Don't get disappointed right now. Cardano is an alt and it's natural that with a higher probability you would've gained profit with it within a short period of time. However, hold your Bitcoins for a year and you'll see that you've made the right choice. You'll have to wait longer, but the end profit will be bigger.
Besides, a month ago purchase is a good one for BTC because the price has been only growing since then. You could've been in loss, while you're in profit, so there's nothing to be sad about.

Excellent point. I believe that’s why Bitcoin should never substitute the existing financial system, too many things can go wrong and there are benefits to the centralized control, e.g., as you said, acting in emergency situations, or fighting the crisis.

Bitcoin shouldn’t be a full substitution, because it could never fulfill some of the fiat functions, but rather it should be a perfect complement to it. Then people will have more freedom, but, in the general matter and in extreme situations the government would be able to act on its own.

For 18 million dollars? Yeah, I’d have the patience 
Besides, it is easier when you realize that by playing the same number over and over you somewhat increase your chances of winning, as there’s a probability that a certain number will hit someday, but if you do different numbers, you risk missing that event. By doing the same all the time, on the other hand, you’ll never miss it. So if you follow this rule, breaking it and choosing another number would simply be irrational.

Why would Pakistan’s economy suffer? You’re talking as if Afghanistan and the Taliban are interdependent. But the fact is, it’s the Taliban that is dependent on Pakistan's support, not vice versa.

The only reason why Pakistan’s economy could suffer problems is if because of providing support for the Taliban other countries might impose sanctions.

Do you think that in the future there will be a “Bitcoin Standard” analogous to the earlier existing “Gold Standard”?

To me, that seems unlikely. For too long fiat system functioned this way and it would be incredibly difficult to change it back with all the banking systems, mortgages, loans, compensations by printing money… It would eventually stop devaluation, I think, but it’s hard to imagine something like that happening.

In addition, why wouldn’t the governments want to use gold or other precious metals instead? Since many still remain skeptical about Bitcoin.

Cheaper rent sounds like a better argument to me. Why would casinos specifically target poor people? Is the fact that poor people desperately seek ways to earn money serves as such a strong incentive to locate most of the casinos nearby?

I think even considering that it would be irrational. The poor don’t have much to give to casinos in the first place.

I don’t see the need for such a political force. Cryptocurrencies need to be self-sustainable and independent. It’s good that companies adopt Bitcoin, and let it go on like this for a while, let other companies and governments join as well.

A political force like the one you’ve described would mean centralized control. Eventually, it would be no better than any other country with fiat financial system. Also, how would such a community function? Who would be the leader? And what if the largest investors just gain all the power, opening the doors for corruption and control?

You’re giving too few details. What country, what’s the overall status of cryptocurrencies there, who’s a distributor of these games?

Naturally, I think, the company should’ve come to certain terms with your government and either require KYC or make this game unavailable in your region, if taxes in this case is an obligation dictated by the laws of your country.

I suggest you just pay the taxes, as if you’re caught, tax evasion can be punished pretty seriously in most countries.

It depends on the reason why a certain person watched sports and how he/she started gambling.

If a certain person has been watching sports for a long time and only recently started gambling, then renunciation of the sport won’t fix the problem and the solution would be to look into that person’s psychology, why he started gambling, environment, etc.

If the whole reason for watching sports was just to make money through betting, then yes, stopping it should at least help in some way.

I think for the sake of safety most casinos convert a cryptocurrencies to fiat right away. Same happens with online deposits on casino wallets, as I noticed numerous times, it is fixated in $ price, so that the customer won’t lose money while it is on the account.

In addition, the increase in Bitcoin price is often accompanied by increased fees, which is not beneficial for both customers and casinos.

On the other hand, sometimes one can get lucky with bonuses. As many might already know, with different bonuses from casinos comes a rollover requirement, initially aimed at gamblers losing what they won. But sometimes it turns out the other way around and players actually end up winning even more after rolling twice or triple the amount they were given. But that’s only luck.

Apart from that, remember that though you can’t beat the casino, you can beat other players in it with P2P and skill based games. But that, of course, requires experience.

