I think most blockchain technologies will simply get absorbed as alternate solutions for industry in cases where fake data and fake feedback is an issue. Ranging from metering to fake news, all of this will come to be based on some sort of private blockchain networks. The push will need to either come from the industry or from disruptive products that get a great following. The second one seems unlikely as majority of the people are as unaware about the benefits of blockchain as they are about the importance of encryption of their browsing data or security of the websites they visit.

It'll mostly be demand driven. Once people start valuing blockchain implementations; the existing industry may as well try to incorporate these.

If you are new, follow some very simple things:

1. Decide your initial portfolio allocation based on what is the amount you are willing to lose.

2. DCA into BTC with 50-6% of that amount. When it comes to BTC, Just remember what they say. Its not Timing the market but Time in the market.

3. With the rest, find the latest projects with a fair launch and a developer community. Look for projects that have their own SDKs and are organizing Hackathons. Learn about them and see how you can contribute. Pick a few of them. Engage in the community and invest part of your portfolio.

If you are just looking for a gamble and a chance to get rich quickly, then just follow some of those online shills and keep a watch for what they are shilling. Just remember that without DYOR, you can lose everything. That is why BTC is important.

The Traditional Rich don't give a damn about cryptocurrency. Except those that have become rich DUE to bitcoin. For the first group, Bitcoin is just an investment giving great returns and they are being enables by companies like MSTR or Square. Tesla is the only exception to this trend and that is what we should want more of.

Control over the flow of value is their biggest asset. They decide who gets the cheap loans and huge funds in the name of public investments. If people around the world start paying for an earning services using crypto while bypassing all their walls, they will find that normal people can do just fine when left alone. Nobody wants that.

Nothing really. The only negative effect is that the government will have to actually do their jobs than engaging in demagoguery and politics to control people's sentiments.

It makes it easier for real and purported threats to actually come to the negotiating table because the financial knobs like "sanctions" won't work anymore. This will force the West to be fair and stop opting for the war-machine to solve the slightest of problems.

I think the fears of hyperinflation in the US are overblown. Hyperinflation is generally the result of printing a lot of money and that money being unable to find a market. Right now, the money being spent by the Feds is just going to major American corporations and investment institutions. I think it will leave American companies with a lot of spare cash-flow to invest in new markets and expand.

This is basically a roundabout method to counter the world trade balance. If you see the way international trade has shaped over the past few years, American manufacturing and infrastructure companies have essentially been ignored by Americans as well as the rest of the world. Most major technological infrastructure is being built by Chinese companies. In almost all of them, the Chinese government provides state backing. To the outsider, they are just companies participating in international bids.

These things have much greater geo-strategic implications than Bitcoin right now. When you really look at the scale of things, Bitcoin marketcap or Bitcoin transaction volume is a drop in the ocean. Frankly speaking, Bitcoiners and crypto should stick to making the technology better (For example, LN, streaming payments, DAOs). All of this discussion about the American Dollar collapsing and Bitcoin becoming Store of Value is pretty much hubris.

They have zero difference in terms of what they do and stand for.

The strikingly common characteristic is that they are both shaky pillars on which the whole house of cards is relying right now. Fiat on-ramping never had a perfect solution. Stablecoins were a hurried up solution. Now these centralized institutions issuing them is just another of the many regulatory risks for crypto enthusiasts.

Exactly. Without a truly decentralizes network, the whole meaning of having a financial system without a central authority goes up in the air. This is especially true with the BSC. It is basically a private blockchain which benefits one person, Changpeng Zhao. The fees being paid in case of ETH goes to the miners. In case of BSC, they are going directly to Binance.

If you consider that, you will see that the fees on BSC aren't really that low. CZ has just exploited it like the clever opportunistic Chinese businesses everywhere. They give you a cheap alternative at supposedly low prices but it is never beneficial in the long run. It is up to the community to decide. I was not sure about ETH's PoS but now with these antics from Binance, I wish that ETH finds solution to its scaling woes through PoS so that the truly good stuff built on ETH doesn't get copied to BSC in the typical brain-dead, Chinese copy manner.

So Cobra made a post about how the community should mobilize to support the developers. When it comes to this, I think, and hope, that those who can actually support with their wealth are probably all known to each other and in touch to coordinate against this.

When it comes to support from the general crypto-community, i think most of the "masses" are actually busy with the bull run or alternate interests to actually care about what happens.

