It's just using the loophole that the Core team put in to give the Lightning Network a leg up.  I wish people had the same energy for Ordinals that they have for Lightning, both are equally dumb.



No justification is ever needed to anyone for using the blockchain.



I think they do serve a good purpose.  They show the developer bias and that Bitcoin is being run by a team of people who want to control what you use it for, while expecting other developers not to use the same tools to build that they do.  This hypocrisy has gone to extreme levels.  I see devs on social media bashing people for shilling shitcoins and then in their next post they're shilling liquid tokens or some other nonsense.

My only concern is that EVERYONE expects Bitcoin to hit $100K it feels like.  Our predictions don't even consider it a possibility that it doesn't.  That scares me as I believe markets always hunt for max pain.  I don't think we're going to go up without some sort of disastrous crash that scares a ton of people out of the market.  There is just too much bullishness.  I'm starting to read about people cashing out their retirement to long memecoins.  Saylor is back shilling on TV every day.  There are just so many signs of a top and we should still be possibly 500 days away from the peak.  Either we're going to $400,000 or we're going to see a shakeout soon.  My thoughts...  I also think $138K isn't a bad prediction for the high of this cycle.

Not much in the way of a mindblowing bet today.  Trying to build on yesterday's win with another W.  This bet is almost not even worth making though due to the odds being so low.  I think the chances are high that Golden State could lose also considering how their last game went.  That team has some internal issues to work though...

Atlanta Hawks - Boston Celtics
Winner (Incl. Overtime)
Boston Celtics

Charlotte Hornets - Golden State Warriors
Winner (Incl. Overtime)
Golden State Warriors

San Antonio Spurs - New York Knicks
Winner (Incl. Overtime)
New York Knicks

Odds
1.62

Interesting that the UFC is going to be free on ABC now… Seems like they’re taking a note from the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight. I’ll be glad to see them get away from pay per view as a business model because I get tired of going out to watch fights and I’ll never pay for a UFC pay per view.

Does this mean that they just exposed someone else's SSN to you inadvertently...  I would think there are some sort of penalties involved with that for the agency responsible but what do I know.  I'm glad there's a happy ending in there for you, but old Christopher probably wouldn't be too happy to learn what happened...   

I know that is the right attitude to have. Especially right now. I also know if we do start dropping that low it will be incredibly tempting to capture some gains and not get caught riding out another cycle. Resisting the urge to cash out during the next bear trap may be the difference between riding the rocket to the moon or not.

So far the most comical thing about this cycle to me is fans of MSTR. They all talk about how great Saylor is and how he’s going to be Bitcoin’s savior. Meanwhile he’s dumping MSTR on them as fast as he can while his company buys more. He’s literally dumping MSTR as fast as he can and buying BTC, meanwhile his fans are dumping BTC to buy MSTR. It has to be rare where people call someone a genius and then do the exact opposite of them or maybe this is just the level of intellect in markets these days.

Nah, they just beat them a couple of nights ago with Bol Bol dominating Wemby...

I read an interesting quote from LeBron James today talking about what it's like to play basketball professionally at his age...

"I was explaining to my other that she asked me how am I feelin' when I came home after the game. I said, 'Babe, just imagine buying a 2003 Escalade, and it's 2024, and you never changed the tires.'"
- LeBron James

I've never heard someone articulate it like that before, but it seems relatable.  As you age you think you can still do the things of a young man, and sometimes you can.  However, there's always risk of a blowout when you're running on worn tires.  

I think it's a place where users without basic knowledge can ask dumb questions without fear of being yelled at or told they need to use the search.  Not saying that doesn't exist in that section as well, but I think people are generally more open to explaining the basics there as opposed to criticizing someone for not using the search feature or spending their time reading about the fundamentals of Bitcoin before wading into the depths of the forum.  I don't go there much, but have tried to offer ways for newbies to get a head start on joining the rest of the community like bribing them with merits to learn to sign messages and use PGP.

Gambling because you don't have sufficient money is like going to a strip club because you don't have a girlfriend.  I'm not sure it's the correct approach.  Sure, some guys get lucky and save a stripper, but most end up leaving penniless with a stain on their sweatpants.  Personally, I think both places should be where you go to spend money and enjoy a good time.  Going into a casino thinking you're going to leave with money is really the perfect analogy with going to a strip club and thinking you'll leave with a girlfriend.  Sure, it happens, but not enough to risk the end of your stack on.

