During the past 4-5 months, Ethereum has been on a constant retreat against Bitcoin. Many of the important support levels were breached recently. First it was the 0.03 BTC level, followed by 0.025. Once these were breached, 0.02 didn't took much time. At 0.018, it looked like the prices were stabilizing, but that level was breached as well. Now the next target for traders is BTC0.015 per coin.

A cryptocurrency issued by the central bank? Bitcoin was invented by Satoshi as a currency which can't be controlled or manipulated by the central banks. That was one of the main purposes behind its creation. And now we have central banks (China, Venezuela.etc) creating digital versions of fiat currency, and calling them as cryptocurrencies.

WTF is happening with the Italy vs Philippines game? This is one of the most lop-sided games I have ever watched. I just switched on the live streaming and saw the score (62-24). During the first quarter, it was even worse (37-8). I guess Philippines is suffering from the restriction that they could field only one naturalized player. That made some of their best players ineligible for the tournament.

The Australian selectors needs to be fired. I have seen many instances in which a bowler was picked over a better alternative. But this is the first time in my life I am witnessing the best bowler in the team overlooked in favor of an average performer. Imagine India going to a match without Jasprit Bumrah, or New Zealand without Trent Boult.

Here in India, the matches were not broadcast live on television, so I had to depend upon low quality web streaming. The Russia vs Nigeria match was exciting as hell. One of the most exciting matches I have ever watched. Russians were simply too good for the Africans, even without one of their best players (Alexey Shved). In order to qualify for the second round, now Nigeria needs to beat Argentina, which is a very tough task.

Even I have participated in a huge number of airdrops. Some of them were very profitable and made me richer by $100 or even $250. But those times are long gone. Now you can call yourselves lucky, if you get $10 from an airdrop. And to sell this much tokens using cryptocurrency exchanges, you need to undergo the KYC process.

History will tell whether your decision is courageous, or idiotic. I am done with altcoins and I have sold or converted most of my alts. Now 95% of my holdings are in the form of BTC/BCH. I lost hope with alts. Not because of the price crash, but due to the negative attitude of the developers. Altcoin development has come to a halt. Hardly any of these alts are being screened for bugs on a regular basis.

From my experience, in 90% of the time it is the ICO promoters who try to scam the bounty hunters. The bounty manager is a scapegoat in many cases. Unless the promoters give him the tokens, he can't distribute them to the bounty hunters. It is a double whammy for the campaign managers. First his effort goes unpaid. On top of that, he has to confront the angry bounty hunters now.

Mayank Agarwal was batting so well and he got out needlessly just now. There was no need to play that shot, as the ball was close to his body, at a good height. Kohli was building a good partnership with him, and now he needs to take help from Ajinkya Rahane. Needs to be careful here. If one more wicket falls, then the noobs will come to bat (Hanuma Vihari & Rishabh Pant). And after that, the tail will start with Ravindra Jadeja.

The ICOs just re-branded themselves as IEOs. But things are getting difficult for the promoters now. Earlier, they just needed to set up a website and compile a white paper after plagiarizing the old ones. But now, they should bargain for a listing with the cryptocurrency exchanges, which can cost them anywhere from $10,000 to a few million USD per listing.

Hmm... so it is worrying. The total illicit usage may be much higher than 8%, because stolen coins are only one of the illicit usage types. The majority of the coins may be linked with dark markets and the vendors would use mixers to "clean" their coins before converting to fiat cash. And I can't think about any other safe destination for stolen coins. It is not practical to transfer the stolen coins directly to exchanges.

Only a small fraction of the cryptocurrency users are having a great deal of knowledge about the Blockchain technology and Bitcoin. So it is not difficult to brainwash the remaining users with propaganda. Craig Wright and his goons have created enough confusion in the minds of ordinary cryptocurrency users, to sway at least 5-10% of them to believe that he is the real Satoshi.

Steve Smith scored just 23 runs and was out to spin bowler Matt Critchley. Looks like he hasn't fully recovered from the injury that he suffered during the second test. This is a three day match, and the chances are that Australia will not bat again. Now the match has become too boring, and Marnus Labuschagne is scoring at snail's pace. Anyone who want to watch the match check this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCnGgEKG8as

Sky Sports have made live streaming available for free, to global audience.

Well.. I would agree that Sachin had a god-like status during the 1990s and the 2000s. You are right, when you claim that Sachin encouraged players such as Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Back then, every kid wanted to bat like Sachin. I still remember a placard which I saw when I was a kid: "cricket is our religion, Sachin is our god". Hmmmm.... those were the times...

This is the first time I am hearing that for the last fight, there was a 60/40 split in favor of Floyd Mayweather. I heard that Manny asked for a 50/50 split, and in the end got 40% after much bargaining. I would say that the payment was fair and square. Most of the revenue was generated within the United States, where Floyd has more fans compared to Manny.

OK.... I just want to give a weather update for the fourth test. Rain is predicted for the first 3 days and there is good chance of a passing shower during the 4th day. 5th day should be cloudy, but devoid of rains.

Sep 4: Chances of precipitation - 60%
Sep 5: Chances of precipitation - 64%
Sep 6: Chances of precipitation - 73%
Sep 7: Chances of precipitation - 49%
Sep 8: Chances of precipitation - 16%

(source: accuweather.com)

Virat Kohli and Steve Smith are among the legends of cricket. I would rate Virat Kohli as a batter batsmen when compared to Sachin Tendulkar because most of his centuries came against strong teams, and that too outside the sub-continent. On the other hand, more than half of the centuries scored by Sachin were against weak teams such as Zimbabwe and Kenya, in flat subcontinental pitches.

Steve Smith has started solidly against Derbyshire, and currently he is batting along with Mitchell Marsh. This match should be a cakewalk for Australia, as Derbyshire has been historically one of the weakest English county sides. Look out for 18-year old Hamidullah Qadri. He was born in Afghanistan, and we may soon find him in international cricket.

I would agree with the prediction by Royse for both the matches. But I would be closely watching Smith's (batting) performance during the warm up match. I want to make sure that the small break didn't made him rusty. One interesting thing is that Australia gave chance to all their bench bowlers, and that means that Starc, Marsh and Neser are playing along with Siddle. They went for an all pace attack.

I couldn't watch the game, but from the scorecard it looks like Mitchell Starc cleaned up the lower order in very quick time. He took 3 wickets in a single over, to finish with 46/3. I want Australia to go for the 4th test with four pacers (Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood and Siddle), with part time spin from Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith as the slower options.

It is rather strange. When many of the countries are moving towards a cashless economy, China seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Actually I am a big supporter of physical cash. No other methods of payment can offer the level of anonymity that banknotes offer. Here in India, mobile payment methods are very popular now, but whenever possible I try to make payments with physical cash. Let's support the right to remain anonymous!!