I haven't got the time right now but if anyone has check https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=recent for a large number of shitposts being awarded 5 merits each in the last hour or so. A lot of accounts suddenly got the 10 merit they need to become Member. They may well be related to each other 

You're welcome to think that. I've been a professional futures trader for over 12 years and that is how I read the situation. I didn't say that the drop from 20k was "due to massive shorts". That was naturally started by profit taking and that then induces the shorts to come in. I'm saying that there are a lot of traders short right now with an entry price of less than 12k. If that gets tested they'll panic and buy to cover. That then causes a pop that induces the longs to come back in and chase it. Rinse and repeat, that's how markets move.

Ignore the FUD, that's a tiny amount of coins and really doesn't affect the market. Look at LTC and what happened when Charlie Lee cashed out. Nobody even noticed until he announced after it was done.

It is just a truism of trading, for every buyer, there must be a seller. If you do what you are here and focus on what the buyers will do then you are missing half the picture. That half the picture is what will the shorts do if 12k gets seriously tested?

Who was selling to them? A lot of people getting short because they believe it is going down further. There is the possibility of a serious short squeeze ahead that would just blow through all that resistance. As I already stated that isn't a prediction that it will happen but a recognition that either is equally likely in this situation.

It's only going to take me longer because my activity was so close to 480 when the system was brought in. It takes 8.5 months to gain the activity to go from Sr. to Hero so it's not surprising I couldn't do it in less than 2. If the system had been introduced on the day I became a Sr. it would have had no effect and that is why I think theymos has got the balance right with the current requirements. It is a barrier to the spammers and shouldn't hold back those who are genuinely here because they are enthusiasts. It might be a little slower for people just starting out as they have to go through learning before they can really make a contribution, but that exactly how I think it should work.

People would be surprised how little technical analysis professional traders use. Often nothing more sophisticated than using horizontal lines to mark support and resistance levels, not that they are going to trade them, but just as an area of interest to start paying a bit more attention and see if they can see some clues in the order flow.

There is a massive industry in selling TA tools and education based on TA targetted entirely at retail traders. If you visit a prop trading desk you will not see any of it in use.

You already seem to have worked out how to put your mETH address in your signature. To use that to earn anything you will need to be able to put a URL in it and that doesn't happen until you reach the rank of Member. Try reading the opening post of this thread to find out what you need to do to achieve that. Then reconsider what you are trying to do here.

I would have to disagree that the resistance at 12k is "an impenetrable selling wall". There is a consolidation taking place which has found that resistance at 12k and also support around 8.3k. When that happens many traders will play the range and buy the bottom and sell the top repeatedly until it breaks out. That means if it does try and breakout upwards there will be many shorts trapped that will need to buy to cover, that will be the fuel for the next spurt upwards. Equally the opposite is true if it breaks down. Anyone who thinks they can predict which of those two things will happen is fooling themselves. Trading isn't about predicting which way it will breakout but rather recognising it when it happens and then reacting quickly to that.

The system has only been in place for 44 days and there are hundreds of members that have received more than 44 merits so obviously, that is true.

This is the main point. Returns of that level are not achievable so it was obvious to anyone that it was a Ponzi. The returns of 4.08% p/a are more than achievable from a gambling site so there is no reason to doubt it in that respect. After that, there is always a risk investing and you have to make your own decisions based on doing your own due diligence and research. Freebitco.in has been around a long time and built up a solid reputation.

Let's not let facts get in the way of a good old FUD party. Indeed the price had already started falling from its peak before he started selling. What I find more informative is that the price fell for a couple of days after the release of the story. The endless FUD both from news sources, this forum and social media about 'Gox crashing the market' had more effect on lowering the price than the actual liquidation of Gox assets.

Having spent far too much time reading about merits lately I've noticed a tendency towards suggesting changes that would benefit the person suggesting them rather than benefit the forum overall. Now I'm going to have to try very hard not to argue against change for self interest. If the merit system hadn't been introduced I would automatically have become a Hero tomorrow, but that doesn't bother me at all. Whether anyone believes me or not, I really don't care what my rank is.

The reason I disagree is that I believe the intention of the system is to block the spammers from ranking up and not to cause an obstacle to anyone using the forum as intended. The average of 1 merit a day requirement to keep within the existing activity based schedule seems well chosen to achieve that goal. Now that the initial distribution of sMerit has dried up it has become impossible for shitposters to ever achieve Hero or above (Sr. is probably also beyond their grasp). Anyone who is here for the right reasons should easily outstrip the 1/day requirement and not be affected by it at all.

Your suggestion is rather to change the ranking system to mark out exceptional posters (like yourself). Now that is not a bad objective per se, but not what Merit was meant to be the solution to. It is actually very easy to spot the exceptional posters simply by looking at the actual number of merit they have been awarded. I know this has already been suggested elsewhere but I'd go along with the introduction of a new beyond Legendary rank. That would indeed mark out the exceptional members and also give the existing Legendaries something to aim for.

They need to do 2 things to enable withdrawal to Bech32 addresses. First, upgrade their hot wallet to something capable of sending to Bech23 addresses and second recode the front end to be able to accept and verify Bech32 addresses (it need to be able to detect a typo in the address entered).

The interest paid is by way of compensation for taking the risk you talk about. They need long term deposits to form the bankroll. You can't run a gambling site without one. The reason that interest is paid at a random time each day is to stop people gaming the system and only depositing for short periods. I would imagine if you come up with a successful strategy to defeat that you will force them to change the rules.

You do know that John is a comedian? Don't take it too seriously it is only intended as entertainment.

Markets are almost entirely driven by the human emotions of fear and greed. It is pretty easy to argue that greed is simply fomo so the only factor involved is fear. That's not just talking about Bitcoin but all markets. The real issue is long term mainstream adoption, if Bitcoin can manage that then it's not just a fad. It has survived 10 years already so it's doing far better than Google Glasses.

As far as I know, he has been looking to sell since the 9th creditors meeting (27 Sept. 2017). So waiting until the prices were as high as they were in December to February worked out pretty well for him (it was at about $3.5k then).

There are 3 known ways to get a custom title that you can set to say whatever you want.

1) Donate 50 BTC and become a VIP.
2) Become a moderator.
3) Ask nicely for it.

Signing a message with someones else's account name is a very strange mistake to make. It being one of your alt accounts is a far more likely explanation.

You might be in a very small minority here. The only real benefit of ranking up is a bigger signature with more styling options and an avatar. That's the reason all these guys are whining about it being difficult rank up. Not that it is difficult to anyone using the forum for its intended purpose, it's only difficult for spammers with no interest in Bitcoin.

That's not what I meant. Have a look at the withdrawals on the stats page and they all come from address 329koRvovTyNnd4ADrpR2uJHzXxfvKxta5

Then if you look at the transactions you can see the input scripts are Segwit.

https://btc.com/b989ed96b870b5b8ef0bcc509a33792786a67abc6d2832fa4cffad71e669fff5

Updating the software to accept Bech32 addresses is different. I was just pointing out that they seem to have at least started the process of switching over.

Spend a little time reading back the thread and you will discover that it was cancelled due to a Twitter API failure and all tickets were refunded. If you have an email set on your account you will have been informed.