Depends how close you are to your family. I'd probably trust my immediate family - but I don't know my extended family that well so I wouldn't put it past them to collude and steal and just claim ignorance.

Best solutions are cold storage (if you plan on using them sometime in the relative short term i.e 6 months) or just multi-signature if you don't need them anytime soon (i.e. couple of years all the way to your lifetime). If you have a soft copy that should always be encrypted and if your having a paper wallet in a non-guaranteed safe location then BIP38 is pretty necessary IMO.

The issue isn't entirely just on your own spending. There is also a problem merchant-side as they don't see it as a currency either (they see it as an alternate way to get fiat in the end) and so they don't keep it but convert it back to fiat. Until both consumers and merchants view Bitcoin as a currency it will continue to be a commodity that people keep/HODL for the sheer reason of making a profit and if it fails to do so they will move on to other ventures.

Because for local markets supply is limited - it's insanely hard to find reasonable pricing for local exchanges if you're not in the US. They can simply price gouge as much as they want - which kind of makes the whole reduced fees idea worthless. As for buying Bitcoin via bank transfers/CC, some of it is difficult in different countries simply because of regulation and that banks tend to associate large international transfers with no prior history/explanation as high risk/possible fraudulent transactions. Plus most of the banks don't really have much interest in helping Bitcoin users anyway - it doesn't help their bottomline so why should they care?

The fact that a majority of people have either not heard of it - or have little understanding of how it actually works. The thing I probably like even less than that are the amount of scammers that are associated with Bitcoin and the fact that Bitcoin is now thought of as a currency for criminal dealings and illicit drugs. These are all things that will have to change if Bitcoin's reputation will improve.

Because it's not a commonly held belief - at least by those doing a majority of the trading. If everyone on the planet agreed that its value would be significantly higher in the future - everyone would rush to buy it leading to increased demand and therefore prices and therefore creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. The reason this doesn't happen is because aside from the few people here who have incredibly unrealistic expectations - most people don't expect any major valuation changes in the short term so spending it is perfectly viable.

That's pretty close to Gambler's Fallacy - the truth is the past has zero influence on the future (in a properly constructed scenario). You are most likely to be close to the EV after a given number of bets but there is of course reasonable chances that you lie outside that significantly. But you definitely will not always even out (in fact I'd wager in most scenarios (60%+ cases) you'd been behind after 10000 flat bets).


Depends how stupid the casino is - if they've put bonuses on a dice game to give you positive expectation then by all means gamble away. If they thought about it and gave you reduced negative expectation then it's back to no play as the best option.

Hell no. The majority of dice sites that started up all ran away with the bankroll sometime down the track. AFAIK the only two that haven't high-tailed and ran and maintain a relatively high profile within the community are JD and PD neither of which offer investments in BTC. Unless you trust the person running the dice site not to run with the bankroll - or possibly even worse abuse their knowledge to make bets that always win but are completely undetectable then I wouldn't invest any amount that you aren't willing to part with.

Both can be considered forms of gambling to an extent. Since we're talking about making a profit here - I'm going to ignore -EV games like dice.

The stock market foremost I would consider is more regulated than the gambling industry - specifically sports betting and poker. IMO sports games are more likely to have a fix - but for all I know there has been a lot of insider trading done which hasn't been caught. Both can be profitable - but both require a good analysis of historical trends alongside an effective way of making predictions (usually a mathematical model).

This is a solid explanation. Right now the way I see it is that these services act as a crutch - they help to prop up Bitcoin but they also prevent it from moving forward. The way Bitcoin works right now is it is seen more as a commodity (and an unstable one at that) rather than a currency. So merchants still want the business that comes with accepting it as a payment method without the risk of fluctuating value - and so they use Bitpay etc. as a means of getting fiat - while "accepting" Bitcoin. In reality though - it's just an onsell - Bitcoin isn't acting as a currency where it is accepted then kept and spent.

