First of all, this thread will be self-moderated not because I want to delete posts that do not match my liking/opinion, but due to some very specific members who tend to trash every thread in P&S. Now that we've cleared things up, let's move to the main subject of this thread.

"Military conscription is the mandatory enlistment of citizens for military service." Conscription has considerably declined since 1970, but there are still quite a few countries who haven't abandoned such practices. Currently, according to TheSoldiersProject.org*, there are 49 countries with mandatory military enlistment, which are quite a lot. We're not going to go through every one of them, but some of them are:

• Israel
• Bermuda
• Brazil
• Cyprus
• Greece
• Iran
• North Korea
• South Korea
• Mexico
• Russia
• Switzerland

I'm from Greece, military conscription is mandatory and was recently increased from 9 months to 12. While I understand why some countries require their citizens to serve in the military, 12 months is a long period for someone in a relationship, working and is paying rent on a monthly basis. It's not that simple to abandon everything and not being given another option. I don't know what happens in other countries, but here, apart from the first one-two months training, it's a somewhat useless practice which claims a whole year from your life and savings.

I cannot afford to not work for a whole year, while on top of that, I'll lose the ability to apply for unemployment benefits if for whatever reason I do not want/can work after returning from the military. A large amount of Greeks here work in the tourism sector, mostly from April to October/November, and then claiming unemployment benefits.

Have you served the military? What are your thoughts about mandatory enlistment? Personally, I find it extremely intrusive, often interferes with your educational and financial path, practically forcing you to abandon a decent job you might have landed. From what you've understood, I've yet to serve in the military and am currently in a huge dilemma, while avoiding it isn't an easy option.

* Source: https://www.thesoldiersproject.org/countries-have-compulsory-military-service/

I'm really hoping that turn the way you want them to be, because this must be the worst kind of investment I've ever heard. So far, you're losing 5.5% APR, which isn't that bad, plus another 10% interest, summing up to 15.5% you're missing out. You never invest what you can't afford to lose, you did not only invest all your money, but also you took a loan while you're having extravagant predictions about Bitcoin within a short time period.

Russia sold discounted crude oil, selling at a 20% discount on one of its worse price rallies. It was expected that other countries would bite, which lead to billions in revenue for Russia.

Crude oil is seeing a slight decline in its value, however, as long as the EUR/USD rate of exchange remains close to parity, we won't see major drops at the pumps.

Russia has recorded huge profits due to Europe's sanctions, which drove oil prices to skyrocket. On top of that, they've also resorted in finding other markets to sell their oil, such as India and China. The only losing party is Europe, not Russia, we're the ones getting screwed over by the excessive fueling costs.

Yeah, just wait till September, I highly doubt that we'll have another lockdown but restrictions will be placed for sure. I'm at least hoping that we won't have that many serious hospitalisations, due to high vaccination rate and multiple mutations SARS-CoV-2 has gone through.

It's not too relevant to EUR/USD rate of exchange, but the Russian Nord Stream gas supply has been restored today, after a 10-day pause for maintenance., resulting in a drop in oil and gas prices. Europe hadn't ruled out the possibility that Russia may stop gas flows via Nord Stream permanently, once the maintenance was over. Orders have now resumed at 40% of its capacity. Hopefully, that may relieve the oil market and European consumers a tiny bit, not lifesaving but still an improvement.

Source: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Gas-Prices/Russia-Restarts-Nord-Stream-Gas-Supply-To-Europe.html

The energy crisis had already started from September/October, before the war begun, which also fueled inflation. However, the war quickly triggered the acceleration of a pre-existing situation. Europe got itself into trouble by imposing sanctions on Russia, while it was dependent on its oil and gas. USA on the other hand, as the previous poster mentioned, has their own reserves and didn't get screwed over that much. The whole situation has now backfired with the only victim being Europe and its citizens.

The worst is yet to come, with Russia steadily progressing on Ukrainian soil.

There's a minimal recovery, almost reaching 1.03 USD/EUR (1.0269 USD/EUR to be exact), while crude oil is also showing petty signs of relief. However, can't say I'm confident enough to believe that any kind of improvement anytime soon, despite the current small, but positive signs. What's also interesting is that the cryptocurrency market is also showing similar signs, with Bitcoin surpassing $22.000, it could be coincidental, correlated or both.

Older members, myself included, got a head start, but it couldn't be done otherwise. I understand OP's frustration, but I remember the forum back then had plenty of spammers, using terrible English and often posting irrelevant one-liners just to gain activity and rank up. Let me also point out that signature campaigns were much more popular back then, there was an abundance of smaller campaigns, paying significantly less than major competitors, but were still pursued by users who often couldn't get into better campaigns either because of their post quality or due to the limited available slots in major campaigns.

