It depends on what country you're in. In some places agriculture is so warped by government policies that valuations have zero relation to actual reality. Farmers are paid to let the land do nothing. Any time something's use and value is dictated by a policy means that value can radically change if that policy changes.

Round my way I see farms with effectively useless land, the only thing you can do with it is let sheep walk up and down it, sell for millions. If I owned that I'd get rid. I don't see where the future is without subsidies of some sort.

I've never really figured why so many scammers settled on him. He's an erratic druggist. Then again maybe they think he'll be off his trolley enough to do a real one some day.

After all this time I can't rustle up any sympathy for anyone who falls for this type of thing any more. It's so obvious it's painful.

No. It's another of Craigy's lies. He just selected an address with a large balance and pretends it's his like all the other ones.

He was a Gox customer himself and moaned about losing in there. He probably had a grand total of 0.001 BTC. And it's ever so slightly doubtful that the actual Satoshi would be using a piece of shit exchange like that, or any exchange.

Do you think the law is going to care if these people know each other? Look at the amounts OP is talking about - $150,000 a month. I'm sure plenty of money launderers go on holiday with the people they serve too. I don't think a judge is going to send them off with 'sorry for wasting your time' because of that.

The dangers of not keeping records are being convicted of pissing all over the law. If you're converting and sending money you are a money transmitter in most of the US. You have to register as such and follow all of the requirements which will include gathering info regarding the person you're receiving and sending money to to combat money laundering.

They might never be investigated unless the money is linked to some form of criminality from an investigation but you're playing with fire regardless and claiming that you didn't know anything about it is commonly accepted as a failed defence.

https://www.coindesk.com/localbitcoins-trader-pleads-guilty-money-transmitter-charge

https://www.coindesk.com/localbitcoins-users-criminal-charges-florida

One of the members here felt the full force of this too - http://www.jmwagner.com

No idea. Because people have collectively decided it's something they want to happen?

Enough banks and governments have now signalled they're willing to do anything to keep the fun flowing so perhaps traders have taken that as a signal that no matter what happens they're going to have their arses covered so they're going to continue piling in. Whether that's how it pans out is another matter but that's possibly the feeling at present.

As for BTC and stock markets, that comes and goes. I dunno if I've ever seen anything to fully convince they're closely related over long periods of time but they certainly have moments.

If you're in the US then you'll be expected to register as a money transmitter and you'll likely need to do your own KYC and anti money laundering stuff and keep records of everyone you do business with.

Tax'll be fine. It's just a gig with some profit. It's the other stuff that might wind up being a lot of extra work. Not keeping records is what has landed localbitcoins traders in trouble. 

I would guess at a minimum 20-30% of streaming subscribers are people who wouldn't continue paying if they had to actively initialise the payment each month. They never quite bother to cancel so they stay locked in.

Crypto would be the companies' least welcome payment method by a country mile. Users would become much more choosy and conscious of their outgoings and a vast percentage would vapourise instantly.

India is a country that restricted gold imports and is willing to fuck over tens or hundreds of millions of its own people with that bank note cancellation thing. I assume this is no more than the usual 'crypto press' junk half heard from a Tuk Tuk driver but I wouldn't be surprised if something vaguely similar happened for real one day.

They seem to run their economy in the style of an abusive bunch of amateurs.

This has been predicted on a near weekly basis since the 1970s. Still waiting.

It reminds me of a website I used to visit in 2010 ish or before called housepricecrash. Most posters on there had sold their house and were waiting to 'buy back in'. Every time someone popped up and said 'should I buy my central London house from the local authority for £80,000?' they'd all answer 'forget it, son. The ponzi is ending.'

Of course said house is now worth £1 million.

Big daddy has now become a shitcoin in itself. I wonder how this is going to affect crypto when reality has left the room in supposedly 'real world' markets too. Everyone appears to have decided it's a number they want to keep going up no matter what's staring them in the face. Either this is a brief spasm or things are going to get way weirder. 

There are around 6-7 billion ounces of gold in the world. There are 21 million bitcoins. Do the math. Gold overall is worth much more. Not every system has the exact same individual unit pricing or the same number of units.

Because it has earned the most trust. It's the most tested, most battered, the oldest, it had the purest launch, it's the best developed, the most stable.

That's what shitcoin fans can never admit to themselves, or cannot begin to conceive of. No one gives a fuck about one second block times and 'partnerships' if there isn't any trust. Without trust it's just meaningless software which is what most of them are.

Until someone's figured that value is nothing to do with technicalities and all to do with deeper human factors they're not going to get far.

It's the one and only Bitcoin-related product you can have in US tax advantaged wrappers like 401ks and IRA accounts and so on. There's nothing else that's been built to be eligible for it. That makes it compelling in a way nothing else is at the moment - to Americans.

This is an interesting wee tale.

https://decrypt.co/32145/hackers-blackmail-exchange-with-5-million-of-ethereum-fees-report?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sm

The theory is that hackers have control of an exchange's coins but can only move them to whitelisted addresses they don't control. They're putting humongous fees on top and demanding payoffs from the exchange to stop it.

Why is it ALWAYS ETH where the sketchiest shit happens?

This is the word that alarms me when it comes to places where it isn't mandatory. You never know when they're going to spring it on you. I've seen enough people talk about being hit with it while well underneath the claimed limits.

That site would be better off splitting it into categories where you have a theoretical limit and places where it'll never, ever be asked for like Bisq. I don't think I'd bother even getting started with a partial KYC place without completing it first.

The coins are gone unfortunately. There's no way of directly retrieving them.

As for tracing the thief it depends.

Some people are incredibly lazy and keep reusing the same address. The thief might post the address again somewhere online and link it to a real world clue. Google the address you sent it to and see if anything comes up and do it every now and then in future too.

If you manage to identify them, and that's a very long shot, law enforcement are unlikely to give a shit sadly but you never know.

I wouldn't class any dex that ran on a website as properly decentralised. That means a centralised domain name and hosting. That can be hijacked and the operator can be feeding you false information.

I'd say Bisq comes closest at present. Ideally you want something that's part of an official client's code that talks directly to the other wallet you're trading with. The more eyes on it the better.

Got myself a real simple formula - anyone who is not Craig is automatically more credible than him by a factor of around 1000x. I would sooner believe Bernie Madoff with his hands in my pockets and his johnson all the way up me while laughing hysterically at my stupidity.

You don't have anyone anywhere with a camera? If you're typing on here you have a means of transferring images.

I don't have any utility bills in my name either. So far the most I've had to provide is proof of address, and I do that with a driving licence, and a passport scan. There has been the odd selfie but I think I've only had to do that once.

Nowhere so far has demanded more than that and that includes Coinbase, Kraken and Okex.

An arty pic of you sucking your cheeks in at an angle isn't going to cut it if they request one.

It's the tax advantages that are attracting people as much as anything. There's no other product at present that can do the same thing. That 2% and whatever whacky premiums there are pale in comparison to the tax bill on a monster rise.