Guess the title says it, can we have a true talk without it for the sake of it about Bitcoin? Not like you're paid to say something.

Lately "report to moderator" have increased at least x10. And multiplying with the spammers/scammers/copy pasters increasing, at the same time restrictions somewhat put them in place, the numbers would be far ahead than the previous year.

The last official reporter stats might have been an year ago, read it, remember it, can't find the thread. I think lutpin or shorena had the maximum reports at that time, maybe I am wrong.

Since the suggestion of members having reporter badges have been put forward and theymos showing interest in implementing it (not a priority), but for the time being, I'm just wondering would reporters share their stats. If you don't want to, it's perfectly fine.

My stats:



PS: Please don't ask what's the purpose of this thread. I'm just curious, don't have a better answer than this.

Edit: Thanks mate, @Veleor. Good to feel my memory is still intact.

[Apart from plagiarism/text spinning, I am not sure whether user’s indulging in duplicate posts (trashed) are banned?]

I have seen a few users posting duplicates of their own posts multiple times on spam megathreads and have reported them as duplicate posts, but didn’t went through their post history to verify if it’s a repetitive pattern, but now going through this user’s history, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1864875

Large scale adoption will only come if the crypto prices are stable over a longer period of time. They can be treated as a method of payment and a safe storage of value. But before that the prices of the coin must remain stable, large fluctuation will not let crypto be a Safe storage of value.

Large scale adoption will only come if the crypto prices are stable over a longer period of time. They can be treated as a method of payment and a safe storage of value. But before that the prices of the coin must remain stable, large fluctuation will not let crypto be a Safe storage of value.

Yes. it is a good option. Holding coin in multiple wallet is the best decision I think because of this coins remains secure in your wallets. If you lost access to one of your wallets you will still have access to other wallets.

Yes. it is a good option. Holding coin in multiple wallet is the best decision I think because of this coins remains secure in your wallets. If you lost access to one of your wallets you will still have access to other wallets.

Market confidence is shaky right now and its not about just bitcoin, its for altcoins too. As far as i know since the beginning of cryptocurrency, market is unpredictable. So we will see some increased confidence once market becomes bullish.

Market confidence is shaky right now and its not about just bitcoin, its for altcoins too. As far as i know since the beginning of cryptocurrency, market is unpredictable. So we will see some increased confidence once market becomes bullish.

Yes, crypto is risky and it is highly rewarding for risk takers and it is not for the weak handed. If you want to make huge profits with crypto then you have to take those risks.

Yes, crypto is risky and it is highly rewarding for risk takers and it is not for the weak handed. If you want to make huge profits with crypto then you have to take those risks.

Right now there is no competitor to ethereum and others have a long way to go. ADA, EOS are still in their infant stage and a lot of development is required at their end before they could really change ethereum.

Right now there is no competitor to ethereum and others have a long way to go. ADA, EOS are still in their infant stage and a lot of development is required at their end before they could really change ethereum.

Yes, it is the future. Their developers are working hard to reduce transaction times and the transaction costs. Once that is done we will see many more ICOs and tokens being used on its network.

Yes, it is the future. Their developers are working hard to reduce transaction times and the transaction costs. Once that is done we will see many more ICOs and tokens being used on its network.

Just be patient don't try anything absurd else you will lose a lot of money. In times like this, patience is the key to making huge profits. money moves from impatient to a patient person only.

Just be patient don't try anything absurd else you will lose a lot of money. In times like this, patience is the key to making huge profits. money moves from impatient to a patient person only.

From 5-10 years fro now, we will see may improvements in this industry. We will see new and new coins taking over the market. Many of the coins/tokens from current time will be outdated by then.

From 5-10 years fro now, we will see may improvements in this industry. We will see new and new coins taking over the market. Many of the coins/tokens from current time will be outdated by then.

Time gap - 1 day

Yes, I think many altcoins outperform Bitcoin in tearms of upward price movement. This is because of market cap. Altcoins mostly have low caps which make it easier for them to move faster whereas bitcoin has a high market cap so even a hug investment makes it to move slow.

Yes, I think many altcoins outperform Bitcoin in tearms of upward price movement. This is because of market cap. Altcoins mostly have low caps which make it easier for them to move faster whereas bitcoin has a high market cap so even a hug investment makes it to move slow.

Time gap - 60 days and both the posts on the same page.

Trading stocks is like owning a percentage of company whereas trading crypto is like owning an asses/security whose value is mostly speculative

Trading stocks is like owning a percentage of company whereas trading crypto is like owning an asses/security whose value is mostly speculative

Now the user’s I had reported for duplicate posts would probably have the same pattern, not just one duplicate post. Apart from plagiarism/text spinning, I am not sure whether user’s indulging in duplicate posts (trashed) are banned?

This guy definitely earned a permaban.

Edit:

I don't know about perma ban, but temp ban should be for sure. Threads for these types of posts aren't really required. One or two reports should be enough(ask the mod to check post history and explain it clearly what the guy is doing in the report paragraph).

Not just about this user, reporting plagiarists/text spinners, I did come across a good number of user's posting duplicates of their own posts on the same thread or across multiple threads, so it was a generic question. Would such users be banned, temp/perm or only the post thrashed?

