"Cattle are the No. 1 agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide. Each year, a single cow will belch about 220 pounds of methane." Source : https://www.ucdavis.edu/food/news/making-cattle-more-sustainable

Livestock are responsible for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gases. Source : https://clear.ucdavis.edu/explainers/using-global-emission-statistics-distracting-us-climate-change-solutions

So I think the over emphasis on Bitcoin's impact on climate chance, should be compared with other major polluters of this world, to get a more fair picture of this issue. 

We have a little (50+ people) group of friends that play at Stake, most of them was referred by me ...and we even have a local Stake WhatsApp group, where we share ideas / strategies / brag about wins etc... etc.

The latest topic of discussion on this group is about the "decline in Tips & Rain" over the last two years. When these people signed up, there were no "verification" and "wager requirements" to receive "rain" .....and they regularly received it. (even sharing it with others, if it was a big amount)

During the last 2 years or so... lots of them started to notice that there are a massive decline in "Rain & Tips" in the chat channels. The discussions highlighted several contributing factors :

1. Verification requirements - You now have to be LVL 2 verified to receive rain. This created a split, where people that are not verified, possibly decided not to rain anymore ...because they cannot receive rain. The people who are verified... are much less than what it was when there was no split.

2. Wager requirements - You now have to wager $3000 in 7 days to be eligible for rain. Many people do not wager $3000 per week, so they do not care about rain.

3. Rain limits - Now, do not quote me on this, but it seems as though minimum limits were introduced on the amount you can rain. I remember the days where I could rain $10cents to 10 people.... but when I try this now.. it says the amount is to low. (On Ethereum it was something like $8+.... the last time I tried)

4. Less people are winning - The aim of "Rain" is to share your joy, when you hit something big. Looking at the chat and the wins that are reported, it seems as though there are a lot less people winning lately. (not my opinion.. but a collective observation  of this group)

5. Increase in active players - When I started at Stake, we averaged between 2000 to 3000 people being online for most of the day... now we see days where it is between 10 000 to 19 000. (So your chances of receiving rain, has decreased dramatically)

Most of these guys are Level 2 verified and they wager way more than $3000 in 7 days... they are also active in the chat, but they are lucky to receive 3 to 5 rains in a week now. (previously it was 4 to 5 rains per person per day)

What are your experience with "Rain & Tips" lately?  

So, just to be fair towards "Bitcoin" .....let's look at Banks!

"According to 2019 anti-money laundering statistics, 60.5% of the banks' fines were due to anti-money laundering regulations violations. Source : https://legaljobs.io/blog/money-laundering-statistics/

https://sanctionscanner.com/blog/the-five-biggest-money-laundering-scandals-317  <== 5 of the biggest money laundering scandals ever reported was linked to ===> Banks!

Money laundering needs "Money" or "Currency" .....what is Bitcoin and Crypto currencies.... well, it is a payment option and a currency in some countries. Criminals will use anything that has value.... to commit financial crimes.  

    HSBC – Fined $1.9bn.
    Wachovia Bank – Fined $160m.
    Standard Chartered Bank – Fined $1.1bn.
    Danske Bank – Fined $1.4bn.
    Bank of Credit and Commerce International – Liquidated.
    Commerzbank – Fined $50m.
    Westpac Bank – Fined AU$1.3bn.
    Goldman Sachs – $600m in profits.

I like it when you have to include the service or site for which you are doing the verification, because you can then trace back the data breach, if and when your documents were used for Identity theft. (These people can edit the photo to remove it, but there are forensic evidence that it was edited to add in your defense)

I have done KYC/AML verification on several sites and a lot of these sites are struggling with "false" documents that were bought on the Darkweb. (Proof of address & False ID's) 

It is not working for me... it is giving me this error message :

⚠️   Error fetching USD to BTC exchange rate from CoinGecko.

Can you possibly add more data sources for price information from more exchanges to serve as a backup, if the primary source goes down?

Congrats on acquiring the .net extension for the Preev.com domain.... one should have thought that the owner of the preev.com would have bought most of those for mirror sites and redundancy.  

Ps : Under the About link... you spelled purposes wrong... you spelled it "porpuses" .... and it would be nice if you could add an email address, so that we can send you a email, if and when it goes down.   

Just remember one thing, Stake.com is not just a Sport betting site... they are a fully functional casino with a wide variety of in-house games and third party games that helps to fund these sponsorships. 

