Translated Topic in Pidgin Language; Crackdown on mixers and privacy tools dey ineffective: e fit even help criminals
Original Topic: Crackdown on mixers and privacy tools is ineffective: it may even help criminals
Author: d5000

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For long time naw, authorities  above all from di US don dey close  mixers and  other privacy services and tools operators  (like Samourai) and dey arrest their founders and operators.

Dey fit believe say these crackdowns dey help against money laundering. But dat is  probably not di case.

Why closing mixers dey useless

The reason dey simple: If a criminal get  some technical abilities, then he fit  hide his traces on blockchains in many ways without even needing to use a privacy tool or mixer: He only has to do plenti of transactions mixing in different sources of funds, for example using CoinJoins and exchanges of coins on  different blockchains.

One important method wey go help with that task are atomic swaps, nah a trustless method to exchange funds coming from a blockchain for funds wey dey another chain. Traditional atomic swaps dey still provide a link between di transactions on different blockchains. But a few years ago a new kind of atomic swap was developed wey dey use adaptor signatures and dey already dey  use am in Bitcoin-Monero swaps. Dis method dey make di swap private.

This dey also give a completely safe path for all criminals to hide their on-chain traces (I purposefully avoid di term "money laundering", see the last paragraph): simply do a couple of atomic swaps and  transactions, using different blockchains, and e go be extremely difficult -- probably as difficult as to detect funds going through a centralized mixer -- to link these transactions together. This go even work without recurring to "privacy coins" like Monero.

Why a complete crackdown on di privacy services go actually help criminals

In di current crypto services/tools landscape, where mixers dey mostly still centrally or semi-centrally operated, law enforcing authorities still get some chance to stop criminals. For example, a centralized mixer get atleast di opportunity to react to di orders and  petitions of authorities, victims of crime or whitehat hackers. Probably some mixers do cooperate if dey still can interfere.

If criminals however go to completely decentralized methods like atomic swaps, nobody fit stop dem. Only di trade partners, but to be honest, how many traders dey do chain analysis? So you go from a perhaps 20-50% chance to be able to stop di criminal transactions due to cooperating mixers down to perhaps 0.01% of atomic swap users which fit atleast delay atomic swaps - atomic swaps no go fit ever be frozen!

E becomes even worse if we take into account di concept of di  anonymity set. Currently, dey get  only few people wey dey use atomic swaps. So di anonymity set dey relatively low: To achieve a high degree of anonymity, you go need a large set of transactions (or "funds origins") to mix your funds with. But di current liquidity of these services dey provide few "funds origins".

But Wetin  go happen if dem no get centralized or semi-centralized mixers available? Everybody who wants privacy go use atomic swaps, decentralized CoinJoins and other similar trustless/decentralized services.

Funds wey dey go through mixers are mostly been legitimate in many cases. Only for some occasions, where mixer operators probably cooperated with criminals, criminal funds made up a big portion or di majority.

So e dey very likely dat di  anonymity set which can be achieved using atomic swaps go explode. And dat will benefit criminals. Dem no go probably get way to stop them, at least inside the crypto-sphere.

Approach wey better pass

Authorities need to accept dat e no dey possible to make am impossible to hide di traces of stolen/hacked/terrorist/sanction-evading funds inside di blockchain world. And di more dey  view privacy services as enemies, di more difficult e go  become to stop criminals. Basically, cryptocurrency should be treated like cash.

Instead, make authorities and lawmakers focus first on di fiat "laundering" operations which emerge when di criminals don convert their funds to fiat, e.g. the creation of fake companies and other traditional methods. Because for "laundering" a criminal go need to end up with "clean" funds, e often no dey help to have "crypto funds of unclear origin".

But also cooperation with di privacy services fit help to combat crime. For example, I fit imagine a kind of "agreement", preferably written into clear laws and regulations: A country go allow non-KYC mixers, with the requirement say dem go react to orders and petitions from authorities, whitehat hackers (e.g. in the way di Security Alliance promotes am ) and victims of crime, and block their addresses or freezes di funds until e dey clear if dem dey related to a crime or not. E fit also help dat services fit delay processing of funds, requiring more confirmations for a deposit, giving victims and authorities some more time to react.

