OP, did you recently get scammed or what?  I'm not sure why you came back here to bitch about the forum, because not much has probably changed since you've been gone.  You're also an account seller if I'm not mistaken, so that behavior tends to facilitate scamming (depending on the rank and reputation of the sold account, of course).

But in any case, I've long thought of Theymos as putting a high premium on personal freedom--and responsibility for not getting scammed.  I've always figured that's why he doesn't ban scammers even when they're caught.  It is a bit odd IMO, as all the other forums I know of will ban your ass immediately if you scam someone, but I certainly wouldn't say Theymos promotes scams directly.

But who knows?  I don't know much about Theymos and thus I'm neutral on the matter.  I think it would be better if scamming wasn't allowed on bitcointalk, but I know that isn't going to happen and I've accepted that.

So again, did you get scammed recently?

I have a question about your question, OP: if you're looking to store coins offline using Electrum, why not just write down the seed phrase and keep it in a safe place?  Why do you need any sort of computer for that?  As long as you've got the private keys to your coins, it doesn't matter how those keys are stored and it seems even less secure to use any electronic device to store them--because there's always a chance you won't be able to recover them.  Plus you'll have to keep the machine safe just like you'd have to keep the seed phrase safe, only it would be much easier to hide a piece of paper or even one of those steel wallets.

Just curious, not criticizing, and perhaps I'm misunderstanding something as well.

Cheers, bro.  I'm not exactly hoping for anything parabolic, as I don't like the crashes that generally follow such price movement, but I am hoping for some growth at least.

The 2000 merits I have, but my activity is still sub-2000.  I'm getting close, though--it's crazy to think I've been a member here for just about five years so far.  2015 seems like a long time ago when I think of what bitcoin has done since then, and man....if I'd only known then where bitcoin would be today I would have backed up the truck and bought till it hurt.  Ah well, hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

Yeah, it's ironic that they cry "racism!", which implies that they don't want to be judged as a group, but as individuals, and yet they're probably the most nationalistic group on the forum and the one through which runs a particularly nasty attitude--collectively.  It could be that it's just the most vocal of the bunch that's giving them all a bad name, but I'm not hearing a lot of dissent in their ranks.

Turkey isn't a race, either. 

I wouldn't say Chipmixer or any other campaign shouldn't accept anyone from the Turkish section.  They should be judged by the same standards as anyone else.  But if I'm not mistaken most campaigns still only pay for posts in English, and some of the writing I've seen by the loudest of the Turkish posse is just atrocious.  It's no wonder why they're not getting into the Chipmixer campaign, though I don't know about any of the others.

Thanks for the list and synopses, OP.  I'll have to write these down in my little notebook so I don't forget.

I watch a lot of movies, too, and I have yet to stumble across a single one where bitcoin is even mentioned--but then again, I don't tend to watch comedies or spy/thriller/action movies and might not have discovered any of these on my own. 

You'd think bitcoin might be an interesting plot device that could be used in action movies, but apparently Hollywood either hasn't thought of it or doesn't agree with my opinion.  Usually screenwriters incorporate at least some contemporary culture references in their work, and it isn't like bitcoin is still some unknown thing at this point.  Hopefully in the future we'll start seeing bitcoin/crypto at least being mentioned in movies.  It would appeal to me and a lot of other people, too. 

Someone else had a list like OP's, but they were all non-Hollywood movies from European countries if I recall correctly.  I should have written those down, too, but I don't think I'd even have access to them. 

Wow!  I haven't visited the bpip site in a long time, and I just had to check who sent me my first merit.  It was a member by the name of shesheboy, who wasn't exactly a fan of mine (and hasn't been active in a while):


Very weird that he merited one of my posts, and I remember thinking it was weird at the time too.  Ah the good old days of the merit system, ya gotta love it.  Also what I remember from back then was that people were getting huge amounts of merits for their posts, even if those posts were just mediocre.  The system was brand new and a lot of people didn't realize how important and valuable merits would become, particularly to lower-ranked members.

Someone brought this up as an issue not too long ago, and most of the opinions leaned toward there not being any sort of race bias in the Chipmixer campaign--and that was certainly my opinion.  And as I said in that other thread, it's really really hard to get into that campaign and I'm sure the list of rejected applicants represents quite a few nationalities. 

