I feel like you could have picked better criteria in order to rate the exchanges. While I might want to know what the minimum deposit is or what coins the exchange offers, there are some other details that are really important.

One popular exchange you mentioned in your post was Binance. I feel that you should be a bit more specific because there are some things you would definitely want to know before going through the whole sign-up process. Instead of having it separated by "criteria" I think it's also better to consolidate based on exchange, since people are trying to find a single exchange.



Binance

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Pros
     (+) Extremely low fees
     (+) Impressive selection of cryptocurrencies
     (+) Avoid KYC (low hassle)

Cons
     (-) Does NOT accept fiat (USD, GBP, etc.)
     (-) Faulty and often annoying security features (2fa issues)

Is Binance right for you?

If you like to trade a lot (especially between cryptocurrencies) Binance is definitely the best option. They have the lowest fees on the market and support the largest supply of coins. If you already have a place to buy Bitcoin (ie. Coinbase) then depositing will be no problem. Unfortunately Binance does not take fiat deposits, but you get to dodge most of the KYC limits.

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Do you think this format is clearer or not? I think that making a lost of pros and cons is a lot easier to read and gives you a better overall understanding of the subject. Each exchange has it's own strengths and weaknesses. A pro/con list allows readers to make an informed decision without reading through each section and having to reference back.

Yea I think that this is really the conclusion I have come to after thinking about it for a while. Bitcoin's value didn't solely come from the fact that it was first, but being first certainly helped. Plus I have a bit of a negative view of Bitcoin right now, but in reality it is a solid system that was built to last.

Exactly. When it all comes down to it, gambling is just a form of entertainment. Just like spending $20 to go see a movie, some people prefer to play a hand or two. If you do everything in moderation then you will never have an issue.

It's important to remember the advice of a wise investor: "There's never a perfect time to buy". No matter how the price fluctuates, it will end up pretty much the same in the long run. Invest now if you want, or invest tomorrow. You can try to time the market but you will end up unhappy if you think you will get the lowest price it's ever going to be.

I don't really think it's fair to compare slots or dice to "evolutionary gambling", they are just to completely different things. Psychologically we are awful at games of chance, and there are a lot of reasons for this. A lot of it has to do with the fact that we aren't computers, we can't calculate risk and statistical outcomes very easily, and to relate back to evolutionary "gambles": these were fairly simple. There was no 1 in 200 million odds to win the lottery, it was more like 20 men vs 5. I think this is the main reason we fail at gambling, it's very hard for us to understand the mathematics behind it all.

Very true, I think another important thing to realize (especially for non-gamblers) is that it's never as easy as it sounds. People always tell you to "cash out" and then laugh when you lose, but then they do the exact same thing. The psychological tricks our minds play on us can cloud our judgement very easily.

But I completely agree with you about "don't gamble what you can't afford", I think most people on BT (that I've heard from so far) view gambling as more of a form of entertainment: which I believe is the correct and best way to look at it. And as the old adage goes: "never chase the dragon".

Interesting points, as for my belief on mass adoption: "I have no idea." However, whether it happens or not I still enjoy learning about and using cryptocurrency as a hobby. I think all of us here on BT have at least some faith in mass adoption though, we are all in this together!

It's crazy all of the stories about lost keys, it's like that one guy who was the owner of an exchange (I lost the article) who had a heart attack and no one knew the password to his wallet. Unfortunate, but with full sovereignty comes the inventible risk of losing your money: this is very easily preventable though.

Do you have any ideas on what mass adoption would even look like? I guess when you are able to tap a guy on the shoulder in a crowd and send him some Bitcoin? Or when even Joe's Coffee Shop accepts Bitcoin, idk it's kind of crazy to think about since it's all so limited now?

The "streaks have to even out" that you call "law of probability" is actually known as the "law of small numbers" which is the whole fallacy that I am speaking of. I described the possible benefits in the "Using this to your advantage" section, however I think an example would probably help since I didn't explain it that well.

Another helpful phrase: "A part is not representative of the whole"

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Here is an example of a common "situation" gamblers find themselves in (this is what I've experienced myself and see happen all the time):

     > Let's say that you flip a coin 10 times, betting tails each time and losing to heads.

     > While the odds don't change on the next coinflip, you still feel like it's more likely.

     > With this flawed thinking, let's say you bet 2x more than you normally would: because the odds are better right?

     > Then you hit another heads, and you're out of money.

This isn't really the best example, but often times we bet more based on this flawed thinking that the odds are better. However, it's important to realize that we are even subconsciously biased and we tend to follow patterns even though we don't realize it.


I was trying to find a website I remember visiting a while ago that was interactive and demonstrated some of these biases, but now I can't find it

Edit: found it

Thank you! I find this stuff fascinating, originally got into it after getting into an argument with a friend over win streaks in a video game. I still do this all the time, but at least I am aware I am doing it so I can alter my thinking.

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As for the "humans are bad at gambling" thing:

It was a bit of an over-generalization, what I really meant was that humans suffer from many biases, making success extremely hard. But to be clear: "There is no good gambling", I think it's more along the lines of "smart" gambling. Meaning that you can't change the odds, but you can be aware of them and limit yourself accordingly.

My point being that "smart" gambling has nothing to do with winning or losing, but more with how you think about it.

Yea I definitely agree with you, probably using the word "bad" wasn't the best to describe my point. I don't think that gambling is evil, however it can become self-destructive very easily through addiction. It's like alcohol though, everything in moderation. And I completely agree with your last point: gambling is purely a form of entertainment.

