Hi guys
It's that time of the month again to buy some BTC.  I realized my ledger suddenly shows new public keys for me to recieve btc to. I did a test and sent myself 40 cents to my old address, and then again to the new one. The incoming and outgoing addresses were still my old public key.

And yes BCASHers, its possible to do that on bitcoin, I even sent one at 1sat/byte.

I know that one private key can generate more than one public key. 
My question here is, is it fine to save one of these public keys and use it as a receive address permanently? Will my ledger just create a new receive address each time funds are received that is usable for privacy reasons ?

Only had this thing for a few weeks now, so im new to these kinds of wallets.

P.S. I see unconfirmed transactions are quite low today, I can turn all my inputs into one input by sending my BTC to myself right ?

Hi Guys
Hoping some of the smarter people here can educate me. I see a lot of mentions of run your own node.  But what is the point of it? If my node never wins a block then what impact can it actually have on bitcoins security?

I see a reason for doing it if you are a merchant and want to see if transactions are sent to you immediately, or if you want to do it for LN. But why run one as a normal bitcoin dude?

Hi guys
Is it possible to read the contents of my copy of the blockchain as a txt file or anything? I havent setup a full node yet due to the size of it but I would like to do a few things with the content.

I have checked for other monero forks that I have a copy of the chain for but didn't see anything where I could see the ledger in. I specifically want to see this for BTC.

What are your guys' thoughts on forcibly taking someones house  and giving it to someone else without compensating at all. The basis of this is that the land was stolen and must be given back.

This however was done by past generations. Is it fair to make a decedent pay for something their ancestors did? This will basically leave home "owners" with debt on the house but no house. Yes, that's right. The law will require people to still pay the homes off that they no longer own. (anyone else see all banks falling instantly here?)

I must say on one side, I think some of the issues here are blown out of proportion internationally. There's no genocide here right now, there might be one in the future though(God forbid).  But its still safe-ish to walk around regardless of skin colour.
There is major inequality here, which definitely needs to be addressed but I don't think this is the way.

I am specifically looking for a logical explanation on how this is fair and for the better of everyone from anyone who is in support of this. No supporter of this has been able to give a good answer as to why this will be to everyones  benefit.

What are your thoughts on Vechain running up to their mainnet? Anyone think we can expect it to hit the 120k sats range? To me this feels like a safer trade as they have actual partnerships in place and will be more than a speculative tool. The project as a whole seems solid to me as well.

Hi Guys
I know fully I can just go google this but I am asking here to just add some assurance that I'm not gonna download some fake wallet.

Can anyone please recommend a good place to get a paper wallet generator ? I've had some gains but will only be getting a hardware wallet later this month and its worth securing my funds properly for now.  I would like to know I am safe in the meantime though.

Hi Forum
So I heard that for the EOS blockchain to launch we as a community need to vote for the correct chain and genesis block. This needs 15% of the total supply to vote.
I am struggling to find clear info on how to do this online, does anyone have a link that explains it step by step? I have never done any blockchain voting before.
This is happening mid-May as far as I heard?

We all need to ensure that we play our part in main-net launch, EOS will be running as a truly decentralized platform. We should accept our reponsibility to it as token holders.

Hi Guys
What is your expectation for EOS's ATH running up to its mainnet launch. Do you think it can comfortably overtake BCH and take in rank 4 before mainnet?

I personally expect that we have only seen the start of its boom and expect the high to be around 300k sats. EOS could possibly contend with Ether, but I don't expect thatl happen anytime soon since the Ethereum brand is very strong.

We seem to have skyrocketted in the number of people using LN in the last month, I am actually shocked at how quickly it seems to be picking up (rightfully so).

Is there a website where I can see a consolidated list of merchants accepting it as they come online? I haven't been able to find one yet. Does anyone know of such a site?

I am looking forward to seeing it integrated into payment provides such as Payfast here in South Africa. Will be awesome to buy on our local "amazon" with lightning !

Hi Forum
I have been wondering what other people's thoughts are on the top for EOS in BTC price in 2 months. Currently EOS is sitting near its alltime high, however I am still buying it because I am sure its gonna pump to a new ATH.

Looking at its contenders above it I can see it overtaking and reaching rank 4 quite easily, but do you think that a valuation such as 0.003 BTC is possible? I have not been in crypto long enough to know the magnitude of a coin like EOS launching.  The bullrun for EOS has already kind of started.
I am quite amazed that ADA is keeping up and that NEO is standing still though.

Whats your best predictions guys?

P.S. to mods, only saw bitcoin speculation and not altcoin - sorry if I put this in the wrong thread

Hi Forum
I would like to know what real value you think HODLing adds. What is the point of just holding bitcoin till moon and lambo ? This is cryptocurrency, why aren't we using this as currency? If we all just hold then this whole thing takes on a completely different business model, we lose all real value that it has as currency and it just becomes a full on speculative bubble.

