I think tokenization is very obvious and will be something that will unlock a lot of possibilities for finance and upcoming companies.  It's crazy to me that right now I own stocks because some website says that I do, but I have no way to prove it to myself or anyone else outside of showing them that website.  I feel like this day and age, things like stocks should be provable that you own them on blockchains.  That's just one example.  Housing is another.  Granted it is nice to have an intermediary to deal with if something goes wrong, but it would also be nice if I could prove I owned things without a middleman.  Maybe 10-20 years from now we'll be able to truly own our assets.

This is along the lines of what I was thinking.  Africa is such an enormous continent, it would be difficult to get so many people in such a wide geographic area to all believe the same thing.  More likely, they will eventually find freedom of religion (I'd like to believe every place will someday) and there won't be a single organized religion that all of the people take part in.  I'll admit I have no idea what religions in Africa look like currently, but I believe there are probably many tribes with their own way to practice religion that aren't really concerned with what outsiders are trying to push on them.

Thanks for a great 2022 Stake!  I enjoyed the bets, the campaign, and the partnerships.  It's been wild to see how much growth Stake has taken part in over the last year and I'm curious what will be next for them.  Maybe moving into sponsorships for other sports like NBA players for basketball or NFL players for football?  Seems crazy now, but I would have called you crazy if you said that Drake would be an official partner a year ago.  I hope for more of the same in 2023 and will continue doing my part to keep the bets flowing (and hopefully winning for me).  Good luck everyone!

As many people here advertising casinos in their signatures will say, the one in my signature is the trusted one.    Seriously though, with Drake partnering with Stake, there isn't much more you need to feel like they're running a respectable and reputable business with plenty of capital to pay out if necessary.  Feel free to click the banner in my signature and check it out.  I've been using Stake for a while now and have never had any issues other than occasionally not being able to access the site, which is usually rectified rather quickly.  I feel good recommending them and don't think there are any red flags to be worried about.

It seems like the bond market has signaled that the Fed isn't going to be raising as much as they think, and markets are celebrating that.  Specifically with Bitcoin, it seems that the worst of the storm is behind us and the melting up has begun.  I expect this to last for quite some time, at least until profit taking for the halving takes place.  It's starting to look like this year is going to be smooth sailing though, at least until the mtgox distribution near the end of the year, but I suspect by then the market will be jumping into Bitcoin before the next bubble happens.  Hopefully that minimized the mtgox downside a bit.

We've got a couple nationally televised games on tonight.    Doesn't get much better than the TNT crew and basketball on a Tuesday night. 

Up first, there's the Thunder vs the Heat.  I'm thinking that Miami will take the win here, but it should be a close game.  After that you have the Warriors and the Suns.  This one should be interesting with both Stephen Curry and Devon Booker out with injuries.  I think without their stars though, the Warriors are even further ahead of the Suns, so I'm expecting Klay and the guys to beat the Suns tonight fairly easily.  Enjoy!

Durant is going to be re-evaluated in 2 weeks. He has a suspected MCL sprain in his right knee. A shame because the Nets were just starting to get it together. They lean pretty heavily on Durant so the next couple of weeks are going to be rough on them. Hopefully Simmons and some of the other guys will be able to step up and score some baskets, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

I'll admit I don't really care.  Cancel culture has us wanting to condemn him and ruin his life, but he was slapped first and as bad as it is to say, he pretty much responded with the same force.  Feminists would be proud...  At this point though, he's been embarrassed, his wife has accepted partial blame, and they both just want to move on.

I am interested in Conor McGregor.  He looks to be slimming down and getting back into fighting shape.  This summer I'm sure he'll bring one hell of a show to PPV.  A must watch for sure.

It also depends on how much investment you have available to you and if you're going to be in a space for a long time.  A lot of mining operations are very short term and last less than the 4 year price cycle.  In those scenarios, the fly by night crowd searches for the cheapest power, lowest rent, and looks to get in and out quickly.  New money coming in now though would be wise to plan for the long term, but in a lot of cases people just don't have the investment to buy property and install solar panels just to mine coins, likely at a near loss for some time in hopes the price recovers.

Like throwing chum to the sharks on this forum.  LOL.  Obviously Bitcoin SV isn't Bitcoin.  The best indicator of it's value is probably it's price.  When you consider that many of it's coins were lost during the various forks and there are people trying hard to manipulate it's value upward, yet it is still sinking like a stone, then you realize that it's not worth considering as an investment.  There are so many problems with it and Bitcoin Cash, software intermingling the networks, etc...  It's best to stay as far away from anything named Bitcoin that isn't Bitcoin.  If that wasn't obvious.

