I think that we are as well.

It's interesting, because mainstream media is sort of an indicator of where the sentiment of the market is. When everyone is panicking about bitcoin and there are no bullishness in the market, even though there may be bullish news such as institutions trying to get into the market with their trading services, you know that it's close to the point of capitulation.

Even though we might dip further, I think that we're already in a nice accumulation zone where the smart money has started to come in already. I wouldn't expect prices to go under much further than $3k, as I think there is still a lot of long term demand there. It makes sense to invest contrary to what the market sentiment is right now.

I find it hard to believe that they will actually enforce this to the point that anyone who conducts any sort of payment from or to these addresses, or even receive coins that had been tainted with these addresses, will be prosecuted.

Due to the large amounts of transactions that have been dealt between these addresses, it's almost impossible to actually say for sure that coins you receive from a completely legitimate source will not contain traces that have passed through these addresses.

But of course, if you directly violate sanctions by dealing with them or whatnot, you're going to be in deep trouble, that's for sure. But seizing every single coin that comes into contact with them? It's impractical, unenforceable and unlikely tbh.

I don't think that markets are going to be turning bullish any time soon. If you need cash now, then you should probably need to cash out your coins.

But if that is the case, then you definitely should have accounted for that before you even invested and potentially not invested at all. But if you don't need any funds in the near future, I would certainly think that holding is a good strategy.

And at this point in the bear market where there has already been around 1 year of continuous dips, I think that markets are potentially going to bottom out in the next year or so which means that the current prices should be fairly close to the price floor. To me, if you have any spare funds, it would certainly be a good idea to buy and accumulate BTC gradually, for the long term.

Seems like a lot of governments around the world are realising that investing in cashless forms of payment would probably be more worth it in the long run, compared to developing new banknotes with newer anti-counterfeiting measures.

And people in a lot of countries have already grown accustomed to transacting with cashless means, which is definitely a huge step from a decade ago when all of this was still just a novelty.

But still, these are fiat currencies that are being transacted, and bitcoin is yet to have any impact in real life marketplace transactions. It would be interesting to see down the line once adoption picks up further, whether bitcoin could potentially operate as an alternative to these cashless payment methods, making it easier for international travellers to pay, etc.

I think that it's going to just be a short term rebound.

There are really two possibilities, one is that BTC prices stay put at around $4k and that would be support, or prices go down further. I do not think that in the short run, there are any reasonable prospects for bitcoin to have a bullish breakout.

There is every possibility as a result that bitcoin does dip below $3k, but I think that if it does, it wouldn't be able to stay below that level for long due to the demand for cheap coins that would form. But I think instead of trying to predict where the market is going to bottom out at exactly, it's much more productive to simply start accumulating at a regular basis at this point so that your entry/buy price can be nicely averaged out across this period of bearishness, which has shown to be quite profitable given that you have sufficient patience to wait for the recovery which I don't see happening this year.

And that's why diversification of these risks is such as big deal.

That includes hedging against your existing positions by taking on other positions in different sectors, etc.

You're absolutely right, though. I find that it is common for someone to assume that fiat is going to hold its value, when it really has not in the past, and probably won't in the future. Even gold bugs who are historically obsessed with holding gold no matter what, they are likely missing out on larger profits.

If you expose yourself to just one of these asset classes, even cash, you could be serious trouble if things go south in the short run and you're in need of liquidity. When you're managing your personal finance, it does help to think of anything as an investment, because it really is. You're always trying to outpace growth in other possible investments you can make.

I doubt that they are actually data mining this.

I took a look at their site and it seemed like that all the traffic that they were generating went back to their own site, i.e. the link that people were supposed to promote directed others to sign up for a job as well.

This reminds me kind of like paidverts and other fraudulent paid-to-click sites. Right now, they may not be asking for any money directly from users, but they could well be using the information they collect from users such as emails to sell for profits, and/or ask for some form of deposit to their site before people are able to withdraw. But there is virtually no chance that they are actually legit, but no SSL is only a part of it.

Two very important assumptions here.

Firstly, they would have to not recognise bitcoin as an asset at all, and secondly, they would have to not know where to look. And I think that both of them these criterion can't be fulfilled in most countries. Most countries do recognise bitcoin as some form of asset, and they do have quite extensive virtual currency teams by now I assume.

