players, less than 25 of them, control about 52% of the Verge coin. None of the big static buyers has sold. All are holding.

So, everything that Anchor said, but this as well (my above post) as a side consideration.

If the bitcoin fork is not a newer faster model, with a different basis, then it is possible it is a dud, dead on arrival.

Here's a little bit of information on the fork:

The controversial SegWit2x Bitcoin (BTC) hard fork will go ahead on Dec. 28, according to the project’s official website.

The SegWit2x project, which caused months of debate and infighting among the Bitcoin community prior to its last-minute cancellation in November, now says it will fork off at block 501451, due in around two days’ time.

The project’s Founder and Lead Developer, Jaap Terlouw, stated on their site that the fork aims to address issues of “commission and transaction speed within the Bitcoin network,” adding that currently, Bitcoin is “almost impossible to use as a means of payment.”

Confirmation that the hard fork will, in fact, take place is indicated both in the roadmap on the project’s site, as well as in a direct quote from Terlouw:

“Our team will carry out the Bitcoin hard fork, which was planned for mid-November.”

The founder also promised that in addition to the common practice of crediting BTC holders with equivalent balances of the new coin (B2X), they would also receive “a proportional number of Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoins as a reward for their commitment to progress.”

In total, eight exchanges are listed as official supporters of the fork. The project’s roadmap includes features such as Lightning Network support, smart contracts and, ultimately, anonymous transactions.

[apokalypse]

Australian here and i'm going join crypto world...which wallet is safest? heard from a friend should get blockchain wallet(can't remember .com or .info)...have account with btcmarket and waiting for deposit going throught which takes day because of bpay payment system. thought of sign up Australian Crypto Exchange independentreserve... those 2 are australian widely used. is Exodus safe wallet? researching on exchanges buying crypto in AUD.

gonna spent on btc...which altcoin should i got for? ETH-Litecoin...

[Carmody]

Move into it slowly. read a lot. It's a cesspool of greed, and a community with it's own language.

I came in hard, under the worst circumstances. It's like I joined up on D-Day. First day on the job, was Normandy beach for crypto..the day before the huge drop in bitcoin and thus all of the altcoins. I walked into that meatgrinder, and it's still going on. Bitcoin fork for tomorrow, so what the heck, I took my remaining cash and put it in that, just for the experience of it.

I'm watching my Verge investment being turned into dust, and I'm watching how all this is done, how it goes down..

Expensive but well learned lessons.

The only thing that crypto currencies have been to me so far, is unbelievably cruel. My whole life has been like that when I reach out to the given new thing, so no biggie. Just another day on the job.

The most interesting thing of all, is I'm watching a cold cruel creation of a whale, via their manipulation of the verge (XVG) coin. The whole thing was apparently about not having any whales but one has forced itself upon the given coin. (whales are wallets or persons/groups with a large potion of the coin % as singular ownership or control)

It must be run by more than one person as it has been unbelievably relentless in driving the value down and accumulating it into it's own wallet. Someone wants this coin either in pocket or dead. Or (part of the dead part)...it (the huge percentage of verge coin) has just been used to remove the value and the coin abandoned when it's all gone away. This is probably the biggest debacle in the crypto world in the past while. And it's still going on right now. Near the end now...

It's really something to see....

https://www.binance.com/tradeDetail.html?symbol=XVG_BTC

[mgray]

Posted by Paul (here)

Posted by apokalypse (here)
according to my tradview drawings it seems bitcoin going up even tho seems like going down hill...i think there's head and shoulder right now which something like on the picture below happen...what happen after that?

I thought that head and shoulder patterns were topping patterns, with the chart lower on both sides, rising into left shoulder at the beginning, and falling back down from the right shoulder at the end. In this Bitcoin pattern, the potential head and shoulders pattern you've drawn is entered from above, falling down from the $20,000 peak that Bitcoin briefly hit.

I tend to think that it is premature to see a head and shoulder patterns at this stage in bitcoin. when it is less than half way done, before the head even reaches the prospective peak.

I don't think you can use technical chart analysis on bitcoin just yet. While Wall Street is piling
In, there is no where near enough liquidity or buy-in from the public to allow for the head and shoulders technical analysts to work.

It will defy your analysis to the upside, since conventional investment theory is sidelined by crowd sourcing.

Cryptos still have less than 1% buy in globally so the market Is far less saturated than the analysis of the other securities are to have any type of track record for that depth of study to make sense. F

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by mgray (here)
I don't think you can use technical chart analysis on bitcoin just yet. While Wall Street is piling
In, there is no where near enough liquidity or buy-in from the public to allow for the head and shoulders technical analysts to work.

