I see absolutely no legal concern whatsoever on betting just because the competing teams or athletes are disabled or, how is now called, "diverse in abilities". It is as ethical as betting in women's games, men's games or any other competition that aims to stretch the human limits and to find out how far can hard work, science and determination take the human natural limitations. In the case of Paralympics it is, if any, even more inspiring than the usual olympics.

It should not go up forever, once the demand and use is widespread, it should progressively become more stable or its value should go up, but maybe not as much as other alternative investments. Like everything else out there, growth is never unlimited. Perhaps the difference is that if bitcoin reaches an overprice or bubble it may be quite difficult to identify due to its tradition of being a very volatile asset in general. That is where the investors that have a hint have the upper hand.

Inestability is not a real problem, banks have worked with mortgage backed securities in 2008 and everyone knew that these were not really stable not worth much for that matter, yet still they sold them around until the last fool standing saw them drop to zero. Anyway, crypto can be used as any currency with fluctuating value - that is all of them - even banks will use turkish liras and the like when their clients demand so, so crypto is not different nor should be.

On the ground, there are many developing and even semi-developed countries in which the citizens are using bitcoin as a daily routine. I am not sure if these countries will ever be as open minded as El Salvador, because at the end of the day having control over your own currency, even if is the shittiest currency ever, allow you to control your economy in a way that is simply impossible with bitcoin. Among other things, you can pay your public employees such as teachers or police with basically cow crap. Going to bitcoin for that is not an option.

To add to this, the lending of money is done at different levels. There is a banking lending, retail and business, based on a fiduciary model mostly, in which the banks lend a multiple of their deposits. There is state debt lending, referred usually as "interest rates" in general, which is the price the government pays for its debt. There is also an interbank rate for lending.

Usually, these are all linked together, negative yields for state debt may lower the rest to negative.


You seem to be clueless about how debt works. It is always compound, simple interest is not used on loans 99.9999% of the times.

Due some acquittances, I have quite decent information about what is up in Venezuela. One of the things that is happening is that obviously people are ignoring as much as possible the local currency. Whether bitcoin our USD, they are definitely  not getting to use the local coin regularly. The main exception are employees with salaries denominated in bolivars, in which case they have to undertake extra activities to make sure they  get to eat everyday or every other day anyway.

The problem is that this country is going to swing from communist to a ferocious if not dictatorial regime which may solve some issues and create newer ones.

History shows us that there are two main reasons that lead common people to revolt, although you may argue that some cultures are naturally more rebellious. The first reason is a reasonable certainty that they are going to succeed easily, thus the risk is low and the motivation to go ahead is high. An the second one, as mentioned, is having so little to loose that it is simply worth the risk. Even if unsuccessful, the result is not going to be much worse than the actual situation.

The second one is normally quite desperate a less prone to succeed. The fact that prices go up beyond measure and life becomes difficult may bring unrest but rarely change governments.

It may soon change due to inflation, but as of now we live in a crazy world with the Euro - it is called the wonderland of negative interest rates. For those who are not in the loop, it works like this: You lend me 100 euros and I promise to repay you 99 euros. My first question, how much would you like borrow under these conditions?

I was speaking with a friend that wants to buy a house, mostly on credit as it is usual in many places. He was saying that he wanted a 25 year mortgage because he would like to have the house paid as early as he could. However, my take on this is that given the ridiculous interest rates, I would rather do like Europe or US and have that debt ... forever

Thanks Bossman, Fo keng to im gut as well.

There is obvious market interest in bitcoin, perhaps too much and too quick as most of the mainstream investors are not familiar with the ups and downs of bitcoin and how quickly fortunes are made and lost in crypto. But, apart from that, what has always surprised me is that people would rather own a fund that owns bitcoin instead of takin 1 hour of their time to open a wallet and get some bitcoin from an exchange or from somebody. It is just stupid, because with gold or silver or copper or any commodity, you obviously cannot keep it at home, at least not in large quantities or without worries, but bitcoin does not occupy space.

These giants are about knowing their clients, even if the client does not want it, and about getting more control and more power over the market. If you think of it, Amazon does not even accept PayPal. Bitcoin is for its own nature, difficult to control or perhaps impossible and is not particularly good for keeping track of personalised customer data. Henceforth, these companies are unlikely to have a near term strategy and in the future my take is that they will be, at most, late adopters, when mainstream is already there.

The more you share, the more your bowl will be plentiful. I think your are definitely a Belter, one of mine kin.   





I do not believe in karma, I am more incline to think that the things you get into expose you to possibilities. I got into the internet early and that exposed me to the possibility of earnings while studying... and it was not that far the chance of getting into a start-up when these did not even have a name. I also learnt about cryptography and became a self taught (average) programmer which allowed me to get an scholarship. Bitcoin would have been a natural path for me, yet by that time, all I could read was adds and stupid comments about it... too bad for me

Certainly, a good article. The bottom of it can be described in a couple of sentences: Either you have free market and you benefit from it or you have a controlled economy and you do not benefit from individual entrepreneurship. Not that fully free markets do not come with its own set of problems. For an authoritarian regime, there is an obvious catch: wealthy people have tremendous influence and entrepreneurs  do things first and then ask permission or apologize. That is incompatible with the CCP retaining the degree of social control that is required to control power.

