Welcome to the forum, I think it’s good to familiarise yourself with the forum, have a venture around the different subsections of the forum but the first thing you need to do is go to where it all began. You need to read the Bitcoin Whitepaper.

https://bitcoinwhitepaper.co/

He could have been targeted by thieves, hell even government agents could have been trying to ‘suicide him.’
He would have been accosted by media, hangers on, he would have unwanted publicity. It works best for him & bitcoin in general that he remains anonymous. He may even be dead, I don’t think we’ll ever know & in my opinion it is best that way.

I really just want to see him behind bars, it seems like the media are trying to treat him softly & not for the criminal that he is. Maybe it’s because he donated lot of money to Biden’s campaign. I dunno, it just feels weird, why isn’t he being questioned by the FBI for his leading role in one of the biggest frauds in the 21st century.

I never lend money to friends or family, it’s just not worth the stress. To be honest I can probably count on one hand how many times people have even asked me to borrow money. In the past with one of my wife’s relatives I just told him I had all my money invested so couldn’t lend him any.
It’s just not worth the stress, as the OP’s situation shows.

I agree, it should be more readily available to amateur investors. I read a story about a guy who was very wealthy from investing in bitcoin. He was the victim of a home invasion & was tortured to send a large amount of bitcoin to the thieves. He sent x amount of bitcoin with 0 sat/byte fee, he waited for them to go & then did RBF to an address that HE controlled.

Obviously the robbers weren’t tech gifted so went he sent the bitcoin without a fee they didn’t have a clue. He then managed to divert to coins to himself to avoid losing them. I assume he moved house so they didn’t come back when they figured out what he’d done.

Just take some time to think about it but no harm was really done. If you value him as a friend then you should probably consider making up with him. Go for dinner or something & have a good chat. He needs to pay you that money back though. Just because you have money doesn't mean he can take money & not pay it back. You are not a charity so he really needs to respect that & pay you back.

This didn’t age well did it. I guess none of us were to know the extent of the amateur business practises of SBF & his executives. I’m shocked myself to be honest, there was gross misconduct & outright fraud from all directions.
There simply must be jail time for many of them. There is no defence or reasonable excuse for playing Russian Roulette with customer funds, it’s inexcusable.

We don’t need Elon Musk to tell us that the price of bitcoin will rise. We’re in a bear market, what comes next is the transmission to bull market. I don’t know exactly when that’ll be but I do know it’ll come. After crypto winter comes crypto spring & then crypto summer. There is always light at the end of the tunnel, stay strong.

Fiat savings are close to useless currently, you will not be able to match inflation with fiat savings interest rates. My advice would be to buy bitcoin regularly, I close to guarantee you that you will out-perform any fiat bro who saves in their normal bank account.

Let’s say Person A saves $500 a month in their bank savings account. Person B buys $500 in bitcoin a month, we come back to them in 10 years. Person B will have made so much more profit.

This guy really has no shame, he really is a lowlife. I’m unsure what he’s actually trying to achieve here because he’s never going to win any type of court case like this. The only time he had any success (hollow) was because Cobra wouldn’t remove his anonymity to defend himself so that was won by default.

No judge is going to award him a court victory against Kraken. I don’t know what he’s trying to achieve, it doesn’t make any sense.

Maybe he knows about more insolvent exchanges, maybe he knows about some kind of regulatory issues that will surface soon. Hey maybe he’s just high or something.

Only one way to find out & that’s sit here & have patience.

We will find out when we are supposed to find out I guess.

My screen time is a little embarrassing to be honest. I sometimes clock up 7-8 hours per day of phone screen time. I should find something more constructive to do with my time. It’s tough when you’re so engrossed in online life & charts.

Sometimes it’s good to just leave your phone & all devices at home. Fresh air is good, going for walks & things like that are good for you.

Bitcoin mining companies have seen their valuations fall as the price of bitcoin (BTC) is in the midst of a bear market, depressing the profit margins of those who create it.

The performance of the exchange traded fund (ETF) Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners (WGMI) shows the extent to which the value of the crypto mining business was affected. As of 11 November, the fund was trading over 70% below its launch price in February 2022.

