There is no better way to put this out here, DIPs are an integral part of Bitcoin that's a function of its volatility that should be embraced in a good way. It's just a temporary correction that gives intending holders the ability to buying Bitcoin at a much cheaper rate. The fact that it is caused by factors like market sentiment, regulatory uncertainty, macroeconomics indicators, speculations etc goes to show to a very large extent that it's just a temporary thing while Bitcoin in itself stays forever even after those correction.

Buy Bitcoin before the DIP, buy during the DIP, and buy after the DIP. Bitcoins isn't going anywhere anytime soon but most DIPs will be long gone and long gone for good. There are so many DIP price you can't buy Bitcoin at but you will always have those Bitcoin you bought during the DIP at an higher worth in the future, cease every opportunity of buying during the DIP, buy as much as you can at the moment cause DIPs are temporary but Bitcoin stays forever.

[I'm going to make the sacrifice of investing today for the crown that awaits me in the next ten years or so]

I feel that One of the main reasons why it's difficult for us to make plans regarding how long we will be able to invest in both Bitcoin and other assets and aspects of our lives without being too eager to expect quick gains or quick profits is because we've not mastered the art of delayed gratification and this is not just applicable to others but even myself.

Delayed gratification is an investment in ourselves to believing in ourselves and the things we're investing into enough  to the point we can make ascertion like "   I'm going to make  the sacrifice of investing today for the crown that awaits me in the next ten years or so
  " and often times the sacrifices aren't all that difficult compared to the gain that will come with it in the future. So even if we have assets that's of value and by virtue of the kind of assets we have, if we decide to sell it off and upgrade ourselves we can just do it at the snap of our fingers but what now happens after that?

I believe that delayed gratification is what helped long term bitcoin holders who have been able to HODL for like 10 years and above to continue holding thier Bitcoin even though they are obviously in a massive profit region. It is also what I think will go a long way to helping current holders that are hoping that they will be able to DCA for a period of ten years or so.

For those that have probably stacked up Bitcoin for at least a circle or so and have built a great portfolio in the process, how where you guys able to cope with the issues of self gratification even when you have the resource to fulfilling such desire? Like, the desire to buy a car, upgrade your apartment or kind of improve on your lifestyle during the time you're still building your portfolio would have been an issue you dealt with. Let's share our experience so intending holders and those that have just started thier Bitcoin accumilation journey can learn from it.

I don't know if this observation is too small to create a thread on but I have noticed that since we now have a new moderator and sub boards, most of our snr men are gradually returning back to the local board and the quality of the thread and replies in the board have improved to a large extent.

I had earlier made a suggestion on this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5484860.msg63651422#msg63651422  that part of what's needed to clean the board off spam and low quality post is when we have a combination of experienced local board members and new members who are actively involved in the Nija local board discussion and that when new comers visits the local board, it's going to be easy for them to model there kind of threads with what's already existing on the local board rather than allowing only newbies and full members that aren't all that experienced to depend on themselves for information.

Seing alot of snr members, legendary members and hero members on the board that we never knew where affiliated to Nija is a serious motivation to all of us that are coming from behind that we have people that have gone far in the forum and i just hope we all can work together to building this our local board as one of the most active board in the forum that has high quality threads and interactions on the forum.

[isn't this a total infringement on our rights?]

With the economic situation getting worse by the day and government setting out modalities to curbing these challenges, there have been a serious infringement on our rights most expecially as it concerns our economic, financial and security freedom. Aren't we supposed to have the right to make our financial decision, manage our assets and decide which particular sector of the economy to get involved in?

If this is about the exchange rate, is the crypto sector the primary source that should be attacked? What happens to the fact that even our foreign reserve is saved up in dollar? Shouldn't that be a thing of concern?

We are out of binance, other exchanges are gearing up to possibly take out the Naira from thier platform and now fin tech is under serious attack, isn't this a total infringement on our rights?   

[. “I can confirm that 90% of the accounts implicated in the illicit forex transactions are with commercial banks, and only 10% are with fintechs,” one of the sources said.]

Four Nigerian fintech companies have been directed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to suspend onboarding new customers.

The affected fintech are OPay, Palmpay, Kuda Bank, and Moniepoint.

This directive comes amidst investigations into allegations that accounts on these platforms have been used for illegal foreign exchange transactions.

