For more security if you have your Bitcoin saved on your desktop wallet or mobile device, have an internet security apps or anti malware apps.  Avoid browsing suspicious website and avoid clicking unknown link from emails and direct messages from social media apps especially on telegram or discord. 

This article from Bitpay gives an important list on how to secure your wallet: https://bitpay.com/blog/how-to-secure-your-crypto-wallet/

To list them here:

• Use a reputable wallet provider
• Limit use of centralized exchanges and custodial services
• Be careful where and how you buy crypto
• Back up your wallet (seriously!)
• Leverage 2 Factor Authentication (2FA)
• Use biometric/facial recognition or an entry passcode to lock your wallet
• Use an encrypted password for added security
• Create a multisig wallet
• Be careful of scams and phishing attempts

There are lots of information about Bitcoin scattered on the internet.  So I think it is better to just refer them to the reputable sites that explains about Bitcoin than teaching them personally.  We can answer one or two question but to spend our time and effort in spoon feeding them is too much, IMO.  Besides all their question can be answered if they have time researching the internet.  If they can't make time for that simple task, I do not think they are worth spending time to teach them about what we had learned.

It is not our responsibility to teach them about Bitcoin, I think giving them links and references to self study is generous enough since they don't have to browse the internet and spend hours of searching and choosing for learning materials.

To be able to tell the difference we must know first what legal tender is.


 So according to the explanation, legal tender is something that is officially recognized that is accepted by the law.  See the keywords there,  the law and officially recognized.  So to be able to tell if something is a legal tender, it should be recognized by the government and Bitcoin is yet to be recognized as legal tender by most of the country and in US Bitcoin is accepted as a commodity.

If we are living in El Salvador, we can say that Bitcoin is a legal tender since it is recognized by the El Salvador government as one but if we live in the US, it is not.  Same goes in my country, Bitcoin is not a legal tender but was recognized as mode of payment.

This might be a general knowledge for the old member of this forum but I believe it is important for a beginner to know about the development and different types of Bitcoin address since not all type of Bitcoin address have the same feature although they all serve as a distinct identifier that allows us to send and receive bitcoins. Just like the later type of Bitcoin address which gives more privacy and required cheaper transaction than the older Legacy type of Bitcoin address. 

It is also important to identify the type of Bitcoin address just by looking at the format of the Bitcoin address and here is the example addresses and some feature of each type

Legacy Address or P2PKH
15f12gEh2DFcHyhSyu7v3Bji5T3CJa9Smn  this kind of address format is called a Legacy Address or pay-to-public-key hash (P2PKH) and known to be the most expensive if used in transferring Bitcoin.  This is also know the original/initial Bitcoin address format when Bitcoin was released.

Pay-to-Script-Hash(P2SH)
36JKRghyuTgB7GssSTdfW5WQruntTiWr5Aq this format is called compatibility address or also known as Pay-to-Script-Hash(P2SH)  it is also stated that using this address can save 26% than using the Legacy address for transaction.

Segwit or Bech32 address (bc1q)
bc1q42kjb79elem0anu0h9s3h2n586re9jki556pbb this address format is known as Segwit or Bech32 address using this format can save up to 16% than using P2SH and is also known as the cheapest address type to use for Bitcoin transaction.

Taproot (bc1p)
bc1pnagsxxoetrnl6zi70zks6mghgh5fw9d1utd17d this address format is known as a taproot address and has more privacy than any other type of Bitcoin address but is slightly more expensive than the segwit address in terms of transaction fee.  Taproot also enable smart contract opportunities for Bitcoin address.  This is by far the latest update of Bitcoin address.

One important thing to know is that one can send Bitcoin across the different Bitcoin address type since Bitcoin address are cross-compatible to any Bitcoin address type.  Knowing this we must not worry if some how we send our Bitcoin from Legacy address to Taproot address, and can't see the balance appear on the wallet, there is no need to panic because we just need to update or upgrade our wallet to a Taproot compatible wallet in order to see the balance correctly.  Besides we can always check the transaction on the blockchain if the transaction is successful.

Knowing the different type of Bitcoin address and its feature will enable us to use Bitcoin address type to its maximum potential like if we want to save transaction fee, we are able to know that segwit or bech32 is the best choice to use.  Aside from that knowing these type of addresses, newbies won't be confused and is able to identify if ever they came across this kind of Bitcoin address format.

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Btw, I wanted to keep this post short and direct so that readers will not get bored reading a wall of text when I can just provide the link or embed a link to each type of Bitcoin address if they wanted to read more details about these type of addresses.

Transportation and communication is one of the key factor for economic development.  Faster transportation means more productions, deliveries it is very essential in terms of logistics and can reduced  cost while improving productivity since items are delivered much faster and due to that more turnovers are produced.  With faster transportation inter island trades or trades between regions are more efficient which can lead to more imports and exports between countries thus creating more revenue.

Many are just stereotyping what they read without really not knowing what they read.  I am not one of those who thinks regulation is bad.  Regulation is implemented to protect the interest of both the state and its people.  Just like the case presented by @OP.  They are the standard to follow in order keep people safe from whatever undesired result of neglect or substandard actions.


True!  Bitcoin as decentralized in nature is very hard to regulate but it is not impossible especially Bitcoin needs to go through centralized system in order for the people to use them in their daily needs.  I am also one of the believer that regulation is necessary to keep the Bitcoin community safe from exploitation and scams.

This is the main purpose of learning, for us to avoid mistakes.  I also agree that it is not necessary to experience mistakes or repeat mistakes made by other people in order to learn things.  Through reading and observation we are able to learn from other peoples success and mistakes and know the possible results if we ought to do the same things.

So I also support @OP standpoint and debunked the idea about the need to make a mistake in order to learn.  Mistake is part of the learning process but we can avoid them by learning from other experiences.

