Thank you. I'll stick to 45 GB for now and see how it progresses in the upcoming days. If everything is going smoothly, I'll switch it to 100 or 200 GB.

Something I haven't understood though, I've never used Bitcoin Core in the past and this is all new to me, so excuse me if I'm asking dumb questions. I have the client running, go to CMD to run the command "bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo" that Tether has mentioned in the original post, but receive this error.


Have I understood something incorrectly?

Here's the client running



Supposedly, it'll only take 3 more days.

Yeah, it is; it was showing 10 to 12 days after a while. I'm not sure if I can keep my laptop running 24/7 for so many days, but I'll give it a go after I return from work. Right now, I've set pruning to 45 GB; can I change that afterwards? If I see decent progress, I don't mind setting it to 100 GB. I have approximately 200 GB of space on my SSD, and the HDD is quite full, but my main concern remains my internet, as its speed is quite unstable.

It hasn't happened to me, but from what you mentioned, if I understood correctly, he told you what to bet on, and he'd receive a small percentage of your winnings if things actually worked out. Did I understand correctly? Because you're basically saying that you were risking your money on a claim someone else told you, while he had a risk-free opportunity to make money, provided that you actually won. Personally, I wouldn't do it. You already mentioned that you lost from 4 to 8 consecutive times using his predictions. It seems to me that he's simply making stuff up, hoping to stumble upon a win, without risking his own money.

On top of that, just because he's claiming that someone won $50,000 doesn't mean it's true, and even if it is, it could be a total coincidence.

Right, I was mostly referring to the pruning part and not the downloading a snapshot from a third party, but didn't refer to that in my initial post.
You don't need to store the full 500 GB while performing the initial block download. If you set to prune at 50 GB, then it will only ever keep 50 GB on disk despite downloading the full 500 GB.
I've started downloading Bitcoin Core now, and I've set the prune block storage to 50 GB. Unfortunately, storage capacity isn't my main issue, but my internet's limited capabilities. I used to have over 50 Mbps on my previous house; now I'm getting 10 or 12 at most. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind if I downloaded as much as 200 GB of data.



No worries, it'll be finished in a few years 

I've made a decent sum of money through their Launchpool projects, so I don't' see why not. As I've also mentioned in my previous post, billions are being transacted on Binance; if something were to happen to it, it would have an immense effect on the market and cryptocurrencies. I don't disagree; my Bitcoin is not on any exchange, not because of safety concerns, but because I don't want a centralized service that has all my details, including my ID and perhaps my tax identification number, to know how much money I've got.

Sheepless AI's launchpool is ending in approximately two hours. We'll see how it progresses tomorrow, when it's listed at 10:00 UTC. Moreover, another project was announced, again, XAI, for 4 days, starting on January 5. We'll see how that goes.

That's true. I had also signed up for a known casino in my country that offered a couple of free spins without having to deposit any money in return; it was supposedly a Black Friday offer. I managed to win a few euros, which I used to bet on other games and later lost. It was only a petty amount, not comparable to the €10 bonus you received, but my point is supporting what you've stated: sometimes casinos offer bonuses with no strings attached that may actually prove to be worth it. Even in my case, I could have potentially won if I was luckier, and it would be money out of thin air, 100% profit without even requiring a deposit in order to withdraw.

Which app was it, if you don't mind me asking?

It's certainly a scam, and call me suspicious, but I wouldn't be surprised if you were subtly promoting them with this thread. No way in hell is someone going to believe that there's something called a bank of blockchain that is legit and insured. Where's the evidence that it actually is? Bollocks, a new domain, doesn't even appear in the first or even second page of Google organic results; they just created a fake website with a free domain and hosting, choosing a template that is either free or cheap to purchase. I doubt that the whole ordeal cost more than $50.

Great challenge, and hats off to you for contributing to the community. I'm also considering participating when I get back home, even though I've never done it before, so it'll be interesting to see how it works.
Isn't it understandable, though? I've got two drives on my laptop, one SSD and one HDD, but both are barely over 700 GB in capacity, with the HDD used to store all large files whatsoever. I'm unable to download that much data, but I could do it with 60–70 GB, or perhaps a little more, if that's okay.

Billions are being transacted through exchanges daily, especially on Binance, which has the largest volume of all. I personally don't believe that something can easily influence Binance, nor that it can simply be hacked one day and disappear from existence. Just because similar things have happened to other exchanges doesn't mean that they'll also occur on Binance. On top of that, if something like you described happened, it would have an immense effect on cryptocurrencies as a whole, as it's the largest exchange; it would put a huge dent on cryptocurrencies, and nobody would trust them or centralized exchanges ever again.

With that being said, us losing funds, which aren't a huge sum of money either, will probably be the least of our issues, as everything would start to collapse.

How do you define someone as mentally unstable? Just because someone might be suffering from mental illness doesn't mean they can't decide for themselves. I find your statement a little overexaggerated. You claim that gambling is for mentally sound people when a large percentage, if not the largest, is addicted and blows away their money. We've seen quite a few users here ranting about how they bet everything and lost it. With that being said, you're claiming that a large percentage of gamblers, including those on the forum, are mentally unstable, right? Because that's what you're basically saying.

Thus, you may need to reconsider your definition of mental illnesses and who's unstable or not.

