This article: $23,000 Bitcoin (BTC) Prediction Changed by Analyst Benjamin Cowen is a proof that no one knows the future.  Benjamin Cowen is a prominent analyst that states that Bitcoin will be hitting 23k at the end of September.

Arman Shirinyan
Analyst Benjamin Cowen's bearish prediction for Bitcoin hitting $23,000 in September proved to be off mark

Since his prediction is out of line he admitted that he was wrong in his prediction:

The article also stated that instead of Bitcoin plummeting to $23k, Bitcoin market instead shows a more stable outlook.

This simply shows that even veterans and seasoned analyst with their accumulated market experience cannot predict the future price of Bitcoin.  It is not because of unpredictable Bitcoin market volatility but because they are just human who has no power to see the future.  Imagine if an investor shorts his trade to buy at lower price because he believe on the prediction of Cowen that price will go down to $23k at the end of September, this person could have been in a loss.

So this is a great reminder to us investors to not just believe anything that a person, no matter how popular or knowledgeable they are, stated without doing any researches to verify their statement.  After all it was out money that is on line.

[Knowledge Capita]

I browsing the internet when I happen to stumble on the word Human Capital.  This is the first time I read about this terms and I got interested to know its meaning. 

According to this article[1]  Human Capital is explained as an intangible asset stemming from a person's talent and experience although it can't be put on our balance sheet but it is very important economic value  for a company.

Investopedia also explained Human Capital as[2]:

"The term human capital refers to the economic value of a worker's experience and skills. Human capital includes assets like education, training, intelligence, skills, health, and other things employers value such as loyalty and punctuality."

The article also stated that Human Capital can be made of several factor such as shown in the picture:




It is also stated that there are different types of Human Capital Namely:

• Knowledge Capital: Trade School Education, College Degree, Hard skills, Work experience, Situational Knowledge and Intelligence.
• Social Capital: Relations, Fame, Social Status, Professional Network and Health.
• Emotional Capital: Emotional intelligence, Creativity, Problem-solving, Personal resilience, Critical thinking, Loyalty, Leadership behaviors, Other soft skills

The article also gives a tips on increasing Human Capital like:
Human Capital can be increased by hiring more people but it is also possible to improve within the workforce.

• Improve education for your workforce
• Provide a work culture that encourages creativity
• Divide labor into specialized niches
• Hire a diverse workforce
• Provide ongoing coaching

The importance of human capital. 

Human Capital are people that make up a company workforce.  So choosing people with higher human capital simply means more beneficial for a company.  This is also the reason why many companies are spending lots of funds to give training to their employees.  Through it was stated that these training expenditures may temporarily decrease the company funds, the company will surely benefits from it since the investment will allow the employee to do their task efficiently thus delivering more profit to the company.

So for any investors that are aspiring to put up their company own company, one should consider learning about Human Capital because it will really lead a company to success if one manage it successfully.

For FAQ about Human Capital you can check this site: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/human-capital/brief/the-human-capital-project-frequently-asked-questions


[1] https://www.betterup.com/blog/human-capital
[2] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/humancapital.asp

While I was browsing the net for the latest update on cryptocurrency, I happen to stumble on a Cointelegraph article that Google, starting Sept. 15 will allow ad for NFT games.

Link for the article: Google will allow ads for NFT games starting Sept. 15

NFT games advertisement is allowed as long as they don't promote gambling.  So this will be a good news for P2E games that uses NFT as their feature focal point.  Game like Axie infinity and alike will have a chance to reach more audience by this change of policy.

So in the future, we might find ourselves being bombarded by NFT ads link while using google platform.

Prior to this google had banned all cryptocurrency ads on their platform back in 2018.  I wonder what makes the Google platform to change their views and make a new policy accepting NFT ads.  Any thought?

[Legacy Address or P2PKH]

This might be a general knowledge for the old member of this forum but I believe it is important for a beginner to know about the development and different types of Bitcoin address since not all type of Bitcoin address have the same feature although they all serve as a distinct identifier that allows us to send and receive bitcoins. Just like the later type of Bitcoin address which gives more privacy and required cheaper transaction than the older Legacy type of Bitcoin address. 

It is also important to identify the type of Bitcoin address just by looking at the format of the Bitcoin address and here is the example addresses and some feature of each type

Legacy Address or P2PKH
15f12gEh2DFcHyhSyu7v3Bji5T3CJa9Smn  this kind of address format is called a Legacy Address or pay-to-public-key hash (P2PKH) and known to be the most expensive if used in transferring Bitcoin.  This is also know the original/initial Bitcoin address format when Bitcoin was released.

Pay-to-Script-Hash(P2SH)
36JKRghyuTgB7GssSTdfW5WQruntTiWr5Aq this format is called compatibility address or also known as Pay-to-Script-Hash(P2SH)  it is also stated that using this address can save 26% than using the Legacy address for transaction.

Segwit or Bech32 address (bc1q)
bc1q42kjb79elem0anu0h9s3h2n586re9jki556pbb this address format is known as Segwit or Bech32 address using this format can save up to 16% than using P2SH and is also known as the cheapest address type to use for Bitcoin transaction.

Taproot (bc1p)
bc1pnagsxxoetrnl6zi70zks6mghgh5fw9d1utd17d this address format is known as a taproot address and has more privacy than any other type of Bitcoin address but is slightly more expensive than the segwit address in terms of transaction fee.  Taproot also enable smart contract opportunities for Bitcoin address.  This is by far the latest update of Bitcoin address.

