What's your thought about credit cards? Do you consider them a banking fraud, just to trick you to spend money you don't have, or a useful tool if used correctly? Do you have one yourself? In my case, as a student, I was issued a university card, which features a low yearly fee but also a considerably low credit limit. However, I often use it to pay bills in interest free installments (Car insurance for instance) and my gas expenses, which provide a decent cashback (I'll fill up my car once or twice a year for free).

On the other hand, there are quite a few shops here that also offer interest free installments, that way, I was able to purchase a bicycle for my girlfriend, when the budget was quite limited.

The trick on credit cards is to use them wisely, not spending more than you can afford, always pay in time, otherwise you'll get a huge interest on your balance, while at the same time, you're building a credit score.

What's your take on this? Are you against credit card usage?

How do you define financial stability for yourself? Do you believe that there's a thing as too much money? With what kind of income would you be satisfied and felt successful, at least in the sector of finances. Is it the more, the better?

The subject of money in particular is controversial, speaking for myself, I'm working a regular job, getting paid above average each month, while also doing some online work such as signature campaigns and staking coins on various platforms. I'm making enough money to make ends up and on the plus side, setting aside a decent sum of money from my salary, as well as any other amount earned online, is set aside as savings.

While in particular, I'm pretty satisfied with the amount of money I'm earning, I definitely wouldn't mind earning 10% or 20% more, I'm not sure though, if I'd say the same even if I supposedly received the previously mentioned raise, which is falling to the category of, the more, the better.

However, the general idea is that I'm currently okay, if I were to pursue something in life, in terms of money and finances, it'd be to make enough money to make ends meet and have a decent amount of purchasing power, while at the same time, having a savings account. This is something that as a 23-year-old student I've managed, but I have a pretty long way to go.

What's your take on this?

Not sure on where to post this, I apologize in advance if this isn't the correct section.

My laptop broke down this morning, taking my Bitcoin and Metamask wallet with it. Fortunately, I had both backed up so no losses there. Took it to a technician who claims that it's power unit or something is broken and it's not receiving power.

Anyway, back to the subject now, he's interested in purchasing it in case I do not want repair it, which is something I'm considering. However, my wallets are inside that laptop, someone who specializes in computers could potentially recover deleted files from the HDD.

I'm not sure if he wants to resell the laptop or he wants it for himself, my main concern though is that there's a way to recover deleted data. While I wouldn't really bother about the rest of my files, I'd rather not have someone recovering my wallets this way.

Is there an actual way to permanently delete such files from the HDD, forever?

A new all-time high record has been hit, with Bitcoin surpassing $66.000. An outstanding performance which was a result of the announcement of Bitcoin ETF approval, which I've yet to understand what exactly it is.

Definition according to https://mg.co.za/

"An Exchange Traded Fund or ETF is a type of investment fund that tracks the price of another asset or basket of assets and can be traded on an exchange. If that still sounds like finance nerd language to you, that’s because it is."


https://mg.co.za/special-reports/2021-10-19-a-bitcoin-etf-what-does-it-all-mean/

Anyway, it was something quite unexpected and didn't actually believe that we'll see a new record by at least December. Let time do the work.

I recently stumbled upon an advertisement for a free course from the University of Nicosia (UNIC), featuring an Introduction to Decentralized Finance. It's entirely free, no strings attached, and if I understood correctly, a verified certificate is also being distributed upon completion. The official starting date is tomorrow, 11th of October and is consisted of 6 weeks in total.

Course outline: (In weeks)

1. DeFi Fundamentals   Professor George Giaglis    
2. DeFi infrastructure: Ethereum and other L1 protocols       
3. DeFi Applications I: Stablecoins, Lending and Borrowing       
4. DeFi Applications II: Decentralised Exchanges, Synthetic Assets, Oracles, Insurance
5. Algorithmic Governane and DeFi Tokenomics       
6. DeFi and Beyond

https://www.unic.ac.cy/blockchain/free-defi-mooc/

Another free course about Digital currencies is also offered for free, you might want to check it out as well.

https://www.unic.ac.cy/blockchain/free-mooc/

P.S I am in no way affiliated with the University of Nicosia.

Fuel prices have skyrocketed in the past few months, on a worldwide scale. Here in Greece, the average price per liter for 95 Unleaded petrol is €1.75, while for diesel it's approximately €1.45. A huge surge is also expected, in the soon-to-be launched season of heating gas oil, which is expected to start within the next few weeks, with a rumored price of at least €1.10/liter.

