Maybe you don't need any external app but can do this from within cmd/PowerShell itself. See the following three links, they may help:
 - How do I measure execution time of a command on the Windows command line?
 - 7 Ways to Measure Time Taken to Complete a Batch File or Command Line Execution
 - Find the Total Execution Time of a Command or Program in Windows

Alright, thanks for the replies. Will close this topic now as I think I got enough answers to understand the answer to my question from multiple points of view. Thanks! Well, learning in the crypto space is a never-ending process..

I previously thought pruned mode actually syncs the blockchain and only stores all the blocks containing txs from your wallet, making it require a complete resync in case of importing private keys or a new "wallet.dat" file - hence why I never tried it out. So basically, pruned node is exactly what I was thinking of? As in, removing the history to preserve disk space while still counting and verifying all the future blocks and still being able to work for the most part like a full node?

Now about trust, isn't it basically still having to trust someone the fact that we download blocks from peers?

So right now if you wanted to run a full node, you'd have to sync the entire blockchain from its inception, back when addresses were all empty. This uses a lot of storage and makes syncing take way too long for an average PC.

But I was just wondering: as long as the blocks are accepted by the majority of nodes/miners, what is the need of having so many hundreds of thousands of blocks stored? If nodes accept and successfully verify the last.. say 100 blocks, then why is it necessary to also store the other n-100 (where n = number of mined blocks since Bitcoin's inception)?

I understand that syncing from zero and preserving the entire blockchain makes it pretty impossible for history to be manipulated. But wouldn't it make more sense to basically snapshot all the current balances of addresses and start over from there, storing only the last 100 blocks and, every time the 101st block is mined, to store the 1st mined block as a now-permanent, verified change of the addresses' balance and then the wallet would remove it from the device, now basically considering the newly mined block (the 101st) as being the 100th and so on?

If people who realize that Google prefers money over the safety of their customers (who are also those who've helped Google become the massive corporation it is today) still use it, then they need a reality check. Google would literally rather take that advertisement money and make you, as the customer, get scammed than protect you for those dozen/hundreds of bucks.

Just stop using it. It's the most rational thing one can do. Twitter and Google are both wittingly allowing scams to be promoted in the crypto community to destroy our image. It's not a mistake or incompetence; it's a strategy. Funny how a corporation can knowingly accept money from criminals and not be liable for it, but we have a semi-shit reputation as a crypto community for so-called "heavy crime usage".

I've also noticed this and it's very annoying. I can't seem to find any kind of relevant result now with DDG. A simple "how to upgrade bitcoin core wallet" search gives back >30 results on the first page out of which more than 3/4 are ".de" spammy/scammy websites.

My Whonix always suggests peekier, MetaGer, YaCy, Qwant and Ecosia. One particular search engine I've seen lots of people go after lately is SearX (see public instances here, or host your own; this is the onion link for public instances).

Not really. They have your IP, your browser fingerprint, your location and so on. Can't call "anonymous" a website that logs data which could easily be used to identify you.

Since Tor IPs are often banned as some users abuse them and try doing malicious stuff through them, Binance will most likely either ban your account or freeze your funds if you attempt hiding your IP through Tor as well. Bisq is the only safe option we currently have as a replacement for centralized exchanges.

Cu toata sinceritatea, cine crede ca investitia in fiat digital inseamna recuperarea trenului crypto isi merita soarta pentru ca nu ai nevoie de prea multa gandire sa realizezi ca nu ai ce castig sa incasezi de pe urma unei monede care va fi aproximativ stabile in permanenta, fata de BTC care de la nimic (la propriu) a ajuns la $20k intr-un deceniu.

I'd personally advice that once you start anonymizing your coins you should never link them back to your identity again, be it accounts that are yours and have been registered through the clearnet or a KYC-verified account. Breaking the chain would be useless if you only do it to link them back to you after a while.

I personally prefer Wasabi over Samourai, but another great option is using JoinMarket. It's less user-friendly than Wasabi/Samourai, but it provides an option to earn Bitcoin while breaking the chain of de-anonymized coins constantly rather than paying fees for anonymizing them. A 2-in-1.

Practices? If you want to go the anonymous way, then keep it up and never go back to the old, more "convenient" ways because then the anonymization would be in vain. I'd use an airgapped PC for my anonymous coins and another online separate PC with a dedicated live session for each transaction I'm broadcasting. Tails or Whonix are great options to go for, but I wouldn't use Whonix on Windows with VMware/Virtualbox. Use Linux (or Qubes) instead.

Also, if you want to use live sessions to broadcast txs from your cold anonymized wallet, never import the master pubkey. Instead, import only the addresses you will need for that specific transaction. As Electrum will be used in SPV mode, if you import all the addresses from your wallet using the master pubkey, the server will know all those addresses from your wallet are owned by 1 single person.

Also, when using Wasabi, remember there is a change you should take care of. You may find yourself having lots of outputs of ~0.1BTC in your wallet and just as many change addresses worth less than $10 each. Linking change back together while still respecting the privacy coinjoins provide is a pain in the arse.