One important thing to know is that one can send Bitcoin across the different Bitcoin address type since Bitcoin address are cross-compatible to any Bitcoin address type.  Knowing this we must not worry if some how we send our Bitcoin from Legacy address to Taproot address, and can't see the balance appear on the wallet, there is no need to panic because we just need to update or upgrade our wallet to a Taproot compatible wallet in order to see the balance correctly.  Besides we can always check the transaction on the blockchain if the transaction is successful.

Knowing the different type of Bitcoin address and its feature will enable us to use Bitcoin address type to its maximum potential like if we want to save transaction fee, we are able to know that segwit or bech32 is the best choice to use.  Aside from that knowing these type of addresses, newbies won't be confused and is able to identify if ever they came across this kind of Bitcoin address format.


Btw, I wanted to keep this post short and direct so that readers will not get bored reading a wall of text when I can just provide the link or embed a link to each type of Bitcoin address if they wanted to read more details about these type of addresses.

I really like this video released by Altcoin Daily titled: Bitcoin Mining is Good for Environment.

It discussed on why Bitcoin mining is doing good in:

Global Scale (county by country)
US Scale (state by state)
In general (argument by argument0

It explain that Bitcoin mining is doing good in Global scale for the reasons:

1.  Bitcoin Mining is helping 1,600 families in the mountain of Malawi, Africa get cheaper hydroelectric energy.
2.  The Tecapa volcano in El Salvador produces more clean sustainable geothermal energy than the local community can use.  Mining Bitcoin with the extra energy helps lower the cost and balance the electrical grid.
3.  In Lebanon the local currency has lost more than 95% of its value, pensions are worthless, banks shutdown, and ATM are out of cash.  People are surviving by mining Bitcoin.
4.  Tepco, Japan's largest power company is mining Bitcoin - helping energy costs for consumers, increase profits, and decarbonize the energy grid.
5.  Mining Bitcoin enable a defunct hydroelectric plant go back in operation after 9 months of shutting down due to not generating profit.
6.  North Vancouver is set to become the first city in the world to be heated by Bitcoin mining.  Bitcoin mining to create heat for the city using sustainable energy and Bitcoin mining to lower the coist.
7.  Bitcoin is used to crowdsource solar panels in Zimbabwe.  1905 individuals across 95 countries funded the Nhimbe Fresh project, a grower of berries and vegetables made up of 250 small farmers and this is made possible thanks to Bitcoin.
8.  Exxon Mobile is using Bitcoin mining to reduce harmful emissions.

US scale

1.  Bitcoin mining is cleaning up toxic waste in this Pennsylvania town and saving taxpayers $5Billions
2.  Governor of New Hampshire recommends the Dept. of Energy to review how Bitcoin mining can help stabilize the electricity grid, build more sustainable generations project and lower costs for consumers.
3.  Governor of Texas says, Bitcoin is good for the power grid.  CEO of Texas' energy grid, Brad Jones explains Bitcoin is helping the energy grid and is driving more renewable into the system.
4.  A company want to build a massive solar project in Montana for cryptocurrency.
5.  Bitcoin mining saved the oldest hydroelectric energy in the US by being turned of forever.  Built in 1897, Mechanicville Hydroelectric plant could no longer to make a profit and was scheduled to shutdown but Bitcoin mining saved it.
6.  US house committee on Financial Services wrote a letter to the EPA, saying that digital asset and its related mining activities are essential to the economic futere  of the United States.

Arguments in general

1.  Bitcoin mining keeps room warm during the winter and lowering energy cost
2.  U.S. Congress testimony
3.  Bitcoin energy is renewable
4.  Bitcoin mining recycles harmful methane emissions into profit
5.  New research data shows the global Bitcoin mining industry produces less CO₂ emission than computer games and holiday lights.
6.  Bitcoin is estimated to use 58.9% sustainable energy according to the latest date of BMC



It has been proven by data that Bitcoin mining is good for the environment, it helps the community and countries to even energy grid and lower the energy consumption.  In terms of global consumption, it is also proven by data that Bitcoin mining only uses 0.17% when compared to global total energy so it is somehow negligible.  So I think this information about Bitcoin mining using lots of energy from the global energy is all fallacy and myth.  I think this misconception are being spread out to bring FUD and destabilize Bitcoin economy.


Source: Bitcoin Mining is GOOD for the Environment! 💯

Have you ever thought of a government implementing a Cashless gambling?  Making hard cash obsolete for gambling purposes?  Armenia is currently pushing this law that force their gambler to do gambling transaction via bank[1].  It was stated that the said law is created so that the government can tax gambling institutions effectively.  They also add an additional requirement that the gambling establishment needs to pay in order to get the desired licenses on how much  bet the establishment can accept.

This may look profitable for the government but I believe it will hit hard gamblers.  With the implementation of cashless gambling, gamblers are now exposed since they have to use their credit cards or debit card to play.  (Another way of the government to spy on their citizen.)

In a positive note, minors gambling incident would greatly reduced because the gambling transaction can now be traced via bank statement, except if these minors can freely use their parent's cards.

May take on this.. screw the government if we really wanted to do cashless gambling, there is always a cryptocurrency gambling platform option where we can at least play gambling without the need to use our bank account.


So what do you think about this cashless gambling, is this another breakthrough of the gambling industry or just a way of the government to track their citizen and earn from the gambling establishment.



[1] https://www.casino.org/news/armenia-introduces-new-taxes-restrictions-on-its-gaming-industry/

[speculation - the activity of guessing possible answers to a question without having enough information to be certain]

Just stumbled on this article, the guy who wrote this article is probably high on Bitcoin because he just came from Africa Bitcoin Conference  in Ghana.

I just came back from the Africa Bitcoin Conference in Ghana — an inspirational event bringing together pan-Africa and international leaders to talk about Bitcoin’s purpose over its price (thank you Farida Nabourema!).

