I agree, and that account will climb the ranks as fast as the algorithm will allow given the rate at which it's earning merits--just the way it should be for any member of bitcointalk.

And egads, I've been lax in watching the channel as of late!  However, I finally logged into my account (which I hate doing) and will do some catching up in a few minutes.  I'm sure some thumbs up will be coming the channel's way.  And yes, I know I can watch the videos without being logged in, but it's nice to be able to leave comments and said thumbs up, which can't be done when you're logged out.  I just hate Google and wish there was a competitor viable enough such that the forum's channel didn't have to use their platform.

I suppose there's no chance of dual posting the videos on a site like Bitchute or some other video hosting site?

Not only that, but because I have a custom trust list, OP has a trust score of -3.  JollyGood's tag isn't the only one OP has received; he's been tagged for account buying/selling in 2018.  If that reference link were more recent, I'd be giving OP a neg as well.

In any case, there's nothing you or anyone else can do about your trust page, Decrypted.  You've presumably been a member here long enough to know that by now (unless you're not the original owner of your account).  JollyGood might be harsh with feedback sometimes, but tagging 1xbit promoters is valid as far as I'm concerned.

Man, it's probably something like that as I can't see any logical reason why someone would basically copy-paste an ANN thread that presumably isn't real and doesn't have a project behind it.  

What's funny (in a depressing but amusing way) is that there are so many applicants to Heart Attack's fake bounty.  Obviously there are so many newbies and likely alt accounts just waiting for the chance to join one of these fucking awful bounties.  They don't care what the project is, and they obviously didn't realize or don't care that this guy plagiarized CoinRadr's bounty ANN format.  Ugh.  There are too many of these idiots on bitcointalk.

Possible but very unlikely IMO.  Unless they were the same person launching two different bounties, I don't think what you suggested happens very often (though I could be wrong; I don't monitor the bounty section).

Eh....if we are in an "everything bubble" then why would anyone expect bitcoin not to crash when everything else does? 

When I took economics years ago in college, one of the first things the professor did in class was to say this:  "Ask 10 economists a question and you'll get 11 different answers".  So even though OP linked to two articles (which I haven't read yet but will) predicting economic doomsday, that doesn't mean either of them are right.  On the other hand, my personal opinion is that there is indeed a crash coming, and it's going to be a big one--at least in the stock market.  Stocks have been on a rip-roaring, drunken tear for over a decade now, and that can't be sustained indefinitely.

OP, I don't understand what you mean here in the part that I've bolded:

I don't think bitcoin is at all dependent on what the stock market does.  I'm not even sure I agree that it behaves like a tech stock other than the fact that it's extremely volatile.  What I do think is that whenever stocks crash in a big way, bitcoin will probably at least slide downward.  And if we go into a major recession I'm almost certain bitcoin will take a massive hit.

The last time I did a check to see what results Google had when I searched for just "1xbit.com" the first page showed only links to its site, and none of the results pointed to scam accusations from bitcointalk--and that's a shame.  I really don't know how people discover their site to begin with, but I wish potential 1xbit customers would seriously do some due diligence before betting there.

I think part of the problem might be that people search for "crypto gambling" or similar phrases when they're looking for a site to wager or play on, and they're not searching for 1xbit.com specifically.  In any case, it'd be nice if any searches for their site would return at least one scam accusation from this forum.  At least that way people would see a red flag, however tiny.

As hard as I am on people at times, I agree with you.  We all want to trust that websites aren't scams, and most of the ones we all visit from day-to-day aren't....and then a site like 1xbit shows up and pulls all of this shit.  OP, I don't expect you're going to get any satisfaction from them, so I'm sorry you got scammed.  You did the right thing in creating a thread though.  The more there are, the better.

I don't know much about game theory other than what I learned when reading about John Nash's life, but yeah, I guess the big wigs aren't exempt from the fear of missing out on something that's performed as well as bitcoin has.  It's doubtful Putin himself owns any, but who knows. 