What are the largest public bitcoin mining companies and how are they weathering the storm? Here we take a look at the biggest mining stocks by market capitalisation.

What is bitcoin mining?
Bitcoin mining involves solving mathematical puzzles to process the transactions of the bitcoin blockchain and earn rewards. By performing this task, new BTC tokens are created and miners are compensated for their efforts, equipment and electricity bills.

Some sophisticated hardware is needed to mine bitcoin profitably as the difficulty of the puzzles increases to reduce the speed at which the asset’s supply expands. The largest bitcoin mining companies own thousands of devices that solve the problems faster than a human can. The total value of the BTC tokens they receive in return is considered the company’s revenue.

The cost of running large bitcoin mining companies includes the electricity needed to power the devices, maintenance for the mining farms’ expensive cooling systems, personnel and other operating costs typical to any business.

In 2022, the bitcoin mining sector entered one of its worst bear markets since the digital asset made its appearance in 2009 as a deterioration in macroeconomic conditions across the world has pushed the value of BTC to its lowest level in 20 months, as of early November.

Meanwhile, industry-specific developments such as the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and the Celsius Network, along with the FTX liquidity crunch hurt the price of BTC, sending shockwaves through cryptocurrency markets.


Largest public bitcoin mining companies
So what are the largest public bitcoin mining companies? Below is the list of the biggest miners by market capitalisation according to CompaniesMarketCap data as of 11 November.

Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA)
Marathon Digital (MARA) is the first stock on the list of bitcoin mining companies. The firm is a former uranium and vanadium exploration business turned to bitcoin mining after the firm merged with Global Bit Ventures back in 2017. By the end of 2021, the company reportedly accounted for 2.1% of the global bitcoin hash rate.
Marathon has facilities in South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana and Texas. The company aims to power its bitcoin mining facilities with renewable sources of energy by the end of the 2022 fiscal year.
By the end of 2021, Marathon had reserves of 8,115 BTC, including 4,794 it held in an investment fund. These holdings were valued at approximately $346m at that point, but are possibly worth much less now as the value of BTC has declined sharply in 2022. During this same period, the firm generated total revenues of $150.46m, but incurred a loss of $85.09m.

In addition, Marathon had long-term debt of $728.40m on total assets of $760.09m, including $268.52m in cash and equivalents. This appeared to be the most indebted crypto mining company on the list.

Riot Blockchain (RIOT)
Riot Blockchain (RIOT) is another stock on the biggest public bitcoin mining companies list. The firm also offers its facilities to other large-scale mining businesses so they can establish their own farms by taking advantage of the firm’s proprietary infrastructure.

Riot’s primary mining location is in Rockdale, Texas. The firm operated 30,907 mining rigs by the end of 2021, and had 4,884 BTC tokens in reserve that were valued at $159.54m at the time.
By the end of this year, the company produced $213.24m in revenue, most of which came from its proprietary mining operation. It also booked a net loss of $7.93m, had no long-term debt, and boasted $312.32m in cash and equivalents.

Canaan (CAN)
Canaan (CAN) is a Chinese company that has established a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands to be able to offer its common shares to US-based investors via American Depositary Shares (ADS). The firm has manufactured crypto mining rigs since 2013 for bitcoin mining companies under the Avalon brand.
So far the company has developed nine mining rigs, including the first generation of its A1246 units, which was released in 2020. The miner also produces AI-powered applications.
By the end of 2021, Canaan had 346 employees, produced revenue of $1.42bn – most of which came from the sale of its flagship mining rigs – and booked a net loss of $1.02bn. The company also reported no long-term debt and had cash and equivalents of $421.23m.

Hut 8 Mining (HUT)
Founded in 2017, Hut 8 (HUT) is one of North America’s oldest bitcoin mining companies. The firm is headquartered in British Columbia, Canada, and, apart from its main mining operation, also offers processing services to institutions.

According to its website as of 11 November, the firm had three digital asset data mining facilities, five multi-tier data centers for high-performance computing, more than 400 customers for its advanced computing solutions, and 7,078 BTC tokens in reserve as of 31 May 2022.
By the end of 2021, Hut 8 generated revenues of $173.77m and net losses of $72.71m. In addition, the firm had long-term debt of $24.2m and cash and equivalents of $140.13m.

