Bitcoin is "fully valued" and could see a pullback in the short term after hitting $1,600 for the first time on Monday, according to one investor, but the price could go as high as $4,000 over the next 14 months.The cryptocurrency has been on an upward move since April and was trading around $1,575.52 by early afternoon trading in London after hitting an all-time high $1,601.05 during morning trade, according to the Coindesk bitcoin price index.In the last 30 days, bitcoin has risen over 33 percent.Negative bitcoin news The rally may seem perplexing given that there have been a number of setbacks for the cryptocurrency.These include: The U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) deciding to reject a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.This is now under review however.An ETF would have given further credibility to bitcoin and helped more institutional investors get involved.A fierce debate over the future of bitcoin's structure.The full explanation can be read here.

Issues with some exchanges, particularly Bitfinex, which cut off their access to the banking system meaning customers couldn't make withdrawals in fiat currency.So why the rally?At the same time, there have been some positive developments.Firstly, Japan legalized the cryptocurrency as a payment method recently and this has led to a greater amount of bitcoin being bought with yen, according to Aurelien Menant, founder and CEO of Gatecoin, a regulated blockchain assets exchange based in Hong Kong.The second reason could be to do with a change in the code of another cryptocurrency called litecoin.What happened with litecoin and why does it matter to bitcoin?Last month, there was a change in the code behind the technology that underpins litecoin.It is known as Segregated Witness (SegWit) and it allows the speed of transactions using the cryptocurrency to increase.This has given hope that bitcoin could see a similar thing.Fork debate recap To understand the issue, it's key to look at how bitcoin transactions are processed.

Transactions by users are gathered into "blocks" which is turned into a complex math solution.So-called miners, using high-powered computers work these solutions out to determine if the transaction is possible.Once other miners also check the puzzle is correct, the transactions are approved and the miners are rewarded in bitcoin.But there is a big backlog in transactions and the speed at which these are processed is slowing.litecoin no registrationThat's because the rules of bitcoin only allow a certain amount of transactions through in one block.bitcoin plus erfahrungenIn mid-March, the price of bitcoin saw a big drop because the community was afraid of a so-called "hard fork" which could have led to two blockchains forming, and therefore two separate cryptocurrencies.eu bitcoin vat

But the example of litecoin shows that a so-called "soft fork" can happen which would increase the block size for bitcoin without major disruption."That example of a successful soft fork in litecoin has made people start to think that we could get a successful SegWit implementation in bitcoin and that could increase capacity and move us to the next level," Daniel Masters, director at Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI), told CNBC by phone.wild beast bitcoinGABI is an investment fund that is listed on The International Stock Exchange on the Channel Islands.bitcoin texas holdemAnd what does this mean for price?ethereum pepeWhile bitcoin has seen a recent rally, previous peaks have seen sharp pullbacks in prices.Masters said the price rise has been "violent in the short-term" with bitcoin "fully valued for the moment".

This could lead to a pullback to around $1,100.However, the long-term outlook remains strong."In the 8- to 14-month horizon, my forecast would be around $4,000," Masters told CNBC.Others also expect high prices.Gatecoin's Menant said prices should climb beyond $3,000 this year.This currency convertor is up to date with exchange rates from June 24, 2017.Enter the amount to be converted in the box to the left of the currency and press the "convert" button.To show Litecoins and just one other currency click on any other currency.The Litecoin is the currency in no countries.The symbol for LTC can be written LTC.The LTC conversion factor has 6 significant digits.Recent months have seen a Bitcoin bonanza.I heard about the decentralized, online-only currency on NPR, the Drill Down (the tech podcast I listen to), in the newspaper, and while hanging out with friends.We discussed Bitcoin at a recent news meeting at National Geographic (where I work).I saw on Reddit that somebody invested their retirement in the currency.

Farhad Manjoo of Slate recently plunked down more than $1,000 to become a self-described speculator in the currency, getting 7.23883 Bitcoins for his troubles.And those troubles were considerable.Manjoo had to fill out a physical wire transfer to a vendor called LocalTill, after being thwarted on Mt.Gox, the best known Bitcoin exchange.Manjoo noted how the process of buying Bitcoins wasn’t easy or straightforward, though he predicted that as the market matures it may attract more casual investors.Is There Money in Bitcoins?When I decided to dip my toes in this market, on April 28, Bitcoins were trading for an average of one for $132.At the start of this year they were going for $20.The overall value of Bitcoins is estimated at $1 billion, and yet the currency isn’t yet a true household name.How popular and useful it becomes is very much to be seen, although there are some indications that major retailers may start processing payments with it (so far it has been largely used for black market goods online and by early investors).

