​The rising price of Bitcoin throughout 2017 has seen more and more domainers investing in the Bitcoin space. This was also the case, to a lesser degree, during the bull market of 2013, which saw the price rise from $13 to $1,100. By domainers, I mean those who legitimately buy domain names in order to resell them for higher prices, as opposed to domain squatters who register domains that infringe on the trademarks of others.

This move into Bitcoin by domainers makes perfect sense, due to the similarities between the two investments. Domain names, like Bitcoin, are digital assets that can produce returns on investment unheard of in other asset classes. Seeing Bitcoin rising, after the crash in late 2013 and the subsequent plateau in price that lasted until late 2016, has convinced many domainers that Bitcoin is here to stay, with the potential for even greater gains in the future.

Domainer investing in Bitcoin has come from multi-millionaire heavyweights of the industry who own portfolios of single word .com domain names, right through to those who flip low value domains to other domainers on forums. This across the board interest has led to some leading domainer blogs publishing Bitcoin related content. In turn, a debate has arisen as to whether domainer blogs are the appropriate platform for discussing Bitcoin.

While Bitcoin is rising in price, this trend of domainer investment is likely to continue. If, on the other hand, there is a significant crash followed by an extended period of lower prices, then domainer money will likely leave Bitcoin and go back into domains.

Bitcoin Gold have just announced that their website will reside at BitcoinGold.org. This is an excellent domain name upgrade from their previous, somewhat confusing, domain btcgpu.org, which didn't exactly roll off the tongue. It now redirects to the new domain.

BitcoinGold.org says exactly what they are, is easy to remember, easy to pronounce and greatly strengthens their brand. You only need to hear or read it once and you've got it.  That's the power of a great domain name.

The .org domain extension works well for Bitcoin Gold, as they want to identify as an organization. If they decide that they want the .com to use as a redirect, it's available here for $287,500. That's less than three Bitcoin in 2018, according to some :) We'll see.

After topping $6,000, the Bitcoin price has pulled back to around $5,500, now that the Bitcoin Gold snapshot of Bitcoin block 491407 has occurred. Holders of Bitcoin who controlled their own private key at the time of the snapshot have locked in their entitlement to receive an equivalent quantity of free Bitcoin Gold (Bgold) in November.

A percentage of those who bought into the Bitcoin market, or increased their holdings, with the specific intent of obtaining free Bgold, are now selling. Whether this is in exchange for fiat or alternate cryptocurrencies, the result is a slight decrease in demand for Bitcoin and a lowering of the price.

Will we see another spike leading into the Segwit2x fork next month? It's certainly possible, however, unlike the friendly Bgold fork, Segwit2x has anything but pure motives.

Recently I wrote an article about a Bitcoin Gold scam site, claimbtcgpu.org, that was trying to trick unsuspecting visitors into entering the private key to their Bitcoin, under the guise that this was a requirement to claim free Bitcoin Gold. Shortly afterwards, the site was shut down.

Undeterred, the same scammers are back, however, this time they are using the domain name claimbitcoin.gold. They have also set up a twitter account that is strikingly similar in appearance and name to the official Bitcoin Gold twitter account. You can see a screenshot of it in the image at the top of this article. The username of the fake account is Bitcoin Gold @btcgpu, while the official account is Bitcoin Gold @bitcoingold. The use of btcgpu in addition to the name Bitcoin Gold makes it seem particularly official, as btcgpu.org is the official website of the real Bitcoin Gold.

To sweeten the deal, and the appeal of the trap, the scammers are claiming to reward those who sign up with 100 free Bitcoin Gold, in addition to one for every Bitcoin held. Hopefully the fake website and twitter account will be taken down soon, but don't be surprised to see them rear their ugly heads again using yet another domain name and social media account.

You can be sure that you don't fall for this or any other Bitcoin scam, now or in the future, by never sharing your Bitcoin Private Key or Bitcoin Seed. Any party asking for this information is attempting to access and take possession of your Bitcoin. 

Many cryptocurrency investors are rushing to move their money out of altcoins and into Bitcoin. This has been sparked by the continued bull run of Bitcoin to a price beyond $6,000, and the upcoming Bitcoin Gold and SegWit2x hard forks.

These hard forks will see Bitcoin holders rewarded with free cryptocurrency dividends, in the form of Bitcoin Gold and SegWit2x coins. Rewards for each fork will match the quantity of Bitcoin that an investor holds.

While some may move money back into altcoins once they have received their free coins, this remains to be seen. Where the price of Bitcoin lies when dividends are distributed, and the opening value of the free coins themselves, will certainly contribute to the decisions investors make in this regard.

After a short pullback, Bitcoin has risen again to set yet another all time high. The price went above $6,000 for the first time, peaking at $6,064. At the time of writing Bitcoin is sitting at exactly $6,000.

