Finally, and good riddance to it as well.

OP, you don't have to give me any merits for posting here.  Save it for a lower-ranked member who isn't a merit source who makes a decent post.

I'm trying to think of some positives of 2020 and I'm coming up short--I don't even think I did a decent job distributing merits this year, though I did my best.  It was just a shitty year all around, but I'm hoping 2021 will be just a wee bit better (and at the very least won't be any worse than this year).  Happy holidays to all my fellow forumites, and may you not come down with anything deadly or contagious.

I see your point, but Keepkey isn't that popular, didn't get hacked, and probably will go out of business eventually (and probably sooner rather than later, too).  Ledger, on the other hand, is one of the top two hardware wallets on the market and one that I happen to like very much--so I'm hoping they don't suffer a hit too big to recover from.

Then again, they have a brand name that's popular enough in the world of cryptocurrency such that I wouldn't doubt that some other company would likely buy them out rather than just letting them go bankrupt and out of business.  Anything could happen, though.  Anyone who's followed business news over the last couple of decades has seen many popular companies decline and fall and wither away, and that certainly could happen to Ledger.

That's definitely true, but they're big sellers nonetheless.  Some people don't entirely care about their anonymity, even if that's one of bitcoin/crypto's biggest selling points.

Holy crap, I think I must have missed that thread entirely!  I do remember that making physical cards was being discussed last year, because I voiced my support for such an idea quite a few times, but the thread it was being discussed in just kind of fizzled away with nothing being done.

I probably couldn't have put it better myself.  Even if I didn't have a card of my own, I would still be interested in buying a set as a collectible--and I'm not even into collectibles all that much.

Nope, baseball cards have always been great, and they've always been just that: a snapshot in time.  In fact I'm pretty sure I wrote about exactly that aspect of a bitcointalk trading card when it was being discussed last year.  Wouldn't it have been nice if Bruno had had a card before he died?  Or Zepher?  Any set of cards with any set of particular members would be one hell of a great thing to have 10-20 years down the line for those of us to whom the forum is so important.

That means you DO think they're owned by the same person or not?  The way you phrased that sent my mind spinning for a second there.

Absolutely agree with that, but obviously some people don't have the same amount of respect for the DT system and probably don't understand how important it is--or how easily it can be abused to scam people.  So yeah, I would think that RaltcoinsB (whom I've never heard of before) probably should not be on DT at any level.

This is the Turkish section if I'm not mistaken (haven't read the whole thread yet), so the suspected merit abuse aspect of this situation doesn't surprise me at all, given how incredibly nationalistic certain members are in that section. 

Holy shit--I get that this thread got necrobumped for whatever reason, but it's like a blast from the past.  I clearly recall BipolarBob doing exactly what you just described, i.e., swooping in and paying off people's loans.  Apparently out of the goodness of his heart, because I never saw him ask for anything in return.  I'd always assumed he was an old-school bitcoin whale with a lot of it to go around. 

I wonder what happened to him.  He's one of the many members who just kind of disappeared over the years I've been here, and I hadn't thought of his name in a long time.  Even if his account did get hacked, that wouldn't preclude him from creating a new one. 

What?  First of all, I think the government (I'm talking the United States here) is being irresponsible by sending out even more stimulus checks instead of trying to get people back to work.  Who do you think is going to pay for all of that money?  You guessed it, the taxpayers.....eventually.

Second, crypto doesn't need any stimulating, because even a cursory glance at bitcoin's price chart would tell you that it's thriving and isn't exactly in need of more speculation, which is exactly what would happen if exchanges started throwing money at their customers.  Then we'd be in a real bubble that would probably put 2017 to shame. 

You've got some seriously crazy ideas, OP.  This one in particular doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.

Bump, because I'm still interested in hearing any opinions on BTCPOP.  Surely there must be some members here who've used it.  I get that it's kind of an obscure exchange (and probably very low volume as well), but I'm assuming that since there are a lot of members here, at least a few would have some experience with them.

In any case, I haven't used them since I wrote the OP here.  I found another exchange that I can use for Curecoin, and the market there is much more liquid and the price is much, much better.

As stated in the title, I have 0.007BTC and need PayPal funds at preev 1:1.  I can sell less than the full amount if you don't need that much.

I will not send first unless you have significant green trust or if I've done business with you before.

This will be a neutral feedback transaction.

