Pastor Phil Vollman discovered Bitcoin in 2013, and despite a modest wage and a tight budget, he began accumulating small amounts. Over the next five years of disciplined savings, he managed to amass 14.2 BTC, along with 507 Litecoin.

Now this was no prosperity preacher plan, with dreams of lambos and luxury living. Rather, Phil, hoped to secure the financial future for his wife and children, including an adopted daughter, whom suffers from a disability.

Unfortunately, on July 29 last year, Phil's Bitcoin hopes were dashed when a scammer stole all of his 14.2 BTC and 507 LTC. This was not because he kept his crypto on an exchange that got hacked. In fact, Phil stored his private keys on a Trezor hardware device. However, on this particular day, when plugging the Trezor into his laptop he was prompted to do a firmware update. What Phil didn't realize was, that although the website appeared identical to the official Trezor site, it was a fake, set up by the scammer. 

Despite his better judgement, Phil followed the prompt to enter his seed words, which then allowed the thief to transfer away all of the Bitcoin and Litecoin. After so long taking the utmost care with crypto security, one mistake and years of saving and sacrifice were gone. And the reality is that at 68 years of age, with the current price of Bitcoin, there is no way that Phil will be able to acquire that much again. That is unless...

... the crypto community pulls together to help. We did it for Andreas Antonopoulos after Roger Ver questioned his investment choices. Some even did it for Peter Schiff, in an attempt to warm him up towards Bitcoin, despite his net worth already being 70 million dollars. So can we do it for Phil? I believe, yes.

With the backing of members of the crypto, business and Christian communities, a support site and fundraising campaign has been set up to get Phil and his family back to where they were before the thief struck.

A list of those supporting this campaign can be found here.
​You can donate and follow the progress of the fundraiser on Tallycoin.
Along with Bitcoin & Litecoin, Pastor Phil is now accepting donations of Bitcoin Rhodium (XRC). The QR codes for Bitcoin, Litecoin & XRC donations are also included below this article.

While I have only touched briefly on it here, Phil and his wife have lived an extraordinary life of serving and caring for others, particulary sick, disabled and unwanted children. You can read their full story, written by published author, F. Daniel Somrack, here: Bagpipes, Bitcoin and Broken Dreams.

In addition to this, crypto YouTuber, Brian the UK Bitcoin Master, hosted a show where Bitcoin storage and security expert, Rocky Palumbo, interviewed Pastor Phil about the loss of his Bitcoin and the events leading up to it. You can view it below and really get a feel for the heart of this man.

Boom! The Bitcoin rocket went parabolic today, blasting from the low 11,000s through $12,000 and onwards, falling just short of $13,000. While the price has dipped slightly since then, BTC is still showing strength and appears to be building for another push higher.

Above, you can see the current move compared to the Bitcoin bull run of 2017. Once again, the angle of the surge is nearly vertical. Strap yourself in, coz it looks like we're in for a thrilling ride. Bitcoin to the Moon... all aboard!

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Bitcoin is on a tear today, smashing through $10,000 and now $11,000, with no signs of slowing down. This latest move, means that BTC's value has more than tripled since its yearly low in February.

The mood amongst cryptocurrency enthusiasts is reminiscent of the 2017 bull run, which reached a point where daily $1,000 moves upward were expected. This time, however, the expectation is for a much higher level to be reached. While such gains are by no means a certainty, the belief in a significant new all time high has Bitcoin history on its side.

​Will the dream become reality? In my view, yes. Bitcoin to the Moon!

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Bitcoin's move from $9,000 to breaking the $10,000 barrier has been swift, and led to an immediate surge to just shy of 11k. After a slight dip from that point, BTC is now consolidating around $10,700.

If what happened from here in 2017 is anything to go by, then the stage seems set for a monster bull run to a new Bitcoin all time high. The difference being that this time the fundamentals of BTC, and infrastructure built around it, have advanced significantly. Throw into the mix, the announcement of Facebook's crypto project, Libra, and it appears that the perfect storm is brewing for the original cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, to go where it has never gone before.

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Bitcoin smashed through $9,000 just moments ago and is still on the rise as I type. This comes after a couple of previous attempts over the past three weeks, the second of which, saw the price plummet by $1,100. The recovery from that point, demonstrated the strength of the present BTC market, with a base established for the current push upwards.

During the 2017 crypto bull market, once Bitcoin broke the $10,000 barrier, the move to $20,000 was swift. Right now, if Bitcoin gets to 10k, increased awareness will see an even greater mainstream media frenzy than last time. The fear of missing out that this will create, combined with a huge increase in the quantity and capacity of Bitcoin onramps, could see unprecedented numbers of new investors piling in. Then... you do the math... Bitcoin to the Moon!

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On a recent trip to England, I had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with rising crypto YouTube sensation, Brian the UK Bitcoin Master. Not only that, I got to strap in and hang on, as Brian demonstrated the exhilarating acceleration of his cool, black Mercedes Benz convertible. Nice.

Brian is as decent a bloke as you'll meet. A friendly, honest, salt of the earth kind of guy, who is passionate about Bitcoin, his family and living life to the full. The way he presents on his, Bitcoin for Beginners YouTube videos is the way he comes across in real life. Genuine to a fault.

