I know there is nothing wrong with having alternatives in a free market. I just wanted to say that trying to reinvent hot water might not work for some. What's stopping anyone from exchanging some Bitcoin for Starbucks gift cards or loading some coins on a prepaid debit card and paying for the coffee with that? I bet the payment process at the Starbucks shop would be so much faster with those options than waiting for the transfer from your wallet to Bakkt payment processor to complete. By the way, Steam stopped accepting Bitcoin as a payment method via BitPay last December because of the high volatility. I don't think it would be any different with Bakkt, but I might be wrong. Anyways, as I said, it's always nice to have more alternatives on the market.

Well as far as I know Jose hasn't even bought a permanent home in England and is living in a luxurious hotel full time  Maybe he is completely aware that he won't be around for long if there is another slip-up next season so he is ready to pack up his bags and leave immediately should the need arise haha. Joking aside, I bet he is living in a luxurious apartment inside the hotel and the amenities on site are top-notch. Now if only he was able to win the trophy this time around..... or he would need to vacant his place very soon  But I think Jose is quite the social butterfly and he will find a new team to manage real fast 

That guy has been paid for the 1st week and then he was dropped by the campaign manager. Now he is throwing a temper tantrum, because in his deranged mind he has suffered $840 in damages for the next 7 weeks he won't be in the campaign. And because he shot his own foot by acting like a jackass now he is trying to belittle other participants in the same signature campaign... He is not due any money.

Say if you were dropped tomorrow from the 777Coin signature campaign for some reason, are you going to sue Lutpin for the remaining duration of the campaign you are not in for as long as it runs? Don't you think it's insane? Or maybe you should send negative trust and pester all your former fellow campaigners all over the forum?

Yep I would gladly continue! Thanks for taking care of us 

I don't think it's feasible to expect that Bitcoin is going have any major bumps in price this or next year with the current market situation. Well not until the next Bitcoin halving in 2020 at least. It would be cool if we end the year at $10k and hopefully shoot for $20k by December 2019 before we go to the Moon in 2020 beating the last ATH by a significant margin. One can only hope 

Well 2 of the last 3 matches finished under with the host teams winning the game respectively - Inter beat Lyon 1-0 in Italy yesterday and Milan defeated Barcelona 1-0 today in California. The spectacle of the night proved itself to be the match between Real Madrid and Juventus ending 3-1 in favor of the Galacticos also played in the USA. All 4 goals were scored by Real players though - 1 by Bale in the 1st half and Asensio added 2 more in the 2nd half. Carvajal scored an own goal. Cristiano Ronaldo wasn't in the squad expectedly. 3 more matches to go until the ICC is over. I think the tendency has been over goals throughout the tournament with the exception of a couple of matches, but due to the absence of a lot of the superstars the whole experience has been kinda underwhelming overall. Fortunately the real football leagues start very soon so we could enjoy some quality football 

I just noticed that today's the final in the FA Community Shield between Chelsea and Manchester City. Chelsea are @ 3.70 odds and City are @ 2.05. Have you guys heard any news about possible line-ups? I am completely clueless about this match and am wondering if there will be some first squad players missing today as well. This is the first official match of the season, isn't it? So I guess they should come up with serious teams and not play a friendly-like game, right?  I am hovering around both teams to score, but the low odds of 1.55 put me off. What about taking Chelsea +1 AH?

Gambling can be real fun if enjoyed in moderation as is drinking or gaming or going on a night out to a club with friends etc. One downside of gambling, which in my honest opinion is the culprit of why some susceptible people can get addicted in the long run, is that it's easily accessible to everyone and if left unchecked it can lead to things in all aspects of life spiraling out of control rather fast. That's why you shouldn't introduce people to gambling just as you shouldn't show them how to drink or smoke, because every person reacts differently to addictive pastimes and you never know how far some of them are going to develop their addictive behaviours. And if something goes terribly wrong they are going to blame you in the end. Is it worth the trouble?

Starbucks is still not brave enough to accept Bitcoin directly though   A lot of small mom-and-pop coffee shops accept direct payments in Bitcoin so this puts many of the big companies to shame. And by the way one could buy Starbucks gift cards and many others on Gyft for example so it's not like people haven't had options for spending their hard-earned Bitcoin at brick and mortar stores. I guess this new company Bakkt will function similar to payment processors like BitPay so what's this fuss about? It seems to me that every time a new budding crypto company comes around they try hard to reinvent the wheel and hype up their services when in reality there have been alternatives for ages. Not downplaying the news in any way. Just my 2 satoshis.

I think game protect and jolly good are not the same person. Game protect strikes me as a non-native English speaker while jolly good's command of the English language is miles better, at a native level I would say. If you take a closer look at game protect's antics you will realize that he tends to seek out players with issues at certain sportsbooks and then invades their threads and starts posting on their behalf with the only goal of extorting the gambling sites. I am a frequent reader of the Gambling section and know how he operates so I think this is what's going on here. Game protect is a real pest.
Regards.