Would criminals still use  methods  like atomic swaps? Probably. But remember wetin I wrote about di anonymity set: People wey use mixers for privacy and not to hide crimes, go dey able to use centralized mixers and privacy tools without having to fear anything. So dey go probably not massively switch to atomic swaps, and di  atomic swap anonymity set go stay small.

There is also di important related topic of the negative consequences of the KYC requirement for all kinds of cryptocurrency services, wey result in data of hundreds of millions or perhaps even already billions of people mostly stored for relatively unsafe servers, being an interesting target for fraudsters due to di possibilities say e  provide for identity theft. The linked text from 1miau dey really worth reading.

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In summary: Not either the crackdown on privacy services nor the widespread KYC obligations really help to fight crime.

E fit dey difficult for an average Bitcoiner to convince their country's authorities of these arguments. But there are possible strategies. Tell your friends about di harm of crackdowns and KYC requirements. Your friends probably are also voters, and the more people understand these things, the more attractive e go become for politicians to hear. Support privacy on social media. And for those wey want to do a bit more: Participate in pro-privacy organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation or the Pirate movement.

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Edit: I wrote a similar text in Spanish, and possible fit  also add a German translation.

Original Topic: Sidechain observer - Bitcoin L2 projects & current state of development 
Author: d5000

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Wetin be sidechains?

Sidechains (mostly simply called "L2s" or "layer-2's", even tho say dis  term dey also include Lightning) nah blockchains wey get token pegged 1:1 to the value of Bitcoin. Dis dey allow am to "scale up" di number of potential users and transactions. The perfect sidechain go be a totally decentralized "second layer" of di Bitcoin network, where users fit "transfer" value to, and bring am back to di main chain, without needing to trust new (centralized) parties. Currently such a  network no still dey operational, at least regarding Bitcoin; all operational sidechains  still get centralized elements.

Di big challenge nah di two-way peg: E dey  easy to burn a BTC unit for mainchain  and create a coin unit on a sidechain for it ("peg-in"). Dis nah however only a "one way peg" (Spacechains do dat  exactly). But e dey very difficult to design a system where this BTC unit could "return" to mainchain ("peg-out"). It fit ofcourse be "burnt" on the sidechain, but on Bitcoin dey no fit create new units due to the 21 million token limit. So Wetin dey needed nah way to temporarily retire the coin from circulation, and allow to transfer it to an address which can prove dat e don burnt a sidechain token which can prove its "ancestry" goes back to a blocked Bitcoin and dat  e never double spent.
 
Types of sidechains & Current projects

L2.watch nah website wey dey display di status of most of di  known projects. There is also dis overview about sidechains  and related project like Spacechains and Spiderchains. BitcoinLayers dey do risk analysis for some of di existing projects.

Drivechain: A merged mined sidechain, where di  miners dey control peg-ins and peg-outs. The project was started by Paul Sztorc and e dey beta state, nah only testnets dey available. E  go need new opcodes for Bitcoin Script.

Project website - Github repo - BIP 300

(Static) federated sidechains: A sidechain where a multisig "federation" dey controls di  peg-ins and peg-outs. Such a federation dey mostly composed of addresses wey dey  controlled by several different publicly known entities, e.g. companies and "trustworthy" individuals. Dis makes dis model relatively centralized.

Current projects:

- Rootstock (RSK) (operational). According to di project its model dey already incorporates some dynamic federation elements.
- Liquid Network (operational)

Dynamic Federations: Sidechains where the federation no dey static, but instead e dey change periodically. Normally di federation members dey vote on di sidechain, and sidechain incentives make sure say dey no misbehave, for example via a security deposit which fit dey slashed if dey double-spend funds.

Current projects:

- Nomic (partly operational, e dey audit process, depends on PoS consensus via a partly premined token)
- Stacks (blockchain operational but the bridge dey beta, project announced dat  in 2024 e fit become operational, depends on PoS consensus via a partly premined token)
- BEVM (seems operational) Claims to work with Taproot.

Rollups: A sidechain where some participants (normally di  sidechain validators) dey store information about di sidechain state (transactions, owners etc.) on the mainchain, but for compressed form. Di idea is dat there always get enough information on mainchain that the sidechain state can be proven, in some cases even di transactions fit be "reconstructed". Dem get  two main types: Optimistic rollups, where cheating/double-spending has to be proven, and ZK rollups, where a zero-knowledge proof fit prove say  the state dey correct.

For Ethereum dey already dey quite widespread. However dey have still mostly centralism problems. Examples nah Optimism and Arbitrum.