It will defy your analysis to the upside, since conventional investment theory is sidelined by crowd sourcing.

I agree. Good points.

When I'm feeling like a crypto optimist, I figure, as you describe, that the incoming crowds will drive the price up, with high volatility, overwhelming the to-and-fro near balance of bulls and bears that makes for good technical charts.

When I'm feeling like a crypto pessimist, I figure that at some point the big dogs will blow this crypto market up, once they've accomplished their goals for Bitcoin and are ready with whatever crypto-currency based system they have in mind to replace the current US Dollar based system.

I am confident that Bitcoin in particular is not a long term winner, just as I was confident in the late 1990's that AOL was not a long term winner. But shorter term insanity can persist longer than anyone of sane mind would ever expect.


Either way, the trade is way too lopsided and too frantic to make for good technical chart patterns.

Well ... there is one chart pattern that I notice ... with a bit of an upward skew. Every few months we have another blow off to the upside that brings in a flood of new players. This is followed by a few weeks of volatile range bound trading, forming a base for the next move up. I figure that base formation is a simple chart pattern that represents the separation of the newcomers that have the stomach for such action (the "HODL"s), and those who get too seasick and leave for more solid ground.

But I suspect that more refined technical analysis, such as carefully layed out Elliot Wave analysis, would risk being an exercise in curve fitting in the rear view mirror, with little predictive power. Indeed I lost a few pennies trying to do just such technical analysis, and got run over by the mob when I was in a relatively short (meaning in this case, more in cash) position for a few hours while I slept.

[passiglight]

You need to be thoughtful about the kind of wallet as it depends on the type of coin you intend to purchase/mine.

For Bitcoin (BTC) i have been using BitPay, but i am moving away from that because i hear it has an amazon connection to it. The exodus wallet seems very good, and i have spoken with the team who are behind that wallet and they seem very genuine and charges only seem to be network fees (which are the standard fee payments which pays the miners wages)

The Bitcoin Core wallet is likely the safest (not that i know very much about these things, just talking from my own experience) but the wallet holds the full bitcoin ledger and takes a while to download, like maybe a few days depending on where one is gonna keep the wallet i.e. desktop or laptop or phone even. But i have had no hassles with either the Bitcoin Core wallet or Bitpay wallet

From what i can gather the best wallet is a thing like a trezor and that is gonna cost maybe 50 bucks but for sure is the safest way to store bitcoins, offline.

I am mining bitcoin gold so i chose to use the bitcoin gold core wallet and i will need to swap those coins out if i wish to use a different wallet.

i thought the segwit x2 was off the table for the timebeing !

anyway.... Coinbase is the place i would use for exchanging my coins into fed notes, but having said that i am a hodler, in that i am holding my coins for the future so i have not used any exchanges although i will likely be using changelly at some point as i wish to move some bitcoin gold (BTG) into BTC

My advice is to be very careful with the choices you make and check them thoroughly, there is so many rip off bit coin charades going down it is beyond a joke.

altoins are a compete landmine and they are not moving in price like BTC is (currently downwards for most, if not all coins (it's a korean thing) :-) which i like as i get a chance to jump in if the price gets low enough for me :-) However, wallet investor.com which is the price guide i am using https://walletinvestor.com/ shows you which coins are going up and down in price, "ripple" , "tether" and ethereum being right up there among the shakers of top dollar, and Bitcoin Cash which saw strong upward movement in the last couple weeks. Like i said above, my coin of choice at the moment is Bitcoin Gold and that shows on the list at or around 20th spot.

For me the price swing is no issue as i do not purchase bitcoins, i instead mine them, so i have no financial tie in other than what i mine day to day.

I have no financial expertise whatsoever, and my best financial experience is to let loose the butterflys from my wallet every now and then :-) So please do not take my word for anything as far as the investing side of things goes.

Mining coins is the way to go for poor souls such as myself, which is what this thing is supposed to be all about, creating access for one's who cannot access mainstream finances, in that respect it works. Decentralization of finances especially has got to come about, if for no other reason than it has been used as a tool of control for way too long, and that has got to change and indeed it is changing.

