LOL.. 4-5 years ago, I had created a thread to discuss the idea of an artificial island which is outside the EEZ of UN member countries. It was quite popular, but in the end the conclusion was that the idea was not viable. A lot of capital is required and there is no guarantee that the super-powers such as the United States and China would allow such an artificial island to come up in the international waters.

Natarajan has performed consistently, and I believe that he deserves a permanent slot in the Indian playing XI. Being a left-arm pace bowler, he also adds more variety to the Indian bowling attack. Tamil players are once again in spotlight. For India, it is Natarajan. And a few days back V.Vijayakanth made his debut for Jaffna Stallions in the LPL, becoming the first Tamil player from Jaffna to play franchise T20 cricket.

First of all, I would be vary of any such claims from China. From what we have seen during the last 2-3 decades, technological innovation in China is ages behind that of the developed nations. Most of their so called "innovations" are plagiarized and rebrabded content from Western nations and Russia. Even if by some miracle they have invented such a quantum computer, I don't think that we have to worry much. The core developers will change the code to take that in to account.

It doesn't make any sense. When you make "Bitcoin payments" with PayPal, the actual payment is done in fiat currency. The merchant will be receiving their funds in USD or some other fiat currency. In the unlikely scenario of PayPal allowing making Bitcoin payments, using wallets outside its platform, then we can say that the payments are being done with Bitcoin. But as things stand, the "PayPal Bitcoin" is not exactly Bitcoin.

I have always stated that Satoshi is not suitable as a sub-unit of Bitcoin. In the distant future, if Bitcoin hits $1 million per coin, then Satoshi will be worth $0.01 and can be used as a subdivision of BTC. But right now, its value is just $0.0002, and using this small unit causes a lot of inconvenience. I would rather go for mBTC, although it's value is a bit higher for my liking.

The main problem is that the ICC don't want to link test status to performance. Once a team is awarded the test status, it remains forever. There are teams out there, which are better than test nations such as Zimbabwe. But they never get an opportunity to play test cricket. Right now, only four countries (Big three plus New Zealand) have the ability to be consistent in test cricket. The other eight teams can't compete in a meaningful way against these four.

CBDC will be used as an alternative for fiat currency. It will never replace any of the cryptocurrencies (including the stablecoins such as USDT or PAXUSD). And taking in to account the fact that CNY is one of the manipulated fiat currencies, I am skeptical that it will ever get good acceptance. It may be used for international trade involving China, but I don't think that it will be accepted elsewhere.

Bitcoin payments may be easier for you, but that is not the case with the less tech savvy users (especially the middle-aged and the elderly). They may not be comfortable with the idea of irreversible transactions, volatile transaction fee and delays in confirmation. If PayPal and Visa integrate Bitcoin to their platform, then it becomes easier for these users to make payments in Bitcoin.

As long as Rohit is performing, no one is going to complain about his weight gain. BTW, you can't compare Virat with other players because he is such a fitness freak. And Hardik is much younger than Rohit and he doesn't have to worry much about gaining weight (also being a pace bowler helps). BTW, rather than blaming the players, the finger should be pointed at the BCCI. Before the IPL, they failed to organize any cricket tournament (domestic/international) for more than 6 months. The players became rusty, and it was not surprising.

I believe that in the IPL, there is a clause which require BCCI to get the approval of all the existing franchises, if they want to add additional teams. And most of  the franchises have already voiced their opposition against any proposed expansion. It is not going to be easy for Jay Shah and Sourav Ganguly to convince the franchise owners. BTW, I am skeptical of your proposal of 12+ teams. In England they do have 18 teams and they are managing it quite well (with generous help from the Kolpak players), but I don't know if the quality can be maintained in India, if the number of teams are increased to 12+.

They have crossed 500 without any further loss of wickets. All the time, we were talking about the widening gap between the big 3 and the other nations. But here we have New Zealand (which by no means is a big 3 nation) hammering the West Indies. The current test setup is unviable. What we need is two or rather three divisions, comprised of teams having equal strength. Lopsided matches will not do any favors to anyone.

LOL.. you made that choice and I need to respect that. I first purchased BTC in 2012, when I spent $150 to purchase 15 coins. I kept it to myself, and never informed about this investment to anyone (including my wife). My marriage went through a lot of trouble in 2017, and finally I got divorced in 2018. Fortunately for me, my ex-wife was unaware of my Bitcoin investment and therefore I kept all the coins for myself. If you want to trust your spouse, then it is your choice. But think about the risks.

That is definitely one of the greatest risks. In the cryptocurrency sector, very few of the gambling sites and exchanges have that much lifespan. So if you are making a bet, which will be decided only in 2024, there is a real chance that the website will go down before that and you will lose your coins. I have never made any bets, which makes me to wait for more than three months.

There are both advantages and disadvantages in using third part services. For example, let's take the example of BitPay. It is a third party payment processor, which enables Bitcoin payments. The user makes the payment in BTC and the vendor receives the payment as fiat currency in real time. This is very convenient for both the user and the vendor.

Although I would not compare the banks with cryptocurrency exchanges, the truth is that the banks are not in good shape. Many of them are surviving, just because of the bailouts from the government. Loan defaults have increased to such an extent that the banks are no longer able to keep a balance between deposits and loans. On top of that, the margins have decreased due to the decline in interest rates.

That is applicable for the other players as well. Rohit is not the only player who gained lots of weight during the pandemic period. Even youngsters such as Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant seems to have gained at least 5-10 kg during this period. Rohit is in his 30s and therefore his "gains" are more visible. On the other hand, look at the Australian players. All of them look 100% fit.

The difference may be due to the fact that CA is conducting domestic cricket this year, while the BCCI doesn't have a plan for the same. Especially for those Indian players who are not a part of the IPL, staying fit is quite challenging due to the lack of opportunities in domestic cricket.

I always believed that 10 was the ideal number of teams in the IPL. In terms of financials, IPL is the largest franchise T20 league and they can maintain the quality and revenues even if the number of teams are increased to 10. If ECB can include 18 teams in the T20 Blast (which I believe is too high), then there is nothing wrong in IPL having 10 teams. On the other hand, for the smaller leagues such as CPL and LPL, I would still recommend 6 teams or even less.

There is no doubt that the adoption by PayPal is responsible for the current bull run. For almost a year (mid-2019 to mid-2020), the Bitcoin price was stagnant at around $10,000 per coin. But immediately after the news of PayPal adoption came out, the prices started moving upwards. There may be some other minor triggers, but IMO PayPal is responsible for more than 90% of the current rally.

It's more like >99.9999%. Trump has no realistic chance of overturning the results. His only chance would come if by some miracle it can be established that the Democrats managed to cast millions of fake ballots. However, the gambling sites are trying to make some profits, by allowing such bets. Hardcore Trump supports may make these bets, and lose money in the end.

It would be wrong to attribute the recent rise of the New Zealand cricket team only to the import of South African players. That would nullify all the hard work put in by native-born players such as Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Lockie Ferguson and Trent Boult. But at the same time, the influx of South African players is very visible. In each of the domestic sides, they now have 3-4 such players featuring in the playing XI. New additions such as Devon Conway are making their way to the national team. And right now a New Zealand team without players such as Neil Wagner, BJ Watling, Glenn Phillips, Colin Munro, Colin de Grandhomme.etc would be difficult to imagine.