Send me a PM if you're willing to help me out, as I might miss seeing this thread if you post here.

Local rule:  Please do not post here unless you're interested in doing this deal and are at least a Sr. Member or a member I've done business with before.  PayPal is very risky because of the chance of chargebacks, but I have never done this and won't ever.

Well, the person I'm giving it to isn't into bitcoin but he is certainly smart enough to figure it out if he wanted to (which he might not).  All the info needed is on Ballet's website, so there's no need for me to explain anything to him--which is fortunate, because I'm not actually going to see him in person this holiday season.  Lol.

Yes, that's the big issue here and I'm well aware of it.  That's why I started this thread, in fact.  I wanted to know if anyone had ever run into any problems as far as security went.  Frankly I don't think many members here have used the Ballet wallet before, and I can't say I blame them.  That damn trust issue you mentioned would keep any serious bitcoiner far away from a wallet like this one.

That is indeed quite impressive.  What I'm wondering is what the hell would happen if bitcoin were suddenly to crash big time like it did in 2017.  We all know that it could, even if it doesn't appear likely that it will in the immediate future.  That is a lot of money being invested in bitcoin on behalf of a publicly traded company, and it isn't likely that the USD would crash as hard as bitcoin could. 

If a crash did happen, I'm thinking there would be a lot of very angry shareholders of MSTR who'd be questioning what the hell management was thinking with the bitcoin purchases.

Nevertheless, I still give them props for taking the risk and I do wish them well (and the rest of us who hold bitcoin, too).  Hopefully 2021 will be a massive year for bitcoin.

It's a viral outbreak, how do you expect people to stay uninfected no matter how hard they try?  I have no doubt that a lot of people who've come down with COVID-19 were taking precautions against it, so I'd think that rewarding people for not getting sick is kind of a silly idea.

Plus there would be all sorts of abuses depending on what the reward was, not to mention the effort the government would have to exert to prove someone wasn't infected.  And then what if someone gets sick after they've been rewarded?  Just thinking about this makes me want to rip my hair out, as it's just a dumb idea.

Stay COVID-free because you want to stay healthy and not infect others.  There shouldn't be any kind of incentive other than that.

I read this thread and a couple of others in which the Ballet wallet was discussed, and I get that it isn't a safe wallet to keep funds in for the long term.  However, I just purchased a few of them on Amazon, one of which I'm going to use to give bitcoin as a gift to a family member.  He knows basically what bitcoin is, but aside from what he's probably heard on the news I don't think he knows all that much about it.

So I'm curious as to whether any members here have actually funded a Ballet wallet (for whatever purpose), and what their experience was with it.  Most of what I've read is how unsafe they are due to the manufacturing process which does not guarantee that they don't retain access to your private keys.  I fully understand that glaring negative against the wallet, but it's an attractive enough "device" that I figured it'd be a good gift.

I've never heard of anyone who's gotten scammed with Ballet wallets, but I haven't heard many members describing their experiences with it (and I suspect that's because it isn't popular).  I'm curious to hear about anything along those lines.

Huh.  I wonder what the hell is going on with that.  It sounds bizarre--I haven't gotten any PMs or spam e-mails originating from bitcointalk myself, so I wonder if there are other members experiencing the same thing you are.  I doubt you're the sole target.

It's certainly possible.  And as far as when that hack occurred, I could swear it was 2017 though I could be way off on that.  It could well have been 2016, and I think there were multiple hacks of forum data over the years.  I do know 2017 was the year that attracted a lot of new members, and I've seen accounts from that year suddenly come to life again within the past year.

So did I not too long ago.  It's a real e-mail account but not my primary one, and that's probably what everyone here ought to do.  There's no telling when the next hack is going to be or how much information hackers are going to steal.

For a new member, I'd say it's pretty hard unless they can write pretty well and put a decent amount of effort into what they're posting--and unfortunately most newbies don't.  If you're an established member who's been here a while, I'd say it's much easier to earn merits.  There could be many reasons for that, but regardless that's what I've noticed.

I gave OP a merit here since he did put some effort into that post, even if it was to bitch about ranking up.  Being stuck at Newbie rank sucks, as you have all of those restrictions.  I'll take OP at his word that he's not interested in climbing the ranks and just wants to get past those restrictions.  And hey, it's only one merit anyway.  Merry Christmas, bro.