Newbies just need to know and follow the forum rule in order to avoid being banned.  Staying in the beginners and help sections will hinder their growth since most of the important technical information is on the other board.

Aside from that not all newbies are here to learn about Bitcoin, others are here to merchandise their service so it will be a huge loss for them if they stay in the beginners help when the information they need is on the economy board.

You can tell your nephew why Bitcoin is not a Ponzi Scheme by simply emphasizing that Bitcoin is not under a company or controlled by anyone and does not need its community to recruit any person to gain a reward.   Aside from that you can also tell him that bitcoin is in an open market just like any other commodities that is sold in the marketplace.  The market is driven by supply and demand and not by the dictated price of any company.  If anyone labels Bitcoin as Ponzi scheme, then they are also saying that everything  is one big Ponzi scheme.

I can't find where @OP called Bitcoin as a platform though he admitted that he invested on different platform but failed, I think, it does not mean he is saying Bitcoin is a platform.


I think @OP will be investing on bitcoin (the currency) and he will hodl it and sell when it hits his target price.


I agree he should also learn the proper safekeeping of his bitcoins since it will need a long time profit, he must make sure that his bitcoins are properly kept.

I also think that the society is contributing to the high and many expenses since there are lots of advertisements and offers everywhere.  This ads and offers make us willing to spend our money to buy what their are marketing.  Just like when we learned of a buy one take one offer of one of the item we use.  We ought to buy them even though we still have some of them in our stash.  Aside from that, pressure from peers when meeting up.  Even though we do not plan on spending much money but due to peer pressure or to not get embarrassed, we tend to spend more than what we planned.

Even members in higher rank is also motivated when they received merit on their posts.  Since for the poster, merit is some kind of recognition that our post contribute something to the forum or have help others to understand things.  Or simply people appreciates our ideas.  You can see how many members become motivated in sharing their experiences in Bitcoin when the first thread about bitcoin adoption in his store, or how they teach Bitcoin to their neighbors got a huge amount of merit, many same thread are created after the success of the initial thread.

The lawsuit I read that was filed against Atomic wallet is in the  US district  court for District of Colorado. [1]  The thing I read about Atomic Wallet hack is that they are cooperating with Estonian police.  That they just got a request from the Kazakhstan police and the request was forwarded to Estonian Police.[2]  The article stating that information was published last June 14.  I do not read any news of the Kazakhstan investigation escalates into  suing the Atomic Wallet in Kazakhstan court.

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[1] https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/atomic-wallet-users-sue-over-100-million-in-crypto-lost-to-hack
[2] https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/06/13/police-in-estonia-and-kazakhstan-investigate-atomic-wallet-hack/

The slow phase of adoption in rural area is due to communication problem.  Unlike in urban places, communication is well established.  Lots of internet service providers are flocking in an urban area, making it easier for the people living on that area to access the internet.  While in rural area, even a cellular signal is very difficult in that place.  The access to ISP is also very difficult since most probably the infrastructure required to build internet service provider network is not available on that area.

In short information can easily transferred in a more developed area so we should not be surprised if rural area are lagging in terms of technological updates and adoption.

There is even a news that states Bitcoin spikes to as much as $138k on crypto exchange Binance.US, it was a short lived though since it goes back to normal as soon as it spiked that much.  It was told to be a liquidity issue between the pair BTC against Tether.[1]

Well, it looks like the Bitcoin ETF and the US announcement of the new exchange really push the price of Bitcoin up[2], after the Binance and coindesk issue which make BTC to plummet.  Bitcoin did it again, surprising and shaming TA's on their prediction about BTC crashing further.

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[1] https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/06/21/bitcoin-price-spikes-to-138k-on-binanceus/
[2] https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-etf-fuels-29-k-btc-price-breakout

Don't worry its all good, many of us appreciates your story .  It is good to have a real life story on how Bitcoin is being shared to our love ones.  I find it great that you make your girlfriends wish come true on her birthday.  Although in some country the amount of BTC you gifted is not that huge, what important is the thought that you want to make your girlfriends wish to trade to have a kickstart.

It is not forbidden to create a thread that inquires an important topic that may help other newbies in their participation in the forum.  Aside from the guideline given on the earlier replies and the Newbie Guideline pinned thread, it is a good thing that you read and understand the topic of the thread, try to browse the replies and see if your thought is already been stated by the earlier reply, and if your thought is already stated, you can either agree with the thought giving your own version and your own example of the reply since answer maybe the same but they have different example that strengthen the impact of the given replies. You can always search the internet if ever you have doubt about the replies and correct them with your own information supported by the fact stated on the internet.

Another thing, don't be rush in answering threads, often times misreading happen resulting in your reply going out of topic.

@OP don't get hurt if your friend keep his investment secret from you.  I believe even his family does not know about his Bitcoin investment due to your friend keeping the data about his investment secure.  It is normal for a cautious person to keep important information especially when it has to do with financing and investment, hidden or secret.  So instead of whining about your friends action, why not understand him?

I agree with @OP, in every action there is always an exact opposite reaction.  The law of equilibrium.  In the market, when someone gain, someone also losses.  Like when we sell our BTC @ $100k, we gain $100k, while the buyer losses $100k  but in return we losses the BTC while the other party gain  BTC.  This is exactly what happen in an open market.

I agree, besides, not all people are dumb to not verify information on the internet.  People now a day are getting smart and keen on verifying information comparing it to other sources.  So let the person spread FUD, people who are smart enough will always verify the correctness of the post.  When they find out that the post is maliciously diverting people not to believe or invest in Bitcoin, they will avoid that person like a plague. So @OP just chill and relax, there is no need to have a debate to a person that lacks basic knowledge about BTC.