So I definitely wouldn't see bitcoin as some form of currency that is used by criminals as a safe haven (even though the media tries to get you to think this way), because all the same legal repercussions will apply if you conduct fraudulent activities with bitcoin, or if you go bankrupt etc. More likely than not, your wallet will get seized as a result of your wrongdoings if the extent is that high. I'm not sure why you're under the impression that bitcoin can't be touched, legally.

Quite obvious scam, typical in terms of how the promise of extremely high returns are given.

Just understand that no one would be able to generate that kind of returns for you. And no one ever hosts giveaways in the form of a disguised investment which tries to get you to send them money, before they send back a promised amount that is higher. Even if they do pay out the first few investors which is very unlikely, it's still completely unsustainable and a ponzi scheme.

But these phishing emails have pretty much been around the crypto world for ages now, including on twitter and other social media platforms. There was a huge issue with Binance's twitter being impersonated a while back to conduct the exact same type of scam. I have no idea where the scammers are getting the emailing list from, though. But just take a look at what they're promising, research the email that it's sent from if need be, and use your common sense.

Right. There is absolutely every possibility that could happen, given the sheer size of the last bull market. But I don't think it's likely.

I still think that we're very close to the bottom at the moment, given how much interest institutions have shown in trading or investing into bitcoin in the past few months despite what the market sentiment has been like. This is also around the level which the bear market after 2013 had bottomed out.

Obviously, previous performance isn't always a reliable indicator of what's going to happen in the future, but I think that the 2020 halving will also have a very bullish impact on the market, solely based on a price standpoint. Of course though, we don't know when this is actually going to bottom, but I do think that right now it is probably worth it to get into the market gradually and extend long positions on BTC. Even if it does fall further down under $3k, I don't think it's very likely it would stay under there for too long. That's where dollar cost averaging could help.

I am, actually, with buying digital goods and also selling.

I'm not sure if you are aware of the benefit that bitcoin has in terms of global transactions, compared to traditional banking or even electronic banking for that matter. For a seller, bitcoin is irreversible, which makes the risk of chargebacks completely zero. For a buyer, there are no extravagant exchange fees.

And I think that the most utility right now for bitcoin has is in some countries where currency controls are draconian, to the point that businesses can't do deals with international companies anymore, and citizens wanting to get out of their depreciating fiat (Venezuela is a good example). Bitcoin in this case can be used as a store of value, and a medium of exchange internationally. Again, I think that you're wrong in terms of bitcoin not being used for practical purposes. It is, but obviously there is still a lot of speculation, but that's how all things start out imho.

Scammers Profile Link:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1227343

Reference Link:
Amount Scammed: $30 and some cents lol
Payment Method: BTC
Proof of Payment: https://gyazo.com/7f5ebacb5e54c71082dda2d43df26cd3
PM/Chat Logs: No logs, just bought off his Selly.
Additional Notes: None of the codes worked.
[/quote]

He's just locked his thread which means that his intentions are probably to scam. If you take a look at the digital goods section, you will see that many scammers have self moderated, locked threads with only an autobuy link.

The thing is that autobuy links do not protect the buyer using escrow at all. It only offers payment processing and an interface with which the buyer can interact with the seller, and nothing else. Any after sales problems, selly can't help you.

And that's the thing. As hugeblack mentioned, always go for a trusted escrow when you are dealing on here. Also, be extremely cautious when you are dealing with gift cards or codes of any kind, they could easily be obtained fraudulently and even escrow can't help you with that if it does pop up as an issue.

Half of their site isn't even functional. If you click on the 'exchange' button in the menu, it redirects you to a not found page.

What exactly did you get scammed from? Did you deposit money into their investment scheme, or did you attempt to use their exchange features? You should have realised with the structure that they were running straight away that they were a scam of some sort, most likely a ponzi scheme given the fact that they're giving "guaranteed" returns on investments, with staking and affiliate bonuses.

What this is is just another investment/lending platform ICO, disguised as an exchange, that is quite cunning because they keep on updating the site as they are being exposed. If you are looking for actual exchanges to use, I recommend only using extremely trusted ones that are listed on coinmarketcap at the least with high volumes, instead of using random ones you see.

You mean a marketplace for goods?

I mean, a decentralised marketplace has been something that a lot of people have been looking at recently, but honestly, I still don't think that this type of marketplace will necessarily be able to be practically implemented in the near future.