The choice is clear: have a poorer China, yet still strong, with a limited ability to create and invent outside the official guidelines thus with a handicap imbedded into their system. Yet that is going to be the choice, because the first rule of politics is "gain power", the second one is "remain in power" and the third one is "in case of doubt, read rules 1 and 2"

I do not see this as a big event to be honest. There are many "libertarian" groups in the US and many of them are simply a poor excuse for a hillbilly group of half drug traffickers and half drunkards waving the confederate flag.

Those that are not, are actually trying to live a delusion, trying to live their lives as if there were on a free country - meaning they can ignore the laws - and declare some short of sovereignty and be left alone. The world does not work like that. If you want a libertarian state, you will need to either conquer one by war or by convincing a massive number of people. And that is only to create it, then you will need to defend it. Anything else is delusional.

On the bitcoin cash topic, I see that these people wanted to use bitcoin as currency, as it was intended in the beginning, and that spirit is better achieved with BCH

Not much of challenge really. You are just making assertions about girls winning in the school, being better on the dating market...

On the social media, you have both artists female and male and range in between. All famous, all well paid. Girls tend to do better in views, that may be interpreted as "winning", except that there is not a male vs female competition, that is, a lady is not taking the view from a gentlemen, they simply have different public.

In general, and speaking only of hetero relations, which I insist are not the only ones existing, it is true that ladies tend to get asked and have certain choice, while the boys tend to ask and take the chances. That is just a game. The boys have to overcome their shyness and take their chances, but the girls have to take the risk of accepting and sometimes the risk of rejecting.  In the end, both may loose, if you understand "loosing" by not getting together with the couple of their choice or getting a couple that turns out to be incompatible (or a jerk, or an abuser, or a drunkard, or...)

Anyway, that is just speaking in general and for me it is clear that in the love game everyone may win or loose, irrespectively of their sex. You need to review your way of thinking.

In sports women win? That is something I just don´t get.
Wife always wins? I insist, she is not your adversary (if you are a man), she is your ally. I think you are referring to minor things, in which I admit is better to let them win. For the important things, your view is as important as hers (if not more) and if that is not the case, you choose wrongly.

Women have to go through a huge number of problems of their own. Being a woman is anything but easy. For starters, you usually will have less physical power. That is usually not a problem... but sometimes it is. Also, every month you will experience a few awful days, also, you will likely take much more work at home (on average) and will have to give birth and usually care for children in a greater measure. In some cultures, the wife is completely under the will of the husband, never free to choose her destiny. They are sold into sexual slavery, attacked with acid because they do not like certain man, stoned to death,...

Yep... if you ever reincarnate, I also wish you are a lady.



She was attacked with acid. She did not win.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/spains-la-liga-agrees-sell-10-stake-cvc-nyt-2021-08-04/

La Liga has received a great investment  in the range of 3.2 Billion for a 10% of the "ownership". The clubs are to get most of this new capital and they are free to invest, but with the limit of 15% in players. the rest has to be for infrastructure and other improvements. This should help Barca keep Messi, but what other players are going to be under offer in the future? Should the other clubs in Europe be concerned? And, how does this change the odds for the European championships?

Depending on the game and how much do you know about it, the strategy may be any of those two. If it is a pure chance game, odd always in favour of the house etc.. I think you will get more enjoyment with a distribution of small bets. If you are betting on a skills game, such as poker, you would need to take a middle position - not too many bets, not too few. You would concentrate on those that are better in odds, while doing minor bets. Lastly, on those that are games of prediction that involve some skill, it would be better to concentrate a a few good odds. and still be fun as the games tend to last.

Gratis no es. Aunque el equipo esté ahí, tiene mantenimiento.

Igual que en su momento lo tuvo que hacer Facebook con el tema de las ICOs. Quizá google ha tardado más porque la publicidad es sensiblemente más cara y de menor interés para los posibles estafadores que en general basan su negocio en que "pique" uno de cada cienmil. Pensando como ellos, google sólo tendría sentido para estafas muy bien montadas, que requiren tiempo y medios y que normalmente se dirigen a captar volumenes más grandes.

Creo que Google y su servicio YouTube deberían también reflexionar sobre otros servicios que se ofertan en el area de finanzas y trading. Ni todas las cripto son estafas ni todo lo que no es cripto es legal.

I am absolutely amazed that you are a senior member with an account of 2011 and you are asking this question. Even if you bought a tiny 100 USD of bitcoin at that time, you would have send the ball out of the stadium. I can only take it as a rhetorical question: nobody knows where bitcoin is going to end, we may assume that due to scarcity and likely mainstream use, there is money to be made. People thought it was expensive a 1$ at 10$ at 100$... always is a good moment and never is a good moment. Just get a little and do not look at it in 5 years.