I processed a withdrawal to my non-custodial wallet yesterday to hold and was surprised that it only cost a bit above a dollar in fees for such transaction. It was very impressive since a lesser value of transaction cost me a little over $3 to complete late last year. It seems the low fees has prompted exchanges to further reduce their withdrawal fees.

This is good, I don't know about other exchanges that support segwit. I just wanted to share with everyone the cheap fees so no one has any excuse to keep holding funds in a centralized exchange. It's always better holding in a self custody wallet and it costs almost nothing to withdraw funds now, especially if you've been consolidating on Binance.

[What do you think?]

Perception is simply the way something is viewed, more like the opinion held by people about a particular subject depending on how it appears to them.

In gambling, our perception drives our actions towards it which includes but are not limited to the examples below:

• People who view gambling as entertainment tends to gamble with limits and have a budget. They tend to see it in the same vein as going to parks, swimming or seeing a movie, More like a recreational object. This is obviously the right perception.
• People who view it as a way of making money tends to treat it as a solution to financial hardship and often throw in everything in it including but not limited to finances and valuable time.
• People who view gambling as risky or harmful tends to avoid it totally and further victimize people currently into it since they think it is only associated with addiction, financial problems, family and societal problems.

How someone views gambling affects the following:

• How often they gamble.
• The funds allocated to it.
• The timing of engagement and the length of time spent therein.
• Their ability to recognize harm early and act decisively.

I believe the wrong perceptions of gambling are the root causes of excessive gambling and negative energy from the society towards it.

So next time you see someone gambling wrongly, you try to change his perception towards it first because if he embraces the right perception, he would be more receptive to responsible gambling practices.

What do you think?

[Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year ahead to Everyone]

Most people are accustomed to this poverty cycle which is "Build from January to December, spend everything in December and start all over again next January".

This is the same mentality that stalled the financial growth and success potential of a lot of us because we fail to plan ahead.

January is considered the most difficult month of the year not because January is actually difficult but because most people fail to plan and save for it. People empty themselves during December oblee and resume struggling by January.

December is actually a time of self-evaluation on your performance for the year and a time of planning for a better and effective next year, it is a time you identify things that didn't work out for the year and consider what strategies you should implement to increase success and productivity in the coming year, for eg:

• If you failed to invest properly this year, let's say in bitcoin, you can go ahead and map out proper strategies to ensure you've discretionary income set apart to fully commit to DCA coming year and get a good portfolio for yourself
• If you didn't get the skills you desired or didn't get as specialized as you wanted, you can identify shortcomings and re-strategize on how to take your career to its peak in the coming year
• if you had bad relationships with people you love, you look for ways to strengthen the relationship and move into the new year with harmony

These above does not really mean you shouldn't enjoy yourself this festive season, I mean "What is December without Oblee?", let us try to do so with caution and awareness that there is next year around the corner. Financial literacy is a good virtue and would be nice if we inculcate it and spend wisely even as we enjoy ourselves in this season of merriment.

Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year ahead to Everyone.

[PAYSTACK]

Stripe owned Nigerian payment system PAYSTACK has suspended it's CO-founder and chief technology officer Ezra Olubi over allegations of sexual misconduct with subordinates. This comes after a coworker Max Obae accused him of abuse, sexual exploitation of coworkers and Misogyny. It was gathered that Ezra Olubi had sexually provocative tweets from 2010 to 2017 which contained inappropriate sexual advances to co-workers and support for engaging in sex activities with minors citing that sex with minors can cure HIV. So far he has deactivated his X account.

PAYSTACK immediately relieved him of his duties and all responsibilities yesterday maintaining the seriousness of such allegations and launched an internal investigation on the issue.


You can read more about it here

Just another reminder to us that no past is buried as long as it found it's way online. Some of those tweets are 14 years old but it got fresh from yesterday when the allegations were made and evidences were dug up.

Like the title says, I observed that Binance has ended their free withdrawals through the BSC(BEP20) network. Although they are starting out very small with the fees and they may likely be increasing the it gradually over time. As at yesterday when I attempted sending USDT accross to another exchange for P2P, the fee was at 0.01 USDT which is still negligible.



I brought it here to inform everyone that BSC(BEP20) network withdrawals are no longer free, we should all take note

Just like the above topic states, the president died this afternoon in a clinic in London, his family made this known through his spokesperson Garba Shehu via his X account.
https://x.com/MBuhari/status/1944430622241431717?t=Rvn23RSh2XSyj-6ckCMsyg&s=19.

I gather his health deteriorated so much recently and he couldn't make it beyond this afternoon.  RIP to him.

