Sat. is an officially recognized unit\part of bitcoin. But as you know, there is still no "insert Satoshi symbol" button on the forum interface toolbar. Is it time to add it yet?

Maybe it's time to add a button with the "Sat." logo (with the ability to insert a symbol)?

By the way, what does the officially recognized logo of Sat. look like?

What does the BTC-community think/say about this?

Recently I encountered one "amazing phenomenon".

In the Trezor Suit app, I wanted to create a new BTC-address, but I couldn't do it, because the new segwit address was the 11th in a row (i.e. 10 addresses had already been created before). This application issued a message that the limit for creating addresses (of this type) was exceeded. The rest can be created (for example, legacy and other).

This raises the question: How many BTC-addresses (of a certain type) can be created for each seed phrase? Is there really a limit of 10 addresses one type (I don't think so), after which it is necessary to generate a new seed phrase and start over? Or is this related to the trezor devices and their trezor suit app?

Also, another "inconvenient" feature of trezor is that it is impossible to create a new BTC-address if at least 1 sat. has not been received to the previous one. That is, it is impossible to create, for example, 5 different addresses (of the same type) at once, but only as funds are received to the previous one.
As far as I remember, in electrum you can create BTC-addresses without similar restrictions. 

I would appreciate your answers and would like to hear your opinion.

P.S.
I believe this question is more related to bitcoin technical aspects and I am asking this question in this section rather than in the section dedicated to hardware wallets.

It has been said many times that should invest in bitcoin only a part of your money, not all of it, and certainly not borrowed or credited money. But what about when BTC reach ATH and you are ready to sell bitcoin, you should also sell only a part of BTC, not all of it. Do something like diversification. If something goes wrong in the future (bitcoin collapses or is banned), then “now” you will make a profit, and if bitcoin becomes much more expensive, then you will have a part of BTC left for this, and the current sale at a relatively low price will not affect your future profit.

What part (in percent) of bitcoin that you have are you ready to sell “now” (at a favorable exchange rate for you or reaching ATH), and what part will you leave until better times?

P.S. Given the deflationary model of bitcoin, there can be no talk of a complete sale (of all available) of this asset.

The forum has repeatedly discussed what maximum mark $100K will reach in this cycle. Many are waiting for the level of $100K, and some, especially enthusiastic BTC-users, are talking about higher cost indicators ($150K and higher).

But now I would like to focus on another point. What is the minimum price mark that bitcoin will reach in the current cryptomarket cycle, because the lower the price, the more bitcoin (parts of BTC) can be bought. How low do you think bitcoin will fall in price after reaching $100K (or higher)?

Let me remind you that in 2018, bitcoin reached a price of ~$16.5K and fell to ~$3.5K, in 2022 - ~$67.5K with a minimum level of ~$16K.

[@xandry]

I discovered that for some users the time of last activity on the forum was no longer displayed and instead it was written "recently". Is this some kind of bug or innovation on the bitcointalk?

Is this a new feature on the forum?

Sorry, @xandry, you were just the first one to fall into my hands. This is not an isolated case and a similar inscription is visible on many other users.

[who sold his house and bought bitcoin]

Many people still consider real estate a good investment (especially the older generation of investors). Let's try to calculate and check if this is true.

My friend has a property (apartment) in one of the most expensive cities in the world* (Moscow) with an area of ​​~65 sq.m (three-room). The market value of this property is approximately ~$170,000. Such an apartment can be rented out for approximately $500-700 per month. This will bring a profit of $6000-8500 per year. It will take 28-20 years for the purchase of a similar residential property to generate a return equal to the cost of this apartment (doubling the money invested).

These are not entirely accurate, but only approximate calculations aimed at showing an approximate “picture”. This does not take into account inflation, changes in the value of real estate (the “body” of the deposit) and the cost of rent (“interest” on the deposit).

Of course, profitability may differ when choosing residential or commercial real estate. Commercial rent will be more profitable, but with such rent many problems arise, such as finding a long-term tenant, because with every downtime in finding a new (short-term) tenant, money is lost. The next “headache” is the repair costs (which will certainly arise) and again drain money from you. And add to everything property taxes and other deductions, for example, tax (13-30% depending on tax residence status) on the sale transaction if the property was owned for less than 3-5 years (as in the country in which my friend’s apartment is located). One should take into account the likelihood of a fall in the value of real estate and rent due to the deterioration of the situation in the area or city as a whole due to environmental problems (pollution) or man-made (military operations), natural phenomena (fires, floods, volcanoes).

