One important thing I have learned over the last few years is that all markets have the potential to "behave" the same.  This is because the "behavior" of the market is simply the result of the emotions of human beings.

These emotions are our fears, greed, FOMO, or whatever you want to call them.  Humans will always tend to act and react in predictable ways.  This is easily illustrated with the following charts.

The first is a commonly known "Psychology of a Market Cycle" chart for stock market bubbles.  It shows all of the phases of a market cycle from the start of a bull run, to the exponential rise and peak, to the crash and depression, and back to the normal.

The next 2 charts are the last 2 Bitcoin cycles that saw a exponential rise and crash in 2017 and 2013.  As you can see, the Bitcoin market "behaves" the same way that the stock market cycle "behaves".

This is important and valuable information as we approach the potential beginning of another Bitcoin cycle.

Can someone explain the difference between ETH and ETC? I have been focusing only on bitcoin lately and haven't heard about what's going on with etherium.

Does anyone know where we stand on the Cryptsy class action lawsuit? I haven't heard much lately and I'm just wondering whether we are getting close to some kind of payout.

I'm having trouble trying to sweep bitcoins from a paper wallet. I go to blockchain.info and open a wallet. They say there is a feature to import/export for sweeping bitcoins from paper wallets but I have looked for that link and can't find it. Can someone help me with that?

[All Chance (highest risk)]

I have a theory that there are basically 4 types of gambling:

1) All Chance (highest risk): These are games that are basically all left to chance and no skill is involved such as dice or roulette.

2) Mostly Chance but some Skill: These include most card games (except poker*) where there is some skill involved but you are at the mercy of the cards dealt.

3) Mostly Skill but some Chance: These are games or sports where it is mostly the player's skill that controls the outcome such as golf or bowling where each player plays against the game with the opponent facing the same game independently and under the same conditions.  In these games you can't directly affect the opponent's performance.  Could also be true for a video games where you play against the computer and not head to head against an opponent.

4) All Skill (lowest risk): These are games where you play head to head against an opponent and can affect the opponent's performance and you both are playing under the same conditions.  These are games like chess and pool or sports like basketball.

*Poker is an exception because even though you can't control the cards being dealt, the dynamics of head to head betting (bluffing, reading the opponents tendencies, etc.) can help a skilled player win regardless of the cards dealt. Poker could be in the 4th category for very skilled players.

Sports betting where you are just an observer could vary based on whether you do research on the players, horses, etc.

This is just a theory on how risky betting is in some games or sports.  What do you think?

The primaries for New York are coming up.  What are the chances that Bernie will win over Hillary?

Is there a way to block or hide a topic that I've already read and don't want it to show up anymore?  Even though other people may need to read it, sometimes there are topics that I read once and don't really need to read it again, so I was just wondering if there was a feature to hide so it doesn't show up again.  Just curious. 

I've seen on some posts that people have received feedback.  Is that on the profile somewhere or is it a thread of some kind?  Also, is this the same as trust?

I made a separate account on Bitcoin Forum and got the following message:


Bitcoin Forum > Remove Proxyban

Your IP address has previously been used for evil on this forum, or it is a known proxy/VPN/Tor exit node, so you are required to pay a small fee before you are able to post messages or send PMs. You can still use all of the read-only features without paying.

Your account contains 1.03 units of evil. To atone, you must pay a total of 0.00004155 bitcoins (0.04155 mBTC; 4155 satoshi). Pay to the address 1Nq1RGJReRpxzKTo56jbSS6RXAXihSUUwZ. Once you have paid the full amount, wait a few seconds and then reload this page. If the fee is so small that your wallet is unable to send it, you can send any larger amount, though you will not be refunded the difference.

Alternatively, any forum staff member and some other notable members can manually whitelist you. Paying the fee is probably easier/quicker, though.

If you don't have any bitcoins, you can get small amounts of free bitcoins using the sites listed here. It is recommended that you give the free bitcoin sites the address listed above. Do not collect money in your own wallet and then send the bitcoins to the forum -- this will likely result in significant network fees.

If you find any bugs in this system, email pbbugs-...@.... For example, send email here if your payment is not registered an hour after sending it. You will be permanently banned if you send email here requesting free whitelisting.


Is this legit and why would I get this?  I thought we could have more than one account on Bitcoin Forum.  What is proxy/VPN/Tor exit node?

Does anyone know of an easy way to make vanity bitcoin addresses that can be used (real addresses with private keys)?

I'm almost out of the newbie category and I wanted to add an avatar.  I can't figure out where to enter it.  Can anyone help?

When a wallet is created, there is a pubic key and private key.  But there is also a character string or phrase, right?  If you have any 2 of the 3 you can access the account, correct?  What I'm trying to figure out is can it be possible for someone else to generate the same public key with a different private key?  And how likely is it for the bitcoin address generators to come up with the same address a second time for a different person?

What kind of computer do I need to start mining and what altcoin is good to mine right now?  Can I just use a laptop?  I guess I just want to get started the easiest way possible to learn about it.