[Binance]

I have always wondered if it makes sense to use an instant cryptocurrency exchange such as ChangeNow or Changelly compared to a popular CEX, for example. Of course, I am not talking about the trustworthiness, security, or safety of funds, but rather about the amounts of crypto you will get if you trade on such a platform.

I decided to perform a test to see how much you can get on an instant exchange compared to a CEX for different values: a small, medium, and high amount.

This is, of course not accurate, because I didn’t perform any real trades but just checked the values that the tested sites displayed. But nevertheless, it did show me which of these two is better.

I tested Binance versus ChangeNow.

Binance because it’s one of the most widely used CEXs and ChangeNow because it’s one of two instant swap platforms that I could think of from the top of my head. It's important to remember that ChangeNow is not a DEX or a non-custodial platform even though they claim to be "free of custody"(Source). 

The results

Scenario #1

For the first test, I wanted to purchase a small amount of bitcoin by exchanging a stablecoin for it. So, I decided to check how much BTC I could get for 50 USDT.

Binance

50 USDT would get me 0.00086 BTC on Binance.



According to preev.com, that was around $49.78 at the moment I did the check.



ChangeNow

The fixed rates on ChangeNow showed 0.00084595 BTC if swapped with 50 USDT.


According to preev.com, that was around $48.99 at the moment I did the check.



Which exchange is better for scenario #1?

At first glance, you would think Binance is the better option. And yes, you will get a little bit more BTC on Binance. However, don’t forget that Binance is an exchange. So once your trade is complete, you should withdraw your coins to your own wallet.

The Binance withdrawal fees are 0.0005 BTC (almost $29). If we subtract that from 0.00086, we are left with only 0.00036 BTC (around $21). In contrast to Binance, ChangeNow allows you to enter your own wallet address during the swap process. Once it’s complete, the coins will be sent to that address. All fees are included in the rate shown on the site, so there are no additional withdrawal fees.

Personally, I find ChangeNOW a better option than Binance for such small amounts.   


Scenario #2

My goal was to see how much bitcoin I could get for 1 ether for the second test. Here are the results.

Binance

For 1 ETH on Binance, I could get 0.070055 BTC.



That amount is worth around $4.036.



ChangeNow

For 1 ETH on ChangeNOW, the site offered me 0.06870159 BTC.



When I converted that to USD, it came out to $3.960.



Which exchange is better for scenario #2?

With Binance, you get a much bigger share of bitcoin. 0.070055 BTC ($4.036) compared to only 0.06870159 BTC ($3.960) on ChangeNow. Looking at it in terms of USD, the difference is $76.

Once we subtract Binance’s withdrawal fee of 0.0005 BTC, we are left with 0.069555 BTC. That is still more than what you would get on ChangeNow. Therefore, the winner in this category is Binance.   


Scenario #3

I wanted to see the difference between the two exchanges for a significantly higher amount for the third and final test. This time, I would be buying bitcoin for 50 ether. Here are the results:

Binance

Binance could have given me 3.51135 BTC for 50 ETH.



When we convert that amount into USD, that’s approximately $204.300.



ChangeNow

I could have gotten 3.4095245 BTC for 50 ETH if I had performed the swap on ChangeNow.



In terms of USD value, that’s around $198.400.



Which exchange is better for scenario #2?

It’s pretty clear who is the winner in this category. On Binance, the offer was 3.51135 BTC, while ChangeNow had an estimate of only 3.4095245 BTC. Even after we consider the Binance withdrawal fee of 0.0005 BTC, we are left with 3.51085 BTC compared to 3.4095245 BTC on ChangeNow.