Bitcoin in 2 years (to date) has more than doubled in price (and this is not the limit) from $29k to $67k. Not to mention the 10-year interval, where the profitability of bitcoin turns out to be simply crazy compared to real estate.

Whereas with bitcoin (compared to real estate), you just buy it and hodl it safely. It seems impossible to come up with more passive investments. Do you feel an advantage in choosing real estate investment over bitcoin? I will not ask the question of what you would prefer to invest in here, because it is already clear what the majority will choose.

With this post, I wanted to strengthen the conviction of BTC-investors that their choice was correct, because instead of buying a conditional one apartment, in 10 years you will be able to afford to buy several (probably more than 1) apartments (depending on the country and location). Like Didi Taihuttu, who sold his house and bought bitcoin.

^* - Static cost of 1 sq.m. residential real estate for 2023 by city of the world (according to various sources from the Internet).

 1 - Monaco (73,6k - 54,7k euro)
 2 - Hong Kong (27,7k - 18,6k euro)
 3 - Switzerland (Zurich)  (22,3k - 13,7k euro)
 4 - South Korea (Seoul) (19,5k - 10,6k euro)
 5 - Singapore (18,5k - 10,7k  euro)
 6 - Great Britain, London) (15,4k - 8,9k euro)
 7 - Israel, Tel Aviv-Yafo)  (14,8k - 9,9k euro)
 8 - USA (New York) (14,2 k - 9,3 k euro)
 9 - France (Paris) (12,4 k - 8,7k euro)
10 - Cyprus (Limassol) (3,3k - 2,3k euro) - A friend’s apartment is located at approximately this price level (~2,4k euro, Moscow).

A short introduction.
Solana (SOL) has shown returns of 600-700% (at its peak) over the past 6-9 months, while bitcoin has returned approximately 200%. From the investor’s point of view (profit maximization), it was more rational to invest in some altcoin, like SOL (any other altcoin of your choice, as long as it shows a profitability higher than BTC).

There are more than two dozen active signature campaigns on the bitcointalk with many participants receiving rewards in bitcoin. In this connection, the following question arises for participants of signature campaigns (with reward in bitcoin).

How do you manage the bitcoin you received for signature campaigns?
- Hodl;
- Exchange for fiat;
- Exchange for altcoins (reinvestment);
- Exchange partially for alts, fiat and partly hodl;
- Another.

[thread]

After the discussion in this thread I started thinking about ways to solve the problem of storing and safely transporting seed phrase when traveling to other countries.

Here I want to discuss factory-made electronic devices (as the most accessible for a wide range of users and at an affordable price), which can be taken with you almost anywhere and not arouse suspicion (minimizing the attraction of attention) that seed phrase are stored in these devices. Of course, not as a main backup (for these purposes it is better to look at topic), but an additional, backup one in case you somehow lose access to your how wallet or hardware wallet (for example, resetting to factory settings).

An important criterion that I highlight is the autonomy of the device (autonomous power supply), the presence of a display, a keyboard for entering text (not in all cases), the lack of mobile communications and the Internet (for this reason I will not consider smartphones and tablets) and, if possible, minimizing the connection to PC (as a possible source of penetration of malicious programs) – lack of various information input interfaces (ports), as well as compactness (so that it is not problematic to carry with you in a backpack).

All links are provided for informational purposes only.

1. Electronic Diary from Citizen (may be the closest analogue from any other company).



Price: 10 - 20$.

Peculiarities:
- Availability of a monochrome display;
- Keyboard;
- Memory 128\256 kb;
- Battery;
- Availability of a password to access data;
- The absence of any connectors, which makes it impossible to steal information from it, other than physical theft. (I would look at those who would steal such a useless rarity these days ).

Possible disadvantage:
- If the device is de-energized (remove the battery), all data will be deleted. In principle, this can be used for emergency data deletion. The same thing will happen if the battery runs out.

2. Multifunctional calculator from Chinese noname AIRCHR.



Price: unknown.

Peculiarities:
- Availability of color display;
- Keyboard (without text);
- Memory 4 GB + memory card ;
- Battery (900mAH);
- Supports images (JPEG, BMP, GIF);
- Reading text documents;
- Supports Audio and video (MP4, AVI, AMV, WMA, WAV, MP3);
- Privacy Special Function.

Possible disadvantage:
- Supports USB charging and data transfer. Files in image or text format will have to be downloaded to the device from a PC, which may turn out to be a potential attack vector during which the seed phrase can be compromised on the PC (this is not a threat on this device).