On the other hand, that wouldn't explain why bitcoin is either illegal or highly regulated in certain parts of the world.  If politicians really were getting in on bitcoin, you'd think they'd take more of a hands-off approach when it comes to lawmaking. 

Bitcoin isn't ever going to alleviate poverty.  It doesn't have the innate ability to do so--same for any other asset or currency; poor people don't have enough money in general, so how is bitcoin going to help them?  I've seen arguments like yours many times over the years on this forum, and it always baffles me why they're made.  If you or anyone else can tell me how any cryptocurrency can raise someone from below the poverty line to a stable financial state, I'm all ears and I'd love to hear it.

Interesting, but you'd think Russia would have its collective mind on more important things than replacing its fiat currency or promoting mining at a time like this when there's so much political/military tension in the country. 

Aside from that, I was recently looking at electricity rates around the world and discovered that Russia has some of the lowest.  If you're a bitcoin (or altcoin) miner, it'd be fantastic to set up a big farm somewhere where the weather is always cold and power is cheap.  But I'm always confused as to the state of legality regarding bitcoin in two countries: Russia and China.  Is bitcoin mining legal in Russia or not?  I could swear the last I heard it was not.  If that's the case, hopefully Putin is coming around to making it OK to do so in Russia again.

Yeah well, I can't imagine he'd be making statements like this just for the hell of it.  No politician would do that; there's got to be some kind of incentive for Putin or any other world leader to publicly praise bitcoin.

OP, I absolutely sympathize with your situation and getting scammed to the point where you're in mental agony shouldn't happen to anyone, but why do you think anyone on bitcointalk would have any influence on gate.io?  You've already reported the problem here for the community to see, so if they were at all concerned about their reputation (and if what you say is true), they'd rectify the situation immediately.

Not sure how much lawyers go for where you live in Serbia, but I'd think generally for $9000 it wouldn't be worth the cost of hiring a lawyer, because you'd probably only recovery 1/3 or less of that.  Maybe you could get one to take your case on a near pro bono rate, but somehow I doubt that.

Anyway, I wish you luck in getting your money back.

I don't think Facebook's one-day plummet is because of that, else we would have seen many other companies' stocks dropping in sync, but that isn't what happened. 

I'm also very confused as to what the real economic situation is.  You say it's weak globally, yet all around me I see businesses that can't find employees.  In addition to that, there seems to be a lot of people with an abundance of cash to spend on frivolous things such as NFTs--plus the stock market is still headed upward.  So nah, I think Facebook's stock drop has everything to do with how investors see them and their prospects for the future.  Social media is a relatively new thing, remember.  Younger members might not remember a time when it didn't exist, but I sure as hell do.  There's no telling whether FB is going to remain dominant in the space or even if they'll remain profitable.

Thanks for posting this, Hydrogen.  Since I don't follow world news, I had no idea inflation was so out of control in Argentina.  I'm not sure if what they're experiencing is considered hyperinflation or not, but I wonder if wages are at all keeping pace with inflation.  If wages aren't rising at all, there would be extreme poverty in no time--but that doesn't seem to be the case just based on what this article says.

Now that's smart, and it's something that I've thought about doing for a while now.  I do have all the toothpaste and shampoo I can use for the rest of the year, and I'll have to consider what I can stockpile.  This damn supply chain problem doesn't seem to be getting any better, however.  Where I live it's incredibly hard to find pet food as well as some other items that would be easy to stock up on.

Yeah, I wonder how long that's going to last until the new hedge becomes the Canadian dollar or some other stable fiat currency.  Also: no mention of bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency here, which really doesn't surprise me.  Too bad, because if it weren't so volatile it'd be a great alternative to their fiat currency.

They've got to be the worst news outlet I know of, aside from CNN and Fox News (which aren't news media so much as political platforms anyway).  

It actually is sort of a solution, albeit not a perfect one.  When your money is losing value by the day, it makes complete sense to spend it as fast as you can--and buying food is the number one priority, as long as it can be stored for the medium-to-long term.  What else can regular people do in situations like this?  The problem needs to be fixed by the government, obviously, but citizens need to actively protect themselves from the effects of crazy inflation.