Cipher Mining (CIFR)
Cipher (CIFR) is the last on our list of the five largest bitcoin mining companies. Cipher is a fast-growing industrial-scale firm with operations in the US. In February 2022, the firm started running its first facility in the country and had plans to activate another two to four sites that could be fully powered by renewable energy.
Cipher is a pre-revenue company. In 2021 full-year, the firm booked net losses of $72.15m, had no long-term debt, and reported cash and equivalents of $209.84m. The company went public in August 2021 via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Good Works.

In August 2021, it signed agreements with Bitmain Technologies and SuperAcme Technologies to acquire 27,000 and 60,000 miners respectively. A portion of this equipment should be up-and-running in 2022. However, the company’s latest quarterly reports do not yet show any revenues. Cipher’s mining operations will be based in Alborz, Texas, where its first facility has been built.

The bottom line
Note that the current list of the largest bitcoin miners is subject to change as the prices of individual shares fluctuate. Hence, this data shouldn’t be used as a substitute for your own research. Always conduct your own due diligence, studying the company’s fundamentals and technicals in detail, looking at the latest news and a wide range of analyst commentary.
Remember, past performance does not guarantee future return. And never trade money you cannot afford to lose.

https://capital.com/amp/biggest-global-crypto-bitcoin-mining-companies-ranking-btc

OP all I can say is that they weren’t very good ‘friends were they. 3 bitcoin really isn’t that much, it’s quite sad that people would ruin a friendship over money, especially an amount that whilst no joke, is not exactly lottery style amounts.

A true friend should be able to tell friends that he has some bitcoin & enjoys trading crypto currency.

My friends know my involvement but they have not kidnapped me, not yet any way haha.

Doge always seems to ride the wave on every significant, sustained bull wave. I don’t find it to have much utility & will probably never have any great RL use case. It has a lot of followers though, it’s a speculative investment, a shitcoin in every sense of the word but it does seem to do well.

I don’t see any reason why it won’t do well again. I’m not sure if Elon has any juice left in his shilling tank. Maybe he’s done all he can do to pump it now. It might need another catalyst. It can definitely reach new highs in the next bitcoin bull run though.

Nice positive post, I like it. Some might be more aesthetically pleasing than others, that is true but calling somebody ugly is so nasty. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder & there is somebody out there for everybody.
Looks don’t last forever, they fade with age so it’s always best to look for a potential partner who is great on the inside too.

I don’t think CBDC’s will negatively impact bitcoin at all. If anything it’ll probably push people towards bitcoin. CBDC’s are controlling & restrictive, where as bitcoin is great for people to control their own wealth.

Nobody wants the government being able to control their shopping & what they spend. CBDC’s are one step closer to social credit scores & literally nobody wants that. I suggest you buy bitcoin before CBDC’s come in & governments ban you from buying bitcoin.

Bitcoin is the future, CBDC’s are restrictive. Do not let anybody have the chance to stop you spending your money how you want to. Bitcoin is empowering & governments don’t like that.

Solana can & probably will recover & reach new highs in a few years. I know it’s had a few outages but at one stage it was touted as an ETH killer, a real competitor & maybe successor to Vitalik’s beast. If you hold Solana then I advise you to stay strong & don’t listen to the FUD, maybe even add to your position if you’re able to.

We are in a widespread macro economic recession bear market. Everything is down except inflation
Stay strong, keep your conviction because Solana & crypto in general will moon.

I think to learn & become well educated there has to be a big willingness from the pupil to succeed. It doesn’t matter how good the teacher is, if the pupil isn’t willing to be attentive, work hard & study at home away from the class then they will not do themselves justice & achieve their full potential.

Obviously it helps if the teacher is good & able to adapt to their pupils needs but there must be a willingness on the part of the pupil to work very hard so they can achieve their goals.

I wouldn’t be risking buying any kind of hardware wallet(s) from an unofficial source. It’s cool to buy stuff with bitcoin on black Friday. I remember people getting really excited many years ago on black Friday deals but just be careful out there.