Observations

• Most of the time, it's not worth using instant exchanges.
• Instant swap platforms have a significant advantage over traditional exchanges only for small trades (probably $100 worth of crypto and less).
• The bigger the trade is, the less favorable are the rates on an instant exchange.
• Instant exchanges could also offer certain benefits when swapping two assets that don’t have a trading pair on a regular exchange. For example, if you have Cardano and you want to purchase Stellar with it. Such a trading pair probably doesn’t exist on CEXs/DEXs, but it does on instant exchanges. To get Stellar on a CEX, you would probably have to convert Cardano to a stablecoin or to ETH or BTC. After that, a second trade needs to be carried out to swap the new asset to Stellar.
• When doing the tests, I didn't take into account maker and taker trading fees, assuming that Binance already includes those in the final estimates. Even if they don’t, those fees are relatively insignificant and amount to 0.1% max.

Please Note:

• This is not a sponsored article.
• This is not an advertisement of any exchange or trading platform.
• My recommendations are to stay away from instant exchanges because they have proven themselves to be untrustworthy numerous times in the past
• Do your own research and don’t take my word for it.

[Local Rules]

A few months ago, I created the Riddles and Brain-Teasers for Bitcointalk Members (Newbies – Members) thread. Then I saw soliton's Bitcoin Crosswords. So that made me think of a similar game that involves Bitcoin and crypto-related terms.

•   For each round, I will post a few incomplete words, and you have to guess which ones they are.  
•   The terms will always be something you would expect to hear if you are familiar with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

Local Rules

1.   Accounts created after the date this thread was posted ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE.
2.   This thread is intended for users of all ranks, but NEWBIES, JR. MEMBERS, AND MEMBERS will have one day advantage to guess the terms. What does that mean? When a new round starts, only newbies, jr. members, and members can guess the words. The next day, after I give the green light, all other ranks can participate.
3.   No cheating, editing, or deleting posts. Edited replies won’t be counted.
4.   You can guess how many times you want, but you aren’t allowed to post again unless someone else writes a post.  
5.   You can only guess EACH WORD ONCE PER POST. You can’t provide 2 or more answers for the same word, but you are allowed to guess all of the terms.
6.   If no one can guess the correct word/words, I will add a few more letters.
7.   EACH correctly guessed term will be awarded 1 MERIT for the user who was the fastest.
8.   Every round will have 5-10 random words.

I have a friend who is purchasing his own home next month together with his wife. As a gift to them, I would like to give them some Bitcoin. They don’t know much about crypto. He has heard of it but never owned any.

There are various ways to do that, so I don’t need any advice on that front. But it made me think: How cool would it be if there was a way to safely generate a Bitcoin wallet/address for someone else. But without seeing the recovery phrase or private key. The recovery phrase would only be accessible by the person the wallet is created for.

I am complicating a straightforward process of generating wallets, but here is why:

• My friend knows very little about Bitcoin.
• I don’t trust that he can create a decent wallet himself because he uses his PC and phone for all kinds of crap. There could be malware there that could lead to the loss of coins.
• I want to do the work for him, but I don’t want to have access to the seed, only an address to deposit the coins to.

One possible way would be if some kind of service would allow me to sign a message and encrypt the seed phrase/private key with his public key. Then, once the encrypted message is sent to him, he could decrypt it with his private key. But we are now again in territories that he knows nothing about. And If I am the one creating his public/private key pair, it defeats the whole process.

Another way could be having the seed sent to him in an encrypted form via email or online service, but sending or saving the seed in a digital way is really not something I want to do.

Casascius coins and similar collectibles are not an option.
I considered leaving a backup for myself, but I don’t want a way to access the coins. Once I hand it to them, it’s their responsibility to keep them safe. 


Any ideas?

Korisnik aysg76 je podjelio zanimljiv upitnik i kviz o Bitcoinu. Mislim da o tome nismo govorili u našem lokalu.