I've read that this spike in prices is triggered by an increase in price per barrel, due to oil companies worrying about the pandemic, while their production is limited compared to the higher demand. Have you heard anything relative? What's causing this surge in prices, could it be a one-off thing which lasts a couple of months at most?

What's the average cost of petrol/diesel in your country? Share your thoughts on what exactly is causing this crisis, which is also spiking electricity costs up, increasing the budget for the average household.

Sources:
https://www.bruegel.org/2021/09/is-europes-gas-and-electricity-price-surge-a-one-off/
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58718148

As a part of an academic project, I'm working on recording any side effects that might have occured, during any of the two vaccination doses. I believed that I'd receive more feedback here rather than my Facebook profile, so I decided to make a poll.

It would be interesting to also note which vaccine you received and a brief description of what you faced. Personally, I only had some mild fever only during the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, which lasted a few hours at most.

I'd also like to see if any of us here faced any of the rare severe side effects, such as a blood clot, which mostly occured with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Hello,
I need immediate assistance, I did a stupid and now someone probably has my private key on Metamask, I created a new account and moved all my assets there. Am I safe or not? I noticed that the second account has a different private key. I literally have no time to explain right now.

I'm now graduating from a BSC in Business Administration, and as I've mentioned in another thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5355827.0), I'm pretty clueless on how to continue from there, as I haven't decided what I like or can see myself doing in the future. I've stumbled upon a Master’s Degree, in Blockchain and Digital Currency.

The courses are the following:

Required Courses:

Introduction to Blockchain and Digital Currency
Principles of Money, Banking and Finance   
Law and Regulation in Blockchain
Blockchain and Entrepreneurship Management
Blockchain Systems and Architectures
Emerging Topics in Blockchain and Digital Currency

Selective Courses:

Digital Currency Programming
Smart Contract Programming
Permissioned Blockchains Programming
Cryptographic Systems Security
Emerging Topics in Law and Regulation
Emerging Topics in FinTech
Open and Decentralized Financial Systems   
Token Economics

What are your thoughts about such a degree? Would you go for it? What career prospects would something like this have?

https://www.unic.ac.cy/blockchain-and-digital-currency-msc-distance-learning/

Hello there,

I started learning about cryptocurrency, mainly Bitcoin, when I was approximately 14-15 years old. Unfortunately, due to lack of funds, and being underage, I couldn't do much in terms of investment back then (I wish I could/did). However, I was actively trying to learn about Bitcoin and the ways of obtaining it. Without having much knowledge, I started out with faucets, back then, they would pay more than 1000 Satoshi for each roll, which is an extravagant amount for our current standards.

After quite a while, playing with faucets, I had acquired myself a semi-decent amount of BTC, which I unfortunately spent buying game accounts, such as Minecraft and a few other stuff I don't remember now. On the other hand, some BTC was left untouched till now, we'll get back to that later on.

Shortly after, I signed up here, but wasn't really inactive from what I remember, was mostly a lurker reading around trying to gain information. I remember signing up on some Cloud Mining Ponzi scheme, which resulted in some kind of profit back then, don't get me wrong, a few euros at most, but it was rewarding, since it was my first "profit" that didn't come from faucets. It lasted long enough for two payouts, one was on PayPal if I remember correctly, and the second one was in Doge, 30,000 Doge to be exact, which were worth $5 back then. I still hit myself about selling them back then.

Not long after the Ponzi scheme incident, I quit the cryptocurrency scene (Not that I actually entered it anyway), for at least a few years. I returned when I got to university, became active on the forum again and started Altcoin mining. Only good things started happening after that, I was accepted in signature campaigns, while at the same time my PC was generating a decent profit. For someone who never had any other kind of income, it was paradise.

I don't remember how much I was earning to be honest, but eventually I swapped some BTC for Euros (600 Euros) while also having some BTC aside in another wallet. This happened at Bitcoin's peak, when it reached $20.000. A while after that, the price plummeted and any leftover BTC (Some from the faucets and the rest from signature campaigns and mining) was fortunately left untouched.

Fast-forward a few years later, it's December 2020, and I've got 600 Euros on Bitstamp, and some BTC on my BitGo wallet. I return to the forum and start reading predictions, thoughts etc. about Bitcoin and its future. At the same time, I start trading and making a decent profit. Later on, I sold all my BTC and went all in on DeFi Projects. The result was astonishing, but risky, I made a huge profit nonetheless.

