Cutting out middle man is overall good for the business and the economy. Products become cheaper if other factors like fuel price and logistics cost supports it. As a result, an end consumer can purchase a product deducting the middleman cost and commissions. Even in India, we have started seeing such payment facilitation companies like Paytm and Jio Money are on rise. Especially the demonetization effort by the government has helped it become mainstream. In my city, even the small roadside vendors accept this payment system. However, here comes the funny part.

This money is essentially going into banking channel at the end of the day. However, not as a bank's revenue but as a liability product. Because every vendor is getting the settlement into their bank accounts only. So banks are getting deposits from the common mass which they can lend out to the society but they are not getting the commissions from such payment transactions, which is effectively reducing their operating revenue.

But these payment companies are again a centralized entity like any other banks. So we are not effectively providing us any freedom on our own money. Everything is seen by the government and we are paying taxes on it. That's where crypto currency can help us. The world of economy is changing at a super fast pace as the technology is constantly evolving. Either we go with the flow or stay behind.

As per coinmarketcap website, the price of one bitcoin was $2443.64 on 24th May 2017, just an year back. So if I compare it with today's price, it is an increase of 209.29%. Name any other class of investment, which can fetch you a profit of 209% in a year. I doubt you will be able to name any single asset which can outperform bitcoin in returns.

The bitcoin market is highly dynamic which makes it a speculator's heaven. I would have worried if the blockchain technology, which is the core technology of bitcoin was considered as a junk technology. But blockchain is highly regarded worldwide for its capability and integrity. So I am not worried about this small decrease in price. Instead I am looking it as an opportunity to score more bitcoins for my cold storage.  

Of course, bitcoin can surpass last year's high in 2018 as well. But since we don't know what future has in store for us, let us wait for that time and see for ourselves. It definitely has the potential but also depends on many other factors like legislative structures and adoption decisions. So wait and watch! But make sure to have enough bitcoins in your cold storage to get the benefits when it happens.

Excellent! This is an excellent proposition. Why the end user would be worried always and why not the fake owners. Along with gambling, this is also needed in the ICO market as well. This process will actually bring back a lot of lost credibility back into the market. However, it is very hard to implement and we need a centralized agency who will carry on the validation for the common mass. But everything starts with an idea. Who knows, KYO may become a common practice in future.

Probably yes or probably no! If you are a responsible gambler and don't go insane with your bankroll, then you will not face any consequences and probably you will be able to earn some money out of it as well. However, if you gamble with your last penny, then you've pretty much made the choice for yourself! Not every gambler suffers a consequence of gambling till the time they know where to stop.

Lol!! Even any kind of adoption is good news to bitcoin, but such kind of adoptions actually won't help bitcoin in any way. Instead bitcoin will be associated more strongly in underground and questionable nature of business like this. When the community is looking for mainstream adoption through Nasdaq and other regulated financial organizations, adoption by whorehouses are actually taking us two steps down from our goal.

I see some people are talking about adoptions of porn websites. I am not trying to discourage you but let me present a simple statistics. Majority of the porn site visitors are looking for free videos only when they have hard on. Only 0.5% to 3% of the annual visitor actually buy paid subscription of porn sites. So you can do the math.

We need mainstream adoption to take bitcoin to its deserving position. Whorehouses and porn business can't help bitcoin in any way.

Sorry for the delay Amit. Please enroll me in. I am more interested in paid tournament.

BitcoinTalk Username: Avikz
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Holding long term always helps despite the odds! I know many people those who have bought bitcoin during late 2017 when the price was at 20k USD. So they have three options in hand at today's date,

1. Sell off their exposure to bitcoin and book the loss
2. Buy more at the current price to lower the average buying price
3. Continue holding their positions

Now, it depends on an individual on what option they will choose. If they are positive about bitcoin's future, they will probably buy more to lower the average buying price. If they are running out of patience, they will square off their positions. Or if they are positive about the future of bitcoin but don't want to increase their exposure, they will continue holding with the hope of a better price in future.

