The 2 that come to mind are: https://blockstream.com/liquid/https://www.omnilayer.org/I know there are a few others but I can't think of them at the moment. I guess the issue is that there has never been a concerted organized effort that I have seen to make a lot of L2 things on BTC. Or, if it's out there not a lot of people discuss it. -Dave I'm not really aware of how those work but I've heard of them, aren't they kind of centralized solutions? Like they are created and owned and perhaps even operated by a company, rather than how Lightning is just a protocol just like Bitcoin. Depending on how you look at it liquid is a bit centralized but it's still open. Omni is 100% open (and open source) to do with what you want. Also, forgot about Bisq it's also a L2 chain. For now, I think lightning for better or worse is going to stay in the lead for a L2 solution. Part of the issue IMO is that people look at ETH and say 'meh, good enough to do what I want' and don't put the development time into developing L2 for BTC-Dave |
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Last time I was dealing with this they could not set the price just the percentage above for the buy and the below for the sell they wanted which would show as the price.
Which is kind of the same thing as setting the price BUT as the price goes higher their percentage becomes a larger number. Yeah that makes sense. Looking at cointamradar, I always thought that you guys in the US have much better terms simply due amount of ATMs (more competition, better terms for users), but for whatever reason fees are more reasonable over here. In one of the earlier posts you said that Bitcoin depo usually have fees in 10% range, while I quit my BATM for increasing fee from 4.5 to 6% lol. The catch is (sort of anyway) that lets say BTC is at $25k if a BATM is moving 2 BTC a month then you are in *theory* making $5k a month at 10% Take out the cost of rent in the space in the store. Take out the cost of running the back end network. Take out the cost of having people load and unload the cash from the machine. Take out the cost of the machine itself. Take out the cost of the 4g service for the machine to communicate. Take out the cost of having office space and staff for your help desk people. Take out the cost of running the back end server. And so on.... It's not 5K. The more BATMs you add the easier that number becomes, but some things do get bigger. More support staff / workers in general. More insurance costs. At $50k BTC you can go with a lower percentage. And if your machines are moving more then 2 BTC a month you can go with a lower percentage. But at these low levels, it's a tough call. Last time I was dealing with this they could not set the price just the percentage above for the buy and the below for the sell they wanted which would show as the price.
Which is kind of the same thing as setting the price BUT as the price goes higher their percentage becomes a larger number. Yeah that makes sense. Looking at cointamradar, I always thought that you guys in the US have much better terms simply due amount of ATMs (more competition, better terms for users), but for whatever reason fees are more reasonable over here. In one of the earlier posts you said that Bitcoin depo usually have fees in 10% range, while I quit my BATM for increasing fee from 4.5 to 6% lol. Yeah I know about these services, I am using Hush app for virtual number but from my experience that's not something that an average person use (and OP's cousin probably didn't use it either). You can walk into Target or Walmart and get a prepaid SIM and set it up with just about any info you want to give them to activate. https://www.target.com/p/mint-mobile-7-day-trial-kit/-/A-54444205-Dave |
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The 2 that come to mind are: https://blockstream.com/liquid/https://www.omnilayer.org/I know there are a few others but I can't think of them at the moment. I guess the issue is that there has never been a concerted organized effort that I have seen to make a lot of L2 things on BTC. Or, if it's out there not a lot of people discuss it. -Dave |
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The coldcard is also not included in the list, apparently coldcard is not that trustworthy
Coldcard has publicly available firmware that is build reproducible. However, it is by strict definition open source since you cannot modify and sell it. as @mk4 said it's not the friendliest ui to use but they do have a lot of videos on how to use just about every feature. It's also fairly indestructible. Mine met a large cup of coffee with no issues. Also, it depends if you just want a HW wallet for BTC or if there is other crypto you want to store. ColdCard is BTC only. -Dave |
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Do you know if the ONLYfree has been sold or if it's still the original owner?
I left him positive feedback 8 years ago for a couple of domains I bought from him, did some other domain deals too never had an issue. BUT that was 2014. IF it's the original owner it's one thing. If it changed hands then it's another.
Does not matter with all the other negatives the account has received but if there is some decent proof it was sold then I can remove mine or at least change to a neutral.
-Dave
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Bitcoin depo does usually have fees in the 10% range. BUT as far as I know individual store owners can set their own rates so it may not 100% be on Bitcoin depo.
But can individual store owners set their own bitcoin price as well? I've been using BATM for years, and buying price was if not identical then very close to the market price (give or take few percent) so I am really surprised to see ~25% difference. Is that the standard in the US? Looks more like a trap that you use once and never again and I doubt that's viable business model. Another question (since you from US): can you get a SIM card without giving your ID? I am asking because OP said it was anonymous, while I see on bitcoindepot website that they ask for a mobile phone number so in the end buyer might be far from anonymous. Last time I was dealing with this they could not set the price just the percentage above for the buy and the below for the sell they wanted which would show as the price. Which is kind of the same thing as setting the price BUT as the price goes higher their percentage becomes a larger number. Without knowing the backstory and location of this BATM it's difficult to know why it's so outrageous in price. Is the store owner trying to get them out and hopes by charging outrageous prices they will have no business and remove it? Was it a simple screw up? Other? As for anonymous SIM: https://silent.link/#generic_price_table there are also a ton of others and you can still walk into a lot of places and get a cheap disposable prepaid phone. -Dave |
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You should blank out your cousins phone number from the receipt.
Bitcoin depo does usually have fees in the 10% range. BUT as far as I know individual store owners can set their own rates so it may not 100% be on Bitcoin depo.
It's the same thing as some ATMs in certain places (strip clubs) have high fees. Or the currency exchange rate at some local place is terrible compared to what you can get in a bank.