There are proposals for Bitcoin rollups.

Extension blocks: Dis fit also be described as a type of sidechain. Basically a sidechain block fit be referenced by a miner in di  mainchain block header. Therefore,  dis kind sidechain go need to be integrated into the protocol and therefore, like Drivechain, e go needs di approval of di developers of di reference implementation (Bitcoin Core). Only altcoins have implemented dis model. The most famous example is probably Litecoins MimbleWimble extension block, wey dey operational since 2021.

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Reviewed projects:

You fit find short reviews of di following projects which  don suppose have already sidechain or rollup mainnets in dis thread (last updated: June 26, 2024):

Potentially interesting projects: BEVM, Nomic, tBTC (Threshold Network)
Doubtful projects: Biop, CoreDAO, Gelios, ckBTC on ICP, Libre, Merlin Chain, Map Protocol,
Not sidechains (do not have sidechain-like two-way pegs for BTC): BVM, Elastos, Nervos Network, Kadena, MVC
Possible scams (do your own research*): ZKsats (rugpull accusations on X, see here), Gelios (accusation on YouTube)

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Having basic knowledge about the security aspects and how to  secure your wallet before investing is really important because if someone who is new into bitcoin and does not have basic knowledge about the security aspects  invests in bitcoin, he is at risks of losing his investment because he lacks knowledge about the security and how to secure his investment…as you mentioned even people that have basic knowledge about it needs to stay updated with the new trends about security and scams to safeguard their investment.

Translated Topic in Pidgin Language; Why Bitcoin 30 no go probably lead to more spam for blockchain (ELI5)
Original Topic: Why Bitcoin 30 will probably not lead to more spam in the blockchain (ELI5)
Author: d5000

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Be like say dem get plenti confusion Ontop the upcoming bitcoin version 30.

Many people dey fear say one of the changes of dis version, wey dem dey call “lifting of OP_RETURN size limits”, go lead to plenti amount of NFTs, images and even illegal material dem being “spammed” for the blockchain.

These fears mostly dey unproven. Nah only one effect fit happen and I go talk about am for the end of this post, but e no get technical reason, but more are caused by the cryptocurrency market social and economic movement.


Wetin be OP_RETURN?

Since the genesis block wey Satoshi store for 2009, people dey  use the Bitcoin blockchain to publish random data of non-financial nature, like small images, texts, poems and so on.

About 10 years ago, the Bitcoin Core developers com create a specific system wey dem fit publish data in a way dat dem go  cause the smallest  possible harm to the nodes. This system dey rely  on the opcode (Bitcoin Script command) OP_RETURN.

OP_RETURN dey mean nothing more dat everything after dis command fit be ignored by the nodes. The data is placed behind dat command. And if dey want, the nodes fit process am once and then delete am.[1]

OP_RETURN dey necessary because people dey publish images, texts and other media hiding  it as financial data. You go see a transaction and think say nah money transfer, but the data actually contain an image. And for several reasons dis  is actually more harmful and costly for nodes more than OP_RETURN, because dey no fit  ignore the data.

Wetin be the change wey everybody dey talk about?

Previous to  Bitcoin 30, Bitcoin Core get  default value of 80 bytes for OP_RETURN outputs.

Dis mean say: Nodes which dey use dis default value, no go accept a transaction wey get data behind of an OP_RETURN command with more than 80 bytes.

However, nodes dey  always free to change dis default value. Miners sef dey free to change dat value too. E fit be seen as a "recommendation". Transactions wey dey obey dis limit  are called "standard" transactions.

But the 80 bytes limit only applied to data behind OP_RETURN. No be  for other techniques to put data for inside the  blockchain.

In Bitcoin 30, the default value dey set to "unlimited".

Dis wan no mean say the data of unlimited size is now "allowed by Bitcoin" and before it was not. Instead e mean say: If you as a node operator want to limit the OP_RETURN data in transactions wey your  node dey accept, you must manually set a limit (using the datacarriersize option).


Why dis  change?

The OP_RETURN limit increase dey valid for the following way by its supporters:

Since 2023, we never see wave of transactions using other ways to put data in the blockchain, including "fake public keys" and a "Taproot witness method" (also called the "Taproot exploit") wey Ordinals dey use. Dem don put up to 400 kB of images, NFTs and even audios and videos in a "standard" transaction, and up to 4 MB into a "non-standard" transaction.

