I would rather look first if the project was backed by reputable VCs (venture capitalists) like Binance Labs, Pantera Capital, etc.

Regardless if that project has a nice looking website, Twitter (X) blue account with many followers and engagements, etc., as long there are no venture capitalists claimed to back then, I won’t be investing or engaging on that.

Unverified smart contracts are also a sign of red flag like the latest allegation against Trait Sniper. Many people are going FOMO mode into that airdrop but with many red flags such as their Discord verification pointing towards a phishing site, wallet drainer, etc.

Many factors that we can consider if the project is scam aside from the few points made by the OP.

I had in my gut feeling about this story being fictitous and you’re just a newbie who recently create an account here. Sorry but I do not believe in OP’s made-up story.

We have yet to determine about his true intentions here in this forum, but we’ll keep an eye on his latest moves.

And if this was indeed true, the OP might possibly take advantage by handing him over the “keys to the kingdom” if that friend needs his help to withdraw, etc.

If I only understood Bitcoin last 2014, I could have put my extra money for buying sats instead of a full 1 BTC. I thought back then that it must be 1 BTC but I was not educated about buying in fractions which are satoshis.

That time Bitcoin was just below $600. When I came back in mid-2017, BTC's price was at $10k+ and I had nothing but regrets.

It's good that you have bought some small amount in sats, but make sure that you fully acknowledge the risks.

Can't afford to generate thousands of volume yet in Layer Zero. Although I do have transactions generated and validated in the LayerZero network, I was hoping that I can have more funds to play in their network.

If I was not hacked and lost $5k+ last April, I could have afford at least $1k to spare in doing massive Layer Zero transaction volumes from time to time.

These 3rd party bridges like Orbiter, Symbiosis, Syncswap, etc., with no token is something that I am speculating for a potential airdrop when their token launches just like Uniswap did years ago. 

Mining would be no problem if the electricity and maintenance costs are cheap. here are people who are mining for profit or for fun purposes. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and we will respect that.

I would love mining some BTCs but the electricity rates here aren't cheap especially for guys who just live in a 3rd world country. And of course, no guarantee as well for profit if you choose to buy and hold BTCs.

We should acknowledge the risks and learn how to manage them at the same time in both buying and hold & to mine BTCs.

This one really happens unexpectedly when there's more usage and traffic within the network. Not just Ethereum alone, but some L2s under it.

Like Linea for example, I frequently experienced congestion so I have no choice but to always speed up the transaction and pay additional gas fee. Same thing to Polygon zkEVM where I also experienced high gas fees from time to time.

This is way out of our control. Even if Ethereum is now at proof of stake (PoS) consensus, the gas fees aren't that cheap but much better than the gas fees of PoW days.

I would try for at least once in zkSync’s main bridge. I’ve done that in Linea mainnet when I am using their own native bridge but took me like almost 30 minutes to wait in bridging mainnet ETH to Linea ETH.

As for 3rd party bridges like Orbiter and Symbiosis, they do not have their respective token yet. But I believe they would reward early adopters who have used their bridges once their token officially launches. These are just my own speculations.

If only I could travel back in time like more than a decade ago, I would choose both buying and mining BTC. Why? Because that time BTC was insanely cheap and the mining was easy where only a handful are just sharing in the mempool.

But fast forward to today? Not a chance to plan mining BTC because the mining difficulty keeps leveling up every halving period. As for buying BTC?

As long I can afford to buy, doing DCA and acknowledging risks, then it’s good to go.

I would rather follow those crypto influencers na nangin ethical, helpful at nagbigay ng totoong value sa community rather na mag hard shill lang ng projects. Yung mga more sa tutorials, guides, unbiased reviews, insights and analysis.

Luis is one of those that I highly respected. No question ako sa kanya. Met him nung Philippine Web3 Festival and he was approachable and a down to earth guy.

As for Kookoo I am kinda neutral lang but he’s a cool guy when I’ve met him a few times at na invite ko pa sa aming small meetup last year sa Cebu.

As for Marvin, he still has long ways to go to be someone that I can really find value kahit gaano pa karami subs nya.

And as for others naman, I do not really follow because more sila sa pag hard shill ng mga ponzis at rug pulls.

I am swapping at least once to earn 7,000 ZPs on Zetachain Labs’ platform every week and other Zetachain related tasks. Also I am farming in other testnets like Scroll Alpha, Fuel, Taiko and Shardeum. Any testnet that is legitimately backed by Binance Labs and other big venture capitalists.

But I am also farming on mainnets like LayerZero, zkSync Era, Linea, Polygon zkEVM, etc. Regardless if it may cost me gas fees, NFT minting and passes, I am betting on the chances as an early adopter like what Arbitrum and Optimism have done last time.

Sa aking opinion lang, napaka smart na move ito dahil inuna nila si Binance na mag announce regarding Sei sa launchpool bago mag mainnet launch.

Buti na lang naka grind ako noon pero 16 of 18 missions lang (including Humanode) sa Blocked.cc. Sa ngayon Crew role pa lang me sa Discord, at matagal pa ata ito para mangin officer o ambassador nila. Natapos na campaign nila last June pa, pero I think pwede ka pa gumamit ng Sei testnet bridge nila.

On top of that, other Sei projects like Tatami Games at Sei Monsters na qualified din ako sa unang airdrop snapshot nila bago lumabas ang mainnet. CoralX under Sei isa pa din ito under my watchlist of having good potential rin.

Plan ko rin gagawa ng thread as my entry para mangin officer o ambassador ako ng Sei.

I am well aware of it that’s why we have to be very careful in clicking links there. Make sure that we must start making a strong habit of checking Twitter (X.com) handles to see if they are correct or not and if it has either Blue or Yellow check mark.

