Congratulations to the winners and great initiative by @1miau, also very professionally executed. I hope we can do (something like) this again soon.

I will go with both teams to score in the Brighton-Chelsea fixture, in not very confident in a Chelsea victory, wouldn't be surprised if they drew or lost. I more or less agree with all the other bets, except the West Ham prediction. Moyes would be managing West Ham for the first time since his recent appointment, and there's lots of work to be done to revive the team. Under Manuel Pellegrini, they picked up an average of one point per game, and that's regulation standard. I go with a draw.

You left out the final fixture of the day, Arsenal vs Manchester United. Arsenal has one of the worst runs against the top six and Man U is on the opposite end of the stick, they seem to come alive against top oppositions. It would be interesting how Arteta approaches the game after the sit back tactic failed against Chelsea.

Firstly, I would have a lot of free time drop on my laps and would probably struggle to fill that initially. As an example, I have not been very active during the festive season and I sometimes feel the urge to check in on the forum.

If the forum does vanish, I would pay more attention to my blog and probably, take up one or two more online courses as I'll have to time to. However, it would not be the same without bitcointalk.org, It would be a pain looking up price speculations through Reddit or some other medium.

Another perspective I just thought of is; what would be the state of the forum be if bitcoin disappeared, i.e, became valueless? Of course, these would be a mass exit, but if you do stay what would you do here?

Thanks for the corrections, I was trying to keep it as simple as possible but used the wrong words in some instances. Op edited.

Done

I made a thread recently How best to secure your Private Keys and/or Seed phrase and in it I briefly discussed; private keys, public keys and master public keys. Turned out I had so many misconceptions about these concepts  I did a little research to try and correct some of those misconceptions.

The concepts include:
1) Seed Phrase
2) Private Keys
3) Master Private Keys
4) Public keys
5) Master Public Keys

Introduction:
All of the above theories are related to wallets and asset security. They are also interdependent in specific wallet types like HD Wallets

- Seed Phrases: This is also commonly called; recovery phrase, recovery seed, mnemonic phrase etcetera. A Seed phrase is a collection of 12, 18, 24 words that are used to back up a wallet address. The words are generated using BIP 39 standard from a collection of 2048 words.
A degree of randomness (entropy) is used to secure the phrase and it approximately has the same strength as a private key. * this applies to a 12 word seed phrase: 2048^12 = 2^132 and the phrase would have 132 bits of security, but as the words are not entirely randomly chosen it's actual security level is 128 bits, corresponding to private key level. Any higher number of word combination has a higher level of security.

A seed phrase can be used to generate all the key pairs of a deterministic wallet and can be used to recover a wallet software in case of loss.

- The words used in a seed phrase can be accurately identified from the first four letters of the word,

"The wordlist can contain native characters, but they must be encoded in UTF-8 using Normalization Form Compatibility Decomposition (NFKD)"

Master extended private key/public key: This can be represented by the acronym; xpriv and xpub respectively. They can be derived from the seed phrase, however, they do not serve the same purpose. A master extended private key is used it generates multiple private keys, however, it can not be used to sign an address. Xpriv is also used to generate the xpub (master extended private key), which in turn generates all the public addresses in the bitcoin wallet. It is used (on its own) to create a "watch only" however, it can not be used to send bitcoin from a wallet. Combined with anyone's private key of an address, it can be used to generate all the other private keys of all related public addresses.

Private keys: This is a 256-bit number, it is a collection of alphanumeric characters *depending on the encoding. They are used to spend bitcoins in a wallet and also to sign a transaction. They are generated from the xpriv and in turn used to derive the public keys. This process can not, however, be reversed, i.e, public keys can not generate the private keys.
- Private keys should never be shared with anyone.
- They should be kept in a secured place and safely backed up.

Public keys: This is derived from the private keys multiplied by the curve generator. The sequence can not be reverse engineered, i.e, public keys cannot be used to generate private keys. It is used only for receiving funds and is displayed publicly whenever a transaction is made

As mentioned earlier all these features of an HD wallet are connected, this is the hierarchical system
*Seed phrase can generate the xpriv and all other key pairs of the wallet
*The Master extended private key can generate all private keys
*The Master extended public key can generate all public keys. Xpub + any private key (nP) can be used to generate all private keys of the other addresses.
*The private key generates the public key associated with it. 1 private key = 1 public key
*The public key can not be reversed to derive the private key. It is kept public and hence the algorithm does not support it generating any key/phrase to ensure security.

