I know that's got to come to no surprise to you--it sure as hell doesn't surprise me.  It isn't only the low-ranked garbage spammers who have lots of alt accounts, and when bitcoin is as high as it is (even with the recent drop), you know people are looking for opportunity.

I see nothing inherently wrong with that, except that I know what the general outcome is going to be.  Basically it'll be much like last time Yobit opened their campaign to hundreds of participants.  Some members will be able to write constructive posts (even with the financial incentive), while many others are going to abuse Yobit's horrendously low standards.  I'm hoping it'll be a bit better this time, but I'm not counting on it.

And I'd love to know how many of them registered around October 2017.  Seems there was a huge influx of sig spammers coming out of that period of time, just when bitcoin was booming.  Lots of them got banned but many more remain.

Sounds like it, and Yobit obviously doesn't learn anything from their many mistakes.  If only they'd apply some standards, it wouldn't be such a shit show.  They ran a campaign for years without a problem, but they way they did it last time was just awful.  They had way too many participants and allowed way too many posts--even though 20/day was what they've always allowed.  I get a feeling this isn't going to end well for whoever signs up this time around.

If you're talking about a hypothetical member who's already doing 20 posts per day, it wouldn't make a difference.  Unfortunately that isn't how this is going to go.  It's going to motivate a lot of otherwise inactive members to start making that many posts per day, and the forum is going to be flooded with low-value posts.  Just like last time.

Yeah, we just might--and I'm not even basing that on a chart but on the downward momentum that I see looking at the changing preev price.  Right now bitcoin is below $8k, which I didn't think was going to happen.  Not the first time I've been wrong about price predictions, though.  Bitcoin never fails to surprise me.

Ick.  I'm hoping it doesn't drop that far.  Then again, I'm hopeful that it'll rebound back to where it was and then perhaps move higher.  I won't be silly enough to actually make any predictions, though.

Sure, now that bitcoin is getting hammered people are making all sorts of bearish calls.  It's not hard to do when it's had a few days of decreases--it's just like predicting the weather.  Sunny today, probably sunny tomorrow.  But hey, even if bitcoin does crash to $6k, it's still higher than it was for pretty much all of last year. 

Yep, that's entirely possible.  I usually don't think about the merit situation when I'm listing all the devious things one can do with a bought account. 

It's probably not true anyway.  There aren't many signature campaigns left, and generally you can't participate in one if you've got a DT negative on your trust page.  It's possible that a buyer could get the neg(s) removed, but that's a long shot.  Not sure about what the typical rules of altcoin-paying bounties are, but I think they pretty much accept anyone, including red-trusted accounts. 

Effing lovely.  At least merit abuse is generally self-limiting, and this dude is probably paying a lot for those merits.

Man, you're bitter--though I do tend to hate that phrase "buy the dip".  That's only smart advice when there's some momentum behind the price, and in this case there wasn't.  Bitcoin was stagnating around $10k for a while, and it's recent drop isn't exactly a dip.  It's a pretty steep drop.

But am I scared?  No.  I don't own much bitcoin for one thing, and for another I've been into crypto long enough to know that this kind of volatility is to be expected, especially after a sharp jump ($3500 to over $10k in a short period of time).  Sure, I'd been hoping that bitcoin would break to the upside but it didn't, and there's nothing I can do about it.

What I'm more worried about is the whales getting scared and selling, which they're probably already doing.  I'd like to not see bitcoin drop any further....but again, nothing I can do about it.

I haven't heard much FUD on the forum lately, at least not before this most recent drop, certainly nothing that would account for it.  And yeah there's pessimism now, after the fact.

Ah, I used to hear that phrase on the old JREF forum when the skeptics would discuss bitcoin.  Frankly, I always agreed with them on that.  There's no way in hell a rational person would go out of his/her way to buy bitcoin in order to spend it on something that could easily be purchased with fiat.  But that's as far I'll go with that.  Because things aren't priced in bitcoin and people don't earn their paychecks in bitcoin, it's a lousy currency, aka "medium of exchange".  The average citizen has no trouble using a debit card, cash, or their smartphone to pay for things and also has little need for anonymity when paying for goods or services.