Link od orginalne teme je https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5361462.0
Upitnik možete naći na https://thebitcoinexam.involve.me/beta

- Kviz se sastoji od 52 pitanja.
- Svako pitanje ima četiri moguća odgovara, kliknite na onaj koji mislite da je tačan.
- Teme su zanimljive i tiču se bitcoina i njegove povijesti, blockchaina, POW algoritma, ekonomije i ekonomskih pojmova, itd.
- Ako pogrešno odgovorite, test će vam pokazati tačan odgovor i eventualno ponuditi dodatno objašnjenje kod određenih pitanja.
- Na kraju testa dobit ćete ukopan zbroj bodova.

Nemojte varati i podjelite rezultate u temi nakon što završite.

Evo mog rezultata:


 

Sretno!

[threat ranking was rated as High.]

Google Chrome is the most privacy-invasive browser today. You shouldn't use it for various reasons, but if you still do, please continue reading.

A new zero-day vulnerability has been discovered by Google employees (CVE-2021-37973). It affects the following operating systems: Windows, Linux, and macOS. This is just one of many zero-day exploits that have been found this year. The flaw has already been exploited before Google was able to patch it, and its threat ranking was rated as High.

This particular exploit is a so-called "Use-After-Free" (UAF) vulnerability.

UAF vulnerabilities are memory exploits, when a program fails to clear the pointer to the memory after it is freed.

The company has not provided any details of what exactly can be found and retrieved from the memory. The bug is supposedly fixed with Google Chrome version 94.0.4606.61 and higher. If you still use Chrome, ensure that you have downloaded and installed the newest version.


Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2021/09/25/google-chrome-warning-zero-day-hack-new-attack-upgrade-chrome-now/

[Here Is What Can Happen If You Want to Trade Cryptocurrencies, but You Don’t Know How]

Here Is What Can Happen If You Want to Trade Cryptocurrencies, but You Don’t Know How

Some beginners who come to Bitcointalk have a misconception about trading cryptocurrencies. They have heard some success stories and want to replicate them themselves. However, it’s a delusion to think that anyone can become a successful trader overnight, and all you have to do is purchase a few coins here and there, and the profits will start growing.

Trading crypto shouldn’t be taken lightly. Learning how to trade is a slow process that should be mastered slowly and patiently. Unfortunately, YouTube and social media don’t make things better because all they do is show you the glamourous side of trading. The cars, expensive houses, jewelry, and the women.

They don’t tell you about the shattered dreams, lost savings, and uncertain futures due to wrong trading decisions. The reality is, trading isn’t for everyone because not everyone has the discipline to only trade with the money they can afford to lose. So, for many people, buying and holding is the better choice.

I am writing this thread to warn beginners that there is another darker side to profits made with trading. These stories can maybe make you reconsider careless trading decisions or motivate you to learn how to trade correctly by studying the theory of successful crypto trading. A 10-minute YouTube clip is not enough.


1.

Jake is married and lives in the UK. He has a good job, is respected, and can make business decisions worth millions of pounds for this boss. Jake has known about Bitcoin since 2015, and in one of his first trades, he made some good profits.

Enchanted with his early success, he decides to trade with his employer’s funds. He wanted to experience that joy again and make even more money. So he borrowed company funds and invested everything into a risky trade. During the same night, his positions were liquidated, and he lost it all.

"The first time I took it, I lost it all in about 20 minutes one night. The market moved very rapidly and I liquidated everything.

"It was about 2am. I went back to bed and had to lie down next to my wife. She had no idea what I had been up to."

Jake lost £1.5 million of company resources, nearly avoided a lawsuit, and is now receiving treatment for crypto trading addiction.


2.

Noor lives in London. She is 30 years old and works as a designer. She lives with her boyfriend, is in love, and the two are saving to purchase their own house.

In November 2020, she became interested in crypto investments and wanted to trade cryptocurrencies. Her first purchase was £10.000 worth of bitcoin, whose value almost doubled, netting her a sum of over £18.000. Delighted with the results, she decided to cash out on bitcoin and invest in XRP and stocks instead. The biggest problem is that Noor doesn’t really know how to trade. She is just motivated by the hype and recommendations she sees from other investors.

