This thread is a follow-up of the previous thread I created, regarding a lost XRP deposit. For those who haven't read it and have limited time, I'll summarize.

(https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5408926.0)

I tried depositing XRP from Kraken to Binance, my deposit was never credited to my account and got me frustrated, thinking I've done something wrong. After several users suggested, I contacted Binance, and they told me that this wasn't their XRP address and recommended me to install Binance's app on my phone. To my surprise, the address I had on my phone was different from the one in my computer. Same thing occurred if I tried depositing other coins, such as BTC or ETH. I was baffled, the support agent mentioned that it's probably a malware on my computer.

I started with antivirus scans using Windows Defender and Malwarebytes, however, both showed no results. A few users suggested that it could be an extension on Chrome, decided to check, but nothing looked suspicious at first.

Google Sheets, Zen Mate, Ublock, Grammarly etc… Nothing suspicious, right? Except the fact that I don't recall installing the Google Sheets extension, but didn't think much of it, since I use Google services a lot (Drive, Docs, Excel), but noticed that for some strange reason, the name was grayed out, but the other extensions weren't.

I deleted the extension and Binance is now showing the proper address. Upon further investigation and opening its source file, it has a Javascript code that switches coin addresses with the scammer's address. On top of that, whenever I searched the scammer's XRP or BTC address, the tab would crash.





The issue is that I don't recall installing something like this on my own, unless it popped up and accepted its installation without realizing it. The extension's folder was created on 23/07/2022, it's relatively new and can't remember if I downloaded any pirate software or what else.

This time I was extremely lucky, because a few days ago I was actually planning on moving my funds from Binance in an attempt to find a better APY. Chances are, that I would have lost my money.

Hello, I decided to move some XRP I had in Kraken to Binance, but the withdrawal was never received in Binance. I'm pretty sure I did everything correctly, or at least hope to.

This is my deposit address on Binance, I used the same deposit address and MEMO on Kraken, while I made sure the selected network was "Ripple"




Kraken shows that it has gone through, but I never received it on Binance. It was only a petty amount, but I was curious on what I did wrong. Does anyone have any idea?

Transaction TX: https://bithomp.com/explorer/AD1341C6788BEDE72025DEDD21112B6F23356E6C10AF59BD8AA0C75A379EE879

Thanks in advance

Edit: Fake extension found, more information here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5409045

Crude oil has dropped below $100, the first time in months after touching the highest level since 2009, at $130/barrel. Oil prices have dropped the past two months, with both Brent and WTI Crude trending below the $100 level ($91 for WTI and $97 for Brent oil). According to Oilprices.com, consumers have already seen a slight relief in gas prices, dropping from the historic average of $5/gallon down to $4.16.

Haven't checked in other European countries, but in Greece it has only dropped a few cents till now, I'm expecting it to drop within the next week though (from €2.45 to €2.20 in my area at least). It is believed that oil could fall below $90 if inflation persists, something which is highly unlikely to change since it simply keeps rising, driving leading to large price increases in basic necessary goods.

Have you seen any significant drop in gas prices in your area? Will oil drop even further, despite the ongoing war?

First of all, this thread will be self-moderated not because I want to delete posts that do not match my liking/opinion, but due to some very specific members who tend to trash every thread in P&S. Now that we've cleared things up, let's move to the main subject of this thread.

"Military conscription is the mandatory enlistment of citizens for military service." Conscription has considerably declined since 1970, but there are still quite a few countries who haven't abandoned such practices. Currently, according to TheSoldiersProject.org*, there are 49 countries with mandatory military enlistment, which are quite a lot. We're not going to go through every one of them, but some of them are:

• Israel
• Bermuda
• Brazil
• Cyprus
• Greece
• Iran
• North Korea
• South Korea
• Mexico
• Russia
• Switzerland

I'm from Greece, military conscription is mandatory and was recently increased from 9 months to 12. While I understand why some countries require their citizens to serve in the military, 12 months is a long period for someone in a relationship, working and is paying rent on a monthly basis. It's not that simple to abandon everything and not being given another option. I don't know what happens in other countries, but here, apart from the first one-two months training, it's a somewhat useless practice which claims a whole year from your life and savings.

I cannot afford to not work for a whole year, while on top of that, I'll lose the ability to apply for unemployment benefits if for whatever reason I do not want/can work after returning from the military. A large amount of Greeks here work in the tourism sector, mostly from April to October/November, and then claiming unemployment benefits.

