[What are the lessons to learn from this:]

Nobody says living off the grid of public life is the best way to live a great life when you hold bitcoin, there are ways we each enjoy life but there should be limitations on how this life should be lived especially when you hold Bitcoin. Buying a bitcoin is one of the first baby steps in the life cycle of a bitcoin, securing it in a good wallet(hardware wallet) is another great step to protect it from anyone and making sure the seed phrase is well backed up is another goal to check so that you can have access to it anytime in the future. This is the basic one everyone believes but security bitcoin doesn't end with running away from anyone having access to your seed phrase and private keys. There are more sophisticated kinds of public lifestyles that can endanger your Bitcoin.

When you hold a Bitcoin as an individual, you must learn to live some private life but it seems living a private life is like living in a prison; some people don't know that when you hold a Bitcoin, you need some degree of private life to some length. A private life is not about hiding from the public completely but limiting some ways you interact with the public, you may think it is a flex but it puts not only your bitcoin in danger, when you hold bitcoin it puts your life at high risk because having a means to money invites bad energy around you and you know what thieves are capable of doing when they know you are in a possession of money.

I want to share with you how a guy lost everything to armed robbers for always bringing his lifestyle to social media and always showing off how much he made in Bitcoin and some altcoins.

There is this guy I followed on X, he is very active with updates regarding Bitcoin, he trades most of the time and also shares his opinion on bitcoin moves. Just some days ago, he was robbed right in his home and his bank account was empty, the bitcoin and other crypto were emptied. From his screenshot, he stored his coins in the exchange which is the first red flag and showing off again on the internet is another red flag.  Here are some images.





Source: https://x.com/alh_myke1/status/1718374911352164567


According to him, he was robbed and all his coins were been transferred out of his wallet when they threatened him and he had no choice but to send everything to them and was even forced to borrow more money from his friends to give them. Binance support was tagged for help and they are supporting him to trace the culprits but they didn't reveal whether it was a Binance to Binance transfer or Binance to external wallet. Regarding bank transfer, he has involved the legal process to trace the transaction.

What are the lessons to learn from this:

1. Don't share with people that you own a coin: There is joy when you tell friends about Bitcoin in other to encourage them or tell them about your journey but never tell them the amount you hold, the place you buy or how you store them. Some people have bad intentions even when you think they are your friends. Even if you save your Bitcoin in a hardware wallet that no one will access, you don't have to share everything with the public, it should remain private.

2. You don't have to share with people how much you gain: Excitement makes us share gains and profits but it is not something you do on public platforms where people can easily identify you, telling people that you made X profits will only invite hate and jealous from people like the ones that are idle and have nothing doing, they can gang up to attack you when you don't expect them.

3. Living a private life brings peace when you don't overshare: One thing about Bitcoin is if you don't tell anyone that you bought a Bitcoin, no one will ever know and the level of peace it brings, no other thing comes to it except you decide to share with people that you have bitcoin in your possession. Having money under you and nobody knows is peace on its own.

4. Learning to live a private life gives you good privacy: Some people don't value their privacy, they see it as nothing but in fact when you have high privacy, it will be impossible for people to know much about you, it will be impossible for people to know your next move and how you plan to move, nothing goods like much privacy.

When you live a private life, it attracts less attention because people don't know much about you, you may do whatever you like in public but it is not a good idea when you hold an asset like Bitcoin and tell the world that you own some, it will attract bad people around you that will be willing to kill you just to have that bitcoin from you. In addition, learn to hold your coins in a hardware wallet because not your keys, not your coin.

[Another Observation]

As usual, scammers don't miss a target on an opportunity of people especially when it involves places where people want to get money. There has been a message with a link that has been broadcasted and forwarded in WhatsApp groups and individuals, it is about the federal government cash transfer program palliative to ease 15 million from the current high cost of living, but there is a fake website that are been share around for people to click to have this palliative but upon my investigations, the website is fake and they are only extracting peoples such as their email, names, state of origin.



This was the screenshot from the WhatsApp message that was sent to me, you can clearly see that the website is on the forwarded text but there is more to the link when you click on that link.