First we need to define what is speculation first:
speculation - the activity of guessing possible answers to a question without having enough information to be certain^[1]



Article Title: AFTER 2022, PURE BITCOIN SPECULATION IS NOW DEAD
Author: RAY YOUSSEF

As the article stated:
This year was a turning point for Bitcoin and its community is now ready to cut the dead weight of price speculation.^[2]

And to support his claim, he presented these 5 factors that will support his ideals (quoting the explanation so that reader don't have the need to click out of the forum)

THE GLOBAL SOUTH WILL CONTINUE TO LEAD BITCOIN ADOPTION

I just came back from the Africa Bitcoin Conference in Ghana — an inspirational event bringing together pan-Africa and international leaders to talk about Bitcoin’s purpose over its price (thank you Farida Nabourema!). As a legacy for the event, our team at the Built With Bitcoin Foundation opened the Bitcoin Technology Center (BTC), a learning and training center in Kumasi, Ghana — which is set to educate 400 people in its first year.

This trip reenergized my hope for the future. Even in a bear market, trade volume in Africa continues to press forward. Looking at our volume on Paxful, we predict further increases in both Ghana and Nigeria for 2023. Why? We’re still seeing growth in Africa because of the necessity for Bitcoin on the continent — it offers a cheaper and more efficient solution for people to send money back home, make payments and preserve their wealth. And that does not go away because of market conditions. I expect Africa to continue to lead the way heading into the next year.

THE DIVIDE BETWEEN BITCOIN AND THE REST WILL GROW

Bitcoin is backed by human work and has proven its utility beyond the West’s obsession with speculation. It has the ability to bank the unbanked and finally shift the tides of economic apartheid — Bitcoin’s impact cannot be overstated. The bulk of “cryptos” are for wild speculation and investing, relying on the morals of these shady authorities.

As we’ve seen with FTX, people’s life savings can be demolished when there is only a single point of failure. This narrative is the same game the banks have been running for centuries. I’m not buying it. Next year, we will see more Bitcoin-only companies and conferences as the Bitcoin community works to clean up the mess of misinformation caused by these bad actors.

GOVERNMENTS NEED A RETHINK

Smart regulation fosters safety, but poor- or overregulation stifles innovation and growth. We need to strike a balance and that comes with education. My hope for next year is that more Bitcoin companies come together to share why Bitcoin cannot and should not be regulated as you would, for example, stocks or wheat futures.

It’s our responsibility to also advocate for transparency — like requiring companies to share their proof of reserves. Without this, we’re going to see more far-reaching regulation like the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, which pegs more consumer surveillance as the savior and touts Western Union as an example to lead the industry. We know how that narrative will play out...

‘NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR COINS’ WILL GET LOUDER

The trust of the people was tested this year and I don’t blame them for shying away. Life savings were destroyed because of despicable morals and we need to earn back that trust. This is why I advocate for decentralization and for users to self custody their savings.

Using a non-custodial wallet means that users are their own banks, managing their own money and controlling the future of their own finances. In 2023, we’ll see more of a narrative and product push around self custody. I am already doing my part to amplify this message, including sharing a step-by-step process on how to self custody your bitcoin.

BEAR MARKETS WILL BUILD A STRONGER INDUSTRY

I am a natural builder and I have gone back to my roots this year. I’ve come to realize that we are not building products for how people live their daily lives in the Global South. There is too much focus on the unrealistic dream of minting millionaires and not enough around the pain points that keeps billions of people enclosed in economic apartheid. Next year, you will see more products that cater to the true needs of everyday people and offer them solutions for remittance, payments, e-commerce, wealth preservation and basic communication.

While reading the article, I am convinced that Pure Bitcoin Speculation is Dead by 2023.  With all the development and achievement of Bitcoin, it has set its ground to be one of the ever growing industry in the market.  It is not a speculation anymore that Bitcoin will be globally adopted.  We can have references as why Bitcoin will be adopted by countries in fact there is already a proof for it.

With the collapse of central exchanges and popular altcoin demise such as FTT, LUNA and many other altcoin hack, Bitcoin will continue to get the bigger part of the pie.  It also become stronger when ETH moved to POS.

With the current bear market, the longer the bear market stay the better the industry is filtered out.  So surviving this bear market will make Bitcoin even stronger.  

So yeah, people do not need to speculate about Bitcoin growth anymore because Bitcoin had already established a good foundation we just need to wait for the good result.

There is a chance that many of us does not share the same point of view as the writer, so what do you think?  Is pure Bitcoin speculation will be dead after 2022?


[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/speculation
[2] https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/in-2022-bitcoin-price-speculation-died

[Course Table of content:]

While browsing the site looking for an answer to one of the question on the mining board, I stumble a course created in Babypips.com that is so simple and easy to understand.  I know many of our fellow member here are highly motivated to teach their friends and relatives about bitcoin so I think the importance of sharing this Bitcoin course to you. The course titled School of Crypto and the course layout is of the following:
Course Table of content:

• Introduction
• Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin
• Beginner's Guide to the Bitcoin Network
• Beginner's Guide to Hashing
• Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin Mining
• Beginner's Guide to Blockchain
• Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin Wallets
• Beginner's Guide to Digital Signatures

 School of Crypto  
^{a Cryptocurrency course by Babypips.com}

Introduction

Learn what a cryptocurrency is and what makes it special. You'll also meet your friendly guide who will explain their approach to teaching crypto.

• What is a Cryptocurrency?
  

  • What is a cryptocurrency? How are they different from traditional currencies? What makes them so special?

• Crypto As A New Asset Class
  

  • Cryptocurrencies are now seen as financial assets that can be held as alternative investments. Learn why many consider crypto as a brand new asset class.

• Meet Toshi Moshi
  

  • Meet Toshi Moshi, your friendly guide into the world of crypto.