I don't think they can, nor should they. Casinos don't play the role of the psychologist; they're there to make money, not to advise users against gambling or introduce a cooling-off period. It's not the casino's issue that someone is addicted. On the contrary, they're basically taking advantage of people's weaknesses to profit, that's why the majority loses money, because they can't control themselves. As long as someone is paying and isn't causing issues to the staff or other attendants, they should be left alone to mind their own business. There's no way to prohibit specific people unless they've been banned from the premises; it's unethical and could also be considered racist and discriminating.

That's true; with BNB, you can even stake with a locked-in period and still be eligible for launchpool rewards, which is great. I was disappointed when launchpool projects started pouring in because I had just locked my BNB for 30 days. Then I realized that I'm receiving both BNB and the newly listed tokens. This is literally the definition of risk-free if you're staking or holding BNB. I made a quick $60 with NFP, and I'm anticipating earning more through the Sheepless AI, which is to be listed for trading on Binance in 2 days from today.
Please explain, because you either haven't understood how the launchpool works or you messed up by buying BNB just to stake the new coins and were disappointed to find that the token you staked for was a flop and/or your BNB lost value and you decided to sell, which is purely your fault. Not all projects thrive, but from my experience, most are worth it.

The launchpool isn't a panacea, and the majority of us cannot fully take advantage of it because we don't have extravagant amounts of BNB, but still, there are opportunities and money to be made.

I don't know where you're from, but $3000 per month doesn't sound little to me. I don't know if you manage to buy a whole Bitcoin, with its current value at $40.000, but with enough planning and budgeting, you may be able to acquire a decent amount. How much can you spare per month for investments? By saving $500 per month and using that towards Bitcoin, you'll spend $6.000 per year for Bitcoin, which is quite decent.

I'm only saving any signature campaign earnings; I'm not buying myself approximately $300, while the average wage here ranges from $800 to $1000 at most, which means that the chances of me acquiring a whole bitcoin are pretty slim.

It depends on the person. I'm an anxious person myself, and I'll occasionally gamble with a specific budget in mind. I avoid having large amounts of money on exchanges too, to make it more difficult to get carried away. If gambling is causing you distress and anxiety, to the point that it deteriorates your wellbeing, then it's time to stop. It's not for everyone.

Addictions and mental illnesses are tough and cannot be dealt with alone; you need professional assistance. There are some public carriers you can contact in such cases, but there are usually long waiting times.

And how are these people going to be identified in a physical casino before their entry? It doesn't make too much sense. However, I understand your point; someone throwing tantrums and breaking down in the middle of a game isn't the best image for the casino and the other attendants.

Online casinos have the advantage (and disadvantage in some cases) of enabling everyone to gamble at any time, from anywhere in the world. I don't see a reason to prohibit users who are suffering from mental illnesses, as long as they're paying and behaving fine.

You can't just "earn" Bitcoin; you're saying that it's difficult for you, so I'm guessing that you don't have much money available. Do you have the capital to attempt trading? If yes, can you afford to lose your money, because trading is quite risky in and of itself? You also can't create Bitcoin out of thin air; mining requires expensive equipment and knowledge. Your only option is to start saving money and investing in Bitcoin through the DCA method (dollar, cost, and average), which is by purchasing Bitcoin every specific time interval, such as $50 weekly or monthly, etc.

Use the search function, and you'll find plenty of similar topics to gather ideas and information on. Keep in mind that Bitcoin is not a panacea; you won't suddenly turn up with money.

I remember a bet I had made on a football game; I don't remember which teams were involved, but it was supposedly a safe-ish option. I had searched the score 5 minutes before the game ended, and the team I supported was winning. In the last few minutes, though, the match reversed, and I lost. There are no guarantees in gambling, nor is there a safe bet; there might be safer and riskier options, but no option can be deemed safe unless you want to be disappointed. Events can change in the blink of an eye, especially in sports betting such as football or basketball.
Well, no one is fond of losing money, especially if you're anticipating winning, that's why you should set your expectations low and don't take anything for granted. It's frustrating to lose, but a normal reaction to a negative outcome.

Your friends are addicts who are unable to control themselves; they'll do anything to acquire some money in a variety of ways, like @m2017 already mentioned. Trying to recoup your losses is a common process that gamblers fall victim to, often leading to more losses in the process, and it keeps going in a vicious circle. The more money they spend, the more they lose. It's a never-ending circle that, if you don't put a stop to it, will eat away your savings in the blink of an eye.

It's neither the game nor the casino; you need to accept that you cannot always win; in reality, you're rarely going to win any significant amount of money. Statistics have proven that the majority of gamblers lose in the long-run, that's how casinos stay afloat, from addicted users that keep going in an effort to recover what they lost, only that is never happening.

It won't be the end of the world; Bitcoin did fine without it for many years; it's not a requirement for it to function. We'd certainly see a price correction, but it will only be short-term, and recovery would most likely take a little longer than it did with other negative events, such as the FTX shutdown, but it'll eventually recover.

ETF approval is something that has been anticipated by investors for quite some time. It'd be positive for it to finally be approved; its price will certainly be boosted by quite a lot, but if it's not, for whatever reason, Bitcoin will do just fine.

Well, quitting an addiction is never easy and I don't want to blame anyone who falls for it; we don't know what they might be going through to be in that situation in the first place.

Fortunately, with gambling, there are a number of things you can do that may make it easier for you. The simplest of all is withdrawing all balances, making it more of a hassle if you're trying to gamble. Moreover, if you cannot do it yourself, you can get someone else to block access to gambling websites, ideally for all your devices and possibly the network itself, which is probably the most efficient way to stop yourself. Going around such a measure will be too much of a hassle that you'll eventually give up.