I think some (new) users are getting the whole purpose of this thread all wrong, your 'goal' should not be to be like filliponne, but rather in developing sufficient Bitcoin and cyrpto knowledge (like he did), cause thats the only reason why filliponne is where he is in the forum at the moment, the 'goal' isn't solely merit earning, but quality forum contributions that will continually earn you merits effortlessly.

Having said that, aspiring to be like filliponne isn't bad at all, but it doesn't just stop in "I'd like to be like you', you'll have to actually work towards it by showing your contributions on the forum are worth the appreciation of others, if you're unwilling to make the required effort or you're are in the network and forum to basically 'get rich quick', then there's no need for all these aspirations, cause they'll sadly not be achieved.

Whilst that is very much possible, the question, or rather concern is what damaging measures the different governments (countries) that make up the European Union will take within this next five years and definitely more as they work on their CBDC's. There will prolly be tighter regulations as well as policies initiated to discredit Bitcoin as not being safe, reliable...or whatever compared to their CBDC's, obviously before CBDC's come on board, Bitcoin would have gone a very long way, my only concern is actually how many users will be convinced and cajoled into believing some of the lies the government will cook up to try and see if CBDC's will be more used than Bitcoin.
Isn't that were they are making a mistake, should CBDC's which are centralized be launched in 'reaction' to Bitcoin, I mean, we all know Bitcoin is decentralized, and not just that, there's freedom and control to use your funds just the way you think is right, but the digital dollar, Euro, Yuan, or any centralized digital (shit) coin is actually the opposite of that, should the government not actually be 'trying to stop' Bitcoin with more regulations (I know sooner or later they'll run out of it), rather than creating digital currencies that will work (and be printed) almost in the same way as their fiat currencies

Well, that's your strategy, but if I'm to drop my opinion on that, I'd say it's not a reliable one, first and foremost; you can't be sure you'd see the aforementioned coins at the following prices anytime soon, and then again their present prices, for example Bitcoin is at $31,792 at the time I was writing this, is relatively cheap putting into consideration the price it was a few months ago, and thus making now a pretty comfortable time to accumulate it. You'd prolly have to wait for quite a long long time for Bitcoin to go below $20k, and then what if doesn't.
Mind you that prayers don't change/move the market situation.

That's not how football transfers work all the time, players can change teams even when you don't expect them to, in Sterlings case, last season he really lacked playing time and was used sparingly by Pep Guradiola, he has had a quite brilliant time at City in the past couple of seasons, but looking at how things went last season plus the way City are seriously chasing Grealish, I wouldn't be surprised if Sterling moves out of the Etihad.
Lewandowski is a world class striker, prolly the best out there, but he is 33, that's were the question of age comes in, how many years will he be able to represent your team if you decide to sign him, obviously Bayern have had his best years, and then again he won't still come cheap, I'd be expect Chelsea to go for a much younger striker, if they can't get Haaland.

I don't know why you're receiving this message that your good will either not arrive or will be delayed significantly, it looks like the sort of message that would have been sent early last year when the pandemic "shed it's milk teeth" and countries were still coming to grasp with what was going on and ways to control it, now that vaccines are in progress, there should not be too many problems, except this message is for a completely different reason, while China prolly just puts the blame on covid-19.

I think if Haaland signs for Chelsea, Timo Werner's playing time will reduce drastically, then the problem is that Haaland costs so much and imo, he hasn't really been brilliant for many seasons running to be really worth that much, Dortmund will prolly scare aware possible suitors for Haaland with the price tag they'll request for him, Chelsea will only get him, only if they are ready to pay an extremely high transfer fee.
Tammy Abraham already lacked quite a lot of game time last season, so it's reasonable if Chelsea release him, as for Odoi and Ziyech, I honesty thought they actually had a future in Chelsea, I'm surprised their names are mentioned in players set to be released.

The policies employed to control the pandemic were no doubt inflation-bound, such as lockdowns, printing more money etc, but I consider most of those policies to be inevitable as at when they were implemented. The effects of the pandemic generally was always going to cause economic struggle, especially in the form of inflation and hyperinflation. The thing is, diverse economies will react to this situation differently, Bitcoin serves as a hedge to inflation/devaluation in fiat currencies, but imo being a Bitcoin user doesn't mean we'll celebrate inflation, cause we're all citizens/residents of a particular country and if inflation gets worse, it'd definitely affect us all.

