This essentially means that stablecoins are going to be the centralized gateway for fiat transactions in these cases.

Again, it just shows that bans may not be effective at all given the large amount of alternative means of transacting there are. The RBI has tried to shut down bitcoin exchanging activity by restricting bank's interactions with them, but obviously, that has not worked.

It does pose a problem, though. There is a reliance on the stablecoins to stay legit, and since most are centralized entities, you're relying on them to be operating at full reserves which is not always the case.

I'd say that there are definitely ways. For example, I recall that SMS based bitcoin transactions have been available a long time ago. The relaying of transactions using the mesh technology that you mentioned in the OP could also be a thing that would be possible in the future.

However, for now, I think that the most feasible way to send bitcoins is probably still via the internet.

I don't think this is necessarily a huge concern given the fact that in the very near future, even remote areas would likely have some form of internet coverage or another very soon. But it is a problem that some people in rural areas may not be able to access BTC - although they probably aren't even cognizant of the fact that it exists at the moment.

Bitcoin value simply isn't just calculated. It does not work like that.

Since it's decentralized its value completely depends on market forces to be determined. You thinking that tether is the basis of BTC valuation is definitely wrong. Tether is completely separate from bitcoin and is centralized, pegged to USD value.

If USD or other major fiat currencies were to inflate drastically, then no doubt BTC price would rise to coincide with that simply because the supply of BTC can't be manipulated and debased. We've already seen this in countries like Argetina and Iran where price of BTC has gone up in local currency terms despite falling BTC prices.

Some people act like centralization is absolutely necessary for the survival of the economy - it really is not. We've seen economies survive and arguably do better off with decentralized forms of money compared to fiat with no backing, or at least with less financial trouble and swings.

However even with that said and my confidence in bitcoin as an asset that is able to preserve value in the long run, it's very unlikely that governments would be willing to give up control of their sovereign fiat currencies and stop issuing them altogether.

The most realistic outcome in my opinion in terms of mass adoption is that people see bitcoin as an alternative, or parallel to the fiat banking system. Some may even choose to use it exclusively as people already are doing now. But a decentralized crypto completely replacing fiat seems like a far fetched idea for now.

Very sophisticated scam.

If I could summarize, essentially the scammer creates their own shitcoin with a similar name as the real token/coin, which can be any ERC20 token with absolutely no backing, place some sell orders on an exchange, and tell victims that they have an arbitrage opportunity which can be exploited through buying their token (victims are misled into thinking that the fake token is real). Correct me if I'm wrong.

Could you link the profile of the person that is attempting to do this?

It reminds me of when these fake tokens with similar names as real ones are being offered as collateral of loans and several lenders got scammed. I wonder if they are from the same person.

I honestly don't know how they are going to stabilize the peso just from diversifying their reserves into bitcoin alone. But holding a decentralized store of value like bitcoin or even precious metals could definitely help in the long term.

What's important here is that regular Argentinean people should be investing in bitcoin and hedging against the inflation that is taking away from their real wealth (>30%).

Even in a bear market, bitcoin offers much better storage of value than the peso at this point. And with other foreign currencies not as accessible, it seems like bitcoin could be a good alternative. Not to mention that in the long run, not only will BTC hold its value, there may even be slight profits to be made given that adoption will continue to rise.

Unfortunately, cloud mining is never going to be profitable for the investors. Otherwise, the cloud mining company would simply mine themselves, and continue to reinvest whatever they earn instead of offering plans to new users.

That's why people here tell prospective investors to stay away from cloud mining. Just read all the reviews and you'll see why.

There is really no way that you'll be able to get them to pay you any more or revive unprofitable contracts because it's all in the clauses of your initial contract. Once your contract falls below a certain point, it becomes terminated and void. Besides, you don't even know if they're actually mining at full capacity, they could be fabricating payout data for all anyone knows (not making accusations, just saying you have no way of actually proving or knowing).

Not really. Will bitcoin help in terms of easing Venezuela's hyperinflation? It's a big no.

It's simply not up to bitcoin, which is a currency, or a bitcoin community to be able to change what governments are doing with their monetary policy. That would simply make absolutely no sense in my opinion, especially considering that bitcoin is decentralized.

But bitcoin does have the potential to offer that stability to individuals who choose to adopt it. As it has a capped supply and is not controlled by any governments, it means that it's a long term store of value much like what gold and silver is and was in the past. Essentially, bitcoin can be offered as a form of wealth preservation safe haven worldwide.

It's really a question that no one can answer.

Even though the support at $5700 has pretty much never been breached within this bear market, I think that it's tough to say in the future, if the bearish sentiment remains to be the dominant force within the market, that this is the absolute lowest level we can go.

What we can see though is that we're past the panic selling phases already and markets are consolidating, which usually means that even if falls come, they won't be as large of a scale as the ones we have seen. Filling up your long term holdings for bitcoin is a wise decision to make especially given the institutional interest in bitcoin at the moment.

That's still extremely unrealistic. If you see any guaranteed profits of 5% p.a. or more on a site, be extremely cautious as most likely it's a scam.

Coinmarketcap is known to advertise ponzis as well so based on that alone, I wouldn't trust any ads that are placed on their site. For example, when Bitconnect was still a widespread phenom, Coinmarketcap actively advertised them on a daily basis.

Their plan structure, guaranteed profits, and referral program gives their entire scam away. This is no different from any other HYIP, so stay away. Don't be greedy and expect payouts from them at the start either. Even if you do make money, you're making it off other victims.