• Getting Started With Bitcoin
  

  • Crypto has a steep learning curve and can be overwhelming. Rather than try to learn about the entire crypto market all at once, let’s start with Bitcoin!

Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin

Understanding Bitcoin, like what it is, where it came from, and how it works provides a solid foundation for being able to navigate the entire crypto space.

• What is Bitcoin?
  

  • What is Bitcoin? An introduction to the original cryptocurrency.

• Why Was Bitcoin Created?
  

  • Why was Bitcoin created? Learn about the unique challenges of creating e a digital version of cash.

• What Problems Did Bitcoin Solve?
  

  • What problems did Bitcoin solve? Previous attempts to create digital cash have failed due to these problems.

• What is a Distributed Ledger?
  

  • What is a distributed ledger? The first step to understanding how Bitcoin works is to become familiar with the concept of a “distributed ledger”.

• The Bitcoin System and Its Components
  

  • Bitcoin is more than just a cryptocurrency. It’s a system. Let’s take a look at the different components of the Bitcoin system.

Beginner's Guide to the Bitcoin Network

Learn what the Bitcoin network is, what happens on the Bitcoin network, and why it's important.

• What is a Network?
  

  • What’s a network? Before we dig deeper into the details of the actual Bitcoin network, let’s take a step back first and review what a computer network is.

• What is the Bitcoin Network?
  

  • What is the Bitcoin network? And how is it formed?

• What Does the Bitcoin Network Do?
  

  • Learn how the Bitcoin network is formed and what actually happens on the network.

• What is a Bitcoin Node?
  

  • What exactly is a Bitcoin node? What does a Bitcoin node do? How does a Bitcoin node work?

Beginner's Guide to Hashing

In order to truly understand how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies work, it’s crucial to first understand the concept of "hashing".

• What is Hashing?
  

  • In order to truly understand how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies work, it’s crucial to first understand the concept of “hashing”.

• How Does Hashing Work?
  

  • Hashing is a mathematical operation that is easy to perform, but extremely difficult to reverse. Learn how it all works.

• Examples of Hashing
  

  • Let’s look at some examples of hashing and see how the hashing process works using an actual hash function.

• What Is Hashing Used For?
  

  • What is the purpose of hashing? What exactly is hashing used for?

Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin Mining

Learn what Bitcoin mining is and how it works. The inner workings of mining bitcoin are demystified. It's not as complicated as you might think it is.

• What is Bitcoin Mining?
  

  • Learn what Bitcoin mining is and understand why it’s needed to make the whole Bitcoin system work.

• What is a Mempool?
  

  • Learn about the mempool, a temporary storage area for pending transactions waiting to be confirmed.

• What is a Bitcoin Miner?
  

  • Learn about a special type of Bitcoin nodes that do the crucial work of confirming transactions.

• How Bitcoin Mining Works
  

  • Bitcoin mining is required for new transactions to get added to the blockchain. Learn how this process works.

Beginner's Guide to Blockchain

Learn what a blockchain is and how it’s related to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

• What is a Blockchain?
  

  • An introduction into how blockchains work and why they’re so revolutionary.

• What Makes Blockchain So Special?
  

  • Learn what makes the blockchain so special and why it’s considered innovative and possibly transformative.

Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin Wallets

In order to send or receive bitcoins, you need to use a Bitcoin "wallet". Learn what a wallet is, the different types, and how to use them.

• What is a Bitcoin Wallet?
  

  • In order to send or receive bitcoins, you need to use a “wallet”. But what exactly is a Bitcoin wallet?

• What is a Seed Phrase?
  

  • Learn what a seed phrase is and why it’s extremely important to keep it secret and safe.

• Why Are Bitcoin Wallets Needed?
  

  • What is the purpose of using a Bitcoin wallet? Why are they needed anyway?

• What Are the Different Types of Bitcoin Wallets?
  

  • There are multiple Bitcoin wallets available that you can use. Learn the different types.

• Which Bitcoin Wallet Should You Use?
  

  • The best Bitcoin wallet for you will depend on your preferences across these three dimensions.

• How to Send Bitcoin
  

  • Learn how to securely send bitcoin.

• How to Receive Bitcoin
  

  • Learn how to receive bitcoin securely.

• Do Bitcoin Wallets Store Bitcoins?
  

  • Some people believe that Bitcoin wallets actually contain bitcoins. But this is false. Here’s why.

Beginner's Guide to Digital Signatures

Digital signatures are a fundamental building block in cryptocurrencies. Learn what they are and how they work.

• What Is A Digital Signature?
  

  • Digital signatures are a fundamental building block in cryptocurrencies. Let’s learn why.

• What is Encryption?
  

  • In order to truly grasp the concept of digital signatures, you must first understand how encryption works.

• What is Asymmetric Encryption?
  

  • Learn how asymmetric encryption work in cryptocurrencies.

• How Digital Signatures Kinda Work
  

  • Digital signatures may sound complicated, but I’ll explain how it works so that you’ll be able to understand.

• How Do Digital Signatures Work?
  

  • Learn how a digital signature actually works in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

• How a Bitcoin Transaction Works
  

  • Learn how a Bitcoin transaction works from start to finish.

• Putting It All Together: The Bitcoin System
  

  • You’ve learned a lot about Bitcoin. Now let’s put it all together!

The course is a good starter for a beginner.  It explains the lessons clearly and even sets graphical presentation of the topic.  So I share the course by listing the courses and topic inside the course to have a glimpse on what is tackled before getting linked out of the forum.