Bitcoin is quantum or so i am told, it is a kind of quantum device (so i am informed). and actually a young life form (so i am led to believe) and to which i do believe, and to which, such a belief might raise some eyebrows, but hey, that's the way i roll :-)

and in opposition to the rumours, i know for a fact that elon musk had nothing whatsoever to do with it, and to wit, even though i profess to hold no financial expertise whatsoever, if i had money invested in anything elon musk, i would be running for the hills screaming arghhhh or something like that :-) and likely buying up bitcoins instead :-)

Jeez stay away from korean exchanges too as they seem to be falling like dominoes (no surprises there methinks !


if i was an investing type person i would put my money on bitcoin BTC as altcoins make pretty branches, but, BTC is the redwood of them all !

digressing slightly, here's partly why i chose Bitcoin Gold (BTG) -1) is something i can mine using equihash logarithm (which means i can dig with only my graphics card, and 2) i like the potential corporate name of Bitcoin Gold, i see potential there for consumer usage. Outside of that i am as financially intelligent as a cactus.

Blessings and best o luck with purchasing those quantum lil bits of quantumness :-)

[Anchor]

Posted by apokalypse (here)
Australian here and i'm going join crypto world...which wallet is safest? heard from a friend should get blockchain wallet(can't remember .com or .info)...have account with btcmarket and waiting for deposit going throught which takes day because of bpay payment system. thought of sign up Australian Crypto Exchange independentreserve... those 2 are australian widely used. is Exodus safe wallet? researching on exchanges buying crypto in AUD.

Australian here, I may be able to help. I use BTCMarkets as it is a great (AUD) fiat gateway with few problems.

a) must go through KYC and AML cheques before you can do anything with fiat. This requires the standard aussy 100 "points" ID check with photo.

b) you are limited to AUD$8000 per day withdrawal even after you are approved, but you can ask to raise it, but consider not doing that unless you know the implications associated with transferring money in larger quantities in Australia. Remember it is a police state here now Do some research here.

For wallets, everything they have on there except Ripple can be accommodated with the Jaxx "wallet" for Ripple I use Toast Wallet.

Personally I do not use Jaxx wallet, but I have played with it - I can't offer opinion on how good it is.

In my case for BTC, LTC and BCH before I stopped using it, I run full nodes and use the core wallets that are part of that.

For Ripple, I use "Toast Wallet" for the secure management of my ripple addresses, and I really like it, it is open source and has a nice design and I like the security design of it. (I also like the fact that its crypto is based on random numbers - it is not a deterministic sequence of private keys like Jaxx, Ledger, Trezor etc - more power, more flexibility, but more responsibility for key management).

Providing you do it right, one of the most secure (and low cost) ways of storing any cryptocurrency wallet address keys are with a paper wallet.

Many wallets that are not full nodes, like Jaxx, use deterministic methods for creating your private keys based on a "SEED" that seed is effectively the key to your kingdom and is protected carefully. Protection against loss or exposure of this key is vital to maintaining your digital security and secure and authorized access to your "coins". Do not skimp on these steps. This seed also allows you to reconstruct your wallet from scratch if it is damaged or lost - so it is pretty vital you secure it properly. Normally this is done with a list of 12 or 24 words you need to record.

The SEED is what the bad guys will beat out of you with a wrench, once you get rich and people find out (dark humour maybe, but there is a warning here too - our planet is lightening up, but there are some evil sh1ts about still - dont ever forget it, particularly in this space).

When you get your wallets set up, test them.

Test them for transfer of small amounts funds in both directions and between friends. Then, destroy them! Then recover them. Test the access to funds after recovery and transfer. Then when all that works, feel nice and confident to load them up

Posted by apokalypse (here)
gonna spent on btc...which altcoin should i got for? ETH-Litecoin...

Sorry - I have no advice I am prepared to give on this, except, diversify.

Finally, don't expect to be able to move BTC about particularly quickly. Transfer fees are high and BTCMarkets does not let you set a high fee. I have have had BTC transfers (withdraws) stuck waiting to be confirmed for over 72hours before now.

[Alan]

Any thoughts about using a mutual fund to make money on crypto currencies?

[Carmody]

Posted by Paul (here)

Posted by mgray (here)
I don't think you can use technical chart analysis on bitcoin just yet. While Wall Street is piling
In, there is no where near enough liquidity or buy-in from the public to allow for the head and shoulders technical analysts to work.

It will defy your analysis to the upside, since conventional investment theory is sidelined by crowd sourcing.

I agree. Good points.

When I'm feeling like a crypto optimist, I figure, as you describe, that the incoming crowds will drive the price up, with high volatility, overwhelming the to-and-fro near balance of bulls and bears that makes for good technical charts.

When I'm feeling like a crypto pessimist, I figure that at some point the big dogs will blow this crypto market up, once they've accomplished their goals for Bitcoin and are ready with whatever crypto-currency based system they have in mind to replace the current US Dollar based system.