[Pedro Magalhães]

In Brazil, a pilot project of the central bank digital real is being tested.

Source code - https://github.com/bacen/pilotord-kit-onboarding.

The presented architecture of the project, which, presumably, will be amended and changed - https://github.com/bacen/pilotord-kit-onboarding/blob/main/arquitetura.md.

This news would not have been anything particularly remarkable (the news about the testing of CBDC comes from various countries) if Pedro Magalhães had not reverse-engineered the source code of the digital real placed by the central bank of Brazil (Banco Central do Brazil’s digital real).

Here's what was found there:

Tweet about it. Curious options, right?

"Many in the cryptocurrency community have raised concerns that a CBDC has the potential to infringe on their financial freedom and encroach on their privacy." - This wording sounds in the article (from cointelegraph.com). To which, I can say that it is necessary to express not concern, but “sound the alarm”, because after such surprises in the CBDC source code, it will definitely be impossible to talk about any financial freedom and confidentiality.

As usual, all this is served under a plausible pretext: "Fabio Araujo, an economist at the Brazilian central bank, explained that the digital real has the potential to halt bank runs and looks to provide entrepreneurs with a more safe and reliable environment to innovate." (taken from the same source)

What do you think, is CBDC being developed for the benefit of people or will it be directed against them? After this article, the scales, in my opinion, swung even more towards the total regulation of the financial life of people.


Information taken from: "Brazil’s CBDC pilot contains code that can freeze or reduce funds, dev claims".

In Russia, there is a demand for digital deposites in pawnshops. According to information from forbes.ru, up to 100 requests for money secured by cryptocurrencies are received monthly. In this regard, the pawnshops asked the Central Bank of Russia to clarify the possibility of accepting cryptocurrencies as collateral on a par with gold. To which, the regulator didn't find grounds for banning such activities. For now.

I remind that in Russia the legal status of cryptocurrencies has not yet been clearly defined. Most likely, the legislative framework will be finalized and transactions with digital assets will be regulated so that they receive the status of a full-fledged liquid collateral. And now, it turns out that pawnshops in Russia can accept currencies as collateral, and there are no laws prohibiting this.

Currently, digital currencies are recognized as property only for the purposes of the laws "On Combating Money Laundering", "On Insolvency" and "On Combating Corruption", in other cases, "legislation doesn't establish the legal basis for the circulation of digital currency", says Central Bank of Russia.

Also, in that article (I warn you, the text is not in English), a probable problem is voiced when it is physically impossible to transfer cryptocurrencies to a pawnshop for storage. It seems to me that this is solvable. It is enough for a pawnshop to create its own crypto wallet, to which the client's cryptocurrencies will be sent for temporary storage (until the borrower's debt is repaid).

P.S. This is a slightly loose interpretation of information.


Now let's move on to the question posed in the topic title.
- Would you approve of the possibility of leaving crypto as a deposit in a pawnshop?
- Has such a service not yet appeared in your country of residence?
- How do you feel about the emergence of such new trends in the service sector?

I think that this service in a pawnshop will not be possible without the KYC procedure, which few will like.

Ready to discuss this topic?

[Link to this news in their ANN's thread.]

Somehow, the announcement from 1inch Network of its hardware wallet was left without due attention of the community, which I will try to fix. _{Link to this news in their ANN's thread.}

Device Features:
- 2.7" E-Ink touch screen.
- Corning Gorilla Glass 6.
- Steel frame.
- Airgapped.
- The ability to store several seed phrases at once.
- Any buttons or connectors are missing.
- Built-in Li-Po battery.
- Wireless charger.
- Waterproof.
- Thickness - 4 mm.
- Weight - 70 grams.

The estimated launch time for the product is Q4 2023.

Article on their blog - https://blog.1inch.io/introducing-the-1inch-hardware-wallet-47e2a2a8d5a0
Article on cointelegraph - https://cointelegraph.com/news/1inch-launches-proprietary-hardware-wallet-as-self-custody-trend-grows

What will be your opinion about this device? Let's discuss what you like and don't like about 1inch Network hardware wallet.

P.S. It seems that a new trend in HW design is emerging and now most devices will look about the same (with similar functionality). Remember Ledger Stax.

I am not a supporter of creating a lot of topics (usually meaningless, as is not so rare on this forum), but if I have something to say or ask, then I do it. Today is just such a case, and it so happened, again, by a coincidence, that this is my 2500th post.