Have you served the military? What are your thoughts about mandatory enlistment? Personally, I find it extremely intrusive, often interferes with your educational and financial path, practically forcing you to abandon a decent job you might have landed. From what you've understood, I've yet to serve in the military and am currently in a huge dilemma, while avoiding it isn't an easy option.

* Source: https://www.thesoldiersproject.org/countries-have-compulsory-military-service/

For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. dollar has been surging so much that the Euro sinks towards parity with the Dollar, currently trading at €1/$1.01, being almost equal. This is a threat to both Europe and USA, since imports are now much more costly for Europe. The exchange rate is also driving oil prices up, since purchasing a barrel of oil valued at $100, now costs €98-99 for Europe, while a few months ago, the same barrel would cost €80-90 at most.

Goldman Sachs warned that the Eurozone is on the edge of recession, especially with Russia's decision to cut CNG supplies to Europe, resulting in huge surges in prices.  While the war in Ukraine hasn't affected USA as much as it has Europe, it has magnified oil and gas prices, punishing European consumers with the surging living costs.

What are your thoughts? Will Euro's value fall lower than the U.S. Dollar? One thing is certain though, we're going to go through a tough time in the very near future.
Sources:
https://fortune.com/2022/07/07/us-dollar-euro-nearly-equal-value-economy-inflation/
https://www.ft.com/content/48c7041f-1fa4-42ee-99f6-4a5955668fb6

Edit: Thanks LoyceMobile, I meant to say that U.S. exports are much more costly for Europe, bad phrasing.

Hello there, didn't know where exactly to post this thread, but since it's Bitcoin related, I thought that this board should do just fine. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

I'm currently in the second semester of the Master's Degree I'm attending, in Management and Digital Transformation. The next and last semester is consisted of a master thesis, however, I'm totally clueless on what subject to choose. Previously, on my Bachelor's Degree, I had done research for Covid-19, which is still an intriguing subject, but I'd prefer to try something different.

My idea is to do something Cryptocurrency related, either with Bitcoin or even Decentralized Finance (DeFi), however, I haven't decided yet, any ideas on which subject to cover? I'm hoping that more experienced members here could possibly answer my main concern, which is whether I can find reputable and valid sources for such a subject. For instance, when writing a medical thesis, you can resort to a few well-known websites such as ECDC, WHO or even Medical Publications. What about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, though? Will I have difficulties finding decent sources?

Moreover, I'm not really a theoretical type of person, I'm good with finding and analyzing data, what kind of analysis could I possibly conduct for such a subject? Their usage, the increasing market cap over the years? Any interesting ideas?

Thanks in advance

It's official, USA is banning the right for women to have an abortion, revoking Roe v. Wade (1973), a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion. We're practically running 50 years behind, something that was fought for in the past is now banned, a right that many developing countries are fighting for (In India for instance, it's only allowed for very specific cases and is often overlooked).

Honestly, I'd never expect the USA to revoke such a right, we're not in the 19th century anymore, but yet, the U.S. Supreme Court is revoking such rights, with over 13 states quickly adopting the ban.

Today it's abortion, tomorrow it could be something else, like LGBT rights or who knows what else.

What's your take on this matter?

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/24/global-reaction-roe-abortion-supreme-court/
https://news.trust.org/item/20201231112641-qfynt/

Hello there,
I'm not the kind of guy who bothers about its price and any predictions that pop-up, because I haven't let the downtrend affect me. I'm planning to accumulate as much Bitcoin as I can and hold it for a long period. However, an article was trending on my news feed and decided to check it out. According to the article, Bitcoin was supposedly capable of avoiding inflation, although, it seems to have been severely affected by it. The change in risk appetite, the tightening of monetary policies and the withdrawal of liquidity from the markets and, finally, the rapid rise in inflation show that the cryptocurrency market has been severely impacted.



George Savakis, with the help of the analyst Dimitris Tsantoy, a member of Elliot Wave trader community, are predicting a correction down to $20.000 - $23.000, while claiming that as long as Bitcoin is below $35.000, it's extremely unlikely to see a market recovery.

Source: https://www.euro2day.gr/investments/crypto/article/2136805/h-tehnikh-analysh-deihnei-nea-ptosh-toy-bitcoin-to.html


Translated to English:
https://www-euro2day-gr.translate.goog/investments/crypto/article/2136805/h-tehnikh-analysh-deihnei-nea-ptosh-toy-bitcoin-to.html?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=el&_x_tr_hl=el&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Hello there,
I tried accessing TrustDice today, which is one of the first cryptocurrency casino's I've been introduced into, but it wouldn't load, claiming that "Connection is not private". I thought something was fishy at the moment, but quickly realized that it was actually blocked by my ISP.



