This is pathetic. We're starting to doubt 11 years later the reasons why the presumed Satoshi-owned 1M coins have not been burned/sold yet? Bitcoin started as a project nobody knew about and nobody could've predicted would ever become what it currently is. When Satoshi mined these coins, he did it while Bitcoin was worth literally nothing. He probably can't believe his own eyes right now, considering it all started as pretty much an attempted experiment after previous attempts such as Nick Szabo's. It's pretty silly how some people doubt it now, when Bitcoin turned into a big actual success.

I remember a while ago I used to publicly say Bitcoin shouldn't be subject to capital gains tax and received a lot of hate and suppositions such as me "being pro-tax evasion". It's interesting how some governments actually think the same way.

Gold has been the heaven of many current millionaires and billionaires, yet a quite unaffordable asset for the regular people. A gram of gold currently is worth more than 15% of the Romanian minimum wage. You can purchase BTC worth as much as you can afford to invest.. can't even comprehend how many of the top wealthiest people use different gimmicks to evade taxes legally - I think it's time to let the average person experience wealth as well.

IIRC, Germany actually does have capital gains tax for BTC but once you get past a certain amount of hodling time (1yr I believe), you don't have to pay taxes anymore. Feel free to correct me otherwise

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LE:
Regulation will likely be a thing in all of the EU member states quite soon, but time will tell. I would've expected 2020 to start quite strong with regulations here tbh, but they've been less aggressive with it than I thought (maybe due to the focus on pandemic?).

I spoke to quite a lot of people and the main fear they have when it comes to owning BTC or a Bitcoin business is the missing legal framework. Regulation is a double-edged sword - good from a business perspective but, depending on what "regulation" means, could be hell for hodlers if they come out with even worse stuff than KYC.

This attempt to "break the code" gives the strength of Monero and LN's codes a good contour. While both may be strong enough not to be broken yet, there has to be at least one little flaw in the coding - Bitcoin has had its own flaws but all have obviously been quickly fixed.

The thing is, if IRS is willing to pay someone for the flaw, I suppose we will never find out whether there is any that has ever been found or if they're making use of it at all. In other words, unless the community finds the exact same way to "break" the code, we'll never know about it.

It's funny how they're willing to break something that gives you privacy and freedom. It's like paying someone to break your house, or your safe. Seems like they're pretty afraid of XMR.

Quite interesting how, besides 2015, with all the other years we've had higher lows. I can't be patient enough to find out what 2021 holds for Bitcoin.

Lockdowns and recessions should theoretically pump Bitcoin, not make it bearish. Through the pandemic the world has been taught to use cash as least as possible, and Bitcoin solves that: you don't need ATMs to cash out your Bitcoins, nobody controls it etc. Bitcoin has the most advantages especially during these times imo.

If $4 is the amount you have to pay for an ETH tx fee, then BTC is way more affordable right now. Small sat/byte fees go through quite easily these days as far as I've noticed. Guess the DeFi hype caused some troubles with the ETH network.

ETH is only easier to understand from one perspective: you have a static address that you use every time. Otherwise, BTC is much more newbie-friendly imo.

But now going back to your question, I don't get what your plan is? It looks like you're stress-relieved when you make txs - is that what you're planning to do? Just to move funds from one wallet to another? As a newbie, the best stress reliever is securing your funds. Try to learn some stuff about wallet security (purchasing a Hardware Wallet is the easiest way) and secure your funds at all times. Once you're done, besides volatility, you won't have much of a stress anymore.

Well, there has never been and will never be any asset that will be perfectly stable. The only thing you can say is stable is that 1 BTC will always be worth 1 BTC.

But other currencies, like the USD, has much more stability than Bitcoin does. Bitcoin is volatile, while the top fiat currencies are somewhat stable.

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Bitcoin is not stable due to lots of factors. The major one imo is immaturity. Had the market been mature, we would've had a less volatile cryptocurrency. But honestly, we only have a few cycles that only might repeat at some point so we have no idea whether Bitcoin has its own cycles or goes against the standard. There are some typical cycles in our economies, like recessions that happen about every decade.

But BTC is way too young for us to know for example if the post-halving booms will only happen in the first decade of its existence or are an usual event. Then we should also not ignore that regulation is still foggy in many countries, which makes people a little doubtful about the idea of owning cryptocurrencies.

And then, we know that every 4 years Bitcoin becomes harder to be mined. That on its own makes Bitcoin more volatile than other assets. You have no idea right now exactly how much gold there is left to be mined. With BTC, you can count every single satoshi perfectly.

Only time will tell if Bitcoin has to become something stable or not. I doubt it'll ever be though.

Scams, thefts and crimes are out there in any domain you can think of. They don't particularly destroy the image of cryptocurrencies as it has nothing to do with their existence. The more crypto users there are, the more scams there'll be. That is a fact.