Though I think this drama has had its anti-climatic twist with his lawyer's claiming that the 1FeeX address which drained Mt. Gox fund was controlled by CSW. Someone sued him back pointing that out too. Overall, i doubt that Faketoshi's claims will ever amount to more than a web of lies and deception under the scrutiny of a true, old judge. It is still important that the devs have their own billionaire friends to defend them from this billionaire idiot and his trolls.

It is kindda delusional to think that something like a 51% attack can never happen. The possibilities of a capture and destroy strategy from the governments can never completely ignored. This may happen if those in power are not getting the right picture. Most of the times, the picture is painted by Academics and Private institutions with deep pockets that fund them. Due to this, an initiative from DCI is a plus. What is harder to discern is whether this "support" to strengthen the network is also about changing the way Bitcoin functions, so that it becomes more pliant to what the authorities want??

Remember how the govt agencies asked for help from open source community to trace Monero transactions?

So even though the academic interest is welcome, the Open Source developer community becomes all the more important to ensure that the narratives is not controlled by only the elite institutions.

I don't think it really matters to people any more. Especially to the new bunch of enthusiasts and money makers from developing countries like Indonesia, Turkey, Eastern Europe. Most want low trading fees for instant and complicated transactions. Centralized solutions are fulfilling the need of the market.

ETH on the other hand has a lot of value invested into it so it is not going to be completely gone. Though there is fierce, open competition in this space now and they cannot rest on the past.

You are one of the lucky ones that every bull run gives a chance to. Good for you. Just make sure to invest part of your profits back into something which is stable, preferably bitcoin. A lot of these gains can be ephemeral (not the one you had with DOT, though). It is best to diversify and keep a safe stack at all times.

Also, for anyone spending lot of time on bounties, it is always much better for you as well as the whole space if you spend time actually getting to know about the project and contributing in whatever ways you can. Those who follow this approach tend to benefit in the long term like you did. A lot are though just insanely lucky.

The BNB pump is due to the timing of CZ shilling BNB during the DeFi bullrun and the growing popularity of BSC after the hackathon. It is just benefiting from the leverage of being Binance promoted otherwise there are a lot of other alternate chains. CZ has the funds to pay for crypto twitter shills and youtube influencers. The small investors who made money in DeFi run are jumping onto BSC too.

There shouldn't be any issue as long as you cash out your positions. It is all very new and people could easily lose fortunes if they are not careful with the pumps and dumps. Additionally, BSC is completely centralized so there is that. It is essentially going to be another cash cow for Binance as nobody cares if it is centralized. Like all Chinese businesses, CZ copied everything from ETH in terms of the look to ensure that people tired of high ETH fees embrace it.

It doesn't really matter how many digits the currency has. A country can be prosperous without huge exchange rates as it depends on the trade balance. Just look at Japanese Yen.

OP says that only the central bank governor is against it while the Nigerian SEC is in favor. So that is a positive, right. Central bank are supposed to be autonomous bodies and the governor can have an opinion. Doesn't mean it can be termed policy. The fact that you are having senate hearings on this is a positive in itself.

As people, you all need to organize and explain in media and to people how what the governor says is his opinion and not the truth. An illegitimate opinion cannot decide the future of something that the people themselves want. Organize and ask for the right to stay connected to the international community in a positive way. You guys are good. I have seen it first hand. Nobody really wants to go back to the "Nigerian Prince" days. 

My guess is that they aren't just using Bitcoin but a host of other cryptocurrencies. If there already is a "DeFi" product from the Govt, it means that Venezuelans must be quite involved. All that someone needs to get onto this bandwagon these days is a mobile phone and access to internet. It opens earning opportunities for people with requisite knowledge and communication skills.

In a country like Venezuela, having a source of non-inflationary income itself is a big benefit. While it is too early to say that this can help replace dictators, it can surely help create individuals and pockets of prosperity that can eventually stand up to the tyranny. Dictators generally thrive on a deprived populace. The fact that crypto can work without borders means that it can keep people out of poverty and allow them to think of a better future.

In the long term, IMO, It could definitely get rid of the dictatorial, irresponsible style of governance.

When it comes to transacting money internationally, there is a big game played by international financial institutions. The rules are different for individuals as compared to corporations. The odds really are stacked against the individual as your income will be taxed and levied at every checkpoint.

For the first time in history, Bitcoin gives you an option to avoid that, if used correctly. Fees is something you have to manage at present. How LN changes that remains to be seen.