You might be getting different results due to different locations and/or browser data. If you have cookies stored, they might impact search results. Location also matters for some engines: DuckDuckGo, for example, changes results based on it.

You probably haven't heard of Hungarian Pengo and annual inflation then. If EUR and USD are safe haven assets to you, you should consider taking a course of economics. The only thing you can do is play with the EUR/USD pair - and even that is like useless unless you have a ton of money to trade.

Let's take it the opposite way: EUR and USD keeps going up and down while 1 BTC still equals 1 BTC. I could've purchased a candy with 1 BTC 10 years ago while today I can use it to purchase a house. Meanwhile, EUR and USD only kept going lower and lower over the years!

Regulation and decentralization don't really match up. At the end of the day, there'll likely just be people who abide by the law and people who don't. As p2p transactions become more and more "suspect" in the eyes of authorities, it's going to become increasingly harder not to avoid the law if you want your privacy and the decentralized aspects of Bitcoin to stay alive.

I already sent you a PM; check your inbox.

You don't need to purchase all those coins in an incrementally higher-priced bulk order. It could be a DCA that's been done over the past few months/years, an auction or a direct purchase that doesn't require a direct, visible influence over the prices. Purchasing $10M worth of BTC in a bulk order is a stupid idea, because all you'd really do is buying Bitcoin at an expensive price. The other option is to simply become a wall, but that could backfire on you. DCA or private purchase is the way to go for very large orders I guess.

Back when I used exchanges, I used to exchange alts to BTC in repetitive orders (say 0.01BTC/order). That way, I wouldn't become a wall nor did I have to purchase at incrementally higher prices.

These are usually considered bullish news, so if there's anyone to profit off them, it's the institutions themselves from the future pump caused by their hype.

Announcing you've invested $50k of your funds in BTC as a company is one thing; announcing that you're investing a significant amount worth millions of dollars in BTC is a big risk no big name is willing to take. Imagine publicly announcing a fictive purchase of $100M worth of BTC and then IRS asking you where that money is being held. Nobody would be stupid enough to do that.

Ar cadea bancile? Trist. Si mai trist e faptul ca lumea nu realizeaza ca o dam din lac in put. Cred ca un euro digital e si mai grav decat o banca; problema pe care o vad este ca deja incepe BCE sa vorbeasca despre euro digital de parca ar fi o moneda decentralizata capabila sa intre in competitie cu Bitcoin si ceilalti monstrii mai mici din domeniul crypto.

If possible and interested, look after your local ATMs on https://coinatmradar.com/. There are some out there having 0% fees for purchasing BTC; you might be lucky.

I'm a quite paranoid guy to say the least, so my idea may sound far-fetched but if I had that much money, I would definitely spend as much time as I could securing my funds the following way:

First of all, I'd take some programming courses. The main purpose is being able to audit by myself the code of a given software.

Next, I'd choose Electrum as the software to go after and audit it entirely. This is in my opinion a very important step, especially when you have that much money to hold. Another option is to audit Ian Coleman's tool, but I'd still go for Electrum.

I'd then create a few airgapped, strongly encrypted PCs to store my coins on. Wi-Fi and any other wireless module removed. Metal case, as tight fit and enclosed as possible to block most frequencies/signal to and from the external world. Probably somewhere between 3-5 PCs in total, each having a different encryption password and wallet. I'd also get some resistent metal sheets to write the seeds on them, and webcams with lids to scan QR codes rather than manually inputting an address/tx data or using USBs.

And finally, a PC with Whonix (or Tails) on it to sign transactions through Tor. And that's basically it. If you've audited the code of a software by yourself finding nothing suspicious and also created some secure PCs that cannot communicate with the outside world, the risks are significantly decreased.

For a hot wallet, I'd choose Trezor. And once again, auditing the code is helpful. It feels great as it's offline and the risks are smaller with it than holding your coins in an online PC (this excludes human errors, obviously, such as accepting a tx without checking the address characters multiple times or the amount you're about to send), but I would personally not trust it for that much money. A PC that never connects to the outside world or external devices (besides keyboard/mouse/webcam) is imo way safer.

My answer for the idea of holding a lot of money on custodial wallets is a straight, bold no without a doubt.

I just want to trade through as few third parties as possible. Seen this in several other threads on this board and thought sustaining P2P transactions is a nice thing I can do for the community's sake.

I will PM you in a few minutes.

No, it is not necessary. There already is a YouTube for Kids app which should cover the said videos that are oriented for more mature audiences. Demanding KYC is something that does not have to do with these videos in my opinion.

 - USA, EU are looking to build backdoors in encrypted messaging apps;
 - Baltimore police want to use war-zone surveillance system on citizens;
 - Mississippi police wants access to home security cameras live feed;
 - Microsoft is developing a workplace surveillance system;
 - YouTube is adding KYC to videos...

All of the above happened in 2020. And there are many, many more. Like... excuse me but where the fuck are we heading. This is not a fight against criminality; it's a fight against freedom.