[How to sell gold without getting scammed.]

I was in Costco the other day and was tempted to buy gold bars they were selling to diversify my portfolio.
I have never bought gold as an investment before and it would be super easy and convenient to get it from my local Costco.

For those who don't know Costco is a very popular supermarket in the US that sells everything from grocery to consumer electronics.

Two things made me change my mind.

1) I asked the salesperson will Costco buy gold back when I want to cash in and sell it? He said no Costco only sells but won't buy it back.
So buying gold from Costco would be super easy and convenient but when you want to sell it Costco says good luck you are on your own.

2) Costco charges a 2% fee over the spot price which is two to ten times what most crypto exchanges charge you to buy and sell bitcoin.

I read a couple articles on the internet about how to sell gold and it seems a rather complicated and expensive process to do.
Where do you even go to sell your gold besides a pawn shop (who will give you only half of what its worth if you're lucky)?

Do you have to ship it to the buyer? Is escrow involved?



How to sell gold without getting scammed.
November 10, 2023

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gold-prices-how-to-sell-your-gold/

As a miner if your  block reward is cut in half but the value of the reward has more than doubled from what it used to be then shouldn't that more than compensate you
for the loss in quantity you are getting post-halving? In other words the value of the reward is what matters not how much of it you receive?

The value of bitcoin can be expected to at least double with every new cycle, along with the number of people using bitcoin.
So miners will also be receiving at least double the volume of transactions fees as bitcoin becomes more popular and more users are entering the space.

[AT&T Hit With Dozens of Class-Action Lawsuits Following Data Breach]

I was just informed today by Microsoft Defender that my private information including email and phone number were found on the dark web.
It says the source of this leak was the AT&T data breach that impacted 53 million customers.

Funny this happened two months after I canceled my AT&T account because the area I recently moved to is not served by AT&T.

Lucky for me the email and phone number that was leaked is not attached to any of my banking or crypto (bitcoin) accounts.
But if yours was and your info was leaked you should change your email if it is linked to any important financial accounts.

You probably don't have to change your phone number as long as you use an authenticator app for 2FA or a physical passkey.
Don't use text message for 2FA on any sensitive accounts because scammers can easily sim swap you to take over your phone number.

Then they can use your phone number to reset your your passwords.




AT&T Hit With Dozens of Class-Action Lawsuits Following Data Breach
April 10, 2024

www.pcmag.com/news/att-hit-with-dozens-of-class-action-lawsuits-following-data-breach

When it comes to securing your bitcoin don't forget about having good basic security practices on your laptop, desktop and mobile devices.

That means always using a VPN whenever connecting to the internet, with a good antivirus and anti-malware software, preferably connecting through your own hardware router.
These viruses and malware can be programmed to steal your personal information including crypto. Of course you never want to connect to any public Wifi connection without a VPN.

I use Malwarebytes browserguard extension for many years that prevents you from visiting suspicious or unsecure websites, known phishing websites, etc.
This browser extension is free for many browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Apple Safari, etc. You can also get it free for your mobile device.

For antivirus I use Windows Defender and the paid version of Malwarebytes which is very cheap if you get it from Newegg.com.
Windows Defender and MB have real time protection but its a good idea to run a manual scan at least once a week.

I'm not very familiar with Mac or iPhone but I believe they have pretty good built-in defense against virus and malware. They should considering what Apple charges you haha.

Besides that I would advise to stay away from any and all altcoins because they are complete garbage when it comes to security.
Not a day goes by when you don't read about some stupid altcoin project getting drained of tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars.

When will people ever learn??


==============

For more advanced users you can choose to connect to free third party DNS like Google DNS or OpenDNS. Also disable WebRTC and IPv6 on your web browser.
Also good practice to disable third party cookies.

Also a good idea to disable Remote Access that can allow someone to take control of your computer. Remote Access is meant for allowing a legit tech support person
to take control of your PC for troubleshooting purposes but this feature can certainly be abused by bad actors to steal your personal information.

