[P] De astăzi, îți poți mobila casa plătind cu cryptomonede
https://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-esential-25454323-astazi-iti-poti-mobila-casa-platind-cryptomonede.htm

Nu credeam ca o sa ajung sa-i fac reclama lui Catarama, dar am gasit in articol 2 puncte interesante.

1. Un magazin de mobila (deci nu Electro-IT si nu automobile) cunoscut accepta plati crypto.

si mai ales

2. Solutia folosita pentru plati este cea dezvoltata de echipa Elrond.

Imi place ideea de a avea mai multi procesatori de plata cu crypto in tara, poate ca o sa inceapa sa scada comisioanele. Pana acum ar fi Netopia si Elrond, din cate stiu.

Compania va accepta plata cu principalele patru cryptomonede ca popularitate din România - BITCOIN (BTC), Ethereum(ETH), Elrond(EGLD), și Tether (USDT). Plata prin cryptomonede va fi realizată prin intermediul unui operator specializat – UTRust – o soluție a celor de la Elrond, start-up românescu cu mare experiență în domeniu, ce va garanta un curs de conversie stabil pentru 15 minute

Initial am vrut sa pun asta la Presa, dar totusi nu se preteaza acolo, ca nu e direct legat de crypto.
Doar ca m-am cam socat. In 2022, oameni inca incearca sa treaca o gramada de bani de hartie peste granita, nedeclarati.
Inteleg ca e razboi, inteleg ca or fi disperati, inteleg ca au fost luati pe picior gresit... dar puteau sa fi avut pana acum Bitcoin in loc de hartie. Adica frumos, comod... ca altfel, acum au probleme ca nu si-au declarat balotii de hatie americana tiparita. Pacat...

cei doi ucraineni, soţi şi soţie, s-au prezentat în Punctul de Trecere a Frontierei Albiţa cu un autoturism înmatriculat în Ucraina, iar în maşină au fost descoperiţi banii nedeclaraţi, dar şi alte bunuri de valoare.
[...]
Poliţiştii de frontieră au sesizat procurorii vasluieni cu privire la acest caz, bunurile şi sumele în valută fiind ridicate în vederea continuării cercetărilor.

[Binance, led by the world’s richest crypto billionaire, is taking a $200 million stake in Forbes]

Binance, led by the world’s richest crypto billionaire, is taking a $200 million stake in Forbes
source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/10/forbes-spac-binance-led-by-the-worlds-richest-crypto-billionaire-is-taking-a-200-million-stake-in-forbes-.html

Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, is making a $200 million strategic investment in Forbes, the 104-year-old magazine and digital publisher, CNBC has learned.

That would make Binance one of the top two biggest owners of Forbes, which will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FRBS, the people said. The crypto company will also get two directors out of nine total board seats, they said.

Will this mean much more crypto news getting covered in "their" media? Hopefully.
Will this mean that their readers will get (correctly) educated about Bitcoin and crypto? (Like for example debunking the "Bitcoin is bad for environment" and similar garbage?) I also hope so, but I may be too optimistic...


Of course, NFT, Web3 and other buzz words are present in that news, I haven't pay much attention there.
And I hope that this move will not get "annihilated" by an even bigger buyer (with a completely different direction) getting a big bulk after the listing to NY Stock Exchange.

[Firefox has become unresponsive]

To the mods: I don't know where to put this. I feel it's somehow forum related, since one has to use a browser to get here.

I don't know if people having troubles will get here, still, it worth a try.
I've noticed today the Firefox has become unresponsive while browsing the forum. The problem was Firefox (and not the extensions or anything).
And the fix is easy, I've found it on twitter: https://twitter.com/jbaiter_/status/1481543050438619139

If you're having trouble with #firefox, try disabling HTTP3 in about:config with the 'network.http.http3.enabled' key. After setting this and restarting Firefox everything worked again.

So:
about:config
Set network.http.http3.enabled to false.
Restart Firefox (may need to do it with task manager).


Update: this fix is obsolete now. New Firefox version was released (96.0.1), it has the proper fix, you better update to that one (and revert the http3 setting to default)
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/96.0.1/releasenotes/

La mulți ani! Fie ca noul an să fie mai bun decât cel care a trecut și să vă aducă tot ce vă doriți, și vouă, și celor dragi!