Source: https://www.babypips.com/crypto/learn

The famous author has warned on several occasions that the U.S. pension crisis is much worse than we thought. In 2020, he co-authored a book titled “Who Stole My Pension?” with Edward Siedle. In the book, the authors discussed “the greatest retirement crisis in the history of our nation and … the entire world.” When pension funds almost collapsed recently in England, Kiyosaki warned that a similar situation could happen in the U.S.

Kiyosaki previously explained that “the U.S. dollar became fake money” when President Richard Nixon removed it from the gold standard in 1971. “This is because rather than being tied to real money,” such as gold, “it was tied to the ‘full faith and credit’ of the United States,” the Rich Dad Poor Dad author noted. In September, he said the end of fake money is here; he expects the U.S. dollar to crash by January.

The renowned author has said repeatedly that he doesn’t trust the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, President Joe Biden, and Wall Street. In February, he warned that the Fed and the Treasury are destroying the U.S. dollar, advising people to buy bitcoin.

He recently stressed that cryptocurrency cannot be blamed for the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, emphasizing that bitcoin is not the problem. He called former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried the Bernie Madoff of crypto. Earlier this month, Kiyosaki explained that he is a bitcoin investor, not a trader, and he gets excited when BTC hits a new botto

I always look up at Rober Kiyosaki when it comes to financial motivation and advises.  I had been following this guy's insights and read his books.  So I was relieved when I known that he is also invested in Bitcoin, which means I made the right decision when I engaged myself in Bitcoin community.  There is not much tosay in this thread since the explanation is pretty clear that the USD is bound to collapse ever since President Richard Nixon removed it from the gold standard in 1971.


Source:

https://news.bitcoin.com/robert-kiyosaki-expects-bitcoin-investors-to-get-richer-when-fed-pivots-prints-trillions-of-dollars/

[What is Starbucks Web3 Odyssey?]

This is a great news for Polygon community and market.  A well known chain of store that sells coffee called Starbucks had launched its Beta Web3 Odysey on Polygon Network.

What is Starbucks Web3 Odyssey?
It is the test of the experimental program combines customer loyalty rewards and NFT collecting and other gamified elements.

Here is a video that tells about the news of Starbucks launching its Beta Web3 Odyssey : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNoui0NIWmU&t=512s

Here is an article that gives an analysis of the said Starbucks Web3 loyalty program

Accessing the program

Starbucks Odyssey will be accessible using the same login as Starbucks Rewards. But because these stamps are actually NFTs under the surface, Starbucks system needs to have a wallet address for each member.
They will likely provide the option for members to 1) connect your existing wallet or 2) confirm your email address to have a custodial wallet created for you. In either scenario, Starbucks will have a confirmed crypto wallet address added to the Starbucks Rewards profile for each Starbucks Odyssey participant.

Distribution of NFTs

The NFTs are called “stamps”, and there are two classes of stamps: “Journey Stamps” and “Limited-edition Stamps”. Each are distributed in different ways.
Journey stamps can be earned by completing challenges or games. This means that upon completion of the challenge (take a quiz about how coffee is made, purchase all the different flavors of espresso Starbucks has, etc), the Journey Stamp will be transferred to the member’s wallet. After this transfer is completed, Starbucks can’t remove the stamp!
Limited-editions will only be purchasable, not earn-able. They will be purchasable via credit/debit cards, and concepts like interacting with Polygon’s native token (MATIC) and paying gas fees will be abstracted away from consumers. The Limited-Edition Stamps will be rare and unlock more expensive experiences.

Marketplace

Starbucks Odyssey will have a built-in marketplace in their web app experience where consumers can buy, sell and trade their stamps. Starbucks made it clear that this marketplace experience will be available for “limited-edition stamps”, but they have not confirmed this will be available for “journey stamps”.

Benefits, perks and “utility”

The benefits and experiences that stamps can unlock may include:

• limited edition merchandise
• access to experiences
• ability to connect with other members

They teased some of the experiences they were considering making available to stamp owners, like a virtual espresso martini-making class, invitations to Starbucks Reserve Roasteries or even trips to their coffee farm in Costa Rica.

Redeeming the benefits

Rather than gating the benefits based on which “stamps” you have collected, Starbucks is introducing a new virtual currency (”points”) as the mechanism to redeem benefits.

This implementation of loyalty reward of Starbucks via Polygon Network is a great boost and promotion for Polygon Market.  Basically this will give a huge exposure for Polygon Network and at the same time make people aware that Polygon is existing aside from well known BTC and other leading cryptocurrency.


Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNoui0NIWmU&t=512s
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/analysis-starbucks-web3-loyalty-program-connor-kelley/

As the title stated the third interview[1] of Coffeezilla to SBF has come to fruition when he made SBF to accidentally  admit fraud by saying that all funds are stored in a single "bucket". The client who do not agree with any marginal trading or hedge funds and that was promised to have 1:1 reserve cannot withdraw and the fund is nowhere to be found.

Altcoin Daily had made video[2] compilation  and explanation how SBF admit fraud during the third interview of Coffeezilla to SBF.

Here is the Altcoin Daily's video timestamp[2]

Timestamps:
0:00 - SBF has been denying FRAUD for weeks!
1:56 - SBF know about FTX co-mingled funds?
3:54 - SBF Finally Admits to FRAUD?
4:09 - Caroline has been talking
4:43 - SBF Finally Admits to FRAUD (pt1)
6:16 - SBF Finally Admits to FRAUD (pt2)
8:57 - SBF Finally Admits to FRAUD (pt3)
10:28 - SBF Finally Admits to FRAUD (pt4)
12:00 - Was FTX always committing fraud?
12:18 - SBF admits FTX user asset UI was fake.


