Neither (I doubt Tron would get anything from this).

Why would you give money to a millionaire? That's like giving fish to a fisherman.... And Buffet hates crypto, he would have sold it or ignore the gift entirely, such a poor choice...

I don't think this charity fund is sanctioned by the Chinese gov, more likely those (private) companies will give it so THEY get the credit in front of the Chinese officials. Not unlike Binance and the others doing the same thing.

Since this is a virtualbox install, the solution is simpler than you think. Rather than "Linux Lite", you should install Lubuntu 19.10, which happens to come with Python 3.7.5

Why Lubuntu? Linux Lite IS Lubuntu with extra packages pre-installed. Contrary to what the name suggests, it isn't light. So you save space and time using Lubuntu rather than Lite.

In the earlier Ubuntus you can probably upgrade python also by adding a PPA, but this might be trickier than just wiping your image since its a virtual machine anyway. If you use the 32bit version, you can probably use 1g ram virtual machine just fine, maybe less if its just playing with Electrum.

Oh and that -j8 is the number of threads for the compiler, it depends on what cpu you have and if you want to use all of them (i don't think thats a good idea a vm, i never assign all my threads to a vm). So if you launched a VM with 2 threads (because your cpu has 4 cores), you shouldn't be using -j8 (it would just try use the 2 threads 4times). If in doubt omit the -j option its not needed.

The S9j had the best asic yields, the fastest models (14.5) has boards that can take the highest frequencies and or the best efficiency. The S9i is rather good, no idea about k or se but earlier models were fine.

I would pick s9j first, then s9i, s9, etc.

Are you aware that you can run a full node, an Electrum server connected to that node, and an Electrum wallet connected to that server?

Sure, you could also just run Bitcoin Core, but its technically inaccurate what you guys are saying.

To OP: Nothing online is safe, a proper wallet like Bitcoin Core or Electrum can send to multiple addresses. Electrum by default doesn't need to download the entire blockchain (250+ gbytes) to start, but you do have to rely in others (the public Electrum servers) of you want to start quick. Its still better than any online wallet.

If you are concerned about security, you should run your wallet in Linux or similar Free and Open Source secure operating system. There are guides in this forum on how to setup wallets with Electrum etc.

What is the point of bidding if you do it at market rate or above? For that you can simply go to an exchange...

If i had the money, i would do the same: Bid at lower price than market, else its pointless.

Unfortunately the gold standard requires you to trust the State to keep its promise, that each dollar was backed in gold. How exactly can you ever know? This is a mix of pegging and fractional reserve. Its not like people could actually get the gold the banknotes promised, they had to trust their government to be doing the right thing.

With physical gold/silver at least the real thing is in your hands. This was the closest you could ever get to trustless money accepted anywhere (could always melt it).

A paper with a signature is a promise someone has to fulfill. And the "cheap metal" coins were simply tokens for the same.

Consider Bitcoin who has control of it? Its creator made it in a way that it could grow and prosper without his/her intervention, yet clearly stated it could fail.

Can humanity fail? Yes. Does it have free will? Yes.

Its not about control, its about design.

Same with Falkland islands but that never stopped the UK, even going to war for them in the 80ies. History says the Argentinians had some prison there which was "liberated" by some Privateer (This Falkland guy) and the Argentinians never took it back until the 80ies. It is way too far from the UK, incredibly expensive to keep running, little or no strategic value, production is sheep, maybe some fishing but not much else. Only recently there is new controversy of possible oil in the ocean surrounding it.

The UK used to be a world naval Empire with colonies all over the world, they released most of them, but not all.

Like Gibraltar, if Falkland were truly returned it would probably end neglected in poverty. Independence with benefits, like most UK ex-colonies could be a way. But they might not be able to sustain themselves on their own.

BTW: The British made the Falkland fox go extinct for daring eat some sheep here or there, not unlike the Portuguese did to the Dodo. Of course nobody cared about preservation a couple hundred years ago...

So the push for total State surveillance (police State) doesn't end in China. The most stupid part these politicians never get is that such laws wouldn't stop the practice, people would do clever things like encrypting twice (strong then weak), more stenography etc. This can only benefit attackers who are would love to harvest everyone's data.

This wouldn't stop any terrorists and terrorists would not follow any laws anyway. Yet it would aid THEM to collect info on individuals to better plan their attacks. Ironic isn't? But that's the problem with politicians, in their ignorance they always cause more harm than good.

Oh and as a side effect things like bitcoin would become illegal, because only terrorists use it right?...

Maybe a right to privacy movement is needed, at this rate even thinking against the State will become a felony.

So you want to secure your communications but still give them the keys at the endpoint?
You have to drop windows for anything "secure". Else you can assume malware of the week would simply siphon out your password to decrypt your communications.

In fact your question would be great if you replaced "Windows" with Linux, or Freebsd or something decent.

Thunderbird had Enigmail, but the way things are going for Thunderbird it might not be worth recommending it anymore. Perhaps when a fork without ads inevitably comes out (or if they drop their plan).

Oh, did i mention that things that don't provide the source code have zero security credibility? Take that in consideration when choosing software, they might bring backdoors, bombs, and what not, you can never tell since you can't audit it. Which is why, windows, is a no-no. Of course windows it not alone, this is a fact in general. If you want security, go with Free and Open Source software.