But the market turned on her. XRP crashed, causing her to lose most of the investment. She read about the Gamestop stocks going through the roof and decided to recover her losses by purchasing those. Unfortunately, she entered the market too late and lost even more.

To sum up, Noor lost over £23.000 due to poor trading activities, believing the hype, and investing in something she knew nothing about. Her dream of becoming a homeowner has to be put on pause.


3. 

The following story dates back to the ICO frenzy of 2017. Helvis is a regular guy who, like many others, dreamt about becoming rich with cryptocurrency trading. He didn’t have a lot, but he had around $2.000 that he decided to invest.

Influenced by John McAfee and similar crypto influencers, he invested in the privacy coin Verge and in Tron. With those two purchases alone, he managed to turn his $2.000 into $60.000 within a few months. But, since he wanted more, his next decision was to buy Ethereum.

But soon, the market sentiment started to turn, and the prices began crashing. Like many others at the time, Helvis also became interested in ICOs and decided to try his luck with margin trading. Trading with money you don’t even have seemed too good to be true.

Since he didn’t know what he was doing and took too many risks with high leverage trades, Helvis lost nearly all of the $60.000 that he netted on Verge and Tron.


4.

British Youtuber and rapper KSI is another newbie trader who wanted to play around with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. So in November and December 2020, he invested £2 million into bitcoin and, assumably, some other altcoins. Initially, everything was going great, and KSI made £7 million on those initial investments.

But as it usually happens, he wanted more. Without knowledge and experience about margin trading and trading with leverage, he went all-in on that gamble. He liquidated all of his positions and lost the whole sum of £7 million.   

KSI understands what he did was wrong, and he takes full responsibility for his actions. Nevertheless, he is still bullish on bitcoin and believes in the underlying technology.

“It’s been a full journey, but I had to experience it. I fully understand it now. I put money in things where I essentially leveraged myself and I kinda over leveraged myself to a point where I lost money because of it.”

“Bitcoin is here to stay; it is the future. It’s just no one want to accept it. I’ve lost £7m and i’m still fully crypto.”

Bottom Line

You shouldn’t be discouraged from trading crypto, but you need to realize the dangers associated with it. Without significant research, you are gambling with your own future. As the above examples have shown, with money, you can’t afford to lose.

Before you start dreaming about what you will do with your profits after you discovered the next Bitcoin and made x1000 on your trade, think about whether or not you will miss that money if you lose it. Start small and play it safe. Purchase bitcoin, hold it and be happy that you still belong to the early adopters.

Good Luck!



Sources:

1.   https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-57268024
2.   https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/19/life-savings-in-crypto-generation-of-amateurs-hooked-on-high-risk-trading
3.   https://hackernoon.com/how-i-lost-dollar200000-trading-crypto-and-the-lessons-i-learned-5311378p
4.   https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/ksi-bitcoin-youtube-b1885801.html

Izvinjavam se na clickbaitu. Ovo neće biti tema sa savjetima kako kreirati, prodati, i ostvariti profit prodajom NFT-a.
Jućer sam naletio na jedan smiješan tweet koji govori o tome kako je NFT budućnost.

Određeni Nikita Bier je izmislio priču o NFT tržištu.

- U tweetu kaže da je napravio svoj NFT i stavio ga na aukciju.
- Zatim je sam sebi ponudio $100.000 i prodao NFT.
- Potom ga je sa nove adrese ponovo stavio na aukciju.
- Neki drugi ljubitelj NFT-a ponudio je $30.000 i bio sretan što je kupio svoju novu digitalnu umjetninu sa popustom od 70%.

Priča je naravno izmišljena ali tjera te na razmišljanje šta se sve kupuje i prodaje i za koje iznose na ovim novim NFT platformama.



Izvor: https://twitter.com/nikitabier/status/1437104153713467394

Bitcoin Core version 0.22.0 was released on 14 September 2021.
The Bitcoin Core project announced it here.