Coffeezila's Full Video 3rd Interview on SBF[1]
Here is the timestamp copy the third interview of Coffeezilla to SBF[1]

0:00 Intro
0:18 Background to the Call
1:05 The Plan
2:12 Failure 1 - New York Times
4:30 Failure 2 - George Stephanopoulos
7:06 Failure 3 - Coffeezilla
8:38 Lessons Learned = The NEW Strategy
9:33 3rd Sam Bankman Fried Call Begins
10:04 Were you treating client assets differently?
10:31 Focus on Client Assets Only
10:51 Sam Tries to Deflect to Alameda
11:26 Can You Explain What That Means?
11:40 Separate Legal Agreement
12:05 Let's Focus Only on the Assets that Terms of Service Applied to
12:29 Sam Cites Billions of Withdrawals
13:32 Is there 1:1 Assets for Customers Who Didn't Agree to Margin?
14:19 Sam Finally Explains "Fungibility" of Funds During Bankruptcy
15:41 There Are No Buckets
16:38 During Collapse We May Have Allowed Withdrawals
17:27 You Can't Treat Everyone Equally
17:51 You Monopolized The Discussion Coffeezilla, Stop Grandstanding
18:40 My Reaction to Sam's Blowup
19:15 I Got What I Was Looking For
20:13 Analogy to Traditional Finance
21:08 Everyone was Subject to the Same Risk
22:31 Did I Monopolize Sam's Time?


It is really a great job done by Coffeezilla in strategically making SBF indirectly admit that FTX is committing fraud to its client when he made SBF stated the fungibility of Funds during the bankruptcy and that funds of different risk level are stored in the same wallet, that action does not comply with the Terms and agreement of FTX to their client thus showing FTX has been committing fraud since the beginning.

The two video is a good watch and it is great to see how Coffeezilla exposed SBF of the fraud he is denying for weeks.


[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o_jPzBZSIo
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCW89n9ooRY

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos had a 1 on 1 interview with Sam Bankman-Fried.   In this 10+ minute long video, the anchor asks SBF if he new about the FTX deposit are being used to pay off Alameda creditors.  It took a while for SBF to answer and deny that he knew about the improper use of customer fund.

Here is the original video from ABC news : https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-denies-improper-customer-94268098

Here is the Time Stamped Commentary video[1] done by The Altcoin Daily channel

Timestamps:[1]
0:00 - Did SBF know about the stolen FTX user funds?
1:49 - SBF on FTX's collapse: "I wasn't even trying."
2:27 - SBF pretending to be ignorant?
3:17 - Bernie Madoff/Ponzi level fraud?
4:11 - Did SBF know user funds were being stolen?
4:44 - It takes SBF 5+ minutes to answer.
9:38 - DO NOT BE FOOLED! (SBF is dumb like a fox)
10:15 - SBF on losing his entire personal net worth
11:08 - Do you believe him?


In this interview it is obvious that SBF is hiding the truth.  Another note taking is that he admit that he did not take his position seriously that leads to FTX bankruptcy.  


[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR-3h-gagjs

[Its purpose is to create payment code which can be publicly advertised and associated with a real-life identity without creating the loss of security or privacy inherent to P2PKH address reuse.]

I happen to stumble on an article regarding BIP 47 and how it enhance the transaction privacy.  So I do a little bit more searching looking for other articles that explains it.  From a get go, I found that

BIP 47 also known as Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 47 (BIP47) is a Layer applications for Reusable payment Codes.

 

Code:

BIP: 47
  Layer: Applications
  Title: Reusable Payment Codes for Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets
  Author: Justus Ranvier <justus@openbitcoinprivacyproject.org>
  Comments-Summary: Unanimously Discourage for implementation
  Comments-URI: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/wiki/Comments:BIP-0047
  Status: Draft
  Type: Informational
  Created: 2015-04-24[/quote]

Its purpose is to create payment code which can be publicly advertised and associated with a real-life identity without creating the loss of security or privacy inherent to P2PKH address reuse. [1]

According to this article[2] it explains the BIP47 as

Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 47 ? or BIP47 ? allows wallets to offer ?payment codes,? which act as stealth addresses masking the real Bitcoin address where various payments eventually land. Its protocol and specification have been written by developer and early Bitcoin adopter Justus Ranvier, who spoke with us about the wallets currently seeking to be BIP47-compliant.

Justus?s spec notes that payment codes automatically provide for transaction refundability, are SPV-friendly, and positively identify senders to recipients for relational certainty.[2]

Here are some worth noting conversation between Bitcoin.com (BC) and Justus Ranvier explaining about BIP 47 way back 2015

Bitcoin.com (BC): Which wallets are looking at implementing BIP47? Which already have, if any?

Justus Ranvier (JR): Samourai Wallet was the first wallet I worked with, and they are very close to launching with payment codes integrated.
justus ranvier bitcoin developerTwo other wallets have expressed tentative interest, but haven?t actively started working on an implementation yet.
I?m currently working with one wallet developer to define a multisig version of extend BIP47.

The first version of BIP47 did not support multisig because it wasn?t immediately evident that it would be possible, but we?ve recently discovered a way to make it work with reasonable trade-offs compared to the non-multisig version

BC: Is this the first such BIP for Bitcoin?

JR: The Stealth Addresses in Darkwallet were the first use of Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) addresses in Bitcoin.
Payment codes are designed to address some of the shortcomings of stealth addresses, which may have been responsible for their lack of adoption.

BC: Why would a user opt for Bitcoin with BIP47 rather than a currency which offers native privacy like Dash or Monero?

JR: The ?native privacy? advertised by some currencies may turn out to be more marketing hype than reality. We won?t really know until there?s been comprehensive testing of all the different currencies from a privacy perspective.
In the long term, users will prefer the currencies which represent the best investment because they have the best monetary properties.

