LIVE now: The Bitcoin Group #149 - “Satoshi” Speaks - Alphabay Down - $50M Fund - $55,000 Bitcoin

The Bitcoin Group, the American Original, for over the last ten seconds, the sharpest satoshis, the best bitcoins, the hardest cryptocurrency talk.

We’d like to welcome …. OUR PANELISTS

Tone Vays from Liberty Life Trail
Kyle Torpey from CoinJournal
Blake Anderson, Crytpographic Economist
and I’m Thomas Hunt from the World Crypto Network

THIS WEEK:

Issue 1 - So-called Satoshi Speaks - Craig Wright shared more of his controversial opinions recently, speaking at the Future of Bitcoin conference in the Netherlands. Wright is on the side of the bigger blockers, saying loudly that Bitcoin should be used for buying coffee, that Nodes should cost $20,000, that scaling could be fixed in 3 hours and that Blockstream developer Greg Maxwell is secretly working with the Australian Tax office to track him down. ??? your thoughts on Wright’s Ramblings?

Exit Question - Forced Prediction, Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto - Yes or No?

Issue 2 - Bitcoin Replaced?

Erik Voorhees, legendary bitcoiner and CEO of the Shapeshift exchange thinks that Bitcoin could be replaced, if the scaling issue is not settled. The debate, which has been going on for the past two years, has according to Vorhees been settled by Segwit2x. The CEO lends his support to not only Segwit but also hard forking bitcoin. He claims Bitcoiners are generally not interested in the scaling debate and that a solution should be adopted post haste. ??? your thoughts on Mr. Voorhees thoughts and ideas?

Exit Question - Choose an altcoin to replace Bitcoin -- Why?

Issue 3 - Alphabay temporarily out of service - The darknet marketplace AlphaBay was offline for more than two days, making many believe that they had exit scammed or been acquired by law enforcement. The administrators posted that they had been doing maintenance, but we have heard that one before. ?? what is the future of darknet markets? Will we continue to see single centralized site like Alphabay or will we see decentralized options like Open Bazaar, what was once called Dark Market?

Exit Question - Keeping Ross Ulbricht in prison for the rest of his life is having a real and direct affect on the spread of Darknet markets -- limiting their use and providing a prohibitive example that is making others change their minds and turn their backs on millions of dollars - Yes or No?

Issue 4 - $50M Bitcoin Fund - A former manager from Bain Capital has created a $50 Million dollar fund made up of rich families from Latin America, who according to one advisor, cannot store their savings in local currency because it is “not smart”. The fund will be mostly locked in, until 180 days after the next Bitcoin halving in 2020. Is this a smart investment, will we see more Bitcoin based funds like this in the future? ????

Exit Question - Better to hodl or to trust a fund? What should you do with your Bitcoin when they become more valuable?

Issue 5 - Bitcoin $55,000? - A major wall street strategist has weighed in on Bitcoin and he thinks it could rise to $20,000 to $50,000 in the next five years, saying so in his report entitled “A framework for valuing bitcoin as a substitute for gold.” Gold he says, is on it’s way out -- Bitcoin on it’s way in. ?? do you agree with his analysis? Are you incredibly bullish for Bitcoin in the long term?

Exit Question - The price of Bitcoin, this time next week, will be --- Higher or Lower?

AND NOW
PREDICTIONS or Story of the week

Oooop! We’re out of time... Until next time... Bye Bye!

THIS WEEK:

Craig Wright Speech Full (starts at 2:28:38)

Today in Bitcoin (2017-07-04) - Excerpts from Craig Wright’s Speech

Voorhees: Bitcoin Will Probably Be Replaced If Scaling Resolution Not Found This Summer
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/voorhees-bitcoin-will-probably-be-replaced-if-scaling-resolution-not-found-summer/

Alphabay is currently down

AlphaBay, Biggest Online Drug Bazaar, Goes Dark, and Questions Swirl
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/business/dealbook/alphabay-online-drug-bazaar-goes-dark.html

Former Bain Manager Launches $50 Million Bitcoin and Ethereum Fund
http://www.coindesk.com/former-bain-manager-launches-50-million-bitcoin-ethereum-fund

First major Wall Street strategist weighs in on bitcoin, sees it worth as much as $55,000
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/07/strategist-tom-lee-weighs-sees-bitcoin-going-as-high-as-55000.html