Can, and eventually will. Just because there are some good companies who have been around for years, doesn't mean they one day won't be hacked, shut down, or go rogue.

Don't trust people and companies. Trust the tech.

Very good PSA, and for that matter, don't even think to use most altcoins because most of them are also not decentralized enough or indeed, complete centralized. I dread to think of what happens if governments decide to freeze the few known clients and nodes running some coins.

Money laundering is an issue faced by any kind of payment service provider or financial institution and most crypto exchanges would fall into either category, hence the need for additional KYC and AML procedures that they must implement if they are licensed entities, as required by most jurisdictions. Check out what’s happening to BitMEX now, which is the largest crypto exchange by volume of Bitcoin futures. Which is a great reminder to all that you should hold your Bitcoin on your own wallet, lest the exchange you use suddenly gets targeted by regulators.

Favorite topic these days is Defi and someone asked us how banks are going to challenge 16% interest rates offered by Defi.

Well, if you take into account DEXToolsApp on 9 October recorded 15 Defi scams in just 2 hours just on ONE platform, then you know banks have nothing to hear. That’s more than 1 every 10 minutes on 1 platform alone.

Don't forget guys, if you lose your wallet but still got the seed phrase, you can try any Bitcoin wallet that supports that derivative. One of them is the Bitamp wallet. Just simply create a new wallet and enter the keyphrase (also called seed). You’ll gain access immediately.

A few good implementations already out there but yeah, our focus is on ease of use and simplicity/convenience for newcomers to Bitcoin, hence the easy settings of fire and forget on Bitamp wallet. OF course, an advanced user knows how to pick a good fee!

Fees are one of the biggest concerns with Bitcoin wallet users and we just want to remind everyone that we have three fee settings in Bitamp. The highest setting is set to ensure you have next-block confirmation but even at our lowest setting we determine for reasonable confirmation times. Just always make sure if it's urgent, to use high priority settings:)

We got asked: why would people still buy Bitcoin in a pandemic?

Economic concerns. The pandemic actually arrived a time when many major economies were already stressed, the cyclical slowdown coinciding with lockdown that basically forced businesses to cease operations means productivity has gone down globally and jobs have been cut down.

So we’re facing with already-contracting economies, further joblessness, putting a squeeze on incomes. So, governments everywhere are printing more money as stimulus, putting cash in people’s hands so they can continue spending and keeping businesses and economies afloat.

Next step is inflation. Money supply increases, so value drops. We’re already seeing dollar crises in Lebanon, Venezuela, Argentina.

How do people store value and prevent what they’re earning today from being worth nothing in a day or weeks? Well, they used to buy gold. But how easy is it to buy gold, protect it, and then liquidate it when you need to spend?

Bitcoin’s the new answer to that these days. Easily bought and sold online in every country (even where it’s legally banned!).

Should banks be interested in cryptocurrency?

Absolutely. The past few decades have shown that banks are crashing and some literally shut down because of the mountain of debt accumulated that it just cannot sustain. Using blockchain-based crypto means a transparent ledger of accounting that you can’t hide or manipulate. The banking sector needs a revival and it knows this. Don’t be afraid of the future and embrace it. It can only be good for banking.

Great list to start of with and just make sure you practice a lot with wallets like Bitamp before you go into any of these sites. What's your personal favorite one to buy Bitcoin with? We like checking on bisq there are good deals from time to time:)

Yeah, it's really very difficult for most users, confusing and in fact, has very little in the way of giving a newbie reassurance (which is what centralized exchanges are really good at doing haha).

Like you said, most CEXs give you the whole sky after you verify.

Someone was asking us if we would recommend beginners to start buying Bitcoin from non-custodial platforms like Localcryptos hodlhodl etc.

We think... probably not. People make enough mistakes as it is with regular exchanges and marketplaces, I think it's bad mistakes waiting to happen.

What I'd suggest is always get people to get as comfortable as possible first with self-custodial services. Start with a simple web wallet like Bitamp, move to Electrum, then try multi-sig, before going to Bisq and the like.

Expensive to mine Bitcoin. Bug or feature, someone asks well for us it's clear it’s a feature. If it’s expensive and consumes a lot of energy to secure, this means it’s really costly to attack — so much so in fact that it is economically unviable for any entity right now to successfull crack Bitcoin, even if it had the resources, it would never recover from the attack.

Great point to remind everyone. Always self verify, because especially with big brand names, there are plenty of malicious software out there pretending to be the actual one. A lot of people get hacked that way.

Bitcoin use case: crowdfunding

If you want to be successful on your crowdfunding campaign on gofundme or indiegogo, then you want to prepare a media kit that tells people how to fund! And especially if you want to tap into crypto users (who are a growing portion of crowdfunders, by the way), then you want to even prepare a small part of your media kit targeting people who want to fund it with crypto, or even for those who can only use crypto because they can’t access any of the other payment methods.

That bit should include some guidance on where to safely buy and store Bitcoin (especially to tell them to use wallets like Electrum or Bitamp for safety).

No need to frown on Bitcoin users who only want to use their btc on a phone or iPad right guys? I actually do use a mobile device just for my personal hot wallet (never holding more than $50 or so at any given time). It's Bitamp, so just a web wallet. spend and receive on the go. I totally get why people would do stuff on an ipad if it's just casual.

Q: How can one be able to track a Bitcoin wallet or know the name of the person involved?

A: Any blockchain explorer should be able to tell you the wallet transactions. But until you yourself peg an identity to the wallet, you can’t know for sure who the person involved is… though there are also known wallets already marked by many explorers. These are mainly exchanges or even services that have already publicly marked wallets as belonging to them (and signing from them to prove ownership).

Anything anyone else would like to add?

I hate to say it, but there probably isn't any sort of legitimate crypto mining project. If you want in, you have to do it on your own, there's really no viable co-mining opportunity out there. I thought I'd just like to mention it because we get asked a lot.

Most don't even pay out to your own wallet anymore, it's just accumulations in their own accounts.

PSA: People keep asking us about crypto mining sites.

For us, the advice is always to assume they are scams. Why?

1. They make no mention of their mining pools and rewards/blocks found statistics.
2. They make a fixed payment of profits to you, which is impossible in mining because you only get rewards when you find blocks, which is a probability, not a given.
3. They cannot even show you their wallets and blockchain stats.
4. They cannot say where their sites are.

This description basically fits all mining sites claiming to mine and offer you packages to co-mine.

Thanks, yes, we also tested and found no issues so it could be a problem from the user side. We've reached out and asked them to see if they need any further assistance.