We have banged our heads against this problem for quite sometime now. The sub had become almost defunct after Benson't exit and the tragedy with his startup (His co-owner ran away with the funds, some Amitabh if i remember correctly). I had complained about this in some earlier threads and then @Heisenberg_Uncertainty joined in. Having Mr. H has led to quite a bit of action. He started the raffle, managed to get @Darkstar_ as escrow, somehow got this very informative post pinned with the help of global mods. The problem of merit too has been solved for quite sometime now as there are 2-3 merit sources in this board itself.

What you see now is far better than how it had been for a much longer time. I feel things have gotten a lot better now. The problems for further engagement are structural. We do not have enough people who are putting an effort to create some real-life commerce activity. Most of the commercial activity in crypto is disconnected with the Indian crowd on BCT. The Indian crypto-twitter is filled mostly with shills and traders. Communication may be one of the issues like JSRAW pointed but I don't think anybody minds in what language you are writing.

We just don't have people with enough people interested in using the Local sub as a platform, Yet. What we need is just one or two such instances where people can put effort to earn money online by providing honest services and software. Some college going kid who feels inspired with Satoshi and this forum's history. Till then, Lets just enjoy the raffle. We could also try to bring the IPL specific pool discussion to the board here as its about to come to its grand finale in a few weeks.

Its right that the present banking systems are entrenched in such a way that those at the top will continue to be there aided by corrupt governments and dishonest businessmen. This is not just in developing countries but even in developed countries. Adopting cryptocurrencies isn't necessarily a way to change this system. Yet, anonymously earning and keeping part of saving in cryptocurrencies can help people to partake in the opportunities available not just in their own country but everywhere in the world. This creates a system where more people have the opportunity to earn and contribute as per their capabilities.

This can be uplifting and empowering for individuals and communities. Just today someone shared an article about how filipinos earned income from a blockchain game during the pandemic. That shows the potential of blockchain to bring opportunities to people and allow them to earn without going through the hoops that banking infrastructure otherwise creates.

Back in the 2000s when India was starting to gain a foothold in the international arena, such "first time Indian" chosen as a head of some organization, corporation etc used to do the rounds. While the position itself may not be of much significance, what it speaks about is the growing importance and clout of a country and the recognition of its importance at international forums such as the WTO, in this case.
Nigeria is one of the growing growth spots in the world and similar news about Nigeria means that the world is taking note of the potential of Nigeria. What is important is that these countries will need to follow a much more balanced and sustainable approach keeping in mind the challenges in development vis a vis environment and ecosystem.

It seems to be promotion thing applicable till December 31st, 2020. You can see it linked in the FAQ screenshot posted in OP. This is probably just to onboard new users. Paypal is a huge player in the internet payments scene and the bullish effect is already visible as BTC hovers around 14K after a long stint of sideways moves. Its hard to ever pinpoint a certain reason for bitcoin's movement but this seems to be the reason for the time being.

AI, VR and Green Energy are multi-billion dollar industries which are bound to be the focus of future investments by major companies in these sectors. If you look at AI and VR, every major tech company from Google, Microsoft to Facebook are working on these. When it comes to Green Energy, all major infrastructure and energy companies like Siemens, Toshiba etc. are pouring billions into research as well as rebranding towards a Greener outlook. Compare this against the backdrop of blockchain industry which is yet to prove its worth in the most obvious of areas ripe for it. There is hardly any intersection between these industries and most such attempts are therefore little more than cash grabs and scams that are just exploiting these buzzwords.

When it comes to tokenization of gold, there is a long running signature campaign on the forum itself. Apparently, the token providers back it with equal reserves of gold at a gold treasury in Singapore. This is similar to the model that Tether says it follows. Whether you can trust it or not is a different question. What is clear is that these "reserve holders" are not really transparent and verifiable publicly. There is an inevitable central trusted party who says its worth that much. If you take their word then tokenization works. This centralization ensures that things like tokenized gold don't give the benefit that blockchains actually have, i.e. decentralization.

It is things like these that make me feel hopeful about the future of blockchain. Just a bunch of people playing a game and creating this network effect to gain an extra income that wouldn't otherwise have been possible. The next step in this is for the developers to find ways to monetize these games further and introduce more content to make it more than just a blockchain game. And if people are spending almost full working hours daily on this and earning an extra 300-400 USD per month, that is commendable for the game itself.
The only problem with these games is the greed aspect which can lead a lot of people to start seeing themselves as tycoons rather than as a part of something novel that can come crashing down the next day. That is when they stop sharing and start fooling others like them. The ironic thing behind most scammers is that they have themselves been in desperate situations and know exactly the right things to lure their fellows into over investing themselves. The SEA community is hugely influential in the gaming scene as well as in proliferation of ERC-20 tokens (scams and honest projects alike). Wish them nothing but good luck and positive vibes for the future.

