As much as I dislike Youtube, use it. Don't read the Bitcoin whitepaper quite yet if your completely new to the subject. It'll likely only scare you, or make you think you don't understand it. The thing is, the whitepaper is great to a certain extent, but not for non technical users. So, its much easier to have Bitcoin described or taught to you in layman terms, rather than jargon. While the whitepaper definitely isn't the worst, I'd recommend only reading it once you think you've got a basic understanding of Bitcoin itself. Once you do, it would probably be beneficial to either use Youtube or come here, and find out what each technical term means. A quick search would pretty much sort you out here, since its likely been asked many of times.

Yeah, however most new users aren't going to have the stomach to hold long term, unless they make it inconvenient enough for them to withdraw in times of turbulence, because as we know there's plenty of those times. Also, defining long term can be quite difficult.

Scammers aren't always incompetent, and legitimate users aren't always competent. So, while judging a book by its cover can prevent you from getting scammed, it definitely isn't to say that someone who has a poorly designed website is automatically a scammer. I think that's important to note. The thing is most people want to make money, and in this day, and age the internet basically allows them to reach more people than they ever could, which theoretically means more more since there could potentially be more customers. However, those people might not be web designers, developers, and instead might resort to using a template which is either terrible or used on mass.

I think the better indicator would be if they've taken time to fill in the details of the website, for example I see this a lot, websites which haven't bothered to even fill in their team or staff, and so they just have stock images. While, again this doesn't automatically scream scam to me, its particularly concerning if they're using those pictures, and they don't come with the theme they're using itself, since it means they've made the conscious decision to get stock images, upload them to their website, to basically appear legit, without actually revealing themselves. I'd rather them stay anonymous that using this trick.

However, back to the point most people starting out might actually offer a legit service, they just haven't got the funds for a proper developer, and therefore resort to commonly used themes, with most resorting to using WordPress.

Unfortunately, there's no real black, and white approach there's only indicators, and your gut instinct. Although, every legitimate business should be looking to make the process as trust less as possible, whether that's using a escrow, or providing a ways of verifying claims.

I'd rather teach the future generations the importance of freedom, being in control of your assets, and being privacy conscious, rather than pushing a particular technology on them. Sure, you can mention Bitcoin, but I don't think we should be pushing it on them, let them make their own decisions from the knowledge you've passed on rather than making the decision for them. I'm all for encouraging your kids to have Bitcoin wallets, but at the end of the day kids that age don't care too much about money, they'd rather have a toy for their birthday than a cryptocurrency wallet. At least the majority would, I know there will be exceptions to that.

Not sure I'd want to encourage them to be a business person either, since I think capitalism is floored, and by doing so your participating in a broken system, something which Bitcoin definitely doesn't solve, but does touch upon how alternatives can at least deviate from it.

El Salvador will be an encouraging factor to others in the future, although nothing major has happened yet, there's been too little time that has passed since. So, really this question of whether countries will start making it legal tender in the future, I think really depends how much El Salvador benefits from it. If they don't, it could potentially have a negative effect on countries considering making it legal tender, which could potentially hurt Bitcoin adoption in the short to medium term.

Well, countries making it legal tender, rather than banning it obviously benefits us. I think most users fears are that Bitcoin will be banned en mass, which despite some of the counter arguments would be overall pretty bad for Bitcoin. While they can't prevent its use technically, most users will be law abiding, and therefore wouldn't want to risk repercussions, which reduces the total users using Bitcoin. Do I think it will be banned on mass? No. Although, that doesn't mean they'll make it legal tender either.

Don't know, we tend to lose a bit of our edge when we're missing Trent. Say what you will about his defensive fragility, going forward he's the best in his position, and I don't think its even close. The man could probably ping a pass on his weaker foot to the man on the moon.

I honestly think Man City are going to struggle. I find that after internaitonal break players take a while to get into things, I'm not entirely sure why, that's partly the reason I'm expecting Liverpool to struggle. Normally I'd probably be predicting a 3-0/4-0 win.

Typical, that's not for two weeks is it? I bloody hope not. I almost feel lost, as I dedicate my Saturdays, and Sunday mainly to sports. Some Premier League, and UFC to top it off.

I'm hoping so, you can't really blame Aljo for winning in that way, so it wasn't his fault, and its not like hes got to where he is out of luck. The guy is talented, I just think Yan in particular is a bad match up for him. Although, Aljo has the quality to submit, and knock out anyone. I've always been impressed with his wrestling skills, and it wouldn't be the first time that hes losing, and pulls out a submission out of nowhere.

I'm not super hyped for the fight, however I'm hoping its better than last time. I'm not a fan of total dominance fights, I prefer you know, an actual competitive fight.