Most of the newbie queries related to Bitcoin are posted on Bitcoin discussion and then moved to beginners & help. At the same time, newbies asking questions about altcoin/ICO are although moved to beginners, but compared to Bitcoin, if 50% of questions are moved to/and clogging the general Bitcoin beginners, rest ends up in altcoin discussion to spam. Sometimes the reporter gets confused, report to beginners or altcoin discussion? An example:

How to Earn easy Merit?

Followed by:

What is ICO?

What is bounty?

How to analyze a scam ICO?...spinning, how should I recognize/find a good ICO/how to avoid scam, double spinning, what should I do before investing in an ICO?

KYC.

what's your reason joining here in crypto? etc.

Long list that doesn't have anything to do with discussion, but for guidance, alt board doesn't have it, 50 threads from discussion would have the same 20 from speculation, everything is mixed up. Since we have a big alt board, a bit further differentiating might be good, reporting it from discussion to find the same content on speculation to realize it's beginners is messy.

Compared to users copying posts exactly as they are, a greater number of users are indulging in text spinning/disguised plagiarism and getting away with spamming. The post might match 90% with the original or even 50%, but when compared, it's quite evident that it's a disguised copy of another user's post with some words changed and whatsoever no originality. For example:

coin costs preserve to fall sharply due to interventions from governments. In Korea, government are nonetheless considering viable closure of virtual forex flooring. no matter the closure of the digital foreign money floor last year, China nevertheless has greater aggressive measures against the digital foreign money enterprise.

In my opinion, coin prices continue to fall sharply because of interventions from governments. In Korea, authorities are still considering possible closure of virtual currency trading floors. Despite the closure of the virtual currency floor last year, China still has more aggressive measures against the virtual currency industry.

A newbie's better attempt at disguised plagiarism.

That is the thing that I thought multi month back. Be that as it may, now I question it. ETH's benefit is declining. Vitalik will lessen the reward for excavators by 80%. This can altogether diminish the ubiquity of these coins. I expect the cost of Eth against the dollar may increment however in connection to btc I expect a further decrease in the cost.

That's what I thought a month ago. But now I doubt it. ETH's profitability is declining. Vitalik is going to reduce the reward for miners by 80%. This can significantly reduce the popularity of these coins. I expect the price of Eth against the dollar may increase but in relation to btc I expect a further decline in the price.

Be it copying exactly or disguising it and posting, the end result is the same, unoriginal spam post. Would reporting such disguised posts would also result in users getting banned?

Edit: I reported these posts and the newbie account got banned, the other one is unhandled, and since three of the users I had reported on LoyceV's thread using same tactics got banned, probably this user will get banned.

There have been some threads created around Blockchain (decentralized Blockchain is the core) being adopted by Facebook/IBM/Microsoft/Alibaba etc and these are posted on Bitcoin discussion, including Blockchain development in Africa and similar threads. These definitely doesn't belong to altcoin discussion (have seen some threads in marketplace). They are real developments using Blockchain (be it even centralized), economics is apt, but some of these genuine responses gets overshadowed with crowding around geographical stats, rather than development.

PS: Specifically Blockchain for development, not just just an altcoin. But integrating it to existing business to expand the capabilities/business/potential with real usage and revenue.

Majority of Spammers/plagiarists post in megathreads. With a thread having less than 25 pages, choosing view all and having all the posts on a single page is quite easy to spot copy/paste content, but for a thread with more than 25 pages, "all" option is disabled. I tried the "print" option also, but.

An Error Has Occurred!
The topic is too large to fit on one page.

Is there a solution to get all the posts in a megathread to fit on one page?

Print used to work but for some reason doesn't anymore*. AFAIK "All" and print were the only [legacy] ways to view all posts.

^{*on lengthy threads}

Would have used the word investment instead of tool, but from the price movements (doesn't bother me, not in for the price). If bluntly put, it looks like there was no real adoption last year, just speculative bubbles popping through. Yeah, blame the media, blame MT.Gox, Tether report, whatever, but still on the surface it looks Bitcoin is just another penny stock. Manipulation is a real issue, isn't going to override it if legendaries on this forum comes up with counter arguments. Real world adoption, common phrase in crypto community, that's what needs to happen, and Bitcoin had it going in the beginning, now it ain't it. You have to infiltrate the real economy to have adoption. Behaving like an asset (gold argument, it became a store of value thousands of years after it was being used as a medium of exchange) is just 5 vs 1000, 5 replaced by another five still the same 1000, ping pong.

[Our industry has approached the Supreme Court of India to challenge the circular, as we feel it is counterproductive, and against the interest of citizens. As a responsible corporation, we regard customer-protection and market-integrity as our primary objectives. In light of that, please note that if Zebpay bank accounts are disrupted, rupee deposits and withdrawals will become impossible. This can cause discontinuation of crypto trade based on rupees, or at least cause significant price movements. This is something you should keep in mind if you choose to hold rupees in your Zebpay account.]

July 5 is set as the date when all the banks of India would stop offering their services to cryptocurrency exchanges. With just a couple of weeks to go, Zebpay has made an announcement that although for the time being Rupee withdrawals are functional, it could stop making deposits and withdrawals impossible. If I am right Supreme Court would hear all the pending crypto related petitions on July 20. Don't know if RBI would enforce its directive on July 5 or would wait till the hearing on July 20. IMO, keeping your funds on Indian exchanges be it Bitcoin or Rupee until July 5 wouldn't be a good option.

https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=43574

This is a VERY IMPORTANT announcement in light of the recent Reserve Bank of India circular: DBR.No.BP.BC.104 /08.13.102/2017-18 dated April 6, 2018.

