In 2013 and 2014, it was really difficult to purchase Bitcoins. One of my friends told me that he had to first purchase Second Life Linden Dollars with credit card and then convert these Linden Dollars to BTC. There was no direct option available. But things have changed a lot nowadays. You can use your credit card or savings bank account to purchase Bitcoin directly now.

Investing in any ICO at this point of time is unwarranted, irrespective of how much research you are willing to do. There are a few good ICOs ongoing. But given the health of the ICO market, I am very skeptical of their chances upon listing. The best thing to do would be to adhere to a moratorium on all the ICOs, at least for the next two years.

It will be very interesting to see the reaction from the governments in case something like that happens. $20 trillion will be locked up in a decentralized asset, over which the central banks have no control. And even worse, the government can't even effectively extract the taxes, due to the advantage of added anonymity of the cryptocurrency.

Don't whine about your low salary. In case you think that you deserve much more, then learn some new skill and then find a new job which pays you better. There is no point in complaining about the low salary and at the same time taking no effort in getting it to a higher level. The world is constantly evolving. You need to learn new skills, if you want to survive.

As far as I know, this "Globalcoin" is just a digital version of fiat currency (or stablecoin) just like Tether or TrueUSD. It can't be classified as a crypto-currency, because the value is pegged against the United States Dollar, and the currency is not decentralized. I don't think that it will create any impact upon the cryptocurrency market.

Thought about it for a few days and finally I decided to join (can't ignore Royse777, when he is putting so much effort in to this pool). I registered under the name vishnu. Just two more days to go for the first match and guys, and I am really excited about this!!! Can't wait to make my first prediction. Had a good IPL season this year. Hope that I will be lucky with the CWC as well.

After 45 overs, they have made 280/5, with Mahendra Singh Dhoni at the crease (79 from 65 balls, 4 sixes). At one point it looked like they may fall well short of 300, but the partnership between Dhoni and Rahul helped to stabilize the innings. The problem for India is that the three over rated players (Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar) have failed for the second consecutive time.

Sachin always faced criticism for not performing well in overseas pitches. I can remember dozens of matches, in which he failed against good bowling lineups (especially the Australian combo of Glenn McGrath and  Brett Lee). Out of his 49 ODI hundreds only 12 were scored outside the sub-continent (less than one-fourth and this includes centuries against Kenya and Zimbabwe).  

But I agree when you say that he was hugely inspirational. At his peak, he was the most popular individual in India. Even more than any Bollywood actor or national politician.

A lot of support in this thread for Manny and I am getting really tempted to bet for him. The odds (+145) are also very encouraging. I may make a bet, but it will be a small amount (BTC0.005 or BTC0.01). Right now I can't afford to take too much risk. Is there any reliable gambling site out there, which is giving more than +145 for Manny?

Dude, Virat Kohli is 10 times better than Sachin and Sehwag combined. I don't have anything against Sachin. But I believe that he was given a larger than life image by the media. The vast majority of his tons came against weak sides such as Zimbabwe and Kenya, and that too on flat tracks. BTW, I don't have anything against Bangladesh... the border is just 20 km from my village.

To my non-Indian friends here: it is too early to speculate anything. The election results were announced just 5 days back and we don't know who will be the next finance minister. The former finance minister (Piyush Goyal) was opposed to the idea of crypto-currency. But the rumors are that the next finance minister may be Amit Shah. He is in favor of technology innovations, and I hope that he'll take a favorable view about crypto. 

Well... if you check the previous posts, then you'll get an idea about it. Most of us have speculated that she might have acted as a cover for someone else. She is probably trying to protect her son or grandson. I don't expect a 61-year old Chinese grandma with only basic computer knowledge to be proficient in setting up a mining farm, and then mining cryptocurrency.

The OP is absolutely correct. There was a time when we regarded Ethereum as Bitcoin 2.0. But a few years later, we understand that it is not the technology, but the brand name which matters. Ethereum is more advanced than Bitcoin, as far as the technology is considered. But then, it is not the original cryptocurrency that was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto.

You are only interested in talking to the developers? Then you are against the idea of global adoption of Bitcoin. The developers are already using Bitcoin and you will not add any users by talking to them. If you want Bitcoin to be a truly global currency, then you should converse with the middle-class and lower middle-class people, who are working in non-IT domains.

Whatever advantage BTC is having, no one can deny the fact that the United States Dollar is the most acceptable currency in the world as of now. Bitcoin is miles behind, and it will take many decades before it can offer any meaningful competition to the USD. And for that to happen, the American economy should decline, and the chances are very low as long as Trump is in power.

Most of the users here receive their coins from bounty campaigns and signatures. In the vast majority of the cases, they are not investing any of their fiat money in to crypto. And this is the main reason why most of us behave somewhat carelessly while dealing with cryptos. Another reason can be a sense of over-confidence, that the hackers are never going to target their wallet.

I have a feeling that the presence of Virat Kohli makes the other members of the team (I mean the batsmen) very complacent. The thinking is like, he is going to score all the runs... so why we should bother? And I am not joking. In those matches where Virat is absent, I think the other team members do put in a lot of effort and hard-work (which is missing when he is present).

Back then, BCCI was being controlled by the greedy businessman N Srinivasan. He never cared about cricket and only wanted to make money through hook or crook. He is so greedy that he kicked out his son from his ancestral house without giving him his due share of ancestral property (his son is a homosexual and Srinivasan used it as a justification). And he got good companionship from two equally greedy guys, Giles Clarke of England and Wally Edwards of Australia. A film titled "Death of a Gentleman" was released in 2015 on this subject.

But now things have changed. Fed up with all the corruption in BCCI, the supreme court of India kicked out the businessmen and politicians, and appointed a bunch of former players as CoA to run the BCCI.

Nowadays a lot of the users have expressed doubts regarding the level of anonymity being offered by XMR. A few months back, rumors were going around that the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is now capable of tracking XMR and Zcash transactions back to the individuals. Some of the DEA agents also claimed to be able to do the same.

Very helpful advice, especially for the new users. Only a limited number of altcoins and tokens are supported in hardware wallets such as Ledger and Trezor (and this is despite the users paying significant amounts in purchasing them). As a result most of these coins are being stored in exchange wallets, which makes them vulnerable to hacks and robberies. This advice will reduce such incidents.