These methods dey more costly for the nodes to process, and therefore dem fit  harm decentralization of the Bitcoin network if dey become too widespread. [2]

Developers com decide  therefore to try to encourage those dat want to store data on chain, to use the OP_RETURN method. If plenti  nodes dey accept OP_RETURN transactions with larger sizes, dis fit become again therefore the "standard method" to store data.

There get other advantages of the change but dem dey more difficult to understand. For example, block propagation fit dey improved and maintainance cost of the code fit dey lower. To understand why the change no go probably affect the level of spam, these reasons no dey  important.


Why we no go simply stop the spam and filter all data transactions?

This wan nah the most important part to understand.

The Core developers "could" put a "filter" in place make dem no allow  two methods: OP_RETURN and the "Taproot exploit". But dis  filter no go get any effect, because the "fake public key" method cannot be blocked by dis way.

Unfortunately dis method nah also the most costly for nodes and therefore the most harmful for decentralization. Remember why dem introduce OP_RETURN ? (see above) Because the "fake public key" method and similar techniques don dey already cause  harm around 2014/15.

The Three Doors or why OP_RETURN no go open a new door

A very simple way to explain the change:

We get a house wey get three doors. Outside dem get 99 monsters wey wan enter the house by any means. The probability of the monsters to enter the house by any door nah the same.

Door 1 dey completely open now. Monsters entering dis door fit go directly into the whole house including the bedrooms and eat the people wey dey live  there. Nahim be the "fake public key method", the most harmful of all.

Door 2 dey mostly open, some people dey try to close am sometimes but with not plenti luck. Monsters fit enter the kitchen, but dem no fit enter the bedrooms, so the people wey dey the house are a bit safer, but still frequently a monster fit dey able to eat somebody.[3] Nahim be the "Taproot witness method", the second most harmful.

Door 3 dey currently open only small. Nah only small monsters Fit  enter am. But even if dem open the door completely, the monsters go just reach only a guest room wey  almost nobody of the people living in the house dey  use, and therefore  only rarely eat somebody. Nah dis wan be OP_RETURN.

We no fit  close Door 1 (see above). Door 2 fit dey closed but the effect go  be limited, because the monsters go then use Door 1 and the number of eaten people go even dey higher.

We can however open Door 3. The monsters wey dey use dis door no go cause much harm. Monsters entering through the other two doors fit still enter, but we go get 1/3 less deaths.

Dis is what Core did lifting the OP_RETURN limits. E no go probably cause the spam (monster waves) to stop, but e fit reduce their harm, at least a bit.

Economics of the NFT market

Dem get another reason why Bitcoin 30 no go probably lead to more spam: The NFT market dey limited. Dem don already get hundreds of thousands of NFTs wey dey the Bitcoin blockchain, but dem no get unlimited people wey want buy a Pepe or whatever as a NFT.

People posting NFTs dey expect a profit. But if dey have to pay transaction fees, then dem go need to check that dey no dey pay more than the profit wey dem dey able to earn. The only way wey go  make publishing NFTs more attractive go be a measure which go leads to less transaction fees.

But the lifting of OP_RETURN limits no make NFTs cheaper in regards of transaction fees. The "Taproot exploit" is still cheaper, and the cost of "fake public keys" dey almost similar.

So the lifting of OP_RETURN limits no  change NFT market economics. If a NFT was profitable now, it will be profitable with BItcoin 30, and if not then e no go be.

Wetin be the effect wey you mention in the first paragraph? Why could we see more data/spam in the blockchain after dem release Core 30 ?

Technically, e no make big difference for those developing and storing NFTs, images, tokens (like Runes, BRC-20 and SRC-20) to use OP_RETURN or another method to store their data. Dem get plenti tools wey dey  available, for example the Stampchain / Bitcoin Stamps project dey use fake public keys, and Ordinals dey use the Taproot witness method.

So why can dis change lead to a temporary "data spam" wave?

The reason nah be say the NFT market could try to market a new type of NFT. The NFT market dey  live due  to trends, fads, "cool collections" and similar reasons, and NFT collection creators often try to utilize  the originality of a method. If OP_RETURN based NFTs become now attractive, then an OP_RETURN  based NFT protocol fit  try to get attention once Bitcoin Core 30 gets published, like how Ordinals do in 2023. And dis can lead to a spam wave indeed.

