Some people told I was crazy to invest in BTC!
Better stick to real money, and put it in real banks, they say.

Have a look at Wirecard, it used to be the leading fintech in Germany.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wirecard-accounts/wirecard-files-for-insolvency-idUSKBN23W176

Exactly one year ago, something quite terrible happened. Poloniex stole some 1800 BTC from its customers. That's old news, but as I've lost more than one BTC int the affair, I'm not ready to forget.

Poloniex hasn't paid back, yet.
They've added a new splash screen recently, explaining lending is high risk.
This is 100% BS.
Several exchanges propose lending services, to allow their users to do margin trading.
It is safe, providing the exchange doesn't allow huge trades on smallish sh*tcoins, that very few people are trading. That is gross negligence.

Poloniex got burned, so did I, as all the other people who had part of their funds stolen.

As Poloniex hasn't paid back yet, I can only recommend newbies and all other bitcointalk users NOT TO USE Poloniex when they need an exchange.

Test

We see it everywhere. To counter that coronavirus disaster, governments are spending money like there's no tomorrow. Budget's deficit will rise to new heights, never seen before except during war times. In US and EU, debts are staggering. The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are printing money faster that I'm writing it. If you ask what's next, I'm afraid there's only one answer.

In most countries, governments will have no other choice but to raise taxes. They will have to be smart to avoid killing the economy, but they will need to bring more money to balance their budget (or more likely to reduce their operating deficit).

As I haven't paid any income tax since 1997, that's all right with me, but I urge all fellow Bitcoiners to organize themselves, and to plan ahead to avoid the worst...

Or could I be wrong? There will be no more taxes next year?

I've contacted a few friends who hold like me. They're all very concerned by the huge drop, but none has sold a single BTC.
We're all holders.
I know it's huge, but I believe the sharp fall in BTC's price has been caused by a very small number of individuals.
Waiting for data...

Have you seen how governments responded to the corona virus?

Quite simply, in Italy, the US and elsewhere, they will increase their budget deficit, and add debt. In my understanding, that's very bad for fiat currencies, while BTC will remain unaffected, thanks to the lockdown on money supply.

There used to be 3 ways to validate a withdrawal on Bitfinex.
SMS verification.
With a physical USB key U2F.
With google authenticator 2FA.

Bitfinex no longer supports SMS for confirmations, which I've been using for years. I hate google and I haven't used any google software for years, so I have no choice but to buy a Fido key, but I don't know where to find one, and I certainly won't get one today!

It means that for the coming days, I cannot withdraw any coin from my Bitfinex account!

What was wrong with SMS validation?
I was very happy with that.

I'll remember June 6th. Exactly 6 months ago.

That day, Poloniex stole 1,800 BTC from its customers, and I was one of them.
We got about a tenth back, and then nothing.

The company acknowledged it did wrong, and promised we would all get all our money back, but we're still waiting.

And yet, many things have changed.
Poloniex has moved twice, first to the Carribbean, then to the Seychelles.

The company has been split. Part of it will be renamed Polo Digital Assets for US customers, and it's still owned by Circle, while another part, the part which deals with non-US customers has been bought by Justin Sun, which then bought Tron Network’s Biggest Non-Custodial Exchange. That new company will give service under the name of PoloniDex (if I've understood it right).

I don't know who is that Justin Sun guy, but if he's honest, the first thing on his agenda should be to correct Poloniex's image problem, which is down the hole since the company stole its customers.

Mr Sun, do you hear me?

It's been 5 months since Poloniex stole millions from its customers. That was a big step on the way of its downfall, and the Poloniex team has just moved even further to the end of the cliff.

Poloniex was famously headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, which is a good place to do business, with serious regulations, it has moved to the Seychelles islands.

Of all offshore centers, the Seychelles are probably the worst. Sure, it's one of the easiest. Anyone can create a company or open a bank account there, and make big deposits with no question asked, but it's impossible to get the money back afterwards. If you're a freelance programmer working in Europe, nobody will give you any kind of work if you want payments made to a bank in the Seychelles. Also, if you have money in the Seychelles and you want to buy property in Europe, it won't work either. Money coming from the Seychelles is seen as money coming from drug dealers or the like. The Seychelles are known worldwide as a money laundering place. If you want to stay clean, there's only one thing to do: avoid doing any business or investment there. So, avoid Poloniex...

Not wanting to be all negative, the Seychelles is probably a good place for a vacation.

Yes, I still have a Paypal account. Haven't used it for a while, but I will need to in a few days.

I've never done it before, anyone can recommend an exchange to use, to transfer from my BTC wallet to my Paypal account?

This is worrying because investors need good information and 2 leading crypto websites aren't delivering. I guess they don't have any journalists. They receive press releases, they send them to a guy in Asia (they probably found him on Fiverr?) to rewrite it somehow, and they publish it without understanding anything.