A representative from two of the affected companies confirmed the CBN’s order is linked to these accusations.

However, they noted that the directive might be misdirected, as the majority of the implicated accounts belong to commercial banks, not fintech platforms.

. “I can confirm that 90% of the accounts implicated in the illicit forex transactions are with commercial banks, and only 10% are with fintechs,” one of the sources said.   

Isn't this an attack on anything that's decentralized and void of government regulations?

Or is it possible that bank owners can liaise with the government to place this kind of ban just to get people back from using these fin tech companies that has gradually taken the Nigerian financial system from banks?

What's your view on this?

Jamb is set to fully follow up on the 18-year minimum range before one can be considered for admission into the tertiary institution effective from this current set.

We know of recent, a lot of underage student are now the majority of those in the higher institutions with most of them in there 16 to 21years who most times aren't emotionally strong enough to copping with what's optiable in the tertiary institution but then, some others do well while they are still young and haven't started facing lot's of distractions and responsibilities that can potentially affect There studies.

Telling a young teenager that has finsih his secondary school at 16 to wait for a period of two years before applying for jamb could go a long way to draining the student nature in the child and some might end up being discouraged before the set time.

What's your view regarding this? Should age be the primary factor that determines if a child is matured enough to start his undergraduate journey?

[takeover podcast]

Doing a quick review at satoshis white paper and listening to Bitcoin takeover podcast from earlier Bitcoin entosiast like Roger ver,   it does appear to me that a lot has changed in comparison between the narrative held by earlier Bitcoin entosiast and the current school of thought in the minds of  the current Bitcoin users.

At the core of bitcoins initial  value at the point of creation is the analogy that Bitcoin is a get-free-quick scheme that promises to give holders the freedom to own complete access to their wealth in a manner that's  void of a third party  intervention but over the years the narrative about getting involved in Bitcoin has shifted more to the investible part of it and most newbie don't even know much about the other aspect of bitcoin being a store of value that gives them total control of there funds and you find somany individuals in this ecosystem that have a mentality that's now wired towards looking at Bitcoin as a get rich quick scheme rather than a get free quick scheme and telling someone about bitcoin without telling them that it is investible makes it look like the statement isn't complete.

If my conclusion isn't wrong, the intention of earlier Bitcoin entosiast wasn't more about the value of  Bitcoin getting to $100k or even  $1M and from the statement made by Ruger ver, Bitcoin wasn't supposed to be a get rich quick scheme but was supposed to be a get free quick scheme that gives people freedom and emporemet to thier lives"

Doesn't it look like one of the reason why Bitcoin adoption might have slowed down a bit and big players like Amazon aren't still accepting Bitcoin as a payment medium is due to a shift of this core value system from Bitcoin being a tool for financial freedom and liberation to what's now mostly looked at as an asset that's more of an investible nature rather than one that comes in to liberate people from the chains of the centralized financial systems?

Link to podcast
https://www.youtube.com/live/DMxx6O9_9nQ?si=GeOpSQJM7nusjx3p

We know that theoretically, taxes are supposed to serve as one sure means that a nation gets her revenue from and that such revenue is what's used for building basic social amenities like roads, hospitals and the creation of systems that help a nation to thrive in her developmental agendas and that in an ideal situation if followed the right way and all the proceeds used in the right way, it can surely foster the development of a nation, but can we say our tax system is meeting up with it suppose purpose? Or is it just serving as a medium of extorting money from poor citizens?

We're familiar with what is happening in our local markets where old women who are just struggling to survive are made to pay huge taxes every week with no evidence to show in the market as to whether the money has helped in making the market environment better and the taxi drivers, shop owners, POS operators, and even government workers also have their tales to share regarding how much they have to pay just because they own a small kiosk or are doing a small civil service work.

Because of the increased amount that's paid as tax in the market both from the wing of some supposed government personnel and agbero boys that also come in to take their share, you find market women increasing the price of things and taxi drivers also increasing cost of transportation because they have to buy tickets, pay agbero and still settle police officers that have positioned themselves at the different junctions to extort from the poor masses.

While we are complaining that the naira is gaining while the price of things has refused to come down, let's also understand that part of the reason why things are expensive in the market is because of the high taxes that are imposed on market women and taxi drivers and the only way they can remain in profit is to increase the cost of goods.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has frozen  300 illegal forex accounts trading on a peer-to-peer platform. Still standing on the claim that 15bn passed through one of the forex platforms in the last one year, outside the financial regulations, mr Ola Olukoyede, revealed that the accounts were suspended on Monday following a court order.

