You would have thought that the "testing" of the first physically-settled bitcoin futures by Bakkt would have made some ripples in the pond by now, but it is either a born dead baby or the ripples in the pond has been over hyped by the media and the response to this announcement were anticipated and priced into the market.  It is either that or the market anticipates that this "testing" is just a marketing gimick, because the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has not approved this new product yet.  Anyone know anything more about this and/or participated in this testing? |
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I just realized speculators add some value to all of us, when they cause spikes in the price. I am a hoarder through and through, but I like to support Bitcoin merchants by buying and paying with bitcoin for some food and drinks on a daily basis. This is the only way to make sure that there would be a continuous demand for coins, if we "feed" the merchants that supports us. So my strategy has always been to use +/- 20% of all the coins I buy... and most of these coins are spend daily on food and drinks. I buy the odd hamburger and chips or Taco and drinks at a local street food merchant that accepts Bitcoin. This gets me to the point of my topic and that is that speculators can have a positive influence on my spending habits and the amount of coins that I spend. If they push up the price, I get to spend less coins. A Taco and Cooldrink cost about say 0.0004 BTC today and when they drive up the price, I can spend less coins the next day, when that same food costs say 0.0003 BTC  Some people stop spending coins, when the price is too low and that is bad for the whole Bitcoin ecosystem. Some people hate these speculators, but I love it when they push up the price and I can spend less coins.  |
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As we already know, Trump tweeted that he does not like Bitcoin and this was triggered by the threat that Libra pose for the US Dollar. I personally think his opinion is shortsighted and he is going to throw the baby out with the bath water, when he puts a blanket ban or strict regulations on Bitcoin. He says his campaign is focused on putting America first, but he wants to restrict a technology that brings new innovation and new job opportunities to his country. He is also ignoring the advantages of having a new source of international capital flowing into the USA from Bitcoin tourism and also people buying goods via the internet and paying with Bitcoin at local online merchants. Bitcoin as an investment opportunity has also created a lot of wealth for a lot of people since 2009, because the price of Bitcoin generated massive profits for the clever investor. <Long-term investors> Bitcoin has advantages and disadvantages and simply ignoring the advantages would be a huge mistake. Let's show the Trump administration what the advantages of this technology is, before they make that mistake. |
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We are seeing more and more platforms like https://localbitcoins.com/ closing the opportunity for people to trade bitcoins anonymously and the other alternative to do this is not well known or not trustworthy. An alternative method of trading Bitcoin anonymously has also been trading between friends and family and also trading with people you get to know at Bitcoin meetups. Do you trade Bitcoin with people at your local meetup or do you not trust them? I have got to known several people at these meetups and we trade often, but I do not know if this is standard practice with other people in other local meetups. Please share your experience with trading with other people at your local meetups.  |
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Blockchain based technologies are suddenly a trend and every Tom, Dick and Harry wants it's company to develop their own Blockchain based technology. We also saw huge corporations like Facebook getting in on the action with Libra and this will spark copy cats from trying the same. The question is, will our skilled Bitcoin developers abandon Bitcoin when these large companies approach them to work on their projects or would they stand firm against these money bags? What will Bitcoin be without these people working hard behind the scenes to constantly improve and secure the technology for us all?  |
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I have to start with some background information first to explain this. About a year ago, we held a open day for "newbies" at our local Bitcoin meetup and we encouraged members to bring "newbies" to the meetup for a introduction session on what Bitcoin is and how to buy your first bitcoins. During this event, older members helped newbies to create their first wallets and we showed them how to buy their first coins. We also created a WhatsApp support group for these people to assist them "free of charge" for 3 months to manage and to protect their coins. I am glad to report that 100% of them held onto those coins and 100% of them made a profit a year later.  We have been getting a flood of gratitude from these people and some of them even managed to pay off their personal debt with the profit they made or paid for their children's tuition fees for their studies. Yes, a bump in the price is nice, but the smile on someone's face when this technology changed their actual financial position, is priceless. |
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"A recent hacker attack was a threat not only to users but also to Coinbase employees. Mozilla Firefox assigned the threat the highest level of danger, declaring it a “zero-day” vulnerability. Fortunately, the attack was stopped, and all means are safe." https://cryptobit.media/en/news/exchanges/1692/*Please update your Mozilla Firefox products and Firefox ESR to the latest version, if you are using Firefox as your browser, because one of the biggest exchanges are being targeted by these exploits now.  |
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This is a simple question, but one with a much deeper meaning. Have you ever considered the reason behind your gambling habit or in some cases addiction? Do you gamble for fun or do you gamble for potential profit? Do you gamble because you are bored or because you have some medical condition that prevents you from going out to experience other type of entertainment? Do you gamble, because you hope that a big jackpot will solve all your debt problems or that a big jackpot would fund your dreams? We should always consider why we do specific things in life and if those things are constructive or damaging in some way and then evaluate our actions to prevent harmful situations. Looking forward to your responses.  |