Sorcova, vesela,
Să trăiți, să înfloriți,
Ca un măr, ca un păr,
Ca un fir de trandafir,
Tare ca piatra,
Iute ca săgeata,
Tare ca fierul,
Iute ca oțelul.
La anul și La Mulți Ani!

[works with Electrum]

After reading, discussing and thinking on the topics discussed about Ledger's hardware wallets', especially Why I wouldn't buy Ledger Nano S ever again? and Ledger Nano S Plus I came to the conclusion that the better option may be a DYI and a pretty cheap and safe solution could be using an old smartphone for the job, completely airgapped. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The point would be that, with the right software installed on the phone, one can use its camera for reading QR from other smartphone or laptop, can display QR that can be read by other smartphone or laptops' camera...


I wanted to try out yesterday, shortly, AirGap vault with an Lectrum on laptop. On testnet.
It didn't work out and I don't know yet if the reason was that testnet is not supported by AirGap, or it's that AirGap vault works only with AirGap wallet.

Question 1:
Do you know what I am missing? Did you use this kind of setup and you know that it would actually work on mainnet with AirGap vault and Electrum?

Question 2:
Do you know of different cold storage app for Android? Can you please share?

Question 3:
Is there any similar solution I've missed? Some emulator under Android and installing the cold storage under that emulator? Then how I handle the camera/QR reader?

Question 4:
It's all wrong and I should abandon the idea?

Thank you.


Update: the setup works with Electrum on both sides - laptop and old phone.

[Lucian Croitoru, despre criptomonede: Există o cerere pentru alte active/ Unele dintre ele vor fi validate, altele nu/ Toate băncile centrale vor avea monedă digitală. Ar fi aberant să nu aibă]

Lucian Croitoru, despre criptomonede: Există o cerere pentru alte active/ Unele dintre ele vor fi validate, altele nu/ Toate băncile centrale vor avea monedă digitală. Ar fi aberant să nu aibă

In interviul dat de Lucian Croitoru, consilier al Guvernatorului BNR, acesta a fost surprinzator de la subiect in discutia despre criptomonede.
Nu le ataca, chiar observa ca exista inovatie si cerere. Altii ar fi zis cel putin ca e o bula speculativa, el nu.

eu zic că este nevoie din moment ce aceste active se produc. Ele n-ar apărea dacă n-ar exista o cerere pentru ele

Există o cerere pentru alte active. Este o producție de alte active. Lumea nu poate să rămână la un număr limitat de active. Există inovație. Ordinea spontană creează noi și noi active. Unele dintre ele vor fi validate, altele nu.

În teoria economică este imposibil să distingem cu certitudine dacă ne aflăm sau nu într-o bulă.
[...]
Poți să ai indicii care să-ți arate că există o bulă, dar nu poți să știi niciodată dacă intervii și, într-adevăr, întrerupi o bulă sau pur și simplu întrerupi un eveniment care avea fundamente economice.

Bineinteles, un subiect este CBDC pe care el ii numeste "bani digitali" si despre care subliniaza corect ca "sunt ceva diferit de criptoactive sau criptomonede".
Singurul minus este ca nu zice nimic de ce posibilitati (de supraveghere) aduc CBDC, dar hai sa fim seriosi, ar fi fost strigator la cer sa le denunte
Dar le si compara - corect - cu banii din cont. Deci singura "minciunica" este ca le considera la fel si cu banii avuti in lei (adica bancnote).

Sunt convins că toate băncile centrale vor avea monedă digitală. Ar fi aberant să nu aibă pentru că moneda digitală nu este cu nimic diferită de banii care există acum în conturi sau în lei

Am fost destul de placut surprins de ceea ce am citit, adica de abordarea avuta de Lucian Croitoru.

[Mastercard to launch crypto-linked payment cards in Asia Pacific]

Mastercard to launch crypto-linked payment cards in Asia Pacific

I don't know where to put this news, really. I was thinking it could go for Press, and if you think it's better suited there I'll move it. But I feel like it's more for speculation and I'll tell why.
Mastercard has already a partnership with Wirex - I think that's way more than a year already - and they offer crypto cards from that partnership. They've also announced back in February that they'll make this new step.
So the news about partnership with Amber, CoinJar and Bitkub and the prospects to launch crypto cards in APAC is not that much of news, it's more.. for speculation / pump.

Following the partnership, consumers and merchants in the APAC region will soon be able to obtain crypto-backed Mastercard debit, credit, and prepaid cards. This access could simplify the use of cryptocurrencies for users in the region.