When I clicked on the link that was shared on WhatsApp, the URL changed and redirected me to another URL like this common online scam with cheap domains. As you can see from the image below, I used an arrow to indicate the URL that changed on my browser.
 

Code:

https://popuyam.com/fg-25000-cash-transfer-ng

=====>

Code:

https://25k-households.trust-jobs.online/

Another Observation In the footer of the website, where I marked with an arrow, there is a hidden counter that counts the number of people that visit, which means the scammer is not only collecting just the data, the website is also counting the numbers of people that visit the website. You can hover your cursor on that arrow, it will take you to the website counter and tell you exactly the people that have visited this website since it was launched.



Last but not least, after filling your data into the website, it takes you to another page with fake testimonies where they ask you to enter your account number and name and tell you that you are eligible for palliative. It then asks you to share the link for people to groups and individuals to be qualified and after 24 hours, you will receive an email of successful application.

In summary, what this website does is that they collect people's information, they collect names, states and account numbers. What they do with the data is they resell it to companies that survey, and they sell this information to them in huge amounts. This is how valuable your information is to those companies, don't fall for all these kinds of scams and fake websites.

[Open source:]

When it comes to the choice of a wallet, the first thing that comes to the mind is the safe type and most recommendation you will see everywhere is to get a hardware wallet and that is because when your wallet is not connected to the internet, it protects you from insecurity such as hack and any other attempts that can stop bad people from harming your bitcoin especially when you have it in mind to keep it for long term. However, there are many people who use software wallets as well, it might not be for holding but for spending often every time.

All wallets have common features like the ability to send, ability to view received bitcoin, customized amount in QR codes and other simple features but if you want to use any wallet whether it is a hardware wallet or a software wallet, there are more primary featured that must be looked into before you accept it as a choice, I have tested, installed and see some of the basic feature that give you good choice when it comes to wallet selection, I will explain them below.


Let's delve into the general factors you should keep in mind to make a choice of wallet.

• Open source: There has been a lot of debate about the source of wallets and how safe they are, the majority of bitcoiners prefer an open-source wallet and not because an open source is the safest. It is safe to some degree in that when a wallet code(building blocks) is open to the public, it can be tested, reviewed and audited by everyone in the Bitcoin community to see if the wallet is really okay to be trusted and safe or not. Using an open-source wallet is better than a closed source because what you know is better than what you don't know. It is much easier for the community to detect a bug in an open source wallet than for a closed source, so when it comes to the choice of wallet, always make sure that it is open source.
  
  
• Standard recovery seed phrase: To have access to any wallet, you first need to have the seed phrase or Mnemonic phrase that controls the private keys to coins, no seed phrase, no private keys, this is one the best part of every wallet. There are some wallets that generate seed phrase that cannot be used in another wallet because they are not BIP 39 standard, not that these wallets that generates another type of seed phrase standard are not useful, they can only be used in other wallets compatible in their form. To avoid future problems when you want to reuse your seed phrase in the future, make sure it is BIP 39 standard seed phrase that can be imported to any other wallet, it is basically the most available type of seed phrase but there are some wallet that can be open source and not BIP 39. An example is an Electrum Wallet.
  
  
• Advance mode to run a node: One of the benefits of using some wallets is that with some tweaks and configuration, you can be your own node. What node does is that they help you communicate a transaction that is been broadcasted from the sender to the Bitcoin network and then to the miners to be included in the next block. The benefit you get from being your own node is that you don't have to depend on anyone to help you broadcast a transaction to the Bitcoin network, with your own wallet advanced configuration, you can be your own node for privacy and also help protect the bitcoin network.
  
  We have a wallet like Bitcoin Core to run a node with your own computer provided it meets the requirement space needed and also other wallets, you can configure your own node with an external set-up like plug and play where you can build your own hardware nodes and DIY(do it yourself) nodes. E.g. Raspberry Pi. So, when it comes to the choice of wallet, either hardware or software wallet, make sure you can use it to run a node.

The general and important features you need in a great wallet.