They host a weekly giveaway that generate 1 ticket for every $1000 wagered by players... and there are a few million tickets (2mil +) generated after 7 days, so their gross profit per week must be close to 2 Billion Dollars per week. 

What are your long-term strategy for this? Are you going to continue locking it up for years to come or are you going to exit at one time to take some profit?

It will be interesting to compare the interest you will have received with a 12 month fix deposit at a Bank, to a strategy like yours. There are some countries with pretty good interest on long-term fixed deposits with compound interest.

I guess you are hoping for some extraordinary luck with those extra RP's and lottery tickets.... right. 

I do not know if anybody can comprehend what pressure is on Wladimir van der Laan and the other developers to maintain the development and the security of this technology. Just imagine being the CEO of an investment firm that are securing the integrity of a financial system that hold Billions of Dollars worth of investments and deposits.  

Then think about the pressure from governments to sabotage the project and the 3 l3tter agencies that are looking for ways to topple the "head" of the people that are maintaining a system that are used to bypass sanctions against rouge countries and also loads of criminal actions.  

Thank you Wladimir van der Laan for fighting the "good" fights on our behalf. Hope your retirement are less stressful.  

You know.... a lot of these people has gone through a lot of hardship in their lives.. and they do not have all these petty issues that some people in 1st countries have. If you are lucky enough to have power in your building, then you must provide a service to the community around you. (obviously at a fee)

They share transport to the nearest town to buy food and to charge their phones, if the Spaza shop (Tuck shop) offers that service and to buy airtime. Some even provide a charging station or kiosk to charge your phone, but it is very expensive ...compared to 1st world countries.

The culture is a lot different to what some people are used to... so sharing your bed or car or household appliances... are not strange to them. (They also have something called "Black tax".... where the one with the job... will support any family member or members as a kind of payback for what was given to them) ....very interesting concept.

In any way.... they make a plan, no matter what their situation is... borrow...beg or steal... they get it done.    Oh, to answer your last question.... yes a lot of 1st world countries are dumping very good phones in 3rd world countries... so the phone quality are getting better and better over time. 

I travel for work a lot and I have worked on contract in 3rd world countries where poverty are very high. In most of these countries and specifically in the more rural areas, people are very poor and they lack the infrastructure and resources to have access to Banking services and/or the Internet.    (Some people even struggle to get electricity and clean water)

Now, most of these people rely on the land to provide them with an income... and they live in a constant "survival" mode.. where they live from hand to mouth.

Now, in Africa I have seen people using cellphones to make digital payments using a centralized payment method, called MPESA ...so even with very limited resources, people are still able to make transactions. (They charge cellphones with small solar panels and/or petrol generators for the community)

We (1st world countries) should find ways to make payments on Bitcoin easier and more user friendly, so that payment on ALL phones can be possible. (not just fancy smart phones)  

We should also find ways for people with those phones to execute tasks that will enable 1st world countries to pay those people with "cheap" micro payments. (Lightning Network) ...example : translation services / typing / spell checking / sorting of data etc...etc.

Let's brainstorm ideas to develop software that will tap into the opportunities that will enable micro payments on a global scale, so that we can pull in a forgotten section of the global economy.  

Do not give them fish... rather provide the hook ...line... sinker... and they will fish for themselves.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/11/mark-cuban-mavericks-face-lawsuit-over-crypto-voyager-ponzi-scheme/

Shark Tank star and the owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, is facing a class action lawsuit for promoting Voyager Digital’s crypto products. The plaintiffs claim that Voyager was “a massive Ponzi scheme” and Cuban “duped millions of Americans into investing.”

I reckon, the highest trees catch most of the wind... right.    Now it is news like this that taints the image of Crypto currencies in general, because Ponzi schemes use Crypto currencies as a payment option and then when it fails, people and mass media blame the payment option and not the Ponzi scheme that used it.

They do this with Crypto currencies, but when Ponzi schemes where FIAT currencies were used, collapse.... they do not blame the Banks and the government.  

People should never give investment advice to friends, if they are not financial advisors.... and definitely never have to convince people to buy bitcoins. I made this mistake once.. and the guy pulled out early, because he panicked when the price dropped with 30% and he lost money. 

You should rather tell them about your experience with Bitcoin and then wait for them to approach you for help to buy bitcoins. Let them make the choice... DO NOT force them into something that might spoil your friendship, IF it does not succeed. 