[An advantage of gold:]

What makes bitcoin a better (or worse) substitute for gold? This is an important question since bitcoin is constantly being compared to gold.

I will admit my bias is for bitcoin but for purposes of this thread let's be as objective and fair as possible to the gold and silver bugs.
No matter what our bias, if any we should never allow ourselves to become close-minded to other ideas and viewpoints.
Always take into consideration opposing viewpoints with an open mind because that is how bitcoin can become better and stronger.

I will start.

An advantage of gold:

Gold is a tangible physical thing and instantly recognized by anyone in the world as something that has value.
There is no need to explain it because even the most poor and uneducated among us instantly recognize that gold is something that has value.
You might say gold has an intrinsic value and universally recognized with no need for explanation.

On the other hand many people do not even understand  what bitcoin is or why it has value. It is something that has to be explained constantly to people.
Even after explaining there will always be those who will never get it even if they are otherwise very intelligent people. For example:  Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet.


An advantage of bitcoin:

The physical aspect of gold can also be a disadvantage. One of the reasons why I never personally invested in gold is practical. Where would I store it?
If you are accumulating or DCAing into gold over a long period of time then eventually you may end up owning a large amount which then presents you
with the question of how and where to store it. And most importantly, how to secure it against theft.

The other question is how do you know that the gold you have is even real? Is it solid gold or just gold plated or even faked?
I never bought gold myself so I don't know how much of an issue that is in reality but of course anything can be faked, or even just diluted.

A big advantage of bitcoin is its portability. Sending coins or bars of gold through the mail seems inherently slow and risky, though again I don't have any personal experience
doing that since I have never owned any gold other than some small items of gold jewelry.

Those are just some of my thoughts to start the thread. For those who own both gold and bitcoin what are your thoughts?

This is the kind of thing you think only happens in countries like Russia or North Korea. Nope.
It happened right here in the United States and the government is covering up for Boeing.

This country and its government is turning into absolute garbage and why things like bitcoin are needed now more than ever.  
I have zero faith in this country anymore and its rotten leadership and will be leaving it soon.

There is so much corruption it makes your head spin. Which is nothing new for the US of course which has a long history of corruption
but it is just getting much more blatant now that they don't even care about hiding it.

This is my first time using Coldcard or Sparrow wallets.

I just imported a new Coldcard wallet (generic JSON file) into Sparrow wallet. But the balance under Sparrow transactions shows zero.
I tried both generic JSON and Sparrow JSON but both have same result of zero balance.

I am recovering my wallet from Trezor into a new Coldcard. I just verified my funds are present with Trezor Suite and Bluewallet but for some reason Sparrow wallet gves me only zero for the balance.

Does Sparrow allow you to see all your funds in a recovered seedphrase or does it only show the amounts transacted with Sparrow?

Just imported a new Coldcard wallet (JSON file) into Sparrow wallet. But can't find the option in Sparrow to simply view my funds.

btw I am recovering my wallet from Trezor into a new Coldcard. I can see my funds in Trezor Suite and Bluewallet.

If you had a substantial amount of bitcoin in a wallet might it be a good idea to split your holdings into multiple bitcoin addresses,
so that each address in that wallet contained a small amount of bitcoin, as opposed to just one address with a large amount in it?

That is, to avoid being a potential target (aka honeypot) of any hackers or scammers who might be using blockchain explorer to look for bitcoin addresses with large holdings.
So even if one address was somehow compromised by a hacker or scammer, they would not know the contents of the entire wallet if it were divided into multiple addresses?

I believe that is how it works, but would like to verify. Or I could be wrong.





 

Just wondering about the mechanics of OTC (over the counter) transactions and how, or when they have an impact the price of bitcoin.

Are spot ETF providers like Fidelity and Blackrock buying bitcoin OTC?
Obviously, the massive spot ETFs are having a big impact on bitcoin price since they came out earlier this year.

I'm guessing when buying OTC you are buying the bitcoin directly from the exchange instead of the usual process of being matched with other seller(s) on the exchange?
Is there some kind of delay effect on price when someone buys bitcoin OTC?

