I'm sorry, but this doesn't seem like a legit story to me. What's the point of travelling countries in order to set big BTC deals in person?
Can't the "high ranking government officials" simply use a big crypto exchange(or a DEX) to buy/sell Bitcoins?
The conspiracy theory about Bitcoin being created by the CIA will keep lurking around the internet forever. So far, nobody had found any legit evidence that CIA created Bitcoin. I assume that the guy you were talking to was a little bit delusional.
I don't believe that a random guy would just meet me somewhere and start talking about his business. What if I was a criminal and that guy told me that he owns lots of Bitcoin? I would probably kidnap him and ask for a ransom. Telling random strangers about your business is a stupid move.

Yeah, but I guess that Iceland could potentially boost their electricity production from geothermal sources.
Nobody is saying that Iceland should stop supplying the houses, schools, hospitals and the "brick and mortar" industry with electricity in order to reallocate it to the Bitcoin mining farms. That would be ridiculous.
Increasing the capacity of the geothermal industry would require massive investments. I don't know how "crypto friendly" Iceland currently is and will this "crypto friendly status quo" remain in the future.  Perhaps the crypto haters and FUDsters in the country would try to stop any investments that are related to the crypto mining industry because "Bitcoin/crypto is wasting energy." or some random BS explanation.

"Every remedy can be a poison and every poison can be a remedy. What matters is the quantity."
I'm not saying that moderate gambling is a "remedy". It's just a way to have fun and spend some time and money.
Gambling moderately is OK(I won't say that it's something good), excessive gambling, which leads to addiction is bad.
The same applies to all bad habits. Basically, you are wasting your time and money for the sake of having a dopamine boost in your brain.
There are other more useful things to do in your life to give you dopamine, but we have chosen to play gambling games.
In summary, I think that gambling isn't completely neutral, it stands somewhere between "neutral" and "bad".

 

It would be great if your friend explains in detail about this scam. This would be more helpful, rather than just saying "don't connect wallets to suspicious apps and don't click on suspicious links". What was the scam about? Investing BTC in a HYIP/ponzi scheme, which promises 10000% return? What was the name of the scam? More people should be aware of this scam and stay away from it.
Yes, greed is a big sin, but greed also makes the people invest in assets like Bitcoin. In your friend's case, it's not about greed only . It's about not being cautious, not doing your doo diligence, being ignorant and naive.

I'm dreaming about a washing machine right now, because my washing machine broke yesterday.
I don't have any problems with my attitude towards money. My only problem is the quantity of my money. The more, the better, but that doesn't mean that I'm greedy. Inflation freakin' sucks...
Fancy and luxurious stuff are for the rich people. If you are poor, dreaming about luxurious items(or directly buying them) is simply stupid.
I don't think that I have a particular goal in my life. I'm living day by day. Maybe this is a wrong approach, but I just hate making plans for my life 1,2,5 or 10 years ahead. You never know what's gonna happen, so long term plans aren't my thing.

I would bet 50-100 USD, not more. Betting large amounts on a single game would probably make the bookies suspicious and they would block your bet. Another thing is that I would never bet a big amount on a game, just because somebody told me that he is 100% sure about the game being rigged. You never know who is lying and who is telling the truth. I'm curious. How could somebody prove to you that a match is going to be rigged? He talked to the players or maybe the coach of one of the teams? He talked to the owner/s of one of the teams?
Do you seriously believe in such sh*t?

I'm glad to hear that many businesses are accepting Bitcoin in your local area. I can't say the same thing about my local area.
I wouldn't say that buying a small amount of BTC is a bold step. A bold step would be to put all your life savings into Bitcoin. I wouldn't recommend that, because the price volatility and all the ups and downs might influence you into making some wrong financial decisions.
You should remember that strong hands are the ones that will win and weak hands will always lose at the end.
Good luck with your Bitcoin journey, OP.

So basically this guy(and other CEOs in the crypto business) claims that cryptocurrencies are actual currencies and the crypto companies should be treated as banks by the authorities. The term "payment systems" doesn't mean anything, if you ask me.
The authorities are stating that cryptocurrencies are NOT actual currencies. The cryptocurrencies are financial assets/securities and the crypto companies should be regulated by the SEC.
I don't think that a stablecoin should be treated as a real currency. Stablecoins are more like pseudo-currencies. They aren't completely crypto, but they aren't completely fiat as well.
I don't know why the Circle CEO is complaining. The big centralized crypto companies must be regulated strictly. It doesn't matter which institution is going to regulate them-SEC or the congress.

What? There's a forum thread about the Saudi football league and it's active only because Cristiano Ronaldo plays in Saudi Arabia?
Signing with Ronaldo seems like a great marketing move by the owners of Al-Nassr(but a very expensive one). Now more people around the world are going to pay attention to the Saudi Arabian football teams. It's obvious that Ronaldo is too good to play in this league, but at the same time he's not good enough to play in a big European team. I'm glad that he still has the opportunity to entertain the football fans around the globe with his goals and skills. Perhaps more big names of the European football might come and play in Saudi Arabia in the not too distant future.

Was the world less crazy 100 years ago? Or 500 years ago? Or 1000 years ago? Can you mention some period in the human history, when the world wasn't crazy? There are way less wars right now, compared to the middle ages. We are living in the best times of the human civilization.
The topic about USA banning Bitcoin has been discussed a million times. Do you add anything new to the discussion. Nope.
If Bitcoin gets banned in the USA, it will continue to exist in other countries. The price would probably be way lower, but the blockchain will stay alive. True Bitcoiners don't care that much about the price.

