So, expanding the question a bit. Do you think the 'larger well known' exchanges that don't go for the more stringent checks are lazy, or are they lying about something or something else?

I know I said above I don't get a vote, but I would put it under lying about financial stability. I think a lot of these places like to brag how much they do / how large they are and it's not 100% true.


Which does bring up an interesting point about technology. Every once in a while it does not work like it's supposed to.
So, I guess having a more regulated / insured place may actually be good.
I extensively rely on my web browser to let me know when I have misspellings; I can't access here directly from a lot of clients so I am usually remotely on my home or office machine, so it can be a little tough to spell / grammar check with my eyes so to speak due to the screen size downsizing. But a red squiggly line under words is very obvious. However, every once in a while spell check takes a quick vacation.

-Dave

Just a bit of a PSA:

I think we have discussed it here before, might have been on reddit, but don't just google search for things like this.
There are bad actors that post ads with links to non legitimate sites:

Verify all links if you search and check here too: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282364.0

Bitbox02 https://shiftcrypto.ch/bitbox02/
Passport https://foundationdevices.com/passport/
Keystone https://shiftcrypto.ch/bitbox02/

Remember not all links are as they appear: https://shiftcrypto.ch/bitbox02/

-Dave

But the catch with that is they collude and can recover the BTC without you.
Even if you have 9 of 12 multisig if 9 of those people get together they can take your money.

With the square wallet YOU have to start the process. Not saying it's better, but it is something to think about.

I thought about it more since I posted it, and I am still going with we are not their target audience. And looking at it as if we are gives a certain view.

There are some people who are perfectly happy with the coffee at 7-11, there are others that these people: https://georgioscoffee.com/collections/frontpage are just about adequate in a pinch and the 7-11 coffee is good for cleaning drains....

You can probably take a look at just about anything and see how enthusiasts look at items that are way way way sub optimal perhaps to the point of being actively bad in their opinion but are just fine for people who 'just want to use it' and don't care.

See the above 7-11 coffee as an example, some people think of coffee as just being a caffeine delivery system vs people who like good coffee vs people who setup their own coffee roaster in their garage.

-Dave

The other side of this is I really don't think we are their target audience. Taking a GIANT step back from good / bad I think I see where they are going with this.

They seem to be heading down the rode filled with people who want to buy / sell / trade / use crypto but not really deal with it or learn about it.

The kind of people who take 2 online security classes and think they are not cybersecurity experts even though they have no idea how to do a DNS query from the command line.

The kind of people who buy a Corvette and now think they can drive better by virtue of having a sports car.

etc.....

OTOH it's probably the same way professional stock traders look at people here and go "Oh, how cute, you bought 2BTC for $20000 last week and just sold them for $24000, I bought 500000 shares of F at $15.95 yesterday at 11:55 AM and sold them at $16.07 45 minutes later PM but yeah, you are a trader......"

We look at this thing and see a security / privacy disaster. Others look at it as something entirely different.

Look at is as a device for people who don't know, BUT ALSO DON'T WANT TO KNOW. They understand the "Not your keys, not your coins" but don't want to know what a key is or why it is or anything else. They can just now know that their keys are in this thing and they are theirs and if something goes wrong they can get them back.

Not saying it's good, just what I think it is.

-Dave

Had an interesting conversation last night about Strike's new Visa card: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5409623.0

Some basic info:
1) Strike does not operate in NY
2) The person I was talking to is not in NY or any other area that Strike does not operate.

The conversation was more about LN then anything else, but they basically said:

"Strike, is not a offshore crap exchange, and they TRY to make it look like they are a real financially stable company. But, if they can't be bothered getting a bitlicense in NY then either they are not as stable as they claim to be or they are doing something funky that they don't want others to see or they are much smaller then they are showing to be or any combination of the above. No way would I trust an company that claims to have all this backing and support and does not want to operate in NY. They have something to hide"

Now the above is obviously not 100% verbatim what was said, but he did bring up an interesting point. Taking everything else off the table, do people think more regulations / scrutiny of places give people a more secure feeling about them then those that don't.

If there were 2 major players say DaveExcange 1 and DaveExchnange 2 the 1st operated in most states / countries the 2nd was avoiding the ones that required more licensing and financial checks. But outside of that they were both around for years had a good reputation and so on.
Would you feel safer using one over the other?
And the fact that the other one did not operate in places that had more extensive checks / regulations make you less likely to use it?

I'm in NY so I don't get a vote here so to speak, I just never really heard people wanting it before but after sleeping on it I do see the appeal.

-Dave

Intel is making their own chip and miner:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/blockchain/custom-asic-product-brief.html

There were some discussions here about it when they were 1st announced.
I personally was surprised when this came out because I really did not think they would make a product for what compared to the rest of what they sell would be such a small sales numbers product. But, on the other hand due to their size and fab capacity they could probably crush just about everyone else if they wanted to.

-Dave

Odd, I am on the latest version and it is using the standard copy / paste. There is the copy icon next to the address when you click it, it becomes a check-mark and then I can paste it into my email. Either Outlook or the GMail client works.

This is on Android, can't comment on the iPhone version.
Works on both my phone and my Tablet.

-Dave

Now that is cool. I really like to see innovations like this. It seems more and more bitrefill is partnering with people who want to spread the use of BTC
Since it's LN the fees are negligible and it makes it easy to get people to use BTC without worrying about fees and other things.

Will be keeping an eye on it.

OT Side thought: Bitcointalk really needs a remind me bot because I can see us discussing this for a bit and then forgetting about it but I would like to see how it's going in a few months.

-Dave

Yes it IS repairable but it's probably not worth it.
Depending on where in the world you are located you can easily get an entire S9 delivered to you for under $200
Shipping it to someone to fix it paying them to fix it and then paying to get it shipped back will cost you....