?If [A privacy-centric] altcoin has inferior monetary properties and Bitcoin can get reasonably close to it in terms of practical privacy, I don?t see how such an altcoin can compete in the long term.?

BC: What primary use cases do you envision for BIP47?

JR: Bitcoin users can use payment codes the way they?ve always wanted to use Bitcoin addresses, without harmful security and privacy side effects.

?You can treat a payment code like your email address ? something that changes infrequently (if at all) and that you print on your business card.?

When you receive bitcoins to your payment code, you see the payment code of the sender and can send bitcoins back to them as easily as replying to an email.
Because they are a more natural fit for the way users want to interact with their wallets, I expect that payment codes will replace addresses as the primary way in which Bitcoin users pay each other

BC: What other coding projects are you working on right now?
JR: I accidentally became a core developer of Open Transactions because there was nobody else available to do it.

BC: Tell us a bit about your involvement with the Open Bitcoin Privacy Project. What?s up with OBPP these days?

JR: Right now we?re working on finishing up the second round of wallet privacy ratings, which should be released before the end of the year.
We also have a project to measure and graph address reuse in the blockchain and additional privacy recommendations to wallet developers in the pipeline.

7 years later of that conversation, BIP47 had drastically progressed and has been implemented on several wallets.[3]

Many few crypto wallets have accepted the modern technology of reusable payment codes such as Billion, Samourai, Sparrow, and Stash. The crypto market is set to embrace BIP47 more in the nearby future for the welfare of crypto investors to complete necessary crypto transactions with Bitcoin more safely and securely. The main aim of BIP47 or reusable payment codes for hierarchical deterministic wallets is to simplify Bitcoin processes with a static and public address. Thus, it can be said that reusable payment codes can allow repetitive crypto transactions with the preservation of on-chain privacy.

Full details and explanation of BIP47 can be found here[1]


Now that the Bitcoin Development Kit plans to implement BIP47 users is now allow to receive payment via a static payment code and interact with more privacy.[4].


With this development, does the transaction privacy offered by BIP47 match those  privacy coins?  Is it possible that transaction done with BIP47 can't be traced?


[1] https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0047.mediawiki#Abstract
[2] https://news.bitcoin.com/reusable-payment-codes-privacy-coming-wallet-near/
[3] https://www.analyticsinsight.net/reusable-payment-codes-are-what-makes-bitcoin-transactions-safer/
[4] https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/implementing-reusable-payment-codes-in-bitcoin-wallets-to-improve-user-privacy

[Top Crypto Heist]

What is Crypto Heist:
Crypto Heist also known as Crypto robber where hackers have exploited vulnerabilities within these third parties, have targeted cryptocurrencies directly, and have utilized flash loans to their advantage. To date, this has seen them steal the equivalent of $4 billion.[1]

Here is the current statistics of the reported Crypto Heist



Heists are assigned to the country where the platform/website’s headquarters are located. Where a company’s location isn’t provided, the heist isn’t included in the map figures.[1]

Top Crypto Heist
According to the site[1] the following are the biggest crypto heist to date (based on the amount stolen at the time)

Ronin Network (Axie Infinity) – $620 million stolen

On 29 March 2022, Ronin Network (a gaming-based crypto network) announced it had been hacked and a whopping $620 million had been stolen in total. This was made up of 173,600 in ETH (worth just less than $595m USD) and $25.5m in USD, making it the biggest crypto heist to date. Ronin Network, which supports Sky Mavis’s Axie Infinity game, said its Ronin and Axie DAO validator nodes had been compromised with the funds being drained in two transactions. The US Treasury Department later attributed the theft to North Korea’s Lazarus group.

Poly Network – $610 million stolen

In August 2021, a hacker attacked Poly Network by exploiting a vulnerability in its system and managed to steal funds worth over $600 million. However, in a strange twist, they didn’t make off with their bounty. Instead, the hacker spoke to the platform and agreed to give back most of the money, except for $33 million of tether (USDT) which had been frozen by the issuers. But that wasn’t the end of the fiasco as $200 million of the stolen funds were trapped in an account that required a password from the hacker and Poly Network. For a while, the hacker refused to hand theirs over. That was until Poly Network begged for them to release it, coughed up $500,000 as a gesture for finding the system vulnerability, and even offered them a job! Poly Network later revealed that so-called “Mr. White Hat” had given them the private key.

Coincheck – $532 million stolen

In January 2018, Japan-based Coincheck had its NEM (XEM) tokens stolen to the tune of more than $530 million. Hackers exploited the fact that the currency was being kept in a “hot” wallet, meaning it was connected to the server and was effectively “online” (a cold wallet sees funds stored offline). NEM developers were able to identify the stolen coins and mark them as such, but there was speculation that the funds were available on dark markets. However, as the coins lost a lot of value after the attack, it’s unlikely many would have seen this as a good deal (even today the coins would be worth 83 percent less than they were–around $90 million).

MT Gox – $470 million stolen

This was the first large-scale hack on an exchange and is still the biggest theft of Bitcoins from an exchange. However, the MT Gox heist wasn’t down to a solitary event. Rather, the platform had been leaking funds since 2011, up until it was discovered in February 2014. Over a period of a few years, hackers stole 100,000 bitcoins from the exchange and 750,000 bitcoins from the exchange’s customers. At the time, these bitcoins were worth $470 million–but today, they’d be worth around ten times as much ($4.7 billion). MT Gox went into liquidation shortly after the hack with liquidators recovering approximately 200,000 of the stolen bitcoin.

Wormhole – $326 million stolen

In the first major crypto heist of 2022, Wormhole’s crypto platform was exploited to the tune of $326 million. The platform acts as a communication bridge between Solana (an ethereum rival that has recently gained traction) and other decentralized finance networks. On February 2, 2022, hackers were able to exploit a vulnerability, causing Wormhole to shut down its platform while it investigated. It later reported that 120k wrapped Ethereum (wETH) had been stolen.

