It is not at all a question of whether we need a BTC ETF or not, it already exists (only not in the US), but it is a question of when it will be approved there as well. One such mechanism should not be taken so lightly, because when ETF proposals were a hot topic, most experts agreed that they would be the perfect bridge between big investors and Bitcoin. Now we can ask the question if we want trillions of $ of their money, because no matter what ETF/s would launch the price into the sky, in the long run it would probably be detrimental for BTC.

A good article about the BTC ETF, it's not bad to be reminded of what it's really about -> Bitcoin ETF: Everything You Need To Know

Why should we be worried if the price goes up? Well we are just at the beginning of the after halving cycle and most of us were expecting it. Institutions are buying, the price is going up, small and smart investors are profiting - so I guess we deserve something good after all the bad things this year.


Source

Of course, the inactive ones need to be replaced with new ones - and as far as I know, there is an interest of many members to become merit sources. Also, when choosing new MS admin should take into account where these members are active, because some current merit sources have put half of the forum on ignore, and often have their favorites - and a lot of good posts are left without merit.

Anyone can do whatever they want with their merit, but I thought that some basic principle is that merit rewards a good post, not the one who wrote that post.

I have to admit that until now I didn’t even know there was a unit named after Hal Finney, and I’m just glad it existed because he totally deserved it.

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I personally like how the site is designed and I think it can be very useful to anyone who wants to see how much BTC is actually worth in its local currency. I also like the part where you can check the current state of mempool, and see where we can expect our transaction to be positioned considering the fee - maybe just to mark more than 3 blocks on the graphic display, so that even those inexperienced users know what awaits them if they pay a fee 1 sat/vbyte.

Don’t confuse support with some other things, because it’s not the same to say that the PP thing isn’t scam - but no one who understands what Bitcoin is will say that PP (at least at this point) gives its users a good crypto service. It is logical that if someone buys something in that case they have the right to fully dispose of their property - and when the service is available globally, maybe PP will at least allow the withdrawal of BTC. This would prove that they actually have real BTC in their possession and not to sell some virtual BTC.

On the other hand, I am surprised that many members of the forum think that the adaptation of BTC to society can pass without companies such as PP, banks, various funds and all other institutions. I look at this situation more from the perspective of a very good promotion of Bitcoin through the media, and also the fact that each of the 346 million PP users will find out about BTC. Each of them will be able to explore what BTC really is, so if they don't like the service provided by PP - they will register on some crypto exchange and buy BTC in the right way.

Some would see a very nice conspiracy theory in this, because the virus as we know came from China which is now almost virus free as some of the countries in this pact. While on the other hand, Europe is going through very difficult days under the impact of the second wave, and it is to be expected that it will very likely hit the US full harder than it is now.

This whole situation shows that China and some other countries in Asia have one major advantage, and that is that they have much more effective methods to overcome such challenges (pandemics) than is the case with EU or US residents. All this, of course, is connected with the political system and human freedoms in the West, where, despite the dangers and warnings, a part of the population wants to live as before - and thus spreads the virus everywhere. It is a very simple answer to all those who wonder why some countries have beaten the virus, while others do not see the light at the end of the tunnel.

If we take into account the law of supply and demand, at the moment we have less and less BTC on the market because it is bought by large investors, and all this results in an increase in price. If this trend continues, there is no doubt that the price will go up, but we can never know whether these same investors will at some point decide to profit and thus create a chain reaction of sell-offs.

To reach $100k next year we should increase the market cap about 6 times to $2 trillion which may seem like a lot, but that money exists and it is not impossible to move in the direction of Bitcoin. I think we are in a very early stage of institutional interest in this type of investment, and next year could be very interesting and set up a new ATH that can realistically be 4-5 times bigger than the one from 2017.

This is information that interested me, and as I expected it is a very big number of merits that came from just one merit source. I believe that this is just one of the indicators that this board is really helpful not only for beginners, but also for everyone who needs help.

Given the amount of available and high quality information in all the threads listed, it might be a good idea to ask the moderator to pin this thread at the top - I believe this might prevent the repetition of the same questions that have already been answered.

I don't see a problem in making a post even though it didn't make sense at the time, just edit the post and leave it blank or post just "delete" and come back to delete it after 24 hours.

What you suggest may make sense because that way the post would be automatically deleted after 24 hours, but that's the idea for a new forum. Until then, we will still have to take care of such posts and come back after 24 hours to delete them - and if we forget, maybe someone will report them and they will be deleted by the moderator.

DdmrDdmr, nice work

Considering that it is not difficult to notice that you are one of the most active merit sources interested in this board, do you have information on how many merits you have reward in all the listed threads? Somehow it seems to me that this is a significant number

One can criticize Bitcoin as much as one wants, but any criticism can be answered with a fairly well-founded counter-criticism as shown in the OP. 

"1. Bitcoin is too volatile to be a store of value."

What was that stable a few months ago when everything that is traditionally considered a store of value has lost its value? When someone loses their investment in BTC then it is a problem and when the same happens with stocks or gold then it is a normal occurrence.

"2. Bitcoin has failed as a means of payment."

The problem is not in the BTC itself (at least not completely), but let's be honest still its complexity when it comes to payments. In comparing card payments were sometimes no PIN or signature is required for authorization, you still need to have a little more technical knowledge to pay for something with Bitcoin. I’ve certainly paid with BTC hundreds of times over the years and it’s never been a problem for me - and the offer of online stores is growing every day.

"3. Bitcoin is wasteful."

