My country is in a terrible situation right now. Of course, I am not referring to the billionaires and millionaires out there whose lives are not really bothered by the pandemic. But the huge majority of ordinary people are really tightening their belts to make sure they will survive this pandemic. The COVID situation in my country is unbearable not so much because of the fast spreading of the virus as the losing of jobs, closure of small businesses, and so on.

I'm not investing into crypto alone. I have stocks, real estate, small businesses, and others.

This problem has been El Salvador's problem even before Bitcoin came into existence. At this point, we cannot tell for sure whether the adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender would in fact cause the proliferation of drug and weapon smuggling in the country. The adoption has just began. Perhaps we may revisit this question with statistics to back the findings after a few years.

However, to my mind, this is not going to be the case. If we are to believe the president's words, 70% of El Salvador's population is unbanked, which could mean to say people are using cash in their transactions. Cash is more anonymous than Bitcoin. It leaves no trace.

This is a thing of the past, or perhaps a thing also for newbies who are excited to have their first share of Satoshis. Personally, I don't think it is worth it burning hours doing small tasks in exchange for small amounts of Satoshis. I'd agree with mk4. I'd rather do some hourly jobs or freelance works and use my payment to buy Bitcoin.

But if you really are interested, you might want to visit the Micro Earnings board for an array of micropayment services.

Probably very small if put in comparison with the opposite, insignificant even. However, I am interested to see some figures which somehow prove that there is indeed high stats in so many countries as far as day-to-day cryptocurrency spending is concerned. Surely, though, cryptocurrency or Bitcoin ATMs and how widespread they are cannot be made as a measure as to the level of use of cryptocurrency or Bitcoin in daily payments.

I've always been in the thinking that Bitcoin is indeed a tool more than a direct solution to a lot of financial, political, social, and economic ills of society. However, it is also worth acknowledging that Bitcoin is actually of so much help to address certain problems resulting from inequality, financial exclusion, and others. So to a certain extent, Bitcoin indeed fixes some of these problems.

Take for instance the case of El Salvador where 70% of the population is unbanked and at least 20% of the GDP is based on remittances. Cross-border transactions are heavily reliant on remittance centers such as Wester Union which charges high fees and whose nearest branch may not be readily accessible to a lot of people. Bitcoin indeed solves this problem.

In the long term, bad governance and corruption which include indiscriminately printing money out of thin air, distributing it among themselves and their businesses, lack of economic foresight, and so on would result to a weak currency, uncontrollable inflation, and overall crumbling economy. Somehow, Bitcoin fixes this.

Honestly, I don't want to be paying a loan for 25 or 30 years just to have house. I'd rather save and invest and look for alternative sources of income to be able to build myself a house without getting a loan to be paid for almost a lifetime. That may take a decade or two, it doesn't matter.

But as far as my locality is concerned and its socio-economic situation, only a few minority could do this. The huge majority will have to apply for a housing loan to be able build a house. Majority of the working class in my country cannot avoid getting loans every time they buy something expensive like a car or a piece of land or a house.

What seems to be the problem with it? Surely, you do not dismiss a development effort simply because it doesn't cater to every single person, do you? After all, such initiative does not put others to a disadvantageous position. As a matter of fact, even if Bitcoin is already a legal tender in the country, those businesses without the necessary technologies are not required to accept Bitcoin payment. The same goes to ordinary people as well. If they prefer to use fiat instead of Bitcoin, they're free to do so. There's still the USD anyway.

Just when El Salvador is trying to address a perennial problem on the access to traditional financial services, and has decided to try easing it out with adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender alongside the USD, the IMF comes in bringing bad news.

IMF is now talking about "macroeconomic, financial and legal issues" just as the sovereign country is looking for means to improve the life of its people.^[1]

I don't understand. 70% of the people of El Salvador do not have access to banking services. This is a huge hindrance to its development as a country. Poverty is rampant. 4 out of 10 are living in poverty with 50% of the "country’s children and teenagers live on less than US $1.25 per day."^[2]

El Salvador's situation couldn't get any worse. And now that they are trying to experiment with something which could probably address a significant facet of the nation's problem, with something which is completely free from control, politics, internal power struggles, abuse, manipulation, and so on, the IMF, which is primarily tasked to secure financial stability, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world, is now discouraging it.

I mean, what the heck! What do you want to happen to the beautiful country of El Salvador? To remain stuck in its cesspool?

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-10/imf-sees-risks-in-el-salvador-law-making-bitcoin-legal-tender
[2] https://www.humanium.org/en/el-salvador/

Personally, I don't agree that banning Twitter is tantamount to stifling freedom of speech. Whatever you want to tweet you can always speak somewhere else. It is not as if Twitter is the only way for people to have a voice. It is not the only public platform either. Neither is it the only avenue for voices to be heard.

As a matter of fact, Twitter itself is also doing the sifting of which tweet is allowed and which is not. So Twitter cannot be made a poster boy of freedom of speech.
 
Moreover, a sovereign country has the privilege to choose which site is allowed and which is not. At the end of the day, Twitter is but a private site owned by a private company. Any country is free to accept it or not.

