He is the second richest person in this world, so obviously we have to respect his business skills. But even the best can flounder at times. What he did with cryptocurrency was a mistake. Not only it crashed the exchange rates and pushed many of the investors to bankruptcy, but also it tarnished Elon's own reputation. If he had issues with the electricity consumption of Bitcoin, then why he promoted it in the first place? Promoting Bitcoin and retracting the support after a few weeks is not something that someone with ethics and morals would do. Bitcoin's high electricity consumption is not a recent phenomenon. We have been debating about it for many years now.

It is really stupid to say these outlandish claims, with the limited user base we have. Central banks will exist as long as fiat currencies exist. And fiat currencies will exist as long as governments exist. Bitcoin can replace fiat currencies only in a scenario where the entire planet comes under a single regime, and that too if the regime opts for a decentralized currency. Such a scenario is not possible now. First of all, Bitcoin is not a replacement for fiat currency. A payment method which takes 10-20 minutes to confirm and having a transaction fee of $5-$10 without scalability can never replace fiat.

One of the reasons why we trust exchanges such as Binance is that they have a very strict screening mechanism. Even if the promoters are willing to pay the listing fee (which can be up to $3 million for Binance), if the coin fails the requirements then exchanges such as Binance would refuse to list it in their platform. But the same can't be said about the smaller exchanges. The screening mechanism is not very strict in exchanges such as Livecoin and Yobit. But in the end, it is up to the user to decide whether they want to invest in such coins or not.

By now, you might have understood that the news about China was pure FUD, without any truth. Every now and then, there will be FUD originating from China, which will crash the markets by 20% or 25%. The Chinese authorities have never taken a favorable stance on cryptocurrency. But from what I understand, there is some level of tolerance, because it brings valuable foreign currency and also contributes to the tax revenue. This state of suspended animation is likely to continue in the near future and I don't really expect any real changes to the cryptocurrency policy from the Chinese government.

If a coin is having very low trade volume, then there will be a reason for that. In all probability, it doesn't have any real life usage and therefore the trading volumes are low. And in most cases, I wouldn't recommend investing in them. In rare occasions, the promoters may trigger a pump as a result of manipulation and it may take the exchange rates to 10x or 20x the current levels for a short duration. Even if that happens, remember that the ordinary user doesn't know when to sell his stash. So overall, it is not advisable to invest in such coins.

I don't understand why people get so excited with a small temporary fluctuation in the ETH gas fee. I am 100% sure that the fee levels will be back to previous high rates within a few days. Scalability is an issue with many of the cryptocurrencies and Ethereum is not an exception. And to divert the discussion about high fee levels, the developers have constantly relied on the discussion about ETH 2.0. Personally, I don't think that ETH 2.0 is going to resolve the fee issue. It is just a diversionary or delaying tactic.

See how the fortunes can change in a few days time. Till April, Elon Musk was widely regarded as a hero by many of the cryptocurrency users and everyone were talking about him in high regard. And everything changed upside down within a few days (or a few tweets). Now he has also realized the extent of damage done by him. Tried to alleviate the damage with some more tweets, but by that time his followers were not taking him seriously anymore. It was a tragic end to a promising start.

The problem is that in most cases these people have access to your intimate pictures or videos. If you ignore their emails and calls, then in all probability they will upload these videos to porn sites or social media and in turn this can cause great harm to yourself and those who are close to you. In such instances, it should be dealt intelligently. Contacting the cops is definitely the best option, but this can create issues for certain people (for example those who are involved in extra-marital affairs). 

First let them pass the so called cryptocurrency bill. Only after they table the bill, we will get to know what are the terms and conditions. However, I would still say that for the past few months, a lot of positive news is coming from India. First there was the statement from Anurag Thakur (Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs) about cryptocurrency, and now the document released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). I guess the politicians have made their voice clear, sidelining the recommendations made by the Bitcoin-hating bureaucrats.

If a certain country bans cryptocurrency, then in the end the citizens of that country are going to suffer. Take the case of India for example. When the news of an impending ban came out, large number of users in India sold their coins in panic. And within the next 2-3 months, the exchange rates went up by more than 100%. On the other hand, investors in more cryptocurrency friendly countries such as Russia and Japan don't face these issues. They are profiting from their investments and they can chose the time when they want to sell their crypto-assets.

