How many of the users who are posting in this thread were active during 2018, when ETH crashed from $1,400 to $80? The drop in Bitcoin prices played a small part, but that was not the main reason. The most important factor was the complete collapse of the ICO market. Back in 2018, there were a few well known ICOs, which turned out to be scams. The reputation of the ICO sector took an irreversible hit, and along with that the ETH prices also got hurt. That was the main reason for the crash in ETH prices.

Here are the latest stats from 7th February 2021.

Total market cap: $1,180,542,632,001 (+15.98%)

Bitcoin: $720,992,801,642 (61.073%)
Bitcoin forks: $12,269,666,921 (1.039%)
Stablecoins: $39,121,655,293 (3.314%)
Altcoins: $403,435,216,193 (34.174%)
WBTC: $4,717,694,820 (0.400%)

This is the change compared to my last post:

Bitcoin: -1.039%
Bitcoin forks: -0.102%
Stablecoins: -0.298%
Altcoins: +1.428%
WBTC: +0.012%

I don't think that any of these coins are liked to Bitcoin. Earlier, Namecoin was linked to Bitcoin because the Bitcoin miners used to mine NMC simultaneously with BTC. I don't know what happened to that coin, as it looks like it has become dead or dormant. All the other coins that are listed by the OP are competitors for Bitcoin for the purpose of making payments. BCH in particular, was forked out due to differences in block size and I would never consider it as being "friendly" with BTC. In fact, the BCH developers and supporters such as Roger Ver want BCH to replace BTC.

Outside intervention will only make it worse. One of the arguments put forward by the military is that Suu Kyi is a western puppet (the fact that her late husband Michael Aris was a British national doesn't help much). Now if the Western nations make this a proxy battle between China and the NATO, then things will get complicated. Suu Kyi enjoys widespread support among the Bamar majority, while the military is supported by the Sangha and the Chinese. My guess is that the military won't be able to hold on to power for too long, with Suu Kyi and NLD commanding such a level of support. So even without any foreign intervention, the military coup will be undone soon. Now western interference will only complicate matters further.

The Pakistan vs South Africa match is turning out to be a very interesting one. The advantage is still with Pakistan, as their opponents need another 245 runs with 9 wickets in hand. But the partnership between Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen has made 92 runs, and has given hope to South Africa. And they have Faf du Plessis and Quiton de Kock to follow.. IMO, right now it is like 50/50. The match can swing either way.

OK.. let me traslate that to simple words - discriminating against "gays" is not OK, since they are a "marginalized group". On the other hand, discriminating against Trump is OK, since he is a heterosexual white man. You could have posted this in simple words rather than beating around the bush. As far as I am concerned, if discrimination is bad, then both the cases are bad. I don't give preferential treatment to any group just because they claim that are "marginalized". Being marginalized doesn't give anyone any special privileges. Law should be equal to everyone.

From what I have heard, there is a lot of controversy surrounding Arjun Tendulkar. Some of the opposition politicians have linked his selection to the recent tweets made by Sachin Tendulkar (he tweeted against Rihanna and Greta Thuneberg). So even before the auctions begin, he is under a lot of pressure. Anyway, this time some of the teams are having large purses and I won't be surprised if we get to see some record bids.

Shillong used to be the capital of undivided Assam. But once Meghalaya was separated from Assam, it lost its multicultural image. Nowadays ethnic clashes are very common in that city and the locals are not very fond of outsiders residing there. They even prevented a proposed railway line, saying that it will cause outsiders migrating to Shillong. And you can assume what will be their reaction, if there is a proposal to upgrade the Shillong cricket stadium.

I have pointed out this many times. Comparing 1 oz with 1 BTC is not the right comparison, because the unites are not the same. Why don't you compare 1 BCT with 1 kg of gold? Anyway, just to show the increase in the exchange rates of BTC, it is fine. The proper comparison would be between the total market cap of Bitcoin, with that of gold. So it works out to something like this:

Total BTC in circulation right now = 18,620,006
Exchange rate = $37,626.75
Market cap of BTC = $ 700,610,310,761

Total gold that has been mined till now = 197,576 tonnes
Price of 1 tonne of gold = $58,030,107
Market cap of gold = $11,465,356,420,632

It is the same case with Bitcoin as well. Today I had to do 5 transactions and the fee was like $15 per transaction. So ended up paying $75, although the total value of the coins that were transferred was only around $750. That means I had to pay around 10% of the total amount as fee. It is getting really bad, and users who deal with small amounts are disproportionately affected. The miners want the fee to increase further, and since the decision making power is with them, there is nothing that we can do about it.

Don't be so fast. Dom Sibley trapped leg before by Jasprit Bumrah. He batted really well.. until now. Faced 285 balls (382 minutes), and stood like a rock while Joe Root piled up the runs from the other end. And he had to survive for just 4 more balls but he got out during the last over. If not for that wicket, England could have been well on top. But now it is once again, evenly poised.