I personally fall into the 2nd category and I am continuously diversifying my portfolio with altcoins like ETH, Ripple, Steem and many other. The market is still unpredictable so I don't invest anything out of my own pocket. I earn from various sources and convert a part of it to different altcoins and continuing holding bitcoins. So it really depends on an individual's risk taking capability and personal outlook towards the market. No one will be able to guide you towards absolute outcome as no one is sure about it.

It's true that everyone with coding knowledge can make a currency today. However, the value of that currency depends on its merit. So I can create a currency but I can't create value of it. The free market will decide that. If the currency doesn't have any merit, then the market will simply reject it.

Let me give you an example of Valorbit. It was introduced as a new crypto currency back in 2016. I still hold 2 million valorbit coins, but it doesn't have a value in the market because of its low merit and the absence of a proper vision for the future.

We are currently going through a very unorganized times which can be compared with the dot.com boom during late 90's. The crypto market is pretty new and looking for direction. That is the reason why we are seeing a lot of new coins are popping up regularly and dying regularly. It will take some time to stabilize with the help of free market dynamics coupled with government's regulation. It is a slow process but eventually it will happen. Probably then we will see a downtrend to new currency creation because having a lot of altcoins are not actually helping the market. It is always better to have 10 solid coins instead of having 1600 different altcoins. 

Congrats for your thinking of buying bitcoin. Please don't wait and act fast. USA and SEC is not at all crypto friendly from the beginning and the crypto community is aware of it. So if USA puts legal restriction over it, it will have a very limited effect internationally. However, it is not going to happen because a large numbers of crypto related business are based on USA only. The government will see a huge revenue loss as well as a lot of people will loose their jobs. I don't think USA will take any such chance anytime soon. So if you are planning to invest in cryptos, go ahead and do it!

I don't think crypto currency is legal in U.A.E. They are pretty much maintaining a neutral status until recently by defining crypto currencies as "high risk investment". Also they are seeing crypto currencies as a tool for money laundering and terrorism financing. So they are on the way to prepare a legal framework for governing smart contracts, liability matters, dispute settlement mechanisms and taxation of generated transactions and profits. So it is not the right time to say "crypto currency is legal in U.A.E". The businesses are allowed to operate because of the absence of a proper legal framework but we don't really know what will happen in the future.

On the contrary to what you are thinking, Gambling can actually add to government's revenue if the government can promote it correctly. You can take example of Las Vegas and Macau. These places have successfully promoted gambling tourism to the world. The governments are actually earning in billions from these gambling businesses. In 2013, gambling industry contributed 60% to the Macau's GDP. Having one or two casinos won't help the economy for sure, but if a government can promote a tourism around it, it will boost the national as well as the local economy significantly.

Secondly, not all online gambling websites are privately owned. Many of them are registered and pays corporate taxes as prescribed. Yes, there are fake and scam gambling websites also exist, but a person with common sense, can identify those easily.

That's sad! Even India has started taking such steps. The Reserve Bank of India issues a notice to all banks to wind up their positions from facilitating crypto related businesses. So crypto related businesses are not able operate their bank accounts and eventually thinking of moving abroad to a crypto friendly country. I hope some businesses in Canada takes this matter to court just like some businesses in India did.

However, government knows that they can't actually fight cryptos. That is the reason why they are taking such stringent measures and trying to remove cryptos from the root. But the governments are not realizing that, they are loosing an opportunity of the future. While countries with progressive mindset like Japan and Germany have started benefiting from it, some countries are showing primitive mindset of controlling things. 

We can't really deny the fact that ETH is far ahead of bitcoin in terms of applicability. That is the reason why almost 90% of the ICOs are using ETH to release their smart contracts and to raise funds for their business. We have other coins as well with the similar capability but ETH took the first spot in that. However, according to the market cap, bitcoin holds the first spot since inception. So it is hard say anything at this point. Bitcoin is not going down anytime soon, so an wise investor will hold both of these coins to get the benefits.

But Chinese government is not at all friendly to the crypto currency. So the ranking released by them may have some impact within the local market, but not internationally. Bitcoin continues to rule!

Today evening, I was spending some free time by surfing various websites. Suddenly a website caught my attention which talks about the benefits of gambling. I was surprised because negative thoughts about gambling is so common, but positive thoughts are rare to find. So I went ahead and read the entire article. The article actually talks about the positive sides of gambling which I believe everyone should know and it made a lot of sense to me!