We know that Bitcoin halving has just happened and that after the halving there is always high volatility and uncertainty which can affect an investor's strategy and risk exposure due to loads of information from the media and the fact that you have a series of speculation based on an event that played out in the previous halving and how it might repeat itself this time around making some investors make a high-risk investment in similar projects that had possibly 100x in the previous halving and some might have thought to diversify all there investing into a different coin just so they don't miss out on what's been speculated by the supposed media experts and in the process exposing themselves to significant losses if not adequately managed.

For the sake of simplicity and clarity, the post-Bitcoin halving can give those who have a good investment plan great profit and there will still be thousands of people who will lose a ton of money this same period just by trying to play smart with the season. Preparation for the post-halving bull isn't something that happens overnight but requires regular buying and stacking of Bitcoin in the past that must have built up your portfolio into a strong one such that when the bull finally happens you can find yourself in a good profit region.

Proper risk management is very essential as it will help you;
1. Invest in an investible asset and not one that's just dependent on social media hype.
2. Continue with your investment plan and don't allow the hype from the media to push you to invest above your set amount.
3. Ensure you're emotionally strong enough to stick to your long-term plan
4. Ensure if you're investing in another asset outside of Bitcoin, you don't become too greedy in search of too much gain, learn when best to take your profit and this will mean you're not risking it too much.
5. For those that are new to Bitcoin investments and have probably not stayed up to a single circle and are still at their accumulation stage, it's best not to even take out your profit even during this bull except You've been able to meet your accumulation goal within such space of time.

In conclusion, the post-halving period comes with a lot of news, hopes, speculations, and expectations, and if you aren't careful, you might end up risking too much and put yourself in a position of huge loss and so we must react to these speculations in a matured way that doesn't put us in too much risk.

If you have any suggestions regarding how to manage or reduce our exposure to risk during this post-halving season you can do well to share it with us here.

[my take on this]

In a latest development from punch newspaper, Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, has been arrested by the Kenya Police Service, and he would be extradited to Nigeria this week by INTERPOL.” report has it that the Federal Government had traced Anjarwalla to Kenya, following his escape from lawful custody in Nigeria.

Following the development, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the International Criminal Police, the Nigeria Police Force, and the Kenyan Police Service have deepened talks to quicken Anjarwalla’s extradition.

my take on this
even after the whole sanction of binance and the supposed arrest of her executive, it hasn't affected the economy in any positive way and the whole Nigerian crypto ecosystem is still functioning effectively with the use of other exchange platforms. What's then the whole interest in effecting this arrest to the point of following them up outside th shores of this country?

after bringing the binance executive back to custody in Nigeria, what next? Is it just they can pay up for what fg has fined them to or what?

what's your view regarding this development?

Source.
https://punchng.com/kenyan-police-arrest-binance-executive-who-escaped-from-nigeria/?amp

The federal government is set to take another loan from the world bank that's worth 2.2 billion dollars that's going to run for a period of 10 to 20 years with a 1% interest. Remember recently there was an increase in the local iMPR by 2% which is basically to discourage local borrowing from banks and then seeing consistent taking of loans from foreign organizations with little or nothing to show for as regards what it's used for, it begs the question, when will we ever come out of these debt?

I know taking loan from world bank with a 1% interest that's payable after ten years isn't a big deal if the money is actually invested into a meaningful project that will certainly give greater returns than the interest that's to be payed back, but if this loan is to be used in stabilizing the economy or used to sort out our local issues that's already on ground and not for meaningful project that will give us greater returns in the long run, then this borrowing is damn unnecessary.

So the whole halving stuff have raised a lot of hope for so many investors that are looking for project to invest into hoping to get good returns at the end of the halving and those that don't have enough resources to investing into Bitcoin are already stacking up some altcoins hoping they will 100× in few weeks times and I just want to get something right here.

A friend bought an $100 worth of Pepe coin and his intentions is to hold it till at most the 20th of next month and the dude is mad certain about how pepe coin will go above it previous ATH and that he is certain to get at least a $400 out of his investment within such space of time. I'm not really a fan of altcoin that much because I haven't invested too much into them and mostly rely on stacking my BTC but considering this scenario, how realistic do you think his investment decision is?