I think it's a little more basic than, "less selfies, more soul."

For me, I think you want to eat good food, drink clean water, breathe good air, get lots of sleep, get lots of exercise, and do activities that keep you mentally sharp.  Also avoiding anything in excess that can lead to negative consequences.  This is why it's good to live somewhere with a lots of trees for good air, consider drinking clean water as opposed to soda, get lots of sleep, have a hobby that keeps you moving and thinking, and be somewhat conscious about what you eat. 

Centralized exchanges have a few potential nightmares.  First, you have hacks that steal customer funds.  Then you have KYC leaks that expose people's identity and financial situation.  Finally, you have misuse of customer funds by the exchange themselves, a la FTX.  When you consider all the things that could go wrong with centralized exchanges, and all the ways they use your money to make money without your knowledge or consent, and it seems like you'd be better off taking the responsibility of holding your crypto into your own hands.  This can be scary, but there are ways to protect yourself.  When you put your funds on an exchange, you're trusting a whole lot of individuals to make the right decisions.

No televised games for me today but there's still a couple I wouldn't mind tossing a bet on.  I do wish I could watch the Nets vs Heat game, but what can you do...

I think the Timberwolves should be able to beat the Rockets today and the 76ers should be able to take down the Pistons.  Without Devon Booker I think the Cavaliers will beat the Suns and those are pretty much the games I feel somewhat comfortable with.  The next televised games for me though will be Tuesday night on TNT with a doubleheader.  I'll have to wait until then to watch some more basketball.

It will go up in price because it has to.  With the block reward being halved every four years, it puts the market in a position of continued declines in supply (new coins being mined) while demand continues increasing due to adoption.  There's really only two things that can happen.  The price rises, or the market dies.  This does bring risks that someday the price of BTC will crash in a death spiral with mining hashrate, but I don't think we're there yet.  With Wall Street climbing on board, I suspect we'll have at least one more massive top before things start to fall apart.

With how crypto-centric most of the casinos are that we see around here, it is amazing that more don't offer cryptographic proof of their games being honest.  It seems like this should be a huge selling point amongst crypto casinos, but I'm not sure I ever see such a thing.  The same goes for proof of reserves.  I have no reason to believe that any crypto casinos are playing fast and loose with customer funds, but it still would be nice of them to use the tools that crypto offers to go above and beyond for their customers.  You rarely see crypto actually used for transparency these days.

I don't understand how this is, "Actual legal tender Federal Reserve Notes" & "The face value of $2 (USD) is fully backed by the US government."  Ignorance aside, this is a pretty cool piece.  I'm not sure it justifies the price tag for me personally, but if I collected Federal Reserve Notes this would be a no brainer addition to the collection.  Who knows, maybe this is something to grab and tuck away in the safe just because it's cool.  It shows have far Bitcoin has come that such a thing even exists.

I believe its inflation rate is close to 30% currently. You can’t have an inflation rate that high and expect not to devalue the currency. There’s also the issue of cheating. Many people have found out how to cheat the Sandbox events to claim SAND with hundreds of accounts, which they then dump on the market. The team has gotten better at fighting fraud with the recent season, but it’s still very much an issue. Once the inflation rate comes down and they figure out how to stop all the fraud and cheating, it might be a good project to invest in. As of now, it’s a fun game to get a glimpse of the future of gaming with web3. It’s still a long ways off though.

12 years ago? Hell no. Now I would probably do it for 1/10th that much. It’s easy to look back and say what you would or would not have done, but the truth is that almost nobody would have done this 12 years ago. Bitcoin wasn’t considered valuable. Back then you could have made 2000 BTC telling jokes on this forum… It’s this sort of value transformation that makes Bitcoin an absolutely horrible method of valuation over time.

It’s a four year cycle. Now is the time to buy. It literally couldn’t be any simpler. Does this mean people will buy this repeating pattern’s obvious bottom? No. Why? Simple. People want to believe that market events are tradable and that they have skills. The truth? It’s a four year cycle and traders are morons who want to feel smart. Buy now, sell in 2025 and you can pretend to be a trading genius later. Try trading every news event and you’ll go broke. It really is that simple.

Now that it has come out that Solana was a shitcoin pumped with stolen FTX customer money that was meant to be used to buy Bitcoin, I’m surprised there are still people willing to mess with it. It’s the best example I can think of that it’s easier to scam someone than to convince them that they’ve been scammed. SOL was a scam and if you held it you lost money. A meme coin being airdropped to scammed users is the scammers double dipping. Don’t get scammed twice. Now is the time to stack BTC. Use some sense.