That's because this is Bitcointalk, not a social media forum. While these probably don't have much value themselves, social media accounts with a ton of influence go for thousands because of the advertising potential. For example a dog "niche" twitter account is perfect for selling dog products, because it's the perfect market.

Never said to invest in canned food, I don’t know where you got that. But if the US dollar collapsed, gold wouldn’t matter, it would be absolute anarchy at that point.

You have to be careful with this line of thought because at the end of the day sports gambling is just as random as dice. Sure you may feel like you are making informed decisions, but it’s a false sense of security.

False, humans are awful at gambling: it’s a scientific fact whether you like it or not. It’s the reason casinos do so well and why the casino business is a billion dollar industry. Here is one of many huge articles containing numerous studies highlighting the psychology behind gambling.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3858640/

I think a lot of time people don't want to invest in gold mainly because it's just a pain. It's expensive, often times hard to find a seller, associated risks involved, at that point it's just easier to keep USD (backed by government). If you are afraid of the dollar becoming worthless, in the event that it does, your gold isn't going to mean shit compared to canned food.

Yea this is very true, I think a lot of it has to do with the time / innovation "ratio" or how much something is "ahead of its time". I guess a lot of Bitcoin's downsides are also a result of it's age, aka the blockchain issue you referenced. I do have a kind of pessimistic attitude towards the life of Bitcoin, but it's still pretty amazing this is all possible. It will be interesting to see how things continue in the future.


Interesting, I do think it's a very valid point to make that most "altcoins" are pretty much Bitcoin with a "new" feature slapped onto it. Even now there are hundreds of tokens being made each day, trying to introduce something new. I guess the real question is whether there needs to be improvements at all? Like kryptqnick said, it does it's job very well and has withstood the test of time.


That's very true, it doesn't matter how good your product is, if you don't have the right market then you fail. And I guess I didn't consider that a lot of the things I consider "issues" or "annoyances" relating to Bitcoin, could be considered very differently by someone else. It's kind of like Facebook being the forefront of new social media, despite having numerous issues like privacy concerns and false information: it's still the biggest social media platform. I think Bitcoin's competitors fail in the aspect of "being different" as they all have the same goal: handing monetary transactions.


I am not really up to speed on all the recent improvements to the blockchain, but it looks promising. As someone who is not really into the "technology" behind Bitcoin, I didn't even know a lot of this stuff was possible. I am excited to see what the community can come up with!

I didn't really expect this many responses but it is really making me think! I don't really want these reply posts to be a page long, so I will answer a few more later. My view is a bit more agnostic now, as a lot of you brought to my attention the reason Bitcoin is still so great, even in comparison with newer altcoins.

What is the Gambler's Fallacy?

Wikipedia has an awesome ELI 5:

"Gambler’s fallacy arises out of a belief in the law of small numbers, or the erroneous belief that small samples must be representative of the larger population. According to the fallacy, “streaks” must eventually even out in order to be representative." - Wikipedia Page

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A simple example:

I see people fall victim to this train of thought so often, and a lot of the times it's the reason they fail at gambling. Here is a common example that I see around here a lot:

     - Most people can agree that if you flip a coin, it's 50/50 for heads or tails respectively.

     - Now, take this scenario: "You lose 20 coin flips in a row, what are your odds to win the next one?"

If you think that your odds are any different than 50/50 for the 21st coin flip, then you have fallen victim to this fallacy.

Individually it's very easy to understand the odds for one event, but once you introduce more data it gets a lot harder to tell.

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Why does it matter?

Humans are naturally very bad at gambling, mainly because we suffer from many biases that feed off of each other.

Noticing these biases and false ways of thinking can help you make better decisions. You can play smarter and be more comfortable with events out of your control. It's also just good practice (cognitive thinking skills) which you can then use in any other aspect of your life.

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Using this to your advantage

Now how exactly can you use this to your advantage? While understanding this won't make you the luckiest man alive, it can help you avoid making rash decisions based on flawed logic. Always try to constantly remind yourself that each "event" is independent of the next or previous, our brain always try to find patterns in things (regardless of whether one actually exists). Practicing this mode of thought can drastically improve your perspective and mood when gambling.

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Further explanation

If you are still interested in learning more, Brian Keng has an awesome, in-depth explanation (including the mathematics and psychology behind it): http://bjlkeng.github.io/posts/gamblers-fallacy-and-the-law-of-small-numbers/

I find this stuff absolutely fascinating so please let me know if you would like more of these "informative" posts. I put a lot of time into writing this, so I hope it helps a few people out!

No one is going to spend the time to try and buy one of these. There is just way too much risk for little gain. Here are just a few reasons to illustrate my point:

[1] Instagram hates people selling accounts and monitors them.

[2] Instagram has an awful recovery policy / system

[3] Bitcoin is nonreversible, instagram is

[4] These are overpriced here, you need to find the right market (AKA an actual social media forum)

I have thought about this a lot, especially more recently as I question why I'm using Bitcoin. Since cryptocurrency began, there have been so many new and improved versions of the "Bitcoin blockchain", one of the most notable probably being Ethereum.

It's always painful to use Bitcoin in comparison with sometimes up to $5 transaction fees for sending even $10, not to mention the amount of time transactions take. It kind of feels like Bitcoin is a sinking ship in some ways, because of the increasing problems that occur with a blockchain system. However, this doesn't seem to faze many, as the price keeps rising again and hitting new records.

My ultimate question is: "Is Bitcoin so valuable just because it was first?" As technology progresses it's inevitable that new and better ways of doing things will be discovered. But is it really about just being first in today's world? What are your guy's thoughts on this? Do you think there will be a breaking point aka, amount of inconveniences people will put up with before moving on?