I haven't checked marlboroza's trust page recently, but I will after writing this.  If he got a neg from someone on DT, I suppose that's something DarkStar_ would have to make a call on--but it's really none of your concern, OP.  You're coming across as a disgruntled applicant who couldn't get into the Chipmixer campaign rather than someone pursuing some sort of justice. 

Also, if you're a crappy writer you're not going to get into the Chipmixer campaign.  I'm assuming that's why you got rejected if you did in fact apply to it.  So perhaps the problem lies in the mirror and not with DarkStar_, Chipmixer, or anybody on the forum.

As long as it's legal porn, I don't see any problem with bitcoin being the payment method whatsoever.  In fact, I think it's an almost perfect use for bitcoin, since most people don't want to put a porn subscription or whatever on their credit/debit card.  And why should bitcoin get a bad rap?  Before it existed, people paid for porn with fiat--and drugs, weapons, as well as funding terrorists, too.  The USD never got its reputation smeared because of that, and bitcoin shouldn't either.

As I said, legal porn.  But I'm pretty sure bitcoin's reputation has been sullied because of illegal kiddie porn busts that made the news and where bitcoin was involved.  Bitcoin shouldn't get blamed for any of that, but people don't think critically about most things and even fewer understand what bitcoin is.  That's life.

LOL, seriously.  And I bet if merits were just a little bit easier to earn for lower-ranked members, they probably would go all-in for a thing like this.  As it stands, however, most of them would just be wasting their time and money waiting for notifications.  But on a serious note, merits are extremely important to any member who's here for bounties, sig campaigns, or who just wants to be a big swinging D on the forum--and I bet a lot of them do constantly check to see if they've earned any new merits.

I don't need merits to rank up anymore, but I still like earning them since it provides validation that I'm still making useful posts that others either like or agree with--but I don't want or need a smart watch to update me.  That would be going laughably overboard, but OP's scheme is amusing to say the least.

Same here (though not Vod so much), and although I wish we were all on the same page about everything, we all know that is never going to happen.  The conflict is what keeps the forum balanced--if you can believe that--because if all the "powerful" personalities here had the same opinions, bitcointalk would be like an oligarchy or some such thing.  There needs to be dissent, and I don't think OP should have to fear getting tagged because he's speaking out against Lauda or anyone else.  I think a lot of us agree that this wouldn't be an appropriate use of the trust system, and hopefully a tag like that would be countered.

Definitely.  I'm just hoping OP isn't an alt of cryptohunter/TOAA, because in that case it would be hard for me to take any of this seriously.  The writing style and length are similar, but I can't be sure.  OP seems a bit more level-headed than CH.

I'm cynical and I happen to agree with you--but the more I'm seeing the fear surrounding this virus, the more I'm starting to believe that it really is affecting world markets.  And I have to tell you, I think this is all completely irrational.  This strain of corona virus is nowhere near as deadly as a lot of other things that can kill you, but people are reacting to it as if it were that movie Contagion from 2011.  Crazy.

And you know what?  This is probably a fantastic time to be buying stocks that have taken a beating, and also bitcoin.  I'm starting to believe that this virus freakout actually did cause bitcoin to sink from above $10k--but I also think that's a temporary situation, and getting in (or getting more) at $8500 or less is a bargain.  Wish I had some disposable income. 

Normally I would have very little to say about a book that I'm unable to read because I don't understand the language, but I have to say that was a good find, OP.  I know bitcoin is hot in Asia, and one of the things I love about crypto is how global it is--it's the closest thing we have to a universal currency, kind of like the Euro for all continents.

If you look on Amazon for books about bitcoin/crypto, there seem to be a ton of them.  It's kind of surprising, given that most people still don't own a single satoshi, and yet it's encouraging to see.  Hope you enjoy the rest of the book, OP.  Hopefully the author wasn't just a hack, because that's what I worry about when I buy nonfiction books.  Unless the author is popular or otherwise has a reputation as a good writer, you never know what you're getting unless you can sample it first.

I'd say diamonds have a very specific and useful purpose, just like gold does.  You can't discount the importance of either one's use in making jewelry.  Gold and diamonds have been used for a long, long time; they're very popular; and they hold value.

Having said that, there isn't any crypto linked to diamonds and there doesn't need to be--just like gold doesn't need to be linked to crypto, as in a gold-backed coin.  That concept has been discussed for years and it just isn't popular.  Someone would have to hold the gold or diamonds that were backing the coin, and obviously that's a problem.  It also goes against what cryptocurrencies stand for, which is decentralization and not having a need to trust a 3rd party.