I don't know much about the Russian section, but I don't doubt what you're saying since the same thing has been happening in the English sections for years now.  I've never had a fundamental problem with signature campaigns or even members being motivated to post solely because they're earning money, but I've always had a problem with members who put zero effort into their posts and still expect to get paid.  It sounds like the Russian section is turning into Altcoin Discussion, i.e., a spammer-magnet section.

What are those two doing, exactly?  Both of them are very respected members of the forum, and I haven't seen them trying to suppress any discontent lately.  Are they active in the Russian section?

Jeez OP, you're only going back to 2018 in pricing that Tesla.  I remember a time in 2015 when it would have taken a hell of a lot more bitcoin to buy that $36k model--and there are members here who are even more old-school and can recall when bitcoin was worth pennies.

I'm still having a hard time believing bitcoin is where it is right now, and I'm hoping that the price doesn't start going exponential like it did leading up to the end of 2017.  But all that aside, I do find it interesting to see that Tesla compared to how much BTC it would take to buy it through the years.  IMO it's much better than using a Lambo, since as far as I know you can't actually buy a Lambo with bitcoin, but you can buy a Tesla with it.  Plus I'd much rather have an electric vehicle than some penis-envy car like a Lamborghini that guzzles gas (unless they've changed that, but I doubt it).

Not likely, but is it even the Treasury department that's in charge of those kinds of regulations?  My knowledge of the US government is abysmal, I'll admit, but I would figure on Congress, the Senate, or even the IRS getting worked up enough about crypto to pass laws to regulate it.

OP, I'm the kind of person who doesn't read the news and it'd be nice if you'd provide a link when you start threads like this, because I honestly have no idea what you're talking about.  I'm trying to glean that information by reading everyone's replies, and that's a pain in the ass.

Now, the government getting hacked and having money stolen (if that's what happened; if not, it certainly could) makes me think that going completely digital as far as a monetary system is a bad idea.  I don't think physical cash should ever be done away with completely.  That isn't the topic of this thread, but it's what immediately came to mind here. 

Eh, I wouldn't exactly say he's wrong on that, but I would also say that people don't really need to understand the technical aspects of bitcoin in order to use it (or to speculate on its price).  For the longest time I didn't know how physical coins were minted, but that never kept me from using them to buy things.

And as far as the bubble part goes, he might not be wrong about that either--but we have yet to see how high bitcoin goes this time around in the bull market cycle.  If I'm not mistaken it did reach its previous ATH price this week, but that doesn't mean it's going to keep going up.  I do think it's true that the price rise has likely sucked a lot of speculators into the market who otherwise wouldn't have bought bitcoin.  I'm just hoping this doesn't turn out to be like the end of 2017.

It's probably article-worthy because 1) he's an economist, and 2) he's talking about bitcoin, which is quite hot at the moment.  I suspect all the other typical talking heads will be voicing their opinions as well, Peter Schiff and those types.  They jump in and get their names mentioned and thereby stay relevant in people's minds.  Makes it much easier to hype up precious metals IMO.

Binance already requires KYC docs as far as I know, at least for US-based customers.  And yes, you've obviously realized what I've suspected for a long time now, i.e., that these centralized exchanges are starting to become regulated by the governments of whatever countries they're operating in, and they're all going to require KYC from their customers in the future. 

I'm expecting exchanges like Yobit, Livecoin, and those "instant exchanges" like Changelly and others to start requiring personal info from their customers.  I have no idea when it's going to happen, but there's no way the wild west days of exchanges being anonymous is going to last much longer.  It sucks, but I understand why it's already started happening. 

Governments will say that they're doing this because of money laundering or whatever, but the fact is that they don't want their citizens to have any sort of economic freedom.  So yep, it's going to be a must in the (probably) near future.

Ugh, I was in the same position as OP recently with the network being so congested and fees running so high.  I tried accelerating one of the transactions with ViaBTC and it did nothing.  Never tried Antpool, though.  Is that a free accelerator?

OP, unless you really need to get that bitcoin sent I would probably just be patient.  If you keep increasing the network fee, it's just going to cost you more money--and with bitcoin at $22k, those fees can add up very quickly.  I get that waiting 24 hours might seem like forever, but it'll go through eventually as long as what you set the fee at was reasonable.

That's kind of what I figured, since everyone who's trying to send bitcoin is in the same boat.