How should I deal with such an issue? I certainly thought of using a VPN, but I only have a free one, meaning that it could easily be used by another person on the website simultaneously, which could potentially lead to a ban. Stake and Fortunejack are also banned, after making a few guesses, Roobet still works fine.

Due to the ongoing war, inflation along with fuel prices have skyrocketed among the globe, with households not being able to keep up with the increased living costs. However, the impact of the increased living costs differ from country to country.

Let's take Greece's case for instance, which is the country of my residency. According to CNN Greece and MurciaToday, it has the third more expensive fuel in Europe, averaging 2.17€/liter of 95 unleaded, right after Finland and Denmark at 2.218€/liter and 2.208€/liter respectively. On top of that, the average mentioned price isn't that accurate anymore, due to the article being two days old already and the prices are increasing on a daily basis. The average is close to 2.20-2.22€/liter, but that could also be valid for the other two mentioned countries.

However, Denmark and Finland have one of the highest salaries and considerably best living conditions in Europe. Denmark on the one hand, doesn't feature an official minimum wage, but statistics show that the average income per individual is $2580 (~2450 euros). Finland on the other hand, also doesn't have an official minimum wage imposed, however the minimum salary someone can expect starts from €1.500 to €2.500. Greece's minimum wage however, doesn't exceed €713 before taxes. It's pretty obvious that you can easily see the difference.

The Greek citizens are suffering from the increased living costs, since everything has skyrocketed in price, from daily expenses such as gas and going to the supermarket, to electricity and utility bills. Personally, in my area petrol costs €2.35/liter, while I had to pay €300 for my electricity bill (4 months period), while increases in daily groceries have surpassed 20% in some products, such as meat and vegetables.

Sources: https://m.murciatoday.com/diesel_prices_in_spain_exceed_eu_average_for_first_time_1776291-a.html

https://www.cnn.gr/oikonomia/story/313066/spaei-ta-konter-i-timi-tis-venzinis-aplisiasta-ta-pratiria-sta-nisia/amp

Hello there,
A friend of mine reached out to me yesterday about Binance's staking options. I knew that Binance offered such an option, however, I never bothered to investigate much further. My friend wanted to opt for the BUSD vault, with a current APY of 13.3%, which isn't too bad, although, what caught my attention is the option to stake Bitcoin. The APY it's offering is at 8%, supposing you're not using your Bitcoin, and it's just sitting in your wallet, would it be something that you'd opt for?

FreeBitco.in also offers a savings option, providing you with a 4% interest on your BTC deposits. I currently have a small amount of BTC and was wondering if it would be any of worth staking my BTC through Binance (8%), since I'm not actively using it.

I'd appreciate any advice from more experienced users, thank you in advance.




Supposedly, Binance offers this staking option through the platform of Venus, we're not talking about the Savings section of Binance.

Explosions have occurred the past 2 days, in Transnistria, a separatist territory of Moldova. The first explosion took place in the Ministry of State Security building in the regional capital of Tiraspol, while the second one was aimed towards a broadcasting center in the village of Mayak. Thankfully, no injuries were documented in any of the attacks. These incidents occurred days after Moscow claimed that the Russian-backed region could be drawn into the war in Ukraine, while the attack was conducted by a grenade launcher, which was found on scene.

Before we look further into these two incidents, let's firstly analyze what Transnistria is. Transnistria, or officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, is an unrecognized breakaway state that is internationally recognized as part of Moldova. Transnistria controls the majority of the narrow strip of land between the Moldavian - Ukrainian border. Its capital is Tiraspol, which is also the largest city.




The region has been under the control of separatist authorities since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, which sparked a conflict between the newly independent Republic of Moldova and separatists who wanted to maintain relations with the Soviet Union.

No country, including Russia, recognizes the territory as independent, but the Moldovan authorities have no control over the area, which operates as an independent state.

Now that we've analyzed a few basics of the breakaway region of Transnistria, we'll try to see how that interferes with the Ukrainian - Russian war. According to Financial Times, "A senior Russian commander said last week that the Russian army’s move to capture southern Ukraine would open “another way to Transnistria”. Moscow has claimed “there are also instances of oppressing the Russian-speaking population” in Transnistria, an argument that was used to justify the invasion of Ukraine." To summarize, we shouldn't be surprised if another attack was planned against the Moldavian territory, in order to "save" the oppressed citizens. I guess you can see the similarities yourself, that's how the Donbas was "liberated" from Putin.