It's because crypto is red hot at the moment (and has been since the last crash in 2017, actually) and people just want to try to discover the next bitcoin.  It's never gonna happen, but that won't stop people with money to burn from trying.  There's also this:

I'd say most of crypto investing is gambling, but if you're buying a coin that has no use whatsoever and can't be used as money....that's gambling, plain and simple.

I also think a lot of folks are watching popular crypto Youtubers and reading stuff like that Reddit post, and there's a sort of mentality that makes people want to belong to the clique that's investing in whatever the hottest coin/token is.  A lot of people are being misled, too.  Those Youtubers aren't making videos out of the goodness of their hearts; they're either earning ad revenue or they've got paid sponsorships, so they have to come up with ideas for videos whether they believe in those ideas or not.  On top of that, it's likely that many of them are just hyping coins that they've already purchased in the hopes of driving up the price.  You know, the ol' pump & dump scheme, which we've seen happen repeatedly.

I second this, OP.  I wouldn't be too worried about your trust page unless you wind up tagged by a DT member (and I haven't checked the list lately, but logfiles's trust gives you an red -1 when I see your avatar).  Lots of members have gotten brutally trolled on their trust pages and have pages full of red--though in those cases, it's never by DT members.  But my point is that nobody would really care even if they were inclined to look at your trust. 

Even bounty managers seem to overlook valid negs given by DT members occasionally, so I wouldn't worry about those two feedbacks you've got (which I suspect will probably be modified if you follow up after some time has passed with the members who gave them to you).

I think most members who join new signature campaigns/bounties do exactly that, and personally I don't fault them for it.  If a project/exchange/casino/whatever is new, it's extremely hard to do due diligence prior to joining.  By the time you've figured out if the place is legit, all the spots are taken.  Plus, isn't it better to assume that something isn't a scam until proven otherwise?  Unless it's obviously one, of course.

In addition to your point about thieves and what they'd generally be searching for, I think you've got a valid point here as well.  I don't think using a smartphone as a HW wallet would be a great idea for someone like me, who's too technologically incompetent to wipe a phone free of all the potential spying shit that's preinstalled on it. 

Otherwise, it isn't a horrible idea at all--you can hide a smartphone pretty easily, and other than the times when you want to actually use the device, it's easy to keep it offline.  Then again, why not just use one or more USB drives or even a seed phrase engraved into metal, coupled with Electrum for sending/receiving?  That seems like a much more secure option (though a lot less creative than using a phone).

I think a lot of members of this forum don't seem to understand that fact; saying bitcoin (or any cryptocurrency currently on the market) has the potential to overthrow fiat is like saying stocks, bonds, or comic books have that same potential.  It's a ridiculous statement, because crypto is primarily an investment, not a currency (although it certainly can be used as one). 

And "fiat"?  What does that mean, exactly?  Are we talking about the currencies of every single country in the world or just the USD/GBP/etc.?  In order for bitcoin to overthrow "fiat" there would have to be an economic crisis the likes of which no living being has ever seen, and if that happened I wonder if there would even be internet left to use crypto on.  Historically when one fiat currency fails, the citizens of the country in which it failed simply use another country's fiat currency, one that's more stable.  Even in Venezuela, when bitcoin was well-known and their fiat currency collapsed, Venezuelans turned to the USD as an alternative (to the best of my knowledge).

I'm definitely not bashing bitcoin, but I've heard this tune many times before and it just doesn't make sense to me.

It really isn't; it's only been in the last year or so that lower-ranked members have started to create threads tooting their own horns when they achieve a new rank.  That never used to be a thing.

But:

Goddamn!!  If I'd hit that milestone for post reporting, I'm not sure I'd be able to refrain from the aforementioned horn-tooting.  That's a lot of reports, dude!  I've been a member of the forum since 2015 and I don't even have 5000 reports in total, and there was a period in 2017-18 when I was reporting tons of posts--so props to you for helping the forum out.  You really deserve a large, brightly-colored badge under your avatar in recognition of your reporting. 