E also dey possible dat people wey dey annoyed by the OP_RETURN change could publish NFTs as a kind of "revenge attack".

For this reason I personally go like a gradual increment of the OP_RETURN default (standardness) limits and not the complete removal of limits.

But in the long run, e dey highly  likely that the amount of spam or random data transactions will not increase as an effect of the OP_RETURN change of Bitcoin 30.

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Notes: (ELI18)

[1] The nodes go only need to process the data make dem calculate the merkle tree of the transaction and the transaction ID. Then dey fit in theory delete the data behind the code if dem want. The only problem is that dey no fit  transmit the complete transaction in question to other nodes wey dey  request am.

[2] The reason be say the techniques like the "Taproot witness method" wey Ordinals dey use and the "fake public keys" wey stampchain dey use lead to a lot of UTXOs being created wey dem no go ever fit spend. These UTXOs needs to be stored and managed by the nodes for an additional database. Dis maintenance work is much more costly to simply store the blockchain data.

[3] The analogy wey dey here: A "death" by being eaten by a monster is an UTXO which  dem suppose store by all nodes in their UTXO database forever, because it never will be spent. The fake public key method dey produce the highest rate of these UTXOs and dem dey  impossible to spend. The "Taproot witness exploit" occasionally dey  create dust UTXOs, which fit dey spent but the fees to do so go dey higher than the value transacted. OP_RETURN dey only very rarely lead to dust UTXOs and never to completely unspendable UTXOs.

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Notes: Tips wey go improve dis post dey welcome! If I missed something wey dey important I go dey happy to add am. Only make e no become too technical. People wey wan to know more technical details should read Antoine Poinsot's blog post wey  detail his reasons why he proposed the OP_RETURN change.

You can get a hardware wallet even tho there are No people selling them in your location maybe you can order from the manufacturer and ship it to your location because depending on software wallet is the most risking approach for someone who wants the security of his investment.

Well it must not be 3 pages/day..when I’m less busy I might read more than that tho…I’m pretty much sure that it wouldn’t take me 32years to read to this post…maybe let say 10 years will be enough or maybe I will finish when bitcoin price hits $500k….

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Well, that was a thrilling journey right there……it was a roller coaster ride and you were able to somehow protect your coins and Hodl for the whole time…..the journey is just beginning and we hope to see how it goes 🚀🚀🚀

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Okay then, I won’t…..I’ll do my adventure alone then

Okay then, I will start the adventure tomorrow……maybe I might be able to read 3 pages  in this thread per day…so I can also read from other posts and boards…

Starting tomorrow I will post in this thread whenever I’m done reading 3 pages of this thread….

I know it’s worth reading this thread and I hope I enjoy my thrilling adventure..

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Wow…, seems like you’re a good reader but if I may ask when did you read the whole thread and how many pages where there when you did so and also how many days did it take you to read the whole thread….?….I might see if I will also try the adventure of reading this whole thread from the starting…if it didn’t took you long to cover up the whole thread….I wait for your reply sirr…….

Better still, even after ignoring ChartBuddy, reading through 100,000 posts will take almost 1000 days or 3 years to complete with reading an average of 100 post per day…
…I’m very certain if someone reads the whole of that, he will have to go and see an Ophthalmologist because he will spend a lot of time on screen reading daily and continuously for three years……..and for someone to achieve the milestone of reading through this thread entirely from the start, it shows that he must be a very resilient and consistent person..lol

Will there be anyone on earth that can read this whole thread..starting from the first page….lol, it is almost 34926 pages with each page containing not less than 20 post…calculating this that is almost …698,520 posts, if he could read 100 posts per day it will take him 6985 days or 19 years  to complete and by then the thread might have reach 200,000 pages or even more 

Well thinking about that, will there be someone who will embrace this journey and start reading from the first page of this thread and then we see the years it take him to read the thread completely or maybe to read just the first 1000 pages of this thread, it will be very interesting to see someone doing that…lol… or what do you think..?

Seems like you do not understand what I wrote there, as you said it is confusing to you…further breaking it down I mean that you must have knowledge about your income and expenses not a lot of knowledge about bitcoin, how can you even start investing from your income without balancing your expenses and the investment.  if you do so then you will end up causing burden on yourself and furthermore increasing the possibility of you selling your holdings because you can’t keep going. And about learning this,  you would not need to spend too much time because this are mere basic things that will not take much of your time. Atleast  before investing try to have basic knowledge and balance your investment and finances don’t be in haste invest because of FOMO before having knowledge about how to balance these things if not you will end up causing a lot of burden on yourself and your finances and later end up selling your holding because you did not have a balanced way of investing.