Bitcoin and other currencies have no value if nobody uses them. So I would like to encourage everyone to spend and replace instead of just blindly holding. We won't see merchant adoption skyrocketing if nobody buys stuff with bitcoin. And yes I know it can go up in value, but why not just spend your BTC and EFT some fiat over to your local exchange and replace the BTC you spent ?
If any businesses accept BTC or other currencies it is our duty to support them extra for it and use cryptocurrency.

Hi guys
I will be getting a hardware wallet in 2 weeks or so, will probably be going for the Nano as it supports more coins. However how can I know that the box hasnt been opened and re-sealed or anything before I got it ?  I mean anything can happen in the warehouse from the online shop im buying from, or at airport customs.. etc..

To my understanding there is a piece of paper in there with my seed words, how can I know that nobody has those ?

Hi Forum
So if I open a channel and then shut down my PC for a few days, does the channel still remain open at all ?  I know I cant receive funds while my wallet is closed, but when I come back do I have to open a new channel and pay the associated fees again or can I still send money over LN with my old channel?

How does LN handle me going AWOL ?

Hi Guys
I just know the basics of virtualization, its not my specialty by any means. But if I install a Ubuntu VM on my windows PC, how can I encrypt or protect the VHD which would contain my wallets? I do not have the funds to buy an additional offline PC, but I reckon using a VM will give me extra security.

Would this protect my online wallets even from keyloggers that may exist on my windows installation?
Any tips on securing that virtual hard drive would be very welcome.

Hi guys
I often times just google bitcointalk + whatever coin to easily get to the page of a bounty i wana follow up on. I found a fake one  called bitcointalk .to . Does anyone know if this one downloads malware to your pc or anything ?

I didnt enter my credentials there or anything at least.

Hi Forum
I suspect I might need to start using bitcoin as a store of wealth to keep my money off the grid and truly secured from corrupt governments due to current situations in my country. Thus I would like to store my BTC in my memory. Hardware wallets can be confiscated, and I can be forced to release funds.

I am aware this is possible but have never done this. Which wallet can I use to do this and generate my own seed, also is it possible for me to mix it up over multiple languages? Most seeds are generated out of 5000 words as far as I know. Thus 20 words if its all English becomes the "safe" level against a brute force, if I do it over 3 or 4 languages does that change?

A 12 word phrase or so I am sure I can always remember, 20 might be a bit much.
Also is this possible to do with Monero ?

Thanks for helping lead the way guys.

[This post is not meant to argue my point at all, I just want an understanding around this.]

Hi Forum
First of all I want to state I am a Bitcoin supporter and apologize for bringing up such a possibly sensitive subject for some. I want to ask sincerely that we don't fly off with personal insults at each other for the coin we support here, buy rather a civil discussion and answer around this would be nice since I really just don't "get it".

This post is not meant to argue my point at all, I just want an understanding around this.

Every time the argument around BTC vs BCH comes up I always see the BCH side say "Blockstream has brainwashed everyone and is spreading propaganda attacking us", all kinds of things like that. I see many people on this forum even say I have been brainwashed because I am a BTC supporter and not a BCH supporter.

I got into cryptocurrency in September last year only, owned by first tiny bit of bitcoin around late October. I have personally never seen any of this supposed propaganda from the BTC side. I have never had a microchip implanted in my behind by them to brainwash me. I have never seen this supposed censorship on this forum, maybe just a few people getting a little passionate about their stance, but that's cool - free speech is a good thing. I personally see people being allowed to state their stances regardless which one they support.
I cant really speak for the Reddit accusations as I don't use it.

It is just always the one after the other BCH supporter saying we have been brainwashed, please give me some evidence of this. I myself work as a network engineer for an ISP. I see bitcoin mostly as a network as a result. To me LN is a very viable way as I can see the potential for what new technologies and innovation it will allow to come forth. The system makes sense to me personally. And yes, to me the only drawback of LN is offline payments. But it'l get figured out I am sure. LN as we have it now surely isn't the end of the evolution.

So, can someone please tell me where I got brainwashed because these claims are made on every Roger Ver interview. Along with all the claims that BTC is spreading propaganda, and that BTC is slow expensive and unreliable - BCH is fast cheap and reliable (which technically = propaganda? Doesn't the word mean that you only present one side of the case?)
From my personal view I see the BCH side doing exactly what they (in my eyes) accuse the BTC team of doing.

Okay, I will leave that above paragraph at that, I am sure you get the point of my argument and my viewpoint. I am not here to start a fight. But can someone please explain this to me ?
The worst I have seen from the BTC side is "BCASH" spam, and that is not propaganda, it is just the internet being the internet - a meme of sorts. Just like we have "hey hey heyyy ... Bitconnect!!!!" now.

[If I understand the above correctly.]

Hi Forum
Let me first state my understanding of how a bitcoin transaction works. Please correct me if I have this wrong.