Currently standing, I've got a few thousand dollars in crypto, which are being reinvested back into other DeFi projects, and some BTC that I've earned the past few months.

This forum has been a great experience and a long journey, with much more to come. I've acquired knowledge and experiences which will help me throughout the course of my life, while it has significantly aided me into obtaining the assets I've mentioned before. As a university student, knowing that I have money aside, no matter what happens, is crucial.

For those who reached the bottom of the topic, thank you for reading!

You're approximately 18 years old, having a choice to make, which might (or might not) affect your future for years to come, choosing what and if you want to study. How do you make such a choice? How do you choose what you want to do for the rest of your life (Maybe, maybe not?).

When I was 18 years old, I never really bothered on what I've wanted to do, alongside with a pretty messed up psychology, I wasn't in the best position to choose. I chose Business Administration, which I'm graduating from in a month or two at most, without being sure I wanted that. Now that I'm graduated, I'm not exactly sure if it was the right choice and/or if it's actually appealing to me, as something I'd be willing to do as an occupation for the upcoming years.

You're merely nothing but a student finishing High School, who is basically clueless on what he/she could possibly like, because it's something that might remain unknown for many years, even after finishing university. Seeing that from myself, I've got no clue on what I could possibly do in the future, based on what I studied. Follow a master's degree? Not sure on what subject, try something else? I'm not sure about that either.

I'm pretty intrigued to become a first responder paramedic, but I still haven't made up my mind. Did you go through this process yourselves? How did you deal with it, how is someone supposed to find what he likes at 18 years old, is that educational practice even appropriate?

Hello,
A few months ago, I mistakenly downloaded the portable version of Electrum, but never bothered to install the full version after noticing it. However, I'm about to switch my HDD to SSD, and I'm not exactly sure how I'm supposed to back up my wallet. I'm not exactly sure, thus, I don't want to make any mistakes and lead to loss of funds.

I've saved the 12-word mnemonic phrase, do I need anything else other than that in order to restore my wallet on a fresh Windows installation? Do I need any of the Electrum files?

The world has been depending on burning fossil fuels for energy, throughout all these years. With dependence on fossil fuels, soon enough these finite materials will be depleted. Not only that, but it also has adverse effects for the environment, everything from air to ocean and land pollution.

Fossil fuels include, coil, oil and natural gas, with the latter being cleaner that oil and coal in terms of emissions. Let's also keep in mind how strenuous of a process it is to extract oil, promoting environmental disasters.

Most common renewable energy sources include, solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy, tidal energy and a few others.

The big question here is, can the world be 100% dependent on renewable energy sources? How can that be achieved and are they sustainable?

With Defi projects being on the rise the past few months, I was curious to see if other members here have experienced any DeFi project hacks/exploits or rug pulls. Have you lost money during any of these incidents? If yes, how much, if you wouldn't mind sharing here.

Personally, I've been through the algorithmic stablecoins crash, managed to get through and remove any assets from BoltDollar (BTD) and MonsterSlayer (MSC) before losing any money. I've also experienced ValueDefi's exploit, fortunately the vault I was in wasn't affected, but I lost the value of their token, vBSWAP.

The last exploit I've experienced was the Iron Finance one, fortunately I wasn't in Polygon, so I didn't suffer any losses, however, it was one of the highest earning vaults I've used in a long while. It's a shame that it's gone.

Fortunately for me, I never suffered any major losses, what's your experience?

I was browsing the statistics of Covid-19 in Worldometers today, and was surprised to see that UK had over 11.000 cases yesterday. I was dumbfounded, since UK didn't have any significant amount of cases for the past few months. According to NBCNews, the Delta, which is 40 to 80% more transmissible that the previous variants, is said to be accountable for 95% of the latest surge in cases.

The majority of the new confirmed cases are youngsters, who haven't received the Covid-19 vaccine. Thus, this shows how important it is for all ages to get vaccinated.



Sources: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-k-records-over-10-000-covid-cases-first-time-n1271197

I'm currently working at a normal 8-hour shift job, 6 times per day in order to make a living, but I was always seeking some extra income that could be earned at home. Moreover, I'm doing my internship now, in order to graduate, in which I'm working from home, online. However, I do not actually count that as an online income, due to its nature.

I'm interested to see how other members of this community earn money online, either if it's a full income, or some extra pocket money. I used to trade a few months ago, when I was out of work due to Covid-19 restrictions. Likewise, I've stopped now because it was causing me anxiety, while at the same time having limited time due to being occupied with work.