Post here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=75.0 and ask for a board. Let people know what country you are in. You can most likely get one cheap out of of someones parts bin. Also make sure you let them know the model. S9 vs S9j vs S9k and so on.

-Dave

Barring major events all economies are cycles. BTC is no different. We here keep going around and around on the same subject. There are a lot of different views on it as to why and where on the cycle we are but in the end no matter if it's BTC or housing or other commodities not much changes. BTC is a bit different but that does not make it immune from the same cycles.

With the above being said, I do think it's going to be an interesting time for the next 12 to 18 months. I can see a long steady growth instead of the massive climb that was 2021. But, fast or slow bumpy or flat lines it's still a cycle.

-Dave

The mobile version could use an update to the UI, but it does work perfectly so you have to balance the time and effort you need to put in to redoing a working product to make a slicker nicer interface vs. adding features and better coding and general bugfixes and other things to it and the desktop version. Features and fixes are more important.

It's also, not like they have a product they are selling. It's all free and open source, there is nothing stopping you or anyone else from going out and making the UI changes and putting them out there. You don't need permission from anyone, that is the joy of open source. Then the developers have the option of merging it or not. Make it good enough and have enough people like it and support it and I can see it getting merged.

-Dave

Not familiar with the exchange or the seizing issues that it had but I can see both being true. The government did not get all their accounts so *some* money is being released.
Same way other exchanges have exit scammed in the past. They pick 2 numbers say $75000 and $100000 I am using USD since I am in the US. The $100000 is what can be withdrawn in total, the $75000 is what they are pulling small withdraws from. Anything under $225 is pulled from the $75000 pool of cash so there are many small people posting that yes they can withdraw. The remaining $25000 out of the $100000 is for selected large withdraws so there will be discussions about how I got my $1500 out or your got your $2900 out and everything looks 'legit'.

The pool of $10000000 that they had is now $9900000 and they run with that.....

-Dave

Thinking about it a bit here, I don't think I would ever clear it, but I might remove a lot. There are quite a few people who I have ~ and I would like to leave a lot of them that way.
I really don't think us doing anything will change the way things are done here. People have been abusing and complaining about it for years and nothing was done. I doubt that will change. The other side is, if we don't do anything we KNOW nothing will change.

Have to think about it.

-Dave

Open you wallet and spend some money. The same way any 'real' project should be funded.
Satoshi didn't run around asking for money to create BTC.

He sat down and did it. Find a bunch of like minded individuals and get to work. You can even <gasp> borrow money and if the project makes money you can pay back the loan and keep the profits for yourself.
Why have ICOs been regulated into almost oblivion.....because most of them were scams.

Sorry if this comes out as grumpy, but in the end blockchain projects are not that much different then any other business / project. You can get funding the same way.

-Dave

I posted this thought a few months ago: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5398711
Now that CB has had a 2nd quarter of *public* losses I am just wondering if anyone has had their opinions change. Or, if you didn't see the post the 1st time around feel free to comment now

More of an discussion point then trying to make people change their minds on how / where they store their coins and if they know how an exchange is doing matters that much to them and why.

-Dave

Not QUITE the same but.....
Here in the US most banks are insured by the FDIC Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation more or less it covers peoples deposits in banks up to a certain amount ($250000 it most cases).
If the bank becomes insolvent OR if the bank does not meet certain requirements the FDIC steps in and does 2 things.

It freezes the accounts in the bank usually for a couple of days at most to do an audit

Then it either has another bank take over the bank and keep it running. OR it cuts checks to the people who had money in the bank.

HOWEVER, there have been times when what should have been a couple of days took a couple of weeks.
No different then here, but back before BTC and "not your keys not your coins" people were discussing "cash not in hand is not your cash"

Yes this is supposedly a criminal investigation but in the end if you don't have it, it's not yours.....

-Dave

Not 100% sure what you are looking for.

The screen you are showing is for addresses you have sent TO ALREADY it has nothing to do with YOUR receiving addresses OR addresses you added to send to later.
Under Window (Okno) you should have receiving addresses which are the ones that you can receive. And sending which are ones you added to the "address book" so to speak.

Once you send to them they should appear in the window you are showing.

-Dave

From the other comments I have seen it's 40 miles if it's downhill. Which is odd, since it does seem to be getting 65ish in the city in those same reviews. Most likely is going to need some software tweaks on the motor controller. But as a city / commuter bike it's more then enough. Still have not heard on my order so I guess I am not getting it for this riding season As for the seat, if the range really is that low it's not important to my ass. Not like you are really going to be on it for that long.

-Dave

I don't think there would be swings, I think it would be a continued climb. If the government(s) were not telling people they were doing it, just buying and holding it then as the price REALLY started to go up due to the lower amount of coins being circulated people would REALLY have FOMO and the price would just keep going up.

Right till the very hard crash at the end.

But I can't see any government bothering to do it, or being able to keep it a secret as they spent that much money doing it.

-Dave

Think about it as anything that is specialized then something that is more generalized.
A Lamborghini will go really fast BUT you can't take your family on vacation with a lot of luggage. (If you mention the URUS I will have to say it's not a Lamborghini but an Audi with a different logo on front) Think of it as an ASIC.

A Ford F150 will let you haul a lot of things but will not be good on the track. Also think of that as an ASIC

A BMW X3 will take your family on vacation but it will be tight and be OK but not great on the track and you can haul a decent amount of stuff but not as much as the F150. That is an FPGA, it's OK at everything but not great at any 1 thing. So, they cost a bit more and are slower and *tend* to be more power hungry. But in theory with the proper software you can have it mining SHA256 and then reprogram it for scrypt.

Now note, for the technical purists, I the above is not a 100% accurate description BUT I like to think it gives a good general concept.

-Dave