Our industry has approached the Supreme Court of India to challenge the circular, as we feel it is counterproductive, and against the interest of citizens. As a responsible corporation, we regard customer-protection and market-integrity as our primary objectives. In light of that, please note that if Zebpay bank accounts are disrupted, rupee deposits and withdrawals will become impossible. This can cause discontinuation of crypto trade based on rupees, or at least cause significant price movements. This is something you should keep in mind if you choose to hold rupees in your Zebpay account.

Please note that you will not be able to withdraw rupees unless Zebpay has banking services that permit such withdrawal. Also, in case of disruption of banking services to Zebpay, you hereby indemnify Zebpay, and agree to hold Zebpay free and harmless at all times, against all claims, proceedings, expenses, costs, actions in the event of any prejudice and/or loss being caused to you by any act or omission by Zebpay or any other party, in regard to your rupee balance, transactions, trading, deposit, or withdrawal.

Of course, since our bank accounts are functional at the time writing this announcement, you are welcome to place a withdrawal request for your rupee balance. If you do that, we will endeavor to return your rupee balance to your bank account as soon as possible, so long as our banks support such withdrawal. If you choose to withdraw your rupees, please make sure to also cancel your unexecuted trade orders if any.

Regards,
Zebpay Team

[Now we’re about to take the model we’ve proven out at Earn.com and scale it up across Coinbase’s massive user base.]

Amazon's Mechanical Turk is the most popular micro jobs website with more than 500,000 registered workers from over 190 countries, majority of them from the US. There are a few Bitcoin freelance websites, including a couple of decentralized platforms, but compared to micro job websites, freelancing platforms require specialized skills to perform tasks whereas anyone can do micro jobs with basic internet knowledge. Additionally, if you compare Bitcoin/crypto freelance websites with any other freelancing platforms, majority of projects posted on the former are related to Blockchain technology, so a further division of skills which somewhat creates an entry barrier for people who are looking to earn some cryptocurrencies, but don't posses Blockchain/cryptocurrency related skills.

Last month, Coinbase acquired Earn.com for an estimated $100 million. The business model of earn.com is similar to that of any micro jobs website, users can earn free Bitcoin by answering emails and completing tasks/surveys. Compared to MTurk, Coinbase has more than 13,300,000 users and if Coinbase in the near future converts earn.com into a full-fledged micro jobs website, wouldn't it boost Bitcoin adoption? Yeah, you get pennies for completing micro jobs, but the point is they are not only popular in developing nations, but also in the US, Australia, Canada etc. Faucets were used to introduce people to Bitcoin (not anymore) and IMO, a micro jobs website owned by Coinbase (brand/recognition/free cryptocurrency) would be perfect to get people interested into cryptocurrencies.

As of today, Earn.com is a fast-growing, cash-flow positive business with a multimillion dollar revenue run rate. Hundreds of thousands of users have signed up to earn free cryptocurrency by answering emails and completing tasks. And thousands of senders have used Earn.com to send out paid emails and surveys to large audiences. I think it’s fair to say that it’s one of the first truly useful blockchain-based applications, where users can earn money in their spare time while senders can pay people to actually reply to their emails and fill out their surveys.

Now we’re about to take the model we’ve proven out at Earn.com and scale it up across Coinbase’s massive user base.

PS: Although there are decentralized alternatives to MTurk, I doubt they would be able to build a userbase like that of earn.com anytime soon.

https://medium.com/@balajis/the-turnaround-2d145589d814

Read an article on Medium, don't think it's going to get much claps, but the subject is a bit thought-provoking. About two billion in the world are unbanked and the major use case of Bitcoin is empowering these people and it's happening in Africa, Indonesia, and a few developing nations. Obviously, they are unbanked because they don't have basic identification documents, no KYC. Now the standard norm every country is adopting in regulating Bitcoin is enforcing KYC/AML laws. It could very well-be argued that you can buy/sell Bitcoin without KYC. About a month ago read a post on Reddit that LBC started doing KYC/AML, but again there are alternatives like Paxful and decentralized platforms like Bisq, but the point is compared to centralized platforms that are KYC/AML compliant the non-KYC ones have less liquidity, significant price difference, chances of getting scammed is very high.

If Know Your Client / Anti Money Laundery regulations (KYC/AML) were imposed to Bitcoin, then Bitcoin losses two of its main features which is openness and no legal infrastructure costs. KYC/AML regulations dramatically raise the barriers of entry for the poorest and also hinders Bitcoin for countless of legitimate use cases that would benefit all of us.

There are billions of unbanked people in the planet, and one of the reasons for that is that they could never overcome a KYC/AML process because they don´t have the means to prove their identity or they lack from the requirements necessary to comply with KYC/AML.

If we impose KYC/AML regulations on Bitcoin, then Bitcoin won’t make any difference from Dollars, Euros or VISA and the only ones that will be using Bitcoin will be the criminals, as criminals are indeed specialists in bypassing the laws, that’s their “job” (they will use TOR VPN´s or similar). It will be indeed a self fulfilling prophecy privileging the criminals, underpinning the bad use of Bitcoin and banning the many good and useful feautures of Bitcoin from being used by the honest and the poorest.