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I pay for my monthly satellite TV subscription with a bank transfer and for some obscure reason I forgot to pay it this month. I was still watching the World cup Cricket tournament, when a message popped up, saying that my account was in the arrears and they blocked my viewing. I immediately logged into my internet Banking and checked my payment history and realized that I skipped that payment for some reason, so I made the payment and thought I would wait for a hour or two and then resume viewing. Noooot! 8 HOURS passed, I phoned the company and they informed me that the payment is not reflected on their system yet, so I waited another 4 hours and phoned them again. <still Nothing> A whole 21 hours later the payment went through and I could continue viewing, but the match I wanted to see was finished. If I paid with Bitcoin, this same payment would have taken less than 20 minutes at most, but unfortunately this Satelite provider does not accept Bitcoin payment for this service. |
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So many people have experienced the last all time high of a Bitcoin price high above $18 000 in 2017 and they invested loads of money into a dream of a better future, if the price goes back to $18 000 or much higher than that. Now, I am not saying that there is something wrong with having those dreams of making massive profits and funding future projects, because it is still a possibility. I think the focus should rather be for us to take baby steps to that goal and the way for us to do that is to take small profits when the opportunity presents it self. The concept of buying low and selling high is as old as the mountains, but it is just as affective if you do it more frequently. The Bitcoin price has recovered from the all time low with more than 20% and many people are waiting for it to bounce back to 60% or 80% before they start taking profits again. If you were one of the unlucky people who bought in at the all time high, you obviously have to wait for the price to recover to your entry price to break even or to make a profit when it pass that price, but there are enough volatility now to get in at a new low price and then taking small profits based on the smaller recovery increments. If you re-invested at say $5000 and you sold lately at $8000, you could have reduced your precentage loss for the investments that you have done at a buy in price of $18 000. <If you do not want to wait for the $18 000+ price to come around again> A buddy of mine has done this and he wiped out his potential loss within a few months, by simply buying in low again and selling at more frequent intervals. Ps. Also remember to spend at least 20% of all the coins you buy, to feed the merchant network and use case for Bitcoin, or it will die as a currency. |
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I do not know if this might be the cause of the sudden drop in the price, but we know the MtGox trustees like to dump coins on the exchanges, when there is a increase in the price. Can someone check the known Bitcoin addresses for the MtGox coins and see if there was significant movement in those coins? Those idiots could care less about the impact on the price, if they sell those coins on public exchanges. A lot of people asked them to use OTC platforms, but the trustees still sold coins on exchanges. Ps. I have no facts to support my claims, but it has happened before when the price increased and all signs are pointing to coins being dumped on Asian exchanges. |
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We regularly read FUD articles in the popular media about Bitcoin being used in scams and that it is a perfect tool for scammers to hide their activities and the movie industry already labelled Bitcoin as the Internet of Money for the DarkNet. I am currently watching a series called, " Undercover: Nailing the Fraudsters" and most of the scams featured there are done within a regulated environment. Boiler room scammers are not requesting payment in Crypto currencies to hide their activities, they get the victims to deposit money via their Bank accounts into their Bank accounts. <obviously created with fake ID documents> In business, the term boiler room refers to an outbound call center selling questionable investments by telephone. It usually refers to a room where salesmen work using unfair, dishonest sales tactics, sometimes selling penny stocks, private placements or committing outright stock fraud. - Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiler_room_(business) So, next time when someone tells you that Crypto currencies are used for scams, please highlight the fact that most scams are still being done under the nose of the regulated financial industry. |
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Lately there are many people obsessed with finding Satoshi Nakamoto again and the research that they are doing is getting very detailed in comparison with the research that I have seen from previous years. Do you think with the improvement of forensic technology and analysis, that it would be possible to find Satoshi Nakamoto in the future? I am amazed with the research that was done so far and I think we would eventually get very close to Satoshi Nakamoto's real identity. The reason why I say this is based on how DNA technology helped to solve many crimes, after it was developed and used in 1986. Lately they even found Serial murderers based on their genetic link to family members who had their DNA logged on some medical database. So please make your prediction and decide if you think that there are a good chance that Satoshi's real identity might be discovered in the future? Let's discuss. |
