The only true flaw of cryptocurrency is that it relies on telecommunications to work. Telecommunications are all controlled by the government. We've seen many examples around the world of phone and internet connections being restricted or made unavailable completely. For this reason I think that the crypto space could really benefit from a government-less worldwide telecommunications network. Free access to the internet is vital to the functioning of any cryptocurrency.

What cryptocurrency needs is a crypto backed wifi or satellite network that broadcasts an internet signal worldwide so that anyone can freely access the internet.

The only thing that bothers me about any cryptocurrency as a "safe haven" is that its continuance is subject to an open and freely accessible internet.

We all know that governments can and do shut down its citizens' access to the internet and restrict access and usage in other ways.

Anyone know what the latest gossip is on how many Ethereum coins will be needed to run a masternode?

What I would love is for a reporter to quiz Buffet to determine what his actual knowledge of crytocurrency is. They just assume he understands the technology and its use cases. I don't think he does.

What is likely to happen to those that do not pay their taxes on large crypto-currency gains that were cashed out in 2017? I'm specifically asking about the USA. Will that person likely get caught down the road and have to pay a penalty or will they even be caught?

You need to check out the famous HODL thread

Almost. A guy on the slack channel for gamecredits almost convinced me to exchange some gamecredits for bitcoin. He was posing as one of the mods. I asked to send me the bitcoin first, and when he refused I finally began to figure out it was a scam.

yet they allow Russia to buy ads to influence the American election.

America will never follow Germany on this. If it does I will be very pleasantly surprised. The IRS has its hands on EVERYTHING

Best thing to do is to somehow get politicians to be activists for bitcoin, and pay them public speaking fees in bitcoin.

I predict that governments will eventually mandate use of the country's home currency for any transaction for any product or service and explicitly make using cryptocurrency for this purpose illegal.

 

This wallet tainting issue to me is reminiscent of the Ethereum DAO hack. Same kind of FUD going on at that time for ETH and look at ETH now.

Step 1: Require KYC/AML compliance for all crytpocurrency exchanges, whether they accept the country's home currency or not
Step 2: Require all exchanges to issue 1099s or some other method that allows the government to track an individual's cryptocurrency trades
Step 3: Require businesses to only use the country's home currency (US Dollar for USA) for the sale of a business's products or services and ban the use of cryptocurrencies for point of sale transactions.

What do you guys think the chances of this all happening is and what do think the impact on cryptocurrency valuations would be?

Can someone please explain to me how your account can be hacked if you have 2FA turned on? Does that not mean they would need access to both your bittrex login and your cellphone where the 2FA code is sent?

Link to the article describing a phishing scam is provided here:

https://www.hackread.com/fake-bittrex-cryptocurrency-exchange-site-stealing-user-funds/

Quote from article: "And they will get your password and authenticator code once you try to log in on their website! It all happens in less than five minutes!"

Gamecredits

Bitbay

are the two most intriguing to me

Wow on the NEM platform? That's great for NEM.

I would accumulate ETH not dump it, especially with Metropolis and Casper around the corner.

1) Ethereum
2) Monero
3) NEM
4) Gamecredtis
5) Bitbay

I think Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero are all being used as stores of value. There is definitely at least somewhat of an inverse correlation between altcoin prices and Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero prices.

The best thing you can do for your friend, is to tell him to figure this stuff out on his own. Especially if he is going to invest that much money. He needs to do some reading, start out small, and then work his way up to a $100k investment.