The only ones that will be using Bitcoin will be the criminals part is pure BS, but the unbanked trying to bypass laws not for the sake of anonymity or anything illegal, but regulations leaving them with no other choice. So with centralized licensed exchanges around the corner, would this create an entry barrier for the unbanked or would it establish some big players in decentralized exchanges?

PS: Guess I made contradictory statements , but it's the overall picture.

PS: Typos in the article.

https://medium.com/@manuelpolavieja/kyc-aml-or-how-to-make-bitcoin-the-privilege-of-the-criminals-b825cd822c18

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/8ct9kl/so_localbitcoins_started_doing_kycaml/

Physical Bitcoin or spending Bitcoin offline is a topic that has been discussed since 2010, from paper wallets to Casascius Coins to OpenDime. A point-of-sales (POS) terminal called Bitcoin Box was proposed in 2015, offline transactions using NFC, but seems like the project is dead. Offline Bitcoin payments posses a number of security challenges. A paper titled Secure Wallet-Assisted Offline Bitcoin Payments with Double-Spender Revocation was published last year. The paper proposes the first solution for secure Bitcoin offline payments using an offline wallet with several novel security mechanisms to prevent double-spending and to verify the coin validity in offline setting.

There are three phases:

1. Online Bitcoin preloading.

2. Offline Bitcoin payment.

3. Online redemption of coins and revocation of double spending attacks.

In the first phase, the payer X generates pre-loading transaction τl (step 1) that transfers some bitcoins from her standard Bitcoin account x to the offline wallet’s account w, so that the balance of w becomes positive. This is done by means of standard online Bitcoin transaction, for which the network generates n-transaction confirmation n -Tl. In the second phase the payer X requests W to generate an offline transaction τo with the desired amount destined to the account y (step 3). In the third phase, the payee Y redeems the bitcoins he received offline by broadcasting τo into the Bitcoin network (step 4) and optionally obtaining network confirmation n -To (step 5). The network confirmation will only be issued, if the network has not detected a double-spending attack against τo. Otherwise, the payee Y will trigger an optional double-spender revocation procedure, which includes sending a double-spender revocation transaction τr (step 6) to the Bitcoin network and obtaining corresponding confirmation n -Tr (step 7).

A secure offline Bitcoin payment system would be a big boost for adoption.

https://www.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/infk/inst-infsec/system-security-group-dam/research/publications/pub2017/asia084.pdf

http://www.thebitcoinbox.com/

PS: I am not good with technicalities, but did understand the basic outline so hopefully no technical questions

PS: To cover up for my lack of technical knowledge, there was another offline transactions idea proposed in 2013, quite simple to grasp, but might seem a tad absurd, How to use fiat currencies for Bitcoin offline transactions?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=305590.0

[“ASIC commoditization” refers to an imagined marketplace in the future, where there are many different manufacturers producing ASICs of comparable power and price point.]

In March, Bitmain announced Antminer X3, an ASIC miner for the CryptoNight algorithm, Monero, and just a couple of days ago it was Ethereum's turn, Antminer E3, an ASIC miner for the Ethash algorithm. Monero committed to ASIC resistance from the beginning hard forked yesterday to maintain status quo and the ETH community is pondering over different possibilities. Although ASICs are far more efficient and profitable than GPUs, like Monero, a few cryptocurrencies consider ASIC resistance being a major specification and are focused on maintaining it, all because of Bitmain's monopoly over ASIC miner manufacturing. Is it unethical if Bitmain uses its own hardware for private mining and thus centralizing mining sector and getting control over majority of network hashrate? It is/isn't because it's a free market and lack of competition. If I am not wrong Application Specific Integrated Circuit can be built for any algorithm, it's possible, depends on a coin's market cap, mining revenue/profitability, and cost of manufacturing ASICs. So basically ASIC development is inevitable, and crypto communities looking to maintain ASIC resistance have to do periodical hard forks, but is this strategy sustainable for long-term? Obviously, the long-term solution is ASIC commoditization.

“ASIC commoditization” refers to an imagined marketplace in the future, where there are many different manufacturers producing ASICs of comparable power and price point.

But how long will it take for ASIC production to transform from monopoly to a truly competitive environment?

All cryptocurrency developers who build public proof-of-work blockchains have to face the same challenge: Bitmain, a China-based chipmaker with a monopoly over ASIC miner manufacturing. Bitmain’s dominance over hash power and enormous influence is dangerous for peer-to-peer networks. It makes protocols vulnerable to censorship and rule-changes dictated by a single central authority, upsetting the checks and balances between the various stakeholders.

And yet — there are benefits to having ASICs on your network. Specialized hardware is extremely efficient, and boast far more hash power, and thus security, per unit of electricity. They’re more reliable than home-built GPU miners, and allow miners to specialize, professionalize, and scale up. Additionally, ASICs are algorithm-specific, and could align miner incentives better with a specific project compared to GPUs, which are much more flexible.

However, ASIC critics believe that silicon manufacturing is an inherently unfair game, where larger chipmakers can use economies of scale to undercut and extinguish competitors. In theory, ASIC-resistant networks wouldn’t be necessary if their creators believed the ASIC manufacturing industry could ever be a level playing field.