When it comes to Bitcoin, Brian's philosophy is simple, yet powerful... Buy some Bitcoin from a reputable exchange, such as Coinbase. Get it off the exchange and onto a hardware storage device (his preference is the Trezor). Get on with enjoying your life and wait for the halvings (an event every 4 years where the number of Bitcoin mined in each block is halved) to see the value of your BTC grow.

For Brian, Bitcoin is a savings account that anyone can use, with the potential of changing their own financial future and that of their family for generations to come. This can be done without the risk and stress of trading and without investing more than you can afford to lose. Buying a small amount of Bitcoin each payday or whenever you can afford to, adds up over time. And if the first ten years of Bitcoin's price growth are anything to go by, saving BTC could be far more lucrative than saving GBP, USD or whatever your local currency might be.

To learn more about Bitcoin, be sure to subscribe to Brian's YouTube channel. He livestreams twice a week, bringing you the latest BTC news and interviews with experts and influencers in the Bitcoin and crypto space.

The resilience of Bitcoin is on display for all to see, as the number one cryptocurrency continues to hold the line at the 8k level. Despite a dip back to $7,200, BTC rebounded just as quickly to retake $8,000. In the few days since then, the price has managed to hold, shrugging off moments of downward pressure.

May has been a huge month for crypto, seeing bullish sentiment return to the market, with Bitcoin leading the way, rallying from the low 5,000s to beyond $8,000. The next question is, will time spent consolidating around 8k, give Bitcoin the platform required to take the next step up to 9 or 10k, or will it lose momentum and move down?

In my opinion, the strength and consolidation we're seeing in BTC is creating the perfect scenario for a push to higher prices. And when Bitcoin moves, it will take the rest of crypto with it. Particularly the well established, top tier coins. So yes, I'm bullish. Bitcoin to the moon!
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While many thought that $6,000 or $6,500 would prove to be significant resistance points for Bitcoin, this has not been the case. Bitcoin blasted through both of those levels and has done the same with $7,000.

Fear of missing out is kicking in for those who were waiting for lower lows in the BTC price, anticipating a buying opportunity at $1,000 to $2,500 that never came. Bitcoin has once again demonstrated its unpredictable nature, rising regardless of well thought out theories, negative news stories, political opposition and the hacking of a major exchange.

The honey badger of money don't care... Bitcoin marches on to its own beat. Keep going BTC... to the moon!

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Since the November 2018 crash from 6k, Bitcoin has languished in the 3 to 4k range. That is, until last week when the price surged from $4,000 to $5000. The 5k mark stuck and now BTC has taken the next leg up to $5,250. This move has finally brought some bullish sentiment back into the crypto space.

Optimism is in the air, with a notable increase in Bitcoin online searches, social media posts, content creation, exchange speculation and record CME Bitcoin futures trading. Added to that, from a technical analysis perspective, BTC has moved above the 200 day moving average, which is historically a very bullish sign. As this list of positive happenings builds, the chorus  grows louder and louder, that this is the beginning of Bitcoin’s next bull run. Exciting stuff to ponder, considering that the last bull market saw Bitcoin reach an all time high of nearly $20,000 in December 2017. The return to that high and beyond is a day that many investors long for.

So can we say goodbye to the bear market and expect the Bitcoin price to continue moving upwards over the coming days, weeks and months? While there are growing signs that this may be the case, some still caution that Bitcoin has further to fall. Proponents of hyperwave theory believe that the price must decline to $1,000 or lower, before a climb to a new high can commence. While some Bitcoin maximalists take the view that altcoins, such as Ethereum, must die before the bear market can be declared over.

In my view, it is most likely that the bottom for Bitcoin is in, and these are the early stages of a new bull market. Bitcoin to the moon!
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Bitcoin holders have done it tough throughout this brutal bear market, seeing the price plunge from 20k all the way to the current sub 4k level. The sustained period of lower prices has taken its toll, and tested even the most hardcore hodlers to the limit. At such times, any development that can provide a boost to those who have weathered the storm is welcome. 

Thankfully, some good news is on its way for those flying the BTC flag, in the form of a free airdrop called MimbleWimbleCoin (MWC). Mimble what? Those familiar with Harry Potter will know that Mimblewimble is a curse that ties the tongue of the target to prevent them speaking about a particular topic. Thus, in crypto, the term 'MimbleWimble' was assigned to a protocol released in mid-2016, that provides a strong cryptographic framework, suitable for privacy focused blockchains.

To date, the most notable projects to utilize the MimbleWimble protocol are Grin and Beam. While they both have positive aspects to them, the downsides are considerable. Grin has no cap on its supply and Beam has adopted a company style governance structure. Enter ​MimbleWimbleCoin, which will fork the Grin code base, have a capped supply of twenty million, and be distributed exclusively to Bitcoin holders who sign up to receive the airdrop.

The combination of privacy features from the MimbleWimble protocol, store of value capabilities from a low cap supply and a straightforward distribution method to the strongest hodlers in crypto, could well see MimbleWimbleCoin become one of the rising stars during the next bull run.

Registration for the MWC airdrop opens on April 20, 2019, with the snapshot of the Bitcoin blockchain, to determine distribution, occurring on July 19, 2019. In addition to the airdropped coins, 50% of the supply will be Proof of Work minable and there will also be a rewards program for holding.

For further details about all aspects of MimbleWimbleCoin, visit the official website MWC.mw, follow on Twitter @M_W_Coin and join the MWC community on Discord.