I wrote this in the farewell thread you linked to:


What I didn't expect was that you'd come back and start using your primary account again.  Are you going to look for a signature campaign or bounty?  I would think that would be a damn good reason to return to bitcointalk with bitcoin at $19k.  Anyway, I don't think I ever had any hard feelings toward you, so I wish you all the best--but no doubt others won't agree with me.

As an aside, I don't remember seeing any posts from S-Therapist or Retina in quite some time, though I haven't checked their post history yet.

No, but damn I fell in love with Raspberry Pi's in the last year--I have no education or training in computer science or programming, so it's a perfect learning tool for me.  But yeah, getting a Pi in your Christmas stocking with bitcoin on it just isn't as neat-o as getting something like a Ballet.

Oh, I'm sure that's why they chose metal instead of plastic.  In fact, I think I saw a 24k-plated version of the Ballet (or a similar card-type wallet) on Amazon.  The heavier it is and the more sturdy, the more substantial it feels in your hand.  That said, if they wanted to manufacture a "practical version" of the Ballet, I'm sure they could charge much less by using plastic.

Edit:
WOW!!  That's an amazing collection you've got there, and a dope Pi setup as well.  Thanks for posting those pics.

I'm not sure I fully agree with your first two points.  For instance I don't think the halving had the effect people were expecting, and bitcoin's price dropped quite a bit post-halving if I remember correctly.

But the PayPal thing is huge, as are the other big bitcoin purchases by MicroStrategy and one or two other corporations, plus the buying from big investors that we've been hearing about for the past few months--so the bottom line is that there's been a lot of buying, which has caused bitcoin's price to rise, which has induced smaller investors to buy. 

That's the sort of thing that inflates a bubble, if you know what I mean, so I'm hoping bitcoin doesn't break $20k by the end of the year.  Sometime next year would be fantastic, but if it goes up too much too soon....gravity kicks in, and you know what happens after that.

There was just a thread about this very thing yesterday, and if I recall some investment firm has already created the first bitcoin/crypto retirement account.

Personally, I think it's crazy to save for your retirement by stacking bitcoin (or any other crypto)--unless you're young, make a lot of money, and don't make crypto too large a part of your portfolio.  Bitcoin might be booming right now, headed toward its all-time high, but if you've been following the market for a few years you'll be very familiar with how quickly bitcoin can drop.  That kind of asset isn't appropriate for a retirement account, IMO. 

Also, why would you choose to buy bitcoin through a retirement plan (presumably with fees) when you could just buy it outright and keep it in your own possession?  I don't know, I'm not a big fan of the idea.

That hopefully will solve OP's problem, because I know the new version is quite capable to displaying exchange rates.  This wasn't an issue for me on the last update install, but thanks for the explanation--I'd probably run into an issue like this in the future and be totally baffled.

So many updates....Electrum is starting to look different in small increments as time goes on (but it's still my favorite software wallet by far).

No, it is not OK.  The United States taxpayers are going to be paying for all of this stimulus eventually--or somebody's going to be paying for it, though I can't imagine it won't be the citizens themselves.  I look at these relief checks as loans, not free money.

Because life isn't fair, and the US government is even more unfair than life in general.  But there have been homeless people around for a lot longer than the COVID-19 epidemic, so it isn't like they're ineligible for any assistance.  I think the government wants to support those folks who've been put out of a job because of the pandemic, and there are a hell of a lot of them out there.

Anyway, we'll see what the fate of this bill is going to be.  Nobody has received any relief money as of yet, and any number of things can go wrong while we're waiting for the government to decide what it's going to do.

Being in the labor force is not a joke, and OP is in the minority with his opinion--but he's certainly entitled to it.

Not everyone wants to trade, mine crypto, or whatever else you can do from home, and certainly a lot of people have enough knowledge/talent to make a living without having to get a job.  Nor would the world even function properly if people didn't work.  There would be no Amazon, no grocery stores, nobody manufacturing automobiles or anything else...so there's that.

I think OP is a complete fucking liar, though.  If he's claiming he's been supporting himself for the past 10 years with no job, I'd like to see some proof of that--or else it's just hot air being blown up everyone's asses.  And what are you doing for health insurance?

Nah, I knew all of the problems that have been mentioned here before I bought it and I don't and never did intend to store a significant amount of bitcoin on it.  As I said, I may just keep it as a collectible though I'm not sure yet.