Crypto community has been waiting for a long time for the bitcoin’s mass adoption and the introduction of BTC into the global financial system along with the dollar and the euro. People want to see btc at every turn in everyday life.

You can't imagine my surprise when this happened to me and I saw the BTC logo on cookies in a candy store. Looking more closely, I saw other monetary symbols in the package. At that moment, my first thought was “This is it! What all have been waiting for. Finally, Bitcoin was added to world currencies on an equal footing!”

Looks like a huge treasure, doesn't it?  

Cookies with white chocolate-like icing on one side and embossed currency logos on both sides.

Disclaimer: This post is a joke and should not be taken seriously. It is acceptable only for BTC-cookies, which, by the way, turned out to be quite tasty.

It's funny that someone thought to put the bitcoin logo on a cookie cutter in a candy factory. I don’t even know if this was done deliberately and consciously, or without a proper understanding of the value of bitcoin and accidentally. In any case, either btc mass adoption is already close to us, or the marketing departments have understood the prospects for such innovations. After all, I fell for their trick and bought cookies, right.

It would be interesting to know what other food products you have seen the bitcoin logo on?

I had a few questions, the answers to which I wanted to fill in my gaps in knowledge. I won't say that these are critical questions, but they haunt me.

Was it originally possible to choose a 12 and 24 word bitcoin wallet seed-phrase as it is now, or did the ability to choose 24 words come later? That is, a kind of option: reliable and more reliable. If the seed-phrase was expanded to 24 words later, what was the reason for this? What reason prompted? If anyone is aware of those events.

In the modern world, technology is progressing very quickly and one day there may come a moment when the reliability of a 24-word seed phrase will not be enough (it looks like the eternal fight between a shield and a sword). Is it possible to solve this problem by increasing the number of words to 36 or 48? Are there discussions or work on this issue?

Many thanks.

[Attention:]

Attention: longread!

Accidentally seeing one article (the translation of which I decided to share with you), I could not resist and read it in one breath. Despite the fact that the narration in it is conducted in a somewhat amusing way, the author of this article touches on situations and problems that are important in my opinion and remain relevant to this day.

This story evoked associations in me, when a person goes from the stage of denial to acceptance and sooner or later comes to the realization that he needs bitcoin. And as we will see from the story (I'm getting ahead of myself a little), it would be better if this happened "early" with the author. And if you look at the situation from the height of 2022, even his "late" has brought its financial benefits.

More or less like this.

Perhaps this translation will help some of you who are still doubting the future of bitcoin, having "looked" at its past, draw conclusions for yourself in the present.

For others, I hope this story will resonate in their memories, because, as I believe, the situations described here are familiar to many and took place in their life path to bitcoin.

At the very least, I hope reading this story will entertain you and bring you some enjoyment.

Original text taken from here - https://habr.com/ru/post/405913/. Publication date: August 2017. Now we know what happened at the end of that year, but the author was in for a pleasant surprise.

Well, dear reader, get started.

Why didn't I buy bitcoin?

In 2010, I learned about the phenomenon of bitcoin, and, like any other interesting technology, it captured my mind to a certain extent. But it just so happens that not every technology delights the mind, and in this case especially, and I have something to tell.

In this note, I am not going to once again consider technological features, compare bitcoin and fiat, put pressure on the mind with specific numbers of possible benefits, oh no. I'm just going to talk about the cognitive biases that kept me from buying bitcoin all the time. Maybe if you find them in yours, some questions can be cleared up (in any direction). And if you don’t find it, then most likely you know what to do without these thoughts. Another advertisement? Well, yes. In a marketing form? Well no.

"Why didn't I buy bitcoin on the exchange" (2010)
Anyway, all the time since 2010 I have seen people, notes, or news about bitcoin in various other forms, and sometimes it grabs attention. One day a friend said to me, “Hey, have you heard about such a thing as bitcoin? They say this is an interesting investment, because in a couple of months it has already grown by 10%.” This is how many per annum, I thought, 50%? Wow, this is definitely worth considering.
   
In fact, the exchanges of that time were clumsy and inconvenient. I confess, when I first went to BitcoinMarket.com, I did not even understand what to click. Well, really, where is the big "exchange" button? Then I began to understand that in order to exchange something, you need to have something, and somehow enter it first, and this is a separate quest with its own subtleties, and after tormenting Google for an hour, my motivation was depleted. Too many obscure words, phenomena, and processes that I could not trust.