• Coin control and Label: When you receive junk of many outputs, it becomes a task to spend, when you care much about your privacy, you begin to wonder which coin to send out and which to leave because when you combine some outputs together, people watching transaction can easily identify who own an inputs. You need this feature in a wallet to spend your inputs the way you like but unfortunately, some wallets don't have coin control and label features to identify an output in a transaction.
  
  In some wallets, when you want to perform a transaction, they combine your outputs altogether, this increases the weight of a transaction when you combine different outputs all together as they increase the transaction fees, if you don't check well before you send out the transaction, it can get stuck in the mempool for a long time if the network fees spike up, this is why you need coin control and label in other to consolidate inputs when the fees is low.
  
  
• Fee adjustment: Creating and sending a transaction, by default, the fee is customized by the wallet with dependency on the fees they are getting from the bitcoin mempool but sometimes these fees change in seconds when the transaction has already been sent, you have to wait for the transaction to fee to drop to that the level of the fee you paid for your transaction to get confirm. You need this fee customized to set high fees for your transaction when you want your transaction to be faster on the bitcoin network but there are some wallets that to date, they don't have this feature yet, so avoid this type of wallet.
  
  
• RBF(RBF (Replace-by-Fee): Basically, some wallets don't have this feature yet and it is very important in a wallet. What RBF helps you do is that it can help you replace and change the transaction fee of already broadcasted transactions. When a transaction is sent into the Bitcoin network and the fee needed to confirm the transaction changes, it will stay in the mempool and if the fee doesn't come down, it will be there for a long time with a maximum of two weeks before it will drop from the mempool, this means your transaction will not confirm and you can't do anything to adjust the fees, this is what RBF does. It helps you adjust the fee to a higher fee so that it can be included in the next block ASAP.
  
  
• Sign and verify a message: Signing a message requires a private key to a wallet address and with this, you can prove to anyone that you own a wallet address. Doing a complex online business transaction sometimes requires a message to be signed before they will want to proceed, this is just to remove doubts and red flags in the end, this feature also helps in the forum to claim ownership of a wallet address. So, when you want to use a wallet, make sure it has this simple feature to verify and also sign a message.
  

Among all, there are other features needed in a wallet but if we place priority, I think these are a few most basic features you need in a wallet to enjoy the wallet in making transactions and at the same time enjoy them without any problems. Whether you want to use a hardware wallet which is a most have or a software wallet, make sure that these features are there in the wallet for comfort and privacy.

Engineers and software engineers in the house, I use to have a phone, old device to be precise. It doesn't have anything on the phone except for wallet, it's android electrum.

When I installed the wallet and create seed phrase, I was given seed phrase, I backed it up long time ago but I change where I was staying and I lost the back up. Since I had the wallet on that phone, I didn't bother to redo the back up.

2 days ago, the phone refuse to come back online, I tried everything I can but it never and I took the phone to a Engineer, he checked the phone and I was told the phone panel is dead.   

The problem is, changing the panel is like changing the internal organs of the phone, and I don't know if there is anything they can changed in the panel from the old phone to the new phone that will contain my wallet. It's a dumb question but I wish there is a way from software engineers here.

Please, help.

[Go for quality and less cost products:]

The way hunger dy land don double, price of rice is now worth more than the minimum wage of the country and people they really suffer, and by suffer I mean things they very hard because since in the past administration, we don dy complain say things don hard but as e be now, e be like say past government that we thought was bad is now fair as compare to wetin this government don showed us under 6 months wey dem don do for office.

This suffering reach everybody including people wey gather before, no citizens is left on this. Wetin I wan share with una be say na him be how we go take cope with wetin economy don be. As we fight back the government to make things better, we self go make sure say we get energy, dy Kampe ready for them because na who dy alive na him see tomorrow.

How can we adjust as a citizen of this country, here are my takes:

Go for quality and less cost products: The advantage of this is that it keeps you within your financial budget and the best way to go about this is to make a scale of preference when you want to buy something, make a list about quality products you want to buy and go for the one that is cheap in price. For instance, we know that the when it comes to electronic product, LG and Samsung product are very cost in this our country but there are more even high quality brand but because we always care about buying higher brand, we don't patronize the other brands. If you give some other products a trial, you will forget to use those most sort out brands, same with food products and other things we use at home.