I agree, and I think it's probably aimed toward newbies and/or people who want to give bitcoin as a gift--but that still doesn't mean it's secure at all.  Hopefully if someone got a Ballet wallet loaded with some bitcoin on it as a gift, they'd immediately transfer that bitcoin to a secure wallet. 

But regardless of what I do with my Ballet, it'll be interesting to find out how trustworthy they are (but I don't know how long that'll take if the yardstick for that trustworthiness is the manufacturer stealing everyone's coins stored on Ballet wallets).

I'm not so sure about that, especially since government regulation is tending to become more strict.  I think the days of anybody starting up a crypto exchange at will are coming to and end, and I think exchanges like Yobit--that are apparently completely unregulated--are going to disappear.

I think your crystal ball is probably right on that one, and that also leads me to believe that there are going to be a lot fewer exchanges in existence in the next 10 years or so.  But the truth is that I have no clue as to what's going to happen; bitcoin has surprised me more times than I can count at this point, so I've learned that anything can happen.

If institutional investors (and corporations like MicroStrategy) retain their interest in bitcoin, I'd also expect a few more futures exchanges to pop up.  I'm not sure how much volume Bakkt is doing these days, but the demand for bitcoin/crypto derivatives is probably going to grow rather than shrink.

Yeah, these idiots aren't exactly the most evildoing members I've come across in my time on this forum.

I know I just woke up and am still drinking my coffee, but I can't see an obvious reason why anyone would register under a false account like that.  Obviously the username they're trying to register in the bounty is different from the member that's actually posting the application, so are they just trying to enroll alts in a bounty and hoping no one notices them doing this?  If that's the case, they must be complete noobs to think they'd be able to get away with such shenanigans.

Nice catch OP.  I admire your patience to read through bounty threads like that so carefully.

You know, if you'd asked me in March if bitcoin had a chance to hit $20k by the end of the year, I would have said you're crazy--and yet here we are in November, with bitcoin very close to that price.  It'll never cease to amaze me what bitcoin can do, and I think you're right.  $20k is probably coming shortly.

Regarding the article, I find it interesting and it sounds logical that PayPal had at least some part of bitcoin's recent explosion if they've been buying it up by the truckload. 

Yeah, that's the huge sucky part of what PayPal is doing, i.e., selling people bitcoin that they don't actually have control over.  As I've said a few times before, that's exactly what Robinhood is doing.  But who knows, maybe PayPal will eventually change that and allow deposits and withdrawals of bitcoin.  That would be fantastic IMO.

I just wrote a post a couple of hours ago saying that I impulsively bought a Ballet wallet and was expecting its arrival today.  Well I got it, and as I couldn't find many threads that mention it (maybe because it's not a true HW wallet) I thought I'd show it brand new:





I happen to be a sucker for neat packaging and was pleasantly surprised at what I received.  I figured I'd just get a Ballet card in some shrinkwrap, but nope. 

Now, as far as using this thing goes, I'm aware that there are some serious security issues associated with the Ballet and I haven't read any reviews on bitcointalk that would convince me one way or the other that it's safe enough to use.  Thus I'm not sure I'm going to try it out or keep it as a crypto collectible--like my Keepkey. 

Anyway, I just wanted to show you guys how the Ballet comes if you didn't know (and if you even care). 

Yeah, that's the lousy part of it--and me being impulsive, I ordered a Ballet wallet and am expecting it to arrive today.  I don't own much bitcoin, so I don't really need it, but it just looks like a really cool thing and I'd like to experiment with it.  I know I could have generated a paper wallet for the price of a piece of printer paper, but I had some credit to blow on Amazon and bought one.

Well that's something positive at least.  I don't expect I'll ever store much on the Ballet, but we'll see what happens. 

Does anyone here have a Ballet wallet?  I don't recall reading any posts in which anyone said they'd tried it out.

I've been interested in crypto since 2014 or so, and between then and now I've seen major changes across the cryptocurrency exchange landscape.  There used to be a website wesellcrypto.com that sold bitcoin, doge, and a few other altcoins for PayPal.  Circle used to be one of the easiest ways to buy and sell bitcoin (at least in the US).  KYC wasn't required by most exchanges. 

Well, Circle and wesellcrypto.com are both out of business, KYC is becoming standard, and there have probably been more changes in the past six years than I can recall.

But what I'm really wondering is how many exchanges are going to be in business in 2030, ten years from now.  I've said in other threads that I expect there to be a good deal of consolidation, with big exchanges buying out smaller ones, and lousy exchanges like Yobit and many others simply ceasing to exist.  Are any of you expecting something similar?  I don't know how many crypto exchanges exist globally (and I'd appreciate it--perhaps with some merits--if someone could provide a number), but I think there are way too many right now.