Your message only shows that you don’t understand Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a concept. Bitcoin isn’t backed up by anything because it doesn’t need to be that way. What is “backed up”? It means centralisation, which essentially is against what Bitcoin is about.

Stablecoins are backed up by dollar, but why do you see that as something good? How can a cryptocurrency serve as a hedge against inflation if dollar is inflationary? They’re nothing but a digital fiat, while Bitcoin is special and gives much more promises.

You’re thinking too good of the Venezuelan government. The Dutch disease may be present (at least comparing the description you gave and some of their issues tells so), but it’s only half of the problems.

What about the insanely corrupt government? And outright economic ignorance. They have the biggest oil reserves in the world and the governments can’t even implement it on the global market, and create appropriate conditions for small business development. On top of that, they print money like crazy, which results in hyperinflation.

I guess such ads can be considered somewhat self controlled in such a case. Since the main function of Facebook isn’t streaming, it appears to be more of a side effect due to extreme popularity, which can bring profit to streamers. As a result, people are much more likely to be annoyed by such advertisements as gambling and will more likely send complaints about  such profiles.

So true, I missed out as well. The major problem, apart from the ones you described here, is the that I wasn’t much of an investor back then, the hole idea of making money of something by holding it seemed unknown to me. I didn’t know anything about the market, stocks, investments, trading, etc. It’s after Bitcoin that I started to get involved with all this.

You’re right, it’s hard to hold on to something if there’s no guarantee, when you see prices going up and down. Now that we know the history of Bitcoin price and know that it will always grow, eventually, it is obvious to me that everyone should invest. If I had a chance and went back in the past, I would’ve definitely bought some.

I suggest you listen to what other forum members say. Gambling isn’t a source of income, it’s an entertainment, which can quickly become a rather expensive entertainment. There’s nothing bad about it, if you consider it as a way of having fun, like going to the clubs, travelling, etc. But please don’t think you can be in profit after gambling. Even skill based games result in loss initially, it take time to learn and advance to the level, where you can actually win with it.

If you are already financially unstable - bad choice.

It would be a great idea indeed. I remember when we were studying probabilities at school, but it was all theoretical and extremely boring. There were imaginary dice and balloons, probabilities if picking certain ones of them, cumulative probabilities, etc. But it would have been so useful if we had the real-life approach, and were told in this module about probabilities in gambling. Maybe, it could also be part of subjects like economics or something like that.

However, education doesn’t guarantee anything. Sometimes people forget all they know when they see dollars in their eyes, social and emotional education plays an important role here, as well. I bet there are plenty of math teachers that lose in gambling as well

The digital nature of Bitcoin doesn’t make it impossible to use it. Transactions P2P, I believe, is even possible in countries with a full ban on Bitcoin, but the problem is: where to get it? They ban exchanges, Tracy your banking account if you’ve linked one to the exchange, and then you face problems and penalties.

Also, you might want to review some of the information you provided here. For instance, you’ve stated that Russia is more advanced in terms of accepting Bitcoin and there’s a possibility to legally sell it, however, while the status of cryptocurrencies there remains legal, the use of them as a payment method is banned.

Maybe share a link to this report, if still available? That story seems too crazy to be true, might be fake. Although, people do crazy stuff in chase of money.

What can I say, that’s a very risky move and I wouldn’t suggest anyone do the same. Yes, Bitcoin has great potentials day it is a wise investment, but to sell all assets? Just from the probability point of view, that’s irrational. Anything can happen, and in such a case, you’d lose everything. Invest a part, a half, heck, invest 75% of what you own, but leave at least something as a reserve.

Omg, that’s really terrifying and was hard to read. This was shocking to me as well. I knew about the starvation in NK, but the dead bodies, operations without anesthesia, that was an eye-opener.

Communism is terrible, I really want to punch people sometimes when they say that it can bring good. No way. It’s a hypocritical regime, aimed at bringing happiness only to the higher levels of society at the cost of other people’s lives, and that is unacceptable.

I really hate what is happier in NK. Why don’t people stand up and fight against it? I thought they had strong propaganda there and believed that they lived the happiest lives and the West is all rotten. But how can anyone living in such conditions think that there’s something worse, than this? The whole population is suffering, I really don’t get why isn’t anyone doing something about it.