It is an interesting thought experiment. Almost 80-90% of all bitcoin still sit in less than 10% of all addresses. This means that in a future world where bitcoin becomes extremely significant, it will simply replace the problem that it was meant to tackle, centralization of value creation. Bitcoin is not well distributed. It is concentrated in a few hands and a future when bitcoin has supremacy, we will be looking at just another Oligarchy. It will be a mixture of cypherpunks and capitalists rather than just capitalists.

This is why I don't think such a future will ever come to pass. Bitcoin will continue to rise in value but the promise of decentralization is not up to bitcoin to fulfill anymore. People who realize the value now will ensure that they have a stake in that future by trying to stack bitcoin savings from now. Bitcoin will remain significant but the onus of decentralization or changing the fiat system is no longer on bitcoin.

There is no FIAT vs CBDCs. Its "FIAT+CBDCs versus Bitcoin/ Crypto". Bitcoin has single handedly created a new economic space which is accessible to everyone in the world irrespective of where they live or who they are. This space was then expanded upon by Ethereum with its ERC-20 token phenomena. While very susceptible and replete with scams, these "promises" are often the first step into the world of crypto for a lot of people. Some of those "promises" have turned a lot of people rich who otherwise wouldn't have had these opportunities.  There is an additional streak of creativity being added to the space with everything from music, videos, photographs to digital art finding a way to blockchain or tokenization. CBDCs are just a way for the authorities to claw their way into this emerging space.

I don't think CBDCs can be influence those who actually understand blockchain. CBDCs just don't give you the same freedom that Bitcoin or Ethereum does. I think they will serve well to assuage those who fear anything related to "crypto". They can then find their own way in the space. In that way, I think CBDCs will just benefit

Not so much due to LTC but I am slightly surprised to see XRP there. Bitcoin and litecoin investment would be based on almost the same sentiment, but Ripple? If institutions are considering XRP, that shows that all of that "replacing SWIFT" shenanigans are indeed working. I have never placed much hope on XRP because its just redundant and centralized.

I hate that you need a minimum of 32 ETH to stake. For all the ridicule that PoS and Ethereum get from maximalist, if it successfully moves to PoS with all of this community effect, the resulting improvement in settlement time and gas fees will make it the backbone of all activity related to "Security Tokens". Considering that these "Tokens" themselves are finding a prominent place of interest as per this report, this can only be good for ETH in the long run.

While this strategy sounds simple enough and everyone knows about it, there are subtle issues with this:
You see, 'sky' has no limit. How do you define 'sky'. 2X, 3X, 10X. What is you take profit at 3X and then it goes 10X?

Its not a circle, its an inward spiral that has the possibility of teleporting to the outermost fringes depending on twitter shilling. Most of the crypto is just an arrow down. Whatever goes up, WILL come down. There is no need to pin long term hopes to any of these projects until you are actually using their product and getting involved as a "creator", thereby profiting from whatever new market this token creates.

Small investors who read about dev promises and get impressed by Medium posts and decide to get emotionally invested in a project for holding long term are just bagholders. If you buy anything without understanding the business proposition and becoming a part of it yourself, you will ultimately only end up providing support or liquidity to those smarter than you.

A much better strategy is to keep a target and get the heck out as soon as you can. As long as its not a loss, you should be happy. Only a few get lucky at the cost of a lot of other hopefuls like yourself.

So the classification is Foreign Currency, Foreign Exchange and Foreign Asset. For the time being, I am not worried about holding USDT. Its just another ERC-20 token on Ethereum blockchain. Still, a lot of people are exchanging them on KYC'd exchanges like WazirX. (Consider this a "A friend of mine" story, lol) Centralized exchanges like coinbase have already shared trading histories of clients with tax authorities. Indian exchanges can easily do the same. The thing is that these are problems for a time and government that is interested in anything else than running a shitshow of politics and chauvinism. Who cares about having a dialogue with the public when you can do just whatever you want as a ruler?

Then again, People like us don't necessarily matter. A few lac INR moved by us is just petty change for the regulator to care about. As and when, the RBI or SEBI wake up to the "asset" and "exchange" part of it, we will start seeing interventions.

Haha. Thanks for sharing that personal experience. You are right that most of the money is being made by right exit and jumping on the bandwagon at the right time when the shitcoin promoter is shilling it. Its all about how much risk you can take, Personally, I find it troubling that most of the people involved in alt-coins and crypto outside of bitcoin are just chasing these "gainz". In the process, everything from insider trading to shilling is considered fair game. This harms even those projects where the developers are actually sincere. Because nothing is working in this market without shilling.