The news headline on Bitcointalk points to the latest version, but the title still says that 0.21 is the latest version. The torrent link also needs to be updated to link to version 0.22.

Cheers! 

You can use a simple code to receive a payment from someone else, where that person only needs to click on a link to automatically fill out the transaction information.
The imported info includes the destination address of the payment, the amount, and a description (optional).

The code looks like this:

Code:

bitcoin:bc1qc8qk228490dwvfcrpzmnx8c2p7sh0k2e72tg78?amount=10&message=payment

- After "bitcoin:" you enter the destination address.
- After the address, the code must include "?amount=" followed by the amount in BTC.
- If you don't want to add a description, delete the part of the code the follows the amount you entered. The code would then look like this:

Code:

bitcoin:bc1qc8qk228490dwvfcrpzmnx8c2p7sh0k2e72tg78?amount=10

If you are using a crypto wallet that supports Bitcoin payment URIs, copy and paste the code into your internet browser (works both on Chrome and Firefox), and you will initiate the transaction generation process.
If you are posting this on Bitcointalk, you can modify the URL with a hyperlink. Here are two examples of how it can look:

Click here to send the funds
Pay 0.25 BTC by clicking on this link

Many popular wallets support the URI scheme. Here are just some that I know of:

• Electrum
• Bitcoin Core
• Armory
• Mycelium
• Trust Wallet
• Copay
• Edge
• Exodus
• Coinomi
• BlueWallet
• Blockchain.com Wallet

     

*Source of the info is this post by pooya87 here.

Postoji jednostav trik gdje se uz pomoć klika na link sa foruma mogu popuniti podaci potrebni za uplatu Bitcoina na nečiju adresu.
To podrazmjeva adresu na koju se bitcoin šalje, iznos za uplatu, i eventualni opis uplate.

Kod izgleda ovako:

Code:

bitcoin:bc1qc8qk228490dwvfcrpzmnx8c2p7sh0k2e72tg78?amount=10&message=payment

- Potrebno je da unesete adresu na koju želite primiti uplatu.
- Nakon adrese stavlja se "?amount=" i iznos za uplatu.
- Ako ne želite nikakav opis uplate, izbrišite ovaj dio iza iznosa. U tom slučaju kod bi izgledao ovako:

Code:

bitcoin:bc1qc8qk228490dwvfcrpzmnx8c2p7sh0k2e72tg78?amount=10

Ukoliko imate Bitcoin wallet koji podržava URI protokol šemu, kopirate i zaljepite ovaj gore kod u internet preglednik, i pokrenut ćete postupak slanja nove transakcije.
Kod se može poboljšati hyperlinkom i dodatnim tekstom za forum. Evo par primjera:

Klinkite ovdje da biste izvršili uplatu
Platiti klikom na link

Većina popularnih Bitcoin novčanika podržava Bitcoin URI protokol šemu. Lista je sigurno duža ali ovo su neki od novčanika za koje znam da imaju odgovarajuću podršku:

• Electrum
• Bitcoin Core
• Armory
• Mycelium
• Blockchain
• Copay
• Edge
• Exodus

*Izvor informacija je post od pooya87 ovdje.

[Development & Technical Discussion]

Oh God, another thread about merits? Yes! But I promise. This one will be a bit different.

Many times, we have heard the accusations: merit cycling clubs, merit gangs, legendary members giving merits to their legendary friends, etc.

I believe that Development & Technical Discussion and Bitcoin Technical Support are this forum's cream de la creme. These sub-forums are the sections where issues about the Bitcoin network are raised and solved. When users experience particular problems or have questions, the members in those subs take care of them. 

But who are the users that help newbies and everyone else to solve problems?
More precisely, what rank to they belong to?
That is precisely the reason why I decided to create this thread. On 27 August, I took a screenshot of the two mentioned sub-boards to check what ranks are the members who reply to threads there.

