Market capitalization is based on the price and circulating supply of the coins, and it is not dependent on the data from any exchange. You can argue that p2pb2b was rigging the trade volumes. But it has no impact on the circulating supply, or on the market capitalization of the Bitcoin. It is not possible to change the circulating supply (unless there is a hard fork). On the other hand, if the prices were rigged, then you can argue that the data is wrong. But as of now, there is no evidence for the same (and it is almost impossible to manipulate the price).

This is a very unrealistic scenario. Waiters are needed in restaurants, because they have a deep understanding of the customer preferences. If the restaurant tries to replace a waiter with a robot, they still need someone to give instructions to it all the time. So instead of employing one person (waiter), the restaurant will end up employing two persons in the same place (instructor + robot). Who will be interested in this costlier option?

In many of the major urban centers, the population is inching towards attaining herd immunity. It has been already 6-7 months, since the pandemic started spreading outside China. A large part of the world population has already attained herd immunity and another large fraction will be attaining it in the coming months. The risk is still there, but with the passage of time it is getting smaller and smaller.

In this edition of the IPL, the younger Indian batsmen had a great start, irrespective of the franchises. But now it looks like they are having a meltdown. This is applicable for Shubman Gill/Rahul Tripathi/Nitish Rana of KKR, Prithvi Shaw/Shreyas Iyer of DC, Sanju Samson of RR, and Ishan Kishan/SuryaKumar Yadav of MI. I think the only one who is performing right now is Devdutt Padikkal of RCB.

If they feel so offended, then why do they migrate in such huge numbers to secular countries such as France? They should remain in their own countries, where saying anything against Islam is punishable by death. What do they want to do next? Demolish the Notre Dame de Paris or the Reims Cathedral, just like what they did to the Buddha statues in Bamiyan (Afghanistan)?

Two weeks ago, I attempted the same. But it didn't worked. The Mempool was small when I made the transaction (with a very small fee). But no blocks were mined for the next 40-50 minutes and after that the size went up by quite a bit. I had to wait for 3 days, to get confirmation. This happens once in while and I was unlucky to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. But it leaves you really frustrated. 

There are signature campaigns that pay in BTC. But it is not easy to get enrolled for such campaigns. You may get a slot only if you have very good reputation in terms of merit score, and a decent enough forum rank. For the new users, it is very tough to find a signature campaign which makes the payment in BTC. So my advice to the new users is to first increase their reputation and rank. Until then they can do these bounties. But don't expect much in rewards during this time.

I don't want to talk about my cryptocurrency holdings (but there is not much change in the composition or size during the mentioned period). If I look at my non-crypto portfolio, I have to say that this pandemic season was like a boon for me. I am working from home for the last 7 months. Salary is the same, and the expenses have been cut by more than half. As a result, my savings have swelled. I invested most of the money in stocks and mutual funds, and some in bullion and fixed deposits. During the last 7 months, my non-crypto portfolio grew by around 50%, while my cryptocurrency portfolio grew by around 20% (only due to the increase in exchange rates, as I haven't purchased any new coins).

1. When and why did you become interested in cryptocurrencies?

8 years ago, in 2012. I heard about Bitcoin for the first time in 2011 when one Ukrainian guy with whom I was freelancing asked me whether I would accept the payment in BTC. But back then I thought that it was some ponzi and refused his offer. I took Bitcoins seriously only in 2012.

2. When and why did you buy your first bitcoin?

If I remember correctly, in 2013 February. I received an unexpected bonus from my company, and a part of that fund went to investment in BTC.

3. How did you get on the forum?

I was searching for more information about BTC. This forum came up multiple times in Google search. So it was only natural to create an account.

4.1. What prevents mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

There are multiple issues: negative coverage from the media, lack of legal status in many of the countries, prevalence of scams, volatility in exchange rates and a general thinking that online assets are more prone to scams are some of them.

4.2. How do you think mass advertising of gambling projects has a positive effect on the development of the forum or harms the community?

When I first entered the cryptocurrency sector, a large part of the Bitcoin transactions were linked to Satoshi Dice. A lot of new users got in to Bitcoin because of Satoshi Dice. Now it will be ungrateful to badmouth the gambling sector.

4.3. How do you consider whether 2-3 years of experience in cryptocurrency is enough to successfully invest or does an investor need to receive special education?

I have more than 8 years experience in cryptocurrency and even then I got scammed a few times recently.

5. What do you think of the current Merit system and signature campaigns?  Do they harm the forum?

My opinion is that both of them are beneficial. The first one prevents spamming and it helps to identify the best users. The signature campaigns help smaller projects to get advertisement, and at the same time it helps the ordinary users.   

6. The most useful forum topic? Most helpful users?

I find the threads in Scam Accusations and Reputation sub-forums most helpful. It educates the users about potential scams.

7. 3 things you would implement on the forum?

1. Creation of a rank higher than Legendary
2. More users with merit-source power
3. Expansion of market-place subforum

8. Do you trade on exchanges or invest in projects?

I have accounts with dozens of exchanges, but I haven't traded recently. Back in 2013/14, I invested in a lot of projects and most of them turned out to be scams. Now I do that very rarely.

9. Tell a story about your big profit or big loss?

I purchased BTC in January 2013, for $10 per coin. The rest is history. 