A watch-only wallet uses only the xpub (master extended public key) which only controls the public keys of that address. This is used only to receive bitcoins, the private keys are the requirements to send.

Why does a 'watch only' wallet not disable receiving bitcoins? In this case, the wallet does not technically exist, the blockchain only recognizes transactions and not wallets, so unless a wallet can be involved in a transaction it can not be registered on the blockchain. As mentioned earlier, it's used so you can not 'spend from that particular address, so there's no need to disable receiving funds

Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin
Dollar amount: $49
Bank Name: Guarantee Trust Bank
Account Name: **sent**
Account Number: **sent**

Edit: txid- 00742f1ba1f5ff68329ab7a9e33f60102c6a4b9ff0403a5fd449f27766abdae0
Edit: funds received

BT has been the forum for bitcointalk discussions for the better part of 10 years, I highly doubt all the information here could be abandoned and a new forum be started over again. I expect it to be a merge, with all the information here, posts, accounts etcetera be migrated to the new forum software. Considering that there are users who have left the forum (like Satoshi), they wouldn't be active to start over but their contents should be readily available for reference.

This is a very interactive community and there are lots if members who have aided my little growth on the forum.
I referenced DdmrDdnr in Hhampuz's thread. He has been an inspiration to my journey. Out of many also;

Hal Finney, he touched lots of people on the forum and by extension off it, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.0

Suchmoon: An overall level headed guy

Cryptopreneurbrainboss: A huge asset to the Nigerian community.

Also Welsh: Great mod
TryNinja? : A nice forum member as well.
I would also like to reference every member of the Spam Buster's club

Chelsea's form has been very erratic thus far in the season, and this loss at home further opens the door for the closest teams to sneak into the top four. Tottenham are just three points away amd Wolves could move within two points if they win against City at home (although this is unlikely). I expect Sheffield to remain in the top six, at least until the next matchday when they face Man City at home.
So many matches in the new year run up and so many good odds being put out there. I was optimistic for lots of goals, but we haven't got much so far today. Would the Liverpool match change that?
Who are you going with for the Manchester United - Newcastle United matchup?

Football matches are more dynamic than a big team - small team fixture. When betting on a game, there are many other factors you should consider: current form, players available, home turf etcetera. Also, there are lots of betting options apart from the winning  team, you can explore all available options 
Even after putting all this into consideration, I believe luck plays a huge role. If you must take a break you do, I've been off regular betting for a while now.

On to the top of the table clash: the league leaders vs the second-placed team. Liverpool is obvious favorites, but I will not rule out the foxes, especially as the reds may be fatigued after their CWC conquest.

I came across lots of posts on this section that were extremely helpful and can't dig them all up at the moment, this reply was succinct and described the situation of the altcoin market since the bubble in the altcoin/ICO market burst.
Also this reply, as well as the original thread, it highlighted that an altcoin may actually be the currency of the future despite the situation of the market. I believe a revolutionary develop would eventually design a technology that well fully utilize the blockchain technology.

Wish I had gotten this spot, would have been ironic: With my username
Either way, lucky number 13
*Thumbs up* Hhampuz

Season greetings to you and thank you for the kind words. The merit system should be seen as a motivation to put more effort into our posts, as it is designed to reward quality contributions. The best part is the knowledge you pick up along the way.
Thanks again and I'm sure you inspire others as well.

Ethereal? Or since this is a forum is primarily created for bitcoins, then, Bitireal, or maybe Satoshi?
There would be lots of options for names and which activity and merit level would trigger the new rank.
How about a new coin be added to the users profile summary (beside posts) for every 1000 extra merit earned, or a large platinum, or silver coin to replace all the others, so it doesn't cluster. This would be a subtle indicator of the total merits earned.

