It's an interesting theory, but at the same time, very likely.

The smart money is flowing into bitcoin right now in my opinion, which is a reason why you see a lot of the big name corporations that have started to enter the crypto space during the bear market. They see potential, and a great entry point, which is honestly the most rational thing to do.

The mainstream investors on the other hand tend to be affected a lot by emotions and what mainstream media tells them. That leads to panic dumping. As a result, I do see that it's very likely institutions and the so called "whales" are buying on average, more than what individuals are buying right now, because they recognise what the market patterns are.

Exactly. I don't actually think that the US is that negative in terms of their attitude towards bitcoin regulation.

I mean, their stance is still a lot better than what some countries such as India has done, which is essentially restrict access of bitcoin and also bitcoin related services. Are they doing the best job possible in terms of actually giving incentives for new startups to come up in their country though? Probably not, especially when you look at countries like Malta who seem to be proactively doing this.

The fact is that there will always be a conflict of interest between banks and bitcoin, and the government sometimes has to protect their banking industry and take the stance based on their liking. It's not just the US regulators either - it's regulators everywhere.

Very interesting. Though the feasibility of this on a large scale is yet to be seen.

Also, given the fact that the internet is already be widely available, and the reliability of it will only increase even in remote regions, I doubt the need for offline bitcoin transactions will be that significant in the future. Especially when you consider the priorities that people will have without any electricity, it's basically a very unlikely SHTF scenario.

But certainly it can happen, like in Venezuela. If a feasible, large scale way of doing this on-chain can be found, then it'll certainly add to the functionality of the network.


We are not. We're simply trying to adapt bitcoin to as many possible scenarios as possible, so that its properties as a currency can be cemented and that its dependence on the internet, which may not be fully decentralised, can be reduced. That's furthering bitcoin's use, not going backwards.

I'd say that Binance right now would still be my go to exchange for anonymous, low volume trades. That may not remain the case, though.

Even though there are cases where they have asked for KYC seemingly out of the blue, I personally have never gotten that. There is always risk with dealing with exchanges that do not require KYC, despite what their official policy with it is as others say, because ultimately, legislation can change and that's out of their control.

The most important thing though is making sure that the funds are in custody of the exchange for a minimal amount of time. I'd definitely go with Binance, but you may also find other smaller exchanges without KYC requirements. But whatever exchange you use, make sure you don't use it as a wallet, because there are various issues that may arise especially if you aren't comfortable with verifying yourself.

The important part here isn't the 0.01 BTC that he had promised to pay you for your attempt, because after all, you did fail to do the task. But he should have at least paid you what you have done successfully, as per your agreements.

This is why you never do work for someone without getting the payment upfront (unlikely since your reputation is quite low), or have funds secured in escrow. Otherwise, you may just be wasting your time. Also, have a written out, detailed contract every time you do work, which outlines the scope and limits of the work you'll be doing.

That way, if there are any disputes, you know that you have something to refer to, and the funds are still there in escrow to fall back on. There's still a slim chance this guy will pay you back, though I think it is unlikely.

Yep, based off that alone you'd certainly want to avoid them.

I've heard plenty of stories in the past about bter, with their wallet maintenance and constant withdrawal and deposit issues that it had later on in its operation. I know a lot of people personally that had funds stuck in Bter for ages.

Now, even though gate.io does seem a lot more professional than bter ever was from a UI standpoint, it is likely that aspects of the terrible customer support and constant issues will carry over. It's very rare nowadays to see exchanges based in mainland China due to the strict restrictions, and I'm fairly sure that it's located in the Cayman Islands which is a popular offshore jurisdiction for exchanges.


How is that a problem? Virtually all former Chinese exchanges have moved abroad and/or rebranded.

It does seem like that the site is operating from Belgium, or at least targeting mainly Belgian users. Based off their site:

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I certainly don't think that it is possible at this day and age to get a bitcoin debit card without verification that can be used with longevity. Not only does this service seem like not have anything to do with crypto, it's likely that you'll have to get verified if you want the IBAN. Even if you do get to go with the anonymous route, I think that it's only going to be a matter of time that unverified cards will be cancelled.

There's also no point using them if you're solely using their unverified service. It's literally the same service that other payment processors, or even your local banks provide. Unless you're in Belgium and like the services that they provide, I wouldn't take this risk.

Nope. I'm pretty sure that Sweeet was the only person to do it.