Any derivative that holds leverage will be prone for manipulation.

In fact, anything that is being traded that is not actual, real, bitcoins and some form of token on an exchange without official, full reserve backing could be used for manipulation. We see this with all commodities, including precious metals with paper gold and silver.

Anyhow, it'll be interesting to see what these derivatives/futures do to the market once they are introduced for institutional investors on a large scale. Nothing we can do to stop them, but it's a reason why I personally really don't care for any news about ETF approvals, futures, etc.

If you're talking about an imminent bull market, then it will definitely happen.

Obviously, it would be a matter of time. Whether this time is going to be in a few months that the market recovers, or whether it takes a few years for the next bull market to develop, nobody knows at this stage. But in the long run, the demand for bitcoin should increase and the supply stay relatively the same, leading to an imminent increase in price.

For now, I remain bearish on bitcoin given that the bear market probably won't end this year looking back on historical market movements of 2014-2015. Prices could go lower in the short term and take a few more dips, but we're near the floor.

Take a look at this site which lists some pretty good information: https://www.bestchange.com/bitcoin-to-paypal-euro.html

The rates are definitely not that good, though. Expect quite a cut from the actual market value of bitcoins that you're selling.

I'd honestly suggest if possible, deal with someone on the forum with the protection of an escrow directly, because of all the fees involved with even Virwox and all the exchange sites on Bestchange. These fees, sometimes even hidden, can prove to be way more costly than if you just dealt with an on-forum exchanger. However, make sure that you're dealing with trustworthy members only.

Also you might consider exchanging BTC to Paypal USD first, then converting USD to EUR in paypal directly.

At first there will definitely be hype.

People in the short term will buy up this news due to FOMO, in my opinion. However, in the long run, it's safe to say that there will essentially be no longlasting effects that an approved ETF would bring. Perhaps, it could lead to more market manipulation, even.

And that's only given that the unapproved, upon review ETFs are going to get approved. At this stage, it's very unlikely even though deadlines have been postponed that there is a serious possibility that previous precedents would be reversed.

Would anyone be surprised if the markets see just the slightest bit of bullishness all of a sudden and these mainstream media outlets start calling the next bull market? It's the same logic in the bear market.

All that I can see from this is that when they are bearish, it usually means that prices have already tumbled low enough that a recovery could be coming soon.

They always need sensationalist headlines and follow the market sentiment. Their analysis is honestly not even worth looking at. Bitcoin could tumble down further in the short term given that $6k support doesn't hold up, but given a year, I wouldn't be surprised if the next recovery starts.

Interesting statistics.

The one thing that I was going to mention is that how do they differentiate between company addresses and personal addresses? Because exchange addresses with high transaction activity can just as well be mistaken as a personal address given the level of activity going on with the deposits and redirection of funds.

Either way, it does show how much adoption has increased over the past few years probably due to the bull market of last year, mostly, but its effects have carried over to this year. The article is right though in regards to how merchant adoption has to be there so that people can have practical reason for bitcoin usage, and that's the next step imo after having an increased amount of active BTC addresses.

This is how news can affect prices and market emotions completely irrationally.

People take headlines at face value and sometimes, these aren't even legit as this case shows. But nonetheless such news seem to inject fear into the market to the point where prices essentially tanked 10+% during the period at which the news of this was released.

I'd say that markets have already matured to the point where news coverage no longer affects it as much as it used to (just look back to when China banned exchanges and ICOs, and its effects on BTC prices), but I mean, dips like this are going to continue to happen in a bear market when people are essentially seeking reasons to dump more coins.

Do you have any proof of getting scammed? Screenshots would be nice, although I have no doubt this is a fraudulent site.

I definitely wouldn't trust these types of sites where they claim to be some kind of trusted escrow while having no backing, regulation, or reviews available. Most of these so called escrow sites are in fact sites used by scammers to give you a false sense of security, while in fact, they are all working together to get your funds.

Remember, using escrow is no good if the escrow itself isn't known or trusted. After all, you'll always have to send the funds to the escrow first. I would always only stick to forum escrows, or Bitify in special cases.

It's really not only something that is limited to just bitcoin.

It's pretty much going to affect any notion of of a cashless society where these people may be left behind.

In my opinion, it's not really that big of a concern since we've seen extremely fast innovation in terms of the accessibility features of bitcoin wallets, while maintaining control over the private keys, which means that essentially wallets will be less and less technical to use. Besides, digital literacy has been on the rise and will continue to be so. So while it is a problem, it can be easily addressed. Just look at China and their WeChat pay, even older generations are using it because of the ease of use. I imagine bitcoin to be no more problematic in terms of adoption of these populations than that.

Great list. Some people may think that if bitcoin is unregulated in a certain country, it is considered to be illegal.

That is far from the truth and is a common misconception. If bitcoin is unregulated, it simply means that bitcoin businesses do not have any guidelines to follow, and has nothing to do with the transactions of bitcoin itself on the blockchain.

There are certain countries where there are pretty restrictive measures on buying and selling bitcoin in certain countries, or perhaps even an outright ban on bitcoin transactions. These countries are really shooting themselves in their own foot, in my opinion, as these bans are not even enforceable. In the long run, as cryptocurrencies grow in adoption, countries willing to take a positive stance and regulate bitcoin businesses will reap the benefits.