I think you should read what I wrote again….because I never said you can store you emergencies funds in bitcoin and the main objective of that consideration is about liquidity and for someone to stay liquid he has to either invest in cash flowing assets or store his money in fiat not in bitcoin because bitcoin market is very volatile and so not ideal for storing emergency funds.

Yeah everyone has the freedom to use any strategy he/she wants to use in investing in bitcoin, but as you said for beginners, adopting the DCA method Is the most effective method and in addition as someone receiving your income let say monthly or weekly, the best strategy to use is the DCA method because if not so you might end up using the money meant for investing in bitcoin for something else if you wait for the price to dip before buying.

Hello bitcointalkers, today I say make I talk about how pesin go take dey accumulate bitcoin with him personal income(like salary or wages).

Accumulating Bitcoin with personal income need a very strategic approach to the investment and balancing the investment and savings in such a way that e no go cause any burden on you.

Before you can start this investment e get many thing wey u go first consider like:

1. Investment strategy: this wan dey very important because you need to know which strategy you wan use invest and know what you wan do with your investment, whether you wan Hodl for long-term or you wan do short term trading. E go help you know how you go take dey buy and when.

2. Liquidity Needs: you need to know you liquidity need before you start investment like what your daily expenses be and the amount of emergencies fund wey you suppose keep to avoid investing in bitcoin and end up selling when it is low and at loss because of emergencies.

3. Income stability: make sure say you income source dey stable enough to dey support the investment strategy wey you wan use to make sure say e no affect your financial situation.

4. Financial goals: know Wetin be your aim of investment and the objectives, you dey accumulate bitcoin for retirement, for additional income or make e serve as hedge against inflation. Your aim go influence the investment decisions wey you go make.

5. Diversification: make sure say you avoid putting all your investment funds into bitcoin make sure say you consider cash flowing investment make dem serve as protection against emergencies and as backup to avoid selling your bitcoin at loss during any emergency, diversification help protect your investment for the long run.

Steps to integrate bitcoin investment from your personal income

1.Budgeting: first of all, you need to have a good budget wey go fit balance your income, expenses, savings and investment to make sure you do everything very balanced to avoid bad financial decisions. Also you go need to cut off unnecessary spending and instead add that money to your investment funds.
Having good budget means you should balance your investment strategy and your financial stability make e no cause any burden to you.

2.Set a target: make sure say you set the target amount of bitcoin wey you wan accumulate over time and make sure say you stick to completing that target.

3.Security: security nah very important thing for this crypto space, so prioritize it is very important to you as an investment to avoid losing your investment.  Choosing a secured wallet for storing your bitcoins is very important and hardware wallet is the safest way to store your bitcoin for long-term in this crypto space. And also make sure say you store your seed in a very secured placed and have multiple physical backup because if you forget your seed or lose it, e mean say you no go get access to your investment again so make sure you prioritize your investment security very well to avoid wasting your efforts and funds to someone else.

4.Purchase automatically: make you dey use DCA(dollar-cost averaging) method to accumulate bitcoin by doing so you no go dey worried about waiting for price to dip before you can buy bitcoin, you will by at every time wey your income land. E go help you to you your income very well by allocating your budget to what is was initially meant for not something else.

5.Utilize your retirement savings(if you are a worker): if you dey Hodl for long-term, you fit  put some of your retirement savings into Bitcoin investment make e protect you against future inflation because if you dey save your retirement funds for fiat currency by the time wey you go retire maybe the currency don lose value or e don depreciate thereby turning your hard earned saving worthless.

6.Hodl for Long-term: Bitcoin price dey very volatile for short term, so e dey better make you maintain long-term investment for more benefits and financial freedom.

7.Consult professionals: if dem get anything in particular wey you dey doubt make sure say you meet professional about crypto to clear the doubt for you, this forum nah better platform wey you fit ask for clarity and dem go Clear you doubt about anything wey you No understand about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

8.Emotions: emotions nah another thing wey you need to consider as part of your steps, by understanding how emotionally strong you are and your risk tolerance and how you go take make yourself more emotionally strong to avoid make bad decisions in your investment journey.