Everything is finalized.. because the site is up and running. This site cannot be preparation for a fully functional site in the future, because online casino legislation does not allow for it in most of the States. (Even now... some States do not even allow access to this US site)

I asked this question... "How is Stake making money on the Stake.us site" and one of the mods warned me not to talk about a site that are not owned by Stake. He said... no further discussion is allowed about this.... but when I visited the site, you could see the US chat channel... (behind the banner that pops up to say that only US citizens can play there).... and I saw this mod in that chat.

So I guess this is a sensitive matter.... and I asked the wrong question. So let's just leave it there.... and hope that we find out more in the future. 

Can anybody tell me how Stake.com is making money on their US site? So, from what I understand, the players are not paying to play..but it works on a sweepstakes principle. 

"Sweepstakes, also called giveaways, are a type of prize promotion in which promotion hosts give prizes at random to entrants who take a free-of-charge action. By definition, giveaway means the promotion host cannot require a purchase to enter. They also can't choose the winner based on merit." - Source ==> https://trustspot.io/blog/sweepstakes-meaning/

Who is paying for the gifts... if nobody is paying to play? ....and Why would Stake want to run a site that does not generate a profit?

Ps.. I see that they are part of the "Eddie" stream weekly giveaway now too...

This is something that worked for me and some of my friends :

Use "Cash" more than "Cards" - So most Banks wants us to move away from cash, because "Cash" is expensive for them to handle... and some Banks charge their customers per transaction.

I suggested to some of my friends to go to a Bank after they were paid and then to withdraw 80% of their money (depending on each of their circumstances) and to start using "Cash" again.

When you handle and see "Cash" physically.... you actually see how much you spend on things. Go pay your clothing account with cash and "feel" how much goes towards your clothing expenses. (or rather pay with cash for that pair of shoes of say $250)

People make "easy" dept... because they just swipe a card... but once you are counting out that $500 ....it makes you think twice, before you pay for it in cash. 

His claim to fame are the fact that he was best known for predicting the 2007–08 subprime mortgage crisis in the United States and the subsequent global financial crisis.    Something that everyone of us are capable of doing, if you just look at the data every day..or rather if you had access to the data.  

He is still teaching at a New York University .....and making his money from teaching people old school FIAT business strategies. People like him at 64 ....will not accept disruptive technologies like Bitcoin that are challenging their old school teachings.  

Gambling seldom brings "profits" to their players, because in the long run.. the house always win. So, your girlfriend might want you to stop because you are using money on something that she might consider as a loss. You have to remember.. all the money you spend on gambling for yourself, is money not spend on her.

I will change my attitude a little and try to get her to enjoy it with you, so that she sees that as time that you spend together. If she is not into gambling, then I might suggest that you spend some of your wins on her. (Take her for lunch or dinner.. every time you win something big) 

So, I browsed the site and I did not see any WOW factor... just a lot of in-house games.   The online Crypto casino scene are very competitive, so sites with only in-house games are simply not going to cut it. I reckon that you need that license to be able to sign deals with 3rd party service providers.

Then I browsed the thread and I saw issues with a VERY small amount that cannot be withdrawn over "system" issues... which raised a red flag for me.  

The domain extension used are also a bit... uhm, dodgy? (Also ..why are OP using that username? ....is he running several small businesses....?)  ....Exchange and Casino?

I think the "Chat" channels need an extra "Newbie" chat channel for "newbies"... where they can chill and learn the rules.    I know there are wager requirements to chat.. but a "Newbie" chat channel will help with a lot of things, like :

1. reducing Alt account misuse.
2. reducing Bot abuse.
3. reducing begging in main channel.
4. increasing the gaming experience for higher ranked players.
5. reduce spam & rain farming.

The suggestion is not to exclude "newbies" totally from the total experience... they can still enter other channels, but they can only "chat" in the "newbie" channel... until they rank up to say Bronze... then they get full access to all channels.  

Well, when I am very serious about my pseudo anonymity, I push my coins through 2 or 3 mixer services.... and then through some other "services" that gives some of the money back (if you know what I mean) ....and I feel relatively satisfied that 3 or 4 hops are sufficient to guarantee some degree of pseudo anonymity.

I have nothing to hide... so full anonymity is not my primary concern with whatever coins I have, but I do not know what happened with the coins I receive before I received it.