I love how we use a vote to determine the truth. lol It's how scientists figured out the world is flat.

I see a lot of people “investing” their bitcoin here. I'm using quotes because much of what people are doing is in no way investing. I thought it might help new users to navigate all this if we shared our advice on how a real investment goes. I'm no guru, but I've been investing for about 20 years and have done alright. Sometimes hitting it big other times losing money. Here is what little I have learned.

Questions to have answered:
Is it an investment?
Gambling is not an investment so forget about casinos unless you are buying one. A real investment is when you share the risk and front the money for a good idea. This week I received money for a grocery store expansion that I helped fund. It made 20% in 5 years and we are both happy with that. The store needed capitol and I believed they could do well with their expansion. It could have gone south and then I would have lost money. This is why you never invest money you can't afford to lose.

Where is this business licensed to operate? 
If the business does not have a licenses and is not registered then it is simply not a business. If they have a good idea it won't be long before someone steals it and forms a real business. Forget about giving money to such places, you have no legal recourse if they just keep the money. I would also only chose a place in my own country. Other countries may offer no legal help if you are scammed.

Are backgrounds checked and researched?
I want to know who I am dealing with. The business operators, the target market, the business itself. This is when you earn your money. Pour over any resources you can find and develop your expertise in the area your investing. Unless you fully understand it, you will have a hard time investing in it.

Where is the contract?
Without a legal contract spelling out who does what, you have nothing of value. It is the contract that is the investment, IMO. Many sites promise to double your bitcoins or whatever. Ask them to sign a contract legally obliging themselves and see what they say.  No serious investment offers a guarantee of profitable returns. Investing will have risk.

Where is the business plan explaining how the money works?
It should detail what the budget is and how the investment will be spent. It should have time lines and projections. It should spell out what happens if things go wrong. Look it over with a calculator and see if you agree. Smart businesses may require you to sign an NDA before seeing this.

So let's say you find a good idea that some smart people are working on. They have a legit business and the plan looks like a winner. You then draw up contracts and do the exchange. At this point it is easy to become a pest investor.  That is a guy who hangs out bothering the staff about details of the business. Unless you have a role in developing the product/service, I would recommend getting out of the way. You have committed to sharing some risk for a prescribed time. Now forget about it and move on to the next opportunity. In a few years you will find out if it worked.

Anyone else care to share their advice?

I add a few a day now. But I noticed something today. Almost all the sock pupets are in the same signature campaign. Posting crap about bitcoin crashing to zero, while receiving bitcoin as payment.
Well I'm calling out the businesses who pay these guys. I think we should boycot them. For example "fortunejack.com". There is an old saying: "Show me who you hang out with and I'll tell you who you are." 

What business would have these guy(s) as advocates?

And again, wherever there is scamming there is FORTUNE JACK? 
WTH? Why are all there sig campaigns on sock pupets?
Stay away from: fortunejack.com

Just like any money. You can sell something or do some work for bitcoin. That's how I get money.
Cheers,
 
 

LOL, yep. We have a mind fork!

I don't know why people can't understand this? Perhaps people do not understand what "open-source" and "distributed network" really mean. If they did half the stupid theories around here would be instantly seen as flawed.

Lol, I did the same thing. My ignore list is filling up this morning. It's hilarious how it's all one or two users. He is even using the same sig campaign for a bunch of his socks. To get so upset over this stuff; he must be a train-wreck in real life.

FORTUNE JACK MUST BE A SCAM. Why else would they have these sock puppets?

Stay away from: fortunejack.com

Oh this will be a great opportunity.

I'll send 200BTC and 100 hrs. later I have 11,200BTC!!! Then a few days later I will have 627,200BTC!!!!!!!! It's going to be quite a week suckers. 

We told you, we have a way to show that you, (A) Own the coins, (B) can transact without fear of scam. The "proof" you offered instead is in no way proof. A cryptographically signed message on the blockchain is. And escrow costs you nothing, why wouldn't you use it? I understand you want to do it your way. That's fine, but your way is insecure.

EDIT:

Oh, well. End of discussion. Unless the Op wants to explain this.

This is just starting to leak out. My understanding is that there are three entities under Baghdadi. A Shura counsel and two deputies. Under those are counsels for finance, media, security, and others. There is also the Hisbah, which are like a religious police, but I'm not sure where they fall on the chart. Perhaps part of the Sharia courts? 

You guys watch a lot of TV. 

Google translate changes your sentence to this:


Which is it?  

I think this could happen. Just about the time the last humans are being exterminated by the kill-bots we will enter a period of digital harmony.

 rismail, I understand your concern about being scammed. But without escrow or even a signed proof of ownership posted, the question of your intentions is just as valid.  I would not even consider a transaction like this.

I do not believe any person, including me, can know the future. That's my starting point. But I am encouraged by the indicators I look at. Those are:
User and merchant adoption - is is spreading among users and are there more places to spend bitcoin.
Investment - Are there new projects starting and capitol investment flowing in.
Utility - Is it still the cheapest, fastest, and most secure way to send money.
Viability - has it been broken or hacked in some way.


As long as those things are true then I expect it to increase in value and find new use cases. But how that translates into a dollar figure is very hard to determine.

I have been using Sure Spot messenger for a while now and I love it. It is open source and features end-to-end encryption. Like some of the newer messengers it also allows the user to delete their content at any time. My only criticism was that they did not take bitcoin donations.
Today I went there to ask them if they would consider a bitcoin option. I was too late. They already do! The last update allows payment right from the app. Nice.

https://www.surespot.me/


So what other apps allow bitcoin payments or donations? Are there any alternate apps for common software that you know of?

Cheers!

Right, there is only one God and Mohamed is his messenger. Right?

The sad part is that daesh is now attacking government troops because they have destroyed the FSA and other moderate groups. Next comes the fight between daesh and Al Nusra (Al-Qaeda). Last I checked Nusra was a few kilometers from the center of Damascus.

What I mean is that bitcoin would be very very hard to stop anymore. It has huge capitol investment, it is used worldwide at many tens of thousands of outlets, it has a pipeline of projects that keeps coming, a loyal following of millions and growing. I just don't think bitcoin needs our help anymore. The genie is out of the bottle and it's not going away, IMO.