[What does it mean to us.]

Whenever Bitcoin make a surge people/media keep calculating the value of 10000 Bitcoins in USD and keep referring that how much Laszlo Hanyecz paid in USD for just 2 pizza.
It always look like that whole intent in this story to tell that how foolish is of him to spend that huge sum of BTC for 2 pizza instead of crediting him for his thought of doing first real world transaction using Bitcoin that proves that Bitcoin is the real money that can be used to buy the goods and services in the real world. In fact it is just the preparation to establish the Bitcoin as a currency/mode of payment.

Bitcoin Pizza day give us a great story and put emphasis on the intent of spreading the Bitcoin instead of keeping it stacked in view of it then someday it may increase in value. It is the selfless effort of many developers and many people who believed in technology and put their effort and money to popularize it.

Main idea was to make people realize that they can be "their own bank" and have full control of their money they own instead of relying on third party that dictate their TOS on you and only available on their fixed service time. All you need is a wallet , a precaution that you don't forget/leak your keys and you are all set. In reality , on a broader picture it is banking for unbanked.

What does it mean to us.
I am not going to say you to buy the pizza using the Bitcoin as I think it has now got fair share of publicity but intent is to share the knowledge/awareness about it if you find anyone lacking the information. More bigger the network we create ,more value it will going to contain. In true sense Laszlo can be accredited for giving the "monetary" value to Bitcoin in real word.


So when next time you read that how much that Bitcoin Pizza cost, remember the publicity and coverage that the story got, way it is used in popularizing the Bitcoin is priceless as compared to USD value and I guess that was the main objective of Laszlo Hanyecz and he was able accomplish it with perfection.

Do you still think buying pizza using BTC was a mistake?

Excerpts are taken  from my own published  post  at https://leofinance.io/@r1s2g3/bitcoin-pizza-day-sharing-the-technology-vs-harnessing-the-greed
as I feel sharing my view to BTC community on Bitcoin Pizza day will be really awesome.

I want news from neutral country as I am unable to buy some story that without any gunshot 20 were killed.

I have no idea if it is already posted earlier as I really not much active in this forum. But a quick scan in "Meta" shows me it is not discussed here.


Quoting the actual announcement.

First of all, happy halving to everyone!

I just want to inform that I will gradually be reducing my involvement in Bitcoin.org this year, it won't happen instantly but hopefully by the end of the year, I won't be around anymore. Over the years, I'm glad to have helped contribute to a project that has let so many millions of people learn about Bitcoin. It's really a massive honour. The domain name will be left in trusted hands, I have a few people in mind already. Alternatively, if anyone knows of any individuals or organisations that would be good, feel free to suggest (either here, or privately -- just DM me on Twitter). Ultimately, trust is very hard to measure, but I plan to be thorough and meticulous here and find the right people.

I guess for a lot of people, this will probably be some sort of relief. I can't say I've gotten along well with everyone, and some people have questioned my judgement. Hopefully whoever comes after me doesn't get sucked into drama as easily as I sometimes did (though that's also largely a product of being around in pretty dramatic times). Bitcoin.org really is an amazing resource, and we need to continue working on it and keep improving it. With Bitcoin being as complicated as it is for new people to understand, sites like Bitcoin.org are key to getting more mainstream adoption. Especially in avoiding getting Bitcoin labelled as some get rich quick scheme.

If we've had any collaboration over the years; I appreciate your contributions, and have learned a lot from many of you. I wish everyone good luck and success. Thank you. No doubt Bitcoin will keep succeeding and reaching new milestones with such a great community behind it.

Actual renouncement can be read at https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org/issues/3332

And one more question arises, will he want to part away with "Bitcointalk.org" domain too? (I remember he own this domain too).

I guess Bitcoin community is aware of all the drama associated with Justin Sun (Tron) acquisition of Steem (or correctly Steemit.)

The whole issue is  of Ninja mined stake that "steemit" Inc, hold. It is estimated around 65 million steem and may be more .Overall it is more than 20% stake of current supply.

There is no written statement that this Ninja mined stake will not be used to nominate the witness in steem chain (read "witness" as "miner" if you do not have idea of steem, though it is very different concept because steem is DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake) chain. ) but earlier witness claimed that it was understanding between them and steemit inc.

