Scams? What exactly are you talking about? If you're referring to altcoins, it's expected because anyone can launch their own token. The economy is going through a period of recession on a global scale. You can't expect cryptocurrencies or Bitcoin to be performing at their best. If we're patient enough, we're not going to regret it. Charts have shown that Bitcoin always recovers. While that doesn't guarantee its recovery in the future, it's good to know. Regarding the scams you mentioned, they have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies. Electronic scams take place where money can be made. They have existed since the dawn of the internet, but cryptocurrencies keep taking the blame for everything.

Let's not forget how many pyramid schemes are out there, scamming millions of dollars with little to no action taken against them. Yet, there are people focusing on some random token that rug-pulled and scammed its users.

Just like you said, I'm not a merit source to start my own thread, but I honestly don't mind receiving pms. If they are not worth meriting, they won't receive any. Merit isn't supposed to be hoarded, but many users, including myself, do not use their sMerits to their fullest. Looking back on it, I should have spent more sendable merits. Don't get me wrong, if I see a worthwhile post, I'm definitely meriting, but sometimes I tend to forget the importance of sending as much as you possibly can. Certainly, it's not donating, since there is no use for myself, it's supposed to be sent. I never intended to hoard it. My time has been pretty limited the past few weeks, but I'm planning to spend all of it till the end of the month, hopefully helping a few worthy users to rank up.

The math doesn't quite add up, but the OP might have had previous savings that he used to purchase Bitcoin. Anyway, I'm happy that OP achieved great results from his investment. Personally, I've never used a single cent of my own money to purchase Bitcoin or any other coin, at least not any large amount that I can think of. I made every single satoshi I have from scratch, starting from hoarding faucets in 2013, to being introduced in signature campaigns and altcoin mining. It's been an amazing journey, which started from my teenage years till now, that I'm a university graduate. Bitcoin kept me company all these years and has provided me with great earning possibilities for a young adult who now has a decent portfolio, which is acting like a savings account.

Honestly, if it wasn't for Bitcoin and this forum, I'd be experiencing severe anxiety due to the increasing living costs and inflation.

I was actually planning to use one of the following:
https://app.beefy.com/vault/velodrome-usdc-dola
or
https://app.beefy.com/vault/spell-mim-crv

Second one looks a little more safe.

Honestly, when UST was offering 20%, it didn't seem too exaggerated because you could easily find other vaults at 15%–18%. The one I had my money on consisted of BUSD and UST. If I am not mistaken, it was achieving an average of 15%. Due to being made of two coins, it severely minimized my losses when UST crashed. If I were to chase the 5% more in APY, I'd be screwed.Binance sounds safe enough, I highly doubt that something like this could ever happen. Even if it did, they would be forced to reimburse their users.
Thus, it's best to look for a vault with a high TVL, since it's showing that it's trusted by investors, right?

CEX looks interesting but offers very limited options, some altcoins and their savings sections are yet to be activated.

Unfortunately, I'm not a merit source, nor do I have a lot of sMerit to give away. However, as a way to thank the community and those who helped me reach Hero Member, I'll be donating all my sMerit (61) to newer members that are close to ranking up. I'll do a short review of your posts, and if I find any discussions that are worth meriting, I'll give you a small boost. Sadly, I don't have much to give away, but I'll do my best to help a few members at least. There's no point in hoarding sMerit, so I might as well hand them back to the community.

I was overjoyed to finally reach Hero. It's the least I can do.

How come? Beefy is one of the largest platforms, personally had no issues. I've also used Supra, but decided to stick to Beefy. While I understand your point regarding stablecoin staking, currently I'd rather not use that money to invest in other coins. I might change my mind later, because I'm ultimately starting to consider buying BTC or ETH but for now, I'll stick to staking. There's always the possibility of losing your investment, even in Bitcoin. I was also staking when BTC reached its ATH. If I had purchased during the dip at $50.000 or even $40.000, I'd be at a huge loss now (over 40-50%). The opposite can happen too, but it depends on whether you want to take the risk or not.


Since when do banks offer 5-10% interest rate? The most you can get here on timed deposits is 0.03% to 0.10%. I'd rather invest my money on some random coin than deposit it in a bank.The only options I've seen for stablecoin saving/staking on Binance are BUSD and USDT (both offering 8%) and USDC which offered 1.2% the last time I checked, please, correct me if I'm wrong.