I checked 5 threads in each section.
In the tables below, I have listed the titles of those threads. You can see the number of legendary users who have replied there. Besides that, I have written down the number of times a legendary user was the first to respond after a thread was created, and how many replies there were in total per thread.

What is the purpose of all this?

My hypothesis is that legendary members get so many merits because they are usually the first to reply and offer advice. They are the most frequent posters in the mentioned sub-forums, and their posts are simply the best ones.

Let’s now take a look at the stats and see if I am right or wrong:

Bitcoin Technical Support

|	Thread Title	|	Total Number of posts	|	Number of Legendary replies	|	Was a legendary the first to reply?	|	Percentage of legendary replies	|
|	What info can be gathered using my receiving address btc	|	5	|	3	|	Yes	|	60%	|
|	*[Aug 2021] Mempool empty! Use this opportunity to Consolidate your small inputs!	|	19	|	15	|	Yes	|	78.9%	|
|	FindBTC TOOL help	|	19	|	3	|	Yes	|	15.78%	|
|	Umbrel - Discussion, issues, solutions	|	13	|	7	|	Yes	|	53.84%	|
|	Possible download block chain for air gapped linux from windows?	|	13	|	9	|	Yes	|	69.23%	|

*I looked at posts only from page 23.

Development & Technical Discussion

|	Thread Title	|	Total Number of posts	|	Number of Legendary replies	|	Was a legendary the first to reply?	|	Percentage of legendary replies	|
|	Curve point divided by integer - is it possible?	|	18	|	3	|	No	|	16.66%	|
|	*Pollard's kangaroo ECDLP solver	|	20	|	0	|	No	|	0%	|
|	BIP0062 and reduction s - problem ?when use.?	|	6	|	1	|	No	|	16.66%	|
|	**Why doesn't bitcoin have a "freeze" function?	|	20	|	10	|	Yes	|	50%	|
|	**A. Antonopoulos’ Take on Seed Splitting and Bruteforcing	|	20	|	16	|	No	|	80%	|

*I looked at posts only from page 105.
**I looked at posts only on page 1.


In summary

These 10 threads had:

-   153 posts in total.
-   67 (or 43.79%) of those came from Legendary members.
-   Legendary members were the first to reply in 6 from the 10 checked threads.


This is just a small sample that shows that legendary members receive plenty of merits for a reason. So the next time you think how the world is unfair or that the powerful are only helping the powerful, remember this thread and try to improve and do better. 

will be deleted...

I was watching this video of Andreas explaining the dangers of splitting your seed into several parts. He was answering a question from someone who wanted to know about the safety of splitting the seed into three different locations. Any two of those locations would contain all the words and would be enough to recreate the mnemonic.

A)   Words 1-8 and 9-16
B)   Words 1-8 and 17-24
C)   Words 9-16 and 17-24

Andreas explains that it’s a bad idea and suggests using Shamir's Secret Sharing scheme to those who want to split up their seed words for whatever reason.

A 24-word recovery phrase contains 256 bits of entropy. That’s impossible to brute-force with today’s technology. In the proposed method of spitting represented above, there are 16 out of 24 words in each location. 8 words are missing. AA explains how the last word of the phrase is the checksum, and since only one word fits in that position, it can be brute-forced much easier than the rest.

Location A doesn’t contain the checksum, and you will be required to brute-force 7 of the missing words + the checksum. AA says that it decreases the entropy to 80 bits that need to be brute-forced. I don’t have any knowledge about brute-forcing, but Andreas says that’s an exponential. It’s not going to take one-third of the time (since you only need to crack 1/3 of the seed). It’s much less than that. According to the explanation under the video, it’s 2^176 times easier to brute-force those 80 bits of entropy. He goes on to mention that this could be easily done in the next decade with the appropriate hardware, especially if the checksum is known.   

