+1 to all you said, but mind you that op is somewhat of a newbie to the Bitcoin network, so we should be careful how quickly we introduce him to some features on the network, and even if we do, the risks should also be made known to the user, the passphrase is good for extra security, but op should know that if it's lost or forgotten, then the seed becomes useless. Some newbies can have the misconception that even without the passphrase, they could still access their funds with their seed phrase, it's better they know how delicate the passphrase is and once set, without it, the funds are gone.

The first phases of the lockdown was very bad for the economy, and after it was eased, many countries around Europe and the world were on a recovery mission, this second lockdown no doubt will take that recovery process some steps back, but I can imagine it's very necessary looking at how the virus seems to be spreading yet again.

But imo the economy may not plunge like it did many months ago when the virus was new and lockdowns were imposed for the first time, countries should have learned a thing or two from the first wave and I'm sure there are quite a lot of measures put in place to keep a stable hold of the economy as they see out this second lockdown, in some countries it's not even a total lockdown, just specific regions and some specific institutions will remain open. Covid-19 vaccine is also a forthcoming possibility in not too long, so the economy will surely plunge, but will survive all this for sure.

The thing about this year is Bitcoin wasn't that much affected by the pandemic, after the halving, btc price has been on a spike and could soon surpass the atm prolly by next year or so, but that cannot be said of traditional currencies, they have mostly plunged and the economy is in crisis at least in some countries, others have also experienced really dire inflation. That being said, exchanging all your stash back to fiat could be a very bad plan for anyone to do, it's more like devaluing your funds yourself.

I would prolly hold my btc in my wallet atm and spend on whatever I need from there, or converting the little I need to fiat, this pandemic is even the best time to hodl as much Bitcoins as you can, and not selling. if your currency is one that is vulnerable to inflation, there's no way you'll want to convert your portfolio back to fiat, btc price has been appreciating very quickly, so it's good for btc hodlers.

There are quite a lot of things you're going to see on the internet about Bitcoin, many of which aren't true and reliable, plus shouldn't be a reason to join/not join the network. I don't know if the predictions we see are plausible, but if you're going to invest in this network, I want to update you with this rule of thumb: "invest only what you can afford to lose", what that means is do not go on to invest in Bitcoin with all your funds cause people have predicted it getting to over $100,000.

Bitcoin is a speculative market, and this predictions are meant to be seen, many users who have taken this sort of predictions to heart and invested of it are the ones always shaken by FUD when there's a plunge, no matter how little. Take your time to understand btc price movements/history and more about the network, that way you'll be able to make decisions yourself without having to look to the internet.

619,801,468
Coyster1

City have Liverpool to face next week and that's the game they'll need at least one of their strikers in, I don't know if Aguero will be ready by then, but I think Gabriel is recovering fast, so City could actually be with one of their main strikers for that very important clash, we'll have to wait and see though.

Pep loves to change quite a lot of things in his team, but this season, the players aren't really flying high and scoring goals as they used to, one goal last week, and one goal today yet again, it's poor imo, it may not matter if they keep getting the victories, but a team of City's quality should be scoring more and blowing teams away.

I don't quite understand you mate, but Manchester City are yet to play Sheffield united, the match takes place in today's lunchtime kickoff. City have truly started the season poorly and their match this afternoon is a must win for Pep and his boys; imo, it's still pretty early though and if City wins today and next week against Liverpool, they they are back on track and can move on from then.
It's good for Nuno Santo's team that they've been able to shake off the bad start they had this season, I always knew wolves were never really in any danger and with the quality of players they have, they'll be able to climb back up the table which they have done, as they are currently on 13 points, good bounce back from wolves.

For now, I've not given any one access to my funds, though there is one or maybe two people in my life that I am sure know where my seed phrases are, they have never touched them, nor will they ever try to import them to spend them behind my back (at least I trust them that much). To be more understandable, what I'm saying is I've never sat down anyone in my life and told them: here's my seed phrase/coins, do what you want with it if something happens, but one-two people in my life know where I always bring out my written down seed phrase and it would not be a problem for them to find it. If they'll be able to use it efficiently, the next paragraph states that.

It makes it interesting and it has made them to ask so much questions about btc, which I never make the mistake of not answering/breaking it down to noob level. They are still being educated by me, and they'll own their own stash soon, and may never even have to bother about mine when I'm no more (prolly after a hundred years from now ).

It's of course clear why China/ Huawei will not support dex cryptocurrecy like Bitcoin, but instead the digital Yuan which they can control, China is a country that loves to dictate things for their citizens and monitor their online activities, and I'm sure that's what they are doing with this move in collaboration with Huawei, I wouldn't advice any dex crypto user to use this device to hold their Bitcoins, they could be monitored by China if they do so, and their funds could prolly be in danger.

CBDC's are more of a competition, so China are yet taking another step they feel will take them higher than the U.S. in quite a lot of things, for one, it's centralized, and that means the government just want to manipulate it for their good, not for the ease, convenience or profits of the users.