In comparison with what? This false story is already so worn out that it is still pulled out of the closet only by complete ignoramuses or trolls for whom mathematics is not a strong point. The amount of energy consumed by electronic devices in stand-by mode in the US alone is many times higher than the total annual consumption consumed by BTC.

"4. Bitcoin is used for illicit activity."

The ratio of fiat to crypto in illegal activities is somewhere between 98% and 2%, maybe even more in favor of fiat - because criminals do not necessarily have to be smart, but they have obviously realized that it is much easier to control a blockchain than a fiat that goes out of hand in hand.

"5. Bitcoin is not backed by anything"

The greatest strength that BTC has is precisely the millions of people who own it and determine its value. They realize what they have in their hands, and that is definitely something better than a fiat that is backed by corrupt banks and rotten governments.

"6. Bitcoin will be replaced by a competitor."

Who says that? Those who have claimed and still claim that BCH or BSV is something much better than BTC, or the creators of the thousands of shitcoins who copied the original and most have failed within a year of appearing? Creating a crypto coin is the least problem, convincing people that it is better than Bitcoin is something that has very little chance of happening.

If you read OgNasty post you can see that Bitcoin has been very predictable so far at least as far as the new ATH is concerned, because halving is the trigger that drives the whole thing - and it seems to be the case this time as well. The last big bull run was launched on the ICO wave and on Bitocin futures news, which people completely misunderstood as something that would inflate the price to some unreal numbers, which was not realistic at the time.

I agree that you should trust yourself and your feelings, so even if you are wrong at least you will not blame others for it. It is experience that makes the difference between a good or bad decision, and everyone who was with Bitcoin 3-4 years ago should have learned something - the question is whether they have really learned and whether they will know how to apply it.

It is natural for neighboring countries to organize into such alliances, and given the US-initiated trade war with China, it is clear that business opportunities must be sought in other parts of the world - and neighbors are the logical solution. Free trade is, of course, in the interest of the whole world, and given that we have a new US president, it may be realistic to expect some changes in terms of US relations with China. If that happens, I have no doubt that the EU will not go in that direction either, because the US administration has put a lot of pressure on EU members to reduce their cooperation with China (especially with regard to building a 5G network - Huawei).

What this pact lacks is the participation of India which seems to have become the largest US vassal in Asia, they have literally copied all US moves towards China, but in the long run it will only be their loss.

Show me the perfect crypto-related service, so we can discuss how good PayPal is or bad for Bitcoin?

Things are currently set up in this way which does not mean that it will not change in the future, especially if numerous users ask for the possibility of deposit and withdrawal - in other words "give us the same conditions as for fiat". Meanwhile, PP has made it clear that at some point BTC will become a payment option at all points of sale where it is possible to pay with PP - meaning 26 million merchants.

Therefore, the word scam is not appropriate in this case - everyone will have the opportunity to buy BTC, but also to sell that same BTC within PP. From the perspective of the average Joe, who will invest $100 to buy BTC and then sell them for $130, PP will not be a bad option at all - although any custodial wallet is not the right option for storing crypto.

Methodology that those coins who have not moved in a certain number of years are considered lost BTC (say 4), is something that someone can use to do their internal analysis, but as you say it's just a guess that has no solid facts behind it. As we have seen lately, coins from 2010 are often the subject of debate, and it is precisely such transactions that show that we cannot really know what has been lost and what has only been kept in the long run.

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This has been pretty clear to some for a long time, some others seem to have only recently discovered it, and some still stick to their old stories that Bitcoin will collapse one year in the future. If we refer only to the price, then I would agree that we are still very low considering how little BTC is in circulation at all, and what the total supply is. I remember a few years ago that someone wrote that there are about 36 million millionaires in the world, and only 21 million BTC - I'm sure there are even more (millionaires) today - in other words, I believe that there will come a time when it will not be so easy and simply to buy a BTC, no matter what price someone will be paying.

Seed is the most important thing, and if you had it, you wouldn't be in a situation like this right now.


From version 1.3.1 (2017) to the last 1.6.1 there is only 5 updates, which is not much for 3 years if you take that it is something that protects such sensitive information as private keys. I don’t think it should be too difficult to set aside 5-10 minutes each year for new firmware.

You should know that those who have even older firmware are completely disabled from making updates, but Ledger replaced their devices for free.

Really impressive, they buy regardless of the price and if they continue like this I wonder how long it will take them to double the amount they already have and approach the amount of 1 million BTC in their possession?

According to the data presented by fillippone, at the beginning of August they were at 400 000 BTC, now they have almost 82 000 more and there is no doubt that by the end of the year they will reach 500 000 BTC, so if they buy around 100 000 on average every 4 months, by the end of next year the total amount could exceed as much as 800 000 BTC.

Obviously, some people think that things like this can go under the radar, but they don't know that they are doing themselves more harm than good by using this way of promotion.

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Even if it is a beginner to whom $200 million seems like big money, in a market worth almost $300 billion it is a drop in the ocean that has almost no effect on the price. For comparison Grayscale bought BTC worth $240 million, no effect on the market at least for now.

It's all a matter of personal preference, what is important to show unequivocally what the user wrote himself, and what does not belong to him and comes from some other source. I personally use the following option where text is in the quote, and above is the source.

I am sure that he is going through the difficult days of the last weeks, as well as everyone who for some reason has a completely negative attitude towards BTC. I respect the fact that everyone has the right to their own opinion, but those who blindly follow their idols (whether it is WB or PS) will never change their opinion - it is, after all, not their own opinion - "I think what they think" attitude.

You are probably thinking of this user, and he obviously enjoys his BitCorn, though it probably tastes bitter to him