About the clown part - yes, I agree, involving games and lotteries in all this does seem a bit inappropriate. But, on the other hand, what other choice do they have? People massively refuse to vaccinate.

Regarding free cheese - it's not exactly like that. Indeed, one might be wondering, there are so many other diseases that require vaccination, and I don't remember the governments giving away millions of dollars as an incentive then. But this has a logical explanation.

At this point, the restrictions due to the pandemic have brought so much economical damage (not only to the developing countries but countries within the EU as well), that it actually might be more profitable for them to give away money so that people will vaccinate faster and they can start returning to the normal regimen and work out this mess as soon as possible.

If the aim of the project is not to generate money but rather to support the ecosystem, as you said, then what's the profit in it for the users? I get how this is convenient for the platform, they get customers by making certain slot games privileged and available only for those in the network, and through it they reach stability. But why would the players want to participate in this?

I always like to compare the whole impose-high-tax and allow precedently illegal activities issue to teenager-parent relations.
Parents can be very strict and prohibit smoking and alcohol, but that will just lead to kids wanting to violate rules even more and sneaking out to hang out and do all that in, possibly, bad companies.

If the parents are acting not as judgemental, on the other hand, the kids will be more straightforward about their activities and at least the parents will know what they're up to and will be able to control things to some extent.

So by imposing high taxes the governments are simply saying "we'll allow it, but we're not very happy about it". As a result, they gain both control and money. I don't think it's false morality, it's actually the opposite

Singapore certainly is much more developed, there's no question about that. The reason why everyone goes on about El Salvador as a future country of Bitcoin is that, unlike Singapore, they have no currency of their own and are much tied to the US dollar.

They don't have a fully functional self-sufficing financial system and currently are in large debts. That is why many seem to think that adopting Bitcoin will be a good option for El Salvador. However, it is a matter of question to me. I mean, if the country couldn't even implement their own fiat system, what are the chances that they'll handle crypto system?

I think what you seek is impossible. The whole idea of bonuses comes with rollover requirements in which, most likely, you'll lose that bonus, because you'll need to wager it several times. It's inevitable because there wouldn't be any profit for the casino without that, right?

Or do you just expect casinos to give you a bonus that you can easily withdraw? Well, that's not doing to happen, so don't waste your time looking for such things.

Also, if you're looking for casinos that allow multiple accounts (if I understood your last sentence correctly), that's not a thing either, I believe it's prohibited in ToS everywhere, which is also kind of self-explanatory.

According to official data taken from worldometers the current situation with covid isn't severe in China, only 36 cases per day (which is nothing considering their population).

I guess the government must be hiding the real data because I doubt that they would worry about such a low incidence. But the WHO is warning about the upcoming third wave, the incidence has been rising in many countries lately, which is due to the new strains, mostly. China might be no exception.

I think the world is divided enough as it is and all the countries should move in the direction of reaching the understanding between each other in order to avoid war in the future. If anything, economics is, to a big extent, about international relations, and this kind of separation in economics they indeed to do will make things harder on that level.

In addition, I do not agree with this quote:

The energy required to obtain something doesn't define value. Now, I know it's wrong to compare gold to cryptocurrencies, but in this context, I will allow myself to bring forward a certain comparison.

Saying that the value of crypto is defined by the energy required to produce it would be the same thing as saying that the value of gold is defined by the difficulty of work, which is required to mine it. But we know that it's not exactly true. The value is determined by its scarcity and demand.

Really? I thought the point was exactly the opposite and PoS is actually considered by many less susceptible to 51% attack. Not judging by the easiness of achieving it, but by simple logic. If one accumulates so many coins that it's more than 51% of a total supply it would be rather unprofitable for that person to mess up the market with attacks.

Don't get me wrong though, I still think that PoW is safer, because, as you said, it's extremely difficult to obtain 51% of computational power, buying coins, on the other hand, is easy, I just can't think of a reason why would someone do a PoS attack, considering the above-mentioned argument.  

It's really great that you've managed to recover from addiction, that's very uncommon. In fact, some don't even believe that it's possible, so kudos to you!
I checked "both", because, as you know, there are different types of gambling.

There are the ones that only depend on luck - slots, crash, dice, those I only play for fun, I never expect to win anything from there.
And there are those that depend on skills. From the latter, in particular, poker, I actually manage to win some money. But still, it's not enough to make a living, so I use this money for fun. Most often the money I win from poker I end up spending on other gambling games or sportsbetting.

They may be not as lucky as they seem at the end of the day. I once participated in giveaways of a certain company, but the principle is the same as lotteries - luck, the winners were chosen randomly. And then I saw this person that has won 2 times in one month.

I was just curious, so I wrote that person, I congratulated him and said that he must be very lucky, and I've never won anything from gives, even though I participated more than 20 times already. To that, he replied that these were his 2 only wins and he's been participating every day for the past 2 years!

My point is, you only see one side of the coin: someone wins, and you assume he/she is lucky. But the fact is, that person may have tried to win for years, so they might be no luckier than you are

What the governments can do is enforce a ban on trading or exchange, which will result in people having crypto but not being able to do anything about it, some countries are already on the move. However, most remain neutral, but not for long.