 What I thought: "Some kind of nonsense, I've had enough".
 What I have told others: This is something too specific, no one seems to need it. Yes, and not really trying to talk like that, there is something else to talk about.
 What was actually happening: My basic training in finance was clearly lacking. Even now, I start a paragraph with the words "actually." Although, was that the case? Well, at least I still want to believe that this was the case.

"We won’t buy, so we’ll mine" (2010)
I added a note on the word "mining" to my bookmarks while I was still studying the first results on cryptocurrencies. Then there was some free time, and I decided to return to the question. It seems that money can be generated, it sounds interesting, but at the same time suspicious. How so, money from nothing? I was always told that this does not happen, that money, they say, is the equivalent value of labor, and you cannot sell something if it is not produced. However, the notes, of course, were not on this topic, but something about mining software. At that moment, as a programmer with already five years of experience, I decided that I would deal with programs. It’s still very simple, we download and run the miner, and the money begins to trickle into the account, at least that's how it's written. I ended up downloading something, but it didn't work. Yep, it says it needs a wallet address. How to get wallet address? Yeah, you need to put the client and generate it. It didn't scare me, of course. And I downloaded Bitcoin Core. For some reason, it did not start on the first try, and I would remember what exactly I changed in the configuration, but it worked on the second try. And I was very unpleasantly surprised by the fact that it began to count some hours (or rather days, but then the figure began to decrease faster than in real time) until the synchronization was completed. Is it like that at all? Yes, during this time I can download a whole series, not just one episode, but the whole season. No, I'll wait, no problem. Only the browser began to slow down disgustingly, and I didn’t think of anything else to do with myself. “Well, no!”, I thought, I don’t want to fill my computer with some incomprehensible rubbish, and closed the client.

 What I thought: “Well, to hell with him, anyway, free cheese is only in a mousetrap”.
 What I've told others: The technology is immature and geeky. What should people do in life in order to enjoy it all? By the way, did you know that free cheese is only in a mousetrap?
 What actually happened: I'm impatient, that's my thing. Well, I also possessed close to non-advanced hardware at that time.

“Wow, it has increased 100 times!” (2011)
We casually touched on this topic with a friend at regular gatherings in billiards. By that time (closer to the middle of 2011), the BTC rate had already reached $1.0 per coin. Which was an excellent newsbreak in the media: it even leaked to relatively popular technical resources.
- "So what do you think you're going to buy?"
- "Yeah, that would be nice, though," I replied.
- "But after all, no one gives any guarantee, what if now the rate goes down, and you just throw away money? How much would you bet on this?"
Then the conversation turned to the fact that it is most reasonable to bet amounts that you don’t feel sorry for, it’s not scary to lose. Only then I was afraid to lose any penny! I decided that it was hardly possible to make a fortune on sums of tens of dollars: simple arithmetic.

I invest $10, the rate grows 100 times (but of course I did not believe in this), and I have $1000. Is it too much for me? No, not at all, programmer salaries were already significantly higher then. Life will not change.
I invest $100, the rate drops to zero (I thought it was probable), and damn it, I'm very upset. This, by the way, is the cost of a very decent video card at that time.

 What I thought: Maybe I'd better just buy a video card and not think about it?
 What I said: I'll think about it.
 What actually happened: greed is not a vice, but really a real barrier. I looked at losses more vividly than at gains. My self-confidence was based mainly on the absence of “losses”, and not on “cool wins”, and money can’t buy that back. Was it scary? No, it's a little different combination of words, but I think this psychology can be understood.

"I'll Think About It" (2011)
While I was thinking about this (well, that is, of course, about anything, but not about this), the rate somehow miraculously jumped another 30 times, literally in two months. To be honest, I would not like to know about it, but if you surf the Internet, you often come across different things, some images, for example, I would really like to unsee.

I didn't want to know about it at all. It was a disappointment.

"I could have..." is my thought. This is the first meeting in life with lost profits. No, it certainly happened one way or another before, for example, a good vacancy where you were not taken.

-“How much could I earn if I worked there, oh.”
-“But he might not have made money!”, and really, who will foresee all the complex factors? But here the situation was different, there were no complicated factors. Here is the rate of $1, but $30, and everything else has not changed. This is the most real "if", among all the "if".

I screwed up. Bottom line: I don't have bitcoins, but now there is disappointment. A real "lose" as I felt it to myself.