What about selling OTC? How does that work?

[New ruling in SEC’s Coinbase insider trading lawsuit comes as a blow to the crypto industry as judge finds secondary token sales were securities]

Is this the beginning of the end for the Crypto Casino? As Michael Saylor predicted this day would come sooner or later.

Thank God I don't but if I had any money in altcoins I would dump them all immediately for Bitcoin because this ruling may lead to a market crash. .

I wouldn't be caught dead playing around with any altcoin, especially not now.


New ruling in SEC’s Coinbase insider trading lawsuit comes as a blow to the crypto industry
as judge finds secondary token sales were securities
March 3, 2024 at 11:17 AM

https://www.aol.com/finance/ruling-sec-coinbase-insider-trading-191740887.html

According to this only 900 bitcoins are mined every day but the current demand is ten times that amount.

If that is true then it is not hard to imagine what will happen to the price of bitcoin.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YRKRn0Bozvc

This lady had to get a court order for the FBI to return the property they stole from her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJu2P4bFvi0

You see stories like this all the time. The big banks and big government are literally stealing your money on a daily basis.

This is not an isolated incident. I had something similar happen to me about ten years ago where US police used a ridiculous pretext to search my apartment.
The only reason why I let them because I had nothing of much value stored in my apartment at the time and I felt threatened by their demeanor and they didn't exactly asked my permission.
These cops were little more than thugs. There is no doubt in my mind if they found anything of enough value like cash they would have stolen it.
When they didn't find anything they left and I never heard from them again.

They can use civil forfeiture laws or use the Patriot Act to take anything they want from you without any warrant or due process or even explanation.
I believe the US has turned into something unrecognizable since 9/11, which they have used as an excuse to subvert our civil rights.
What other country makes you take your damn shoes off to go through airport security? Land of the free my ass.

Just goes to show how little respect they have for your civil  rights and their way to condition the population to gradually accept these "little" daily insults to your liberty.
The US government is becoming more like China or North Korea every day.

All the US spot bitcoin ETFs now hold a combined total of 192,000 bitcoin assets under management, recently surpassing Microstrategy's holdings of 190,000.

The difference is it took Michael Saylor two to three years to amass that amount. The Spot bitcoin ETFs did it in one month! That is crazy.
To say the spot ETF launch has been a success would be an understatement. It may  be the most successful spot ETF launch in history.

How many bitcoin do you think these funds will hold by the end of the year? Over a million? The sky is the limit.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-etfs-hit-10b-milestone-just-month-after-approval

In the US you always see stories in the media about people having their accounts frozen for no reason, or people losing money to bank fraud and scams, etc.
The 2008 financial crisis involved the biggest banks in the United States going under or getting bailed out with taxpayer dollars.

In more recent times major regional banks like Silicon Valley Bank and others have imploded and there appears to be another serious banking crisis on the horizon according to many.

But I never heard anything about credit unions having such problems. Why is that?

I do not trust the big banks but still use Chase for much of my day to day banking only because it is more convenient. But most of my savings are in my credit union or invested in bitcoin.
I will be using my credit union much more in the future. Seeing literally hundreds of media reports on Youtube in the last few months about people losing money at their bank from fraud or having their accounts frozen for no reason is scaring me.
 
Why are the big banks so corrupt and incompetent?

https://cointelegraph.com/news/saturday-night-live-pokes-fun-trump-debanking-no-joke

You always hear the pundits saying that the rise of inflation suppresses the price of risk assets such as stocks and bitcoin, as interest rates are pushed up in an attempt to control inflation.

But if bitcoin is a hedge against inflation then shouldn't the bitcoin price rise when inflation goes up instead of going down?
I'm guessing the answer would be that inflation causes bitcoin price to go down in the short term, but in the long term causes it to go up? If so then why?

[Rep. McHenry seeks to get measure to repeal SEC accounting bulletin 'across the finish line']

Working hard to protect us from idiots like Elizabeth Warren, Jamie Dimon and Gary Gensler, you are doing the people's work and have my greatest thanks.

