I think it is completely plausible that BTC may fall to $20k and test the support there.

But I do expect that level to hold up. The market is still FOMOing hard and there is a very good narrative for bulls to build upon this time around with a ton of institutional investment heading into the market.

I see some people expecting a bear market to hit, which imo is completely unlikely at this stage. Don't forget that we are still waiting on several pieces of potentially very bullish news, including a possible ETF approval on the horizon.

When there is money, bankers will abandon all prior principles and go with the prevailing sentiment.

This is exactly what happened with BTC and Dimon.

Nothing has fundamentally changed about BTC except for the fact that it is now attracting a lot more adoption and institutional investment. Being the innate opportunist that Dimon is, it is quite obvious why he has completely 180'd with his stance on BTC. He wants a part of the cake, and doesn't want to lose Coinbase and Gemini as clients either.

It all depends on what type of game you're playing.

If you are playing a -EV game, then the amount of bankroll you've got seriously does not matter one bit. What matters is your gambling volume - how much you bet directly determines how much you are expected to lose in the long run.

But if you are an AP, or playing a +EV game through taking advantage of sportsbook odds for instance, then the whole equation changes. Having a larger bankroll, in this case, would help you immensely as it lowers your "risk of ruin" and helps you reach the "long-run" faster.

Definitely right. And this is part of the reason why I think there is a huge amount of demand for BTC and precious metals within this COVID recession.

Especially with countries that have seen these sorts of cash crunches before, the citizens understand that when all hell breaks loose, you cannot possibly rely on these centralised institutions to function normally, let alone act in their best interests.

There is a lot of unrest and tension around the world right now. This is the sort of event that will catalyse mass adoption of decentralised technologies, whether cryptos, decentralised public forums/instant messengers, etc.

I agree with you on the front that central banks will likely try to come up with their own regulated cryptos to gain even greater control over the money supply and therefore monetary policy.

But I find it hard to believe that they would opt to use Bitcoin to back their currencies the same way Bretton Woods stipulated that the USD be backed by gold.

They will likely just leverage blockchain technology to recreate paper fiat currency, except it is much more convenient for them to control retail interest rates. Think of it like the current online banking system, except on blockchain and more centralised control given to the government/CB.

It's important to note that the vaccinations will not reach the majority of the Indian population until much later.

Sure, there will be an economic restart underway. But with India's health infrastructure, this early lead that they've got will likely shrink as other advanced economies with robust health frameworks start to get vaccines on a commercial scale.

Will this be a game-changer? No. Most asset classes have already priced in the vaccine being around the corner anyway.

I like the vibes of the site, but a lot of the elements are still crude (to be expected, though).

For instance, just by taking a glance at the site you've got a typo at the registration form:


Also, why is the live casino tab empty right now?

That said, I love the fact that you're just offering the same old Pragmatic Play slots that every other casino is offering. As a new casino, you definitely need to deviate from the norm a little bit to entice people to use your service.

I actually think that it is entirely possible, and possibly even likely that we will see 5k at some stage in the future.

Even with institutional investors, there are no guarantees as to how low the prices will go when all of the market is panic selling. And with currencies, there is no universally agreed-upon valuation model that would anchor people's expectations, so prices will be very erratic.

But I do think that intrinsically, with the current level of adoption and institutional interest in BTC as a hedge against the fiat economy as well as a long term store of value, BTC is worth much more than $5k. So if a dip of this proportion ever comes up, and market fundamentals stays relatively the same, it would be a clear buy signal.

If you are selling, you need to identify your reasons to do so.

One valid reason may be that you are actually trading on margin, and keeping your positions open may be too costly for you to handle at this point of the bull market. Then it will make perfect sense for you to cash out your short term profits now.

But if you've identified as a long term holder of BTC as a hedge against a fiat collapse, then these short term variations shouldn't matter to you.

Even if BTC goes up to 6 figures, if your end goal is to use it as a hedge, you should keep holding. Don't panic sell and lose track of your original intention.

Are these sites ranked in terms of popularity/trustworthiness?

If so, some of the rankings don't make a lot of sense.

For one, why is 999dice ranked higher than Bitsler under the dice tab? 999Dice is literally a semi-proven scam (depending on who you believe, but the owner is red tagged for good reason), while Bitsler is one of the most trusted dice sites out there with very effective ownership.

It's a good idea, but I'd definitely refine the ranking system.

This is what worries me the most.

It doesn't seem like that they are a) committed to giving full refunds to investors and b) they are limiting the claims to a particular cutoff date.

Something is off. It almost feels like that it's an orchestrated attempt to appropriate customer funds under the guise of a hack.


This also seems like an attempt to suppress critical voices.

Does anyone know whether or not this exchange is regulated in Russia? Or something similar to Yobit that's just completely unregulated with unknown operators?

