But people are aware about the risks without being forced to play. And they wouldn't risk losing money if there wouldn't be chances of growing this money at same time. Actually we are hostage of the *your loss is my gain and your gain is my pain* effect in our daily life. Isn't that what governments do charging heavy taxes over basic needs of the people? With the difference in gambling you can choose participating the activity or not.

Foreigner gamblers going to USA to gamble considerable amounts of money are rich businessmen, investors, speculators on their countries. They won't cause externalities to their local governments. There are some common tourists too, but the amounts they bet are insignificant. Of course they could be gambling on their native places, but the local governments should legalize it first, right? The irony here is that they don't want to legalize gambling because it would be harmful to their citizens, but at same they complain people are going abroad to gamble.

I think the effects of gambling are positive, yes. Millionaires hate to pay taxes and avoid countries where the rates are high, taking away with them all their wealth, so gambling is the way for a country to get money from them through free will. On long run they lose, but also have fun and won't miss the lost money as they have much more to spend (what also include the maharajas of the judiciary and other public employees).
Furthermore we can't stop doing things we like just because some people don't know limits. This way everyone is being punished for few people's mistakes.

It doesn't make too much difference diversifying in crypto universe, because bitcoin drives everything here. Altcoins follow bitcoin's fluctuations upside and down. Some people like to hold altcoins, because they might show higher increasement percentage when compared to bitcoin during a short period of time, but it's more risky to hold them anyway. Bitcoin is the safest crypto currency to invest and I wouldn't put more than 20% of my portfolio in altcoins. To diversify funds efficiently you need to check another kinds of investment like real estate and stocks markets.

There are no good guys on this story. The government of Nigeria is tyrant the same way the big techs are. Each of them have their own political agenda and in the middle there are the sheep (the people) who pick one side or another, but are never benefited in the end. People are doomed anyway, because they think and act like sheep, always picking the less worse side, instead of aiming the excellency.
Twitter and freedom of speech don't fit on the same sentence. For them it's interesting to stand against Nigeria's government right now, but they say nothing about many other criminals profiles posting on their platform, like mentioned above by another forum members. Not only terrorists are allowed on twitter, but regional mafias, gangsters from different countries as well. The point is that these are protected by their agenda as victims of the society.

I think it's a big mistake to invalidate a declaration based on the personal character of the speaker. A fact is still a fact even though if it was told by the worse individual of the world. I really don't care for John McAfee and I have nothing to say in his favour or against him, but what he said is actually the truth. Crypto is the last hope for many people. Not everyone in this universe are speculators, traders or gamblers who have crypto as a hobby or extra income source. Crypto currency is already the only and last source of income for many third world citizens who don't have opportunities on their local communities for different reasons.

Without crypto many would be starving, living in very bad conditions or not having their financial independence. Because financial independence means to act accordingly to your principles and still be able to thrive, what is nearly to impossible in regional communities, since to have a job you have to turn a blind eye to many wrong things and adapt yourself to the local hierarchy, being conniving to the system.

Actually I thought it already worked this way. It's a fact governments are desperate for more income and crypto universe looks a pretty fertile spot to milk more money to the public vaults, so governments can keep the social welfare programs going on and increase their values when the elections are near again. Moreover, more money is needed to decrease the money printer's speed a little bit and make the fiat ponzi scheme last longer.
I'm sure not only USA, but many other countries will fully agree with his proposal, as all of them can be benefited. If it can lead to an one world global government I'm not sure, because China, Russia, USA and EU aren't going to bow themselves to each other. They value their own sovereignty and power applied over the weaker nations.

It has nothing to with Trump, Elon, China or any other argument presented by the media after btc crashes. It's just speculators playing with crypto currency while another investors are too afraid to invest nice amounts like they did months ago. Bitcoin is probably going to enter the 20,000$'s range again soon and once this happens, the market can see a chance of a new recovery.
With some luck we won't even enter the 10,000$'s range, what would be good enough in my opinion. Crypto has total respect nowadays, otherwise we wouldn't see so many news sites and specialists talking about it all the time, especially at mainstream media.

Well, by using dollar as official currency they are already much better than most america's countries. Since they have the dollar stability probably bitcoin will be mainly used as investment, like you said. As I see, the idea of adopting bitcoin by El Salvador's president is due to the fact the country has considerable percentage of its income coming from foreigner countries (probably people native from El Salvador who live in USA and other countries sending money monthly to their relatives) being heavily taxed by banks. They saw in bitcoin a potential solution for this issue, so people can send money from any place of the world paying less fees, avoiding the eager banks' taxes.

I really hope good projects are being developed to increase bitcoin adoption among citizens who aren't familiar with crypto currency yet. Latin america as a whole will be highly benefited by this, since most countries there have weak currencies which don't stand against inflation for too long. Furthermore unemployment and lack of official jobs rates are huge.
If bitcoin can help these people finding online opportunities it will be already a wonderful help for their local economies development. However, it can happen only through a serious and dedicated approach from the government to its citizens.

Politicians aren't too different from popular businessmen entrepreneurs who are constantly talking about bitcoin on their social medias. Besides being a currency and a strong investment on long run, bitcoin has also became a tool for people capitalize more engagement on the internet. Some politicians started using bitcoin to promote themselves on the social medias, like businessmen have already been doing so far.
Due to the spot congressmen occupy I think they should talk about bitcoin seriously instead of only attempting to farm likes and shares. What important project is he talking about? How will it work on practice? What does a bitcoin adoption project has to do with a picture of the congressman displaying laser eyes? We need more seriouness... Let the jokes and the catchphrases for the clown Elon Musk.