On June 27, the CEO of SatoshiActFund, Dennis Porter, highlighted a significant development in Bhutan's financial strategy. The Himalayan kingdom, renowned for its Gross National Happiness index, has amassed a Bitcoin reserve valued at $1.3 billion, constituting nearly 40% of its GDP. This revelation underscores Bhutan's strategic move into the digital asset realm, positioning it as a leader in crypto innovation among governments.

The initiative to mine Bitcoin originated from Bhutan's king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, who sought technological solutions to bolster the economy. The country's abundant hydropower resources made it an ideal location for crypto mining, which demands substantial energy. Mining operations commenced during the pandemic, when Bhutan was isolated from the outside world. The project began with just two computers and has since expanded to four state-owned mines, capitalizing on the surge in Bitcoin's price from under $10,000 in 2020 to around $100,000 today. This growth has helped offset declines in hydropower exports and financed pay hikes for civil servants.

Looking ahead, Bhutan plans to retain its Bitcoin reserve for the long term and upgrade existing mines rather than build new ones.

Source


Another day to remind all of us that long-term investment into bitcoin can never go short of being very profitable. As we can see from above their mining activities which started from during the pandemic has helped them fix their economy to a very large extent. What impresses me most is that they started off with two computers or so and have now upgraded to four state-owned mines reiterating the ability to start small in your investment into bitcoin and increase overtime for more profitability.

As the adoption of Bitcoin increases, I think it would be something worth implementing for the government to include Bitcoin as an option for workers to choose for their retirement savings.

Let's say as a worker, instead of the normal 401(k)s, 403(b)s for the US, State pension for the UK and CPS for Nigeria, the employee can choose Bitcoin for retirement savings. The government creates a wallet for such employee and adds the address to the escrow service used in paying those that choose Bitcoin for retirement benefits and sends the equivalent of the Fiat contributions monthly. The employee has the wallet address and can monitor inflows into the wallet on a monthly basis, but is unable to access the wallet since the corresponding seed phrases is retained by the government until his retirement period when full transfer of ownership would be initiated.

I feel Bitcoin enthusiasts would really prefer this option since it would be another opportunity for the government to be DCAing on your behalf and you're indirectly holding for a long period of time (20 - 35 years) or any duration of your active service as the case may be.

The profitability potential of such investment would be mind-blowing at the retirement of such employee, he can be able to live off his the investment of his active years of service. The value of his Bitcoin would be much higher compared with the what he should've had if he should receive fiat benefits.

This is just me thinking out of the box on other possible ways of accumulating Bitcoin, what's your thoughts on this?

[Advantages of bitcoin]

Bitcoin is a very good investment choice and its adoption is growing as time goes by, hence it is paramount to run through the Advantages of Bitcoin and the benefits of making such rewarding decision as starting your bitcoin accumulation journey. This would further motivate those who are already on the stride and also serve as a conviction tool for those still in contemplation on starting their accumulation journey.


Advantages of bitcoin

• Enhanced Security: Bitcoin has one of the most secure network and it is least prone to hack, so you are assured of your funds safety over the blockchain, unless of course if you are careless with handling your funds on a personal level
• Transparency: Bitcoin transactions is open to anyone at any point in time. The transaction data is recorded on a public ledger, hence it's availability for everyone's consumption
• Anonymity: Better achieved via decentralized wallets like electrum, sparrow, blue wallet e.t.c. Your transactions remains untraced to the initiator and can help you maintain a low profile
• Decentralization: Bitcoin is not owned by a particular person, everyone owns the stashes that they can accumulate and can do whatever they want with it. No one can dictate to you how you handle your assets
• Growth Potentials: Bitcoin has demonstrated heavy growth potential over the last 15 years of its existence. The value has appreciated to $93k ATH currently and a market cap of $1.81B. Bitcoin is and still remains the most performing digital asset of the 21st century
• Accessibility Everybody can buy, own and use bitcoin. It doesn't matter your location or race as long as you have a phone or computer and of course an active internet.
• Immutability: Information on the bitcoin blockchain can never be altered or changed for any reason, This helps to fight corruption and is essential to the continual trust and reliability of bitcoin
• Removal of third-parties:Bitcoin eliminates the involvement of third parties for transactions, only a wallet is needed which can be downloaded on app stores and you can carry out your transactions on a personal level. However you need to be careful so as not to download the wrong or scam versions of the wallets

