From the information you gave, OP, that certainly looks to be a typical opportunistic scam which preys on people's laudable desire to help.  I don't donate cash or crypto to well-established charities, so there's no way in hell I'd send a single satoshi to this person's address (and I'm pretty sure it's a person and not an organization).  Hopefully people on Telegram and whatever other social media this scam is being perpetrated have good sense and don't donate money to them.

Good thing we haven't seen anything similar on the forum, though I'm pretty sure it would get shut down pretty quickly anyway.  Good looking out, OP.

Awesome and thank you for updating this thread.  I'm in the process of going through these members' posts and meriting what I can within reason.  And dang, I used up all of my source sMerits so far and am now using my earned ones--no biggie there, since lately the source sMerits have been replenished at a pretty good rate.

Edit:
Holy crap, Paperweight looks to be an old-school member from 2011, and at first I had the feeling that it could be a sold account, but from the posts I can see it doesn't look to be. 

That was my second thought about OP's post.  These "grandpas" don't really have to understand the mechanics of cryptocurrency for one thing.  They probably know enough of what bitcoin is (a bank-less, government-less currency) to make decisions as far as regulation, and whatever they don't know, they certainly aren't working alone in making decisions.  Every congressman has advisors and teams of information-gatherers, so I wouldn't write them off just because of their age.

My first thought was that being 60 years old doesn't make you ignorant of technology necessarily.  Crypto is certainly a younger person's game, but these people high up in government are generally not stupid people.  They're usually quite intelligent actually.  Your grandfather might not know how to use a cell phone or the internet, but that simply isn't true of all senior citizens--and 60 years old doesn't even make you a senior citizen anyway.

Yep, all of that is true.  I'm not a fan of most politicians, but I don't hold their lack of expertise in various fields that they end up regulating against them.  They're not working totally in the dark on these things.

I don't know anything about Binance's US operations, but there was a huge storm yesterday on the east coast of the US that knocked out power and internet over a very large radius.  Just thinking out loud, I'm wondering whether them going down had anything to do with that. 

Hopefully they're telling the truth when they say it wasn't a hack.  My guess is that it wasn't, but who knows.  Binance might be one of the most trusted exchanges, but after seeing all the BS that's transpired over the last few years I don't trust any of them completely.

Good suggestions, all of them.  There were a few members who were making it a habit to post extremely large, unnecessary images when they created threads, much like mainstream media sites do--images that add nothing to the post and contain nothing useful.  I was so annoyed by this that I created a thread about it late last year.  Some of the members stopped posting those images as far as I know, for which I'm grateful.

And yeah, when someone replies to a post and quotes an enormous image, it drives me nuts--or even when they quote huge blocks of text just to make a short post.

I recently started a thread about my experience with using a bitcoin ATM and included images.  Initially they were huge, but I got advice from o_e_l_e_o about resizing them:

Not being very proficient in coding, I wouldn't have figured out how to do that without a little help and some constructive criticism from a helpful member.

Looks like it's only three senators who are proposing this bill, so it's far from a done deal.

I've been seriously wondering how the US government is going to pay for all of this stimulus money they're giving to the plebians, and it looks like some of the lawmakers are starting to work out who's going to.  I don't think targeting billionaires is necessarily fair, though you won't catch me shedding a tear if they have to pay higher taxes.  The rich have been kicking the poor's asses since time immemorial.

This seems to be related to profits made during the COVID-19 pandemic, though I'm not sure about the logic being used by these senators who are proposing the bill.  Eh.  It'll probably never become a reality, which is the case of most of these stories about lawmakers who come up with wacky bills.  They make for a good story and that's about it.

My own tired, cynical opinion would probably be exactly like the above except that I betcha bitcoin will hit $500k within the next 30 years.  McAfee is nutty for making a prediction and bet like this, but he's just got the time frame wrong.  And honestly, I wouldn't want to see bitcoin hit a ridiculous price like $500k in just several years.  Any rational investor would realize that those kinds of gains aren't sustainable.

Yeah, just like all the other prominent bitcoiners with large platforms who make extreme predictions--they might believe what they're saying, but it's far more likely they're making a prediction in order to keep their name relevant.  I tend to just tune out crap like this.

Hate to say it, but I think that price is even too high to hit unless we're talking about a ten-year time frame.  Remember, the state of the economy is far from certain and it isn't looking too healthy.  In order to get bitcoin up to $100k, there would have to be a ton of buying.  If people are still out of work, that just isn't going to happen.  But we shall see.

All of that is true except the first statement, that the pandemic is here to stay.  It isn't.  Like any viral outbreak, it will eventually run its course and/or we'll find a vaccine or an effective treatment for it.  People have gotten used to wearing masks and maintaining their distance from each other, and that will probably be a habit which will last but this isn't going to last forever.

I've not no problem with universities moving toward online classes, but I don't think that should be a permanent thing either.  Going to a classroom and interacting with peers and professors is important.  One thing I think will last is people's shopping habits and the way they pay for things.  Cash will probably phase out quicker than it has been, and people will continue to order things from sites like Amazon.

I wish I could say that cryptocurrency will benefit from this, but I don't think it will.  It certainly doesn't seem to have thus far, although people seem to be buying bitcoin and altcoins like crazy--they're just not spending them as far as I know. 

Oh, that's definitely true and has been for some time now.  I know some people who never carry cash on them and use debit cards and/or smartphones to pay for everything.  Right now I'm just waiting for the US government to stop minting pennies and nickels, which would be a smart thing for them to do.

I don't follow world news much, so thank you for that summary--I didn't realize things in Lebanon were so bad, and this explosion couldn't come at a worse time. 

No kidding.  The effects of this explosion are relatively local, but there has been so much shit going on in 2020 that every day I get the feeling that the world has been turned on its ear.  This is a bitcoin forum and I'm happy bitcoin is doing well in the face of all this horrible stuff that's happening, but man....I just hope 2021 is a better year for all of us, all around.

I tend to agree with you there, though as I stated in another thread I'm not sure how dense the population was in that area at the time of the explosion.  Four thousand wounded sounds about right, but less than 100 dead?  I find that a little hard to believe.

Agree fully, but I think the state of our society currently is having a problem with this, and instead of working toward a meritocracy corporations are being strongly influenced by those so-called diversity quotas and other left-wing political ideas.  The net result is that companies are not always hiring the right person for the job, and I find that to be a shame.

I haven't watched the videos OP linked to, but I have to say that socialism has been tried and it doesn't work.  It's not going to ever work.  There certainly are problems with capitalism, but I think it is far superior to socialism/communism/anything else currently in operation. 

That about sums up my feelings--socialism sounds so great in theory, but when put into practice it always falls apart into various abuses of power, unrest, and ultimately becomes a system which is inferior to capitalism.

When is ETH supposed to go PoS?  I thought it already had for some reason.  And as far as any PoS coin goes, holding long-term is probably your best bet anyway, as the real advantage in any of them is the income they generate.

I've never been into active trading, not in stocks and definitely not in crypto, which is far more risky IMO.  I get that traders can make enormous profits because of the volatility of altcoins (especially the crappier ones), but I don't have the balls or the stomach for it.  I'm all for holding bitcoin for the long-term, as I think we're going to see a new ATH within the next couple of years.  I thought bitcoin might even get there in 2020, but the whole COVID-19 thing kind of derailed its momentum.

Another reason I don't actively trade is that I think technical analysis is a bunch of voodoo witchcraft nonsense.  The only time it makes any sense to follow charts is when there's a very obvious bull run, and in that case you just follow the momentum.

I'd like to see this graph overlaid with a bitcoin price chart--I'm not a statistics geek and am not really interested in member activity, posts, registration, and so on, but it's interesting to me that it looks like activity and registration of new accounts booms and busts along with how bitcoin is performing.  That's probably obvious to a lot of members, but I don't think I've ever seen any statistical correlation between btc price and bitcointalk variables.

Yep, those are all good points and I have in fact heard that some workers are continuing to work from home.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, either for the worker or the employer.  But I guess we'll just have to see how this whole thing transpires.  I've seen a lot of restaurants start delivery service, and pharmacies as well.  I have doubts as to whether these changes are permanent or not, though I hear what you're saying about changes in behavior and so forth.

As far as outsourcing jobs to India, I don't suspect that's going to happen to a great extent.  The US has already outsourced so many services to India and other spots in Asia that whatever remains probably has a reason to stay in the US. 

I'd agree that they do recognize the danger of printing a near-unlimited amount of money, but I question whether anyone in the government has a plan to pay for all of this stimulus money, which is on top of all the quantitative easing they did a few years ago.  As I've said before, someone has to foot the bill and that someone is always going to be the taxpayers.  I'm wondering when the bill will finally arrive.

That's a damn interesting letter, and I thank you for posting it here OP. 

I've been interested in PoS coins for a while now, though I don't own any at the moment, and I'm kind of shocked that congressmen are actually aware of their existence, much less concerned with the fair taxing of rewards from them.  It's also interesting to me that they proposed that taxation occur only upon the sale of the staking rewards.  I don't have any idea how PoS coin rewards are taxed now, but I'd assume they'd be considered to be income if they're taxed at all.  Maybe someone with some knowledge could clarify that.