Bitcoin could be a store of value if it ever achieved stability.  As it is right now, it's an asset to be invested in.  It certainly could be a good currency if fiat ever failed. 

The few times I've spoken to fellow human beings about crypto and have felt compelled to describe its advantages, I've always mentioned that it's a form of money that's global, bank-less, government-less, and pseudo-anonymous.  If you're asking about its utility, I'd say it's great for paying for things from merchants that can't accept credit cards.  That could be crap on the dark or clear web.  It's also an excellent form of money for gambling with online casinos.

Bitcoin is far from useless.  Back before I discovered it (and I was late to the party), I voiced many of the same concerns.  I had to overcome some pretty extreme skepticism about it and I figured it was destined to go to $0.  It hasn't, and it's been about 5 years now since it crossed my radar.

OP, I gotta hand it to you.  I don't believe in TA, but I wrote this not too long ago in this thread:


And I have to say, your prediction of "soon" was pretty accurate (although bitcoin hasn't actually hit $8k yet).  Bitcoin is at $8500 or so as I'm writing this, and I'm not sure what's going on besides there being more sellers than buyers right now.  If this continues, we definitely could hit $8k although I'm hoping bitcoin rebounds instead of dropping further.  We're all probably hoping for that.

Instead of panic selling, I bought some bitcoin instead.  Not too much as I don't have a lot of spare money for investing, but I figure this is a fire sale.  Bitcoin's probably going to get back above $10k fairly soon.  Got any predictions about that, OP?

Tagged.  Account selling is, in fact, allowed here but is very shady and is highly frowned upon.  

Thanks for bringing this to the community's notice, OP.  I'm not sure how many accounts are being sold these days (I have Invites & Accounts on ignore), but nobody should be dealing in them in 2019.  It's been an ongoing battle with these people since 2016.

That isn't going to happen.  As I said, it's not against the rules to buy or sell accounts--but there's no good reason for accounts to be changing hands.  It only leads to more shitposting and scamming.

Edit:

Hmm.  Ok, I trust your judgement on the image.

No KYC?  Wow, you're lucky.  I just tried using a bitcoin ATM yesterday (which malfunctioned, of course) and it asked me for a scan of my ID and phone number for an SMS verification. 

And hey, go Philippines for the win.  Based on how large the community is on bitcointalk, I'm fairly sure bitcoin is very popular there and this is yet another step toward mass adoption.  We've got 7-11 stores in my country but they're not partnering with any bitcoin-related businesses (yet).  I'd love to see that sort of thing happen in the US, but I have a feeling it won't.

I wouldn't expect it to.  But with bitcoin under $9k right now, think of it as a buying opportunity that you might not see again.

Yeah, but I would have been way too old for her even if I was her type (not possible). 

I should have spent more time looking at the ATM, but I was sweaty (bicycle ride) and frustrated.  But I did see that the price they were going to charge me per bitcoin was well over $10k, but this was before our little flash-crash here.  When I arrived at the ATM I think bitcoin was still going for $9500 or thereabouts. 

That would not have mattered, though.  I wanted to buy bitcoins from an ATM just so I could say I did it--and this is the only bitcoin ATM in my town.  When I looked at the ATM map, you have no idea how surprised I was to see there actually was one around me.  I don't live in a big city and when I'd looked at that map a couple of years ago, there wasn't one anywhere around me.  I have a feeling the liquor store manager is going to get rid of the machine.  I forgot to ask him or the cute girl whether anyone else had used the machine or why he had it in there.  Maybe I'll go back in a few days.

I don't know about the mining farm quitting, but I suppose it's possible that could influence the price somewhat.  One thing I'm definitely seeing is a slowing down of confirmations on the blockchain.  I just bought a small amount of btc and those confirmations are taking far longer than they have been.