Nowadays only some of the governments speak upfront about their attitude toward Bitcoin. But as the things are developing quickly, more people are using Bitcoin each day, more companies are expressing an opinion about it - things won't go on like that for long, and all the countries will have to make a decision.

I think in about 5 years we will see a major division: a group of countries that fully accept Bitcoin and, perhaps, develop some functional financial systems for people to use it, and a second group would be the countries that are straightforward against Bitcoin.

Many apps from play store are already very addictive, and, for some reason, it spreads like a virus, very fast as compared to games from websites. I remember when in a group (at school or university) someone was playing a certain game - it could become viral and, just like you described, everyone was playing it. And in your case, gambling is involved, which makes it even more addictive. It's weird though that such games are open access, this means that someone underaged can easily download it too, right?

First, what kind of school are you talking about? High school, undergraduate education, graduate school? It makes a huge difference. If we're talking about general school study, to be honest, it's all pretty useless in real life. There are a lot of people in the class, a teacher is probably a person that failed in his specialty (economics, in this case), so he/she became a teacher, you don't get nearly enough information to go on with at school.

The upper you go - the more it makes sense because there are more specific courses and more qualified professors.
However, keep in mind that just having studied something doesn't automatically make one a professional. I'd say that much more depends on your environment, how you spend your spare time, whether or not you take additional courses, masterclasses and, generally, just smart enough to apply the knowledge in real life.

That's what I call financial awareness, very nice. I have a similar system, I always track my income and expenditures. I don't have the exact column for "gambling", and I don't calculate the exact % of the income I will spend on it, but I always have some residual money, which I spend on "fun". On average, I think that's also about 10% of my income. Sometimes it can be gambling, sometimes traveling, or hanging out with friends, but I never spend on gambling with resulting lack of money.

That's exactly the reason why you should invest now. Due to various speculations from Elon, and then the decision from the Chinese government about mining, and several other factors the price has dropped significantly. It's unlikely that we'll see Bitcoin at such a bottom anytime near in the future.

On the other hand, many companies and public people still seem to be in favor of Bitcoin (just recently Google lifted the ban on advertising cryptocurrencies), and, in addition to that, the history shows - Bitcoin always recovers. Why should now be any different? All of these facts point to one conclusion - the price of Bitcoin will grow In the long term, so you shouldn't be afraid.

Honestly, I've only seen these types of casinos in movies where they show places owned by large gangsters
I think if the player really comes for a serious game - this kind of entertainment would be more of a distraction, than a positive side. On the other hand, if a group of people simply comes to hang out at some casino in LA, this might be one of the pros and bring additional fun.

Delightful story! It's good to know that there are real people out there willing to accept payments in Bitcoin. Also, this shows us that Bitcoin is something more than just a new way of payment or asset - it's a community! Yes, you've had to wait quite a long time for the transaction to confirm, but, as a result, you got to know closer good people with which you probably found something in common and I bet the conversation was interesting and brought good emotions to both parties!

Of course, I'm not saying that this is the way it should be in the future. From a practical point of view, everything is quite the opposite - the story shows us great challenges that stand before Bitcoin as a payment way on a daily basis. I hope people will come up with some solution for this, or just realize that Bitcoin is pointless in terms of routine transactions and is rather meant for something more serious.

It doesn't have to be Satoshi, it could've been anyone who was smart enough to buy Bitcoins years ago, or just did it out of fun and waited for the right moment. It's odd though that, whoever that is, is cashing out at the bottom of the market.

Anyhow, what difference does it make if someone moved their old coins? Can't people do what they want with their own money without being discussed? Also, IMO the article is written horribly, the combination of words "Bitcoin tokens" really pissed me off.

Sadly, that rarely happens when money is confiscated from criminal frauds. Most likely, the money will go to some kind of archives and be subject to further investigation, and later it will be used for law-enforcement needs.

Though it would be fair to give money back to victims as I said, this rarely happens, and in this particular case, it will be even more complicated due to the fact that cryptocurrencies are involved, the legal status of which is still questioned in a number of places. Plus tracking down the victims and confirming that the money actually belonged to them would be complex as well.

First of all, the mRNA vaccine technology is complex and involves a lot of steps, not all of which were developed by the same laboratory or company, so the whole process of releasing the patent would be very complicated.

Secondly, there's no moral reason for the companies to share the technology. A number of manufacturers already produce the vaccine in large amounts and the only limitation that stands between the access to the vaccine and the company is the government, which is responsible for acquiring these vaccines.

So it's not like the companies are holding the vaccines to themselves and not letting people have it - it's rather the governments being irresponsible about the healthcare and wellbeing of their nation, because, as we can see, in civilized countries there's no problem with the vaccine if they run lotteries for millions of dollars just to encourage people to take a shot. On the other hand, we see a great flaw in the healthcare of developing countries, because, probably, instead of directing the money from taxes to health reserves for such occasions as we have now, they've been stealing that money or allocating improperly. And, believe me, letting those countries making their own vaccine with the same technology bought from the other companies wouldn't do them any good, because they'd still be required to pass a set of licensing and certifications, which could take forever, and the end result might not be that good.