1. Why create ASIC-resistant networks?

As a result of ASICs, the idea of an average person mining profitably with their CPU or GPU disappeared. Bitcoin mining is no longer a purely decentralized and egalitarian pursuit, as it requires millions of dollars of capital to participate in. Only large mining companies have the resources to create a competitive ASIC, and they control the supply of this hardware to consumers. There’s a much higher barrier to entry to creating and using ASICs compared to GPUs or CPUs. Mining concentration from ASICs has resulted in pools controlling more than 51% of the hashrate at times, and Bitmain producing a majority of Bitcoin mining chips.

2. How does ASIC resistance work?

It’s important to note “ASIC resistant” doesn’t mean that making dedicated hardware can’t be done. It simply means that the mining algorithm makes it less economical or profitable to produce ASIC chips for the algorithm — not that ASICs are impossible to create.

The core of the disagreement around ASIC resistance comes down to your view on the chip manufacturing industry. Proponents of ASIC-resistance projects also believe ASIC commoditization is impossible, and that specialized hardware will always be vulnerable to monopolization at every step of the process (development, production, distribution). Their argument is that economies of scale and cheaper electricity will allow a few corporations to perpetually dominate the mining process. ASICs will always be fundamentally incompatible with the idea of a fair and distributed mining process, so pursuing GPUs make more sense.

3. Are ASICs inevitable?

In a successful and growing cryptocurrency network, ASIC development is inevitable. Even if the ASIC is not exponentially more efficient than GPUs, it becomes profitable at a certain point to create specialized hardware and mine it.

4. The risks of hard-forking away from ASICs

The most simple answer is to change the Proof of Work algorithm via a Hard Fork. ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) will only work for specific algorithms, so small changes can render them useless.

Changing the proof of work algorithm can successfully fend off ASICs once or twice, but the long term sustainability of this strategy is questionable. This game of ‘cat and mouse’ requires community consensus and good execution to keep tweaking the algorithm. As open source protocols grow and become more widely used, this consensus will inevitably be harder to achieve. At some point, community stakeholders might realise these constant forks are being done in vain.

Apart from requiring community consensus that will get harder to achieve over time, hard forking every time ASICs are conceived has many risks:

1. The introduction of new bugs or exploits, whether accidental or malicious in nature.

2. Hard forks will scatter the hash power on the network.

3. GPU mining is also susceptible to economies of scale and domination by vertically integrated companies like Bitmain.

4. ASIC developers could build more flexible FPGA designs that can adjust to small algorithm tweaks.

5. Can ASIC Commoditization happen fairly?

We are now starting to see increased competition and decentralization of bitcoin mining. This is due to a couple of factors:

Increased geographical distribution. Due to government crackdown, some mining operations are moving from China to Iceland, Canada, the US, etc.

An end to China’s cheap electricity policy.Cheap electricity in China allowed miners based there to undercut everyone else and make it unsustainable for those in other countries. However, the government’s crackdown has made this practice less common.

Other chipmakers such as Intel and Samsung have entered the game. Bitmain’s huge margins have forced other companies to get involved in the foundry business.

It’s taken bitcoin around 5+ years to begin this process, and it will take many more years to finish.

With Bitcoin’s price increasing 1000% in 2017, it’s inevitable that competitors will enter the chipmaking and mining market. Many new mining operations have sprung up, and many more plan to enter the market over the next year.

Bitcoin mining is trending towards decentralization and resembling of a commodity product, but this is a long and slow process. Samsung and Intel could eventually compete with Bitmain, but it will take a while.

6. What can we conclude about the future of ASIC mining?

Changing the proof of work algorithm often comes with costs and is a never ending game of cat and mouse. Developers can obviate this game by focusing on the creation of a fair and sustainable environment for ASIC production and development.

Allowing ASICs to develop means mining could be centralized for a time being while the market is immature. However, with the large margins enjoyed by Bitmain, other operations won’t be able to resist competing.

There is no easy way forward, but embracing ASICs is probably the best route. ASIC commoditization is a very complicated issue, and determining whether it’s likely to happen will require more input from foundries, miners, and other stakeholders in the ecosystem.

https://tokeneconomy.co/is-the-war-against-asics-worth-fighting-b12c6a714bed

[Mr. Market has another endearing characteristic: He doesn’t mind being ignored. If his quotation is uninteresting to you today, he will be back with a new one tomorrow. Transactions are strictly at your option.]

Prices falling – Signs of desperation – Emotional response – Reacting to predictions/Confirmation bias – Getting influenced by Mr. Crypto Market – Handing your happiness to Mr. Crypto Market.

Mr. Market, I guess most of us have heard about this hypothetical investor introduced by Benjamin Graham in his 1949 book "The Intelligent Investor". An investor who doesn't look at the big picture, fundamentals, long-term potential, but values the market according to his emotional responses, panic, euphoria and apathy. This is quite a common scenario in the nascent crypto market, prices going down, newbie investors getting deeply affected, emotions triggered, panic selling. The Mr. Market analogy is about a long term buy-and-hold strategy, crypto users preferred strategy, not saying it's the best, but obviously far better than emotionally reacting to market conditions.

1. If you're getting deeply affected by price then you're handing your happiness directly to the market, precisely linked to price.