I don't see why you should want to invest or lend out your money to these, though. Even Sweeet, which was considered to be somewhat trustworthy, went rogue after a while. These investments generally do not scale well and carry high risks because of both the counterparty risk, and the inherent risks in dealing with trading, especially on paxful.

You're much better off investing your money in some form of bankroll or collateralised loan if you're looking to get maximum returns on your BTC. You can never be sure that public p2p investments like these aren't a ponzi, because of the high rates of interest.

BTW, I think this probably belongs better in securities than it does in lending. You can perhaps move it to that subforum.

I don't see anything that particularly stands out. The coronation coin might be worth 10-15 USD or so, but that's pretty much it.

Australian pennies and 2 cent coins are virtually worthless if common dates (and fairly sure that 1962 and 1958 are common), bulk lots of 1kg pennies (around 100 pennies) cost around $20-25 to obtain. 1kg of 1 and 2 cent coins cost around $15, so pretty much around melt value. Unless someone can point out a variety that I haven't spotted, I think that it's best to just keep them in your possession as a souvenir.

I can't really comment on US coins since I'm not that familiar, but usual wheat cents (assuming that there are no key dates) are worth not that much more than face value either. Usually they are traded in bulk by bullion exchanges.

Tough luck

I certainly think that the halving will have a significant impact on the psychological aspect of traders, which is usually what matters the most in determining the market cycle and which phase of it we're in. The market sentiment in my opinion is more important than any TA that you can do.

And given that past bull markets have always peaked around 1 year after the halving, it wouldn't surprise me if prices do run up significantly between 2020 to 2021. The increased scarcity in newly created coins, as well as people's psychology will most likely make this happen.

However, I wouldn't go to the lengths of trying to predict how high it goes. The rallies could be significantly lesser this time round due to the more mature market, and larger market cap, which tends to suggest that volatility will be down and lower percentage gains will be seen. I don't think that 6 figures is necessarily out of the equation given the fact that adoption has actually continued to pick up despite the bear market, and firms like Goldman Sachs are actively trying to enter the bitcoin trading industry, but it's certainly not a guarantee solely based off past performance.

First of all, it's extremely hard to see bitcoin gaining that kind of support from central banks and governments any time soon.

The precise nature of bitcoin makes it able to be run without any intermediaries, which is the exact reason why it was created in the first place. There isn't a need for government subsidisation to keep the network running, because even when there is no block rewards, miners are able to have incentive to mine because a) transaction fees still contribute to the rewards they get to keep the network running b) the price of bitcoin would have likely appreciated significantly at that point due to the increased scarcity.

To answer your question, it's a simple no. It's unrealistic to assume that the government or central bank would ever have such a positive attitude towards BTC in the first place, and BTC certainly does not need their intervention to survive in the future. After all, it's a decentralised network.

I'd be surprised that anyone would fall for this. That's how obvious it is. Self moderated and locked thread is never legit.

But honestly, the digital goods section is flooded with scams like this. It doesn't matter what payment processor or payment method that they are conducting their trades via, if the rates seem too good to be true, then they are, 100%. I see this a lot with absurd discounts on paypal balances, and gift cards that are sold in the same subforum. People can spot this WU scam from a mile away, yet they seem to think that gift card trades are different or something. Just don't be greedy and avoid them, because even if you do get paid (very unlikely), chances are you have received fraudulently obtained funds/gift cards.

BTW, could davidx2019 be an alt of DavidXXXX which is a known scammer with a ton of alts? This is completely unbased, and pure speculation. But there is a possibility given the similarity in the names.

How is it possible that one of the founding members of the project that you are supposedly heavily affiliated with doesn't even know of your operations? Your excuses here simply don't add up. The legit team literally confirmed that you are a scam - why are you even bothering to defend yourself?

It's clear that the token that you have created have absolutely no link to the BAT token that is supposed to be used in the actual project.

At least show some proof that you are even ever in contact with Brendan or any other Brave team members please. It doesn't matter whether or not your downloads link to the legit brave site, because you are literally advertising a scam token under the name of Brave, and I'm sure that they haven't given you consent to do any of this.

This is a reason why not all "blockchain" or "cryptocurrency" news is as relevant as you think.

A lot of these news are in fact, completely unrelated to any kind of movement to decentralisation. A lot of the hyped up stuff are in fact just digital payment processing that was already previously done anyways, and/or blockchain used as internal infrastructure in businesses, which isn't necessarily a bad thing at all since it's still blockchain adoption, but it's certainly not using blockchain as a decentralised payment network.