Russia is keeping 1,500 military personnel in the independent state of Transnistria, as a "peacekeeping" force, Ukrainian officials are afraid of a military advancement of these troops, however, my opinion is that such incident is highly unlikely, the number of troops in the region is insignificant compared to Russia's forces in Ukraine.

According to Al Jazeera, Zelensky on the other hand claims that Ukraine was only the beginning, and Putin will potentially try and seize territories in other countries as well, especially those who do not belong to NATO.

What are your thoughts? Was it a "random" incident, was it the citizens of Transnistria boycotting the Russians? Who knows...

Hello there,
Didn't see any topics referring to this matter, have you seen what's happening in China? The government has locked people inside their homes, forcing them to have daily testing, police is separating them into quarantine camps (more like concentration camps) if test comes out positive or if experiencing symptoms, even mild. It's astonishing, that all countries are easing measures, since it's yet to be proven whether lockdowns were actually effective, China on the other hand is adopting zero case policies.

This type of lockdown didn't even occur at the start of the pandemic, where the virus was way more deadlier than it is now, after going through numerous mutations, without having medication and vaccines, which enable us to have very limited casualties, compared to 2 years ago.

Not only is it saddening, but also suspicious, is China hiding something else, or is it just being paranoid, imposing tyranny over its citizens? Let me also point out that China has a history of lying to organizations such as WHO about the severity of such infectious diseases (same thing happened with both Covid and SARS).

What are your thoughts regarding this matter?

Back in 2012-2013, I had a few Blockchain.com wallets, back then, no details were asked, there wasn't even an option to login via email. Recently, I received an email from them about a promotion. They were offering $5 in BTC, if you completed the KYC process, by providing your personal details, such as residence, uploading your driver's license, or other form of identification.

On top of that, they've now added a section about taxation of cryptocurrencies, providing you with the ability to export tax statements.

Do I owe taxes on my crypto?
If you sold, swapped, or earned rewards on your crypto in the last year, you likely owe taxes.

We have partnered with CoinTracker to simplify your tax reporting. Cointracker is fully supported in the US, Australia, UK, Canada and also provides capital gains reports for users around the World. Get free tax reports for up to 500 transactions with CoinTracker or use a service provider of your choosing.

I'm starting to believe that even wallet providers and exchanges are shifting towards a centralization of cryptocurrencies, debunking previous theories about anonymity of funds and personal freedom.

What are your thoughts about this? Do you think more and more services will adopt similar techniques?

Hello, I'm quite new to DeFi projects and smart contracts, and I'm interested in getting to know more about them. Currently, I've only invested in projects found on the Binance Smart Chain network. My portfolio is consisted of two smart contracts, FTM - USDT and  UST - BUSD, which aren't too bad, but there are far better ones in other chains.

My question now is, how do I transfer funds from one network to another? Up to this point, I have a decent sum of money in BUSD and USDT. Due to being a complete newbie regarding this matter, I don't want to mess anything up and end up losing my funds, it's not a banking service, thus, if I do something stupid, there's a high chance that my money is lost on the blockchain.

According to Investopedia, "the commodity market involves buying, selling, or trading a raw product, such as oil, gold, or coffee, while there are hard commodities, which are generally natural resources (such as gold, oil, rubber), and soft commodities, which are livestock or agricultural goods (such as wheat, corn, coffee)".

After we briefly analyzed what the commodity market is, I'd like to ask a few questions, some of which might be dumb, how exactly does the commodity market work? What's the difference between WTI Crude and Brent Crude? Despite the obvious, of Brent being the UK index, and WTI the US, how does one interfere with each other, and does WTI affect the European market of oil prices?

For instance, let's take WTI Crude, as seen on the following photo, currently priced at $95~, inside the parenthesis, it says "April Contract". What exactly is that, and how does it impact us? Moreover, what exactly is a "Future"?



And one last question, which possibly doesn't apply worldwide, because it's something that I've personally noticed myself, when the Russian invasion started on Ukraine, oil prices skyrocketed within a few days. We'd see new prices at gas stations on a daily basis, however, now that Crude oil has lost over $30 in value, and is close to pre-invasion levels, gas prices haven't significantly decreased. Is it purely speculative, or is there a deeper underlying reason?