You could go right now over the Bounties area of altcoins and more than 80% of them are scams. Think of how many scam "Claim Your $1,000,000.00 Check Now!" e-mails the world receives on a daily basis and how many scammy catfishes there are on dating apps. As long as there are people to fall into these traps, there'll be scammers as well. Yet, cryptocurrencies suffer the most through regulation and are artificially turned against freedom through regulation that doesn't make sense.

2FA protects your account and just the number of coins your account owns. If someone gains access to KuCoin's wallet, you can have as much security as you want - it's not going to protect your coins because the exchange is holding them, not you.

Sorry for those who were unfortunate enough to lose their coins. Hopefully something good comes out of this one and more people learn the "not your keys, not your BTC" lesson. Exchanges create their own security. You operate on their exchange through a relationship of trust. Keep your funds off centralized stuff next time..

Stay away from anything that seems to good to be true. Nobody will help you make money for free and nobody will be able to promise you safe and assured massive profits. Try to use your critical thinking: why do I have to send money in order to receive money? Why should I pay anything at all if they have a money-making scheme? Why have I been chosen out of literally everyone else? etc.

Posting here was a great idea. Anytime you have doubts, post on the forum again. There are so many amazing members who'd like to help you out, including myself.

A country accepting BTC as a way of payment =/= Bitcoin could become the leader, ahead of fiat and CBDCs. Bitcoin's amount of txs are way too low at the moment to pose a big risk to fiat and they're preparing CBDCs anyway that'll be widely adopted. The governments will never give up power and kneel in front of a decentralized governance. What's even worse is that the world has never been completely decentralized for thousands of years - so removing central authorities may actually destroy the world's current state.

Remember, there'll always be people fighting for power and leadership. As long as they exist, governance will as well.

Not 100% sure I got it right, do the charging lights not light up as powerful under the sun as they light up with the can charger? If yes, I think the most logical explanation is that the sun doesn't give it as much power as your charger does - so the LEDs only slightly light up.

I've received the "prize" thing in different forms with almost all of my Amazon orders as well, and that put me under doubt every time about the product I've ordered. I usually go for highest stars (obviously). They either send you coupons or some extra products for "free", basically promoting false 5-star reviews..

8004 ATMs in the US is an impressive number honestly. I'd be really curious to find out which country leads the highest amount of non-KYC ATMs though - that's the real winner! In Romania, we have a few - I think the USA has zero right now as KYC is mandatory over there for them AFAIK.

I'm basically trying to lower down the tracking as much as possible while still making use of some functions such as chatting and web browsing. I have a few dumb phones & burner SIM cards sitting around but I still have to chat sometimes through either Signal or XMPP - and that requires owning a smartphone. Until a system-wide Tor phone or a more privacy-oriented one (such as Purism Librem 5) comes out, I will try the best from my side to still make use of the tech while having more privacy.

Dumb phones are also really bad with the network signal - and we're probably only a matter of years before 2G and 3G networks shut down as well.

Now going back to the vaccum robots, I was really curious to look these up on Amazon and found this creepy product. Just read this highlight right underneath the images:


And it has almost 17k reviews. Reviews, not orders.

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Well, those "old" Nokia phones that are actually new stock also have internet access nowadays and possibly even GPS. I honestly do not trust the new models. The best thing you can do is purchase a truly dumb phone like @LoyceV suggested - the main issue is, however, the networking. Not having good signal almost anywhere you go is a pain in the ass.

I've had this happening quite often with some friends of mine. I actually tried it once intentionally: mentioning a random phone model name in the middle of the discussion; guess for what phones have they received ads only hours later.

@ololajulo
I think we can have protection without having to be exposed at the same time. Wireless is convenient but could be so harmful.


@Gyfts
This pandemic is more than perfect as an example of giving up rights in the name of safety. It gets worse though - if a decade ago storing stuff on your backup hard disk was a thing, today most people store their stuff in some stranger's servers having a strong feeling of security solely from the fact that the company storing their data is large. We aren't stupid not to understand the need of privacy, but comfort has been too overwhelmingly nice to care.


@squatz1
Everyone has something to hide. Whether legal or not, they do. That is why you only tell a few people some things - you'd feel uncomfortable or your life may even change if other people'd know as well. This is another stupid link between the need for privacy and illicit stuff.


@Mpamaegbu
I've had very creepy moments with Facebook before, such as purchasing stuff from a clothing store and, after arriving back home, receiving the cashier as a friend suggestion. The thing is, turning off your location is only a few pixels switching on your screen. You never know what truly goes on behind the scenes. Facebook, Instagram and other similar apps are some of the largest privacy intruders. The least one can change about that is delete their apps and use FB or Insta through some more privacy-oriented open-source apps (you can find them on F-Droid). The best thing one can do, as @LoyceV suggested, is just.. remove your accounts.