It's the mobile operators' fault for allowing the SIM transfers. It's relatively easy to social engineer one's way around a customer support agent over the phone if some credentials of the victim are known and, after gaining access to the phone number, the intruder can go to town resetting all victim's accounts. SIM transferring should only be allowed by visiting the company's offices and doing it in person after verification of the identity of the SIM owner. I have heard a lot of horror stories about SIM hijacking - mainly famous influencers' Twitter accounts getting hacked via social engineering and lax security protocols of the mobile operators.

I think this is what actually happened to you - some of the forums and websites you have an account at got their databases leaked on the Internet. There are online directories where they collect and sell the data dumps to interested parties. Some guy has gotten access to your old password and your associated email and now is trying to scare you into paying him for not revealing your little dirty secrets to your family & friends. And because nowadays everyone visits porn sites and has a web camera the scammer has chosen the 'shameful porn site' scenario to guilt trip you. You need not to worry about that, and a very easy fix for your situation is to choose a good password manager program and change all your old passwords. If you really have no web cam it's virtually impossible for the scammer to have any recording of you.

99% of all the alt coins and ethereum tokens have zero real world value and the sole purpose of these new ICO's is to make their developers filthy rich overnight. The utility of these coins is very limited or non-existent and after a quick pump & dump scheme they fizzle out and die. Nowadays anyone could just flip a switch and launch a crypto asset for the most ridiculous reason ever with minimal expenses. Does it help the economy? No. It helps to enrich a certain group of people  

Neymar was the best paid actor. He spent 14 minutes lying on the pitch 



I honestly don't think any of the Fifa World Cup matches were fixed. Some key players were just very tired after the long schedules of the local & UEFA championships and couldn't show their best, namely the German national team. The VAR refereeing wasn't ideal and some of the main referees looked very sketchy though so there is definitely still room for improvement in the next iteration. And Fifa should start banning players on the spot for any provocative political behaviour or they will never learn.

I think Germany, Austria and Switzerland are the most crypto-friendly countries in Europe. Crypto is pretty popular in the Baltic states and Scandinavia as well. I know that one could buy Bitcoin vouchers from post offices in Austria which speaks volumes about the growth and general popularity of Bitcoin in the country. Switzerland has traditionally been a hub for a plethora of fin-tech companies and Germany have the most start-up companies in the whole of Europe. The Scandic countries want to transition to a cashless society so a crypto currency like Bitcoin could be the solution for their government financial strategies. Some of the crypto payment processors are based in the Baltic region.
I think there was also a French crypto company where you could deposit crypto and pay your bills or receive your fiat salary and get Bitcoin in exchange.

Oh wow I never knew you could mine water from asteroids! Thanks for sharing this fascinating article, I actually read the whole thing. Looks like water in space could end up being more expensive than gold. If water can really be used to create rocket fuel that means whoever owns the asteroid can build something like a rocket fuel station and sell water and fuel to commercial spacecrafts passing by like these emerging space tourism companies. It would be so rad if this happened in our lifetime though. I think there is still quite some time before we will be able to witness something like this. And these space flights are certainly going to be so expensive that only the elite could afford going to space on a casual trip haha.

The weekend starts tomorrow with the only match of the day - Inter vs Lyon. Inter lost their first match in the ICC vs Chelsea - 2-1 after penalties. Lyon defeated Benfica 2-3 in regulation time. I have zero interest betting on the match winner so I browsed through the goal markets for that game and liked 2nd half Lyon total over @ 0.5 and also 2nd half both teams to score @ 2.80. I am not sure which one of the 2 halves will have the most action though, so just in case I am gonna put something on 1st half Lyon total over 0.5 @ 2.10 and 1st half both teams to score @ 3.65. The match may finish completely goalless but it's okay  Just playing around with the high odds that's all.

So this has been the reason for your insane ramblings all this time... You finally spilled the beans. You really must be in a pinch with your real life finances. Good luck hiring a lawyer to sue the forum by the way. I am not sure if you even have the money to pay your court expenses. Good job mate, good job...
Thanks for the great entertainment though, things were getting a bit stale around here 

Hey there mate how is it going? I hope all is well with you Yeah I have very fond memories of Directbet and it's a shame they decided to shut down. Their odds weren't the best and the available selection of games was lacking, but the possibility to play without registering and the automatic settling of bets were awesome. Also, Directbet pioneered the forum betting competitions and paved the way for many more from other crypto sportsbooks.
I wish you luck in managing the new one and I am sure you will do great.
Regards.

I personally have nothing against you, mate. I have been reading your story all day yesterday and thought it was time to chime in today. During my time here on Bitcointalk I have been denied payments on multiple occasions, sometimes rightfully so and sometimes not so much. I have never ever gone on a rampage all over the forum in retaliation. Just picked up the pieces and moved on looking for better opportunities.
I still can't see in writing where the campaign manager has agreed to reinstate you in the Bitcasino campaign for the whole duration of 8 weeks when this rule simply doesn't exist. I think you just assumed that, but this is not how campaigns work here.
And one more thing. There is no such thing as bad advertisement  There is one 'famous' guy who has been anti-campaigning against Sportsbet and Bitcasino in the Gambling section for years. Yes years. And he hasn't managed to topple the company yet other than becoming the laughing stock of the forum. Unlike you though he is getting paid to do so. I can tell you that much.
Peace mate and good luck in your future endeavours.