Ata a time steem used to have 100 witness but only top 20 take part in decision making and block production in steem.

So 17 top witness (out of 20) decided to soft fork the chain to limit Sun's power and that can be read in below article.

https://www.coindesk.com/justin-sun-bought-steemit-steem-moved-to-limit-his-power

Justin retaliated, by colluding with three big exchanges  namely Binance,huobi and Poloniex , used user funds in exchange to power up and
changing the whole witness structure of steem . New witness were nominated by Justin, that did the hardfork to reverse the earlier soft fork.

There is lot of outrage in crypto community when it come to know about hostile takeover of chain. Vitalik Buterin also tweeted as below.
https://twitter.com/vitalikbuterin/status/1234522463129800709?lang=en


After seeing the community reaction, exchange took back their vote and also community voted for their old witnesses, forgetting  the differences between them and united to push the Justin out.

Community is able to push their own witnesses in top  and currently I see that top 8 witness(https://steemd.com/witnesses) are old existing witness but Justin also hold 9 witness in top 20.

Now this cause stalemate because it required super-majority of 17 to push through a hard fork in steem chain.

Until the Justin and old witnesses comes into agreement, this drama/stalemate can continue.

What cryptocurrency community can learn from this drama.
1.Avoid the chains that have Ninja nined/pre mined or Insta mine (or any type of mining that is just in place to benefit the devteam or select few.)
2. Do not keep your coins on exchanges, they can collude for their profit.
3.Look for decentralized chain that is not dominated by very few.

I installed brave browser a month ago, I notice I got some rewards (4 BAT) for using it. But these rewards are expiring and I am getting recommendation to donate it to publisher.

So we do not get any rewards for using it and all rewards earned is to be donated to publishers only?

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 I think this is always Jet Cash thought that quoting and multi quoting of post should be avoided.  I do not think he ever put this request as feature suggest.

Below are the problems of Multi quoting.

1. It really make the discussion long ,when somebody multi quotes 3-4 reply.
2. Replying to a multi quoted  post become a manual task (if you manually remove it). If you do not then it is adding further multi quotes.
3. It break the flow of reading.
4. And lot of user do mistakes when trying to replying on these posts and it cause few accidental plagiarism ban too.


And yes, we have lot of user who quote a  full page post even when it is not needed. If length of post that can be quoted  is also reduced then I guess we might save  some forum space and see a eye pleasing coherent discussion thread.

Those who are still skeptical of crypto, I am not going to comment on them.
But as a technology front it is well recognized and accepted by even Industry leaders. Latest Microsoft launched the Azure Blockchain Development Kit for Ethereum

I read lot of story of users got scammed. Despite several warning and negative feedback to scammer ,still user got scammed.

I like to know what assumption/stupidity did you did, that  get you  scammed.

For ex below are the assumption:
1. Nobody is here to scam.
2. User must be speaking truth so I should believe him.

For ex below are the stupidity:
1. I can send first to a newbie without escrow.


Sometimes there is complexity.

1. User urged it is very limited time deal (like an hour) so you are not able check facts/use escrow and get duped.


So how you get duped? I will like to learn reasons from you.

 
I find many instances in life where I think society is having all the data,facts and information (means they got knowledge) but still they are making bad choices. (lack of wisdom).

For ex: People know that overspeeding can cause accident (have knowledge) but still they overspeed (making bad choice, lack of wisdom)
           People know that there bad eating  habit affecting their health but still they eat junk.
           People know they should exercise but they ignore it.

I guess the list can go endless for many trivial things.

Do you guys know something that people in your neighbourhood/family/society knows very well but still exhibit bad choices?

Amid all the tension and combat happened, a welcome news come from Prime minister of Pakistan that they will be releasing the IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman . This instance is in contrast to the fate of the earlier Indian soldier like Saurabh Kalia or Ajay Ahuja.

There are hope of resolving the conflict because Prime Minister Modi is known to take bold steps towards solving a problem while on other side Prime Minister Imran Khan have a clean image and being a international sport person it is expected that he will not be take the same route as his predecessors.

