Not a very intelligent thing to do, when the whole world is suffering from the pandemic. What was he trying to do here? Was he looking for some cheap publicity? Anyway, now he (Youness Baalla) can practice his biting skills at home, because in all probability he will not be allowed in to the boxing ring again. Or maybe he can try his luck in MMA. These sort of guys are in good demand in that sport. BTW, I head that Baalla is now playing the race card. He is claiming that he is being punished for being black.

I am surprised that the match is going ahead today. Krunal + at least half a dozen of the players are not available. India, even if they manage to garner 11 players to make up the numbers, will struggle to find the right balance. But then calling off the match will be not right, as it will result in the SLCB incurring huge losses. That is why it is important for the players to strictly adhere to the bio-bubble rules. A single mistake can result in a loss of tens of millions of USD for the organizers (similar to what happened with the IPL).

If you want to get good returns, then obviously you need to take a very high level of risk. Back in 2011 and 2012, no one actually believed that Bitcoin would go up by 5,000 times in a decade. So those who invested in it back then were taking an extremely high amount of risk. Now you will not get another 5000 times return, if you invest in Bitcoin at the current levels. For that, you need to invest in newer projects. But those with 5-6 years of experience in the cryptocurrency sector will be able to better select the projects that have a good future potential.

It is true that the EUA (Emergency Use Authorization) for the Sputnik V vaccine was given before the phase III clinical trials were complete. But the results from these trials were published earlier this year, in the reputed medical journal, The Lancet. And the results showed that the vaccine has 91.6% efficacy against symptomatic COVID and almost 100% protection against hospitalization. And real-time data from Bahrain and Argentina shows that the vaccine has an efficacy of 94%-98% in the general population. Even single dose of Sputnik was shown to be having 84% efficacy against hospitalization from COVID 19.

Elon has millions of followers and they will believe in whatever he says. But for the cryptocurrency users, it is a difficult question. Elon, without any doubt is hugely influential and it will be mutually beneficial to have cordial relations with him. But can we expect the same from him, after witnessing what he did a couple of months ago? In a way, in business there are no permanent enemies or friends. So I don't have any issue in once again listening to Elon. But this time, there should be a guarantee that he doesn't backstab us again.

Check the exchange rates now. Once again they are they crossed the $40,000 level, although currently BTC is trading at around $39,700 per coin. From this, it is clear that market has taken the statement from Amazon in a positive manner. And that should be the case, because along with denying the timeline given in the CityAM article, Amazon reiterated that they remain interested in cryptocurrency. And in the end, it will be like PayPal. When they start accepting Bitcoin, there will be no prior warnings. It will happen all of a sudden.

I am not surprised by your post. Here in India, the opposition (left-wing) politicians have consistently opposed development work, including the construction of high-speed rail and highways, saying that the money could be better spent on feeding the poor (as if they don't know that the majority of the tax revenue is already being used for providing handouts). These guys need to understand that spending $400,000 or $500,000 on an athlete inspires millions of others who will take part in these sports and increase their fitness levels. In turn, this will lead to billions of USD in savings for the government in the health sector every year. But unfortunately, some politicians know only about freebies and handouts.

In three months, I hope that a majority of the world population will be vaccinated. So hopefully you don't need to worry much. If your family is already vaccinated, then everyone is going to be OK. However, the winter season in the Northern hemisphere is 3-4 months away, and it worries me. Last year, there was a spike during this period. Hopefully it will not be repeated this time, since the vaccines are widely available. Anyway, if you are living in tropical regions, then you don't need to bother about it.

A lot of people think that the ban itself was unfair. Is it right to ban an entire country, for the actions of a few athletes? And I don't think that the rules have been fairly applied to everyone. Russian gymnasts were banned for using certain medications. But later it was revealed that these same drugs were used by Simone Biles, Venus Williams and Serena Williams of the United States. The Americans gave some silly excuse that Biles was using the drug for ADHD. Obviously the International Olympic Committee don't have the courage to ban any of the American athletes. They can say silly excuses like they need the drug for the treatment of constipation or jock itch.

Check the previous posts. Amazon has issued clarification, saying that the news is fake. They stated that they have an interest in cryptocurrency, but most of the article is far from the truth. And that is the reason why the exchange rates fell by more than 10% in the last 24 hours. But personally, I am not that disappointed. The cryptocurrency journey is full of ups and downs and we don't need to bother about temporary setbacks. If PayPal has accepted Bitcoin, then it is just a matter of time before others such as Amazon and Microsoft does the same.