9.Stay informed about any new development: make sure say you dey updated about any new development wey dem bring and stay informed with news about crypto and make sure your information is from a reliable source to avoid getting FUD from fake news.

10.Have a strong investment mindset and financial discipline: make you dey very disciplined about your finances and make sure say you get dat investment mindset wey go keep you very disciplined towards achieving success in your investment, have patience, perseverance and consistency till you achieve your goals.

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By following the best practices, having a good plan, mindset towards achieving success  and being careful with your finances, you fit accumulate bitcoin through your fixed  personal income without having to cause any burden on yourself.

Investing in bitcoin also have risks, so you need to do your on research and know your risk tolerance before investing, however if you are disciplined and inclined towards achieving your goals, you can successfully achieve your target and have financial freedom through bitcoin investment.

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Omo this wan dey show how our country people dey adopt bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies  very fast cos dem see the freedom, borderless, and  how easy e dey to use. This wan nah important development and moreover we no say Naija no dey carry last for everything.

I think say as people dey spread more awareness and knowledge about crypto, e dey help bring more users and more adoption of crypto for we country and as the adoption dey rapidly increase maybe by 2030 we fit see almost 50% of Nigerians or more using crypto. And we fit even top the list by that time because you know say our country people dey enter thing with full chest..especially if dem see plenti people wey benefits from the thing.

The bitcoin enthusiast  wey dey preach bitcoin to people jus want make people understand Wetin bitcoin be and make people start to adopt bitcoin…..because the more the mass adoption the more the value of bitcoin and you know as bitcoin be say nah scarce something,  time go come wey people go dey rush to buy bitcoin and that kind time go come if plenti people understand and adopt bitcoin.  Based on my own opinion I think say nah why those people they preach bitcoin to people bedat.

Bitcoin investment no be for everybody so if you share Wetin you know with somebody and him no get interest in doing it then jus leave him ….he will see what he missed in the future and by then it might be too late.

The future go speak for itself when the time reach

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Time wait for nobody, so use your time wisely…..in accumulating bitcoin and Hodling for the long run.

Confirm transactions details  make sure say before you start any transaction you read the conditions wey the merchant don put for the transaction and make sure say u dey comfortable with the conditions before you do the transaction.

Try dey collect the payment through accounts wey the transaction no fit dey reversible dis wan sef happen with one member of the LB and him post am say after dem finish the transaction the merchant try reverse the payment wey him make through Opay and because say him no dey check notifications for Opay the guy get to re-collect the money from Opay and Opay deduct the money from am. So make we dey try make sure say we dey use Payment method wey dem no fit reverse transaction like example PalmPay transaction no fit dey reservable, so if it will not cause any burden on you and you have a PalmPay account then you should consider using it instead of Opay for dis kind transaction to avoid this kind scam.

Always monitor your account for suspicious activities from the merchant(like reversing transaction) if you use account wey dem fit reverse transaction like Opay, make sure say you dey check your notifications and the transaction to make sure say the merchant no do any thing to reverse the transaction and if he does make sure to report immediately to avoid being scammed.

stay active and be updated with the new scam methods make sure say you dey updated with the latest way the scammers dey scam people make you sef avoid falling victim. And if you sef get new information about the kind new method wey dem dey use make sure say you inform others make dem sef know.

Well, as a newbie here in the forum I find this thread as a motivation to do better because how this thread reflects your journey, it show how quality posts and consistency made you a legendary overtime….the little time it took you to rank up from a full Member to a sr. Member is just showing how hard work, quality post, and consistency pays when it time…..even though keeping up to track and being consistent have a lot of setback, patience is a very important factor that can help make someone successful(in every part of life).

This journey is really thrilling and it makes a lot of sense the fact that it is shared with everyone for this long period..

It’s effect is not on Nigerians, the effects of PayPal adopting bitcoin is on the entire bitcoin network and talking about the institution that have been adopting bitcoin for the past years I don’t think there are as influential as PayPal because PayPal have a lot of users it will increase the visibility of bitcoin and probably it can increase mass adoption from PayPal users because if your trusted payment platform adopt bitcoin then you will also have quest to know more about bitcoin and if you do a deep research about bitcoin and understand it then you can adopt it, therefore dis step fit increase mass adoption…

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Please don’t misunderstand the concept of this post…it is to inform users about how this step can help bitcoin visibility not because it is of any benefit to Nigerians but still it is beneficial to you as someone using Bitcoin.