If Bitcoin rises up to $100k and above, how will it affect pepe coin?

[. Is this something to be worried about? I have had my fears that whatever policies that the FG is putting in place that has led to the appreciation of the naira might just be a temporary solution that might hit us bad in the long run. What's your view on this?]

Nigeria’s foreign exchange (FX) reserves have witnessed a significant downturn, plunging by approximately $1.84 billion in 26 days, amidst the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) robust efforts to stabilise the naira, the FX reserves are now positioned at $32.29 billion declining from it previous record of $34.45 billion on April 21.

The likely cause of the increase is probably due to FG selling of dollar more aggressively which has led to the reduction in reserve level. Also, the recent payment of Eurobonds and other international financial obligations has also contributed to further draining of the reserves. Nigeria has also been grappling with low oil production levels, largely due to infrastructure challenges, oil theft, and vandalism. These issues significantly reduce the country’s primary source of foreign exchange revenue

The depletion of FX reserves is a cause for concern as it reflects the state of the country’s balance of payments and its ability to meet international obligations. The effect of a decline in fx reserve can lead to the following

1. A significant decline in the reserves can affect investor confidence and may lead to a credit rating downgrade, which can further impact the nation’s borrowing costs.

2. The decrease in reserves may also limit the CBN’s ability to intervene in the currency market, potentially leading to further depreciation of the naira.

. 
Is this something to be worried about? I have had my fears that whatever policies that the FG is putting in place that has led to the appreciation of the naira might just be a temporary solution that might hit us bad in the long run.

What's your view on this?
 
Source: nairametrics official site. https://nairametrics.com/2024/04/16/nigerias-fx-reserves-dip-by-over-2-billion-in-less-than-one-month-hit-lowest-level-in-over-six-years/

We know that the primary purpose why we even have anything like altcoin is because of Bitcoin and this has been fully reflected in the fact that when there is a major event that affects Bitcoin either positively or negatively, all altcoins and a bunch of meme coins feel the effect directly.

We also know that what makes Bitcoin relevant is firstly due to it decentralized nature and it ability to making  international transaction easier through the p2p concept and that Bitcoin has taken away the issues of unnecessary middle men and bunch of controls and regulations that's common with fiat or international banking systems and that the whole crypto ecosystem revolves around Bitcoin and that whatever project that has ever come up after Bitcoin have all been centered around modeling on the functionality of Bitcoin and maybe focused more on the volatility aspect of Bitcoin to attract individuals and investors to those crypto project while bitcoin in itself has all those qualities of volatility and provisions of the solution to international transactions that these altcoins hope to solve.

Again, Most of those who have had bad experiences in the crypto ecosystem are individuals who invested in some altcoins thinking it has the same potential as Bitcoin and the fact that it's always a norm in society to call Bitcoin one of the cryptocurrencies, it's no strange that altcoin might have played a great role in reducing the level of adoption of Bitcoin globally.

This begs the question, what if we had only Bitcoin? Wouldn't the level of adoption outgrow what it currently is at the moment?

Do you think that altcoin is a major distraction to bitcoins adoption?

One of the most common traits that are evident in the life of most successful entrepreneurs is that they have this strong mindset that regardless of how things look impossible to others, they still find a way to pull it all up. Most of them aren't all that skilled in the first place but end up employing skilled individuals to run stuff for them. Regardless of how skilled you are, without the right mindset that will necessarily propel you to grow above your level, you're bent to achieve very little.

The skill set is mostly necessary at the start of most journeys but what propels you to upscale is the growth mindset that makes you uncomfortable being stagnant or being at the average region.  A combination of both will make the best out of a person and will surely enable you to reach your peak within the shortest space of time but if one is to choose between being skilled or having a growth mindset, I will always develop the winning mindset over just getting skilled.

What's your view about this? Which is better? Mindset or skill set or a combination of both.

The desire to see quick results of our efforts can be very tempting and some folks in a bid to get results would normally prefer shortcuts to get wealth over following the real process that involves investing time, effort, and resources into developing skills, building relationships, and creating value in themselves that will lead to a sustainable long term success.