If you are talking about the fees that exchanges charge or when you want to FOMO into something and convert BTC and find that the fees for instant transfer are insane, then unfortunately, that is just how blockchain stays worth the mining effort and secure.

Authorities everywhere will disagree to everything written above and want their hand in the pie. It is an evolving situation.

I guess this latest batch of frustrated noobs and novel "investors" is slowly finding its voice again.

Volatility based on sentiments is true for every market traded commodity. Price is simply what the last person is willing to sell at and next person is willing to buy at. It is based on sentiments which in turn are based on performance company or usage of the underlying asset. All the world markets are based on sentiments. Bitcoin is more so because it is still very young and hasn't completely found acceptance. Individuals love it but somehow, as a collective, everyone is afraid of what it might expose.

Frankly though, We keep repeating this here. Nobody should invest or buy into bitcoin or any other crypto SIMPLY for the price appreciation if you don't understand or find the technology and its implications fascinating. If it does not open your mind and eyes to ideas, it is not for you.

LOL. India's own Warren Buffett. Everything that the west does, we have to find a representation for that. Almost every hill-station in India will have a nickname resembling "Swiss of the East". We never want to take the initiative and actually use innovation until some precedence has been set.
The same is happening with the talk about this legislation. Indian entrepreneurs who put their time and effort into Bitcoin related products did not do so to see this day. It is hard to fathom that a good Govt. will do this to its own citizens. If this happens only because the crypto users are small in numbers, it'll be another one of sure signs of a failing democracy and the bankruptcy of ideas within ruling establishment.

The future financial world will still need the geeks but it is going to be much more permissioned. Boundless, open exchange that happens on crypto-gambling sites doesn't really sit well with financial institutions.
Congratulations for a great run and an incident-free, graceful closure. Hope we can hear of the experience you guys had at some outlet.

It is difficult to say anything right now as to what extent the Indian babus and netas will go in their baseless fears. If they criminalize holding crypto then the fear is natural and there won't be much of a choice left. As of today, there is nothing illegal in p2p trading or forming such a group as long as you are paying your taxes on returns.

Even today, crypto is not "approved by the law". You choose it out of your own volition because its basically just software and a bit of finance.

while the higher valuation may make it normal to think that the value at risk is greater, the actual risk of a successful attack resulting in breaking of network is still the same as it has always been. If anything, the skyrocketing prices of mining hardware makes it costlier still to attack the network itself. I think this is one of the biggest advantages of being a PoW coin unlike PoS.

Yet, as @aliashraf said, this should be a topic of discussion. One of the risks i can think of has more to do with the aspect of manpower management than purely technical challenges. Bitcoin is a decentralized entity but we all know that it is equally dependent on individual brilliance like everything else of value in this world. There are several changes and updates planned for the network. There are individuals involved who do it out of dedication and belief. Yet, like all of us, those individuals have compulsions that can lead to weaknesses. The recent example of Core devs removing references to Bitcoin whitepaper in the face of litigation threat is one such example, albeit small one and something that was quickly addressed. (which also shows the importance of truly anonymous benefactors).

The risk is that Bitcoin is more dependent on individuals than we realize. As the market cap continues to grow and more value is added, it keeps putting these individuals under more pressure as BTC continues to become a juicier target for some. Bitcoin has always successfully dealt all these challenges, either as community or by anonymous benefactors (The 30 BTC anonymous donation to Antonopoulous come to mind as an example when someone anonymous decided that AA was important enough for the community to be taken care of). How long this will continue and does Bitcoin have a robust enough plan, in the sense that a plan can be made within a decentralized network like BTC?

This crisis of decision making is the result of the years of rhetoric about need for a "decisive leader". Everybody these days simply looks up to the authority for the smallest of decisions. Delegation of powers has taken a beating as the investigative agencies plus media are being used to hound everyone who goes against the reigning narrative of "social/ cultural revival"

It is indeed sad. It pains to see our country squandering its reputation of pluralism and fairness as the ruling part decided to play the dangerous game of majoritarianism, something that Indian society so astutely avoided despite its teeming diversity through the post-independence years. It is not just about the Hindu-Muslim fear mongering. There is a pattern of behavior throughout government institutions, bureaucracy and media where any kind of alternate viewpoint or dissent is frowned upon and trolled by branding it as foreign conspiracy, fear of Islam, Christian conversion etc etc. The basic tenet of democracy; free speech and respect for dissenting voices is being lost in this blind race towards revival of Hindu cultural identity.