Financial experts warn that the “bubble” may soon pop.Only weeks ago, Bitcoins were going for as high as $266, and trading has been volatile.Still, at least one hedge fund is investing in them, and there have been a number of similar “cryptocurrency” spinoffs, including Litecoin, which seeks to address some of the drawbacks of Bitcoin (it is said to be faster to verify and can be “mined” by computers with lower energy inputs, making it more eco-friendly, yay).On NPR’s “On the Media,” I heard financial journalist Felix Salmon cautioning that all this recent media attention is over-hyping Bitcoins.But the reporter also noted that if one had bought $100 in Bitcoins when it was first mentioned on Slashdot in 2009, that would have been worth roughly $1 million a few months ago.In 2009 I was highly active on social media sharing sites Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon, and I’m pretty sure I remember seeing an item about the then-new virtual currency cross my desktop.I’m also pretty sure I remember thinking it would have been fun, as well as prudent, to put $100 into Bitcoin, just to see what happens.

Now, I wish I had.My Grandpa and Dollar General My Grandpa, Levy Clark Howard, grew up in rural southern Kentucky in a poor farming family.He went to a one-room schoolhouse and shot squirrels for dinner.During WWII he built airplanes for the war effort.Over his work life, he tried his hand at many different jobs.He taught school, bought and sold houses, owned laundromats, and sold shoes.As a young man, he had been friends with Cal Turner.In 1939, Turner started a store in the southern Kentucky town of Scottsville and called it J.L.Turner & Son, Inc.According to my Grandpa, Turner had asked him to go in with him on the store.Over time, Turner’s store expanded and eventually changed names to Dollar General.There are now more than 10,000 Dollar General stores in 40 states.My Grandpa never became a millionaire.Far from it, he lived a solidly middle class life.He did stop in to see Turner every now and then, and the men enjoyed chatting about the old days in Kentucky.My Grandpa passed away years ago, but he never expressed regret to me that he hadn’t gone into business with Dollar General.

He always told me he was happy with how his life turned out.What Can We Learn From Grandpa?My Grandpa’s attitude seems healthy, though I do wonder what else I can learn from his experience.I have worked on several startup projects that didn’t pan out, and I was an early adopter in social media.The latter has helped me get jobs and consulting gigs, though I certainly haven’t seen a piece of the action on the order of a Mark Zuckerburg or Biz Stone.My Grandpa’s story teaches me that I shouldn’t dwell on past opportunities I didn’t take, but at the same time maybe I should try to remember to be open to new possibilities.And so I recently decided I would try to buy a single Bitcoin, as well as some Litecoins, which are going for around $2.7.It hasn’t been a very consumer friendly experience.I first went to Mt.Gox and signed up.I tried to wire money into my account there from my bank, Bank of America, but got the following message: “According to our records, this account was previously suspended from the Funds Transfer Service therefore it cannot be added at this time.” Mt.Gox offers few other payment options (no PayPal?), so then I tried to sign up for a service called Dwolla, which I hadn’t been familiar with.

In order to use Dwolla it requires a verified account on Mt.Gox.That requires uploading scanned documents, which would add extra time since I don’t have a scanner at home.I also couldn’t figure out a way to buy Litecoins with Dwolla.I saw that the exchange BTC, which sells Bitcoins and Litecoins, takes a service called OKPay, another I hadn’t heard of.So I signed up for that (after also signing up for BTC).In order to actually use OKPay, I had to get verified there.This took several weeks.At first, I didn’t read all the fine print, which requires that documents uploaded to OKPay be in color, so my first attempt was rejected.Eventually, I got verified.I then wired $200 to OKPay from my Bank of America account.It took a few weeks before that money got associated with my OKPay account; I had to file a service request and upload a scan of my wire receipt, since it didn’t appear in my account on its own.Finally, after my OKPay account showed the funds, I was able to go back to BTC.

By this point, the price of a Bitcoin had fallen to $90.So I put in an order to buy 1.After a few seconds, my BTC account showed I had 0.998 Bitcoins.For good measure, I spent my other $100 on Litecoins, in case this newer virtual currency becomes the next Bitcoin, and jumps in value.That transaction did not clear right away, it seems there aren’t as many willing Litecoin sellers at the moment.Litecoins are trickling into my account, at the rate of one per $2.734.This whole process was rather confusing, and a bit frustrating.It took a few hours of my time, time that I could have spent writing an article or cleaning my apartment.But I did learn a little something about virtual currency.I don’t expect to become a millionaire by making a few small investments in something a lot of people have heard about by now.But at least I’ll be able to say that I tried not to let an opportunity completely pass me by.Hopefully my Grandpa would agree.Once people can buy a cryptocurrency via PayPal, credit card, or brokerage account, do you think it will open the floodgates?