Holy Cow Bells Batman! The good news is the price of Bitcoin continues to be robust, ~$7750, refusing to retreat meaningfully from the ATH despite some nerve wracking developments; it is up an astonishing $7000 YOY.  

![IMG_1884.JPG](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXMAFqJ4SxB3GiWStvruB39RdQLs4uHd85YqYnsdQGZUq/IMG_1884.JPG)

FEES
Earlier this month there was a "fee attack" that drove the BTC price down to almost $5600, BCH in turn skyrocketed while reinforced with a media campaign. In essence, bad actors had input a high volume of BTC transactions with very high fees attached, the miners serviced those high fee transactions while lower fee transactions held up for a week or so in the mempool. Miners at the same time left BTC for BCH's higher inflation-driven incentives. The attack seems to be retreating and the recommended "fastest and cheapest transaction fee is currently 330 satoshis/byte" according to  bitcoinfees.earn.com. Earlier in the week that recommendation was over 800 sat/B. In the screen shot below you can see some one paying $50 to send $60, a 3,373 sat/B rate! To put this in perspective we patient old school Bitcoiners are used to inputting a 21 sat/B rate and getting confirms within a few hours. 

![fee.PNG](https://steemitimages.com/DQmboiDKugSDMjbyzoFwTz4yDDuyEAesC7jStk2t3D14PUK/fee.PNG)

VOLUME
The total number of transactions, or volume was also much higher than usual a  week ago and that too has subsided. Although I think the screenshot below cannot be correct, something must be screwy with bitcoin.info at this time. There were definitely more than 8 over the last 24 hours.

![txlow.PNG](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcKZ4MYEyP5v4YHYyGV2Fvu4ZqmbaQiPb2HjxeZ9izYxw/txlow.PNG)

SHOUT OUTS
It is quite amazing that several months ago when BTC was several thousands of dollars lower than it is now, Clif High predicted it would hit ~$6888 towards the end of this calendar year, which it did and more. Then it would retreat, which it did. Now it will pass ~$11,000 by February, from his lips to God's ears. You know scouring the web for signs of things to come is a legit thing. The University of New Mexico has several professors on it doing great work and Clif High has impressive methods he refines regularly.  People like Smaulgld's Louis Cammarissano, who have predicted nothing of consequence and are incapable of doing so, should keep Clif's name out of their inept mouths. 
Richard Heart also barely missed his $6000 call. On Sept 17th, when BTC was ~$3800, Richard predicted $6000 within 3 weeks. It happened on Oct 20th . But I'm giving it to him. The boldness of his call regarding the huge percentage rise in such a short amount of time leaves one wondering, mouth agape, how the hell did he know that? He then called for $20,000.03 by New Year's Eve. Again, from his lips to God's Ears.

TO COME
As robust as BTC is there are still serious concerns I'll elucidate shortly. A BTC / Steem ratio update as well.

![viaveritasvita.PNG](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPS9pu78snQZGn6LiGYpxwSnuhJHTUyT1tsFvQaLnWBUh/viaveritasvita.PNG)

Bitcoin Welcome

![btcqrcode.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQ3pSE2zx9ttJXmSpFHwgJa5mLw8g9GyzFZLfJRSBNQw7/btcqrcode.png)

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