Couldn't put it any better. But cryptocurrency is going to greatly benefit if the banking sector declines. With central banks around the world printing banknotes as if there is no tomorrow, the purchasing power of fiat currency is going to drop like a falling rock. On top of that the federal debt is ballooning for almost all the countries. Sooner or later, we will witness events similar to what we had in Cyprus in 2013. But then again, these factors are not sufficient to replace fiat. Fiat will always be there.

Bitcoin is being used primarily as an investment asset nowadays. If some asset gives me 1000x returns in 8 years, then I will think twice before using it as a payment. And that said, Bitcoin can be used as a payment almost anywhere. In cases where direct payments are not possible, you need to search for indirect options. You can easily purchase gift cards using Bitcoin, and use it for shopping in supermarkets and retail stores where direct payments with Bitcoin are not accepted.

I don't agree. The risk for investors was always there. The risk was greater in 2012, when I first invested in cryptocurrency. Back then Bitcoin was legal only in a handful of countries. A lot of my friends even told me that my investment is going to become completely worthless in a matter of few months. Now I would say that the situation has improved a lot. Bitcoin is legalized and regulated in most of the countries and the investors enjoy some level of protection. The prices may be high, but it can go much higher in the long term.

I always believed that both Mark Karpeles and Craig Wright had some involvement in the Mt Gox robbery. Back then, the total worth of coins that were stolen were estimated at around $450 million (BTC650,000). As per the current exchange rates, the value of the coins that were stolen back then has increased to around $30 billion. I feel bad for the users who lost their life savings in this robbery. I was fortunate not to store my coins in Mt Gox, but still lost some mBTC.

7 years have passed since this incident, and the victims are yet to receive any sort of compensation. Some BTC200,000 were recovered from the cold wallets, but the majority of this stash was sold off at very low prices by Nobuaki Kobayashi (Mt Gox bankruptcy trustee). Some of the people who lost their money has committed suicide. At least now, they should reimburse what is remaining in the cold wallets to the victims of the robbery.

^^^ Ashwin and Lyon may disagree. But I don't think that the pitch in which Joe Root got 5 wickets for 8 runs against the world famous Indian batsmen can be considered as adequate for international standards. Two-day test matches has happened earlier as well. But most of these matches resulted lop-sided contests, such as the match in 2018 between India and Afghanistan or the 2017 test match between South Africa vs Zimbabwe. In both these matches, the winning team scored in excess of 300 runs in their first innings.

I agree. This season was very unpredictable. Both Goa and Hyderabad performed better than what was expected from them. Since Goa needs only a draw, I would give 2/3rd chance for them to qualify for the playoffs, while for Hyderabad I would give 1/3rd chances. Still, it means a lot for Hyderabad to be in contention for the playoffs. A few years back they were regarded as one of the weakest teams in the ISL.

It may look like normal, but that is not the case. Daily death toll as per the government figures remain above 100, and the real death toll may be much higher. Even in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, there was a brief lull before the second wave started. I am afraid that India is currently going through such a phase. On top of that, more lethal strains are being discovered around the world.

I would like to disagree with the OP. The vast majority of the Bitcoin investors (at least until 2020) were from the middle class. And Bitcoin made many of the investors "rich". And this has caused a lot of aversion among those who are already rich. Some of the billionaires have spoken against Bitcoin, because of pure jealousy. Take the case of Warren Buffet for example. It took many decades for him to become a billionaire. And now before his eyes, individuals in their 20s and 30s are becoming millionaires and billionaires in just 2-3 years after investing in Bitcoin. He just can't fathom this and on a regular basis he derides cryptocurrency in his statements.

Another example is that of investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala in India. Recently he realized that he has missed the boat. A couple of days back, he asked the Indian government to ban cryptocurrency. The reason is very simple - he said that he doesn't like cryptocurrency and therefore the government should ban it. Obviously you can't expect people like Jhunjhunwala (who has a shady past) to be as modest or humble as people like Warren Buffet. But these are just some examples of billionaires, who have recently lost their sleep due to the rise of Bitcoin.

The logic is very simple. Vast majority of the uber-rich not just want to increase their wealth, but also want the others to remain poor. Now Bitcoin is upsetting this equilibrium and it is creating a new group of rich people. 

Let's not forget the fact that this is the same match in which Joe Root picked 5 wickets after conceding 8 runs. The pitch was not suitable for international matches and therefore I don't think that Axar's performance will give him any advantage in team selection. The first choice spinner for the Indian side remains as Ashwin, and in overseas matches India is likely to go with just one spinner.

