Just in case anybody in this thread have not heard about the latest news on Bitcoin adoption by PayPal, here is the Bloomberg article outlining this:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-08/ebay-s-paypal-unit-to-start-accepting-bitcoin-payments.html
It is almost hard to believe that from a rival and a strong opponent of Bitcoin, PayPal themselves became the adopt.
What it basically means in simpler terms is that merchants and their customers who are using PayPal  (152 million registered accounts !!!) will now be able to seamlessly transact via Bitcoin. Considering that Ebay/PayPal is the world's biggest marketplace, this is a huge positive news for Bitcoin innovation to which however market has not yet reacted.

It does looks like the price is now stabilizing at the current levels (we are no longer bouncing off those 1K+ BTC walls), so I really think we are on the verge of some very interesting times for Bitcoin.

I no longer see them as of late.

I think this is a major misconception.
People who are spending Bitcoins for goods tend to replenish their holdings, so whatever the amount of coins that merchants are not holding, goes back to these people.
Major positive factor related to the adoption spread is the exponential increase in number of people being directly exposed to Bitcoin. That is, new people are not just hearing some news reports about Bitcoin, but they are seeing its actual use in real life.
About the "incentives for the average joe", it is mainly in the very human nature. "Joe" will first of all see an investment opportunity (...vs. credit/debit cards that can be used to spend ONLY).

Yes, I agree, the platform runs smoothly.

Still, there are like half a dozen questions still open here. Important questions too, like about "insurance" and "legal status". No FAQ yet, and generally no Bitfinex folks writing here for weeks.

There where more posts, more info and closer communication with Giancarlo.

I hope this is still acclimatization time and not sit-it-out time.

Ente

Ente (as always) has some good points!

Also what happened to the announced "Swap Bot", is this still planned?
This was somewhat controversial in here.

This gets even more painful from the UK - my choices to move cash to 'finex are an expensive international wire and a crappy GBP/USD exchange rate, or a somewhat less expensive SEPA transfer and a crappy GBP/EUR rate, followed by a crappy EUR/USD rate, and a trading fee each way going in/out of bitcoin plus any losses to slippage or price movements.

First decent exchange with "Faster Payments" support gets my business forever...

As a fellow Brit I use Netagio, they are an exchange based in the UK, and their main business is converting GBP to BTC (or gold bars!).
Their order book is a bit empty and you will need to validate your address bank account. But they do make getting BTC a lot easier if you have British bank account.

Lenders like will not go under 0.04% for a given day,  under any circumstances.

Interesting. I'd come across them before and been turned off by their FAQ. Specifically the mention of "To prevent fraudulent activity and to protect ourselves as well as our customers, we impose a withdrawal wait time on the money that you deposit in your account", paired with the detail page that lists a delay of 3+ weeks if you want to withdraw 100% of your balance.

Seemed kinda sketchy to be imposing long waits like that. How has your experience been with them?

Also...


First I thought I wasn't going to go under 0.05% under any circumstances. Then I thought I wasn't going to go under 0.04% under any circumstances. That's already turned out to not be true so I'm just hoping supply/demand doesn't push us down to 0.03% because it's become apparent that no-one's going to really draw a line in the sand (or if not 'no-one', then not enough people).