2. You can decline Mr. Market's offer or ignore it, don’t have to check the price multiple times a day since he will soon come back with an entirely different offer.

3. You can stop caring about the price, and focus on the ideas behind crypto more.

He [Ben Graham] said that you should imagine market quotations as coming from a remarkably accommodating fellow named Mr. Market who is your partner in a private business. Without fail, Mr. Market appears daily and names a price at which he will either buy your interest or sell you his.

Even though the business that the two of you own may have economic characteristics that are stable, Mr. Market’s quotations will be anything but. For, sad to say, the poor fellow has incurable emotional problems. At times he feels euphoric and can see only the favorable factors affecting the business. When in that mood, he names a very high buy-sell price because he fears that you will snap up his interest and rob him of imminent gains. At other times he is depressed and can see nothing but trouble ahead for both the business and the world. On these occasions he will name a very low price, since he is terrified that you will unload your interest on him.

Mr. Market has another endearing characteristic: He doesn’t mind being ignored. If his quotation is uninteresting to you today, he will be back with a new one tomorrow. Transactions are strictly at your option. Under these conditions, the more manic-depressive his behavior, the better for you.

But, like Cinderella at the ball, you must heed one warning or everything will turn into pumpkins and mice: Mr. Market is there to serve you, not to guide you. It is his pocketbook, not his wisdom, that you will find useful. If he shows up some day in a particularly foolish mood, you are free to either ignore him or to take advantage of him, but it will be disastrous if you fall under his influence.

Anyone, or anything, bringing a present to the doorstep of your consciousness does not have to be accepted inside. They can be dealt with on the periphery, leaving the inner walls of your consciousness, and thereby happiness, untouched.

Not accepting a present at your experiential doorstep doesn’t mean you can bury your head in the sand, pretending that crypto isn’t now down 70% and you’re half as “rich” as you were at the start of the year.

But instead that you have a choice about how to handle and interpret this present that Mr. (Crypto) Market is bringing you. Maybe it even allows you to stop caring about the price, and focus on the ideas behind crypto more. I’ve found the ideas in crypto are always up and to the right.

If instead the present trashes the inner walls of your consciousness, then you are handing your happiness directly to the market, one of the most mercurial beasts alive. And in my opinion, missing the more important points— our mission to decentralize data, wealth and power.

Remember too, you can ignore Mr. Market. As Buffett writes, “He doesn’t mind being ignored. If his quotation is uninteresting to you today, he will be back with a new one tomorrow. Transactions are strictly at your option...Mr. Market is there to serve you, not to guide you.” There is nothing that compels you to check the market every day, or multiple times a day, or multiple times an hour.

In the coming years we’ll see a new all time high beyond what January 2018 represented. For me, this is not a matter of if, but of when.

But trying to predict when, or craving for when, is a recipe for suffering in crypto. So don’t get attached to the timing of the prediction, or the prediction at all :-) Meanwhile, do your best to sit in the roller coaster with equanimity.

A simple article on behavioral economics/psychology and guess a bit of spirituality as well, interesting read.

https://medium.com/@cburniske/handing-your-happiness-to-mr-crypto-market-d655da3927c2

[What is Cartel?]

This Bitcoin manipulation cartel article was published on Medium in February, strictly not sharing this to spread FUD, but simply to get an insight into the possibility of a coordinated effort to suppress Bitcoin price by a cartel (Government/financial elite). Since Bitcoin market is highly speculative, this cartel might just be a conspiracy theory, obvious/natural price correction/bear market after a bull run, low Bitcoin futures trading on CME, but if you look at the market behavior since the launch of futures, the possibility of a cartel functioning to suppress Bitcoin price can't be completely ignored. There are some comparisons made on how the cartel suppressed precious metals market through futures.

What is Cartel?

Cartel is collection of entities that work together to attain certain goal on behalf of the financial elite. Their goal is to control-the-price or suppress-the-price of a particular asset as desired by their ultimate boss (mostly government). Who is Government’s boss? It’s the financial elite.

They consist of Government agencies, big banks, Regulators & Media. They all work in a perfect synchronization to pull coordinated attacks to attain the goal of price-suppression. See what happened on Jan-30–2018 and Mar-07–2018? (many bad news hitting the market within hours of each other as Bitcoin was sitting on a critical support at 10K). Once 10K was broken the Cartel took over and started shoring Bitcoin like HELL. Today we almost hit 8K. (and we are again below 8K when this post was updated on Mar-18)

Why do they do this?

It’s all about Dollar Hegemony and money control. Bankers and governments have recognized that Bitcoin and Crypto in general is a threat to their existence. What do powers do when they see anything as a threat or enemy? You got it, they try to destroy the enemy (by all means). Therefore, It is extremely important for the Financial-elite to stop bitcoin’s rise so their show can continue.

Why only Gold, Silver & Bitcoin?

Why not Stocks, Bonds, ETF, Index funds, Mutual funds etc? The answer is in the previous question. “It’s all about Dollar Hegemony and money control”. When money flows into Gold, Silver and Bitcoin it shows that governments are bankrupt and their “Fiat” money is worthless. If these assets rise, all money will supply dry up and move into these assets. World will know the King has no cloths. When money stays in Stock and bond markets it supports Dollar trade. Therefore, it is very important that stock and bonds markets remain intact and have been kept elevated artificially.

