This is far from a new idea, it's coming from the banking sector, and I believe it should suit cryptos exchanges just fine. Because there are 2 kinds of exchange.

A normal exchange is a company which exchanges fiat currency with cryptocurrency, and vice-versa, taking a small fee in the process. And that's it. Nothing else. I believe these exchanges hardly need to be regulated, because most often they don't store any funds. You make a deal with them, and when it's over, the customer relation is over, everything's terminated.

Besides that, there are exchanges which offer margin trading, which propose lending and borrowing cryptos, and various other high risk activities. Those exchanges need strong regulations, to protect investors.

We have about the same differences between commercial banking and investment banking, and there are many economists arguing about the need to separate (or unite) these 2 activities. We shall have the same discussion with cryptos exchanges.
Many legislators around the world are talking about regulating exchanges, this is what they should talk about first.

6 months ago, my savings went down because of the FTX debacle. I've never used FTX, I've never been a customer of this company, but my savings are in BTC, and because of that failure, BTC's value went down, and so went my savings.

Today, bis repetita. I've never used Binance. I've never been a customer of this company, but because the SEC sues Binance, BTC is down, and so are my savings, so I have a message to all bitcoiners out there.

Exchanges and BTC are 2 different things. One exchange going down doesn't mean BTC must follow.
Binance will disappear? I don't give a damn.

My BTC savings have lost much value this month, and I know why. We all know. It's the FTX's debacle. Some say it's doomsday for cryptos, but it isn't. There's nothing wrong with BTC. What's wrong is that one crook has stolen honest people's money to make shady investments.

There's only one solution to restore people's confidence. Put the bad guy in jail for a long, long time.

I've read a few articles explaining that a food crisis is coming, I want to tell you something about it. There will be no food crisis for me.
Price of pasta, price of cooking oil, rice or meat will increase 20%? 30%?

That's all right. I don't care much. I can handle it, just like most people in developed countries. We don't spend much on food, increasing that budget by a third is perfectly fine.

The problem will be with the poor countries, but I wonder: is it a problem, or a solution?

There were 100 millions people living in Africa in 1900. Now, there are over 1,500 millions people there. I know that some people live a in a fantasy world thinking that there will be food, jobs, modern housing and all creature comforts for every human, but that won't happen. We live in a finite world, and the population just cannot grow without limit. Number one rule of the world has always been the survival of the fittest...

I'm reading many articles explaining that Russia shall be cut off from the SWIFT global interbank payments system, as a sanction in response to its invasion of Ukraine. That means it would be impossible to make bank transfers between Russia and most other countries.

I see this as an absolutely fantastic opportunity for BTC.
If you can"t use banks, just use BTC and be happy.

So who wants to buy BTC in Podgorica?
I'm selling.
No BS. Cash in person only, I suggest we meet in Delta City, you will give me € banknotes, I will give you Bitcoin.
Same day transaction possible, if request made before 2PM. Contact via MP only.
From 0.01 BTC with 6% fee, negotiable with higher amounts.

Non potendo viaggiare in Italia come avevo programmato, vendo 2 biglietti per il gala di Jonas Kaufmann all'Arena di Verona.
Sono ben posizionati. Contattami tramite messaggistica.

https://www.arena.it/it/arena-di-verona/jonas-kaufmann-gala

I've said it for a long time, but this time, I'm not making this up. It's from the WSJ.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/higher-inflation-is-here-to-stay-for-years-economists-forecast-11626008400

BTC holders shall not worry.

I'm planning to buy a new car this summer. Not very sure of what I'm going to get, but I have no doubt about what I'm not going to get. I'm not going to get a Tesla. Never. Wouldn't even accept a test drive.

Hey, BTC's falling hard this week, and the guy who started the fall is Elon Musk, Tesla's manager. There's just no way I'm going to spend my money with the guy who's destroying my savings.

All bitcoiners should blacklist Tesla cars or any product or service coming from a company owned by Mr.Musk.

I still see many people being puzzled by BTC, saying it's a bubble, that it's going to crash, etc...
Taking advantage of the huge price rise, I think some early believers should team and buy an existing bank. Not Barclays, nor JP Morgan of course, but there are small banks out there. Imagine a bank owned by bitcoiners, for bitcoiners. It would become an exchange, and it would be the best exchange in the world with the full ability to make Swift and SEPA transfers without the need to use the service of a third party.

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?