 What I thought: Well, to hell with it! You never know where you will find, where you will lose. What I started saying: Bitcoin is some kind of lottery.
 What actually happened: Nothing. The rate grew 30 times, that's all that happened. It happens.

[this topic]

I have never used bitcoin mixer services (sooner or later, each of the signature campaigns participants will be visited by this thought) and in this regard, I have no idea how this service works. I'm not interested in "send BTC to this address", "receive BTC to another address" (I'm sure this info is on the each mixer website), but questions about collection of personal information by service providers matter to me.

In this topic , we are discuss the collection of information about users by hardware wallet applications. New points of view and comments will always be welcome here, because the more complete information we have, the more objectively can assess the situation.

I believe that when it comes to privacy and anonymity, you can't trust anyone at all. So what kind of information can a bitcoin mixer service get?

Next, I will voice hypothetical vulnerabilities from the point of view of a person who has NOT used mixer service, but is concerned about what information the bitcoin mixer can get. Please correct me or supplement if I'm wrong and I hope you answer the questions I'm looking for answers to.

1) Mixer knows BTC address from which you send and knows the address to which you receive. Is information about the connection of the sending address with the receiving address saved? If this info is stored on their server, having access to this info, you can unravel the entire chain of transactions?

2) If the mixing service provider is a website, then it can get various information, such as an IP address and location? What can the mixer learn about its customers in this way?

3) What information about users can generally be stored on bitcoin mixing service servers? If attackers / hackers get access to them, then this can be used to the detriment of users, right?

4) How can minimize the collection of personal information by mixers?

5) What other weaknesses and vulnerabilities are there in the scheme "your address 1 - mixer - your address 2"?

I may have more questions as I learn more about mixers.

Reading this forum, I periodically come across posts that glorious times will come when bitcoin will be used everywhere to buy and sell any services and goods around the world. I am amazed and surprised by the optimism of some people. There is an aphorism that goes something like this: optimists are people who are ill-informed. I'm trying to look at the situation from a realistic point of view and this is what I see.

Residents of any country in the world can officially use only the national currency as a means of payment (if somewhere this is not the case, then correct me). Of course, you can pay in any other currency in a dark alley, if you agree, but the only legal means is always the national currency of the country of your residence. If you look at the situation from this point of view, then why would the governments of any country allow the use of bitcoin as a means of payment? Other currencies are not allowed, but bitcoin will be allowed. Why would governments suddenly be given such privileges for bitcoin? For me personally, this is obvious and my forecasts are pessimistic in this regard. The maximum, in my opinion, that they will allow is to officially invest in bitcoin and generously allow you to share % of the profits with them.

It's funny (or not so) true, once you make a profit, they demand a share of your profits, but they don't minimize your risks in any way and don't compensate for losses. This is a small digression.

Now we come to the point that I would like to discuss.
As you know, bitcoin can be easily used as a currency in p2p transactions and no government has any influence here. But what about legal entities? For example, small shops, bars, etc., where now you can pay with BTC (By the way, there are not so many such places). It must be legally difficult to get it right. And what about those in whose countries it is difficult to overcome bureaucratic obstacles and calmly accept bitcoin in their shop?

Can use the "accept as a donation" option instead of paying? In this case, will it be possible to hold you legally liable in your country? Will government agencies be able to punish this method? I understand that each country has its own legislation, but I know examples of countries where under the guise of "donations" religious organizations enrich themselves without paying a penny of taxes (officially and legally exempt from taxes). For example, this organization rents out rooms to pilgrims (and not only) in its "hotels" and the price list indicates "donation" and not payment for services. With this example, I wanted to show that the model of paying for services / goods under the guise of "donations" is quite real and feasible, and if use bitcoi for this, it can be even easier.

The community is waiting for the world to accept bitcoin to be used everywhere. Maybe it's worth trying actions that will speed this up? For example, encouraging buyers of your store's products or providing car repair services. You can offer a discount if pay in bitcoin. This will be beneficial for the buyer, and you get BTC for your purchases from other people, too, at a discount, or in a pinch, leave it as an investment.

Donation + discount when paying in BTC can be combined. Discounts could encourage people to use bitcoin and bring mass adoption closer through more users. In the end, BTCitcoin should circulate in society / economy, like blood in a living organism, and not stagnate and stale.

What can you say about this option? Will it be legal to use it?

Imagine a situation.