The article lists 7 points as the benefits of gambling:
1. Gambling Stimulates Local Economies
2. Gambling Is a Form of Entertainment
3. Gambling Can Take Place in a Safe Environment
4. You Could Win
5. Gambling Contributes to Government Budgets
6. Gambling Creates New Forms of Revenue
7. Gambling is a Form of Game Play

The article is actually a tight slap on the popular belief that "gambling is harmful to the society". So I encourage everyone on this forum to read the article and understand it, especially the non-gamblers! Gambling is not a fools-heaven, it's just another business and an opportunity to the gamblers! Hope this article would clear your mind!

Article Link: https://www.benefitsof.org/what-are-the-benefits-of-gambling/

A lot of banks are actually tempted to start with crypto currency. Not just trading but they want to introduce custodian service and managed crypto portfolio services as well. However, the challenge is with the current legal framework. While countries like Germany and Japan has shown as really progressive mindset, a lot of countries are still unsure on how to react on this entire crypto currency matter. That's what holding up banks from entering into crypto market. Otherwise we would have seen a lot of banks into this space by now!

Really mate!! I can take your argument for dice and slot games where the winnings are based on pure luck, but do you know what poker or blackjack is? Or what sports betting is? Do you know the amount of research and calculations these games require? But I like it when you say "Gambling is actually a social taboo". Yes, it is! And that's what I am trying to break, at least within this community!

You are right Amit! Even I am surprised that the court has denied an interim injunction on the RBI directive. But you know, Indian courts are not run by tech geeks, so I doubt they will understand the positive impact of crypto currency on the economy. So we can expect very little from them. Sadly, our country is run by religious leaders, so you can expect new temples to be built in no time, but when it comes to technological advancements, they turn blind to overcome their own incapability to understand technical things. A lot depends on this case, really! Lets just hope for the best!

Rightly Said! Most of the information are correctly given here. However, I doubt any of the politicians are opposing the ban. Only 41% of Indian politicians are educated, so only a handful of the Indian politicians have the brain power to understand this new technology. Even a Member of parliament Kirit Somaiya said bitcoin is a ponzi scheme. So it shows their level of awareness about cryptocurrency and the related technology.

I believe the main reason why Indian government has not yet banned crypto currency is that, they are not able to understand how to control it from being circulated. They are also trying to calculate whether they will be loosing on taxes if they ban it or not. So they have formed a committee with some economists and their report on cryptocurrency is still awaited. Probably government will take some action after the report is published. In the meantime, they are just trying to discourage the business community by issuing circulars through RBI.

So to answer Op's question, Bitcoin and crypto currencies are not yet banned in India. But you can't use it as a legal means of payment for any goods or services, neither you can exchange it using your bank account. But there are ways to counter that rule as well through p2p exchange. Do a little research and  you will know it.

Centralized exchanges around the world will have to report to their respective governments one day in future to continue with their business. They can't really avoid this because they have a business to run so they will have to comply with the directives of the tax authorities. Decentralized exchange is one way we can counter this situation. But I am really worried about handing over my private key to a decentralized exchange.

I had used etherdelta for quite a few times to cash out some tokens that I had earned from various bounty campaigns, but the uncomfortable part starts when I have to import my private keys to that exchange. Even though I have never traded any significant volumes in Etherdelta, but I am sure, I will not be using any decentralized exchange where I will have to place my private key and the trade volume is higher. Am I missing something here?

SAFT is a term used in venture capital market. So if a company has raised a certain amount from VCs, they must have signed SAFT with that VC fund management. But I am not sure whether they will be making it public because the early investors usually get a lot more priority than the regular investors and early investors usually get exorbitant amount of discounts. So usually VC management puts an NDA agreement in place.

Secondly, if an ICO fails to reach its softcap. Then your stakes are not forfited. Failing to reach softcap means, the ICO will most likely wind up their business plan and the investors will get their money back. However, it mainly depends on the agreement put in place during the time of investment. For retail investors like you and me, the money is refunded by the ICO company. At least that is the expectation.  Hope this helps!