@DaveF
Oh yeah, online purchases are definitely something I try to avoid at all costs.. hence why I consider the idea of a cashless society very scary. Amazon's products are also definitely something I will always avoid.


@LoyceV
Robot vaccums and lawn mowers are nowadays connected to the internet as well, AFAIK. Some friends own these and showed me how, miles away from home, they can power on their vacuums and see live how it cleans their home through its camera. Creepy.

True - wired is more annoying than wireless for sure - but I've made this sacrifice myself and turned my entire home into wired-only devices as much as I could. Besides my phones, which are locked into Faraday cages anytime I don't use them as well, and my WiFi router.. I don't think there's anything I do not have wired at this point.

For the phones, I have modded them like a privacy freak that I have become: removed all camera modules, took out the microphones as well from one of them, flashed Lineage and Copperhead OS with no Google stuff on them and I only use open source software. To avoid the location tracing whenever I feel like I should, I carry a Faraday phone bag with me at all times as well.

Now about the accounts, I probably have the most annoying thing ever: one unique e-mail and password for every account I own. Gets annoying as hell when you have to enter login codes sent through e-mail.

What are the governments doing? They're looking to enforce backdoors for them to turn the apps and tech into surveillance tools.

Check out this thread I wrote a few days ago about how exposed we currently are as tech advances. We're progressing only from a technological side, not from a security one as well - and that's scary. Those two should've progressed in parallel.

Cybersecurity education is a must nowadays, yet nobody pays attention to it. It all begins from the simplest and most widely known and used devices, such as surveillance cams - which hundreds of thousands do not secure properly, leading to the entire planet being able to snoop on them. As @joniboini said, most attacks happen due to our own fault.


@Becky666
Antivirus software does protect you from some points of view, but I would personally rather not have a software installed on my computer that has the capacity to scan my files and transfer certain data to strange servers - especially if I own some BTC wallets on the said PC. I haven't had an AV installed in years - I just do not download random files and avoid strange websites and it's been more than great so far.

How many people can really avoid any kind of leak that could lead to their identity? Very, very few.

Law enforcement will consider you a suspect from the very first moment you begin using cryptocurrencies and/or Tor. It's something they do not like at all. The days of dark web will 'fence' you if you're careful to the extreme.

There was one pedophile that was properly using Tor and couldn't get traced down until intel gave him a "young girl's explicit video" that had some code/script embedded in it, played it online and leaked the info to the authorities. That's how he got caught. If you're using Tor to be completely hidden especially for criminal activity, you have to use it properly and extremely cautious.

This is why they for now like Bitcoin. It's fully transparent, so you need no extra access key or permissions to see all of the addresses and where their money went. Easy to link identities of those who are silly enough to believe Tor Browser is enough to commit crimes over the internet anonymously.

The WBTC history could repeat itself. Or Bitcoin's 4-year cycle that's already repeated once - and that could bring in a price of $100k next year. Or maybe history won't repeat with either of them.

It's all just speculation and doubt. The thing is, that ATH you've mentioned was a price only few were probably able to cash out at at the time. A lot of people started a BTC buying spree when it hit $19-20k, and that led to big losses in their portfolios. I would rather own BTC instead, as it's the original form of Bitcoin. WBTC may be easier for trading, but it's much less safer.

Artificial light should be able to give it a bit of power. The thing is, in comparison with the Sun, it will charge way slower. It would probably take at least a few more times (if not dozens) to charge it - and the less intense the lighting is, the more it's going to probably take. But in the end, as long as it's free energy and charges your bank - even 0.5% only - why not, right?

I had a few solar-powered power banks and I remember they used to start charging if I put my phone's flashlight on the panel. I haven't tested it with non-LED bulbs though - and most of my power banks with solar panels on them went faulty after a while, so I stopped using/purchasing them at all.

I'm really curious to know whether the one you've purchased is fine. Will try to keep up with your posts to find out

Either I just don't have the knowledge to answer this or you weren't specific enough. By "panel for private sector coin trading", what do you mean?

If it's a "way to multiply your money fast and safe", it's a scam. I'll tell you this before you even answer my question.

The only reason they're pointing fingers is to attempt to stop Bitcoin. Let's face the truth here - a Bitcoin economy means there's no need for banks. No bank is stupid enough to say "yeah, let's self-destruct!". Money laundering isn't something new and I'd bet you anything that more than half of the wealthy ones have earned their money at one point the less legal way. So have politicians and so many other well-known people.

It's just more than easy to understand why they're against us: Bitcoin is against banks. Simple as that.