I agree with this. From my limited knowledge of the subject, I would say that licensed casinos may be more safer, when compared to those without a license. But still, it is easy for these people to steal money and then escape to some island nation which will not extradite them to the country where they committed the crime. For example, India is still trying to get criminals such as Vijay Mallya and Mehul Choksey extradited, with hardly any success for many years now. US has muscle power and force these small nations to extradite the suspects they need. But that may not be the case with other countries.

Most of the miners are going to sell their mining equipment and quit. Because if they can't mine Bitcoin for three months, then they can't sustain the operations. It becomes financially unviable. And also, there is no guarantee that such bans won't be imposed again in the future. But there will be a small section of the miners, who will continue with their business despite the ban. And it is this group which worries me the most. If they are caught, then you know the harsh punishments they may receive under the Iranian law.

I could give one example. Here in India, porn, gambling, cannabis.etc are banned. If I want to purchase a premium subscription with PornHub or Xhamster, I can't use my bank account or debit/credit card, as the payment will not get processed. For that purpose I need to use an anonymous payment method. If you ask me whether it is against the law, then yes. According to the Indian law, I am not supposed to access these sites. But I don't agree here. I believe that such laws are an infringement on personal liberty.

From the language used, it almost certainly looks like this. And given that the Reserve Bank of India governor is very close to the ruling party, I have strong suspicion that the government is now looking forward to completely legalize and regulate cryptocurrency. If that happens, then it will be great news for the much harassed crypto community in India. We have suffered a lot over the years. Let's not forget the case of Harish BV, who was arrested and his laptop and mobile phone confiscated just for trying to install a Bitcoin ATM in the city of Bangalore.

10 double headers and 11 other days mean a total of 21 days. I guess if they could finish the tournament in three weeks, then the T20 World Cup can proceed as planned. But the catch here is that if the world cup is to be played in India, then it takes additional time to set up the bio-secure bubbles and to quarantine the players who are returning from UAE. So the best option here would be to stage both the tournaments in the same country. Also, the BCCI team (Shah, Ganguly.etc) are in Dubai right now, and the rumors are that they are exploring the option to stage the world cup in UAE.

Being an Indian, I would say that you guys are overestimating the influence from India. There are large number of users here, but overall volumes are not high. Also, the mining sector is almost inexistent (due to the high taxes, high cost of the hardware and expensive electricity). On top of that, the local exchanges and businesses face a lot of harassment from the authorities, due to lack of clarity on the legal status of Bitcoin. However, China accounts for 70% of Bitcoin mining hash power, and for a large share of the daily volumes.

The problem is that once the lockdown measures are lifted, people will again disobey the social distancing protocols and then the cycle will start again. The main issue now is that vaccination is proceeding extremely slowly. Also, some of the people who got one dose of the vaccine thinks that they are immune to the virus. They end up infecting themselves and those who are around them (including those who can't receive vaccines due to medical conditions). Here in India, a large number of new cases can be attributed to this phenomenon. 

I would agree with you, but it is a combination of jealousy and ignorance. There are ultra-rich people like Warren Buffet who are jealous at Bitcoin users. And on the other hand, there are less tech savvy users who are against Bitcoin, simply because they don't have enough information about it. It is basic human nature to be afraid of things that we don't know. But this should go away, as the awareness about cryptocurrencies increase among the general population. But at the same time, the jealously of the ultra-rich is not going to go away.

That may be true. But there are limitations in using cryptocurrency for these fraudulent activities. First issue is the limited liquidity for various cryptocurrencies. It is not very easy to convert cryptocurrencies to fiat cash, and that too anonymously. And this is one of the primary reasons why criminals prefer various fiat options instead of cryptocurrency for their activities. But the mainstream media would like to concentrate on the few instances where cryptocurrencies are used for scams.

If you are really ambitious, then you should look outside the top-20. There can be some dark horses, which may give you 100x or 200x return in the future. If you concentrate on the top coins, then the problem is that they are already overpriced and the potential returns may be muted. Many of these coins have gone up by 30x or 40x in the last 12 months (more than 100x in the case of Dogecoin). So rather than a positive return, there is a strong chance that you may end up with losses in the short to medium term.