At the end, its just a lot of wealth transfer. Most of the time it is the whales that are profiting as they are the ones who can manage these pumps better than the average small investor FOMOing into it.

What country are you in? Check for it on Amazon India. You will find hundreds of these products with Ashwagandha etc. Ashwagandha and its formulations were also recommended as an immunity builder during the COVID-19 pandemic. If it is very important for you and you are unable to find, maybe I can help you procure something locally and mail it over to you.
Haven't done anything like this before so I'll have to check the courier/ mail services etc.

IMO, you have found yourself a really nice solution. Instead of going through all the unnatural hormone injections and TRT etc, this would probably be the noblest thing you can do. There are already enough humans on the planet and you are just going to increase the burden with another child. Adopting a baby would give an orphan a new home and you would be doing the planet and environment a favor too. Anybody who plans for more number of babies should at least consider adopting one of those in need.

After losing 7 wickets for 24 runs in that collapse against KXIP, Sunrisers should probably just let DC take the win points. If Shaw strikes a bit of form and Pant contributes to the run-rate the way he does, then this could well be my first winning pick in this round on the Pool. I missed picking the first 3 and the next 3 went the other way, so I am at a glorious 0/6 from 9 picks. (I have a haunch that the begging spoon appearing against my profile has something to do with this?)

Thanks for the explanation webtricks. I did see the USDT/INR pair trading at >90 INR/ USD during the March dump this year. I was wondering whats up with it. Now I know. These events present interesting arbitrage opportunities to those with the wherewithal to implement them. This also opens up a Pandora's box of regulations. Forex trading in pairs that do not involve INR is not allowed. So is BTC/USDT allowed? Similarly, as resident citizens, there are multiple hoops one needs to jump to hold any form of foreign currency like USD.

If you go to a bank and tell them to deposit USD, they will ask for a source of income, passport, visa etc. So is it legal for a resident citizen to hold USDT? Is USDT just a commodity (which tracks USD) or it is to be treated as the dollar? What are implications for people using stablecoins for remittances rather than going the banking route and paying the fees?

Just some interesting questions about the Indian scene in crypto. @teosanru should weigh in.

This "insider information" trick works everywhere. Normal people just can't do anything but feel jealous or incapable to cope with it. This is also a very illegal practice and that is why there are laws whenever investor money is involved. These regulations do not exist in the crypto world and betting on finding the next big thing is a gamble at best. The tendency of normal people to speculate is amplified by examples like UNI or in this case, AUDIO (whatever it is).
Especially despicable is the twitter crowd that keeps blowing up about the "gainz". That is the reason most of such accounts are anonymous. If there were actual people doing it, they'd go the McAffee way sooner or later. Nobody should fall for this kind of FOMO investments once they have pumped. Only if you are actually going to use the product, then put in money. If you cannot find a way to use it, rest assured that nobody else will. There is much greater chances of loss and regret after investing in these things.

DeFi was supposed to be a threat to traditional finance but it has become a kind of conduit for centralized finance to find a way to transform the crypto scene. The crypto crowd is slowly getting involved with the financial. engineering that defines traditional finance. Derivatives, Risk-weighted imvestments and what not. Traditional finance is finding a way to scale its speculative products to the smallest of the investors.

Like all things in crypto, DeFi is also a complicated amalgamation of outright scams, novel ideas and honest, bright-eyed devs trying to actually realize their ideas. There is every possibility that a few of them will result in some kind of long standing products as well as communities. The problem is that those complaining about "scams" are generally themselves looking for "scams" that will 100X their investments, and more importantly, do that before others find out about it. Like everything decentralized, DeFi is also what the people make it. Some good, a lot of bad.

Why does it make sense that Ripple should be preferred over Bitcoin? Paypal is a payment network in itself. They really don't need the so called centralized "Ripple Network" for enabling transactions. What they wanted was to allow its customers to have direct access to cryptocurrencies. Paypal is in the business of transferring "value" between merchants and buyers. The obvious choice is bitcoin because it is sound money. Ripple is just some business idea .

This article sound like a planted story with a motive. The whole article talks about the plan to transfer and buy stuff with bitcoin. No proof that this actually happened. For people who are not familiar, this will automatically be a red flag about bitcoin. There a lot of industry leaders, young startups involved in bitcoin and other cryptos in India. The media and government should be more responsible in reporting these things.
For example, the media house should include that what Supreme Court had to say on bitcoin or how governments around the world are trying to work their way with it rather than just paint it negatively. Yet, such informed and bipartisan reporting is too much to expect from our gutter-chaap media of these days.