Furthermore, the government issued coins that have been popping up in recent days have definitely formed a trend. I personally dismiss all of them, because they all breach the underlying principles of BTC, of decentralisation, trustlessness, and independent store of value.

It's a very interesting question.

I personally have always thought that stability is a relational thing. Because people still perceive value in fiat terms at the moment, it is incredibly difficult for bitcoin to gain footing as some form of stable currency, because people aren't using it for actual commercial purposes in the majority of the time.

Of course, this will change in the future, which is I think what you're proposing.

I personally think that increased adoption, especially merchant adoption, will certainly help the value of bitcoin become less volatile. Firstly, the increased market cap means that manipulation of the market becomes tougher to do, especially in the short term. Secondly, if people start pricing goods and services in the future in terms of BTC, these goods and services will essentially lay a "foundation" for the price, making it less prone to fluctuations.

Certainly. I would agree with every point that he has made here.

Bitcoin essentially serves as a store of value, without having to be bound by the traditional notion of decentralisation only being achievable through physical elements which can be hard to verify to be pure, handle, and transport. You basically get the convenience of fiat (even more so when transacting online) with the store of value aspects of precious metals - which is the underlying fundamentals of bitcoin.

The fact is that with all the institutions showing interest in bitcoin, it is only a matter of time before the next bull market breaks out. I would say that given the increasing adoption and institutional interest, it's not hard to see BTC hitting another ATH during the halving near 2020. I also like his strategy with spacing out his buys, since it's very wise to dollar cost average at this stage in my opinion because of the low price levels.

Personally, if you have spare BTC lying around anyways, then if you can finance someone's collateralised loan then it makes 100% sense. It takes minimal effort to start a thread.

However, you need to be extremely careful about controlling the quality of your lenders. Most of the high quality, no collateral borrowers already borrow from some established lender on the regular, so I doubt that you'll able to convince them to switch over to you easily. Others who request loans on this board are mostly scammers/high risk propositions.

I mean, it doesn't hurt to launch, and maintenance work is fairly low. It's just that you have to be realistic with your expectations and such. High quality, collateralised loan requests are few and far between from what I've seen. A clearly established guideline for your loans should be constructed before opening your business.

Awesome project, I like the fact that you're able to see live graphical updates. Slick and modern design in general that makes the experience much better than the ad-filled (and ponzi promoting) coinmarketcap. Like the dark colours as well.

One thing that I did notice is that when I scrolled through the list of coins, the entire table would disappear while I'm scrolling. I'm not sure if this is just an issue that is limited to me and due to my browser or whatever (I'm on Chrome), or if it is intentional. Maybe check that out.

Also, I think it makes more sense to rank coins by their market cap rather than gains in the last 24h. That way people get more accustomed to the site.

Furthermore, any plans on moving onto a top level domain name?

I'm honestly not sure whether the info that you have will be sufficient.

While they do claim that they do wallet identifier lookups, I haven't personally seen anyone do this successfully. Their support is also not the best in terms of speed, so you most likely do have to continue waiting. Even if you have all the information regarding the wallet, they can easily still deny you access by citing suspicion towards you.

This is why it's extremely important to always back up your seeds. I know it sounds cliche, but hopefully you've learned your lesson here.


Always confirm the legitimacy of the handle you're dealing with before sending any personal info. Also, I really doubt that anyone has a better chance of reaching support than yourself, unless they work internally at blockchain.com (in which case, they wouldn't even be on the forum most likely). Also, by sending your info to a third party you're exposing yourself to the risk that they may do the same thing, and claim to be you - adding to the confusion and lowering your chances of recovery.

It's not news at all. Paypal has been doing this shady stuff since day one.

Are you sure that you haven't done any currency exchanges with paypal, though, and all that you've done was selling your mining equipment through ebay and getting paid in paypal? But even if you haven't, it wouldn't be surprising, because paypal is known to have a terribly negative attitude towards all bitcoin related purchases, and will limit you if they have the slightest suspicion.

It's unfair that ebay gives you the green light, but paypal just goes with their own version of the story. After all, people expect them to be in line with the same policies, as they are linked companies.

That's the part of the reason why I've quit using paypal long ago. It's very frustrating and you never have full control over your funds, and as a seller you can get into some serious cashflow issues if they do decide to limit your account and put a 180 day restriction on funds.