Even a whole cent sounds unlikely. While Bittorrent (BTT) was theoretically reformed/updated in 2018 by blockchain platform TRON and has integrated a few new features, it still doesn't serve much purpose. Originally, it was abandoned by its developers until it was taken over by Tron Blockchain. From a short summary I've read, in theory at least, it doesn't sound bad. You can even earn BTT for downloading torrents. I tried it, but it wasn't worth it. Plus, I rarely download torrents anymore. However, I believe that torrenting has started dying down after actions were taken against piracy, leaving the coin with little to no purpose.

Even with the introduction of tax burn, Luna Classic cannot be saved. If I remember correctly, last time I checked, there were billions of coins in circulation. The tax only burns a few million at best, so it's unlikely to ever see decent improvement. While some speculate reaching $1, let's keep in mind that even if it does happen, it'd still be over 100% minus since it used to be worth over $100. I wouldn't call $1 a victory, especially for those who got screwed over.

Personally, I spent a few bucks just for the sake of it, not because I honestly thought I'd get a 100% return. The developer has ruined his reputation. The community doesn't trust him nor his coin. It's pretty much done for.

Investments are dangerous, period. Investing is our only breakthrough against inflation, which is slowly depreciating our fiat currencies. It's not only cryptocurrencies that have risks; all investments do, from the stock market to real estate or bonds. Cryptocurrencies have become more popular in the last year or two due to some sh!tcoins that were either hyped or were pure scams, leading people into believing that easy and risk-free money can be made.

Personally, cryptocurrencies are one of the best things I've experienced in my life.

I have some experience with Beefy's vaults but nothing major. Honestly, I'm also traumatized by the Terra UST incident, resulting in a 15% loss on my end. I'm trying to be extra cautious now.
The first decrease didn't affect me too much. I have distributed my funds to BUSD and USDT, both offering 10% APY for up to $2.000. Thus, the first 2% decrease was only affecting anything over $2.000, so the impact was minimal and didn't bother too much.

Honestly, I don't want to tolerate the latest decrease, since it's affecting both coins, losing over 4% in revenue. Beefy's vaults offer an average of 12% APY, a few days ago, I didn't want to risk leaving Binance for a mere 2% increase, but now the difference is over 4%.

Edit: https://app.beefy.finance/vault/velodrome-lusd-mai
28% APY, but involves riskier stablecoins.

Binance proceeded to lower the APY from 10% to 8% . It's actually the second time within the month that they're decreasing it. It used to be 10% up to $2.000 (tier 1) and 4% for >2.000 and <10.000 (tier 2). The first time, only tier 2 was affected, lowering the APY from 4% to 2%. "No big deal," I thought.

However, tier 1 was reduced to 8% yesterday, significantly reducing my profit. I don't see a reason to use Binance services anymore, since there are quite a few vaults that offer an average APY of 10-13%.
This one looks decent

https://app.beefy.finance/vault/curve-op-f-susd

Any thoughts or recommendations?

While I have my doubts about Luna Classic, it reaching $1 sounds way more probable than BTT's predictions coming anywhere close. Honestly, while I'm totally against Luna and Luna Classic after the whole incident with UST depegging and Luna crashing, I regret not buying some more, because I also believed that at some point it would be hyped.

I'm not going to spend a single penny, investing in Luna seems way too risky. I've only bought a few thousand for a few dollars, and those will be the first and last ones I've acquired.

There's no clear answer; it solely depends on your character or the type of person you are. However, people are generally greedy and tend to keep asking for more, never saturating their thirst for money and physical goods. Personally, I'm fine if I have enough to live comfortably. I don't care about becoming rich, famous, or owning expensive physical goods. They do not provide happiness, but only a temporary feeling of saturation. Having a quality lifetime and not having to worry about making ends meet should be enough for me. Money ought to be the tool to a healthier/better lifestyle, not our sole purpose of living.

I find setting goals about acquiring physical goods petty, they're not fulfilling. Depending on them sets you on the right path to depression and a constant need to obtain new stuff to keep you going.

Still, even before Elon's involvement, Dogecoin's price was still high for what it is, a meme coin with an unlimited supply. I remember owning a few thousand when it first appeared. They were worth $5–10 at most. Unfortunately, I sold them when the price had plenty of zeros after the decimal. Even the current prices are extravagant for what Dogecoin is, it serves no purpose, apart from it being used in gambling, perhaps, I can't think of anything else. The interesting part is that it's currently sitting in 11th place on CoinMarketCap, with a market cap of a little over $8.5 billion.