In fact, you know what? There is a counter-party to Cartel in stock market and it is called — Plunge Protection Team — PPT. Cartel’s job is to keep Gold, Silver and Bitcoin markets suppressed while PPT’s job is to keep the stocks and Bond markets elevated.

Most of the Crypto community does not even believe Cartel exists or there is any kind of coordinated attack going on at Bitcoin. At the most they think it’s Whale or manipulators. They consider everything as “Coincidence”, and that is because it follows Technical Analysis (TA). Of course it will follow TA. The Cartel is investing trillions of dollars behind such efforts, do you think they don’t have highly paid chartists on their payroll? They pay $700 pa for their chartists. How may on Twitter-Bull have that income level?

So why did Bitcoin start going down exactly on the evening CME opened? It’s “Coincidence” according to the Bitcoiners. At 20K they were pitching for 100K, but now they say the correction was due anyway and we are seeing that normal 50% dip. This correction will soon be over and we will be going to 20 first and then the moon…so they say. First they said the correction is because BCH was listed at Coinbase, then they said its Tether subpoena, then they said No, No its Mt. Gox selling. Later on Mt.Gox changed his dates of selling. Market is still falling.

Cartel Feeds on FUD and Propaganda.

An EPIC war is being waged against Bitcoin. Eventually people’s money will WIN. But for now its going to be uphill task for bitcoin.

One day Cartel will lose control of the markets. That day will be EPIC. The prices of Bitcoin (and Gold/Silver) will rise astronomically.

Do anything but please DO NOT sell your Bitcoin to the Cartel. In fact, ADD more as they DUMP it on the market.

https://medium.com/@super.crypto1/4th-dimension-bitcoin-manipulation-cartel-can-it-be-burnt-no-way-c53de65c166a

PS: This article might sound like a grand conspiracy theory, but shared it since I think there is quite a bit of truth in it.

In January, Elite Fixtures conducted a research on the cost of mining a Bitcoin throughout the world. Since Bitcoin hit $20000 last year, the whole mining sector has expanded a lot. Bitcoin price and difficulty are positively correlated. Although miners are moving to locations with surplus hydropower and relatively moderate climate like Iceland, Quebec, according to this research, based on difficulty, utility company data, and different mining equipments there are a few other countries where mining is absolutely profitable and a few not at all suitable for mining. The break-even cost of mining a Bitcoin is as low as $531 to a staggering  $26,170.

1. Venezuela came in as the cheapest nation at $531.

2. South Korea comes in as the most expensive country for mining a single coin at $26,170.

3. The United States came in as the 41st cheapest country for mining at $4,758.

The cost to mine one bitcoin in 115 different countries based on average electricity rates according to government data, utility company data, and/or world reports from IEA, EIA, OANDA, etc. For the mining rigs, we used the AntMiner S9, the AntMiner S7, and the Avalon 6. We were able to calculate the numbers on how many days it would take to mine one coin and how much power that would use. Based on the mining difficulty when this study was finalized in early January 2018, the AntMiner S9 would use 17,773.344 kilowatts and take 548.56 days to mine a coin. The S7 would use 45,889.008 kilowatts and take 1580.2 days, and the Avalon 6 would use 55,294.344 kilowatts and take 2194.22 days for a single coin.

https://www.elitefixtures.com/blog/post/2683/bitcoin-mining-costs-by-country/

I got this image from an article titled whose problem does Bitcoin solve published in 2015, a bit old. Technology/Internet money/Blockchain/Internet of Things. Bitcoin futures was sort of a mainstream moment and the Wall Street is already looking for their cut. Financial refugees/corruption/remittances/unbanked. Cryptoanarchists/privacy/freedom of speech/political freedom/economic freedom/no regulation. Libertarians/no central banks/no monopoly money/stateless. Middle class/debt/debtors/institutionalized to fiat system.

Internet money/ecommerce/micropayments/and like the owner of Square tweeted yesterday Bitcoin can become the single global currency of the internet. Wall Street/Institutional money/mainstream financial asset/manipulation can't be ruled out. Cryptoanarchism, not necessarily dark web related/illegal, more about stateless society/counter-economy which is self-regulated with absolute freedom. Distrust in central banking/no debt based money/no flawed monetary policies/financial crisis/free banking. Middle class/people invested into Bitcoin to make rich off it/few people paying off their debt with Bitcoin/few people taking loans to buy Bitcoin.

Internet money and Wall Street is a work in progress. I don't think it would be wrong to assume that a good number of Bitcoin users tend to have a cryptoanarchist or libertarian mindset, but still voluntary. With each bull run, FOMO brings in new users maybe with no ideologies, just don't want to miss out, but as the market swings towards bear mode, they panic/leave, obviously speculation, apart from Cryptoanarchism/libertarianism/speculation, an average Joe is yet to find/see a solution in Bitcoin and I guess when that happens Bitcoin would be mainstream, but it would be the biggest challenge, to get an average user interested in Bitcoin and retain.

$100K is the magic figure for all Bitcoin enthusiasts. A lot of predictions have been made, mostly random without much substance. This article explains how Bitcoin’s substantive & technical road to $100K would, not an investment advice, but still better than random predictions.

