Judging wasn't too bad apart from that first fight. Anyway, Max Holloway did what he needed. I just felt Allen could've put the pressure on a little more. That final round, he buzzed Max, which Max mentioned in his post fight speech, and when Allen did actually pressure he was having a lot of success. He'll learn from it, and I think he proved a lot last night. Despite, not wrestling once, which is weird too me. Even just to give Max something to think about, seems he was hell bent on beating Max on the feet.

Judging is already awful tonight. Lucie Pudilová got robbed. There's no way that Edwards won two rounds. Maybe the third, but Lucie Pudilová had 6 minutes of control time in the first, and second rounds. How could she possible lose that? She even, left some good ground, and pound. Anyone who's got bets on tonight, I'd take that decision in consideration. The judging could be all over the place if that's anything to go by.

Like I said earlier, I'm not super confident on these picks, at all. However, here's my picks for tonight:

Arnold Allen
Edson Barboza
Azamat Murzakanov
Tanner Boser
Chris Gutierrez
Rafa García
Bill Algeo
Matheus Nicolau
Zak Cummings
Gillian Robertson
Daniel Zellhuber
Bruna Brasil
Gaston Bolaños
Lucie Pudilová

I'm thinking Lucie Pudilová, Gillian Robertson, Bruna Brasil, Tanner Boser and Chris Gutierrez on my betting slip. Not 100% sure, though. I actually watched the weigh ins, to see if I could figure out some of the differences, but honestly everyone looked in good spirits, and had good cuts. Joselyne Edwards, missed weight, but seemed to be in pretty good spirits. Daniel Zellhuber is much bigger than his opponent in terms of height, but I don't know. If he can keep the fight at a distance I have faith, but I'm not sure he'll be able to do that.

This weekend just looks awful from a betting perspective. I'll be probably only doing a triple this weekend. How are we feeling about the Robertson fight? She's pretty strong at 125, but I'm not sure if this weight cut is going to affect her ability to get it down on the mat. I'm also not that familiar with her opponent. I think Zak Cummings will get it done against Ed, but I think it will be a close fight.

I'm still deciding on a few of the fights before I get my predictions out. Hopefully, in time for the event .

Once again, I'm worried for Izzy. However, I do think the pressure is largely off. He's already lost his belt, and now it's all about proving it to himself. He's definitely the better fighter in terms of technical fighting, but he seems to not be able to avoid the power of Alex Pereira. Honestly, odds of 1.70 for Izzy are nice, and the decision win for him is even nicer. So, I might put that on my betting slip just for fun, as I can see that happening. I don't see Izzy knocking out Alex, even though in the most recent fight he did stun Alex.

The thing is, I worry when Alex gets close, and closes the distance. As soon as he did that, Izzy was worried, and it only took a few seconds to get him out of there as soon as he managed to close the distance. I'm wondering whether Izzy has learned from that, and will put on more of a hit, and move sort of fight style this time around.

Here's my predictions:

Israel Adesanya by decision
Gilbert Burns by which ever way he wants
Adrian Yanez
Kevin Holland
Raul Rosas Jr.
Chris Curtis
Luana Pinheiro
Gerald Meerschaert
Lupita Godinez
Ignacio Bahamondes
Shayilan Nuerdanbieke
Jaqueline Amorim

You need to verify the checksum, do note this doesn't prove anything other than the checksum is the same. This could have been altered by a malicious attacker. How you do it, differs depending on the checksum. For sha256 via the terminal on Linux you can use:


However, you should also verify via verifying their signature via gpg. Basically, you find their public signing key, import it into your keyring, and then you can try to verify the file. If it matches, it'll tell you that's a good signature. I'd recommend looking at the documentation of gpg.

Unfortunately, not every hardware wallet or software provide this. However, that probably gives you a reason to avoid them in the first place

Here's Trezor's documentation for their desktop application: https://trezor.io/learn/a/download-verify-trezor-suite-app

However, for any signatures being verified via gpg you'll be using:


And


The fingerprint is only as good as the computer you are verifying it on. If your computer could've been compromised, then you can't verify that it's real. Also, you should probably look at deploying a web of trust, and finding the fingerprint on websites other than the main Trezor site. Since, if the Trezor site was compromised when you got the fingerprint from there, you could be tricked into thinking it's genuine.

If you're really serious about your security, verifying on two different computers could help with the concern that one of the machines is compromised. Verifying on a offline computer can also be a decent way.

As long as you can be sure that you've got the right signing key, and your machine isn't feeding you the wrong information via being compromised. You should be alright, to go ahead, and install the software. People's threat levels will differ. You can go really deep into verifying, establishing a web of trust, and mitigating various attacks.

For most people, importing, and verifying is enough.