It's hard to believe that just a week ago I was writing this article about Bitcoin setting a new all time high above $5,000. Things are moving fast, and what seems like an unbelievable price, looks like a bargain a brief time later.

With just a few days until the Bitcoin Gold hard fork and SegWit2x following shortly after that, it could well be that the price will go higher as investors increase their holdings or enter the market, looking to cash in on the cryptocurrency dividends that these forks will provide to holders of Bitcoin.

While there are no pricing certainties in the cryptocurrency world, the one thing you can be sure of is that there are interesting times ahead.

1. Buy and Hold
Buy Bitcoin, don't sell it, don't trade it, just hold it. This strategy has served many Bitcoin investors exceptionally well over the journey. While there have been some serious price crashes along the way, eventual rebounds to new all time highs have always followed, so far. Those who haven't panic sold during the dips have reaped the rewards of the peaks.

Buy and hold is a simple strategy providing that you only invest what you can afford to lose. When you don't abide by this, things aren't quite so easy. In fact, they can get seriously ugly. If there is a major crash in price, followed by an extended recovery period, you may be forced to sell at a loss if you need the funds. This happened to many people who bought at the peak in 2013 and the losses they took were huge. For those who didn't need to access what they invested and have held until now, the losses never materialized, and incredible gains in price have followed.

2. Trade
There are those who have made their fortunes trading bitcoin, however, they are the minority. Most traders lose, and in a volitile market like Bitcoin, the losses can be swift and significant.

If you are going to trade with peace of mind and keep your shirt if things go south, then only invest what you can afford to lose. Next, either be an experienced trader in other markets, or learn how to trade, read and interpret charts and understand and manage risk. If you go in green then you are taking up gambling, not investing.

3. Buy, Hold and Take Profits
This is a variation of buying and holding, where you hold an amount of Bitcoin that is at least equivalent to your initial cash investment and take out profits when you need them.

The downside to taking profits is that you are decreasing, rather than growing, your Bitcoin holdings over time. A drop in the market can also reduce the value of your holdings to an amount lower than your initial cash investment. And if you find yourself moving money in and out and trying to time the market, you have become a trader.

4. Hold Some, Trade Some
This is where you set aside a percentage of your Bitcoin that you will hold and a percentage that you will trade. Now if you have one or two successful trades, it can be tempting to think that you're an expert and risk trading more of your Bitcoin holdings. Be careful. A series of good trades can be quickly erased by one bad one. Good intentions of a 90% hold, 10% trade portfolio can turn into an 'all in' which usually results in a 'win for the house' so to speak.

Until now, the Bitcoin Gold (also known as BTG or Bgold) website btcgpu.org simply had links to its social media accounts. Thankfully, it has undergone an update and important information about the project has been added. This includes summaries of its main features, the names, roles and photographs of team members, the names and roles of companies and services involved in the ecosystem, a frequently asked questions section and a blog.

The other thing that has been added, is the slogan, 'Make Bitcoin Decentralized Again'. This refers to their new Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm that aims to give ordinary users a chance to mine Bitcoin Gold from their home computers, as was possible in the early days of Bitcoin (BTC).

Btcgpu.org is worth look and will be a good place to stay up to date with news about this fast approaching friendly fork of Bitcoin.  You can also learn more by reading, Bitcoin Gold: The Next Bitcoin Hard Fork is Coming and This Bitcoin Gold Scam Site is Trying to Steal Your Bitcoin.

With the Bitcoin hard forks of Bitcoin Gold and SegWit2x set to take place over the next month or so, many investors have got their sights set on the cryptocurrency dividends that will be awarded as a result.

Holders of Bitcoin will be eligible to receive these cryptocurrency dividends in the form of an equivalent number Bitcoin Gold coins and Segwit2x coins. So for every Bitcoin you have, you will get one of each of the other coins created by the forks. This could in turn, be traded for more Bitcoin.

These upcoming dividends have prompted many Bitcoin investors to hold rather than take profits and to buy more Bitcoin. New investors are also entering the market seeing the opportunity to gain additional cryptocurrency for free.

Today Bitcoin smashed through the $5,000 barrier to set a new all time high of more than $5,200. Back on September 1 this year, the price went just above $5,000 for a brief time, only to fall back below $4,000 later in the month.

Earlier this week, Bitcoin analyst Tone Vays predicted that the price was on the verge of an all time high, but that it must go above $6,000 and preferably $7,000 for $5,000 to act as strong support in the case of a fall. If it were to only go to $5,500 and turn around, $5,000 would not act as critical support and things could get ugly.

At the time of writing, the price is sitting just below $5,200. Strap yourselves in people, because either way, the ride on this Bitcoin rocket is about to get wild.