I am not sure but it is not about the talk between the two Prime Ministers no matter how much they are willing to take step further. Pakistan, though democratic nation has history of many coups and dictatorship from Ayub khan,Yahya khan to Prevez Musharraf. Actually Pakistan army look like a biggest road blocker in peace agreement or resolving the conflict. So releasing of an Indian soldier  does really mean that Pakistan army this time will move forward towards peace and support their Prime Minister attempt?

https://www.investinblockchain.com/is-quadriga-ceo-actually-dead-or-140-million-exit-scam/

Once again it proved that you cannot keep your money in exchange. It is another debate whether the CEO is faking death or he had really died.
I am feeling sorry for the people who lost money.

Recently I purchased the started pack for steemmonster game .(A blockchain game based on the steem).
Anybody have any tips for how to play the game.
Look like in my first battle I an unable to configure my team at 20 mana cap and lost the battle.

I guess when are buying physical good online, whatever mode you use for payment, in the end you are handling out lot of Information to the merchant.
Some of the goods are normal but purchasing some of the good directly point to some the crucial data like your health condition or very specific life style of your's or your family.

What I think , can we have a delivery service company sitting in middle that will accept the shipment from the merchant and afterwards it will send it to my home address.

In this service, merchant do not know my address and my identity is saved. Delivery service know my address but they don't know what I ordered so they will not able to guess my lifestyle.

Any data breach (on physical address) only tell that I am online customer but no body will have idea of which products?

Do you think is there any scope for this kind of services?

I come across few cases where users are obviously scamming or providing unethical services.
I guess, PMing DT every time will not be good option.

I guess, if we can thread and start posting it here for DT to tag, so that any DT can see and tag (whoever is available).
Since DT is now very dynamic, tagging by multiple DT is advisable.

So, I will report the first obvious scammer/unethical user

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Freedom of speech should be granted to everyone but what happen if it used for trolling. Below is my observation on troll and pleas feel free to add your observation.





Disclaimer: This is 100% my original work but pyramid is inspired by Maslow's hierarchy of needs. For the % displayed on that chart , I am obviously trolling (level 1).

PS: Do not forget to comment, why do you think self-moderated thread on meta should not be allowed?

[1.ETF]

Bitcoin just turned 10 years few days back and in this 10 year journey of bitcoin has seen many up and down whether it is Mt.Gox or oscillating price or fork of bitcoin to create bitcoin cash. In this journey bitcoin also get associated with various financial products and service. I am going to look at various product and services associated with bitcoin for which many people have enthusiasm but I am bit skeptical about them.

1.ETF
People are looking at ETF as a medium that will make bitcoin easily available to common man or every household. In reality they forget that many of ETF are just going to be paper ETF with no backing with physical bitcoins. It look to me a direct attack to be bitcoin exclusivity of 21 million coin because paper ETF can bloat the supply on their will. Secondly, ETF will treat bitcoin as an asset instead of currency.

2.Bakkt
Bakkt claim that it is working to create a "secure global platform" that will meet "regulatory requirement".Tagline of Bakkt is "Bringing trust and utility". Their tagline keep me wondering do bitcoin require "trust" or need to prove its "utility"?

3.Payment processing site like bitpay.
Ok, they are providing service and their service is cheaper than using credit card but still they are third party or intermediary between the payee and payer. Is usage of bitcoin is not supposed to remove all the intermediaries in between?

Look like, financial institutions and regulatory bodies have joined hand together for devising  scheme to regulate it and dominate its market/value associated with it. Bitcoin to its core will be governed by it protocol and will remain fully decentralized but it will be fully regulated ,scrutinized and governed by centralized authority in our individual wallets.

Is I am the only one or do you also agree?

 

Is Self moderated threads are not allowed in Meta?
Or is there any criteria that need to be full filled for creating it, or I am simply just experiencing some bug?

[#3]

In order to encourage the users to create custom list, theymos created a few criteria if satisfied by a user will become a DT1 member (unless member is excluded by majority of other DT1 member satisfying the criteria.)