From what I know, crypto enthusiasts already have options for crypto cards in APAC region, but not the full variety (is TenX still in business?). I don't understand how crypto credit cards will work, will the credit be in crypto or fiat?
Also they're rather unclear if the merchants have the option to receive crypto or only fiat.
And I don't like that the only option presented is conversion on-the-fly. I like to also have the option to convert to fiat when I want to, before shopping/spending that fiat.

The market seems to have reacted greatly to this.. news (as I said, not really news), I'm curious what will happen when this program gets properly implemented.


We already have a new ATH. Will this move the price way beyond 70k? Or will a cool down happen? Or, actually, the buying pressure is big enough and the new ATH is not related to this news?

[Vikram Pandit Says All Big Banks Will Think About Crypto Trading]

First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,
then you win.

Vikram Pandit Says All Big Banks Will Think About Crypto Trading
The original source, Bloomberg, is asking for money, so I won't back link them.

Soo... this guy is

chairman of The Orogen Group and former chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc

and what he's telling is that

one to three years, every large bank and, or securities firm is going to actively think about ‘shouldn’t I also be trading and selling cryptocurrency assets?’

Of course, this is not coming as a shock for us , we were expecting that at some point they will stop fighting and come where the money is.
Still, it's nice to hear it on the big media channels and said by somebody from basically the banking system.
Also "every large bank and, or securities firm" is big deal. It means that there won't be just a very few.

[JPMorgan renews prediction that bitcoin could hit $146,000 - and says it's acting more like digital gold than ever]

JPMorgan renews prediction that bitcoin could hit $146,000 - and says it's acting more like digital gold than ever

The guys have updated their predictions and I find the new value interestingly high. The new 146k has the potential imho to be the start of a new pump.
Would it be enough for some nice week-end speculation?  

I know that "JPMorgan said that for the $146,000 price to come true, bitcoin's huge volatility would have to fall sharply", but I don't think that the investors would care much about that detail.

[Bitcoin]

This may be useful to others too, since I've spent quite a lot of time figuring out how to have everything working on a machine that runs a lot, but it's on Windows.

This walkthough is meant to show how to install an Electrum server (electrs) and a block explorer (BTC RPC Explorer) on (more or less) Windows. It's "more or less" because I actually use WSL (windows subsystem for linux) to get a Debian run under Windows.

If you have only one wallet and you don't want your block explorer, Electrum Personal Server may be enough for you. Start reading the other thread from here, I have 2 posts on that topic.

Electrs is not restricted to one wallet and also has useful data for the block explorer, hence this more generic setup was what I was looking for.

I will post all the details I remember and I will post also my config files too. Improvements are welcome, since I'm not really a Linux guy and, as said, most of this setup is still under Linux.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is easy to install under Windows, it just runs, make sure your data directory is set somewhere with plenty of space, I use an external drive (X:\BitcoinDataDir)
I've created in X:\BitcoinDataDir a file bitcoin.conf with the following content:

Code: (bitcoin.conf)

txindex=1
server=1
rpcbind=127.0.0.1
rpcallow=127.0.0.1
rpccookiefile=.mycookie

Some extras:
1. If you want to not be too generous with the network, you may be tempted to use maxconnections in your config. Although I've read you should put minimum value 12, it's not enough. When I've tried that the block explorer may not be able to connect. With a value like 25 it was OK.
2. Make sure that if you use maxuploadtarget in your config, you also add whitelist=download@127.0.0.1

Of course, you can just keep it simple and don't add those extras.

I've also made 2 batch files because I'm lazy. Both are in the same folder ad bitcoind.exe and I've made for both shortcuts onto desktop.

Code: (start_bitcoin.bat )

bitcoind -datadir=X:\BitcoinDataDir

Code: (stop_bitcoin.bat)

bitcoin-cli.exe -datadir=X:\BitcoinDataDir stop

As a note, keep in mind that bitcoind will "discuss" with electrs and the block explorer only after the console shows progress=1.000000
And yes, you should leave at least bitcoind run as much as possible.

LE: If you prefer to use all this with RPC user/password instead of RPC cookie file, the configs are adapted in this later post.