And when the English bowlers comes out to bowl, it is not going to be easy. I have been to Chennai once, and the weather is really challenging. At this time of the year, it can be really hot and humid. It will be impossible for the pacers to put in more than 15 overs per day.

According to Bloomberg, 119 million doses of the vaccine has been administered till now. I don't have the number of individuals who have been completely vaccinated (i.e two doses) for all the countries, but for USA the figure stands at 2.3% of the population and therefore I assume that a large part of the 80 plus population is covered. For the UK, the same figure stands at 0.8%. And for most of the EU nations, it is between 1% and 2% (except France, which is lagging behind in terms of inoculation).

Israel is at the top, and 21.6% is fully vaccinated. And if we look at the charts from there, the decrease in the prevalence of the virus is clearly visible. They used to have 50-100 deaths per day in January, and this has been reduced by half now.

Too early to say that. There are a number of governments out there, which have taken a much more positive view about cryptocurrency. Japan is a prime example. They were the first country to fully legalize Bitcoin and the government attitudes haven't changed since then. The only issue is that the tax rates in Japan are a bit higher compared to the other territories and therefore we don't see a great deal of crypto-related businesses that are based there. Japan is having a very strong national currency and therefore the government doesn't have anything to worry from the usage of cryptocurrency. The same can't be said about third world nations such as China and India, where the national currency is heavily manipulated.

I personally know a lot of people who became bankrupt as a result of this hobby. And in one case I know of an individual who committed suicide after getting ruined as a result of lottery ticket purchases. And the chances of winning are no way near 1%. The best chance I know is for the Dubai Duty Free's Millennium Millionaire Scheme in which there is a limit of 5,000 tickets. So the probability of winning is 0.02%. For most of the other lotteries, the probability is like 1 in 10 million or less than that.

Half an hour back, England was having a solid advantage. Now the situation has turned upside down and India is at the top. But as long as Joe Root is there, I am not going to discount the chances for England. Let's not forget the fact that he is in such a terrific form. Last month, he scored 426 runs from two test matches in Sri Lanka (and picked up two wickets as well). This is his 100th test and I am expecting something special.

Cryptocurrency is designed in such a way, to keep the government out of it. No matter how much they try, the governments can't manipulate or seize cryptocurrency. They can't reverse any of the transactions as there is no central authority, and that is the beauty of cryptocurrency. Now the SEC and FinCen can interfere with the day-to-day affairs of exchanges and other crypto-related businesses, but their scope ends there. It is impossible for them to dominate the cryptocurrency market, similar to what they are doing with equities, bullion, bonds, real estate.etc.

I have to disagree here. Since the draw is randomized to the maximum extent possible, no matter whatever number you chose, the chance of winning per draw remains the same. For example, let's say that there is 1 in 100 million chance of winning a jackpot. If you are buying tickets continuously for 25 draws, then there is a chance of 25 per 100 million that you will win the jackpot at least once. This probability (25 per 100 million) remains the same whether you are sticking with the same number or you are opting for 25 different combinations.

Quite irritating to have the rain interruption for the Pakistan vs South Africa match. The partnership between Babar Azam and Fawad Alam was progressing nicely before the rains occurred. South Africa wasted such a great start. Maharaj and Nortje picked up three very important wickets and yet they allowed the Pakistanis to come back in to the match. And it looks as if George Linde is injured. In that case, the South African bowling lineup will be further weakened.

The timing doesn't surprise me. The military, and their backers in Beijing seems to have waited until Trump was kicked out of power in the United States. There was no major trigger as such in Myanmar and the military staged the coup at this time after very lengthy planning. The reason being given is that the recently concluded parliamentary elections were rigged by the ruling NLD. 

And contrary to what some have posted here, the Rohingya issue has played no role in these events. Both Suu Kyi and the Tatmadaw are on the same side as far as the Rohingyas are considered. The major difference was related to the issue of clashes between Christian missionaries and the Hill Regions Buddhist Mission (HRBM) in states such as Chin and Kachin. Suu Kyi has actively supported the Baptist church during her term as the president, while the Tatmadaw is a solidly Buddhist dominated entity and it is opposed to the increasing presence of Baptist church in the country.

After her win in 2020, Suu Kyi had asked the army to stop providing support to the HRBM and not to restrict the activities of the Baptist church. The discontent within Tatmadaw resulting from this move was brewing for some time.

I said countries "such as" Tajikistan and Azerbaijan. That also includes Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan.etc. These countries have a total population of around 80 million and out of that a large fraction resides in Russia. Out of the total population of Moscow (20-25 million), around 20% may be Muslim. The white ethnic groups are dying out all over the former USSR, including Ukraine and they are being replaced by Muslim migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus.