I think they're probably capable of taking the Nets to the finals, but I don't think it'll happen.  Kyrie is already saying he'll only play 60 games.  Durant is trying like hell to get out and who knows what's going on with Simmons, he won't talk to anyone.  They'll almost certainly be the most dysfunctional team in the NBA.  Phoenix seems to be making another push to try and get Durant, although I don't know what they have to offer.  Kyrie to me seems trapped in a bad place and likely to have more drama...  Ben is a wildcard.  I'm looking forward to their first game in a couple months though.  I hope they stick together long enough to get a look at what they could have been.

For me the concern is who can you trust?  Most of the established casinos don't need funding and the casinos that do need funding might not have the best intentions with your money.  If a casino did offer an investment opportunity, it would be cool, but would be extremely risky as it would make that wallet a target for hackers.  If a place like stake offered a chance to get in on the house take with an investment and it was liquid, I would be all over it.  I don't think opportunities like that are as easy to come by though as you would like.  Be careful.

I held the funds for 3 days.  That's plenty of time for shipping to have occurred, especially considering they were discussing this deal for days before BTC was sent.  When they asked me to release funds I even made the buyer double confirm that everything was ok and to release funds.  It's not my place to hold onto someone's funds when they tell me twice to release them to the seller.  The release approval was from the right account.  It was being released to the prior agreed upon address.  

Keeping your account secure is important. 

I was just reading this article. Pretty awesome that another major sports team is integrating Bitcoin into their operations. I don’t live close enough to Houston for me to try this out but I’m sure other teams will follow along soon enough. Maybe I’ll get to buy Cardinals tickets with Bitcoin before too much longer.

Another day, another place to pay… with Bitcoin.

+1 use case

I had a chance to watch the Lakers docuseries on Hulu last night and it was very interesting in comparison to HBO’s Winning Time. HBO’s is more entertaining hands down. It’s entire first season was covered in the first episode of the Hulu series. Hulu’s used all real footage though, so it was cool seeing the real people the actors were playing. I love seeing how it played out in real life as opposed to the HBO series and I can’t wait to see more of both.

I would agree with others that it isn't time to call the bear market over yet.  I have long been saying that the mtgox coins being released will cause a drop in price, however with the recent Blackrock news that may not be the case.  Personally though, until those coins are absorbed by the market I don't think I'm ready to be done looking for lower prices.  I'm also a big 4-year cycle guy, and according to history we should be seeing a bottom in the market sometime in the next 2-3 months.  Maybe history just rhymes this time instead of repeating, but nevertheless I'd rather be late and miss the bottom than early and suffer the pain of losses.  Come Halloween though, you can bet I'll be feeling bullish as ever.

Congrats and thanks for posting a picture (love seeing pictures of my coins in the wild).  Now that the NastyFans 1g coins have sold out, I imagine it will start being pretty difficult to get your hands on them.  There are still a handful of the NastyPool 1g rounds left for anyone who wants to snag one of those before they're sold out as well...

I am seeing an uptick in sales for these 1oz coins (this thread) this week with 14 of them sold already.  It seems like a lot of folks are trying to grab what's left in stock for their collections before these too are sold out.   

I don't think the FBI accusations carry as much weight as you think they do.  After this disgrace of a witch hunt against a former US president, I would say the FBI is a couple of years away from being completely gutted.  Sure, they're going to do everything they can to stop that.  Which means more witch hunts and shady behavior.  One thing I do know, the credibility of the FBI has to be at an all time low.  As we move into a new future where funds are surveyed on blockchains and the digital world becomes more relevant, I think organizations like the FBI and the IRS will find themselves dinosaurs clutching to influence. 

I don’t know if that’s going to happen. I suspected they would return and the Nets would go on like the trade requests never happened. However, I just read an article that claimed Durant said that he would rather retire then play another game for the Nets. I guess we’ll see soon enough. With only a couple months left until Durant is expected to suit up, we could have another Ben Simmons situation on our hands.

The sad truth is that the earth’s days are numbered. It is going to die a fiery death at the hands of the sun. The only way to ensure the survival of mankind is to make it a multi planetary species. That’s the Elon Musk speech anyway. I think it’s the proper way to think about things as well. While we are destroying the earth at unacceptable levels by over utilizing resources, we shouldn’t forget that the ultimate goal is not needing the earth to survive.

That’s the number I called. It was a friendly and quick conversation and they told me to call back anytime. Maybe you got a bad customer service agent or something. I was quite pleased with the interaction. They’re also now sending weekly update emails. If you aren’t getting them, I’d check your spam filter.

On Friday the price is going up again to $6,500, a 30% increase from the original pricing.

The only negative I’ve heard so far is that supposedly the second batch will not have regenerative braking, but that may be coming for batch 3. This may also explain the hefty price increases, but everything seems to be hearsay at the moment.

The new docuseries on the Lakers has started airing on Hulu. So far it’s just the first two episodes and I haven’t had a chance to watch yet, but after seeing the HBO special on them (Winning Time) I’m anxious for some new material to watch on them. I hope it’s done as well as the HBO special. I’ll find out soon enough…

The idea of being arrested for working on open source code does suck, but there are laws in place and as the lines between software and money are blurred, there will be consequences for those who are made an example out of. The Wild West days of crypto seem to be in the past. There may be a few things that have been grandfathered in, but it’s going to get harder and harder to enter the space with new financial innovations.

Seems like everything has been a bit calm later on the trading front. I think teams may be settling in with what they plan to enter training camp with. The season is just right around the corner so it seems like the Nets aren’t going to be making any deals that don’t interest them. We may see a KD and Kyrie team with Ben Simmons to start the year. Talk about awkward…

The next couple of weeks are going to likely be the most important we’ve had since the recent bottom. We’ll get to see the effect of the mtgox coins on the market and if they’ll be able to be absorbed or cause a breakdown in the price rally. I’m watching and waiting like everyone else, but I’m not sure my actions would be effected regardless of what happens. The next leg up is approaching…

That is a pretty unbelievable opportunity. I wonder what other things are being sent up there and retrieved. Seems a little risky but Elon has a pretty good track record of retrieving those rockets. I imagine your friend has to be a pretty important person to be able to do this. The price of doing something like that I imagine would be quite a bit more than any of us would expect.

The 4-year cycle is undoubtedly real. Having the block reward coded to lower directly impacts the supply of the market. Since price is the result or supply vs demand, the block reward being on a 4-year reduction cycle directly causes the price to increase. This will continue until it doesn’t, at which point we’ll see a crash like never before witnessed. I think we likely have another cycle or two before that’s a big concern though. For now it’s party on.

I’ve always thought Ravencoin was a good idea but it seemed to fall short on actual real world use. I had high hopes it would be supported by Overstock and RVN securities would be traded all over the place. I’m not aware of any actually being traded though. It might just be an issue of me not looking into it enough, but it seems like they have a problem with advertising if there are lots of RVN securities trading somewhere.

Enough money is a tricky question.  You could say that if you have food to eat then you have enough money.  There are definitely levels.  With $100 you are certain to have a full belly.  With $1,000 you can have a full belly and a place to stay for a while.  With $10,000 you can have food and shelter as well as transportation.  With $100,000 you may be able to buy your own residence with a loan.  With $1,000,000 you can have your own residence without a loan as well as investments that generate income to sustain you.  With $10,000,000 you can have most luxuries you can think of to go along with an amazing home.  With $100,000,000 you can own things you never even knew you wanted like a yacht as well as having the financial freedom to never worry about money again.  With $1,000,000,000 you can own everything you ever wanted and begin taking ownership of businesses and sports teams.  With $10,000,000,000 you can own your own sports teams along with major controlling stakes in large businesses.  With $100,000,000,000 you can start companies to do whatever you want like travel to Mars or build electric powered tanks for people.  With $1,000,000,000,000 you have the power to control society and decide what their products can do or what news they read.  With $10,000,000,000,000 you can finance wars to decide borders and control governments.  With $100,000,000,000,000 you can control the world.

How much is enough for you?

I called them and was told that my order was in batch 2.  They told me that I could expect it to be shipped in September.  I also noticed that they were about a month behind on their recent delivery estimates, so I'm not expecting mine before October.  A lot will depend on which color you picked and the availability though.  I went with the all black, so hopefully that wasn't a popular choice.  It's worth giving them a call though.  It was a quick and easy conversation that only took a minute and it's nice to know that they're expecting to ship it so soon.