Descindere a ”Crimei Organizate” Timișoara la un italian care a dat „țeapă” cu criptomonede

Asa, ca titlu de duminica... 
Se pare ca nu avem destui tepari de-ai nostri, chiar si italienii vin aici sa dea tepe (tot la italieni!)

bărbatul a fost de acord să administreze ”ferma” în schimbul a 10% din profit.
[...]
În ianuarie anul acesta, când toate echipamentele au fost instalate [...].
Unul dintre investitori a constatat în martie că nu mai avea acces pe platformă și că dispăruse contul.
[...]
din investigații a reieșit că italianul care trebuia să aibă grijă de ”ferma” a închiriat un alt spațiu în Arad și a mutat toate echipamentele și a continuat minarea după ce le-a blocat accesul proprietarilor echipamentelor. De asemenea, acesta s-a conectat ilegal la rețeaua de electricitate. Prejudiciul este de 400.000 euro.
Cetățeanul italian este trimis în judecată de DNA pentru fraudarea fondurilor europene.

Voi fi ingaduitor cu chinul redactorului in legatura cu partea mai tehnica a Bitcoin.
Interesant este ca omul va fi judecat in primul rand pentru fraudarea de fonduri europene (probabil ca de aceea mutase ASIC-urile la Arad) si poate, apoi, pentru furtul de curent electric. Italienii cu bitcoinii si ASIC-urile pot sa mai astepte.

Deci da, e un exemplu "foarte bun" pentru toti aia care se gandesc ce afacere buna fac sa-si cumpere ASIC si sa le dea la hosting pe cine stie pe unde, ca-i mai ieftin. Vorba aia: dai, n-ai.

[BitPay and Verifone Partner to Exclusively Enable Cryptocurrency Acceptance]

BitPay and Verifone Partner to Exclusively Enable Cryptocurrency Acceptance
Source: https://bwnews.pr/3EZHOPD

Crypto payments to move mainstream as major retailers and SMBs alike can now accept crypto and get settlement in traditional currency

Imho this is big.

Merchants will be able to accept crypto payments directly from Verifone without the need for an account with BitPay. The consumer will be able to pay seamlessly using approved crypto wallets

I'm not surprised that the merchants will receive fiat.
And although I am not fond of BitPay, this is big.

[Later updates:]

Later updates:
* I managed to make Electrum Personal Server work on Windows (see here and here)
* I compiled/installed electrs under WSL as HCP advised and it works on Debian!
* I compiled/installet BTC RPC Explorer under the same WSL as ETFbitcoin advised and it also works.

I am moving here a discussion which (mea culpa) went off topic somewhere else.

The relevant bits:

And since o_e_l_e_o came with very valid points for having own server and block explorer, I tried my luck and... it's not easy. I didn't manage yet to make any of those work on Windows (heh) and I am a bit undecided about trying out fulcrum, since I didn't find much of discussion about it here on bitcointalk.

I've also looked about using Bitcoin core with HW and.. hmm.. it looks unfinished and far from straightforward, so I pass that.

Any ideas?

The easiest way is to use virtualbox: https://www.virtualbox.org/
And then deploy the virtalbox version of mynode: https://www.mynodebtc.com/download

The upsides: it's easy, you don't have to install or learn anything, and there is a lot of support out there.
The downsides: You have to trust the people involved.
But, you do get a BTC node, a lightning node, an electrum server and a basic block explorer.

Keep in mind you are going to need enough free RAM & disk space on your PC to run it. And you are going to have to keep your machine running 24/7 to get access to it.

-Dave

I've tried that too yesterday, and didn't work out because the disk for the blockchain is connected though USB and VBox/myNode didn't like that.

In VBox my last attempt was with a proper Debian. I managed to get Bitcoin Core run and use that USB drive for the data, but I completely failed in making it start with the system. I suck at Linux and I know it 

And on Windows, bitcoind is fine, but the Electrum Personal Server just doesn't do anything. Whatever I do it just tells "press any key to continue" and Electrum doesn't see it.

Getting a bit OT, but you moved the

Code:

mynode_vm-disk002.vdi

file to your USB dive and then told virtual box where it was and it still gave you problems?



Remember that vdi has more then just the blockchain on it. So, it will get much larger then just the blockchain.
If you really want to keep the data external, you might want to just get another external drive and put all of the mynode files on there. This way you can pick it up and move it to another PC with no real effort.

-Dave

I'll continue from here.