Pursuing of quick gains will only push you into getting involved in get rich quick schemes and activities that only guarantee short term incentives and wouldn't allow you invest and develop yourself. It's one of the reasons why people prefer to diversify thier investment into meme coins and other short termed project because they are just after possible immediate results rather than focusing their investment in an asset like Bitcoin  that's known to grow steadily overtime or alternatively investing in themselves which is a sure way to increase your value in the long run.

Setting out strong foundation that's aimed at supporting long term gain is the best thing you can do for yourself and regardless of the fact that you might not be getting quick results like short term investors and individuals, the benefit that comes with long term investment in the right thing  will always supercede any quick gain that's mostly for short sighted individuals.

In this same country where most youths are complaining of hunger, joblessness, and lack and are going into illegal things because of these supposed setbacks, others are making it Big by just solving simple problems in their environment.

It's just a difference of mentality. What you see as a problem, to another, is an opportunity that can bring him out of poverty. We used to read a story where two friends visited a community where occupants were all barefooted. One insulted them and looked down on them while the other saw it as an opportunity that was worth leveraging on and brought footwear to the region and made tons of money out of it. While it's easy to applaud the guy who was able to think outside the box and take the risk, some of us have seen countless opportunities but only speak Ill of the systems and environment without using them to our advantage.

COVID drained so many businesses off the market but for others, it was a turning point in their lives. The inability of our leaders to provide jobs for their citizens has made so many youths jobless on the street but for others, it brought out the entrepreneurial spirit in them and made them depend more on themselves than others.

So here comes the question;
How much of a problem solver are you?

Can you share your experience on how you saw a real-life problem in your environment and made a business out of it by solving the problem while making yourself financially better in the process?

[physical fiber optic cables]

It's no strange that we've been having series of network issues recently and one of the major causes of the outage has been that there had been some breakage in the physical cables that are used in transmitting Internet across the globe and the truth remains that all our service providers which include MTN, Aitel and glo are still very much connected physically.

The summery on how this internet connection works is that the internet connects computers and devices across the globe through a system of networks. Your device sends a request to the hosting server through the network infrastructure which includes router, your ISPs and other networking device. these component help route the request to the server and the response back to your device. Now this might seems very much wireless but over a long distance, they are actually sent through physical fiber optic cables
 . So what happens is that when the cables are damaged like what happens few weeks ago, when you send a request to acces a Network whose sever are located in the USA for instance, your request will have issues traveling through the destination cause the cable routes are bad.

So here is how the chain of transmission works;
1. Undersea cables
2. Mast Towers
3.routers/wifi
4. Phones/PCs   

1.   Undersea cables : the point where data travel long distance from the server through the undersea cables that connects different continent
2. Mast Towers : once the data reaches the landing point, it then gets transmitted to local mass towers through fiber optic cables ( this is the reason why you see the recent l planting of underground cables in major cities across the nation). So the mast tower recieves the data signal and then transmit them wirelessly to the surrounding area via radio signal which can only cover certain areas ( this explains why it's more deficult to have access to networks in most villages and rural areas)

3. Routers/ wifi:    the data signal from mast Towers are received by routers/ WiFi, which then distribute the signal to different devices within thier range.
4. Phones/PCs  : finally the data packets are received by devices such smart phones which process the information and display it to the user.

So in summery, data packet travel through undersea cables then unto mast Towers, routers and then finally reach our phones and other devices enabling communication and connectivity.

With the advancement in technology, wireless Internet connection should be very much possible through satellite transmission and we've seen Elon musk starlink building on such structure and although the undersea cables is still the backbone of the world's internet structure, wireless Internet connection is the only long lasting solution to the frequent break in internet connectivity.

As part of the effort to improving on the structure of the national identity card that's already in place, the federal government has launched an innovative identity card with payment functionality . The general multipurpose card (GMPC) is to be issued to Nigerians and legal residence of Nigeria as thier default national identity card.
Key features of the card includes;
1. The card can be used as debit or prepaid card by linking it to your bank.
2. The card shall enable holders to have access to government intervention fund.
3. It will contain machine readable zone for e passport information
4. Contain your national identity number
5. Contain biometric authentication i.e fingerprint.
6. Offline capabilities that allows transaction in areas with no internet access

What's your take on this planned improvement on the Nigeria national identity card? Should we be expecting a possible difficulty in getting this new identity card like what happened when the previous identity card was made compulsory?