That's psychology for you - the reality is that people are strange and do strange and irrational things all the time. That being said - if I were to take a guess I would think that the people who spend lots of time on faucets etc are less likely to risk their BTC than the people who just buy it through exchanges and so forth. Simply being - requiring less effort reinforces its value less.

Blockchain as a hot wallet for purchases that I need to make when I'm away. Electrum for the rest - don't have any hardware wallets simply because I don't have enough Bitcoin to warrant it at the moment. Set-up works fine, could be more secure I guess - but for me it's not worth the hassle - I'm happy with the risk vs convenience level.

Have to agree with this point - no matter how big you are until you're the market leader (or have a monopoly) you can always try and reach more people. For Bitcoin as a currency - it'd just need to get to the point where everyone would use it, once that happens you wouldn't need to advertise anymore. It's just like any other currency - you never see anyone advertise for the USD.

Gratz on the good news. Having used the service before I can say that the system works well - escrow deals with the shady deals as long as you don't release it early. My only problem has been a lack of sellers for items I've wanted to buy in the past. Are there any plans to find some more sellers?

From a risk perspective I feel like it's the same thing at casino's where they switched to chips and credits. IIRC there have been psychology studies that noted having an alternate "form" (for lack of a better word) creates a disconnect between the value of the chips in relation to their actual worth in the player's mind. Hence you would be right in assuming it would promote riskier behavior -  which is what we see with the gambling, investment schemes and lending.

TBH time frames are only relevant if we're talking about a significant number of bets made in that time period. While I do agree that you are more likely to end up with a profit due to the house edge (and a higher house edge also improves that likelihood), there is definitely no guarantee you'll make a profit. It's just unlikely - how unlikely depends on a lot of factors (bet size, house edge, no of bets, variance) but it can happen more than you would think.

Honestly, if someone doesn't want to be your friend because you won't lend them money (I'm not talking like $5 here and there to buy like a limited edition Harley on auction for a steal) then you don't really want them as a friend. All they see you as is a walking ATM which is kind not what friends are for. Also commonly stated advice, if you have a friend you're willing to lend - make it a gift rather than a loan - often times it'll be shitty and awkward to ask for money back. If they're a good person - they'll repay you anyway - at least this way you get a character judgement - which can be worth a lot more when you have a scenario when you need an actual friend.

For a poker site, server costs might be $50-100 a month (as you'd want something in an offshore location and with a decent reputation - not the shady one man operations), running a signature campaign could go anywhere from 1-5 BTC per month (depending on how stingy and how big a campaign you'd want). Coding costs would be a one off so I wouldn't include it. If we go with the cheapest options, you'd probably spend in the vicinity of $250-300 a month, which you might not make with a poker site (poker isn't that big to be honest). Might be better off without a sig campaign and run poker/sports betting if you have no capital. IMO dice is still a good option if you have the capital to support whales and you know how to secure your coins.

I don't think I've ever seen someone actually enjoy losing - there are people who are less upset by it - but actually enjoying losing is a different story.


In the select scenario where you're doing it purely for the profit - then you should definitely expect to make a profit otherwise you'd need to go back and reconsider your strategy. For example, in poker if you're already making steady earnings from smaller stakes tables and moved up to higher stakes and you start losing/earning less you'd definitely want to reconsider.

The article barely mentions Bitcoin much at all. Honestly the title tends to imply Bitcoin adoption - but in reality they are just restating the same news that Sweden is shying away from the usage of cash. While it means there are more digital transactions - there is no indication of any new developments in the market nor legislation that will support Bitcoin in becoming a currency to rival fiat in any significant way anytime soon.

This is the age old pay for advice that doesn't really help. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a scam - but if you think about it logically in what scenario would someone sell something that makes them a decent amount of money. Under most market systems - once you release an edge/tactic you'd expect the rest of the market to catch on and such an edge to disappear. Likewise with anything else - if someone is making loads of money doing something and its known publicly - other people will keep doing the same till it doesn't earn you anything.