I certainly see your point of view. In my opinion, BTT, in this case, is highly unlikely to ever see such a hype. I recently saw speculations about Luna Classic too. There are people claiming it could possibly reach $1. I don't see it happening, but I understand that the cause of such predictions varies (efforts to hype a coin, purely fictional, or an attempt to motivate holders).

Putin made it loud and clear before invading: he did not want Ukraine to join NATO, an ex-soviet country right next to his border, siding with Russia's largest rival. As awful as it may sound, I'm in favor of lifting sanctions against Russia. Currently, we're only hurting ourselves. Europe is about to go through a massive economic recession, with inflation averaging at 10%, fuel and electricity soaring. Europe is imminent to an energy crisis due to the excessive dependency on Russian natural gas.

On top of that, Russia has made great advances against Ukrainian territories, completely occupying Luhansk and slowly occupying other territories.

Click on the photo below (interactive gif) to see their advancements since the start of the invasion.

While both Luna and Luna Classic are showing signs of improvement (in terms of value), I don't think it's worth the risk. Billions went down the drain a few months ago, but still, people are ready to blow their money on something that has already failed (I'm not talking necessarily about the OP). I only have a few thousand LUNC I bought just for the sake of buying for a dollar or two, honestly, I believe that this pump is purely speculative and the risk of it suddenly dumping high.

If you're fine with that, go ahead, but I wouldn't take such a risk. I find the developer extremely malicious, failing to inform his investors in time and only posting on Twitter in hopes of keeping the hype going

I can't fathom why Bitcoin keeps getting targeted for all kinds of reasons, from it being a bubble to consuming too much energy. This is clearly not the first time Bitcoin mining operations have been targeted for their energy efficiency. The image posted by the OP is true. Bitcoin operations only account for less than 1% of the total electricity consumed. Some will claim that 1% is too much, but I beg to differ for something that is practically generating wealth. In my opinion, we're bound to see more enemies of mining operations in the upcoming months due to the energy crisis.

On top of that, Bitcoin mining is mostly operated in Asian countries; there are hardly any operations in Europe, which is facing the largest threat from the energy crisis, but still, it's constantly being targeted for consuming excessive energy.

Accomplish your goals and dreams, find your passion and stick to it, and the rest will come on their own. Success doesn't necessarily have to be defined by money or fame. I'm yet to find something to be passionate about, and it's going to be my main goal for the upcoming years. I will only call it a success if I end up discovering it and am able to make a living out of it. It doesn't have to involve expensive cars or houses, but living comfortably enough to not worry about making ends meet.

Unfortunately, most of us simply stick to the usual way of living, working a job we may hate till retirement. This way of living doesn't involve experimenting, being passionate and adventurous, but slowly eats you away, entering a vicious cycle of depression. Honestly, my ideal scenario would be to become a digital nomad and explore the world, but it sounds too good to become a reality.

That's the reason it's not applicable for every sector; it could be useful in technology, IT departments, accounting, or marketing services. Certainly, it cannot be applied to every instance, but a workaround can be implemented to still keep your business open for 5 days while adopting the 4 work days a week plan by simply distributing your workers' day off. Some will work from Monday to Thursday and others from Tuesday to Friday. Honestly, while it sounds ideal, I believe that it won't be widely embraced by employers, and it's understandable for the reasons you mentioned earlier. Personally, I'd be happy if I even had weekends off while working 8 hours per day, 5 days a week, and 20 to 24 days of paid time off (PTO).


If you're an entrepreneur and it's your own business, it's understandable to work your ass off, especially at the very start of your business. No matter how much you enjoy your job, you should never neglect your personal time.

Honestly, I find the whole situation about Europe reducing their energy consumption a little exaggerated when electric suppliers are soaring in profit. However, whether we like it or not, Europe is still way too dependent on Russia, and my opinion would be to revert the sanctions against them; it's only hurting ourselves. India, on the other hand, had been purchasing discounted oil since the start of the invasion and was reselling it for profit. One thing is certain, judging by the current situation: oil will continue to be volatile and probably won't fall below $80/barrel, unless we have severely decreased demand due to a variety of reasons, such as a recession or another Covid-19 wave.