As for the second thing, I think it's obvious there's been a lot of selling in the past couple of days.  Since there hasn't been any bearish news that I know of, the only thing driving bitcoin's price is buying and selling, i.e., market forces.  Right now there are more sellers than buyers (though I've no idea why).  Maybe people bought bitcoin in advance of Bakkt's launch and it isn't turning out to be the big thing they thought it would....who knows.  I'm not one for price movement explanations, since it's usually just blind guesswork that doesn't really matter anyway.

Probably not, but I haven't read any details about what exactly happened.  Was there a government law passed somewhere?  I can't imagine mining suddenly became unprofitable.

Yeah, this is quite a dip--and I'm pretty much used to bitcoin's volatility.  On the other hand, I still think the overall sentiment is bullish and that we'll rebound eventually.  There was always a question in my mind whether bitcoin would break out of the $10k-ish range to the upside or downward.  I figured it would be up, but I got that one wrong.

But hey, I see it as a buying opportunity, as in "bitcoin is on SALE!!".  I must admit, that Google quantum computing thing had me spooked, although I don't pretend to understand it.  Something like that (or a worldwide governmental ban) is the only thing that could make bitcoin plunge to $0.  It's nowhere near $0 right now, though.  In fact it's much higher than it was for most of last year, so I'm not complaining.

Update:  after making my previous post in this thread, I took a ride to the one and only bitcoin ATM in my city--and the closest one within about 20 miles.  It's located in the back of a liquor store.  I went there with some $20 bills, ready to purchase some bitcoin, even though they were asking over $10k/BTC.  I did the SMS verification thing and then tried to scan my ID.  The first time the photo was blurry so I tried to cancel it:

NETWORK ERROR

I started the entire process all over again, with the SMS and the photo scan.  I managed to get a reasonably decent shot of my ID, but when after it asked for a scan of the back side of the ID:

NETWORK ERROR

Again, I tried it.  Got to the backside of the ID and:

NETWORK ERROR

A cute girl who worked there came over and looked at what I was doing and mentioned to her boss that I was having trouble.  I heard him say "Yeah, there's supposed to be a 1-800 number or something.  I'm about to unplug that fucking thing."

So this was my one and only experience so far with a bitcoin ATM, and the goddamn thing didn't even work properly.  So OP, if there are problems like this with the machines there's no way people are going to get enthusiastic about buying bitcoin through them.  I don't like having to do all the verification either, but there was a message that said it was required in the US.  I'm not surprised.

I should have taken photos of me and the manager pissing on the machine.  At least it would have been useful for laughs had I posted them here.

I know it sounds discriminatory, but I think it's a pretty fair statement--obviously different countries have different laws, and in some of them those laws seem to be quite lax.  It's probably why Yobit has gotten away with so much crap in all the years they've been operating.

I've never used any of the exchanges you listed, OP.  I don't know how much you plan to trade or if you're going to be using fiat currency, but you might want to try some of the more legitimate exchanges like Binance, KuCoin, Poloniex, and the like.  I think they service people globally, and you can probably get away with no KYC if you're not trading with fiat.

I think I tried to register on Upbit because they were the only ones who had a coin I was interested in, but they wanted all my dox and I didn't think it was worth it.  I don't think they're a scam exchange, but I couldn't say for sure.  You're not a newbie (unless your account is purchased), so just remember to never keep your funds on any exchange for any length of time.

That really isn't a lot.  It wouldn't even be a lot if they were all located in the US, which they're not.  I'll have to search for a map of where they all are--I think such a thing exists, because I think someone linked to a map once.  There isn't a bitcoin ATM anywhere near me as far as I know, and I don't exactly live out in the woods.

I'd agree with that, though I'm not sure if that anonymity is worth the markups I've heard about with ATMs.  But I'll tell you, if there was one near me I'd probably use it if the fees weren't outrageous.  Beats doing PayPal deals or doing KYC on an exchange.

It doesn't, and I don't mean to be negative about OP's assertion.  I think it's great that bitcoin ATMs exist and I think there ought to be more of them--but my guess is that the reason there aren't is because the demand for them isn't there.  If they were being used extensively, they'd be all over the place.  

Edit:  Holy crap!  I just checked coinatmradar.com, and there is one right near me.  I'm definitely going to check it out--very cool!

