There is only one flaw with this reasoning...with only a 5 Billion dollars is peanuts for these countries...if China or Russia or the USA for that matter wanted all the Bitcoin there wouldn't be much we could do about it.

There are no counties that seriously give a shit about Bitcoin because if they did none of us would have any right now.

Wanna be smart arse TA-er...

Yes, that is why, and non-paypal methods are expensive with high fees, or too slow (few days).
I am not a scamer. Maybe troll, but not a scamer:)

Obviously I argue while I believe I am right.  If a reply is convincing, I let the poster have the last word.  Isn't that enough?

But there are MANY reasons why I am skeptical of bitcoin's success, and many of the replies that I get are not only unconvincing, thet are just countering facts with statements of faith:

   Me: "Goevernments can effectively ban bitcoin, see China for example."
  Them: "Bitcoin is like the internet, it will find a way around any obstacle."
This ship appears to be sailing in the USA on the side of no ban.  This is a real concern, but trend is good IMO.

   Me: "Bitcoins may be scarce, but there are plenty of cyptocoins with equivalent or better protocols"
  Them: "Cryptocoins will die and bitcoin will not."
Bitcoin adds more users per day than the entire user-base of all the alt-coins combined.  The network effect just widens the gap further.  (source: BITCOIN 2014 - Wences Casares (Xapo).  I did not verify these numbers, is this true?.

   Me: "Bitcoin is now more prone to theft and fraud than credit cards, see the numbers."
   Them: "Bitcoin will be much safer when it matures."
Bitcoin is becoming safer, check out Circle for one example of an insured BTC wallet.  Multisig is a nice solution to some of the problems.  The investment money pouring in now is working on that problem with much promise (not just faith).

   Me: "Mining is already concentrated in a few companies, they may form a cartel and become like the bankers."
   Them: "It is a free market so that will not happen."
Seems like a legit concern.  The small amount of collusion required to attain 51% seems dangerous.  This  Bitcoin 101 - The Nightmare of a 51% Attack   goes over some other scenarios where a malicious player could break the protocol

   Me: "The Satoshi 2009 blockchain already assigns XX% of all the money to a few thousand people."
   Them: "Wealth distribution will improve with time."
While not ideal, I don't see this as any major impediment.

And so on and on.  Obviously I am not convinced by such answers, but how can I argue with statements of faith?
1. Agree to disagree and move on
2. Admit that you may not be infallible and that perhaps it's not "faith" but rather reasoned thinking.  This is extremely hard for many on this forum to give respect to conflicting ideas.
3. Get convinced that you were in fact incorrect.  You need to start with number 2.

You obviously have so much ego and animosity that I am pretty sure it's affecting the accuracy of the conclusions.

Careful with that. You'll be put on 'ignore' by a newbie poster who will declare so in a post, full of indignation

(the same type of newbie who will sell all at a loss when the inevitable 15%+ drop happens eventually )

The current trend since the breakout would bring us to 800 by next Sunday.
But I don't think we'll maintain the same speed. It's been too linear which is unusual. I think we'll either stop and correct soon, or accelerate towards 1000 with growing volume.

maybe with 10:1 leverage?

Yes, an earlier poster attributed it an Alcoholic Anonymous handbook from 1979, which may or may not have been penned by Carl Sagan

Are you aware that "cut your loose" is not a recognized expression in the English language?

Seems I was not clear. 

Sure there has always been volatility, and large drops before, but until two months ago it was "expected volatility" that fitted the grand model: namely, average 1000% growth every year, through a series of bubbles more or less regularly spaced in time.   The drop after the November peak was eevn seen as a good thing because it was seen as a repeat of the drop after the April 2013 peak, and thus confirmed that pattern.  And the rise from May/20 to Jun/10 and the following plateau recalled what happened  from July through the end of September last year.

But this drop does not fit that pattern any more.  It is not the panic drop from ~125$ to ~85 on Oct/02, that was quicly reversed.   Analists were expecting the next bubble a month ago, but instead got a week of almost steady drop that brought the price down to the same level as the bottom of the "2014 Silk-Road-Like Dip".   So, what is the grand model now?

Jennifer Parker: Dr. Brown, I brought this note back from the future and now it's erased.

Doc: Of course it's erased.

Jennifer Parker: But what does that mean?

Doc: It means your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one, both of you.

Marty McFly: [Marty wraps his arm around Jennifer] We will, Doc.

Actually, Grappa isn't half bad, imo.

It's the limoncello (and similar super sweet liquors) I despise. Liquid toothpaste, I'm telling ya!

Why is it that almost everybody in this thread is long and I am probably the only one short ?

The trend was down, it hit major resistance, it failed to rally on good news. Why would you be long in this market?

Why is everybody saying "YAY! Cheap coins" ??

Why are you trying to catch a falling knife? This might be the bottom but its highly unlikely its the bottom. It could go down another $50,$100 or $200 before it reaches a bottom and finds support.

Really? Personally i think the chances of either are pretty shit

You're gonna need to go through bitcoins though to convert those "darkcoins" to fiat. Not saying it wouldn't be a blow to Bitcoin, but Bitcoin is bigger than the dark markets.

This is reminding me of the $800 phase in early 2014. I'd prefer a violent plunge to rip everyone's baby blue panties to shreds and then we can get down to business.

Yeah, the % dominance thing on coinmarketcap is a complete farce. Since they count literally every new shitcoin they add to the list, then every time a shitcoin gets added to their listing, and then it wash trades a few coins up to a $1M market cap, Bitcoin's % dominance goes down. So '% dominance' is a meaningless metric now.

There were 1400 coins listed in Nov. Now there are 1516. So 116 new shitcoins added to coinmarketcap in the last two months.

What does that tell you?

I think the game will become very exciting again as much as we are closer to the target price. It's funny that even if the prize is worth a VERY considerable amount (more so when the price is reached) many people would prefer someone else to win if that means we reach the price sooner than our expected date.

To put things in perspective, when the prize is claimed, it will have a worth in FIAT of more than $6000USD!... And everyone will be enjoying the party, probably still celebrating having broken $20K just a few days/weeks before.

Really anxious for that day to come

I thought this was a really good comparison: Striking similarity between Ellen DeGeneres' 2018 "Bitcoin Explanation" and 1994 Today's Show "What is the Internet, Anyway?"

Perhaps 2018 is bitcoin's 1994.

 Awwww New York with their bit licence and now this! Plattsburg is already a shithole_country though maybe not quite as bad as Schenectady and I usually stop there for a bite to eat or to use the facilities when taking the ferry over lake Champlain but now that I see they are hostile to Bitcoin miners, I am going to hodl it until I get into Vermont.  In fact, I might only use their roads to get through New York and not stop at all!  Bastards.

I'd like to see any of these shitcoin lovers that come and grace this thread, answer this one question:

If Bitcoin functions securely, has the most and widest user/broker/exchange/merchant/miner support, and does everything it needs to do for both e-commerce transactions and SoV, why look elsewhere for anything else?

If you can't answer honestly without throwing in " 'cause speculation reasons", then you are full of shit. Because outside of that, trying to get rich on a flyer or something, you'd have no valid reason.

Umm... you realize that shit needs to be paid for _somehow_, right?