Did he set the bar too low, or could this be “easily brute-forced in the next decade”? 2^176 times quicker to brute-force doesn’t tell me much about a timeframe, so with the most powerful possible hardware, how long would such a process take approximately?


The video about this topic can be watched here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5nSibpfHYE&list=PLPQwGV1aLnTuN6kdNWlElfr2tzigB9Nnj&index=35

I was reading a thread and a question came to my mind. Obviously, it's merit abuse meriting yourself and trying to get away with it. But picture the following scenario:

If I know I am going to be away from home for some time, but I will need to access Bitcointalk from public WIFIs or internet cafes to get in touch with my business acquaintances regularly, why couldn't I merit myself to get to Jr. Member, make a few posts, and get rid of the PM restrictions associated with newbie accounts? Buying the copper membership doesn't affect PM limits if I remember it correctly.

- The second account would be clearly marked as an alt account.
- The sole purpose of that 1 merit is to remove PM restrictions.
- I don't want to use my main account on unknown internet networks and computers.
- Maybe I am unsuccessful in acquiring a merit or two in the "normal way" while posting with the alt account to get the needed activity points for Jr. Member.

* Before someone gets judgmental, this is just a discussion and not something I am actually planning to do or have done.

[What is needed for the verification?]

Some members on Bitcointalk use Ledger hardware wallets, and a few use the native Ledger Live app as well. I noticed that we don’t have a thread about verifying Ledger Live signatures or the installation files, so I thought I would write a quick guide on how to do it.

This tutorial is for Windows users.

What is needed for the verification?

•   A utility that displays file hashes, such as Hashtab.
•   The Ledger Live app for your OS.

Verifying the installation binary

1.   Download and install Hashtab on your computer. Here is a VirusTotal report for the newest version.
2.   Download the correct version of Ledger Live for your OS.
3.   After LL has been downloaded, find the file, right-click on it, and click on “Properties”.
4.   If you installed Hashtab, you should notice a new tab called “File Hashes” under properties. Click on it.

5.   On the File Hashes tab, right-click in the white box and click on “Settings”.
6.   A new window will open, showing all Hashtab settings. Unselect all of them, tick only the “SHA-512” box, and click “OK”.

7.   Visit the Ledger Live Download Signatures page. Scroll down a little bit until you find the “Verify my Ledger Live install binary” section.
8.   Copy the SHA-512 hash for Windows from the site.

9.   In the Ledger Live properties menu under “File Hashes”, paste the copied SHA-512 hash in the “Hash Comparison” bar. If they are identical, a green tick mark will appear on your screen.

10.  You have either copied the wrong hash or downloaded a fake version of Ledger Live if you get a red cross instead.


More information on how to verify the SHA-512sum hashes can be found here: https://www.ledger.com/ledger-live/lld-signatures
Additionally, check out these posts for more instructions on how to verify the SHA-512sum hashes: 1, 2.


Source: https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404807946001-How-to-verify-the-authenticity-of-Ledger-Live-on-Windows-?support=true

I came across a thread that had a post by the user Velkro, and I was surprised when I saw that his signature was missing. This user has been wearing a fake Bitcoin vanity address generator for years, but now it's gone.

I initially thought that he was banned because his last post was back in February, but BPIP shows no records that he was perma banned. It's possible he took it off himself, but somehow I doubt it. And why would he after such a long time?

I know that the admins don't moderate scams, but signatures by spammers (spamming signature campaigns) have been banned in the past. Did the admins finally make an exception and blocked his signature?

   

I just updated my Electrum software to the most recent 4.1.5 version.

After every install, I always check the preferences and settings to make sure that no unwanted changes were made or if some new features were added. I noticed that the "Use Change Addresses" option is unticked by default in 4.1.5. I can't remember from the older Electrum versions if this was ticked or unticked and why the developers would make changes if there were indeed made. My change has in the past always gone to change addresses.