Make you double your husle: Things no funny, I think practically everything wey dy this our country don double for price and if you must survive this and want to stay ahead of this prices, you need to also double your income. If you dy rely on source of income for this naija, e no go take you far, you need to look into other place to be able to overcome this cost of living.

Buy your food items in bulk and cook for yourself: Food vendors wey I know almost all of them has increased the price menu list of their kitchen and the other ones wey never increase has reduce the quantity of their food, so buying food now sef dy expensive and the only way to balance well for this time of economy na make you dy cook your self. Even if u no sabi, start am one day, you go improve with time and YouTube sef dy or make you invite your friends or babe to arrange am for you.
You can buy food once in a while and be doing the cooking most of the time, this way, you go fit dy save money.

Make use of public Transport: This one na for them ogas wey get Car, to fuel car now to go out is now like buying a goat to slaughter especially people that are use to fueling tanks and others that use high end engine that consume a lot of fuel, the only way to cut down expenses is to go for commercial or public transport which are cheaper compare to fueling a complete car.

Keep your savings off Naira: We want to help the economy by keeping our life savings in our local currency but it has been unstable for a while and as price of things increase, the purchasing power is coming down everyday; instead of keeping your money in Naira, convert them to foreign currency like dollar instead of leaving them idle. It's better they are converted and appreciate in value than doing nothing or decline further.

Above all, make sure you take care of your health, there is hard times for everyone because of bad governance but na our responsibility to stay health to see another bright day.

Source: https://x.com/buacement/status/1708531608649695372

It's not a new thing about monopoly in nigeria where some group of people dominate the market to frustrate the living but I like this strategy even when it is shorter term.BUA is having a new plant under construction but the old factory (ex factory)are still producing cement and have crash their cement price to ₦3500 untill first quarter of next year 2024, so basically everyone get to buy BUA cement at that price unlike Dangote that is selling for ₦5000. I want to see if Dangote will remain at ₦5000 from now till next year or will slash it's price.

This is a good marketing strategy to bring customers closer to BUA from Dangote that dominate almost every commodity in Nigeria.

[Bitcoin Mining scam]

The economy hard, the cost of living wan kill the living and everybody they find alternative to survive but e no mean say make we dy cut each other head for the country wey we gather dy struggle together.
I will go straight to the point, there are some obvious scam that are happening in this country but many are afraid to speak up or because we are used to this "even if I talk, no action will he taken" but we can't be silent all in this country.

There are many ways of scams that are going on in this country, they are mostly push by big guys because that's the only way they can get public outreach. Una remember that time when Davido advertise Racsterly that year when dem be they do bring 5k and get 10k, when the scam initiative later die, they drag am for advertising them to his fans but guess what, nothing was done because the right people are not speaking and fighting their fight, in a working country, he will be arrested and fine for misleading people.

The scam wey I wan share una na the same thing wey dy happen as I explain and they are been fuel by them big boys, see them make I burst una head.

Bitcoin Mining scam: Lack of information is the fastest way people fall for scam and this has been long existing in Nigeria because they don't have the right information and they are sometimes lazy to learn. Some months ago, there is this influential in Lagos called "OLA OF LAGOS", he advertised and also review products like cars and properties, they reach out to him because they know how influential he is to the public but I'm very confident that he don't know anything about Bitcoin mining.

He was advertising this mining company that claimed to give out $3 per day and $4 per day when you buy the machine from the company called Metamining, all you have to do is to buy the machine from them at an exorbitant price while you sit at home to receive $3 to $4 depending on the type of ASIC miner you bought from them, they help you manage the mining machine in their mining farms and the electricity bill but its all scam, people are quick to fall for this scam.

Bitcoin mining don't work this way, even cloud mining has long been proven to be scam and beside, the running cost of mining Bitcoin in Nigeria is high and that is why many tech people that has tried mining all closed down. This company Metamining CEO don't even understand how bitcoin mining work nor could explain how it works, people need to start reading or watching some tutorials about bitcoin not to fall victim of this scam because this is not the first but they spread fast using influencers.