Having said that, I don't think countries with a really functioning economy, especially prior to the lockdown will face inflation constantly for a very long time, measures will definitely be put in place to curtail it sooner than later, underdeveloped countries would face most of the brunt of this pandemic, I mean, for some of them their economic situation was already in the mud before the pandemic kicked in, it has made things a whole lot worse, and they may have to cope with inflation for quite a long while.

That's not exactly what it means, mind you that the Bitcoin network for example was created in such a way that users do not have to trust anybody other than themselves, neither should they trust third party services such as exchanges to hold their funds for them, if you keep your funds on exchanges and they get hacked, the problem is not with the network, but with the user (victim), cause if you properly conceptualize what is expected of you as a user in the network, you'd not leave funds in exchange wallets.

Having said that, another reason why you think fiat banks are safer is cause in dex crypto, you are expected to fulfil the responsibility of "being your own bank" yourself, unfortunately, quite a lot of users fail in this responsibility due to insufficient knowledge, greed and the urge to get rich quick, if a user learns what the security protocols on the network are, and follows them, then their funds will be safe, plus the added advantage of control and freedom, which fiat does not and will never offer.

First and foremost, it's pertinent you construct your thoughts articulately for easy assimilation, as well as to stimulate discussions. Going by the dictionary definition of economical, it means "prudent with money, so you don't spend more than you ought to", thus to answer your question, taking/studying economics as a course in school doesn't actually mean it'll help you curtail your spending, being frugal in spending is somewhat a personal decision or as a result of actually not having the money to spend.

Having said that, there are quite a lot of people who have never even been to school before, but can properly account for their spending, and then people who take economics as a course being wasteful in spending, it doesn't depend whatsoever on whatever you study in school or anywhere else, it's more of a responsibility inherent in responsible individuals.

I know the Nigerian government to be a very corrupt one, thus I don't even consider this to be a development of any sort, whistleblowers have been reporting cases for a very long time in Nigeria with the government taking little or no action, most of the cases brought up are even against government officials, thus you'd expect the ruling to be manipulated.

Having said that, if this app was prolly launched in a developed country with little or no corruption then I'd consider the prospects of it to be exciting, for Nigeria, I think this can even be an opportunity for the government to continue their corrupt activities, reporting the cases with evidence through this app could be counterproductive, cause the government can destroy evidences, secretly close cases or pretend to be carrying out investigations when the reports are against them.

United have been spending good sums of money on defenders in the last couple of seasons, it didn't just start now, the defenders prolly didn't live up to the expectations set for them, but United haven't been quiet in signing defenders. Having said that, Varane was good quite a couple of seasons ago, but he looks more prone to mistakes of late, I've seen him make a couple of big mistakes that have cost Real, that could be a sign of a player that's lacking in confidence, if United sign him, then I hope he rebuilds his confidence if he is to be the rock they need in central defense.

The topic of the possibility of handing down Bitcoins to loved ones and family on the event of (sudden) death has been discussed many times already, I think that's cause it's very important to know the safest and most reliable methodology to make sure your loved ones enjoy the funds you're accumulating today, should one die all of a sudden; it would actually be sad to look down at them from heaven if they have nothing at the time, knowing your stash is locked somewhere forever, with nobody able to ever unlock it.

See this thread Halloween inspired poll - Would your Bitcoins get passed on if you suddenly died? started by DdmrDdmr, I think it's one of the most comprehensive discussions on this subject, and through the responses/replies of other users in it, you can prolly prepare for the unknown using the safest method possible.

Donnarumma is a brilliant goalkeeper, a world class one at that, PSG have signed quite a lot of world class players, but definitely this signing ranks up there with them. PSG have money to spend and sometimes they do that carelessly that's why they have so many players, many of whom will never play for them.

Keylor Navas is a very good goalkeeper, but I think he'll be the makeshift goalkeeper to Donnarumma, he will prolly not be happy with that, but he is 35 years of age while Donnarumma is quite younger, if the manager can keep both keepers happy, then they have solved their goalkeeping issues for a very long time.