I read an article elsewhere that in January AI was in fact used to predict spread rate and it was used by other countries to prepare. This might explain part of the success in containing it.

Normally i wouldn't have spread beyond Wuhan but the Wuhan authorities were negligent. The central gov did act better but many people has traveled by then, and yet at their destination most have been screened and quarantined and treated if positive.

Now it is a matter of keeping people from moving and spreading it to others until the virus dies by itself. If a cure of vaccine comes around it would be too late.

But AI can only do so much, there is a lot of people moving at the same time worldwide. Better transport made it easier than ever to propagate diseases, they have to be fought globally as they know no borders.

Still, its worrisome that lately China has been the source of various nasty outbreaks. I doubt they are engineered, but it might have something to do with their culture and eating habits...

And this is why i love desktop computers. So heavy you can't take them out and therefore unlikely to fall and break apart, or be stolen. I think a portable should always be considered a secondary device, never primary.

As for backups, just copy the data you create yourself. Don't bother with programs or things that can be downloaded or bought. It would be better if the backup was stored encrypted, but lets leave that for another day.

You would be surprised how old this "mantra" is. I think its as old as computers, especially when personal computers started appearing in the late 70ies. While media and methods have changed a bit, the recommendation remains the same.

This time you were lucky. Are you willing to tempt the odds again? Oh, external hard drives (with spinning discs inside) don't like getting hit, even falling from vertical position into horizontal may damage them, and i clearly remember a 2" Samsung external dying after falling from a table. Once again, things are so safe inside a sturdy desktop or server computer case...

Indeed, it would only take some whale miners to move their PETA/EXA hashrate to easily make this happen. But something else is amiss as they refuse stubbornly to do so.

That bonus seems more attractive to small miners, the big miner is more meh to the proposed amount. Of course the largest miners have more lottery tickets (hashrate) but one can always pray to luck. Its still better than solo mining.

I think about 100 PH would do the magic. One wonders how so many EHs remain in some other pools despite losing so much in pool fees. Perhaps things will improve once large mining becomes unprofitable (especially in China).

Or, maybe you just need to pay someone to do a Chinese and Russian translation of the site?

This is a shame, "offline_keep_mining" was one of the most interesting features, it kept the asic cool when there is no connection.

My test run had the 3 different servers specified, yet it only connected to the first (VA). If connection fails for long (some minutes) the proxy quits entirely.

This and lack of offline keep mining makes it rather pointless to use it, except for bandwidth compression unless that also was removed.

The value of things is not production value, the value of things is determined by usefulness. This is subjective and changes from person to person, place to place, and even time and individual situation.

The market price is a collective result of these interests. It is the REAL price.

Imagine you are in the desert without water for days, buy carry a gold nugget, you find a caravan and they happen to have water. You are willing to part with the nugget for the water, even if to them picking up the water and carrying it across the desert didn't cost much (and they have plenty of it).

Or, trying to sell ice to people in the north pole. Extreme and unlikely but you get the point. All the value of things a varying degrees of this.

You could also look at online games, their items and scarcity. Everything is artificial, lines of code, and yet to the people playing some are willing to give real cash for "silly" things like magic swords or such. Perhaps to you the (real) money is more valuable and for the buyer the rare item is more valuable. Once again, production didn't matter.

Of course abundant things tend to be valued less than scarce things, hence bitcoins (finite) will always cost more than dogecoins (infinite). The rule of supply and demand always applies, in addition to subjective value.

It is not zero either. Some people do go into bitcoin. Of course the tradition has always been precious metals, this is nothing new.

The outbreak is affecting the market, both Shanghai and Hong Kong are affected. The extended holidays, closure of rail and roads, cities quarantined... Don't forget China is the world largest manufacturer, and its slowing down due to the virus containment. It might not be world economy devastating event, but it does have some impact (it might grow if the virus does break elsewhere).

That said in about a month, by March we will see if things worsened or recovered.

If you are into long term, it should be safe. BUT you should get acquainted with the process of creating and keeping a cold wallet. Normally this involves booting a secure os pc to create a wallet, then after having written down the seed words by hand securing them, copying plenty public addresses and turning it off.

Then practice recreating the wallet in the same secured PC (live OS images such as Tails are ideal).

You should test with very small quantities until you understand how it works. Perhaps write instructions somewhere to keep them along the seed words.

As long as its long term and cold wallet (paper with written seed words) those funds are safe. And since you have the public addresses, you can keep adding funds and even securely checking them using a blockchain explorer or electrum read only, etc.

Long term bitcoin price will keep increasing, slower overtime. This doesn't mean no fluctuation, it is a free coin and it fluctuates, but this doesn't matter as in the long term the trend continues, just look at the entire history, all 11 years.

Forget about getting "rich" either from this alone. After some years you will see some "interest" (higher than banks) but nothing extraordinary like what people who invested years ago could make. Be disciplined, wait. Preferably take a look every year or two rather than every week or month, so you don't panic and make a mistake. Make sure this is a money that can be left alone, think fixed term fund.

Yes this is the big obstacle to "new" exchanges, the smaller ones with little liquidity, few buyers and sellers offers provide little incentive to use them. For example decentralized bisq is nearly desert.

I wish they had supported bitcoin since the beginning. I never paid attention as i didn't need Ethereum in the past, and last time i bought some i used the instant one (forgot name) back when kyc wasn't a thing.