Newbie first heard about Bitcoin and decided to buy it. He has a question where to store it. Of course, under the influence of advertising, he buys one of hardware wallets. Will most newbies use HW in connection with Electrum or something like that? I doubt. He will take a simpler path and install Ledger Live or Trezor Suite, for example, where there are a bunch of wallets in one place at once, where don’t need to install many different apps/wallets for each specific crypto currensy. Agree, this is convenient, but as I assume, most of you will not approve of Newbie's decision.

I don't want to focus now on the firmware of devices, which is better, open source or not. Undoubtedly, this is an important point, but this has been discussed many times and now I want to turn attention to the apps offered by manufacturers and discuss the level of their security. What threats can pose from manufacturers (Don't consider the option on the topic of methods used by attackers in this topic)?

I have the following questions:

- What kind of information can HW producers get about the users of their apps?
IP (and hence location)? Information about funds (history of balance, transactions, addresses)? Something else?
- Such information may be useless now, but will it be possible to say the same with certainty in the future? Technologies are developing.
- Are there cases when manufacturers received information from users of their apps?
- Do manufacturers make the source code of their apps publicly available? If yes, which brands?

I propose to discuss this topic and try to find out what information about users can be obtained by HW manufacturers and used to their advantage (or safely lose, as ledger has successfully succeeded more than once). 

It would be good to hear your assumptions on this matter or the facts that you have.

Explanation:
I haven't seen a similar thread, but that doesn't rule out that this has already been discussed. If a similar question has been raised before, then will close this topic.

[Article 1]

You must have heard that we are on the verge of a world economic crisis. Many economists have long been warning about a bubble.  Article 1 and article 2 for example.

The dynamics of the S&P 500 index: can't constantly grow and at some point it has to stop.

The economic model in the world is arranged in such a way that the development of the economy is financed at the expense of unsecured money, and therefore the Federal Reserve System printing press stamps papers. Like it or not, this is how the global economy works now and the haters will definitely not change anything with their discontent. This feature of printing money out of thin air is a powerful booster as it allows the economy to boom, but as is often the case, there is a side effect. Namely, periodically occurring crises, which, according to one hypothesis, occur approximately every 10 years. The figure is quite floating, because it depends on many factors. The last one was in 2008. Many of you most likely remember this crisis, which arose against the backdrop of the mortgage lending crisis in the United States (this was clearly shown in the movie "Big short"). Then all this spread to the rest of the world didn't pass a single country.

The FED has painted itself into a corner and is between 2 fires: on the one hand, they raise the discount rate, on the other hand, inflation is growing. There is no choice here - both options are bad and have dire consequences. Events in the US economy (because the US economy occupies a large share in the world) directly affect the rest of the world. A couple of articles to understand what stage the economy is at: article 1 and article 2.

Also, you must remember that it was the events of 2008 that prompted the creation of Bitcoin as a way to avoid crises with its deflationary model. But it turned out that Satoshi's brainchild has not yet encountered crises, so it is not known how Bitcoin will behave in such a situation. In this connection, the question arises: how will Bitcoin manifest itself in a situation of crisis, which should come in the coming years, and maybe even earlier.

I see 2 possible scenarios:
1 - Bitcoin will collapse along with the market, because it is directly correlated and dependent on the stock market and behaves like a technology company aka Google (some people think so).
2 - Bitcoin will stay afloat, because people who see that the stock market is collapsing, invest all their money in crypto to save them.

I ask you to vote and express your opinion constructively / reasoned in the comments. What predictions can you make?

[Quickseller]

A week ago I got Sr.Member rank. This event surprised me, because I didn't expect it to happen in the near future. Pleasant suddenness - what can I say. Thanks to Quickseller, this moment was brought very close and I am sure that will tell my grandchildren about it . Thanks to him and to all those who marked my posts with "merits".

Without all of you, such a pleasant moment for me to receive  Sr.Member would not have come.

The theme of Ratimov [Merit] Help newbies and those who have a little left to the next rank also played an important role. If you have extra merits, then sometimes look into this topic and, perhaps, it is you who will bring closer the joyful moment for someone to receive a new rank.

I met New Era as a Member and remember how upset I was. For as it seemed to me then, I would be stuck in this rank forever. I had to get 100 merits for Full Member, and at that time it was not achievable for me. But I continued to post anyway and eventually found merit in my profile. It stirred me up and encouraged me to act more actively. I wanted, by all means, to get Full Member. My efforts were not in vain and gradually I still managed to do it. This was the 1st step that I was able to climb in the New Era ranking system. In principle, I saw that merits accumulate and theoretically can get Sr.Member if try better. But for some time I began to devote very little time to bitcointalk and stopped at an approximate mark of 170. Of course, I periodically looked at this forum, but for the most part I was passive at the time.