#3
I will periodically (maybe every month) be reconstructing the default trust list to include everyone who matches these criteria:
 - If rank was determined solely using earned merit, then you must be of at least Member rank.
 - You must have been online sometime within the last 3 days.
 - Your trust list must include at least 10 users, not including ~distrust entries.
 - You must not be banned or manually blacklisted from selection.
 - You must have posted sometime within the last 30 days.
 - You must have at least 10 people directly trusting you each with an earned merit of at least 10, not including merit you yourself sent.
 - You must have at least 1 person directly trusting you with an earned merit of at least 100, not including merit you yourself sent.   ***

*** This is going to be changed with 2 user with 250+  Merits as theymos suggested here


The custom list created will be used as DT0 for you , means these custom list will be at highest level for you.(most trusted user to you.) If you update your  trust setting with Trust Depth=0 then you will see user rating as given by the  DT0 as trusted but you will not see the DT1 and DT2 ratings.

Trust Depth can be put to the max depth of 4 but ideally you are recommended it to use it to Depth of 2.

Now why it is important to create the custom trust list?
As far DT0 is concerned, I guess there is no difference in earlier and new system. Difference can happen if you are merited user (10 or 250) then you will help that user to be dynamically promoted to DT1 and everybody will be benefited by that user judgement.

Few user suggested that not to include the user who rarely tag the others (may be they are right because if your are not tagging and not giving any rating then you are not affecting anyone) but I guess we can currently include them for a time being because they might not be tagging because they think their untrusted feedback will not be having no weight.


What this system will eventually bring?
1. A custom trust list and dynamically changing DT1 list .
2. Chance for a very new users to become a DT1 if user is contributing and rational in judgement.
3.Active DT1 users as it does not allow somebody in DT1 if somebody not online in last 3 day.
4. Much more number of user included in DT1 (so I guess number of DT2 will also considerably increase) so if you need DT then DT support will be ready available.

What will be catch with the system?
1. Dynamically losing your DT1 status if you are not online in last 3 day(whenever a new list list created). But I guess if that user in other DT1 list then it will act as DT2 and tag remain valid if all of the user using recommended setting of trust depth of 2.
2.Very heavily dependent on Merit System, might cause/encourage trading of the Merits.
3. Might cause people obtaining solicitation from  highly Merited user. (trying to game the system)
Edit1.
4. Current trust system is also not solving the "Lemon Problem" that was existing in previous trust system.

Please feel free to debate,add the Pros and cons of this new system. I guess theymos is currently very open to suggestion on trust system and might add/remove some point if you concern sounds valid.

PS: Please come with your general suggestion, do not target any specific user and individual.
      I want to keep this self moderated but look like you are not allowed to start a self-moderated thread in Meta(at least I am not allowed).
    

Whenever the term investment come into discussion it is never complete until you are suggessted about buying stocks. Compare to the interests earned in the money , good stocks seems to outperform them. One of the method to acquire stock is to invest in IPO (Initial Public offering). In IPO , company offer its share to public in attempt to raise money for the company. Companies that raise funds from the route of IPO become public companies and they need to follow various govenment rules or more precisely they get regulated by the Securities board of their country.

With Bitcoin/Crypto currency come into picture,we saw a new kind of public fund raising that everybody in this forum knows about it known as ICO. Problem with ICO is that they are not regulated by any goverment agency, they are collecting public money even without disclosing their real identity.Most of these ICO scammed and forced government either to deem ICOs as illegal or find a way to regulate the ICOs.

In USA, SEC put definitive guidelines for running an ICO and many ICO classified as securities. Since securities cannot be offered as ICO a new concenpt of STO (Security Token Offering) come into picture. So when you are participating in a STO , you will have some sense of security that it is registered and regulated by government. (But still you need to check if the project is scam or not.)

Now coming to the end point how STO is different from IPO?
Investing in STO is much easier that IPO. STO will be a digital asset and being a digital asset it will be easier to invest and transfer them (as compared to holding the paper shares).
These digital assets can be marketed very easily wherever permitted by law without involving the traditional stock brokers and their commission  fees. Same will be applicable when you will be trying to disinvest.

PS: I am not giving any financial advice but just suggesting investing in STO is easier than IPO.