Even if I were 100% certain that Jake Paul was going to knock out Mike Tyson, I still wouldn't bet a single satoshi on it.  Tyson is one of the greatest athletes in the history of mankind.  He's up there with folks like Bo Jackson, LeBron James...  I think it's a shame that he mismanaged his money to the point where this fight is even an option, but I honestly want to see Mike Tyson have one more incredible night and knock out Jake Paul then retire with a huge bag of cash to never have to do a podcast or box in a ring again.  He deserves it.  His attitude change from an egomaniac to a humble servant is possibly his greatest achievement.

I was hoping to get a complimentary opportunity to vouch for the service. 

I won't ever claim to be the most informed person when it comes to merits...  I believe theymos had put in place a while ago some sort of system that takes how many sMerits you send and increases it by an amount for your next reload.  Someone else surely knows better, but it was something like every couple of months it takes how many sMerits you've sent and increases it by x%.  So my advice to you is if you want more sMerits, send all that you have every chance you get.  That's why you see the trust network obsessed doling out huge amounts of merit all the time.  It isn't because they like doing it, it's because that's the best tool they have to gain more influence over the trust network.

My overall feeling is that if you have children that depend on you, you probably shouldn't be using your funds recklessly.  However, some people have a ton of money or make a ton of money and need a way to unwind as well.  I think if you fall into this category and it doesn't matter if you lose every bet, your financial life will not be impacted, then I don't see any problem with it.  It's entertainment after all.  On the flip side, if you can't afford to provide for your family and you're using the little money you have to gamble in hopes of striking it big, you are probably doing your family a great disservice.  

Thank you for implementing this feature and kudos for doing it rather quickly as well.  It's pretty cool when you can talk with developers directly here to make suggestions that actually turn into features on their products.  That vibe is what originally made me fall in love with this forum.  I'm glad that you're here and trying to improve things.  I hope that your experience continues to be a positive one here with this project and that you continue to be active in this community.  Maybe even inspiring others along the way.

I would take it a step further and say that you should use no leverage at all.  It's obvious that these leveraged traders are how exchanges make a ton of their money these days.  I wouldn't even be surprised if they all had some back channel discussions about leverage and how to work together to clear it out on days like today when both longs and shorts get destroyed.  I wouldn't even be mad at them.  They have the data and aren't breaking any rules (that I know of) to simply trade the price up and down together to liquidate their users.  It's probably doing the rest of us a service, as people typically don't want to hold an asset for a decade and get outperformed in a day by some wahoo with 1000x leverage who went long at the right moment.

Even if Bitcoin's "rise" doesn't continue, the one thing you can be 100% sure of is that the dollar will continue to fall in purchasing power due to being printed more and more until the debt eventually destroys our country and we have to sell off our National Parks to China.  My advice would be to buy Bitcoin, but also anything else that will appreciate alongside inflation like gold or art.  Property has historically been where most common people park their wealth, but I think as debts get more out of control the government will become increasingly reliant on raising property taxes to keep themselves alive.  Stocks might also be a good bet if you diversify and avoid the bankrupt companies.  I do believe in another generation or two it will be clear as day that you can't work yourself out of poverty no matter how smart of skilled you are and those of us who burn wealth instead of build it will be dooming our ancestors to a subpar life of ever falling standards of living.

It is a little bit comical that the government seems to be doing all they can to tank the Bitcoin market, while at the same time not selling the 200,000+ BTC that they're sitting on.  You'd think they'd want the value to increase so they could get the most money back, but it seems to me like they're not worried about that as much as trying to tank the price and stop success stories from luring other people and countries away from the fiat world reserve currency scheme they have going.  I think we've reached the part of the growth cycle where they fight us.  Next we win. 

It would've been sort of funny if some crazy person took out a loan when this challenge started to get 1 BTC and then did push-ups until it hit $100K.  Imagine getting paid like $50,000+ just to do 100 push-ups a day for a few months.  This is what we have here.  I'm not saying that people should go out and get themselves 1 BTC by mortgaging their home or cashing out their 401K plans.  However, I do think having some skin in the game makes for a more fun experience when doing not just this challenge, but using this forum.  If you don't own BTC, why are you even here reading this?

Obviously age is the only factor to consider.  If this were Mike Tyson from 35 years ago the only thing to bet on would be the 30 second over or under on Jake getting knocked out.  As is, I'm a little worried from what I'm seeing from Mike's camp.  They seem to be gaslighting a bit and trying to make Tyson seem like he's in better shape and health than he is.  Whatever happens, I just hope Mike gets a massive payday and doesn't take any injuries.  Jake getting knocked out would come secondary to that, but I know we all want to see it.