10. What do you think about the DEFI ecosystem?

DeFi shows a lot of promise. But I have a feeling that it is getting overhyped.

11. Is your anonymity a vital necessity or precaution?

A lot of times the hackers tried to steal coins from my wallet, so I am a bit nervous about my anonymity. If we reveal our email id, real identity or even the size of the holdings, the criminals can use these details to steal the coins. I try to remain as much anonymous as I can.

12. The last cryptocurrency book you read?

Nope. Never read any.

13. Advise 3 cryptocurrencies/tokens for investment in the next 1-2 years?

Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Cardano.

14. How much will Bitcoin cost at the end of 2020?

I don't expect much change. May be around $12,000 per coin.

Well... this is how it works. At least in the case of Emirex, they made the payment as promised. Nowadays 90% to 95% of the projects fail and those who participate in their bounty campaigns don't receive any reward. Emirex could have made a part-payment in ETH or BTC, to the bounty hunters after the ICO. I understand that they want to prevent the dumping of tokens. Taking that in to account, both the sides can be kept happy, if a small amount (10% or 20%) of the bounty was paid immediately, after the ICO (in ETH or BTC). Since the amount is not large, it will not burden the project development and at the same time it will keep the bounty hunters happy.

Stock indices represent an important parameter, because a large majority of the economic turnover is accounted by companies which are listed in the market. What you are saying is true, as the stock prices can be affected by speculation. But this doesn't hold true for the long term. In 99% of the cases, the stock prices will go up only if the company is performing well. And in the absence of other parameters, the stock indices represent a somewhat accurate measurement of the economic health.

It is not just KXIP. A few other teams also made the mistake, by not giving chances to the good players. Look at the KKR squad. The inclusion of Lockie Ferguson has done wonders for them. But then, he got his chance after 8 matches. KKR management wanted to stick with Sunil Narine despite repeated failures. Chris Morris of RCB was another talented player who was ignored for too long.

I don't agree with the first part. Vaccine does not cure any medical condition. It is a preventive medicine. There is no point in taking the vaccine, in case you have already become infected. In that case, you need to take the medicines. The normal vaccine approval process takes anywhere from 10 to 20 years, as there needs to be studies for long-term side effects. In the case of COVID 19, they are going through a hastened approval process. Even after all that, it can take up to 2 years for the process to be complete.

I don't think that the BCCI needs to agree to the demands made by IOA, even if cricket becomes a part of the Olympics. We saw this during the 1998 Commonwealth Games, when cricket was included for the first time. The team selection and management was made by the BCCI, and only logistics and other formalities were done by the IOA. BCCI's main concern is about the loss of revenue and not about the administrative interference from the IOA. They believe that in case an additional global tournament occurs every 4 years, then it will lower the viewership of some of the ICC events.

Anyway, the current team at BCCI is much better than what we had earlier. Saurav Ganguly is a great administrator and he has done a lot of great reforms since he became the president of the BCCI. There are some political appointees, but they don't have any criminal background or links to match fixing, as was the case a few years ago.

No need to elaborate this much. Just answer a simple question. Do you believe that if someone draws a picture of your god, he needs to be killed? Or do you believe that if someone kills that person, the death is justified?

I have seen critics doing much worse to other religions. In India, one Muslim painter draw one of the holiest Hindu goddesses completely naked. In return, he was awarded civilian awards by Muslim nations such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia. So what you want to say is that, it is OK for Muslims to abuse other religions, but it is not right for someone to draw a cartoon which relates to your religion.

Well.. this has happened multiple times in the cryptocurrency sector. When the ICO craze was at its peak, I personally knew a few of my friends who received as much as 20x profit from a single ICO. Even the bounty hunters were having such a great time.. many of them were earning as much as $1,000 or $2,000 from a single campaign. But all this vanished within a few months. Late entrants had to be satisfied with whatever breadcrumbs they could collect.

Having natural resources doesn't mean that a country will be rich. If that was the case, then DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) could have been the richest country on earth. If the people don't have enough educational skills and work ethics, having natural resources will be of very little use. This is applicable everywhere, from Venezuela to the African nations, and from the oil-rich Arab states to the mineral rich Russia.

You need to look at both sides of the debate. I know some people, who purchased Bitcoin at prices close to the ATH levels in December 2017. These people are still stuck with their holdings and their investments are in deep red. We always say that Bitcoin is a high-risk investment and you should invest only as much as you can afford to lose. But that is not always the case. There may be financial emergencies and these investors may be forced to sell their coins at a considerable loss.

The topic here is the beheading of the teacher in Paris and not the sterilization campaign in China. I was just saying that I see a lot of pro-Uighur campaigns in the social media. I was pointing out to the fact that very few of the Islamist organizations have come out against the beheading, although they were very vocal about the Uighur issue. 

I don't have much interest on what is happening in China. There may be some isolated incidents that are overhyped, but I am not interested. The last time I checked, the proportion of Uighurs have increased in Xinjiang with every census.

WHO is not going to approve the vaccines unless Phase 3 trials are complete. And the issue here is that these trials involve tens of thousands of people and any indication of negative side effect reported from even one of these participants stalls the whole process. I believe China and Russia are doing the right thing, by approving the vaccine even before the Phase 3 trials are completed.