KuCoin – $281 million stolen

In September 2020, KuCoin confirmed that hackers had managed to obtain private keys to their hot wallets before withdrawing large amounts of ethereum (ETH) and bitcoin (BTC), as well as Bitcoin SV (BSV), Litecoin (LTC), XRP (XRP), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Tron (TRX), and Tether (USDT). Since then, experts have suggested they have strong reason to believe that hackers in North Korea were responsible

PancakeBunny – $200 million stolen

In this flash loan attack in May 2021 where hackers were able to drain $200 million from the platform. To carry out the attack, the hacker loaned a large amount of Binance Coin (BNB) before manipulating its price and dumping it on PancakeBunny’s BUNNY/BNB market. This enabled the hacker to get a huge amount of BUNNY through a flash loan, dump all of the bunny in the market so the price dropped, before paying back the BNB through pancakeswap.

Bitmart – $196 million stolen

Almost $200 million was stolen in a compromise of Bitmart’s hot wallet in December 2021. Initially, $100 million was identified as having been stolen over the Ethereum blockchain, but a further investigation revealed another $96 million had been stolen over the Binance Smart Chain blockchains. A mix of more than 20 tokens were stolen, including altcoins like BSC-USD, Binance Coin (BNB), BNBBPay (BPay), and Safemoon, while large amounts of Moonshot, Floki, and BabyDoge were also compromised.

Beanstalk – $182 million stolen

In April 2022, Ethereum-based DeFi platform, Beanstalk, lost around $182m after a vulnerability allowed the hacker to carry out a flash loan attack. The hacker was able to make off with $80m in crypto but the platform’s losses extended far further than that to over $180m. Reports also suggest that the hacker deposited 250,000 USDC into the crypto donation wallet for Ukraine.

Bitgrail – $150 million stolen

Bitgrail was a small Italian exchange trading in lesser-known cryptos, such as Nano (XRB). In February 2018, just as the price of XRB skyrocketed from a few cents to $33, the exchange was hacked. Nano wallets had been targeted with at least 17 million coins stolen (the equivalent of around $150 million). Many users started to comment that they had noticed issues with the exchange before the attack (significantly lower withdrawal limits and transaction problems). Investigations also revealed that the coins had been stolen from cold wallets, not hot wallets, suggesting an inside job. Investigations have continued over the last few years with Italian police recently accusing the man who owned Bitgrail to be behind the attacks (either directly involved or was aware/took no action to prevent further theft once the first attack had been carried out).

Vulcan Forged – $135 million stolen

Hackers made off with $135 million from Vulcan Forged–a blockchain gaming company–in December 2021. They accessed 96 different wallets by stealing private keys, before draining 4.5 million PYR tokens from them.

Cream Finance – $130 million stolen

Not only did hackers make off with $130 million in this October 2021 attack, but this was the third attack Cream Finance had suffered in the year. in February, hackers stole $37 million and in August, $29 million. The latest attack saw hackers exploiting what was thought to be a vulnerability in the DeFi platform’s flash loan system. They were able to steal all of Cream Finance’s tokens and assets on the Ethereum blockchain, which amounted to $130 million.

BadgerDAO – $120.3 million stolen

In December 2021, a hacker managed to drain funds from across various cryptocurrency wallets on the DeFi platform, BadgerDAO. The platform confirmed that hackers had used a “maliciously injected snippet” via Cloudfare which allowed them to drain $130 million in funds, around $9 million of which was recovered as it hadn’t been withdrawn.

CoinBene – $105 million stolen

Initially, after huge outgoing transactions from CoinBene’s hot wallet to an unknown wallet in March 2019, the platform said it was undergoing maintenance. However, with every one of the platform’s ERC-20 tokens reportedly moving into an unknown wallet (which didn’t exist until the day of the transfer), rumors quickly circulated that this was an attack. Data scientists also found that the tokens were promptly moved to Etherdelta where they were sold for ethereum (ETH). This amounted to $105 million at the time.

Horizon (Harmony) – $100 million stolen

Horizon, Harmony’s cryptocurrency bridge that offers transfers between Ethereum and Binance and Bitcoin, was hacked for $100m across 11 transactions in June 2022. In a Twitter thread, Harmony announced it was working with authorities to try and identify the culprit and locate the stolen funds.

Liquid – $97 million stolen

In August 2021, Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, Liquid, detected that unauthorized persons had accessed its wallets before moving assets worth more than $97 million out of them. $16.13 million USDe of ERC-20 assets were frozen to prevent onward movement but 69 various cryptos were misappropriated and sent to other DeFi platforms or exchanges.

EasyFi – $81 million stolen

By stealing the private keys to EasyFi’s MetaMask admin account, hackers were able to extract $6 million in USD, DAI, and USDT, plus 2.98 million EASY tokens, all of which amounted to around $81 million. The machine that was compromised to gain the keys was offline most of the time, only being switched on to perform official transfers for the project. When the attack was carried out, the machine had been offline for more than a week. And because it wasn’t actively used when the attack was carried out, this delayed the platform’s resp

It is quite surprising how many promising exchanges, DeFi and crypto projects had suffered hacking.   Often time we wonder if it is an inside job or the cryptocurrency security system is so weak that it can't cope up with the advancement of hackers and hacking tools.  Regardless it is beyond the investors grasp.  Should the platform or project take responsibility for this incident?  Do you think the current DeFi security system isn't ready to protect the money of investors?  Or is it just an inside job disguise as crypto hacking incident?


[1] https://www.comparitech.com/crypto/biggest-cryptocurrency-heists/