[Twitter rolls out bitcoin tipping for iOS users via Lightning, looks to NFTs for the future]

Twitter rolls out bitcoin tipping for iOS users via Lightning, looks to NFTs for the future
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/118450/twitter-rolls-out-bitcoin-tipping-for-ios-users-via-lightning-looks-to-nfts-for-the-future


I don't know (nor care much) about NFTs, but I think that this is the news of the day. Much more important than the DNS "hack" that will be forgotten in a few days. Bitcoin tipping is getting live on Twitter. And it works integrated with LN.
There's not much to add, the topic was covered since it was a rumor, but now it's live (at least for the lucky iOS users).

For now, the integration is only rolled out to iOS users, but Android is soon to come, promised Crawford.

[Concursuri / tombole]

Concursuri / tombole

Când și când pe forum sunt postate tomobole, concursuri gratuite, modalități de a câștiga ușor un ban, obiecte de colecție sau utile - de exemplu hardware wallets.
Am observat că alte nații (de exemplu nemții sau rușii) le-au centralizat pentru ca "ai lor" să aibă șanse mai bune să nu rateze astfel de ocazii.
Și m-am gândit că nu strică să avem și noi așa ceva.

O să postez și eu, dar m-aș bucura să postați și voi dacă observați ceva interesant.

Reguli

Evident, postarea trebuie să conțină link spre concurs. Eventual și câteva cuvinte despre reguri și ce se poate câștiga. Și până cand este valabil.
Se acceptă concursuri la care se câștigă obiecte și monede care au valoare (sunt prezente pe cel puțin o platformă de tranzacționare).
Nu se acceptă chestii de gen "facem airdrop, dar ca să participi trebuie sa faci aia și aialaltă (reclama, taskuri)". Nu se acceptă ref links (cu excepția cazurilor când nu se poate altfel, iar atunci trebuie precizat).
Dacă concursul se desfașoară altundeva, aș prefera să îl văd postat și pe bitcointalk...

Sunt acceptate și discuții la subiect, poate adăugiri/informații utile.
Și ar fi frumos ca la terminarea concursului să fie anunțat acest lucru.

Am facut topicul self-mod ca să nu ne trezim că postează unul și altul reclame la cine știe ce...

Și m-am străduit să folosesc și diacritice...

....And it's happening. I guess that's not investment directly into crypto, however, even the indirect investments should help that more institutional money will come into crypto markets. Right? JPMorgan is now a good example for "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."


According to Forbes (and many other news papers) JPMorgan has "become the first major US bank to provide all wealth-management clients with access to bitcoin and other cryptocurrency funds"

Advisors in JPMorgan’s $630 billion wealth management division can now accept orders to buy and sell five crypto products including Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust, Ethereum Classic products, and Osprey Funds’ Bitcoin Trust. The policy change became effective on July 19

A controversial bitcoin mining operation has made a New York lake 'so warm you feel like you're in a hot tub'

Yet another "Bitcoin is bad" kind of "news for dummies".
Of course, in their world, Bitcoin mining is done by computers and New York state depends on this sole power plant to meet the green energy goals.

Judith Enck, a former Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator, said that New York wouldn't meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction goals if Greenidge continued mining bitcoin.

Of course, they're OK by the law, but who cares about the law when one can blame Bitcoin?

Greenidge CEO Jeff Kirt told NBC News that "the environmental impact of the plant has never been better than it is right now," and that the facility was operating within its environmental permits. Greenidge said that it would make its operations carbon neutral by buying credits to offset its emissions.

Who has this time interest to keep average Joe from Bitcoin? Any takers?

I was thinking if I should post in Press or here, but I find it more appropriate here.
The news is rather old (April), but it's tomorrow when the act comes into reality.

Starting tomorrow, the investment funds from Germany will be allowed to invest up to 20% into crypto assets.
I guess that it won't be the full 20% of 1.87 trillion euro tomorrow, but it's a good news and a good start.

The original (German) news is here: https://t3n.de/news/deutschland-fondsstandortgesetz-krypto-1375731/
Google translated: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://t3n.de/news/deutschland-fondsstandortgesetz-krypto-1375731/

Vestea buna este ca apare crypto in ziare, chiar din gura autoritatilor.
Vestea proasta este ca sunt tot speriati si abereaza.

Dăianu: Cripto nu sunt monede. Vor fi strict reglementate. Pot să însemne demolarea unor oameni

O tampenie pe care o spune si care arata cat de putine stie desi vorbeste ca si cum s-ar pricepe, este "Nu vedem noi, de pildă, că atunci când au fost criticate au recurs la stablecoins?". Adica vai de capul lui.
Si noi aveam asteptari de la astia...