In one way or another, intermediaries are still needed at this stage to resolve conflicts between counterparties. What if goods and services don't get delivered? That's why right now I think decentralisastion of the monetary supply makes more sense than decentralising the process of purchasing goods, at least in practical terms.

Decentralised exchanges are also possible, but then again, not a lot of volume is being generated on these platforms right now as there isn't really any cross-currency transactions available.

Tried to access this with Chrome and it seems like they've already picked this up. You get a "deceptive site ahead" warning when you try enter this URL now.

We've seen something similar in terms of the Twitter scams where accounts would impersonate the actual Binance or other exchanges' Twitter accounts, and give out addresses for depositing with the promise of returning deposits with extravagant returns. 10x returns should be a clear warning sign.

Just know that no exchange would ever do this officially. Not only are the rates that they are offering completely unsustainable, it also makes no sense for an exchange to offer investments to the public that are of a guaranteed nature. And not only beware of sites that do this - there may be phishing emails, fake twitter/FB accounts, all promoting the same type of scam.

First of all, I really can't think of any foreseeable reason why the blockchain that is underlying the bitcoin network would fail.

As long as there are people using it, and that the network doesn't get exploited big time (which it has shown the ability to be secure over the last decade), then blockchain will not "fail" and will continue to run even if prices do drop drastically which I don't think is that probable either.

Potentially quantum computing will see problems for blockchain, but right now, that still seems distant. But for sure, it's not like blockchain is going to be something that will not be replaced in the future by potentially better technologies, but it's the best practical one for decentralised online transactions right now. I'm not sure practically speaking anything else would be able to replace it at the moment.

I completely agree with 1Referee here.

The prices were overly inflated last year from all the speculators and a bubble was obviously forming for sure. I don't know why anyone would not expect prices to be going lower this year given that the bullish sentiments have wore off in the market, and this is exactly what happens when market conditions are bearish.

It could have occurred based on news that came out on the hard fork, regulatory concerns, etc. All of that is possible, but I think that at the end of the day, the maximum these events can be are catalysts. The drop was going to happen no matter what, and in these market conditions, people are geared to panic sell when things to start going south. That's just my take on the matter.

Yep. Have seen plenty of those in the past as well. Nothing surprising here.

Their primary targets will be people that are just browsing the forum that don't have an account to see the trust ratings that they were given by DT members.  But even then, people should have the common sense to realise that the profits that are promised is completely unsustainable and ponzi-like, as well as the fact that they can't even write in English properly all ring huge alarm bells.

Furthermore, as soon as you see investment plans that are offered in tiers, each having its own guaranteed or partially guaranteed daily percentage returns, you know that it's a con. HYIP or whatever you call it is pretty much synonymous with ponzi schemes now. Not only do you have to be careful, avoiding it completely is wise. Unfortunately, greedy, inexperienced newbies often fall into these traps still.

@OP, let me guess, did someone also introduce the website to you? Or did you find this web wallet yourself.

If someone introduced it to you, they are probably an insider on the scam or potentially even the person behind the scam. This is why you don't trust what random people tell you on the internet, especially when it comes to the choice of wallet which essentially puts your money at risk.

But either way, there is no doubt about it now that this wallet is fraudulent. They have absolutely no real life company backing, they don't have any reviews, and anyone is able to probably get a site just like this up within a week of hiring a web developer.


No one is going to donate to you. Unfortunately, you can't get the money back, because you've chose to entrust some stranger online with your money. Since he has exclusive control over your bitcoins now, it's up to him whether or not he will honour his promises of holding your funds and paying you on demand, which he is not going to do due to the fact that the site ran by him was initially intentioned to scam people anyways. I would move on, potentially report the site to your country's online financial regulator or something like that (don't expect anything out of them), and move on.

I wouldn't say that centralised entities are necessarily going to be eliminated by blockchain technology or cryptocurrencies.

The fact of the matter is that blockchain technology can and is being integrated into business systems, including central banks of certain countries currently trialling the technology, and cryptocurrencies will still have centralised third party services such as banks in the future, if they do go mainstream.

As a result, there will also be regulators which look after the third party services that uses cryptocurrencies or blockchain no matter what, despite the fact that they will never be able to "regulate" the bitcoin network itself.

The main reason why I think a lot of centralised institutions oppose bitcoin is obviously that they are concerned that control will be moved away from them, and that a lot of older generation financiers still don't fully understand the concept of decentralisation.