One thing I'm hoping is that exchanges don't stop providing 24/7 service.  It drives me nuts in the stock market that you can only trade between 9:30am-4pm M-F.  That's an archaic system IMO, and I hope it changes in the future.

I'd like to hear your opinions about where exchanges are headed, so feel free to disagree with me and whatever else you'd like to do.

I don't know about that--if enough people participate in a retirement plan like this, then the amount of bitcoin being held on exchanges might be reduced, but people do cash out their plans early as well and there are a bunch of other variables I could probably think of that might make for an argument as to why the effect wouldn't be as significant as you'd think.

Anyway, this will probably be a hit with millenials and subsequent generations, but I don't think it's going to be very popular with individuals in their 40s and up.  And anyone who would put a significant amount of their retirement savings into crypto had better be young and well-paid, because this is super risky.  Personally I wouldn't participate in a plan like this, but that's just me.

I'm assuming whoever is running the fund will take care of the accounting, same as traditional retirement plans.

True, except the moderator might not agree with the report that the account is in fact a bot.  If SPQRCoin thinks that account is trying to cheat, I don't see the feedback as being inappropriate since it stands as a warning for other bounty managers who might accept him as an applicant.

In any case, the trust system isn't moderated and even if the feedback is considered inappropriate, it's not to the extent that DT members or others need to act with exclusions/countertags/whatever.  My suggestion would be to let this one go.

From reading others' posts here, I can see I'm in the minority with my opinion--oh well.  There might not be a rule against bots, but  that doesn't mean they can be trusted in every case.  Account selling isn't against the rules, but nobody has a problem with them getting tagged simply because a rule hasn't been broken.  (and yes I know those two things aren't the same)

That doesn't seem to be what the quote says.  The situation in the US with banks is that they probably have blacklisted businesses that deal with crypto--but believe me, I don't know the particulars of such a blacklist.  What I do know is that banks right now don't want any part of bitcoin, and as evidence I would point out that none of them have offered any deposit or other banking products if bitcoin is involved.

Yeah, and Coinbase is heavily regulated and from what I've heard provides various government agencies with their customers' information.  Screw Coinbase. 

As far as what you're asking, OP, I don't think any change in policy regarding bitcoin on the part of the US government would have major global implications--unless they passed a law banning it, but I don't think they're going to go down that route.

I'm not familiar with the ColdCard, so I clicked on the link dkbit98 provided and took a look at it.  Looks pretty neat to me, although it does seem kind of expensive, especially since it only holds bitcoin.  OP, if you've got the money and don't mind paying the price for one, I say go for it.  I like Raspberry Pis, but they're certainly not ideal for cold storage (as far as I know).

As a side note, that Coinkite store website has some very interesting items on it, including that Opendime device that I'll have to look into.

Hate to admit it because I'm a Ledger fan, but it's true.  Ledger Live leaves a lot to be desired.

Well, I'd say if you don't absolutely need it and aren't storing a lot of bitcoins anyway, maybe hold off until the price comes down or when you actually need a wallet like that.  I don't know about you, but I've bought HW wallets (and other tech) impulsively before, but I usually haven't regretted it.

I can sympathize with your plight, OP.  I had a problem with them last year and created a thread about it in the Scam Exchange section, after which I notified their customer service department that I had done so.  My problem was fixed, except for an extra amount of bitcoin (IIRC) that I sent for a reason I can't remember but which I wrote about in my thread.

And Changelly is probably the best instant exchange out there and yet their customer service is so piss-poor, can you believe that?  I think ShapeShift might be comparable, but I haven't used them in years and even then only once or twice. 

I don't know what coin you were trading, but if it's possible I'd look for a real exchange that lists it and use them instead.  Good luck, and sorry you got screwed by Changelly.

Permabanned?  If so, why is he still being allowed to post from this account?  Perhaps OP didn't include enough details about the ban, but I'm assuming permabanned members are still not allowed to create new accounts or has that changed? 

That post that got deleted was a shitpost, pure and simple, and it borders on plagiarism since it's basically just paraphrasing what the OP of that thread had written himself.  If you pull shit like that, don't come crying to the mods that your post got nuked.

It isn't, but that's what motivates the majority of members here and it's not going to change until sig campaigns/bounties are eliminated, and last I heard Theymos has no intention of doing away with them.