I am confident that Bitcoin in particular is not a long term winner, just as I was confident in the late 1990's that AOL was not a long term winner. But shorter term insanity can persist longer than anyone of sane mind would ever expect.


Either way, the trade is way too lopsided and too frantic to make for good technical chart patterns.

Well ... there is one chart pattern that I notice ... with a bit of an upward skew. Every few months we have another blow off to the upside that brings in a flood of new players. This is followed by a few weeks of volatile range bound trading, forming a base for the next move up. I figure that base formation is a simple chart pattern that represents the separation of the newcomers that have the stomach for such action (the "HODL"s), and those who get too seasick and leave for more solid ground.

But I suspect that more refined technical analysis, such as carefully layed out Elliot Wave analysis, would risk being an exercise in curve fitting in the rear view mirror, with little predictive power. Indeed I lost a few pennies trying to do just such technical analysis, and got run over by the mob when I was in a relatively short (meaning in this case, more in cash) position for a few hours while I slept.

yep, it's mob rules, for sure. I try to use logic and analysis, but if the mob is not using logic and analysis, then it is wasted. "PT Barnam with a strong dash of projection and a searching for a hidden agenda" logic goggles would work better.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Alan (here)
Any thoughts about using a mutual fund to make money on crypto currencies?

I wouldn't expect mutual funds to be playing in this crypto game, and if one of them is, I wouldn't trust it much.

That would be kind of like asking a dapper accountant in a Wall Street bank to be sheriff of Dodge City, Kansas, back in the 1880's.

[apokalypse]

@nugget_alex So @NAB @CommBank @WestpacNZ and @ANZ_AU are all freezing customer accounts and transfers to @BTCMarkets @coinspotau @GetCoinJar @coinbase . #Banks can fight it, but people want control of their money #ausbiz #auspol
https://twitter.com/nugget_alex/stat...182514178?s=17

can see it happening, is there another way if this hit on mainstream and became the law?

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by apokalypse (here)
can see it happening, is there another way if this hit on mainstream and became the law?

As in any rapidly changing area, what works, and what doesn' t work, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of various ways of doing things ... all keeps changing.

One cannot make blanket statements as to whether or not there will be ways around, or within, stricter laws and regulations that will be practical, for any particular person, in any particular situation.

[Carmody]

IMO, bitcoin is finished, get your exit strategies in place, and be ready to enact them over the next very short while. Weeks to days is the range when a move out of bitcoin, an permanent move out, should be ready to go. Ie, set it for days, and be ready over the next few weeks.

The writing hit the wall in a open way, just this evening.

ripple (XRP) is going to take over.

It will never go high in price per coin, but it's volume is set to wipe out bitcoin in the next few weeks. All the bitcoin forks were about trying to get the ancient and unworkable parts of bitcoin out of the way, and this has diluted bitcoin and now ..Ripple, XRP, is outpacing Ethereum (ETH) and is set to double that in probably the next few days to few weeks.

Ripple took off today as I think that everyone involved in the crypto world realized they were looking at the demise of Bitcoin, and, well, Ripple has a day job, and is reliable, and officially accredited. Bitcoin is a ghost that counts on belief. A big difference between the two.

In that time (next few weeks), Bitcoin will weaken, it is strongly suspected... and the two volume levels of daily trade and total circulation value..should cross one another in possibly as short a time as a week. This will be the equivalent of putting a bitcoin corpse on a pike on the ramparts as a sign that Bitcoin is 'over', and then it will really, very seriously ---crash. Fits and starts possibly ...but stutter down it will.

Ripple (XRP) really took off today and I was lucky in that I managed to get my small stake into it before it really went ballistic today. Since it is officially that of the Swift system of financial transfers for global funds (merchants making big cash flow orders and payments), there is zero chance that XRP, Ripple, is ever going to move backward in price any time soon, ie the next year or more or even 3 years. I can see it easily going to $15 in the next few weeks to next few months. Even hitting $6-7 in the next week or less, and thus really ringing the bell of the end of Bitcoin. due to the number of circulating coins it will never be at $15k each, more like $50 max, is the guess. a $1.5TUS market cap for XRP (Ripple) is possible by the end of 2018. How likely, who knows, but still possible.

Stellar is the next one, being a very official and fully backed coin. It is suspected to be the next big riser. Days count. Don't sleep on it. IF interested, well then, no time off for you, that time is blocked off for getting into these two as they are as close to being a sure bet as is possible in this world. New years and the few days of holiday can happen some other year, but not this time. Hours count, like they did for me this afternoon - I was making sure I was into Ripple as far as any of my free cash could get me and I caught the 70% rise of today, which shows very little sign of reversing as is normal for altcoins. Ripple is flexing itself and it is showing itself to not be an altcoin, but the official centric powerhouse that it actually is.