Gaming scam: This is another scam similar to Metamining scam, the only difference between this one and Metamining is that this one is gaming but they both used Tiktok influencers to do their dirty trick and the problem with these influencers is that they value money before anything, they don't put their fans before anything. We are all familiar with "SIDNEY TALKER" for his skit jokes on social media, he was the first person that started the advert for this gaming company, then other skit makers followed. The game was like pressing a button on your screen and then the stuff will start flying and continue to double your money, if it double, you are save but if it project and comes down, you will lose the amount you wager.

Now, what this gaming scam company did was that they created a unique account for influencers, paid them to login with that account to demonstrate the game on how to win to their fans to give them confidence that millions can be make overnight but been a unique login will always give them winnings but when you create a new account, you will lose all your money anytime you play their games, so many people lose thousands and millions of naira because of this scam, it is possible that more of this may come back.

Betting code: All of us like money and we understand how it is to have bonus for betting when you refer people with your referring code, however some skit makers make this code special as if it is very easy to win bet. Another thing they don't tell you about this bonus is that it comes with a condition but they will not tell you not until you deposit on any of the betting site they promote and use the bonus to play, it is when you want to withdraw they will tell you it is impossible, 1xbet is the most advertised betting site in this our country but they don't tell you the condition when you use their bonus to play.

This are the few I could list but I'm very sure that there are many more of this scams that Nigerians are not paying attention but they are stealing from innocent Nigerians that are trying to make end means for themselves, please inform people to learn about more about new things before they push money into it. December is also coming, people need to be at alert because scammers will be looking for ways to scam people to celebrate dirty December.

I'm going to share some videos of evidence even when some have deleted by the original author, some people still have the evidence of the scam adverts.
1. https://www.tiktok.com/discover/sydney-talker-game-scam
2. https://www.tiktok.com/discover/meta-mining-club-scam

[Most deeply don't understand what they are influencing:]

Everyone has their favorite person they love as a fan either through music, football, actor and actress, Mr. and Mrs., and content creators and because of the power they possess, they get endorsement deals, and partnerships to influence products to the people to make outreach to the consumers and potential customers they can influence to buy the products because of that love and likeness they have for them.

The past years, crypto isn't different from this as well. We have seen many of influencers with zero knowledge of crypto but because of the money attached and the greed to influence their fans to get money and because they have this power to make people rush anything they say, they influence people to buy or use them. Meanwhile, they have no clue about what they are influencing to the public and they don't care what happens after as long as their money is completely paid.

I want to share to you some of the things you need to know about brand influencing and why you should avoid them.

Most deeply don't understand what they are influencing: Many musicians and entertainers receive endorsement deals to make awareness about a project to their fans through social media and other quick places they can reach but if you interview them, many of them wouldn't be able to differentiate between ERC20 and BSC20, they don't do a background checks about the project they advertise or post on their page. Once their check has been paid, they do what they know best to post without doing a personal review if it's worth making a public announcement or not for the public, be careful about the crypto posts they display on their pages and timelines.

They don't use what they advertise: A good leader must show a good example, that is what leadership entails, you lead then others follow but influencers don't buy crypto or coins they advertise on their page, the only thing they want is their money. You will be shocked that they received the influencing fees in BTC and USDT instead of the crypto they advertised, they know very well that the coin they are trying to advertise is fake and not worth it but they will sell it out to the public by the way, just to do their bad job for fans to buy what they don't use.

They don't have accountability: In every 10 of projects that are out there, there is a high chance of 9 that will fail but influencers will advertise any deal that comes their way but when these projects fail, they don't care about the outcome, they will remain quiet or even mute mode of response like disabling their comment sections and inbox, they don't care unless there is legal challenge against them. There was some time back when Mayweather, DJ Khalid and Kim Kardashian advertised one altcoin last year but eventually turned out scam, fans lost money and were mad about it and they were later sued for promoting a scam project, this is how influencers can put you into bad situation if you are not careful.

They don't care about the response of the public: If you buy any crypto that is advertised by influencers, two things is involved, either you buy and make some profit when they list it, which with this, you are safe but if it turn bad, you can't help it but accept the reality of the loss. It's better you do your own research and have a judgment and live by it instead of believing another person to buy.