You're constructing your thoughts wrongly, the thing is whenever a user gets merited, there's a slight excitement that comes along with it, cause I mean, you'd have to feel good that someone else appreciated what you posted and that it's of medium or high quality, then for the average poster, it would excite them cause they will feel and know that they are improving on their posts; but your misconception is in saying that it's the 'sole goal' of every user, cause it's not, while we sure would like someone to appreciate our posts, we should be more concerned in developing our general knowledge, not earning merits, cause if you garner sufficient Bitcoin knowledge, then merits will come effortlessly, thus making it the better choice.
The thing is that one can't actually state categorically what the idea behind a users post is, but then again, there are posts that straight away just seem and look like merit hunting, such posts usually don't stimulate discussions, it adds little or nothing to users knowledge and is usually just about a generic thing that has been discussed time without number, if users don't like the idea of being called merit hunters, they should basically just stop writing out posts of that nature.

No. There are quite a lot of dimensions to it, when you send merits to any post, it must not go with a comment (if you feel you have something to say, then you can comment), just the same way you can comment or reply to a post without meriting it, you could merit a post even when your ideas and that of the op isn't in tandem, the forum works in such a way as to make merits really subjective, so there are quite a lot of things you can do with your smerits without having any issues (except selling or buying it).

Asking for mentorship from people or users you do not actually know personally can be counterproductive, about a week ago or so, another user make a post of this same nature, asking for a mentor/teacher, I can state categorically that you do not need an outright mentor, and when you ask for one, you run the risk of scammers sending you PM'S that they are qualified teachers that can mentor you, when you get close to them, they take your funds, mind you that your private information is yours only, no mentor, teacher, friend or anyone should be privy to them, such info include your private keys, seed phrase, details of your accounts/wallets etc.

Having said that, you don't need to draw the attention of users that are more knowledgeable than you in order for them to tutor you, the forum has made it easy for you, you can always access their posts and when you're curious on any particular issue, the forum search button is one tap away, it'll make it easier for you and channel your answers to you through different topics made previously on your inquiry.

Finally, as for plagiarism or HQ posts, tbh, it's basically up to you, once you know the meaning of plagiarism, avoiding it is then out of your own will, making good posts is as well up to you, that's if you're ready to sufficiently improve on your Bitcoin knowledge, there's no other way around it.

Only Lionel Messi can accurately answer questions regarding his future, but in my opinion, the reason why there have not been so much talks about Lionel and where he's moving to is as a result of the just concluded Copa America tournament, I think Messi put every other thing aside to concentrate on the Copa America, he needed no distractions based on contract talks and other whatnots, and now that the tournament is over and he has actually won the trophy he has been craving for, he can now focus on club football and make a decision to either leave Barcelona or sign a contract extension, tbh, I feel Messi will remain in Barcelona.

I don't know why you believe if many countries start to launch CBDC's it'll drive the price of Bitcoin up, it  very well can, though that's not what this countries want or even think, if you take a closer look at most of the campaign for CBDC's you'd understand that they are more or less thought of as a competition to Bitcoin and other dex crypto, they want to produce a digital currency for their citizens and thus encourage, or rather force them to use it and not Bitcoin.

In my opinion, China's latest sanction/ban on Bitcoin (mining) is as a result of their CBDC's which is more or less already slowly in use, through dictatorial policies, government wants to control everything, especially finance, with Bitcoin they cannot, but through CBDC's, they easily can, I'm expecting more hostilities from different governments directed at Bitcoin, it could affect the network in the short period, but it wouldn't in the long term.

What you should understand first and foremost is that it's not a 'battle' between the op and users who make replies on who is going to get merited or not, we discuss here, merits dont come in the way of discussions, it's somewhat a signal that the discussions are of good and high quality, but my point is that the whole issue you're raising is actually no problem at all.

Having said that, imo, good posts (the original post) usually get merited and users can't attack an op if the post is good, what other users try to do is to correct the mistakes, if there is any in the op. And then discussions on the forum moves in different direction, the op could start a post about a subject, but subsequent replies could prolly shed more light on the topic and such users could get more merits, but like I said before, this is actually not a problem and should not be taken as one.

You are taking all this too personally mate, I actually don't think lovesmayfamilis meant wrong by his post, neither was he stating categorically that your post is a merit hunting one (it's just his idea of it), the thing is that posts of this nature actually look very much like it's somewhat of a merit hunt, though one can never really know what's actually in the mind of a poster, but time and again users make this sort of generic posts and it's more or less a merit hunting technique, if you do not like the idea of being called a merit hunter, I'd advice you try not to make posts like this.
I think that's another wrong idea you've got there op, as far as I know, legendary or reputable users do not feel they are always right, we are here to share our opinions on topics related to Bitcoin and other things as well, opinions may differ slightly, but it's never a show of who is always right, just grow a thick skin in matters like this.