I don't think institutional investors need any introduction to bitcoin, and I've been reading a lot of similar comments.  Those guys know what they're doing, and I'm pretty sure they've been learning about and watching bitcoin for years.

Does anybody know if Bakkt allows investors to sell bitcoin short?  I can't say I fully understand how it all works, but I'd be surprised if that wasn't an option on their platform.  If so, that could explain the price drop--but I'm just speculating.

I don't know about that.  The drop from $10,500 to $9500 coincided pretty well with Bakkt's launch.  That could just be coincidence, but I just have a feeling it's not.  And man, if I had any spare money to invest I'd be buying bitcoin right now.  I don't think it's going to stay under $10k for long.

Bitcoin was in somewhat of a bubble when it hit $20k, I agree with that.  But you have to realize that even after a bubble pops, it's quite possible that the asset that was in the bubble can and will recover.  The NASDAQ bubble popped in April 2000, and though it took many years it did bounce back to where it was--and it's even higher now than it was back then.  Same thing with bitcoin, only the recovery appears to be happening faster. 

As to the second statement, I think it's absurd to predict it's going to take 22 years for bitcoin to reach its previous ATH.  I certainly could be wrong about that, but I think you're being far too pessimistic based on bitcoin's price dropping a few hundred dollars.  I mean please, it's still at $9500.  It was stuck around $3500 for months before that, so keep some perspective on it.

Lol, that's exactly what it sounds like here. 

OP, is your other business plan still in effect or what?  You'd suggested some kind of block-long internet cafe type thing in Manhattan if I'm not mistaken.

As far as this proposal goes, check out the documentary E-Dreams.  There was a company about 20 years ago, right at the tail end of the internet stock boom.  They were called kozmo.com and they started in NYC offering delivery service for pretty much anything--Starbucks coffee, soda, and all sorts of grocery items, and they had bicycle messengers doing the deliveries.  The doc doesn't really go into how much of a demand there was for their service, but they ended up going bust because they expanded way too fast and burned up all of their investors' money (and never made a profit).

So I'm not sure how hot an idea it is for a line-waiting service, and I think there's another kozmo business operating in the city nowadays, though I could be wrong.  Anyway, I admire your big ideas.  If you ever get anything going like the first one, the internet cafe, I'd definitely make the trip to the city to check it out.

Yeah, it is.  I don't know how many times I've heard the "posting for pennies" thing from people when they're raging against shitposters, but it's not true--especially when bitcoin is above $10k.  It's not a small amount in some cases.

Anyway, great data collection suchmoon.  I really don't keep track of who's been banned and was actually surprised to see cellard, zazarb, and a couple of other members on that list.  I think I remember seeing a few members being kicked out of the Chipmixer campaign but I don't exactly remember why.  Very interesting stuff here. 

If you're being paid to post, there's an incentive--and I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that.  If you know how to write and can make your posts even the least bit interesting, it's OK to post more than you usually would if you weren't getting paid.  It keeps the discussion flowing and obviously benefits the member who's in the campaign.  The problem is and always has been the idiots who have to post outside their local boards in a language they can't write AND about something they likely have no interest in (crypto).  I don't think most of the people on the list here fit that description, btw. 

First of all, I'm glad this thread got moved to Meta.  I reported it as appropriate to either B&H or Meta, not Bitcoin Discussion as OP originally had it.

Now, as far as grammar is concerned: it's been my experience that members here who write English with very poor grammar are usually (but not always) shitposters.  If the grammar is bad enough, their posts just don't make sense and I've found that they end up repeating the same shit over and over in a post, probably to pad its length.  So if someone comes across one of these grammatically-challenged gems and reports it as a low-value post, the mods are likely to agree with the report.  

What you ought to know is that there are members here whose command of English isn't great, but they're very helpful to the community.  I think whether posts are deleted or not depends on how constructive the post is and probably which section it's posted in.  Different mods cover different sections.  So the answer to the question in the title is basically it depends.

Edit:

Funny how OP was already on my ignore list for being a shitposter.  I doubt he's talking about a friend here, and if he is it's probably a fellow sig spammer.