This is exactly what they did in the following 2 articles:

https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-traders-who-lost-big-in-poloniex-flash-crash-receive-bitcoin-refunds

https://cointelegraph.com/news/poloniex-will-reimburse-135-million-loss-from-clams-flash-crash

I'm a victim here. I've lost more than one BTC in this 1,800 BTC affair, which I explain in this topic.

Coindesk and Cointelegraph are both saying I will get my money back, but I won't, nor will anyone. It's 100% fake news, and Poloniex knows it very well. That's his plan.

What Poloniex has been announcing is that to all people who have had their money stolen, Poloniex offers all trading fees. That sounds like a nice gesture, except that trading fees for a maker is 0.15% at this exchange. As anyone can imagine, to get 1,800 BTC back from a 0.15% fee, that will take a lot of trading... And actually, no trading will happen. Because, as everybody affected, when I discovered that my coins were gone, I quickly withdrew what was left of it. Hey, when you see that your coins disappear, you don't leave them at an exchange you cannot trust!

So Poloniex won't have anything to pay, and that's what Coindesk and Cointelegraph should have they have said, if they had understood anything about the issue, or if they had any will to give good information to their readers.

The US Senate has a hearing about cryptocurrencies today, and guess who they're hearing as an expert: Jeremy Allaire, Circle CEO.

This is the guy who has stolen money from its customers at Poloniex, by socializing losses. I shall remind everybody here that socializing losses is illegal in the US. He only did it because his US company only has non-US resident customers. To escape US regulations even more, he has just moved its company to a new Bermuda entity.

Does anyone think that the man is qualified to speak at a US Senate hearing?

It's like asking a convicted child rapist if sex outside marriage is right or wrong.

https://medium.com/circle-trader/overview-of-btc-margin-lending-pool-losses-a2f0905aaa56

Scary. I used to think lending money on Poloniex or Biftinex was safe. Not anymore.

Today, we recognized the generalized loss across lenders in the BTC margin lending pool. As a result, the principal of all active BTC loans as of 14:00 UTC today has been reduced by 16.202%.

So, if you were lending money on Poloniex, you've lost 16.202% of it... Man, that hurts!

I've been thinking that for years, and the Bitfinex affair just shows I was right.

I'm a trader, trading cryptocurrencies with other cryptocurrencies, and sometimes, I'm also using exchanges, to convert cryptocurrencies to fiat currencies. I want to use trading services which do not offer exchange services, and I want to use exchange services which do make trades between cryptocurrencies.

And I don't want any stablecoins. Bitfinex was a great service, it's that Tether thing which may sink them.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy/ecb-pushes-out-rate-hike-offers-cheap-cash-to-banks-idUSKCN1QO0MH

The European Union is sinking, with the UK's leaving this month, but its central bank has a new plan to save it: print more money, and give it away to all its failing banks. I think that if the ECB was a doctor, it would get the most dangerous virus there is, and spread it to the entire population.

This is the kind of news which makes you happy to own BTC...

BTC is currently under maintenance or experiencing wallet issues. Deposits and withdrawals will remain disabled as we work to find, test, and audit a solution. Thank you for your patience in the meantime.

This warning has been on for more than 30 hours. What's going on? Nobody can withdraw or make a deposit? This cannot last...

I've never been to Iran. I've met a few Iranians around the world though (in Paris, Berlin and Los Angeles), and those I met were nice people. I certainly don't support their muslim government, but I think America' sanctions on that country are unfair. To support the people, I'm seriously considering traveling to Iran and spend some money there. It's assuredly too hot for me right now, but I shall be visiting Iran this autumn.

Is anyone else thinking that Trump is mad about Iran?
Is anyone else thinking about visiting that country?

In the European Union, it's impossible to buy real estate by using a front (a company in the Carribean) to make you anonymous. The only exception is the UK, which allows property ownership from a shell company based in its territories. Well, this is about to change:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-tax-territories/uk-territories-ordered-to-open-up-about-secretive-companies-idUSKBN1I23S3

If some had thought that the UK would get any freer by leaving the EU, this is just another sign that this won't be the case.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-18/world-debt-hits-record-164-trillion-as-crisis-hangover-lingers

$164 trillion! That is an awfully big pile of money, but governments think it's not big enough. They keep on borrowing more every year. If there's no crash, it will be a miracle.

Pray God.
Or buy BTC!

I've bought a flight ticket with BTC 2 days ago. The airline company used Bitpay as an intermediary and its service was highly unsatisfying.

2 minutes after I had completed the transaction with Electrum, I received an email to tell me that my payment wasn't confirmed! I don't how skilled is the average Bitpay user, but I think most people know that BTC transactions require more than 2 minutes to get confirmed. I thought I would receive another email when it would be, but I didn't. Nor did the airline company. I had to call them, several hours after my payment was confirmed, and they finally sent me an email to confirm my ticket about 18 hours after my BTC transaction was completed. I didn't get any more news from Bitpay.

I was expecting more...