Since when is a 10-15% APY considered poor? Especially for stablecoins, it's a decent yield that a bank will never provide you with. Even higher performance portfolios do not offer that, while your money is never insured when investing. How is buying coins less risky? How do you consider something that unpredictable a safer option? I would hate to remind you how wrong something like this can go.

Even in Bitcoin, you have zero guarantee whatsoever, who knows if and when it'll recover?

I've only used Beefy and didn't have any issues, however, I've recently heard that they're struggling financially, which isn't a healthy sign. Currently, I'm using Binance savings, it provides 10% APY on BUSD for up to $2.000. So far, it hasn't changed rates. Their locked staking options aren't too bad, but they are rarely available or/and have a tiny available quota.

I moved my funds there after the Terra incident, due to it being the easiest and most prompt solution. It's certainly not the best, but looks okay for the time being.

Oil has been extremely volatile the past few days, Brent Oil was worth $110/barrel yesterday afternoon and a few hours later it had crashed to $104, quite a difference. Can't understand what caused such a drop. While gas prices have slightly dropped, it's still too expensive for the average consumer. On top of that, the current rate of exchange of EUR/USD is trending at $1.02/€, increasing the fueling costs even further.
Edit: Grammar

While that's true, it did have a head start, but so did other altcoins such as Litecoin, or Namecoin, the first altcoin ever created. None of the two mentioned though are in the top 10 list of Coinmarketcap. Bitcoin is currently the oldest surviving cryptocurrency (not the first one to ever be created, though), with the largest market cap, while its dominance is up to 42%. I think that's pretty self-explanatory.

That's not the case for the average Joe that got his funds stolen, though. Even government officials may have trouble recovering stolen cryptocurrencies, however, there are a few instances of retrieving stolen Bitcoin. One of them is the robbery of 120,000 Bitcoin after breaching the Bitfinex exchange in 2016, only 94,000 was repossessed though.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60310783

Quite sketchy looking website filled with ads. Bitcoin is not PayPal mate, once it's sent, it's over. Nothing you can actually do to recover your funds. As others have already mentioned, Bitcoin is pseudo-anonymous, even someone with little experience could use a mixing service, such as Chipmixer, and avoiding any ties with the stolen/compromised funds.

OP is already in trouble, even if Bitcoin recovers up to $30.000 for instance, he's already losing 5.50% from interest he would be receiving, plus 18% interest due to the loan and borrowing money from a family member. In total, OP is losing 23.5% of his money, per year. In summary, he'd be losing approximately $5.000/year. Even if Bitcoin rebounds to $30.000, in two years he would break even, requiring a rebound of up to $35.000-$40.000 to make a decent profit. Honestly, not worth the risk.

To be honest, not exactly. I wasn't that attached to Bitcoin back then, nor did I believe in its capabilities, and that was my ultimate mistake. If I hadn't given up, even if I was in the lowest paying campaign, within those 3 years I was away, I'd certainly have made a couple of thousands, since Bitcoin skyrocketed again near the end of 2020. It's the mistake I regret the most, because in 2018, I had some knowledge about cryptocurrencies and the capability of purchasing, something that I didn't have as a 15-year-old teenager in 2014, which was my year of registration on Bitcointalk.

I'm determined that I'm not going to quit again, not planning on repeating the same mistake again. I've set a few goals regarding Bitcoin in 2022, I'm hoping to accomplish them.

Excuse me, but had minimal time the past few days and didn't have time to reply. I certainly agree with you, however, I find it way too harsh to have mandatory enlistment of over 12 months. Training lasts 1-2 months at most, and then you'll spend most of your service doing wack jobs around the military camp.

That's my point, it completely disrupts your life, at least there should be a way to have a reduced sentence, if you qualify certain qualifications, such as work, employment, living alone etc. It's a huge obstacle when trying to find a decent and stable job, because firstly, it disrupts you by taking you a way for a whole year and secondly, employers often ask from employees to have completed military service for the very same reason.

Certainly, it's better than going below $1but the condition is exasperating. I really hope that it doesn't crash any further, it's deteriorating an already desperate situation. Inflation is still rising, a further drop in $/€ rate of exchange would be disastrous, especially for oil prices, which are showing minor signs of relief.

Europe got itself screwed over by imposing sanctions on Russia. It's not new that we are dependent on Russian oil, what did Europe expect to happen? Now we, the regular citizens are paying the price of their actions.

I wouldn't say that, it's approximately sitting at $1.01/€, a few days ago it almost reached $1.03 but didn't stay there for long.

Russia is restricting gas flow coming from Nord Stream once again, cutting supplies in half from 40% to 20%, claiming that one of their turbines needs maintenance. The war could last years, while the fear of Russia eventually permanently stopping gas flow to Europe is extremely likely in the upcoming months.