As we can see it's good news for bitcoin. And it is not actually because these companies are holding btcs, but because the amount they hold are insignificant compared the the total bitcoin supply. It makes manipulation harder and the distribution truly decentralized among different individuals. There are no kings or maharajas in bitcoin environment and I believe that is why it has been working so well.

Bitcoin enthusiasts blame those who want to replace bitcoin because these people are willing to manipulate the market in order to benefit themselves without thinking about the consequences that may be very harmful to crypto universe as a whole. What you categorized as atheists are the guys who would sacrifice the entire crypto market to make their personal fortune grow faster, what includes defamating bitcoin and overpricing their own projects importance. I'm not saying they can't try, but to every action there is always a reaction. Of course bitcoin holders will defend the original crypto currency among all.

I think it can't be compared to a religion, because religion subject involves the spiritual world and elements which are unknown to us and to the science. In crypto's debate, arguments are purely based in physical world laws and elements. We don't rely in faith to defend bitcoin or to defend it should be replaced by an altcoin.

For small poor countries it's a smart move to adopt bitcoin as currency, because they have nothing to lose. For this reason the volatility is an acceptable risk to be taken. On the other hand, if more countries like El Salvador adopt bitcoin as well, the volatility tends to decrease along the time, as millions of people will be consistently entering this ecosystem to deal with bitcoin in a daily basis.
I hope these news coming from El Salvador aren't just propaganda and that the legislative house accepts the president's proposal to make bitcoin official there. The world will be watching this crypto experience closely.

Since it takes extensive research to come up concrete numbers I think we can't say gambling taxes collected by the government aren't enough to cover costs with problem gamblers. This industry profits a lot of money. Most people will never see such amounts of money during their life, so it's even harder to have some notion about this huge income application.
It's also hard to have notion regards the number of gamblers who will create such issues for the society. There are many people involved on this market and only a minority of them will present negative behaviors. Moreover, many addicted gamblers are rich people who can't control themselves. I think it's unlikely they will start robbing people or stores around to keep gambling.

It's not possible to know yet if it's already the dip. Bitcoin is pretty stable around 35,000$ these days, but there isn't any indicator it's going to pump or dump next. For those focused on long run investments who don't want to miss the chance it's already a good moment to buy bitcoins, the price is really good and they can guarantee their holdings by entering the market now, although awareness is needed regards the correction reaching to deeper levels on soon. I'm not too relieved about this situation because it's always sad to see bitcoin losing value. At same time it had to happen sooner or later. It's part of the process, so let's wait and hope for a steady recovery.

Naturally the player who loses a game voluntarily will have to be banned from professional championships because he won't entertain the public anymore, since his gameplay is faked. People like to watch athletes who give everything they have to show during a game. That is what makes the match competitive, unpredictable and fascinating. That is the basic of any sports.
The rigged game is tepid and emotionless. Consequently besides the public, sponsors will also fade away from the sport if cheater players aren't removed. And without sponsors there are no games.

The reason why one person is going to win instead of his adversary is commonly explained as luck, but behind the luck factor there may be God acting through his spiritual laws. We as human beings aren't able to understand how these laws work exactly and I believe it's really supposed to not be possible to understand them. It's part of the mistery of the life and the universe, which humanity lacks answers for (even the atheists).
As we can see it's not possible to say why God favours one or another person in determined situations through our limited vision. But I believe God isn't against any human being and no one is abandoned by him. If the person loses a bet today, but lives a decent life, far from addictions and traps of the evil, this individual will be rewarded by God somehow (not necessarily winning the jackpot, anyway).

These are things that exist in our societies with or without gambling addiction. Externalities are part of our daily life and although it's an absurd we have to pay for most of them, there is nothing we can do about it. Only politicians have the power to change the rules which could make everything works fairly.

Depression is about health, so I think people have a more empathic approach on this matter. It's an acceptable externality.

Raising security standards I think it's not an externality, because you are paying for a service which is going to benefit you directly. Externality would be you paying security standards for someone else who doesn't even live near you.

Jail shouldn't have a cost for the society. The prisioner should work inside it to be able to pay for his family and his own living costs.

Authorities aren't going to adopt the existing digital currencies. Instead, they are going to create their own stablecoins. Probably you have seen China is going ahead in launching their own crypto currency, right?
When this day comes I think there could be a positive impact over crypto market's volume in general, especially bitcoin, but keep in mind that is not the main goal of these authorities. What they want is a traceable national currency which will be centralized and fully regulated to stop tax evasion, money laundering and to know where the money of each citizen is going to.

At first glance I didn't like very much that hooded flat dummy design. But after reading the fully concept I thought very interesting the fact people in front of it will have their faces reflected on the statue's face.
Due to the location where the statue is going to be placed I believe it won't attract too much attention from people who aren't familiar with bitcoin, because that is a technological district, so people around must already know what is bitcoin, how it works and probably they already adopted it. It's a very creative tribute to Satoshi, indeed, but to promote bitcoin not useful at all.

For early adopters, to increase their wealth through bitcoin is just a consequence of all the benefits the digital currency brings to us. Like you said, bitcoin is great to transact worldwide between two individuals from very distant countries, it's a powerful tool to escape failed national currencies constant devaluation, it's a bridge between your money and investments which wouldn't be disponible through traditional currencies for the average joe.
And for me the greatest advantage of bitcoin is the accessibility it guarantees to its adopters. With bitcoin I can work online and be directly paid without bureaucratic third party platforms asking for documents and taking a lot of time to accept it or freezing funds for nothing. Bitcoin has its advantages and I really would like to see global adoption, so other people could also enjoy these opportunities. Moreover, coins need to be spread among more hands to make decentralization works more efficiently.