A couple of months ago, I returned to bitcointalk and decided to still reach Sr.Member rank, which I didn't get last time. As you can see, I succeeded, albeit the second time. If I get Senior was quite possible (from 170 to 250 the gap is not so big), then Hero Member seems almost impossible to me (remember, for me Full Member seemed just as unattainable), and Legendary is definitely impossible and something beyond.

In order for me to get Hero, I need to go all the way to the Sr.Member again. But I don't lose heart and will go to this.

Remember the Johnnie Walker's motto?

The path to Hero for me will not be a sprint, but a marathon run - long and slow, so as not to waste all my energy at the beginning of the journey. Fortunately, the other day I already received the 1st merit (251/500) on the way to a new rank.


I think I will not be mistaken if I say that for every forum member, especially a new one, it is very important to get the Legendary rank. Many strive to achieve this - One milestone achieved [Amazing journey to Legendary]. I am no exception either, because I dream of the Legendary in the depths of my soul too. But I soberly assess the situation, and I see that I am not ready for this now and the path to this rank will be long. Look, even Ratimov, with all his uberactivity and over 6k merits and the contribution of his time to the forum, still cannot get a this rank -   6k Merit Club. When is Legendary ? . Not surprisingly, getting high ranks turns users off.

Now we have come to the point where we need to clarify why I called the topic " Beginers dream of becoming a Legendary, and my goal is Hero". Now, at this stage, I want to focus on achieving Hero Member. This is the immediate goal, the achievement of which brings me closer to the dream of all beginners - Legendary. Therefore, I broke my path into 2 stages: first Hero, and only then the next rank.


You can reasonably ask me a question, why do I need a Legendary? I think it will be difficult to answer this question briefly and clearly, but I will try. I see the race for rank as a kind of challenge for me, a personal achievement. It is not so much the achievement of the goal that is important here (although it sounds paradoxical, this is also important), but the path that will be passed. Much more important is what changes will occur in me as I move towards the Legendary. This is the path to change in oneself, the path to acquiring something new, new inner qualities and skills. I am sure that change is possible and I feel that it is already happening. After all, have to strive for something, right?

Also, as I move towards the goal and close the milestones, I enjoy this activity. In its own way, this is a kind of fun. Any business is joy if it brings pleasure, isn't it?

That Johnnie again?

My example of getting an Senior rank in New Era is far from the only one, and there are many users who have received a rank on bitcointalk. But I want to show by my example, to beginners, that this is possible with patience, diligence and a little luck. It would be great if this topic helps to motivate newcomers to new personal achievements and then my efforts to write this post will not be in vain. Let's see what happens and how the forum members will appreciate it.

I deserve Hero / Legendary and can I do it? Express your opinion, it is important to me.

Disclaimer: I don't advertise Walker's products and don't encourage you to consume it. I just like their slogan . Agree, it's inspiring.

Current status of reaching a Hero rank: 252/500

[We are exploring a stablecoin; if and when we seek to move forward, we will of course, work closely with relevant regulators]

Possible logo option PayPal Coin.

Here are Jose Fernandez da Ponte's (SVP, Blockchain, Crypto and Digital Currencies at PayPal) words:
“We are exploring a stablecoin; if and when we seek to move forward, we will of course, work closely with relevant regulators”

Source link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-07/paypal-is-exploring-launch-of-own-stablecoin-in-crypto-push

PayPal Coin is expected to be backed by $ Dollar U.S.

I see both positive (+) and negative (-) aspects of this news.

(+) Financial companies are feeling the wind of change and are trying to keep up with new technologies and new opportunities to increase their profits. Can say that this is in some kind of one of the stages of the masses of the adoption of crypto. Does the crypto community want cryptocurrencies to supplant traditional banks? Here is one of the stages to the formation of this.

(-) Did you really think that the traditional banking and financial system would simply wither away from the mass adoption of crypto? Of course not. Those organizations that will not be able to adapt to new conditions will die.

(+) This news, in its own way, attracts the attention of ordinary people to the topic of crypto. Moreover, PayPal has a huge user base, which allows them to be interested in crypto. 

(-) The disadvantage in this, I see, is that the new PayPal Coin will be centralized and, of course, the problem of mandatory verification. And of course, PayPal Coin will be very far from the ideology of Bitcoin.

How do you rate the event with this company's plans to launch its stablecoin?