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Last weekend I spend some time with some of my relatives and one of them were playing a online game called, Forge of Empires. This is a browser-based strategy game with more than 10 million registered users  The main goal of the game is to expand and develop a city beginning from the Stone Age and ending in the Virtual Future. (They even have Crypto currencies as a tradable commodity within the game) <Well, not actual Crypto currencies, just a in-game commodity> So after watching my nephew playing for 1 hour and talking to him, he revealed to me that he spend over $1000 on buying virtual diamonds in the game. <in 6 months> We started talking about real Crypto currencies and he immediately started the argument that Crypto currencies are "fake" money and that it was not real money or even a commodity. My counter argument floored him, because I asked him if the diamonds that he bought in the game was real or if the items that he bought in the game was real.? His whole perspective on Crypto currencies changed, when he realized that digital items can have a value and that the virtual items that he bought within the game had less value than the bitcoins that can be bought and sold. He asked me to help him buy some bitcoins and he was very happy after a week, when he saw his investment in the supposed "fake" money, going up in value when the price increased. Should we confront more people with the argument that most of the digital items that are bought online, might have less value than Crypto currencies. Ps. I emailed the developers of the game <InnoGames> and asked them if they might consider accepting Bitcoin as a payment option, but they gave the generic answer that they are open to new payment options, but they cannot give a timeframe for when this might happen. <I think more people should ask them> |
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Most large Bitcoin buy orders are being done on Over the Counter (OTC) trading platforms and they have zero influence on the Bitcoin price. I was just wondering if Hedge funds and large private buyers could execute their buy orders on exchanges <pre-arranged with these exchanges to prevent hassles> They can still execute their Sell orders on OTC platforms, away from exchanges, because Sell orders will push down the price. We just need a few of these large buy orders to give us a spark for a new Bull run again. Why do we need people to resort to algorithmic trading to hide $300 000 000 buy orders? Let's just push some high value buy orders through some exchanges and see what happens after that. They can then go back to Over the Counter (OTC) trading platforms, after they started the next Bull run. <Let's give the people some reward for their months of Hoarding, since 2017.> |
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Ok, I might have some difficulty explaining the concept, but the background for this is simple. Let's say the US SEC wants to make sure that global Bitcoin exchange prices cannot influence the Bitcoin price in their regulated market, would it not be easier for them to just allow price determination based on trading prices within exchanges that adhere to their regulations? Let's say, they can introduce specific guidelines with rules that needs to be adhered to for exchanges to be included in their market and for price determination. If exchanges adhere to these requirements, then institutional investments can be based on your exchange trading volume, but if you do not adhere to these requirements, your exchange price will be ignored? Can a separate market like this, help to reduce Bitcoin price manipulation for local markets that wants strict control over price manipulation and can they operate independently from a global Bitcoin market? Ps.. I am not a professional trader, so my lingo might be wrong, so I hope you can understand what I am saying. Merit goes to the person that puts this in a post that explains this with the correct terminology for everyone to understand. |
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This weekend I logged into my local exchange and when I wanted to sell a little bit of coins, Kaspersky Anti-virus popped up to warn me of a possible hack attempt. The moment when I clicked on SELL, it wanted to re-direct me to some cloud storage site, but luckily Kaspersky picked it up. Is there some SQL Injection type of an attack that makes it possible to execute malicious code between your browser and the exchange software to redirect you to cloud services or other sites, when you want to SELL bitcoins? I do not want to post screenshots, because I do not want people to know what local exchanges I use. I will post something if the helpdesk responds to my queries. |
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I know "Brick n Mortar" casinos have special counseling and advisors on call for people with gambling addiction and they also apply some measures for the gamblers with gambling addiction to "ban" themselves. How can online gambling sites deal with gambling addiction? The Brick n Mortar" gambling sites have a social responsibility and local licensing requirements than needs to be adhered to for them to operate in a specific country or town, so they cannot avoid doing this. Please give your inputs and ideas on how this can be done with online gambling sites. |
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The latest attack by one crazy individual and some money that was invested in the Ponzi scheme, Bitconnect, now automatically ties many people in the Crypto currency community to Right wing extremists. <If you believe all the crap that are posted on the Internet now> The book, The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism by the author David Golumbia are one of these examples that are frequently quoted. Bitcoin’s early origin in right-libertarian Anarcho-capitalism is also used as a tool to blemish it's reputation. A lot of other people have since then, started to use Bitcoin and most of them do not even support these political groups. How many people in your circle of friends and family are into Right-Wing Extremism? <I know 1000s of people who has no political connection to these extremist groups> Let's not label a whole group of people, if a small minority of them use the technology for their extremist agendas. <The shooter used cash and credit cards too, so we should automatically label all cash and credit card users as Right-Wing Extremism too?> |
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Ok, this is only my own observation, but I think it might be very accurate if you are looking at the more recent Bitcoin price trends. We all know that Bitcoin whales are still manipulating the Bitcoin price. <Yes, it might not be a huge influence, but it is still happening> I think a lot of these Bitcoin whales might be losing momentum now, because we only see the price going slightly above $4000 and then they take profits and the price goes down below $4000 again. <They are playing around within a $400 to $500 price range for their profits now> We also know that Bitcoin whales will decline over time as more coins are distributed from them and hoarded by more users. This process are slowly gaining momentum. <The $400 to $500 price increase is simply not enough incentive to tempt hoarders to start selling their coins again.> Do you see this same pattern or am I imagining this? |
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