-Dave
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The cards have no memory.
But beyond that, if you are playing Blackjack you should be at least doing a basic count and following that. Hunches, feelings and everything else although adding to the fun and possibility of 'I made a great call' feeling can never survive the long term math and odds.
The math will never change no matter what you do, well in the physical world marking cards and slipping an extra ace in the deck might, but beyond that it does not matter.
Yeah, it's boring and playing hunches and going with your gut is more fun. Don't forget that, it's fun not a way to make money. The math says the house wins.
-Dave
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Sent 0.00257000
Repay .0029555 to bc1qn7r8zh2phkfkyc25uxxyzh2g8at0autwe3wrd8 (same address as the 1st one)
for a total repayment of 0.014973 for both loans.
Thanks,
Dave
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Yet people are puppets and pawns in the eyes of these influencers, so what more do you want to come out of this @DaveF ?
Nothing really, I was just pointing out this has happened many times before. From direct mail to radio to TV and now to the internet. The medium has changed not the scam. Every time the medium changed the authorities started going after these people again until it slowed down. And then the next bunch starts with the next was go getting to people. As the saying goes, you can't fix stupid. If you want to invest in something because somebody tells you to without doing ANY kind of research then you are going to get burned. Part of the job of these government agencies is to act as your mom and stop you from doing soothing stupid. If they should or not have that as part of their job is a discussion for a different place. -Dave |
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Time to stock up on prepaid cards?  Prepaid cards do not and will disappear. What they should do is to do more control of the companies that buy them in large quantities and how they are then made available. Now, if the company knows how to set up the business well, it will be able to continue to make these cards available without major problems. As I commented in the other post, Visa/Mastercard only know the intermediary of these cards, it all depends on how the intermediary does his job. My concern with the prepaid is that they will drop the max amounts down to such a low amount as to make them more difficult to use then they are worth. Do you want to have to use 3 x $50 cards a month to pay your cable bill? OTOH, for prepaid you still have the 2 step process for some places. i.e. Walmat Gift card and then go to Walmart and use the gift card to purchase a prepaid Visa. Just a lot more time & effort. -Dave |
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Bitrefill now has Prepaid Mastercard gift cards for the US. I can't buy it because of my location, so I can't see the real price, but the "estimate" for a $1 prepaid mastercard is 4279 sat! That would mean a prepaid mastercard with no overhead, I thought it usually costs at least a few bucks per card. Just bought a card 0 fees, actual face value of card. Used it to pay a cable bill with no issues. You don't actually get a card number, you get an activation code and have to go to https://MyPrepaidCenter.com/redeem to activate it. Spit out a Master Card with an expiration date 6 months out and all the other info. If you buy it in a store with cash there is usually a $2.95 to $4.95 fee egifter also charges a fee. At a *guess* they are probably getting some of the % of the sales to run it though and are making their money that way. OR like your local drug dealer they are keeping it free to start, once they get you hooked then it's gonna cost you. But as of now it's a 1 to 1 deal. -Dave |
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It it has been said here and many other places many times. You would not talk about having lots of gold stored at your house. Or how you are carrying around a large expensive gemstone in your pocket or how you have 1000s and 1000s of dollars in your jacket pocket. But people seem to let everyone know about their crypto holdings. And then don't store them securely.
I feel sorry for the victim, but as a group we really have to keep letting others know not to let people know what their holdings are and where / how they are stored.
-Dave
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Yes it's legit.
Yes it's still a work in progress.
Yes, if you are running Bitcoin Core on the same machine that is live on the internet you are asking for trouble.
For 'spending cash' to keep it handy it's fine. To keep any amount of funds in a hot wallet is not a good idea, especially one on a machine that you are using for other things online.
-Dave
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As far as I understood, the lightning network is accessible only through intermediary wallets that have both the on-chain and lightning feature. In other words, it is not possible to send sats directly from a base layer wallet, such as Bitcoin Core, to a lightning-only wallet, like Alby.
They do not have to have both LN and layer 1 BTC. There are some wallets that are only LN. But the majority of LN wallets do support on chain too. Is it possible to implement a lightning network feature on Bitcoin Core?
Possible? Yes with a complete re-write of it's functionality and a lot of bloat. So, no it's not going to happen. Not should it, there is a lot more to LN then just a wallet. You need to setup channels and some other things. Core is just for holding / moving BTC. -Dave |
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Hello LoyceV,
How/why could this be useful for us bitcoin users?
I mean yes we got a overview about all used addresses, but for me i am not sure how this could be helpful for us.
Thanks
For some people it's interesting statistical information. You can see how many new addresses were added / used in a particular timeframe. Depending on what you need it for there are other ways of getting it but he is doing the back end work for you. For you to use BTC day to day it's not important, but if you are doing blockchain research it's a handy thing to have. -Dave |
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I hope nothing happened to both of your eyes and hands [this is the first time that I'm reading something like this], but how hard did you hit the punch tool?
Not hard at all. But, lets be blunt it was, as have been most that I have seen, a cheap made in China piece of crap. I'm sure there are some seed plates makers that do not give you an automatic one give better manual ones. But the last few generic ebay / amazon ones have really sucked. <shrug> It is what it is, when you are getting something like this shipped to your door for under $15 you don't expect quality or durability of the plate or the tools. But it's still better then paper. -Dave |
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Side comment, but lets leave it as Dave knows for some reason....
With the seed plates that use a punch tool, be very carful as to the strength & quality of the tool and the force you are hitting it with as you are holding it.
And perhaps a bit of eye protection in case the punch tool shatters into about 73 billion pieces.
Just saying I'm an out of shape computer nerd so someone a bit stronger may have some experience with this too....
-Dave
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