Just for the record - I actually went looking up Bitcoin prices for 2017 and it is a bit wow.
The year started at $800 (by the way, Bitcoin itself first started trading at $1 in Feb 2011) In June it reached $3000 for the first time In August it reached $4000 On 1st September it hit $5000 mid September China cracked down with regulations and it plunged to $2900 by mid October it was > $6000 by November it had passed $10 000 by the end of the year, having started at $800, it was just shy of $20 000.
Oh for a time machine, eh? Nip back and buy in 2011.
It crashed in January this year and is now sitting shy of $7000.
Like I said. Time machine. 2011, pick me up a $500 investment, late December 2017, make me a cool $9 900 000
TR, top response and you have proved your case particularly with this to-the-point summary
Can I photograph children in public? Yes, there is no law restricting photography of children in public places. However, the images cannot be indecent and the photographer cannot be creating a ‘public nuisance’. In addition, the photographs cannot be for commercial use.
No argument here, governments may not want total control of individual lives but they are certainly trying to build in enough laws to control anything that might crop up, no matter how far-fetched
Threatened with stupendous fines is lovely media-fodder and spreads the word, don't DO THIS.
Forced to pay large fines or be jailed hasn't as best I know happened yet to anyone doing something previously considered unexceptional, and will be grounds for general horrified revolt.
No?
If there are cases you're the man to find the links
Actually I have a Biff coin here which is probably the best investment you'd ever make. I can't tell you what the pics are or someone may start counterfeiting them but believe me - worth every penny.
Len, hi! Belgium taxes speculation money? Ouch. I think most countries say that winnings are tax free but spending saving or investing the income will find the govt standing with its hand out.
I'll look up the John Oliver one, when he isn't being a prat and taking the mickey he is very good indeed, ta.
Viking, interesting you say that, it was my understanding bitcoin can't be used for anything, it can't even be linked as a credit on your bank cards, the only way to use it is to cash it and the authorities were trying to control all the cashing in points - to the point where they are offering them. Which comes straight back to it increasingly becoming mainstream.
With value for one bitcoin sitting at $6K today that would have to be one helluva cup of coffee
LJ good at least I'm not the only one finding it complicated!
What worries me is that every form of banking before, numbered bank accounts and all, have been tied to real currency, backed by real assets, at least in theory.
Now something that has no physical links, that can be lost forever if you lose your codes, that has absolutely no existence at all, is less physical than a soap bubble, is increasingly being seen as a valid investment. That can't possibly be right.
I do know that shares bought for a dollar can be worth hundreds, even thousands, of dollars and the only piece of paper connected to them will always have the face value of one dollar. Their value can soar or crash too, and that's part of the gamble. But somewhere along the line that share and its soap bubble value is linked to something physical. It is traceable, it is owned, it is bought and sold. This isn't. It does my head in a bit.
Mimi, that's why I sneered back when I had the chance at a price I could afford. I didn't understand what it is and I didn't take the chance and ok I'm sorry now but although I AM a risk-taker I do have to know what risk I am taking.
I don't like things I can't understand, and I really don't like things I can't understand becoming mainstream, and it is.
I really really don't want to wake up one day and find the small amount of savings I have had been invested by my bank in cryptocurrency and oops, sorry Biff, we lost it all. Yet cryptocurrency is increasingly moving into the shipping lanes.
And sure it has nearly halved since then, but it is still bobbling way, way higher than entry price if I hadn't sneered and refused to risk entry price
Mimi, people have been saying that for over a year and the reason I'm asking is the value of a single bitcoin clearing $10K in November. Holy moley. I knew people getting excited when it cleared $250.
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but believe me - worth every penny. 
I'm rich, I tell ya, RICH!
Sometimes a person, a name, personifies a whole time of your life
Last one on this blog. Apologies to everyone who feels blogs should be for the entertainment of all - bite me.