Thanks, hadn't heard of this news. I'm sure my accountant would've let me know since he's been handling my Bitcoin taxes for a while, but it's always nice to have a heads up. I'll probably seek some clarification from him even though he pretty much does everything for me, when I submit this years taxes, just to make sure I understand what exactly has changed. I've got until April 2024 to wrap my head around it anyhow.

Congratulations to Ireland, they were just a step above pretty much everyone else. Italy, was improved this year, and pushed quite a few teams to the end, whereas the game would've been out of sight within the first 20 minutes a few years ago. Wales, obviously had a lot of drama coming into the tournament, and they looked awful in a lot of the games. However, that performance against France, and to some degree Italy gives me hope for the future. We didn't look awful, our defense did, but our attack looked pretty good.

Hopefully, we can get some form before the Rugby World Cup.

I was routing for Leon in the end, obviously he did make quite a few fouls in the fight, but I think that's natural. I don't think he was looking to fence grab, I think it was just out of desperation, but having a point deducted was probably the right choice. However, I saw it pretty much the same way as the judges, I thought Leon comfortably won that fight. It's odd to see Usman struggle against someone so much, considering he dominated the first two fights.

Got to hand it to Leon though, takedown defense was on point, and his circling away from danger was brilliant too. I don't think they'll make the 4th fight for a while, and hopefully we get to see someone else have a shot at the title.

I like Justin personally. What do we think of this bet:

Juliana Miller (decision; worried since she could get the finish)
Jack Shore
Marvin Vettori via decision
Casey O'Neill via decision
Muhammad Mokeav (doubt due to previous fights)
Kamaru Usman via decision.

I'm not super confident on this bet, but it gives decent odds to be honest. Convince me otherwise .

I like it, obviously I'll be backing Shore for obvious reasons, but he definitely has his weak points, and I'm personally not liking the odds. After his last performance, I thought the odds would've reflected his weaknesses a little more. I'll get my predictions out tomorrow before the event. I know it's a early event though, since it's in London this time around, which hopefully means a good crowd.

This topic has been moved to Trashcan.

Reason:

Justin would probably be my underdog pick of the night. He's a tough fighter, and I think he has more of a chance than the odds suggest. He's definitely a contender for the title, and that's why I find the odds surprising. I'd have thought it'd be more even.

I'll give Leon credit for the win, obviously. However, Alex Pereira was a little different, he was always in that fight, and always looked dangerous. Leon, didn't even look competitive at certain stages of that fight. So, while there definitely was a element of luck to land that kick, at least to connect in the way it did. He had the technique, and patience to actually throw it. So, he made his own luck.

I'm quite liking the odds though, Usman at 1.40 is extremely good considering how dominant of a performance it was up until that kick. Whether or not he comes out guns blazing, I think he takes the win whatever way he wants. He's going to be extra motivated to get his belt back, and save himself from the embarrassment of the last fight. I think he's a good one to beef up anyone's accumulator, and should win.

I somewhat agree, however there may be a way to do it. I've got laptops which are waterproof, and have clip in batteries which are hot swapable also. Whether or not that could be achieved on a small device remains to be seen, but there's definitely ways about it. However, for most users they'll probably want longevity via swapping the battery rather than durability, but what's the point of having a device that has a battery that can easily be replaced, when the device doesn't last longer than the initial battery dying. 

Just have them encrypted, and then when you want to zero them the device just assigns a random encryption which you or anyone else won't know or be able to break. Then, you can go the traditional route of smashing it to pieces to be sure. However, I'm not sure how many users would want this sort of feature let alone use it.

Yeah, I've mainly used them for work, but have even incorporated them into my personal life simply because of the things I get up too outside of work. They've never failed me, however I've broken several traditional laptops, even by just picking them, albeit incorrectly. I don't know how many screens I've broken simply by picking them up by the lid .

Although, the water resistance is very much needed for the things I do, and where I take it. I do a lot of my work outside. Which, I think a drop test, and a water resistant test to these devices are probably all that's needed.

It really depends how much you value your privacy. If you don't want anyone knowing you run a Bitcoin node, it's probably not best to run one. However, if you are set on running one, then the next best option would be via Tor, and only risking your information being retrieved via the exit node.

However, for the majority of people running via clear net is probably okay. As long as your ISP can be trusted, which there's an argument that no third party or ISP can be trusted. It highly depends on your threat model, and who you trust. If you trust your ISP, then there's no real concerns. If you don't trust your security or your ISP security, then if any of those were compromised an attack could potentially find out you run the Bitcoin node, and therefore highly likely to use Bitcoin yourself, which could mean you become a target, theoretically.

You're basically involving another third party, when you don't necessarily need too. The only way someone knows you're running a Bitcoin node via Tor, would be the exit node itself. Unless, the entity you're trying to hide your Bitcoin node activity from owns that exit node, there's no way of them deciphering what you are doing. If you involve a VPN service, then that VPN service could potentially know you're running a Bitcoin node, as well as the exit node of that Tor circuit.