These are merely predictions of mine, but they appear, to me.... to be self evident.

Ie, today, so far, for daily volume:

Bitcoin (BTC)---- $18,190,429,440

Ripple (XRP)----- $13,338,608,640

I'd imagine official (corporate) and unofficial Crypto traders are not on holiday right now, they are in their offices, playing tag team at the given trade desks, as teams, 24/7. No time off period for the next few weeks. Zero choice in that. It is the moment of change. I might be a bit off and exaggerating, but I doubt it. Everything in the Crypto world is in the moment of going fluid. By the first official workday in the western world of Jan 02/2018 (wall street, etc), the Crypto world will open up to being notably different in the all the players thoughts and minds, I suspect.

I am barely learning to play the dips and peaks in the trading, but I'm slowly getting it... the time to play them is now, when the swings are big enough to get decent rises out of them, in either funds or in coin share. and that is what those traders are doing right now. Trying to be smarter than one another. I let them drive, and I just try to play along with their games well enough to rhyme a bit...and slowly inch it up. If well done, I can increase my position by 1-3% a day. Seriously. One has to be strong enough in constitution to jump at the calculated moment...and check the parachute on the way down. Crazy stuff. When you compound that it gets to be a big thing. It takes concentration and effort, though. It can only be done when things are in the moment of wild swings.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Carmody (here)
I am barely learning to play the dips and peaks in the trading, but I'm slowly getting it... the time to play them is now, when the swings are big enough to get decent rises out of them, in either funds or in coin share. and that is what those traders are doing right now. Trying to be smarter than one another. I let them drive, and I just try to play along with their games well enough to rhyme a bit...and slowly inch it up. If well done, I can increase my position by 1-3% a day. Seriously. One has to be strong enough in constitution to jump at the calculated moment...and check the parachute on the way down. Crazy stuff. When you compound that it gets to be a big thing. It takes concentration and effort, though. It can only be done when things are in the moment of wild swings.

You missed your calling, Carmody - on a trading desk at Goldman .

[Akasha]

Posted by Carmody (here)
.....All these articles about Verge being the next secure and private bitcoin (I was looking at it for the past three weeks as a real contender), John McCaffee endorsing it, and so on... brought a flood of investment. Which speeded up and amplified the one thing. Opportunity for total rape. He also just endorsed my second choice from this month of observing: Digibyte. Damnit. Which has probably turned to rape by now....or at least the set up for rape.....

Turns out John McAfee will endorse coins for 25 BTC upfront plus 15% of the coins.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=isDXVPP8c4U

[Carmody]

Posted by Paul (here)

Posted by Carmody (here)
I am barely learning to play the dips and peaks in the trading, but I'm slowly getting it... the time to play them is now, when the swings are big enough to get decent rises out of them, in either funds or in coin share. and that is what those traders are doing right now. Trying to be smarter than one another. I let them drive, and I just try to play along with their games well enough to rhyme a bit...and slowly inch it up. If well done, I can increase my position by 1-3% a day. Seriously. One has to be strong enough in constitution to jump at the calculated moment...and check the parachute on the way down. Crazy stuff. When you compound that it gets to be a big thing. It takes concentration and effort, though. It can only be done when things are in the moment of wild swings.

You missed your calling, Carmody - on a trading desk at Goldman .

Probably true, which is why I stayed far away from it as a young teen, even though I knew I could be very very good at it.

As for my predictions of what would go on with Ripple. That's gonna be slower than I thought. It has to do with all the trading platforms using Bitcoin as the medium of choice.

The huge lift in the very very wide Ripple pool, this was a huge amount of money to be set up for siphoning off.

Which took a full day to do in what is likely the most furious run of trading in the past long while. If ever. It is still going on.

So, what goes on in any coin or token that has a high influx and thus sharp peak in value... is that it looks like a baitball, and they tear into it.

The upswings and downswings are about transferring it out or increasing the number of shares/coins held....and the added value is simply taken away in such fashion. This is aided and abetted by some factors like the given 'whales' that may be active in the given coin. Basically, people who bought early into the given coin, at a value near zero. This is the critical bit. Or one of them.

I was set up to do everything right today but missed the shot or chance, as I did not respond in time, most of the action was over. To add to my misery, the trading platform I managed to get onto, has software issues, and trading is next to impossible. Excellent interface, terrible response time and lock ups. You can get burned even when you do everything correctly, due to circumstances out of your control. I'm still learning but getting closer.....