I don't agree with your statements. So you are saying that the volatility was lower when the institutional investment was not there. It is simply not true. Back in 2015 and 2016, there were incidents in which the prices fluctuated by as much as 30% or 40% in a single day. Therefore I would argue that the institutions have lowered the volatility levels. BTW, why should long-term investors worry about price volatility? Temporary fluctuations should not impact them.

^^^ There is a real possibility that England would launch a format complaint to the ICC about the state of the pitch and they may even request to shift the fourth match to some other stadium. In the past, poor condition of the pitch has resulted in abandoning test matches. I don't expect ECB to remain silent about this, as they were on the receiving end. The issue for them is that it is BCCI on the other end. If it was PCB or CSA, then they would have already gone ballistic about it.

LOL.. in all probability, the WTC final is going to be between India and New Zealand and the interesting thing is that England will be hosting the match. This is a perfect opportunity for England to take out revenge. 

They can prepare a pitch which will give all sort of assistance to pace bowlers. New Zealand currently have the best pace bowlers for any team in international cricket, with Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson, Lockie Ferguson, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner.etc competing for slots in the playing XI. Indian batsmen are going to struggle against them under unfavorable conditions.

OK.. so the match will last 6 sessions. Congratulations to the curator!!! If it ended before the dinner break, then I guess it could have been a new record. Now England made sure that the match stretches to the third session of the day. Don't want to blame the England batsmen. Afterall, the much renowned Indian batsmen were skittled out for just 145. Hope they prepare a decent track for the fourth test.

Ashwin and Axar are getting crazy amounts of turn. It is almost impossible to bat on this surface. Every run is being treated like gold dust. As usual, the Indian lower order added valuable runs (especially Ashwin, and to an extent Ishant), but the England lower order failed to do so. The partnership between Joe Root and Ben Stokes is going to be crucial. Stokes in particular, looks quite confident till now. 

I have seen across many posts recently, mostly posted by noobs which deal with similar topics. A few examples are "Bitcoiners need to share their wealth with the poor", "Bitcoin needs to be distributed among women", "LGBT community is not sufficiently represented among Bitcoiners".etc. I don't understand the logic. Bitcoin is a decentralized asset. Is anyone preventing these groups from owning Bitcoin? If someone, or some group is preventing these groups from using Bitcoin, then it is a serious issue and we need to look in to it.

I was constantly watching the site that was originally posted by user NeuroticFish. Today morning I noticed that most of the Mempool is composed of transactions with fee of 10-20 Sat/Byte. I immediately moved my coins, after putting a fee of 16 Sat/Byte and it got confirmed in around 30 minutes. This is what happens when you have the patience to wait for 2-3 days. If I had gone for the transaction earlier, then it would have cost me at least 150 Sat/Byte. In total, I paid a fee of BTC0.00015, when it could have been easily 10 times that much.

Don't underestimate the power of the state. CBDCs will have state support and that will act to their advantage. But then, CBDCs are likely to replace fiat payment gateways and may offer competition to PayPal, MasterCard.etc. Their impact on proper cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is going to be pretty limited. Cryptocurrency users are not going to turn to CBDCs overnight. At the most, those who are using stablecoins right now may use CBDCs instead to protect their assets from short-term volatility.

Don't know what happened to Jamieson. It is very rare to see him conceding more than 8 runs per over in the T20 format. And today he conceded 56 runs from his 24 balls. RCB curse seems to be back. BTW, the match was a very exciting one.. 15 runs were needed from the last over, and both Stoinis and Sams were in good touch. But then Sams got out and Stonis followed him in quick succession. All credit to Neesham, who bowled such a great last over.

You have sold your coins and now you are advising others not to sell theirs. There is an irony in this. Prices have gone up by 400% during the last 12 months, and this is the right opportunity to book partial profits. But that doesn't mean that you need to sell all of your coins now. The best idea would be to sell 10% to 20% of the coins and keep the rest for the long term (>3 years).

Despite all the scaremongering.. Bitcoin continues to trade above the $50,000 level. Rather than attacking Bitcoin all the time, Yellen and the rest of the reptilian overlords must think about the falling purchasing power of the US Dollar. They should analyze why people are not preferring the USD to store their wealth. I am still waiting to see how the latest $1.9 trillion stimulus is going to turn out. Let's see what impact it is going to have on inflation.