Let's say I am a miner  and I mined a block, I got my fresh and unspent 12.5 BTC. Bob loans 12.5 BTC from me and I send it to him. He is supposed to pay me back 1.25 BTC every day for 10 days.
When I send him the 12.5, I send him  a valid Input worth 12.5BTC. Which equals the size of 1 Input( 0.225 KB I think?).  10 Days now pass and Bob has paid me back. I now have 10 valid inputs worth 12.5 BTC in total. If I send my 12.5 BTC to binance now I will be sending them 10 valid inputs, meaning my transaction will use 2.25 KB in the block. Thus in turn I pay 10x more fees than my first transaction.
In short the more bitcoin gets spent  the more inputs we will use to make up a transaction?

If I understand the above correctly.
This then means that any max block size will eventually run out if we cannot summarize those inputs back into single inputs? Regardless of how big we make the blocks. Using bitcoin as currency in this case would then mean we slowly kill it. If all inputs are worth 10 satoshi's then we cant use BTC anymore?
I am aware NimbleWimble is a technology that can fix this. If my understanding is correct then this is quite an urgent problem to fix.

Also please clarify with the transaction fees involved in a block, do they become part of the newly created input from the block I mined?

If I understand the above incorrectly
You are welcome to call me an idiot haha, as long as you explain where my understanding is wrong. We all gotta learn

Thanks for taking the time to answer guys

Hi Forum
Hoping you can educate me a bit here. I wasn't heavily into crypto at the time this all took place.
When the whole scaling debates began basically two solutions were proposed, which as we know lead to the creation of BCH.
Why did we not move BTC to 2MB blocks while work on the layer 2 scaling was being finalized? As I understand LN right now when a channel is closed the transactions in it get processed by the main chain, thus a bit of extra blocksize would help scale LN even more.

To me, I personally like the idea of layer 2 scaling more because of all the features it would add to BTC and new things it would make possible. I see some merit in both solutions though.

Is there a good reason apart from politics that we couldn't have just done both? It would have carried us for now until new scaling solutions are done and fully tested.

The BTC vs BCH has really split the community, yea there's some funny memes around this and all, but its not good that we are all fighting each other and getting super opinionated around this. I hope we don't see more separation in the community in the future.

P.S. lets not turn this into a BTC vs BCH argument here, make love not war

[Telegram]

Hi everyone
I feel it needed to try and help the case around scams here, the amount of new people I see getting scammed is shockingly high. This is bad for our community as a whole.
Consider the below to help yourself stay safe

Telegram
You will probably  end up joining some telegram chat of sorts for a coin you like at some stage, this is the number one place I personally see people getting scammed. The scammers usually impersonate some admin from the group you are from and offer to sell you coins or accounts directly.  This will always end in tears, even if its a legitimate admin from the ICO you are in to, don't trust them. Any legitimate ICO will sell the coins via their website where you would usually send ether or something to a smart contract address that you will get from the site directly. If its a listed coin you must only buy it from an exchange.
Telegram is still a good place to be, don't avoid it, just be careful

If you want to buy into an ICO, always investigate it properly first, this includes looking up the history of team members, companies they work for and so on. I usually look for a reason to not invest when im looking at ICOs, I look for a reason for it to be a scam. It's safest to assume everything is a scam.

Youtube
There are lots of channels  where people would just try to pump some coin or ICO, these aren't always scams though, but they might be trying to push a bad product sometimes. Some of these even have high numbers of subscribers. Always do your own investigation, don't ever buy a coin just because someone else is buying it. That is never a good reason to buy a coin. If its something you believe has a market then that is always a good reason to buy and hodl it.
Some of there youtubers would have referral links for things that they want to push. Always ask yourself "Is this guy trying to show me something good to look into?" or "Is this guy just trying to get referrals and monetize his viewers?"
Youtube is a great place to find new good projects, but always take it with a grain of salt.

Remember this is cryptocurrency, unlike your normal bank account you can't dispute a transaction. If funds were sent somewhere there is no way to reverse it. You cannot complain to anyone since nobody owns bitcoin


Some tips on keeping yourself safe
1. Use VPN
2. Dont go publicly announce and like all crypto things on facebook under your real name and say how much crypto you hold - hackers are watching these things.
3. Install a good antivirus and firewall.
4. Store private keys on paper in two locations (my backup location is my parents house)
5. Refrain from logging into all crypto things on your mobile, mobile phones are highly insecure.
6. If you hold enough BTC to justify the cost, get a hardware wallet


As a community I think we need to take some responsibility to try help new people more, there are unfortunately a lot of scammers in this space and it's a bad thing if someone wants to join in on the cryptocurrency hype and instantly gets scammed. We should all work together to help bring forth more adoption.
I hope all you new cryptocurrency enthusiasts have a good experience in this space and get as excited about the future as I am.

I am sure there are some other things I haven't thought about, hope some other members will give their say in this thread as well.