It was expected, sooner or later scammers would try to take advantage of such a terrible situation. I'm sick to my stomach that there are people who are genuinely interested in taking advantage of people who are suffering from war, whose life may be at stake at any possible time.

I stumbled upon this following website, which is being advertised on Facebook as we speak.

https://www.donationukraine.io/

Archived for security
https://web.archive.org/web/20220301212845/https://www.donationukraine.io/

The advertised BTC address is the following: bc1q25wjxy2zxe94wz8pwtfp7md5y4hz8cn2suww6t

A quick check on Blockchain explorer shows that it's likely a brand-new address, with zero balance.

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/bc1q25wjxy2zxe94wz8pwtfp7md5y4hz8cn2suww6t

According to the official Ukrainian Twitter account, the legitimate BTC donation address is the following, 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P
which is also proven on the Blockchain Explorer

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P

Also seen on Twitter, of course.

https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1497594592438497282?s=20&t=GNC2gtKdKwnb0IXHepyIjQ

This is merely a petty attempt in scamming people out of their generosity, we're definitely bound to see these on a daily basis. Scammers have no consciousness, even if we're talking about something as awful as war casualties.

Edit:
According to Whois Lookup, the domain address is one day old.
https://whois.domaintools.com/donationukraine.io

Edit2: Found a phising/scam website? Learn how to report it yourself as well

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5281378

The increasing inflation is currently soaring across the globe, leading to excessive price increases in most goods, in fuel and energy. To make matters worse fuel and energy costs are not included in inflation's index, thus, a 5-6 or 7% increase, is actually a lot worse than anticipated.

In particular, Greece is now facing a 6.2% rise in inflation, compared to January 2021, the largest ever recorded since 1997, compared to 5.1% in December. Increases are now spreading across the spectrum of the economy and not just energy, as it was a while ago, thus reducing disposable income and reducing inflation not to an economic issue but to a wider social issue.

According to ELSTAT data, the goods with the largest increase compared to January 2021 are:

Natural gas with an increase of 154.8%
Heating Oil with an increase of 36%,
Electricity with 56.7%,
Fuels with 21.6%,
Lamb and goat with 17.6%,
Olive oil with 15.4% and
potatoes with 12.3%.
Fresh vegetables 14.4%
 
The situation is about to get worse, with depressing predictions of it surpassing 7%-8% in the upcoming March. How are we dealing with such a situation? It feels like a battle against an invisible enemy. Our available income is shrinking, what is the best way to tackle inflation? The most common answer I've seen is to invest, rather than save, but how exactly do you invest? Since when is buying cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, tackling inflation, since it can also face periods that it's losing value.

Is it going to get any better, and how soon is that going to be, if prices ever recover. Personally, I highly doubt it that the situation is going to get any better within 2022.

Both my girlfriend and I have been infected with Covid-19, not sure which variant though. The disease was passed to us from one of her stupid friends, who was careless and was out drinking every night.  Symptoms include, headache, sudden fever (up to 38 C), sore throat and coughing, while my tonsils look swelled and inflamed.

This is the fourth day after I got diagnosed as positive, while the quarantine supposedly last 5 days. I highly doubt it that I'll be able to get back to work by Saturday. Have you been recently infected? What symptoms did you have, and how long did the infection last?

Hello and happy new year

This isn't going to be a post about new year resolutions, new year, new me and yada yada. This is actually a celebration post, about my return to Bitcointalk, which took place in 2nd of January 2021. A whole year had passed, and I'll be honest, I don't regret a thing. Throughout that year, I made plenty of mistakes, but also had an abundance of positive experiences.

I had completely abandoned Bitcoin after 2017-2018, which I kind of regret doing, till I saw a post about Bitcoin, recovering and surpassing $20.000+ again. That was it, I recovered my old wallet and started trading immediately. I made a few mistakes, which I shouldn't have done, but they were a result of amusement and poor management. Eventually, I stopped trading, because I couldn't handle its pressure, and put most of my money in DeFi/Staking, which had a great turnover, within a short time frame.

When I rejoined the forum, I set a goal to accumulate 0.05 BTC from scratch, without taking into account any other funds I previously had. So far, I've accumulated 0.028 BTC, which is actually more than half of what I've anticipated, but that's okay. My goal for one year from now, is to gather 0.08 BTC in total, which is relatively realistic. Even if I manage to achieve 70% of my goal, I'll be satisfied.

Overall, this has been a great experience, and Bitcointalk has given me amazing opportunities and there are plenty more to come in the upcoming future.