Although I've stopped trading, I invested my money into DeFi projects, the first vault I joined as a liquidity provider, was an algorithmic stablecoin (Bolt Dollar), which resulted in approximately $1.000 in gross profit, before sinking into the abyss. I've now resigned from risky vaults and invested into Stable LPs (Currently in Iron - BUSD). It's a small reward but involves minimal risk and action.

My last source of online income is signature campaigns, I've been in one for quite a while and I wish I had more time to post more, but I do not, I'll prefer to not post crap all around the forum just to get my post count up.

I might not make much, provided I had more free time than I would definitely earn more, but I'm satisfied that I have another method of earning some kind of income. How are you making money? Are you a full-time trader, a DeFi investor? Let us know!

The project Defi Value on the Binance Smart Chain was hacked, earlier this week The target of the attack was the automated market maker vSwap. Approximately 11 million dollars were lost due to the exploit.

In total, 15,000 BNB, 2,700 FARMs, 1,700 BASv2, 8.5 million BDO, 68,300 BUSD, 41,000 MDG, 945,000 vBOND, 1.2 million BAC and 11,000 FIRO were stolen. The hackers exchanged the stolen assets for 3,240 ETH to withdraw them to the Ethereum blockchain.

Another result of the attack, was the total loss in value of the vBSWAP token, dropping from $1.700 to $150 within a few days.

I also had $1k deposited on the BUSD vault, fortunately I had withdrawn a day before the exploit happened, not sure if it was one of the vaults that funds were stolen from.

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/vbswap

I just stumbled upon this on Facebook, I am not familiar with Bitcoin mining, so any hash rate, information etc. are quite unknown to me. It's definitely not the appropriate miner to earn Bitcoin, but it's an appliance you can actually use for heating and earn money doing it!

According to the manufacturer's website, it's 1300 watts, mobile app controlled,  provides with 14 TH/S (max) hashing power, and is capable of keeping a 150-170 square feet area warm (Approximately 14-17 square meters). On top of that, it looks really stylish and isn't bulky at all, perfect where space is limited. Not bad at all!

On the other hand, the preorder starts from $849, providing that you choose late delivery of December 2021, instead of the earliest which is September 2021 ($999). Despite its high price, I believe that it's a really cool and interesting project, I can't wait to see how it turns out.

https://heatbit.com/

P.S I am in no way affiliated with the product, I saw an advertisement and thought it was interesting.

It's the second cryptocurrency in Turkey that's collapsing, after facing financial strains, according to a brief statement made on their website. Earlier this month, Turkey's central bank has moved into banning the use of digital assets for payments, while Turkish authorities have blocked Vebitcoin's bank accounts and detained four people.

Some Turks have switched to using cryptocurrencies to protect their savings from soaring inflation and the devaluation of their currency, the Turkish Lira. At the same time, the whole "Bitcoin is a bubble story" is on the rise again.

What are your thoughts about this incident, it's the second exchange so far that has shut down, what if other countries follow such measures too?


Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/26/turkish-bitcoin-exchange-vebitcoin-collapses-amid-crypto-crackdown.html

I stumbled upon an article on Yahoo Finance, which really sparkled my interest, it's from February 2021. It is consisted of several scenarios, coming from the early days of 2010 until nowadays, 2021. I think that its performance is quite astonishing, even if you aren't an early adopter, those $100 could still be a great investment in the long run.

Starting from 2010, BTC's average price would be a few cents at most (The article mentions 6 cents per BTC), your $100 investment would now be worth $73.000.000 (BTC value $44.000, with current value of $50.000~ that would now be $82.843.920!)

Even in 2013, that Bitcoin was starting to gain in value (Approximately $600-700 each) your $100 would now be worth $7.800 (valued at $50.000).

What's interesting is that even throughout years 2017-2019 (Which is our very recent past), those $100 which is like a petty amount of investment, would lead to pretty decent profit, from such a petty amount.

Bitcoin was and still is one of the best investments someone could make, I strongly believe that there's still earning/investment potential. Sometimes I am thinking back and wonder what if? What if I had even bought $50 worth of BTC back in 2014, when I registered here, now I'd have a decent amount of money. I wish I had realized the potential back then, but I was too young. It's no time for regrets, we should keep going forward, in an effort to acquire as much knowledge we can, which can lead us to a new earning potential.

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-price-soars-much-100-163535191.html