When you can, please check your Electrum apps and let me know if this option is ticked or unticked in your settings. 
The way it is now, what happens with my change?
Should I tick this option?

My brain froze, I just can't remember how this looked like in the past...

[Discover]

Ledger has recently introduced a Discover section in their Ledger Live application. There, you can find their new App Catalog that features several already available apps and many applications to be released in the future.

Currently, the following apps are accessible through Ledger Live’s App Catalog:

• ParaSwap – A DEX for exchanging Ethereum-based tokens.
• Wyre – A payment API only available to US customers, allowing people to buy bitcoin and various other cryptocurrencies.
• Rainbow.me – A non-custodial wallet for ETH and Ethereum tokens, which also functions as a gallery for NFTs.
• Zerion – A dApp for managing ERC-20 tokens and exploring various DeFi markets.

Among the upcoming releases, Ledger plans to include lending/borrowing platforms AAVE, Compound, and the staking protocol Lido.

You can read more about this below:
https://www.ledger.com/blog/rainbowme-zerion-now-available-in-ledger-live?utm_medium=announcement
https://www.ledger.com/blog/becoming-your-safe-gateway-to-all-your-crypto-services-with-ledger-apps-catalog

Ledger has also created a Developer Portal. It’s a complete guide for creating Ledger-native crypto apps and instructions on integrating your own coins, tokens, and dApps. If you are a developer and would like to develop something that will work with Ledger, you should definitely check out the resources available on the Developer Portal. 

The developer portal contains examples of code and tools that can help developers build their own software for Ledger Live.

I have recently noticed that the moderators keep deleting the bumps I make in my own threads. It's been happening quite often and I would like to know why? Have the rules or the moderator's stance on bumping changed?

According to the rules, 1 bump per 24 hours is allowed. mprep also explains that bumps shouldn't be annoying and one should not bump 10 threads for example. I bump maybe 1 or 2, rarely 3 on the same day. All old bumps were deleted in my threads prior to the new bumps.

I made one bump yesterday and it got deleted.

Before that, I had bumps deleted on:
- July 15
- 2x on June 29
- 1 on June 15
- 1 on June 06

I would appreciate some more info so that I know why it's happening. I often see people bump their threads and I would like to know is it happening to them as well?

I would appreciate if the mod who deleted some or all of these bumps to tell me it's him so I can understand the bumping rules better. I thought I did already. 

Online forums aren’t as popular today as they were 10 or 20 years ago. Social networks are now leading the race when it comes to online discussions.

Bitcointalk is just one community that has fewer users and less activity than it had in the past. It’s a pity because this forum offers something better and something that social media can’t. It’s a place where all the legendary bitcoiners, from Hal to Satoshi, used to write. Those threads are still here. They can easily be found and hold historical importance.

On social media, discussions are forgotten rather quickly. It’s sporadic that a topic stays active and trends for more than a few days. The quality of conversations is not comparable because little effort is put in due to the speed at which they are being held. On Bitointalk, some topics have been maintained and are active even after several years of being created.

One thing that isn’t discussed that often are ad blockers. Bitcointalk generates profit from the ad spaces it sells. But because of the greater use of ad blockers among the userbase, the brands are no longer getting the exposure they had in the past. As a result, the cost of advertising drops, as does the forum profits.


The new forum software has been in development for years. Considering the current trend of online forums losing ground to social media, there might be less incentive to hurry up and release it. The development is costly, time-consuming, but will it be worth it, and how big will the community be that uses it?

If the new forum is mobile-friendly, I think that will be the most significant feature to give it a slight push.

With all this in mind, do you believe that once the new forum is released, Bitcointalk will increase its userbase?
Do you think that in 5 or 10 years, the new generations will appreciate the significance of Bitcointalk and be happy to be part of it?
Or are we a dying breed of forum users taking their last breaths. At the same time, bigger (but not necessarily better) communities are being established elsewhere?