Getting worried about the Indian players in Sri Lanka. 8 of them are in mandatory isolation as a result of the positive COVID test returned by Krunal Pandya. 5 of the isolated players are said to be in high risk category, since they were in close contact with Krunal - Devdutt Padikkal, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Krishnappa Gowtham and Ishan Kishan. I am really getting tired of these COVID-related disruptions. This has been the case for the last one and half years and doesn't looks as if it is going to end anytime soon.

I don't know from where CityAM got the news. This is the issue when you solely rely on "anonymous" sources. Obviously Amazon has "some" interest in cryptocurrency (similar to the case with Facebook and Tesla), but it is too early to say whether they want to stick with Bitcoin, or come up with their own coin/token. Institutions and corporations know that cryptocurrency is the next big thing in technology and they don't want to lose out. But the big question is which approach they would like to take while dealing with cryptocurrency.

Krunal got infected and no one else in the bio-bubble has tested positive for COVID. So it is clear what happened there. Since they got vaccinated (probably ahead of their rightful turn), these guys got overconfident. But they forgot the fact that even the best vaccines are only around 95% effective. And in case of Covishield, the efficacy is only around 70%. Being vaccinated doesn't mean that they can just roam around without any protection. I am curious about the actions that BCCI is about to take.

Here in India, there were a few incidents some years ago. One reputed member (Pankaj Bhardwaj) was arrested for similar reasons in 2016. Here are the details:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1359865.0

The sad fact is that in most of these incidents the Bitcoin trader is not involved in any crime directly. When we sell our coins through various P2P platforms, sometimes we get fiat payments from shady sources. And that is what happened in his case. He sold his coins, and someone paid him back using hacked bank/credit card accounts. He was unaware of this, and got arrested by the cops. And the guy who actually hacked the bank account was never arrested, because he was a resident of the UAE.

With West Indian players in such high demand around the world (top players such as Pollard and Russell easily makes $3-$4 million per year by taking part in franchise T20 leagues), I don't think that they will be much bothered about longer versions of the game. And I wouldn't blame them. T20 is the future of cricket and test cricket is becoming obsolete (still the ICC has difficulty in admitting this). In fact, I would credit the T20 format for reigniting the popularity of cricket in West Indies. There was a time, when the popularity of the game was going down steeply. T20 has saved the cricket in West Indies.

How many times it needs to be repeated? The mining will not stop once all the 21 million coins are mined. The mining reward consists of two parts - block reward and fee reward. The fee reward will remain as long as BTC is used for transactions. And in another two decades or so, the mining reward will primarily consist of fee reward (since the block reward halves every 4 years. The next halving is scheduled for 2024). But I agree with the other aspects, such as decentralized nature and protection against inflation. These aspects make BTC a lot more attractive to the investors.

Let's not get arrogant and claim that the economies can't survive without Bitcoin. If the sovereign states makes Bitcoin fully legal, then it will be mutually beneficial. Look at the state of affairs in China. After they started their latest crackdown on Bitcoin, several of the mining firms and traders have suffered huge losses. Some of the miners have moved their operations to Kazakhstan and other neighboring nations, but not everyone are in a state to do so. A conciliatory stance is beneficial for both the sides.

Amazon is running out of sectors to expand its business. Recently they have been making some overpriced purchases, which makes zero economic sense. One example is the acquisition of MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer) studios, for $8.45 billion. It made most of the MGM movies (4,500) and TV shows (17,000) available on Amazon Prime Video. But given the fact that most of the blockbuster movies can't be immediately added (due to existing agreements), the deal looked overpriced. On top of that, there are concerns regarding anti-trust actions.

This is the first time I am hearing about Panama. If they make Bitcoin as the legal tender, then it is going to be huge. Panama's case is not similar to El Salvador, as they have their own currency (Panamanian balboa). In El Salvador's case, the rollout was easy because the national currency (Salvadoran Colon) existed only in documents and the US Dollar was trade currency inside the country. And that is the significance here. If a country places Bitcoin at the same level as it's national currency, then it is a huge boost for Bitcoin.

But then again, how reliable is your news?

For the younger Indian players, this is a rare opportunity to get the attention from the selectors ahead of the world cup. I hope they will make the maximum use out of it. Some of the players in Sri Lanka were transferred to England, and therefore it is likely that a few of the players will make their debut today. Sri Lankan morale would be good, after their win in the third ODI. Also, the focus will be on Rahul Dravid on how he manages the Indian team, as there are rumors that he is being considered for the coaching role.