Although it's an interesting letter, it remains to be seen whether anything comes of it.  A lot of these suggestions don't lead anywhere, and I'm not sure how much influence these four congressmen have.  I'll have to keep my eyes on it.

WOW.  32.9% is no joke, and that's scary to me. 

What I'm hoping is that these numbers temporarily reflect the consequence of the COVID-19 shutdown and that the contraction eases in the upcoming quarters as people start getting back to work.  I also do think that's going to be the case, because I'm seeing my local stores and restaurants reopening--the odd thing is that I'm not seeing a lot of people around in the stores and such.  I'm assuming that might be because people are getting stuff delivered from Amazon and the like. 

So that's the US.  I'm curious as to how the rest of the world is faring in terms of their economies. 

That's true, although I haven't seen many in my area that have closed up shop for good.  But keep in mind that I don't own a car and I generally don't travel too far from home.

Here's the thing: the no-KYC exchanges that are left are likely ones that exist in countries where they're not regulated, which means they can essentially do whatever they want.  Yobit comes to mind immediately, but I'm sure there are others.  And if you have an exchange that makes its own rules and isn't accountable to anyone, they can freeze your account for whatever reason they like.  The KYC exchanges which are regulated can't get away with anything they want to, and they'd have to have a valid reason to freeze your funds.

Usually I read complaints about gambling sites freezing accounts and not exchanges, but I know the latter do it as well.  I've never used hitbtc (never even heard of it, either) but my guess is that they're unregulated. 

I agree, because I don't think there are many non-KYC exchanges out there with solid reputations that you could trust not to freeze your account for some arbitrary reason.  So OP, just watch out if you're going to go that route.  Don't keep a lot of funds on an exchange for long, and I'd probably advise that you trade in small amounts--and read their rules, too.  You don't want to end up breaking one of them and run into a problem that no one can help you with.

Not sure, but it looks like there's going to be at least one more. 

Regarding the title of this thread, I don't agree with the premise "since jobs are unlikely to return".  People are starting to realize that this strain of coronavirus isn't some second coming of the black plague, and businesses are starting to reopen (at least in the US).  People who were out of work are starting to return to the workforce, so I don't think the situation is anywhere near as bleak as, say, 2008-2013 when unemployment was astronomical and wasn't due to a temporary shutdown.

But yeah, as far as that money printing press goes, it worries me.  Someone is going to have to pay for all of these stimulus checks eventually, and we all know that someone is going to be the taxpayers.  If I do get another check from the government, you can be damn sure I'm not going to blow it on frivolous stuff.

As stated in the title, I have 0.017BTC and need PayPal funds at preev 1:1.  I can sell less than the full amount if you don't need that much.

I will not send first unless you have significant green trust or if I've done business with you before.

This will be a neutral feedback transaction.

Send me a PM if you're willing to help me out, as I might miss seeing this thread if you post here.

Local rule:  Please do not post here unless you're interested in doing this deal.  PayPal is very risky because of the chance of chargebacks, but I have never done this and won't ever.  Also, I won't deal with anyone under Full Member unless they're willing to send first.

Edit:
I'm not dealing with newbies, period.  I should have made that clear.

Edit 2:  Deal done with DaveF.  Locking thread now.

There's never going to be 100% safety when storing your private keys, or with anything else for that matter.  I saw the video of the Beirut blast, and you'd have to have your HW wallet or flash drive or piece of paper with your seed words on it buried pretty deep if you were storing any of those things near the blast zone--and even then, what's to keep rescue workers or the cleanup crews from stumbling across your stash before you do?

This is definitely one of the disadvantages of crypto, that you truly own your own money.  There's not a bank that's insuring it, and it's not stored on some corporation's server like stocks and other digital investments are.  If your private keys get blown up or lost or stolen, you're screwed. 

As an aside, I can't believe there were only around 100 casualties in that blast.  It looked like it would have killed a lot more people than that, though I don't know how dense the population was in that particular area at the time.  Scary stuff.

It doesn't sound like there's any real plan for a government bailout based on what that article says.  Even if Virgin Atlantic took bailout money, the amount would be nowhere near what the banks took in 2008-09, so I don't think this is a huge deal. 

Airlines are suffering right now because of COVID-19, but as I keep saying this is a temporary situation.  Bankrupt airlines can still remain in business without taking a penny from the government.

They're not going to get bailed out IMO.  What I'm more worried about is how the US government is going to pay for all of these stimulus checks.  Somebody has to foot the bill for those, and while I haven't heard many complaints about them, they're still an issue that's going to have to be addressed somewhere down the road.