First of all, the main purpose of Ethereum is for smart contract platforms and therefore its exchange prices and acceptability can depend heavily upon the success of various ICOs and IEOs. The amazing success of the ICOs during 2017 took the Ether exchange rates from less than $10 per coin to around $1,500 per coin (an increase of 150x). But as the ICO market disintegrated, the Ether exchange rates also crashed.

Earlier, there was an airdrop by XLM for the Bitcoin holders. In order to qualify, you had to sign a message using the Bitcoin wallet. I participated in that airdrop and received the XLM tokens from it. Similarly, there were a few other airdrops for Bitcoin holders, including GBYTE, Bitcore.etc. But in none of the cases they asked for the private key. A signed message is different from providing the private key.

India has a very large player pool unlike the nations such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It is not very difficult to replace Dhoni. If Rishabh Pant is not performing well, then a number of other players are available at the moment, including Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson. I wouldn't consider Dinesh Karthik, given his age and recent poor form. KL Rahul is another choice, but he is also not in good form currently. 

I agree that using cryptocurrency is not as user friendly as using mobile wallets or Paypal. But it is not rocket science either. If the noobs could spend 10 or 20 minutes in learning about the wallets and transactions, then they can get comfortable with the basics. But the problem is that some of these lazy guys don't want to do that. And then they complain that it is very difficult to use cryptocurrency.

^^^ I have always considered Ashwin as a very over-rated bowler, who had historically performed very poorly in test matches outside the sub-continent. He got some powerful backers among the selection committee, and has managed to secure his place despite repeated poor performances. On the other hand I would rate Jadeja as one of the most under-rated Indian players right now.

No matter how much research you indulge in before investing in a project, you can never be 100% sure about a certain ICO or IEO. If you are going ahead with investment in a particular project, then always keep in mind that there is a certain amount of risk involved. There is no method available, which can reduce this level of risk to zero.

Out of the three matches today, the first two ended with expected results. Australia managed to defeat Fiji 39-21 (after trailing during the half time) and France edged out Argentina by 23-21. The match between two of the top-ranked teams is ongoing now, with New Zealand currently on the top with a 17-10 lead against South Africa. A win by NZ will confirm their invincible status in rugby.

Are you sure about this? Because I have heard that the natural gas pipeline to China is almost 100% complete. The pipeline will run through Eastern Siberia, and will deliver natural gas to northeast China. If I am not wrong, there is already a crude oil pipeline running through that area. I know that East Siberia is sparsely populated... but a few years back they had this scheme of offering the citizens free land to move to that area... I don't know what happened to that...

Binance is mostly being used for altcoin trading. Only about 30% of the trade volume comes from BTC vs USD or BTC vs USDT trading. The remainder is mostly composed of altcoin vs BTC or altcoin vs USD/USDT trade. Binance exchange supports more than 500 different coins in its platform, so when compared to the other exchanges the altcoin volume is higher for them.

Brave? I doubt so. The chances of any attack occurring during the tour is very minimal. But the Sri Lankan board badly needs the revenue and therefore they have agreed to the tour.  Those who refused to be part of the team have other options, such as playing county cricket in England. Anyway I am glad that the youngsters are getting a chance. And who knows? They may be able to perform a few upsets.

If the Chinese are so much against gambling, then they should first ban the casinos in Macau (which is officially a part of China). They can't become hypocrites by allowing gambling in some of the regions under their control and then asking for a ban on the practice in foreign nations. And it is not just Macau. Many of the countries in South-east Asia have become hotspots for Chinese gamblers.

The majority of the Sri Lankan players refused to tour Pakistan due to safety concerns. That's why they mostly picked youngsters and members of the A team. If the Sri Lankans are reluctant to visit Pakistan, how can you expect players such as Colin Munro, Darren Sammy and Luke Ronchi to play the PSL matches in Pakistan? It will take some time, and please be patient.

South African Indians migrated to that country during the 19th century and they don't have any relation with India now. They don't speak any of the Indian languages and have almost completely assimilated with the English-speaking community. And he is not the first Indian to play for South Africa. Forgot about Keshav Maharaj? Till now, he has played a total of 25 tests for South African senior side.

The problem is that we have thousands of different cryptocurrencies and some of the less known altcoins are being traded only in one or two obscure exchanges. So in case a bounty hunter or an airdrop recipient wants to encash his reward, then he needs to register to these exchanges. They have no other choice, as the bigger exchanges will never allow these shitcoins in their platform.

Very disappointing to see the final squad composition from Sri Lanka. Too many inexperienced players with hardly any foreign exposure. These matches are going to be terribly one-sided, given the home advantage that may be enjoyed by the Pakistani team. Anyway once this series is successfully completed, more teams may express their willingness to tour Pakistan.

Fortunately I dumped most of my alts in 2018, when they still had some sort of value. Back then I was holding close to two dozen different altcoins and after I dumped most of them I was left with about 5-6 alts. I was lucky. After I sold my alts to ETH/BTC, the exchage rates for most of these coins crashed like anything. Many of them are completely worthless now.

Looks like Zimbabwe may get an upset win against Afghanistan. They need another 44 runs in 39 balls, with 8 wickets remaining. Hamilton Masakadza made 71 from 42 balls and smashed the Afghan bowlers all around the park. Earlier Afghanistan had a middle order collapse, as they slumped from 107/1 in 13 overs to finish at 155/8. Mpofu picked up 4 wickets. I am not sure whether these matches will be having the T20I status. There is no confirmation yet from the ICC.

Even here in Bitcointalk, if there is a will we can do a lot against the scam ICOs. Bitcointalk is the most popular forum of its kind and the ICOs depend a lot on this forum for promotion and funding. If we can post the evidence to prove that the ICO is a scam, then a lot many of the potential investors could be made aware of the risk they are taking.

Watched the opening match between Japan and Russia. Japan had an easy win, with Russia losing 10-30. But while Russia was fielding a 100% native side, the Japanese team was mostly of foreign origin, with most of the players either having an oceanic ancestry (Will Tupou, Timothy Lafaele.etc) or originating from South Africa (Lappies Labuschagné, Wimpie van der Walt.etc).

I am not against teams fielding players of foreign origin. But in my opinion, it should not be to the extent that the majority of the team is composed of foreigners. Look at the recently concluded FIBA world cup. They had a limit of just one naturalized player per team.

During the ICOs, it was the altcoin and token creators who benefited the most. Many of them became millionaires overnight. With the IEOs, both the exchange owners and the project promoters are benefiting. Big exchanges such as Huobi and Binance are making tens of millions of USD every month from the IEO listing. Even the mid-tier exchanges such as Coineal are amassing amounts well in excess of hundreds of thousands of USD per month.