1. Offshore bank accounts and the first unseizable asset.

Bitcoin as a store of wealth. Assuming there are $13.5 trillion hidden in offshore bank accounts, if 2% of this wealth gets reallocated to bitcoins, that would make for a price of $16,038.43 per BTC.

2. Gold market share and decentralized store of value.

The same utility, store of value and getting gold market shares. This isn't going to be easy, but if Bitcoin captures 5% of gold’s $8.9 trillion global market cap, we are looking at $26,439.35 per BTC.

3. Debit, credit cards and the lightening network.

Bitcoin's scalbility issues have led to merchants abandoning Bitcoin as a medium of exchange, but LN could significantly cut the costs making it enticing for both small and big businesses alike. If the Bitcoin protocol can claim 1.55% of the global payment processing market share, not including cash, that would bring us to $23,679.20 per BTC. IMO, of all the paths leading to $100K, LN would be the deciding.

4. Global remittances, Stock markets, United States dollar in circulation and Rootstock smart contracts.

Remmittances are backbone of many economies, especially developing countries and this one of the main sectors that Bitcoin has the potential to be extremely useful.

Stock market/cryptoassets.

International commodities and transactions are typically priced in USD. Cryptocurrency markets are priced in BTC. To be fair, we will not use the $83.6 trillion figure of all M1 & M2 money supply but instead use the circulating supply of USD, estimated at $1.5 trillion. The sum of global remittances, stock market, and USD in circulation totals $67.374 trillion. Dividing this number by the BTC available supply then using 0.8% of the division, we arrive at $32,729.80 per BTC.

Next to the Lightning Network, Rootstock smart contract platform (RSK) is the most awaited upgrade to the Bitcoin protocol which would enable side-chain, layer-2 application featuring merge mining from the base-immutable-layer and a two-way peg from BTC to Smart Bitcoins (SBTC).

McAfee had prophesized that Bitcoin would hit $1 million by 2020 and this author believes BTC will reach $100K by February 5, 2023, assumptions, but from a technical perspective, adoption based on utility, getting better of competitors, Bitcoin has the potential to hit $100K, but when? No one knows.

https://hackernoon.com/bitcoins-substantive-technical-road-to-100k-2637b899ffc5

@STATIK Sure, I will PM you

Last year Coinbase had announced that they were planning to implement Segwit this year. According to their recent tweet, final testing phase of Segwit has begun and SegWit compatible Bitcoin sends/receives will be available for customers in the next few weeks.

Our engineering team has begun the final testing phase of SegWit for Bitcoin on Coinbase.

SegWit compatible Bitcoin sends/receives will be available for customers in the next few weeks.

https://twitter.com/coinbase/status/960656993122844673

https://blog.coinbase.com/bitcoin-segwit-update-3ab0484e4526

Blockchain technology is definitely groundbreaking, a revolutionary innovation which could almost be used for everything, but at this point in time there is more hype than disruption. The vast majority of ICOs/startups are not leading the cryptocurrency disruptive charge, but capitalizing on it. The Blockchain ecosystem is getting primarily used as a medium of trading and investing. Even with Bitcoin it was about an alternative currency, disrupting the financial/banking sector, now it wouldn't be wrong to admit that it has somewhat become a speculative trading tool.

What do you think, would Blockchain’s first major use case would be as the stock market 2.0, cryptocurrency markets over traditional stock markets, cryptoassets over stocks?

Most new blockchain tokens fail to adequately justify their existence. We’ve seen blockchain shoehorned into almost every type of business — from online marketplaces, to dating websites, to discount cards. The blockchain ecosystem is beginning to sound like a particularly bad startup pitch competition.

•   ‘We’re airbnb but with blockchain!’ — beetoken
•   ‘We’re grocery delivery with our own cryptocurrency!’ — ufoodo
•   ‘We take a perfectly legitimate business and mangle it until we can somehow justify having our own token!’ — aeron

Disrupting the stock market is an ambitious but not unheard of goal. But could the cryptocurrency market be one of these challengers? It is clear that for many people crypto trading fulfills the same niche as investing in stocks.

Institutions dedicated to the stock market have started dealing with the cryptocurrency markets as well.

Banking heavyweight Morgan Stanley estimated that 2 billion dollars were poured into crypto from hedge funds over the last year.

TraderView, a social community and tools for stock traders, has listed many major cryptocurrency pairs on its site.

Weiss index, a company which assigns letter grades to stocks, posted it’s first cryptocurrency rankings.

And Robinhood, an app that has brought stock trading to a new generation of investors, announced plans to start offering ethereum and bitcoin on its platform.

2017 also saw major companies launch their own cryptocurrencies. Kik, a Canadian chat giant launched a 97 million dollar ICO in August.

Overstock followed suit in December raising 100 million dollars for its OSTK token. Their token is a security and registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kodak, a household name in cameras and photography, announced it’s plans to hold an ICO.

The majority of new investors trade in cryptocurrency and nothing else. Stock markets around the world have begun to slide into obscurity.

Is this a moonshot speculation? Maybe. The stock market is a large and ancient institution. But disruption of the financial sector has long been a rallying cry of blockchain enthusiasts. Until recently we’ve been focussed on currency and banking. Maybe it’s time we look at stocks and investment?

https://hackernoon.com/blockchains-first-major-use-case-is-as-the-stock-market-2-0-8d916ea0bc00