Whilst I do not believe in the fiat system in general terms, this makes no sense.

It is true that COVID is suppressing consumption and therefore inflation in a lot of countries, which means that inflation figures haven't actually jumped that much even though there have been several rounds of economic stimulus by fiscal and monetary means in most countries (stimulus checks, QE, etc.)

But how is it "protecting" the fiat system? It just isn't. Sure, inflation hasn't jumped during COVID due to low consumer sentiment, but have you considered the fact that QE and other stimuli wouldn't have even been warranted without COVID?

The real concern with COVID on the economy should be that it is propping up asset prices such as equities because excess liquidity has gone towards speculation more than anything else. Not that it is somehow "safeguarding" the value of fiat.

I actually got turned off XRP for exactly the same reasons as you.

The team doesn't seem to care about lowering the 20 XRP minimum, which should be the most logical thing to do after their coin went on a price hike for the ages. And although their main selling point was that they are a coin with real, fiat-world sponsors, that is really a double edged sword - it also means that their coin is totally centralised and really no different to fiat-economy financial services.

But it actually makes sense that people are buying. You have to take into account the price at which they are buying at, which is a huge discount compared to the highs of 2017. The majority are simply speculators looking to time a rebound, and/or hoping for some regulatory changes.

You have to understand that even the worst altcoins can be a bargain at a certain price.

I am skeptical.

It is pretty much consensus that ETH is the most dominant alt after BTC. With a robust development team and much more adoption at this stage, it is hard for LTC to play catch up.

I'm not saying that it is impossible, but in the current era where smart contracts are a must for any aspiring altcoin, LTC just feels archaic and outdated. Unless major development comes through, I think that its market cap and adoption will continue to slide, unfortunately.

There are 3 major ways bitcoin can be replaced/stopped.

1. By the people, if individuals recognise that technology is not that useful for the future, and people lose their trust in the currency, it'll eventually become devalued and less and fewer transactions will occur. This is often seen in bear markets, where we see less people interested in the currency and we often see miners pull out of the game (very rarely though), which hurts the overall scene as it results in longer transactions and less activity.

2. Governments. I don't feel the need to elaborate that deep here as other users have pointed out great cases (China), where governments can just destroy the crypto scene. Fortunately, in most countries, eg America, Australia, the government just doesn't have enough power to fully squash the crypto-community.

3. Technology being replaced, if there is a new currency that is better than crypto/bitcoin in all regards, we could see bitcoin phased out as a result.

The social engineering posts also brought back some memories of some other trades I've almost done.

There are people who utilise LBC to money launder, and back in previous days, accounts were given very small limits before they were banned/forced to add their ID before they could trade anymore. I remember finding a guy who would initiate trades for 500-1000 dollars, and then "accidentally" deposit/transfer an extra 5 thousand or so. The buyer will usually tell you oh, just send me x amount of BTC outside of the site (usually with a very good fee). They usually do this with reputed traders (I was someone with 5-10 BTC worth of volume), so they won't just run away.

This is similar to the scam where scammers will just hire unsuspicious looking people to buy bitcoin off people, using laundered funds.

Basically, OP, be wary of new-ish accounts wishing to buy your bitcoins, if you are not a regular trader, use the most popular buyers, but if you wish to set up personal ads (which I recommend, as you save a lot of money) make sure to do your due diligence with who you are trading with.

What is a userless escrow platform? Do you mean decentralised?

What separates you from other competitors, both in the crypto and fiat world? For instance, what incentives would people have to use your service as opposed to eBay, Bitify, etc. that are already quite established in the marketplace as Welsh has said?

Having lower fees etc. simply won't be enough. You need to create a way to not only attract users with a good UX, but also be able to monetise them in the process.

I think that with the current climate, people aren't ready to adopt these services yet.

This is not to say that these platforms do not have a future - they definitely do. But currently they are seen as novelties, thought experiments, or even tokenised offerings of vapourware in ICOs. That's not going to ultimately allow them to overtake centralised marketplaces in terms of market share.

I truly think that a decentralised product won't simply be mass adopted just because it is decentralised - most people don't have the awareness to understand the difference. It needs to genuinely be as efficient, if not more efficient than traditional venues for it to work.

I always found the concept of peak- and bottom-calling ridiculous.

These bull markets occur when people are most irrational, and there is no way to predict with even remote certainty what the price will be in a few months time.

$80k is not out of the question, but with the current conditions trend reversals can be incredibly fast and prolonged.

I'd rather continue DCAing and holding for the long run. Ride out the short term volatility.

Currently holding them in a cold storage wallet, but prior to that I would play.

I don't treat sig campaigns as a main source of income so I usually use it to entertain myself.

But with the current bull market going on, it's actually a good way to dollar-cost-average (DCA) if you're enrolled in a campaign that pays out a fixed amount of USD.