I play Chinese Poker but I have yet to encounter a crypto casino offering such game. I'm not looking for one either. I'm satisfied physically playing it every once in a while with friends. But you might want to check out https://www.betonline.ag/. There is Chinese Poker in there and cryptocurrencies are accepted. I am not sure though if your kind of Chinese Poker is exactly the kind offered on that platform. There might be variations. I've played a couple variations of Chinese Poker. They might just be local variations, though.

Policies change every now and then, so there is nothing surprising to hear a country issue statements from time to time which may not necessarily be consistent with one another. This is not too different from India's case.

Anyway, in the age of the internet, the state can only do so much in terms of control and monitoring. I know that the Chinese government is basically operating within totalitarian principles, but the online world is too wide for China to closely police every single citizen in the space. Suppression is getting hard by the day.

The message that White was sending in response to the Mayweather-Paul match was that there is indeed money in that kind of garbage show. There is indeed market in that kind of joke, a huge market in fact. Nunes-Kardashian was an example he floated. It could be done. It could raise a huge amount of money. Hell, it could even hit the pay-per-view. But, quoting him verbatim, "It's not what I do." It's not the business that I'm in."^[1]

Listen to White's exact words from the link below. Sometimes, people can't read between the lines.

[1] https://twitter.com/aaronbronsteter/status/1402087175383093253

No, not gonna happen, most probably ever. I'm 100% sure it is not taking place at all, at least not while Amanda is under UFC contract, and 99.9% sure when Amanda will finally be let go by the UFC.

And I don't think Kim would be interested either. I'm 100% sure Kim won't fight MMA against Amanda and 99.9% sure she won't do it in a boxing match.

Sometimes we just have to learn to appreciate tongue-in-cheek statements.

I think there's nothing personal in here but just some light jokes. The joke's gonna be on us if we take this seriously. But this is gonna be a huge disgrace if it ever reaches the octagon.

Anyway, Kim Kardashian had once worn the gloves and trade punches inside the ring. That was against Tamara Frapasella in the event dubbed as The Kardashian Charity Knockout. The fight was a two-rounder and, as expected, Kim lost.

This is indeed a strange world, very strange. But not only strange, it is also a mad world. But what is actually strange and mad is humanity. When I was a kid, and until now, I cannot really understand how people buy a family's few years' worth of food for just a piece of shoulder bag. Until now, I'm still baffled at how one man goes to sleep hungry while a neighbor feasts on unbelievably expensive food, how a father losses a child only for not having that small piece of paper they call money, and so on.

Why is Bitcoin or even a mere meme coin worth something? Because we are a strange species.

This is how a country makes the most out of a rising technology. Instead of shunning it off for selfish reasons, it should instead be exploited for what it's worth. A president of a sovereign country making Bitcoin as a legal tender is simply fantastic. An absolutely independent currency, beyond the control and manipulation of the government and its central bank, it should be dismissed right away by countries for being too free it cannot be made to follow the dictations of the powerful government. But El Salvador is simply one of a kind.

This permanent residency offer to crypto entrepreneurs is another huge step. This is enticing, with all the country's beauty. I hope it will be fully supported with smooth business processes up to the local level, perhaps some tax incentives, upholding peace and order, and so on to make sure that not only are they attracted to do crypto business in the country but also for their operations to be sustainable.

Husna QA already mentioned it. Nothing beats a hardware wallet. I am using Ledger for a couple of altcoins. The rest I am keeping in an exchange wallet as I am simply playing with them to increase my Bitcoin. Having said that, the best wallet is that which suits your circumstances. What are your specific altcoins? What are they for? Are they for long term hodling? Are they for trading?

If you intend to HODL your altcoins and if they are supported by either Trezor or Ledger, then go for either of the two.

LOL! This is nothing but pure sarcasm, most probably in ridicule to Mayweather and Paul's bogus boxing match which was made solely for money and nothing else.

Sports writers should know better than write misleading articles on jokes like this. It shouldn't even be published. It was not even a fight call out.

I'm not a fan of Dana White most of the time but I absolutely support him in dismissing such farce of a show. He's right, there's definitely a huge amount of money in this kind of match but this is well beyond tolerance. It's nauseating.

This is not about whether the government is of the east or the west. Partly, this is about governments in general. Governments want control. However, there are countries which are more tolerant than others, more open-minded than others, more receptive to rising technologies, and so forth.

And it is not whether it is from the east or the west. There are many countries in the east which are not as inimical to Bitcoin as China, in the same manner that there are also countries in the west which tend to be very tight in terms of crypto regulations.

But China is more or less the extreme case. They want absolute control. They'll probably regulate farting in the coming days.

If you want to save long term, Bitcoin pays off much higher. We have abundant available data to prove that, if it makes sense to somehow foresee the future by way of knowing the past.

If you are saving for your children and grandchildren, you don't even mind the daily news, of which many are fake. Not only do you not mind the news, you would not also mind the day to day price movements. You'd measure price appreciation in years.