Remember to always vote for pro-bitcoin lawmakers in your country!




Rep. McHenry seeks to get measure to repeal SEC accounting bulletin 'across the finish line'

https://www.theblock.co/post/275780/rep-mchenry-seeks-to-get-measure-to-repeal-sec-accounting-bulletin-across-the-finish-line

['Bitcoin NFT' Hysteria Comes to Sotheby's as Super-Mario-Style Mushroom Character Tops $200K]

Why in gods name would anyone pay anything for this stupid crap?
Must be some kind of money laundering scheme.


'Bitcoin NFT' Hysteria Comes to Sotheby's as Super-Mario-Style Mushroom Character Tops $200K

Dec 14, 2023

In the historic auction house's first-ever sale of the Ordinals inscriptions known as "NFTs on Bitcoin," a batch of three pixelated images from a mushroom-themed collection drew about $450,000, or roughly five times the highest estimates...continued below

https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/12/14/bitcoin-nft-hysteria-comes-to-sothebys-as-super-mario-style-mushroom-character-tops-200k/

Or used lightning network  anywhere else? I see Kraken exchange gives you the option to use LN to move bitcoin to and from Kraken exchange.
I used Kraken for years to buy bitcoin but so far have never used the LN option for any transactions. Is there any reason why I might want to?


Questions:

1. Since a special lightning wallet is required to receive bitcoin via the lightning network, does that  mean you can never use the LN to move bitcoin directly
into a hardware wallet such as Coldcard or Trezor? If so why hasn't any hardware wallets implemented LN? Technical limitations?

Is there any reason why anyone would choose LN over the main bitcoin network? I know LN fees are much cheaper but if you can't use it to move your bitcoin
to and from a standard hardware wallet then what is the point?

2. How secure are lighting wallets? Are they considered hot wallets?

3. Can LN be used to actually buy and sell bitcoin or is it only a means for moving BTC between wallets?

4. Are there any bridges available (lightning chain to BTC chain and vice versa)?

5. What are current practical use cases of lightning network (not just theoretical)? For example, are people currently using LN for international remittances
on any significant scale? Do any retailers use LN to accept payment for goods and services?

6. Is lighting network still in very early stages of adoption? LN is a great idea but so far adoption and real world usefulness seems very limited.

[COINBASE DEBIT CARD FAQS]

To me having a debit card linked to your bitcoin seems like a great use case for owning bitcoin, but as with most things the devil is in the details.
It would be very convenient to pay for stuff in the store with bitcoin as easily as using any credit or debit card.

I have a Coinbase Debit Card but have not used it yet, mainly because I want to be more familiar with the potential tax implications before using it to buy everyday goods such as groceries, stuff on Amazon, etc.

I wanted to apply for the Bitpay card but their website says they are not currently accepting applications.
Anyone have experience with these kind of debit cards?


COINBASE DEBIT CARD FAQS

Frequently Asked Questions

Am I eligible for Coinbase Card?

Right now, Coinbase Card is available for all Coinbase customers who live in the US (excluding Hawaii). We hope to expand eligibility in the future.

Are there any fees?

There are no fees for spending US dollars (USD) or crypto, including USD Coin (USDC) with Coinbase Card. For more information on fees, please visit our Pricing and Fees disclosures.

Where is Coinbase Card accepted?

Coinbase Card is accepted anywhere Visa® debit cards are accepted, at over 40M+ merchants worldwide.
If you choose to spend crypto, Coinbase will automatically convert all cryptocurrency to US Dollars for use in purchases and ATM withdrawals.

Are there tax implications?

There are generally no tax implications if you spend US dollars (USD) or USD Coin (USDC).

Spending any other kind of crypto involves selling your assets. Selling crypto using your card is a taxable transaction. Just like when you sell crypto on Coinbase, you'll be required to report gains and losses on your tax return. Please speak to a tax advisor to better understand how your card impacts your unique tax situation.

https://www.coinbase.com/card