Greetings everyone, as I was reading through my feed on X earlier, I saw a news that Paypal wan integrate bitcoin and crypto into their P2P payment.

A big news right…

Link to news: https://x.com/bitcoinmagazine/status/1967577646512140518?s=46

As we all know the main purpose of bitcoin creation nah to serve as currency and with the way things dey go naw, the adoption rate dey increase everyday showing bitcoin will soon become the global currency, this step wey PayPal take  go increase the visibility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and the adoption of bitcoin because say PayPal nah giant for the field of finances and for dem to adopt bitcoin as a means of payment, many people go start to dey adopt bitcoin too because dem get almost 430m+ users and e go make bitcoin dey accessible to everybody for everyday usage.

As the adaptation of bitcoin increases, e go influence the price because as fintech dey adopt bitcoin e go get upside  long-term benefits which means that this adoption by PayPal go dey beneficial to everybody but the people Holding bitcoin go benefit more. PayPal wan to keep being relevant even in the future nah why dem take this bold step, they have seen how bitcoin dey slowly conquer the world.

The future of bitcoin is very much bright and as this fintechs  dey slowly integrate bitcoin into their payment system e dey give us hint about how bright the future go be and dey know it that is why dem dey slowly merge into crypto make dem no leave dem for back.

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What are you doing with your bitcoin…?

Hodl Hodl Hodl

So you won’t be left out ……….this is a green light for people doubting Bitcoin long term capabilities.

The challenge wey dis regulations about crypto space go cause fit be solved  by:

1. Advocating for balance regulations: engaging in meetings with the regulators to make sure say the benefits of cryptocurrencies are being acknowledged as how dem dey help the youth and the country economy. Knowledgeable users, crypto businesses and the crypto stakeholders fit show important information wey dey show how crypto dey improve economic opportunities.
By organizing awareness campaigns to educate the users and also the regulators about the advantages of crypto such as economic empowerment and financial innovativity.

2.User education: Research  and forum discussions about the regulations fit help users use the crypto space safely and protect dem from the unknown outcomes.

3.Strengthening P2P transactions: by developing trustworthy p2p platforms dat will implement strong security measures and transparency and by building community driven ways that will provide feedback on p2p platforms, making sure say users fit share their experiences about scams and bad practices.

4. Using decentralized finance: unregulated options like DeFi go give alternative methods of transactions wey no go dey limited by the regulations and by supporting projects wey focus on decentralization, e go protect users from plenti regulations.

5.Recommendations to regulators: by regularly submitting feedbacks and recommendations to the regulators about Wetin the heavy regulations go do and how dey fit promote innovation and still be addressing regulatory concern e go fit bring solutions to dis plenti regulations and monitoring if the regulators are ready to take feedback from the public. The regulators should also consider doing an assessment about their regulations and the outcome for users to make sure say the regulations are just and fair.
The regulators should collaborate with tech companies wey sabi blockchain analytics to create tools wey fit enforce compliance without compromising user privacy.


Engagement with the regulators and the promotion of user education fit help create a more conducive crypto space in Nigeria.

You don show a good overview of different approach to the adoption of Bitcoin for Nigeria and other countries like Kenya and El Salvador showing the different factors wey influence each country’s landscape.

In our country Nigeria, most youth recognize the value of Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom that helps dem pass through economic challenges like inflation and the restrictions wey dey traditional banking,  Kenya integration of bitcoin with their mobile money system shows the progressive adaption of bitcoin to support economic activity in places where traditional banking may fail.

Even with the fact that El Salvador government bold measures of legalizing bitcoin  don increase the visibility of bitcoin among its citizen, the citizens still relying on US dollar shows that the citizens need more knowledge about bitcoin which the government should try address to increase the adoption rate among its citizens even though I think dey continue rely on US dollar because of stability.

The community driven movement in Nigeria and Kenya show how the adaptability of bitcoin help improve their economic conditions at the grassroots level, even though the Nigerian government is not ready to support cryptocurrencies the youth still continue to use cryptocurrencies for different reasons.

As we dey continue to see different approach towards bitcoin, e go dey interesting to see how dis different approach go influence the broader acceptance of bitcoin globally  in the financial system.