If you want to invest in diamonds, go for it.  But if crypto is your thing, that's completely separate.  And it should be.

I can't figure out why this coronavirus scare is affecting the markets so much--people are saying that it's going to negate all corporate earnings for 2020 and crap like that, but I don't see how it's possible to have nearly that kind of an effect on the economy.  Investors are obviously scared, though--that much is real.

As far as bitcoin goes, I'd point out that it's still around $8500 and that isn't bad at all.  Yes, it took a little nosedive from its 2020 high but it's not like it crashed back down to $3k or anything like that.  I'm hoping the general fear will subside and that the world of medicine will get the spread of the virus under control--and that the media stops feeding the fear, which they obviously love to do.

In the meantime, use hand sanitizer liberally.

Yeah, no.  Not at all.

But this is just speculation on his part, and the courts would have to exercise enormous power in order to get miners to do what he's proposing--more power than they probably have.  Plus I'm not sure if miners in China would think they're bound by a US court order (if I'm understanding this correctly).  Miners sure as hell wouldn't do it voluntarily.

Plus I don't think the legal system would in effect destroy bitcoin in order to settle a single case.  They'd be doing more harm than good, and I have to think that they'd see that.  Anyway, I think this is a bunch of BS anyway and yes it's FUD in the extreme.  CW is very wacky to say the least.

It's definitely not just you, and it gets worse as you get older (lol).

And like last year, we've got members like OP trying to spoil the fun--April fools jokes work so much better when there's not a community discussion about them.  The element of surprise is key to them working IMO, because there will always be some members who aren't aware of the tradition and will be completely fooled by it.  Thus I think it best if talk about this coming April 1st is kept to a minimum.

The funniest in my experience was when Theymos introduced all those different attributes like "politeness" and all that.  There were a lot of people who took it seriously and flooded Meta with "WTF?" threads.  It's hard to top that, but I'm sure Theymos could do it if he tried.

And I would assume that it all depends on what country the ATM is operating in.  In the US, I'm pretty sure no ATM operator can get away with not requiring any KYC.  And as I've written about before, the GeneralBytes machine that I tried to use last year did require a scan of my drivers license.  Some of the machines listed on coinatmradar don't seem to have KYC requirements, but I doubt that's accurate.

That would be awesome if you could keep up with the data.  As you said, some of these machines appear and disappear within a short time frame that maintaining a map of them all must be hard work.  Good luck with the project--I definitely think it's a worthwhile one.

I'm not an economist, and this is my own personal analysis, but I think it all depends on the level of fear and how serious the epidemic actually is.  With the coronavirus, there's a lot of fear but it doesn't seem to be the deadliest virus known to man--and I don't think the death toll is going to be outrageously high.  But it's the perception and people's reaction that affects their spending, productivity, and in the end, the economy.

I think people are overreacting to the coronavirus outbreak, but that's not to say people shouldn't be concerned.  The media tends to make this stuff front-page news in an attempt to scare people into continuously watching TV and checking the news.  And yeah, I'm cynical about all of that.  If this was a virus that was a deadly as HIV was back in the 80s-90s, or ebola, then I'd say all the worry is justified and it might affect the global economy. 

But coronavirus?  I don't think so.

The only bitcoin ATM I ever tried to use was a General Bytes one, and I wasn't able to complete a buy because I kept getting an error message when I was attempting to scan my drivers license.  It was very, very frustrating. 

I do plan to try some others in the future, but getting to them is a problem for me--and I think the nearest ones are also of the General Bytes brand.  I don't think they're all defective or anything like that, but my experience left a bad taste in my mouth about ATMs--and not to mention the fees were outrageous.

That's what I was wondering as well, but I'm not a believer in TA--not for stocks, and not for crypto.  Unfortunately crypto doesn't lend itself to fundamental analysis, so the only way to analyze anything is by studying charts and trying to predict the future based on that.  I wouldn't argue that it never works, but I've seen some bizarre analysis from TA guys.

And no, I'm not sick of crypto charts, because I don't read crypto websites in general and when I visit the Speculation section I pretty much know they're to be expected.  If chart analysis makes some people money, more power to them and they must be doing something right.  It's not for me, however.