In my own profile, I got daily notifications from time to time tagging me in their fake airdrops. I just didn’t mind them. Also part of the habit is to disconnect to sites if not in use and revoke permissions as well via Revoke.cash or De.Fi scanner. Better safe than sorry.

There are some ways that you can earn your very first cryptocurrency as a starter if you don’t have any funds to invest yet.

I would like to share some ways that you can start aside from just buy and hold and trading:

1) Apply for remote work in a crypto-related company (especially paying you in crypto)

The easiest you can apply as a starter with or without experience are brand ambassadors, community moderators, community managers, customer support, etc.

2) Offer your services and accepting crypto as payment option

If you have certain skills like article writing, video editing, graphic designing, developing Dapps, etc., you can make a portfolio about it and present it to your clients who are looking for such services and prefers crypto payment.

3) Affiliate, reseller and referral programs

As an affiliate, you mainly promote their product or service to the customers in exchange of getting paid in commissions by means of crypto payment. Referral programs is where you can get commissions from the ones you referred who either completed certain tasks, converting sales, trading volume, etc.

Let’s say you have referred someone to sign up under you in Binance. You will get commissions from that person for every trade regardless of the coin or token.

4) Joining AMAs and giveaways

There are many AMA and giveaway events in crypto nowadays until now. You can find them mostly in Twitter (X.com), Taskon.xyz, Galxe, etc.

5) Apply as scholar or rent NFTs in Web3 games

If you can’t afford to buy a single NFT in-game, you can always apply for scholarship or rent NFTs from the owners in exchange of earning a portion of their profits in crypto. Games like Axie Infinity, Spider Tanks, Gods Unchained, Splinterlands, etc., are some of the examples.

6) Incentivized testnets

So far this is the “trend” of earning cryptos by just simply an early adopter by interacting in their testnet before the mainnet will launch. Basically you will be receiving crypto airdrops from them for just participating in their incentivized testnet campaigns.

Some of the testnets that are having ongoing campaigns now are Venom Wallet, Fuel Wallet, Scroll Alpha, Shardeum, Taiko, etc. You can hunt them mostly on Twitter (X.com), Galxe, Zealy, Taskon.xyz, etc.

Hope this helps you a bit to kickstart your crypto journey from scratch. Good luck!

The first time I have used a Bitcoin machine was in April 2019. It was in Singapore when I have primarily attended the Blockchain Life 2019 conference as well as other side events there.

I remembered a mall named Plaza Singapura where a store that we can buy and sell gold has their own Bitcoin ATM.

I’ve attempted to withdraw my BTCs to SGDs with the help of my close friend. Took me an hour of waiting until it’s finally withdrawn.

But for now I am holding BTCs so no plans to sell or withdraw.

I have never used their official bridge yet. I mostly use Orbiter Finance and Symbiosis to bridge to and from zkSync Era and other chains while I am farming retroactive drops here and there.

But this one got me interested however that it only cost approximately 40 cents to transfer from zkSync Era to Ethereum.

As for Linea mainnet when trying their native bridge, I usually waited like 20 minutes before it credited to my balance. But using Orbiter however only takes me a few minutes to wait.

Sa pagkaitindi ko one of many pa lang ng mga charges ang na dropped laban sa kanya. Ibig sabihin meron pa ibang charges that he still needs to face for wire fraud, money laundering at iba pa.

Buti na lang hindi ako tumalpak dyan sa FTX nor registering an account or trade sa kanilang exchange. I would really doubt na he’ll be cleared of all charges as soon as possible.

Marami pa yan so SBF hindi pa siya nangin out of the woods pa.

Unfortunately the Sei missions in Blocked.cc have ended last June. But I think you can still use the Sei bridge to at least interact and hoping that you would get a portion of their airdrop. As it is still under the testnet, you can bridge from Polygon Mumbai testnet to Sei testnet.

Why I believe that they’re going to have an airdrop? It’s because of the Sei foundation official Twitter (X) account’s statement here:

https://twitter.com/sei_fnd/status/1640855848120377344?s=61&t=6PFitUK4YQvupu3PxlJoIg

Also search on Twitter (X) about Sei related projects who are offering NFT minting activities that would serve as interacting in the Sei testnet. I think Space ID is having a testnet Sei mint event that is ongoing so you may not want to miss it. Just search it.

I have encountered a lot of my friends, relatives, colleagues, etc., who are trying to open up about borrowing money just to buy Bitcoin.

But I educated them about the greater risks if they do insist to borrow money in buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and it is totally up to them if they want to take the risk or not.

I have never borrowed money just for the sake of buying Bitcoin while I was broke years ago. I earned it by just contributing in an esports blog who paid me a few bucks worth of BTC for every post until it stopped.

Never ako nag lapag ng email addresses ko in public for the sake of airdrop. Hanggang ngayon marami pa rin na mga kababayan natin sa Facebook, X, Reddit at iba pang platform na kailangan pa rin mag reply with email address or iba pang mga importante na detalye.

Never na rin ako nag click links sa email at saka nag double check na rin ng email handle if official ba or not.

Kaya extra ingat na tayo lahat dahil the hackers and scammers are getting smarter, creative na at nangin innovative pa.

That's great to hear that you have achieved that number. Remember, it is better to have a mindset about contributing without expecting anything in return (unless you are in a signature campaign of course).

I do not post for the sake of merits. I just treated that as a bonus perk while enjoying my time contributing in this forum.

Because no matter how helpful and valuable your posts are in Bitcointalk, you cannot expect a lot to merit them.

Focus on giving more value and not for the purpose of gaining merits.