Although there was some kind of relief in the market, crude oil's price is increasing once again, trending at $100 for WTI and $104 for Brent oil as we speak. I've read a few predictions that it might fall in the upcoming months, but the EUR/USD rate of exchange isn't helping and certainly isn't going to recover back to pre-war levels anytime soon. The issue is, that inflation keeps soaring and there's no noticeable relief. Gas prices dropped from €2.50/liter of unleaded 95 petrol to €2.29/liter, which isn't a significant difference, the cost of fueling is still extravagant.

Change comes from ourselves, let's all start by making our bed, according to William McRaven's bestseller book, if you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. The meaning of this book is that if you can't do small things right, you won't succeed in larger things. This small accomplishment of making your bed gives you a sense of pride and encouragement.

Of course, this is purely a metaphor, making your bed won't change the world, the true meaning lies within, that small things actually matter and can make a difference in the world. Start small, by picking some trash off the street or the beach, use less electricity/water, don't use your vehicle to go to the bakery, walk instead. What I mentioned might sound small and petty, but imagine 100,000 people following the same principal. What about a 1,000,000 or 10,000,000 people? Learn to inspire others, by starting small, and you'll make the world a better place.

I joined the forum in 2014, had two large periods of inactivity (approximately 3 years away in 2018) while I wasn't active in the first place when I signed up. The merit requirement hadn't taken place back then and managed to rank up till Sr. Member somewhere in 2016 or 2017 if I remember correctly. I re-entered the forum in January 2021, having the 250 base merit due to the Sr. Member rank.

So far, within approximately a year and a half, I've gained exactly 200 merit, requiring only 50 merit for Hero. I agree, ranking up is not an easy purpose, while merit isn't the perfect system by any means, it has successfully got rid of spammers who were unable to rank up and join signature campaigns.

Cryptocurrencies are not the root of evil when it comes to criminal activities, since they've only been around for less than two decades. Certainly, all darknet markets use cryptocurrencies for their anonymity and effectiveness, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

In my opinion, governments are against cryptocurrencies for tax evasion purposes, especially now with decentralised exchanges and DeFi.

Covid-19 cases are also increasing in Greece, which is worrying because supposedly transmission is somewhat reduced in the summer, due to being outdoors and the increased temperature. However, hospitalizations and severe cases have severely decreased, firstly because of the high vaccination rate and also because of the multiple virus mutations which are slowly turning Covid-19 into a flu.

I'm more worried about the upcoming winter, there's already a surge in cases now, we're bound to see another increase in the winter. Resorting to lockdowns will halt the economy, thus, I don't see it as a viable measure, but chances are that it'll be with measures against Covid-19 once again.

Their so-called rebranding was nothing more than a wack job, honestly. While it could possibly see some kind of recovery (minimal compared to what it was), I don't get why people are willing to trust such a coin, whose developer screwed over thousands, leading to billions lost. Why are you willing to take such a gamble with your money? I'd rather invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot or something else rather than this.

I find it extremely difficult to believe that there are people who still hope/believe in its recovery. There are certainly some who can't accept that they lost their money and don't have anything else to lose at this point.

However, in my opinion there's a large amount who are trying to take advantage of the high volatility, which is similar to other shtcoins. Plain gambling.

While action against Bitcoin has been taken in the past, it absolutely had minimal effects on cryptocurrencies or Bitcoin itself, it's completely understandable, don't beat yourself to it. We all claim what we'd do in a hypothetical scenario, but in reality, most of us actually hesitate to conduct such trades.

I haven't recently purchased any Bitcoin, because I currently don't have the budget for it, but also because I'd rather not risk money coming from my own salary. Bitcoin could potentially recover in 1-2-3 years, but I can't afford to keep funds coming from my paycheck stale for that long. Since the financial situation is pretty bad at the moment, I can't take such a risk, I might need it in a few months and be forced to sell at a loss.

If you're having second thoughts, possibly try investing smaller amounts into Bitcoin and ask yourself if you're capable of waiting in case it doesn't go as planned. From what I believe and have read, the situation isn't going to get better anytime soon, providing that you're fine with hanging till the bear period is over, you'll be good.

Not much use selling now, the stop loss strategy is based on selling before it gets that bad. It'd certainly be better off holding them and hoping for the future. I don't think Fantom could crash much further, supposing that you hadn't bought too high (above $1 for instance), there's still a decent chance to get your money back in the next bull run, which could come late, but better late than never.

That's the main reason I sold at a loss, because I couldn't stand waiting for a recovery, unless it's Bitcoin.

That's correct, it's nothing more than a pump & dump coin, possibly conducted by people manipulating the market in an attempt to get investor's who lost money hopes up, or/and people who are trying to take advantage of its extremely volatility. The following chart is of a few weeks ago, USTC jumped from $0.005 to a few cents in a matter of minutes and then proceeded to pump and dump several times.

Not too close but not too far away either, especially if you take into account that I rejoined the forum in January of 2021and have acquired more than 200 merit within a year and a half.
My Countdown to Hero Rank Rank
Number of Merit(s) left: 51

Thank you for your contribution!