How often do the mining pools win the POW challenge nowadays?  Who are the major competitors to contend against?  Can there be a back-to-back winner or do winners for the POW challenge get excluded from the next challenge round?

Yea like many have said the only way this could work is if you didn't have to pay for electricity.  The only way you're going to get zero cost for electricity is if you build your own power source... IE solar, wind farm, or if you somehow find a way to tap into zero point energy (not likely).  

If you CAN find a way to offset the cost of electricity or even turn the deficit into a profit by putting more energy back on the grid than you consume, then the BTC mining venture would become the side hustle, as the incentives from utilities paying you for generating electricity would almost certainly be more profitable.

NOTE on zero point energy:
It's not possible to build a zero-point energy device right now.

Zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical physical system may have, which is also called the ground state energy. This energy is always present in any physical system, even in a vacuum. However, it is not possible to extract energy from this state, as it is a fundamental property of quantum mechanics.

Attempts to create devices that could harness zero-point energy have been made in the past, but none have been successful. There is currently no known way to access or utilize this energy. The laws of thermodynamics, which govern the behavior of energy in physical systems, also limit the possibility of extracting energy from the vacuum.

While the idea of a zero-point energy device may seem enticing, it is important to recognize that such a device would violate some of the most fundamental principles of physics. Therefore, it is not a practical or feasible goal to pursue.

TikTok is owned by its parent company, ByteDance. And though the Chinese government doesn't directly own the social media platform, it may indirectly influence its operations.  So keep that in mind.  You almost certainly have the CCP intruding into your personal device and all of your affairs.

These bank failures seem to be very nicely timed for the rollout of CBDCs. I suspect if this is the case most countries that are doing CBDCs will not want to have too many of other countries' CBDCs because that country will be able to easily manipulate them thus creating a redemption risk.  I can see this forcing them to resort to falling back on BitCoin instead.  FYSA it will be legal for banks to start holding crypto on their balance sheets starting in Jan 2025.  

Joe Biden should have set fire to his testicles long before he fathered his ill-begotten son.  If the right people are in charge of his funeral they will launch his casket into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean.  He is a swine of a man and jabbering doddered of a president. He is so crooked he needs servants to help him screw his pants on every morning.  Till he is dead he should be beaten like a mad dog with mange at every opportunity. Nobody trusts him -- except maybe the Stalinist Chinese and honest historians will remember him mainly as a rat who kept scrambling to get back on the ship.

From the Loose Cannon 1st Edition

The Book of Midgets/Midgits (a history)

Chapter 1 verses 4-8, 31-35

"Send forth my beloved subjects! Be they small and capable of head butting tall people in the
groin. Let them be capable of acting as mobile beer holders. Let them be cute and cuddly,
and let them be capable of riding many a good winner at the races. "

"Leestee here-a Meedgits ve-a vere-a here-a furst und qooeete-a frunkly ve-a ere-a pretty
demned fed up veet yuoo beeeng here-a. Yuoo ere-a nut trooe-a representeshuns ooff zee Greet
Nuudly Oone-a. Yuoo ere-a boot un upgrede-a veet mure-a heur und inhunced cooltoorel
felooes. Gu feend yuoor oovn lunds. "

Which roughly translates 'Love your hair and cooking skills, but clear off we were here first.'

And in reply the Great Midgit wrestler and leader of his people Caxton did thus reply in a well
rounded Midgit banter:

"Thunkyuoo su mooch fur zee cuukeeng ingredeeents, lufely yuoong ledeees und cuukeeng
ingredeeents. Boot ve-a ere-a ooffff tu feend oooorslfes a noo ebude-a."

Which roughly translates to 'See ya round baldies!'

I want to Believe

I wouldn't try it.  If you have an account on the original binance you would know they collect your ID and verify your country in order to upgrade your account.   So they already know the country you live in and would probably flag you as suspicious for trying to circumvent the regional security.

What the hell are you talking about ... ETH is at $1700+ as of this post.

I wouldn't follow this advice as it's insane to make the investment on the required hardware (which is fucking ridiculous in price due to scalpers right now) when ETH is moving to Proof of Stake.  Sure there are mining pools but the point of crypto is decentralization not pooling everyone together.  

I would however recommend trying to get in some of the low-cost cryptos right now.  For instance, despite the naysayers, try to get some XPR / XLM while it is still below $1 a coin.  Get more coins for the money you put in instead of fractions of an expensive asset.   If you're looking for a legitimate way to make money it's your best bet as to when the market moves on those coins its an exponential growth in your profit as opposed to more violent and volatile swings in price on the fractions of the older assets.  

A lot of people may not like this observation but anyone that is not already in a good position with some of the older assets has missed the boat.  Don't make decisions base on FOMO. There is more than one rocket ride to the moon and beyond.

These guys just piss me off.  Another fake on Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/user/SAT0SHl/

This guy is the Crypto equivalent of a Stolen Valor poser.

I seriously hope I pissed him off.
https://imgur.com/gallery/pDUB8uo

I'm delighted to see that my 1.334 ETH is now rising in price again.  I bought $100 worth when it was down to ~$85 a coin with the intent of using it to fund more coins.   Now I'm reluctant to let go of it.  I recently took $300 and bought XRP while it was at 29 cents.  I have coins in ETH, XRP, XLM, TRX (as well as a trove of various ERC10/20 tokens). I feel like I'm just playing the FOMO game with just altcoins in my Ledger NANO. 

I have never felt more like salao old Santiago adrift in the bitcoin sea,  hoping I can continue to fight off the sharks while holding out hope that a big whale passes me by long enough for me to gaze into its great big eye.

+1 for cointracker.io. The site will help you generate the needed Schedule One (Additional Income and Adjustments to Income) as well as a form 8949 and Schedule D (Capital Gains and Losses). Also, make sure to report the Capital Gains/Losses in question 6 on the form 1040. On the 8949, you need to put a check in the box next to option (C) Short-term transactions not reported to you on Form 1099-B (unless of course it was a large enouph transaction to be reported by the exchange and they sent you a 1099)

Beware if you have not done your 2019 tax return yet.  The IRS has planted a land mine in the Schedule One.  They directly ask you "At any time during 2019, did you receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency?".  Answering No to this direct question will result in them having a clear case in prosecution for people that are discovered to hidden their assets. I recommend someplace like cointracker to help you track your tax liability.

By statistical comparison, much more fiat currency than the cryptocurrency is still used for illicit purposes. So that argument can be used to counterbalance such arguments.

I know that In order to mine bitcoin an ASIC processor setup is required, I didn't take into account that mining pools are involved. Independent consensus is the key here as you guys have pointed out.  Thank you all for clearing that up for me. 

I can only recommend Ledger or Trezor.  As they have a consistent track record so far. I would never recommend something I have never used.

The number of miners of Bitcoin is still increasing?  Isn't the equipment required and power consumption to high for most people to even consider?  Maybe I just don't understand the mechanics of the proof of work system well enough, but it seems to me that only the superrich can afford to run a Bitcoin mining operation and we all know how greed can take over even the most altruistic of people.

Is there still a significant number of miners with the equipment required to process proof of work for bitcoin?  Is there a danger in that the cost to run such equipment being so high that it leaves very few miners able to afford to do the proof of work, and thus it leaves only one or two miners and introduces the possibility through collusion to start manipulating the blockchain?

I would have to say my favorite and it is rather strange.  Is the $5 Bill Murray.