Your ISP would know you're running Tor, but there's nothing wrong with running Tor, and it doesn't tell the ISP what Tor is being used for. If your ISP thinks it's an issue you're running Tor, change ISP. However, if all depends on who you don't want to know you run a Bitcoin node or own Bitcoin. If it's the government, they will know it's generally considered even the most private persons on the internet can't avoid the government, plus if you live in a country which requires taxation you should be declaring your taxes on Bitcoin to them. If it's your ISP; fair enough, but just use Tor.

We'll probably see certifications being put on the packaging for hardware wallets soon, and hopefully the companies release videos of their tests that they put their hardware through. Some of the phones, and laptops I've had in the past (toughbooks etc) release videos of their products being put through the tests, i.e drop test, water test, and heat test. I'd like to see this being tested, and some recognized certifications being handed out, rather than just stating their product is durable.

At the moment, hardware wallets aren't being developed with this in mind, but I do expect durable will be a selling point in the near future.

Drop test should be a standard in hardware wallets, since that's probably one of the biggest risks that comes with a hardware wallet. Also, if they include any buttons, they should probably be tested, and given some sort of life span, similar to what mice, and keyboards are given.

I haven't put my hardware wallets through any tests, I do technically have a spare Trezor T model lying around, which I could test if anyone would be interested in it. However, I think we as a community should come up with a certain standard to test too, so that our results are somewhat cohesive. While, also bearing in mind these aren't currently built to last the various tests that are used for other hardware like military standard laptops.

The thing is; these tests would ideally be tested at least 1000 times in each catagory to get any sort of reliable idea how which are the best, but even then you're relying on the fairness of all tests.

Yeah, I'm not sure why Justin is getting overlooked so much. He's currently sitting around 2.90 for a straight out win, which in my opinion is way too wide. I think the fights far more competitive than the bookies are putting out.

Vettori grinds out a win for me. I'll probably be going for a decision win by him, as I think he hasn't got enough to finish the fight, but he's a dog, and definitely knows how to grind fights out. Depending, highly on the value the bookies give on the decision win.

Yeah, as far as I remember Mokeav did get the takedown quite a bit, but he couldn't keep him down. Mokeav is obviously very talented, but he's just not a finisher, at least when he starts fighting against better competitors than he has done previously.


I think he'll be playing a risky game if he does that. Obviously, he's good enough, but Leon will be hoping Usman comes in reckless, and could very well get caught again. Leon's kicks are elite, and incredibly quick. If Usman goes in there, and plays safe he probably gets the win 9 times out of 10. He was dominating that fight up until that head kick, I don't want to take anything from Leon because it was executed perfectly, but it was likely just the stars aligning for him. Usman, clearly had him beat, and to be honest I don't see anything different happening from the first fight, except Usman managing to stay safe up until the end.

Some implement it correctly, some of them don't. It depends on the brand of the phone too, as some manufactures do weird things that aren't conventional.

I've had issues with a SIM card a few times, but the current OS I'm using all features work, but it's pretty much a stock version, with Google services removed. Nothing, special added.

When running a offline wallet, I'd prefer not to connect that computer to the internet, and just download, and verify the Bitcoin wallet on another computer or within a different Qube if you're using Qubes OS, and then install it in a offline environment. Checking the signature of the file on the offline computer again, just to make sure that the first computer wasn't compromised, and was displaying a fake signature.

If someone is confident enough to generate their private key via a manual process, then that can avoid some of the issues with hardware being compromised, but at the end of the day when you come to importing it, you still need to trust that hardware, so it's a difficult one.

Lucky you decided that, I mean Wales looked much better than Italy. I'm not taking that as us turning a corner, but rather Italy still isn't quite there. They've looked good all tournament, but Saturday they made a ton of mistakes, and generally looked pretty poor in defense. Their attacking play was absolutely brilliant at times, and they probably should've scored at least another try. However, ultimately it looked like Wales were the better team, and deserved the result. I got all my predictions right except for this game, although I'd never bet for anyone against Wales so I didn't lose out on anything.

Ireland probably deserve it this year, I'm gutted because I was hoping Scotland could get the championship, but they seem a little too far away at the moment or Ireland is just very good this season.

Kamaru Usman is likely going to be much safer this time, he'll likely look to chain wrestle, while Leon has good take down defense, he still isn't the best at wrestling. Obviously, it was a bit of a shock moment last time when Leon manged to knock him out, but I can't see that happening again. The good thing is, Usman was at 1.40 which is decent odds considering he pretty much dominated that fight up until he was knocked out. We'll have to get closer to the event to see what the odds are on him winning a decision, which is what I think will be the value bet here.