Congratulations for your win, OP. I assume that your win is genuine and you didn't fake some screenshots.
I would never bet 300 USD or more on long term bets, because I don't trust the betting platforms enough. Let's say that I bet 1000USD on a sports event that will happen after 3 years. To me, 3 years is a lot of time. Anything can happen after 3 years. The sports betting platform might go out of business and scam it's users, or one or more of  the players participating in that sports event might get severely injured.
It would be as if I'm wasting money.
Predicting the outcome of events, that will happen in the distant future is extremely difficult and requires lots of luck.
Did you receive your winnings? I can't believe that a crypto casino would agree to pay half a million to a single winner.
I guess that you could retire as a millionaire with your successful bets.
 

I don't think that those are the main reasons why these companies went bankrupt.
FTX was a scam. The other companies also made some irresponsible financial decisions, risking their investor's money.
Almost all the crypto companies in this list had business models, that weren't sustainable and risked everything hoping for bullish crypto market.
An then, the crypto winter came... I don't really think that the crypto winter came because of the war in Ukraine. Back in February-April 2022, the Bitcoin price was moving between 34K and 44K USD. Yes, the war in Ukraine influenced the global markets in a negative way, but the influence is exaggerated.

There's a financial law called the "Thomas Gresham law". Thomas Gresham states that "bad money drives out good". I've written multiple times about this in previous forum posts. Bitcoin is "good money" because it preserves value. Fiat money and almost all shitcoins are "bad money", because they lose value. This means that they have to be spent now, otherwise they will be worth less tomorrow. Bitcoin should NOT be spent now, because it will gain value tomorrow. I don't care about Bitcoin not being used as a normal currency on a daily basis. Gold is also "good money". Do you see any people using gold as a currency for daily purchases? Nope.
I couldn't care less about marketcaps, Bitcoin dominance or the altcoins, tokens, smart contracts, applications, etc.
It's a free market, if the people want tokens and smart contracts, let them buy what they want.

To be honest, the game between Man United and Barcelona was a little bit boring to me.
My expectation that United will win became a reality. Ten Hag won the game by making the right substitutions(especially Antony).
Barcelona simply lost control over the game after a certain moment. They have a young team and I think that Barcelona has a bright future, if the financial problems don't force the team to sell more players.
United is ready to win this season of the Europa League. I can't see any other team in the competition, that is good enough to beat them.

I'm a bit skeptic about mass Bitcoin adoption and I don't think that your prediction will come true.
The vast majority of the people around the world will always obey to the governments/central banks. The Bitcoiners/crypto supporters will always remain a minority. There are multiple factors that will stop mass Bitcoin adoption-like price volatility, lack of convenience, all the FUD propaganda about crypto being a scam, crypto scams, scaling, etc...
We live in a civilization, where hierarchy is really important and the majority of the people always have to obey to come kind of elite. I believe that Bitcoin/blockchain cannot change and cannot make the world more egalitarian. There will always be a political and financial elite. Thinking that Bitcoin could possibly change this is simply naive.

Taiwan is a major microchip manufacturer. The global microchip shortage will increase, due to such war. I guess that the global electronics industry will suffer losses, but I'm sure that the global economy can adapt and solve this issue. Perhaps the USA and China might be facing some economic difficulties and this might help for boosting the European economy, reducing the Chinese import to Europe and increasing the European export to both USA and China. Nobody knows what will happen.
The strategists at Washington and Beijing must be calculating the potential costs and benefits of such conflict, and they probably know whether or not it's worth it for the USA and China to engage in such war.

Son-in-law? Really?
The better plan is:
1.Kidnapp the owner's daughter.
2.Use your flirting skills and make her fall in love with you.(Stockholm syndrome, anyone).
3.Make her pregnant.
4.Congratulations. Your son/daughter will inherit a successful gambling business.

The last story is the most interesting, because the casino robber returns to the casino and spends the ships there(in order to get the money), but the casino guys bribe him with free meals and luxury stuff. This is hilarious and kinda ironic. The casino always wins, even after you rob it.

I partially agree with the statement "Fix the money, fix the world". However, there are several problems here.
We can fix the money globally, if gold coins become the global currency again(or we revive the gold standard all around the world). The problem is that there's not enough gold to make enough gold coins to cover all global transactions.
The same thing can be applied to Bitcoin. We could make Bitcoin the one and only global currency, but the Bitcoin Core blockchain cannot handle all the financial transactions in the world. Scaling remains the main problem, when it comes to fixing the global finance.

Please don't mistake the people who are financially irresponsible with the "working poor" members of the working class. There's a definition of "working poor" in Wikipedia. You can check it out. There are people, who aren't making any irresponsible financial decisions(like buying expensive coffee, smoking, drinking alcohol, having gym memberships), but they still don't make enough money from their job to make ends meet. Who is to be blamed in that situation? The people, who are working in such low paying jobs(because they lack education and skills to get a better job) or the labor market/employers/the government? I think that everyone can be blamed for the harsh conditions of the "working poor". The workers have to educate themselves and develop better skills, the employers have to pay higher salaries and the government has to create a better environment for the businesses to grow and make more money.

Great victory for Real Madrid. This team cannot be stopped. They might win another edition of the UEFA Champions League.
Trent Alexander Arnold was horrible at defending his zone and almost all attacks by Real were there.
David Alaba was also bad at defense, but his injury and the replacement by Nacho stabilized Real's defense and had a tremendous impact over the game. Vinicius Jr. and Benzema are unstoppable in attack. Valverde also did a great job.
What surprised me is Thibaut Courtois making mistakes. This isn't normal for him. Anyway, great game with lots of goals. It was real pleasure for the football fans to watch.