Avoid being influenced to buy a coin or any project, learn to do your own research, do some background check about the project, check the aims and objective of the project, the scope of the project and what they want to do, and not some unrealistic magic just to eat investors money.

[Increase in Exportation and Reduce Importation:]

It is no longer new to everyone about the situation in this country Naija, everyone here knows what I'm talking about. The cost of living is no longer funny because there has been increase in a high rate of inflation, the basic things are difficult to have due to many factors that have made our own currency to be valueless and not worthy of standing against other currencies, the new policies are not favourable to every man that lives in a country called Nigeria.

This country na our own, we don't have any other than this and it is our responsibility to make it greater and better for everyone to live without thinking of relocation, we have abundant resources but it is not working and this is because of the measurement Nigeria government has chosen, they are not just a measurement but temporal ones that wouldn't last long and as a result, the hardship continue every time we have a new government.

Naira is the only currency we have and we must defend it in order for it to be suitable for the people who respect and value it, instead of using temporal measurements that do not work or work but later fail in the future, we need to focus more on the basic permanent solutions to fix the Naira which is:

1. Increase in Exportation and Reduce Importation: Any country that depends more on importation with low exportation will suffer and that is exactly what is happening with the Naira currency. The people need the US dollar to settle for goods as it's a general currency accepted worldwide but the situation of Nigeria is different because we have few available forex(foreign exchange) and the demand is high with low supply which is limited. Since they can get dollars, they go for the parallel market known as the black market to get dollars at high prices making our currency useless, this is the effect of high dependency on importation. Our exportation is low, we don't have many industries that produce goods for exportation and with this, there is low forex that is coming to Nigeria with low revenue for the government.

2. Increase Farming: Despite how other countries are rich with other mineral resources, they never abandoned farming instead they mechanized it, and improved their seeds and animals to high breeds, and that is how their life became easier, they depend on other countries for food, instead countries depend on them and this makes their currency stronger because need their currency to buy their goods.

3. Maintain a standard price for local produce goods: In this country, we are the enemy of each other; there was a time when the past president Buhari banned 32 items that are mostly imported to Nigeria which he felt we could produce in this country like Rice, Chicken, cocoa butter, Noodles and many more because we can do produce this locally to standard level and all boarders were closed in other to reduced importation and increase exportation. However, instead of local food products to be cheap, they increased the price to meet the price of foreign rice that are been imported to Nigeria and other places, this is because the regulation doesn't work and Nigerians like to take advantage of a small opportunity, this affected the value of Naira, the value depreciates with such fraud.

4. Reduce asking for loans: If there is anything the Nigerian government loves, is always asking for loans. The Nigeria government have a shortage of forex and when they take a loan, they are been paid in dollars to finance projects in Nigeria, some are been done while many are pocketed by corrupt politicians, and when it is time to pay back this loan, it becomes a big problem because they don't have forex to pay back the loan and the lenders would never accept Naira because it's not strong and not recognized for international trades.

5. Improve the standard of living and provide good education: Japa syndrome is a new word, literally every youth you see today want to leave the country and go search for greener pasture on the other side of the world because the economy hardship is unbearable, they want to live and when they have the means to live, they sell every property they have to have access to USD, and this is killing the Naira while appreciating the USD against our currency because they need dollar and other currency to travel out.

Good education is another factor that makes people leave the country, students don't want to study in Nigeria because of the difficulty in having early education, yearly strike, poor educational facility, and poor research and development. These are the reasons why student travels abroad to have a good life for their education and this affect the forex market of Nigeria due to the low dollars that we have in Nigeria.

These are the basic things that the Nigerian government need to fix, if they work on this, other factors will adjust to normal because these are the basics which have been poor in the country. If we need our currency to improve against other currencies, we need to fix these problems.

I am always confuse when I see Sats/bytes corrected. What is the difference between sats/bytes and sats/vbytes and what is the relationship between sats/vbytes with weight measurement transactions in segwit transactions. Explain to me like a baby.

The forum is full of people of different diversity, how do I learn things about bitcoin and also engage with everyone intellectualy.
I will be glad if I hear your opinions.