Certainly, I'm one of those who got screwed over with that so-called stablecoin UST, fortunately, I was relatively lucky and cut my losses early. It was deemed as a safe staking investment, offering a relatively decent APY and within 2 days, it plummeted due to the Luna incident. There's no such thing as a guarantee in cryptocurrencies (or generally when money is involved).

Since when do banks give up to 3% or 4% interest? The most you'd get is 0.10% here, I also doubt that it's much higher in other countries. Staking stablecoins on Beefy can easily yield up to 10% to 15% APY, which is great. Even OP's APY is decent for the $1.000 he put, what did he expect, honestly. I'm currently earning approximately $1/day (10% APY), while my bank's deposit pays €2 per 3 months for double the amount I had deposited.

It's a relatively safe way to have a decent interest if you have money sitting around.

Something that is not listed in the poll and has occurred to me in 2018, which is disappointment about Bitcoin or in lack of interest in general. After 2018's market crash, I was so disappointed that I abandoned Bitcoin and the forum altogether. It took me over 3 years to login and start posting again. I rejoined the forum in 2021 and have been active ever since.

I'm not too fond of predictions because they're often not that accurate. While I believe that we haven't reached the bottom yet, I find it extremely hard to believe Bitcoin could fall by that much. Yes, the economy is struggling due to the war and inflation, and is probably going to worsen in the near future, but $8.500 seems way too low. In my opinion, the lowest we'll see won't fall below $10.000 - $12.000.

The truth is that I did not investigate much further for the other countries I've mentioned. However, according to Wikipedia sources there are still plenty that require you to enlist for at least a year, whether you like it or not. Greece is one of those countries, and avoiding it isn't an easy option. Even if you claim mental health issues, they'll postpone your enlistment for a year, on order to provide you with time to "feel better". You'll actually have to go through  a committee a few times in order to be exempt from military service.

Putin has threatened to take action against Finland and Sweden if they were planning to enter NATO, mentioning that there will be serious political and military consequences. Despite the entry to NATO now being official, after signatures were signed, there's a catch;

"The protocol means Helsinki and Stockholm can participate in NATO meetings and have greater access to intelligence but will not be protected by the NATO defence clause - that an attack on one ally is an attack against all - until ratification. That is likely to take up to a year."

Meaning that Sweden and Finland are still susceptible of a possible Russian attack and NATO won't interfere, since the ratification process may take up to a year to be completed. Let me also point out NATO's claims against Russia when the Ukrainian invasion started, but took no direct involvement in the war after Russia's threats. That's what also going to happen if any of these countries are attacked now.

First of all, this thread will be self-moderated not because I want to delete posts that do not match my liking/opinion, but due to some very specific members who tend to trash every thread in P&S. Now that we've cleared things up, let's move to the main subject of this thread.

"Military conscription is the mandatory enlistment of citizens for military service." Conscription has considerably declined since 1970, but there are still quite a few countries who haven't abandoned such practices. Currently, according to TheSoldiersProject.org*, there are 49 countries with mandatory military enlistment, which are quite a lot. We're not going to go through every one of them, but some of them are:

• Israel
• Bermuda
• Brazil
• Cyprus
• Greece
• Iran
• North Korea
• South Korea
• Mexico
• Russia
• Switzerland

I'm from Greece, military conscription is mandatory and was recently increased from 9 months to 12. While I understand why some countries require their citizens to serve in the military, 12 months is a long period for someone in a relationship, working and is paying rent on a monthly basis. It's not that simple to abandon everything and not being given another option. I don't know what happens in other countries, but here, apart from the first one-two months training, it's a somewhat useless practice which claims a whole year from your life and savings.

I cannot afford to not work for a whole year, while on top of that, I'll lose the ability to apply for unemployment benefits if for whatever reason I do not want/can work after returning from the military. A large amount of Greeks here work in the tourism sector, mostly from April to October/November, and then claiming unemployment benefits.

Have you served the military? What are your thoughts about mandatory enlistment? Personally, I find it extremely intrusive, often interferes with your educational and financial path, practically forcing you to abandon a decent job you might have landed. From what you've understood, I've yet to serve in the military and am currently in a huge dilemma, while avoiding it isn't an easy option.

* Source: https://www.thesoldiersproject.org/countries-have-compulsory-military-service/

I'm really hoping that turn the way you want them to be, because this must be the worst kind of investment I've ever heard. So far, you're losing 5.5% APR, which isn't that bad, plus another 10% interest, summing up to 15.5% you're missing out. You never invest what you can't afford to lose, you did not only invest all your money, but also you took a loan while you're having extravagant predictions about Bitcoin within a short time period.