Wolves v Crystal palace- 1
Sheffield v Manchester City- 2
Burnley v Chelsea- 1
Liverpool v West Ham- 1
Aston Villa v Southampton- X
Newcastle united v Everton- 2
Manchester United v Arsenal- X
Spurs v Brighton- 1
Fulham v West Brom- 1
Leeds v Leicester- 2

Betnomi username: Coyster

Your private keys, seed phrase or info about your wallet should be kept to yourself, using note-taking apps or any app whatsoever to store them is the same as giving it to a third party to store it for you. There are many secure ways to store your seed phrase and private keys, both offline and online, it's better stored offline, but even if you must store your coins online, it should not be with a third party, and should be under your full control, with an extra responsibility on how you use the device holding the funds/keys online, like not clicking random links etc.

It's more of the same with users who use apps to generate stuffs like passwords as well as to save it, if you're to be your own bank, you must also learn to do most of the things related to your funds, accounts etc all by yourself, no third party, no app, everything should be private.

Not just merit sources, any user on the forum can give merits to users who deserves it, except you're out of smerits, and mind you that even merits sources run out of source/s merits quite a few times. See: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5198889.0
The issue on merits is subjective, so not only MS's can spend their source/smerits as they wish, even non-MS's can also do likewise with their smerits.
AFAIK, not all moderators are merit sources.

You have a good point, and thing is many developers have tried numerous use cases, and many others are still reincarnating the very failed use case, all just to scam investors, if you research into these examples in the op, you'll find out that quite a lot of devs have worked on projects like that and failed/scammed their community of investors, why then are other devs still trying out the same very use case for their projects, it's just an indication they want to take money from users who will invest in the hype they'll create at first, and investors fancy hype quite a lot from what I know.

I'd prefer if devs in the altcoin network stop with the many redundant use cases/projects, and actually focus on something that can really work, something the network actually needs and will stay for the long term, not just projects that give returns on the short term.

I don't think it's possible for Pirlo to even be fired this season, no matter what happens to Juve in the UCL and even in seria A, the club when they signed Pirlo were aware he's not coming to deliver instant success to Juventus, if they had signed a more established manager, then the case may be a little bit different and there would have been pressure on the manager to deliver immediately.

On a different note, Bayern still looks like favorites again this season, I can't just see the team that can beat them just yet, Flick and his boys could dominate and win this trophy back to back like Zidane did with Real Madrid, except other big teams really improve, especially in the knock out stages, then this scenario could happen. Pep is also under pressure to win the UCL with City this season, he's in his final year of his contract, I think it won't be renewed if he fails again in the UCL this season.

Every user can earn merits and hence get smerits to spend around the forum on good posts (subjective though), but Merit sources are users who receive source merits from the forum (in addition to their smerits), and this source merits gets replenished every month, so thing is while 'normal' users only get smerits when they earn merits, Merit sources are refilled per month with source merits (whether or not they earn merits to get smerits) to give to quality posts and help users rank up.

How to become a MS has been posted in a link above, the requirements looks pretty simple doesn't it, but theymos takes his time before picking a MS, see this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5197548.0, that's a list of users waiting to be selected by theymos to become MS's, and most of them are reputable members, that pretty much gives users with little or no reputation little or NO chance at all.

612,613,881
Coyster1

If they're talking about development/support for the next five years, looks to me like the polkadot ecosystem may actually have something to offer the altcoins network, now and in the long run and it 'could' be a sign of a good investment; I don't know too much about polkadot cause I consider altcoins and their projects as only short term investments, but for those that don't, they could put a fraction of their funds here and see what happens with polkadot's development as time goes on.
People would always do that when there's a good project up in the altcoin network, I don't know if it's purposely to put more hype to the project cause they prolly have invested in it, but many times over, it turns out it wasn't actually an "ethereum killer". Polkadot should simply/solely focus on the development of their own ecosystem.

'Binance's support' can only pump a coin/token for the meantime, but it'll most likely dump, just like in this case. Their support alone cannot keep a coins value up for too long, it could give it hype and all, but if you invest at the wrong time when the hype vanishes, then you will make no ROI and lose your funds invested, that's why many users consider altcoins as short term Investments to play around with, and withdraw profits Asap.

If this AUDIO coin will be relying on only Binance support and hype, then I don't consider it a good investment, it could more or less be another pump and dump coin, so investors need to be careful with projects they invest their funds in such as this one.

Congratulations Gazeta, I remember clearly when you were a full member, creating threads mostly on the government and crypto ( I learnt quite a lot of new things/info from those threads and IIRC i sent merits to one or two of'em), you moved pretty fast from then on and now it's at 1000+ merits, I'm happy for you, happy that I learnt from you, well done mate.

Of course we can have some rights to blame Google for playing part in some of this scams by not doing a thorough security check of ads, by filtering them and removing the scams, but I believe more of the responsibility should be on the users, with dex crypto, users should be more careful on how they use the internet especially when their coins are in 'hot' storage.

This rule of thumb has been repeated times without number: always use official websites to search for wallets, exchanges etc and not through Google search. Imo, if more users will take up the responsibility of their funds, then we may never have to worry if Google filters their ads or not, cause everyone will go through the safe and secure process.