Since I got introduced to this forum, it has taken up a lot of my time spent online. I very regularly visit the forum whether or not I'm on a paying bounty. The knowledge, posting habits and connections I (aspire to) gain has been very educative and has influenced my behavior on other sites as well.
The primary knowledge about Bitcoin which I have learned has also been very helpful and I'm privileged to be one of the few persons around with a little technical know-how on how the blockchain technology functions.

I have personally had a case of my receiving address changing after a transaction, and the old public address was still valid and funds sent to it would be reflected on the new address. Note that, this generation takes place automatically, and no new password is used. Since both addresses are linked, i think it's safe to say they use the same private key. Except it's a case of multiple private keys generated from the same Master private key.

I am hypothesising at this point and I'm yet to find a solid link to prove it.
I'll keep searching and would correct it once I find something, I'll also appreciate your feedback as well as comments from others.

Thanks for the information. I just updated the OP.

Thanks for the info.


The (public) address linked to a private key can be changed multiple times. However the private key remains the same. This feature I believe is to prevent transactions made from the same address being linked.

In the blockchain technology, we are responsible for our own security and hence we have to take maximum measures to ensure that our assets are secure at all times.
Your wallet, which serves as your digital bank account, is (should be) fully under your control, this means that you have total autonomy over the assets stored on it. There are different types of wallets, but avoid storing your assets on a wallet that offers custodial services; this means the website will control the private keys to the wallet, and, if it's not your private keys, it's not your bitcoins.

So as stated above, it's advisable to own your private keys, but this is a huge responsibility and you have to know how to protect your private keys from other people as we as accidents and loss.
Private keys are an alphanumeric phrase that is used to send bitcoins from one wallet to another. They are randomly generated are linked to every address on the wallet, a wallet can have more than one private key, and hence hold multiple public addresses.

What differentiates a private key from a public key?

A private key is used to authenticate transactions from a wallet address, while a public address is similar to an account number of your bank. It's an alphanumeric key that is used to identify a specific address. Public addresses can change after each transaction, and it's advisable you change them to avoid your transactions being monitored and linked, as they're available to the public. Public addresses are derived from private keys. Private keys are not available to the public and do not change. They can not also be generated from the public addess. They usually start with the number 5 (on the main net and 9 on the test net)
Example of a private key: 5Kb8kLf9zgWQnogidDA76MzPL6TsZZY36hWXMssSzNydYXYB9KF

Private keys are usually not made available to the wallet owner, (although some wallets allow you to import it) rather you are given a seed phrase or recovery phrase. This is a set of words that are randomly generated and are as secure as the private keys. This phrase is used to recover your account should you use your device or wallet.
For example, red yellow green blue black brown purple grey orange indigo violet pink white

How best do you safeguard your recovery phrase?

Your private keys or seed phrase are too long to be memorized comfortably and you should never screenshot or keep a copy of it on your device. This exposes it to hackers and malware. When securing a recovery phrase, you have to consider online threats (hacks and malware), unforeseen circumstances/accidents; such as fire or water disasters, and keeping it away from other people. Simply writing it down in a piece of paper does not provide the needed level of security especially when you have a high amount of bitcoins.
There are a few ways you can securely back up your private keys and recovery phrases;

Use a hard drive: you can store your private keys or recovery phrase in a hard drive, which should preferably be permanently offline. This way it is not exposed to online attacks and can be easily recovered. You can also secure the drive with a password and store it in a vault to protect it from others.

Paper wallet: a paper wallet is primarily designed to store private keys. The details (which may include QR code are imprinted on a price of paper). This can then be laminated and stored in a vault.

Using a steel wallet: Your private keys can be engraved and stored in a steel wallet, such as cryptosteel. Designers of these products claim it is resistant to hazards such as fire, water, corrosion, etc. This would make it an effective way to store your private keys and/or recovery phrase

Note that when using any of these measures, you should always have multiple copies securely stored.
How do you safeguard your private keys and seed phrases? Also, how would you ensure the bequeathing of your assets to your next of kin(s), besides adding it to your will?

Most altcoins are shitcoins, but Bitcoin Cash and SV are attempts to recreate the actual technology. They are both shit cheap imitations of the Bitcoin, while in reality they're (Roger) using Bitcoin to popularize their project.
Can Craig be called a cheap imitation of Satoshi?