I'm sure a lot of members don't realize what it takes to keep the forum relatively free of spammers, shitposters, and other various rule breakers.  The people who report posts to the mods do so behind the scenes, and nobody would ever know to what extent they contribute to forum cleanliness if it wasn't pointed out in threads like this or when Theymos dumps reporting data ever four years or so.

So again, kudos to you, Ratimov.  Keep it up.

It isn't weird at all if those "others" (like Facebook) are pure fucking evil incarnate.  Sure, that might be my overwrought opinion, but I know I'm not alone in holding it.  Even the inception of Facebook involved deception on the part of Mark Zuckerberg, hence the lawsuit against him by the Winklevii twins--and everything the company has done since then has been geared toward gathering data on people and working with the government to censor views that differ from those in power--just check out this video for one example.  Ugh.  Personally, I'm one of those who'd be happy if FB went belly up.

Word.  I can't remember exactly when MySpace lost the face to FB (and I'm too lazy to look it up), but I think it was just before mass data collection and selling of said data became an enormous issue.  But I can't imagine that if MySpace had emerged the winner of the duel that they'd have acted any differently; selling that data is tremendously lucrative, and neither MySpace nor FB were conceived out of charitable feelings, if you know what I'm getting at.

That's a pretty big drop in price, but if you look at Facebook's 10-year price chart it really doesn't seem so bad--especially since the stock will probably recover in no time:



I'm not even sure why single day performance of any stock is newsworthy or why in a market like today's where pretty much every stock is overvalued everyone is looking for explanations.  Honestly, I'd say the S&P and NASDAQ are both due for a 26% one-day drop.  This has been the longest bull market in stocks ever if I'm not mistaken.  I remember when it started, too, right after that massive crash and subsequent recovery in 2009.  I'm sure there are a lot of younger members here who weren't old enough to care about something like that, so that's one hell of a sustained bull market!

But these kinds of markets never last forever, not in stocks, not in crypto, not in any market.  And with a company like Facebook, which hasn't been around as long as other companies with massive market caps, volatility like what we saw on Thursday is kind of to be expected.

Yeah, I was certainly surprised to see that.  I wasn't sure which way bitcoin was going to move, but the fact that it was upwards a few thousand dollars means there's likely still a lot of money to burn on risky investments--which means there's still a lot of money floating around out there.

I'd also say that the fact that OP doesn't see a lot of people at malls and shopping centers near where he lives may be deceptive.  People could be buying a lot of stuff online, and obviously that wouldn't be observed by anyone other than the people who bought said stuff.  I'm also really not sure what "liquidity drying up" means in the context of the general economy.  That phrase has meaning in trading markets, of course, but the general public not having enough cash available to them should never be a problem--especially since most transactions are done with smartphones or debit/credit cards. 

Eyyyy!!  Congrats to all the newly-ranked up members, and it's good to see there's a lot of them this time around.  I could have sworn BITCOIN4X had already reached Legendary, but I guess I was mistaken.

Merit sources must be doing their jobs well, and I'm hoping non-merit sources are doing their best to distribute merits to those in need.  The system is over three years old, so it has a decent track record but it'll fail if members hoard their sMerits (I think I've said that like a million times already, but it's a persistent fear that I have).

Once again, I'm going to offer post history reviews to any member below Legendary rank as long as they don't already have 1000 merits.  Just drop me a PM asking to review your posts and I'll be happy to do it.  I'd actually be grateful if more members took me up on the offer, because I haven't been doing as much reading in the past few weeks and so haven't handed out as many merits as I usually do.  I'm trying to improve, but it'd help if I had my attention focused on where to send merits.

I'll take OP at his word that this place (and I highly doubt there's even a place) is a scam.  I took a look at their "contact" page and saw this:



Sure, it's possible that this is an ASIC retailer based out of Minnesota in the US and that the owners have an extremely poor grasp of the English language....but it's far more likely that this is just a phishing site preying on the world's growing desire to break into the mining business.  That isn't even how you format a US address, by the way.  You'd think anyone living in Minnesota would know how to write their mailing address properly.