Benefits of bitcoin

• Protection against inflation: Fiat depreciates in value and its purchasing power reduces with time, but the value of bitcoin keeps increasing, so your funds invested into bitcoin is subject to continuous appreciation when invested for a long term (4 - 10) years or more as against dumping it in banks
• Securing your Financial future:Bitcoin investment is a long-term journey and is very suitable for future financial goals like retirement, Business expansion, financial reserves e.t.c
• Freedom from Government controls: With bitcoin, you are in charge of your funds and can do whatever you want with it without government involvement, controls or regulation and your funds are available to you when you need them. Your transactions would be broadcasted readily since the decentralized nature does not permit monopoly of mining services
• Liquidity: Bitcoin can be easily liquidated by converting it to a stable coin and selling on exchanges via P2P,  or by transacting offline with the client, although this method is heavily discouraged because of security concerns

Bitcoin is a very good investment that comes with lots of advantages and it is worth sticking to for a long time, it is evident that those who stuck with bitcoin from the very beginning or somewhere along the road are already in good profits. It is also noteworthy that it is never too late to invest in bitcoin since it is still in its early days and its still a very much promising investment concern.

I believe there are lots more to these itemized above and I leave it then to your meaningful contributions

Researches have shown that there are two Bitcoin ATMS in Lagos state. The first is located at Dazey lounge and bar, Ajah while the second one is at CI critical solutions Ikeja. There are also some exchanges like Yellow card,  Bitfxt Technology and other exchanges that operate financial accounts within the country.

Their existence is lawful because CBN released the VASP Guidelines and relaxed its over two-year restriction on financial institutions operating accounts for cryptocurrency service providers or processing crypto-related transactions. While financial institutions remained banned from dealing in cryptocurrency, the ban on facilitating transactions for crypto businesses was lifted. Therefore, pursuant to the VASP Guidelines, financial institutions are now permitted to open bank accounts for crypto businesses, provided they fulfil the requirements set out in the VASP Guidelines. One such requirement is that the crypto platform must have obtained a relevant licence or registration from the SEC.
Following the CBN’s issuance of the VASP Guidelines, there were high hopes that Nigeria’s cryptocurrency regulatory environment would become more favourable in 2024.
https://www.ibanet.org/overview-of-cryptocurrency-regulatory-landscape-nigeria

Do you think this VASP guidelines and operating financial accounts for crypto business is very instrumental to Bitcoin adoption in Nigeria?.
Are we making progress?
What other developments can better promote Bitcoin adoption?.

[THE MAIN PROBLEM IS THIS]

It would be a great injustice to say that someone's decision is wrong, every individual decision is fueled by the mental buildups from environment, peers, upbringing, individual experiences, family and religious values, educational background and psychological factors to mention but a few.

Decisions are produced of the wealth of information and experiences available to an individual at a time which can be more or less depending on the the factors mentioned earlier and personal efforts of the person.

A child raised by caring parents shares and receives love easily compared to another raised with iron fists which sees loving gestures as a deceitful innovation since he/she is foreign to it.

Bringing it down to investments, A child who watched his father get into a bad investment, got duped and quit would have a different view compared to another that his father didn't quit, struggled and found another better investment opportunity that led him to great riches.

THE MAIN PROBLEM IS THIS
Everybody has the natural ability to learn, unlearn and relearn where necessary. Failure to do that, you might be operating on an outdated information and poor standards. I'm a nutshell, a person's decision is not wrong, they might only be basing their decision on obsolete information and poor standards.

Most people still view Bitcoin as a scam project, I can't tell them they're wrong since some of them are victims of pump and dump shit coins, crypto scams and other negative stuffs that fueled their beliefs. Their crime is that they only limited themselves to their past experiences and didn't want to at least research, work with historical and present statistics of Bitcoin, compare and contrast before arriving at a decision.

We are always asked to DYOR before engaging in any investment opportunities. I did mine and found Bitcoin to be outstanding and extraordinary, hence my involvement in the forum and periodic accumulation using DCA to boost my Bitcoin portfolio.

We are not wrong in the decisions we make, but it's recommended to regularly update ourselves, make proper researches and be open minded to make better and more profitable decisions.

You're contributions are welcomed 🤗

Hello all, I'm delighted to be in this forum with so much knowledge flying around and we can only grab as much as we can at a given time. I have come to the understanding that this prestigious forum is one governed my several rules which have individual consequences if not strictly followed and that I wish to abide by while navigating and contributing my own quota as a Bonafide user in this forum. I've taken my time to read the rules and regulations of different board and most of the pinned threads. Now getting over to my local board, I didn't observe one and I have a disturbing question I wish to ask for clarification for not only me, but for others to also take note of regarding the local board section.

Are we permitted to engage and contribute across local boards?, I mean being a member of the Nigeria local board, can I contribute in India, German and other local boards?.
I know some of them are not using the same language as mine, but there are translators to the rescue. I still think there are valuable informations there that can be of good benefit to me and help me broaden my horizon

Thank you in advance for your more experienced feedbacks