Yeah, nominations could solve some of the problems with the format of the awards. Think that would be a decent idea, although the nominations should be open to everyone, same as the voting.

I don't take DdmrDdmr as the award receiving type, by that I mean a user that sought after recognition or awards. I'm sure they're quite aware of their recognition among the community, and hopefully that's rewarding enough, considering the results of the awards.

We're back this weekend ladies, and gentlemen. Can't bloody wait, I hate the international break as much as anyone, as I've previously alluded too. Some good matches, my first thoughts are a Liverpool win 2-0, think Watford might prove stubborn, and we'll be missing Trent one of our best creative players. Chelsea probably gets a win, and likely by at least a two goal margin, probably more like 3-0. Although, I'm not including Chelsea in my bets anymore, they've cost me a lot of money this season. Seriously, I was 2 of their games away from over 500k. Except, they decided to give away pens .

The shock prediction from me will be Burnley will get at least a point from Man City. I'm thinking a 0-0 could be on the cards.

I'm still not a fan of handing over a belt based on a disqualification. It should just be vacated, since the opponent didn't actually win the belt, but the champion should forfeit the right to the belt if its their mistake intentional or not. However, they should probably be given the chance if it was deemed accidental, to win it back via rematch. Aljo is basically walking around with a belt he hasn't earned, and if I was him that would eat me alive. I expect big things from both men, thinking that Aljo will be a better this time though, and Yan might be a little hesitant since it'll be in the back of his mind.

Considering this doesn't happen for everyone, it can only really be your internet connection or your computer. Internet speeds is the obvious one, however how you have your computer configured or the hardware itself could be slowing it down. For example, if your CPU is maxing out, then it'll slow down your web browser, not specifically the forum.

I use old hardware, and I notice the slow downs from time to time due to CPU load. Although, that's also because I'm running Qubes OS which is notoriously slow due to the fact its running multiple Virtual Machines, although this probably isn't the case for you, have a look to see if there's anything else slowing it down or just check your CPU load during browsing.

I think its old reputation has stained its modern day reputation. Tor is pretty decent nowadays, and his a notable improvement to what it was five plus years ago. The only issues you get is with Captcha's which isn't exactly Tor's fault.

Obviously, it doesn't perform as good as other browsers when loading complex pages, but Bitcointalk is anything, but complex.

Never received Bitcoin as a gift from someone. I'm not sure anyone would even think of it. Usually, its money for gifts, and then I do what I want with it. I've probably bought Bitcoin with gifted money before though, so there's that.

Probably not the best time to educate them after they've just given you a gift though . The intention was at least good, but the execute needs a little work.

I've never heard of this rule? Obviously, not your keys, not your wallet is a common saying. Though, holding down for life is debatable. I get it, Bitcoin is valuable, and I do tend to see myself holding it rather than spending it. Though, Bitcoin absolutely can, and probably should be used for trading things, that's what makes it a proper currency, rather than a reserve currency.

I'll be rooting for Burns, and The Korean Zombie. I actually think Burns is going to be more formidable than most think, even if he doesn't win. I'll openly admit that Burns shouldn't be the favourite in this match up, but I do think he's underrated in the division. He has decent grappling skill, wrestling, and he has that power shot that would put the best out.

As for the Korean Zombie, I'll be hoping he wins, but I can't really see it. Age is not on his side anymore, and hes going against an opponent that is high volume. Probably going to be a tough night whether it goes the distance or not probably depends on how much punishment he's willing to take. I'm hoping for a competitive fight, but definitely don't see him going on to win it.

Congratulations to the winners , and everyone else nominated. I think there was slight problems in the competitions format, which were discussed in depth in the discussion thread, however overall this competition is at the benefit of the community. Regardless, of what prizes are offered or if any at all, I'm hoping to see this as a yearly event for the foreseeable future, because I genuinely believe this could be a motivating factor for users to continue to contribute quality discussion to the forum, which will only better the experience for us all.

I do hope we can iron out some of the creases in the future, but as stated before, overall its not a huge problem with how things were handled this time. I didn't vote, although I did intend on voting this year, I just kept putting it off, and until it slipped my mind. I'll make sure to vote next time .

Also, on a side note; I've only just noticed, but why is the moderator avatar a ghost?

I'm very impressed with Kai Kara-France, I've always known he was a great striker, but what impressed me the most was his takedown defense. Despite, being taken down a few times, he always managed to get back up. The  first round was pretty impressive how he fought the hands, and basically carried his opponent for half of the round, then he comes out the next round, and sits him down.

I think the decision was a correct one, although it was a close fight with the takedowns. Glad, that the judges didn't favour the favourite in this case though, and I bet a lot of people's accumulators were ruined by that fight.

Blaydes on the other hand, did well. I think he did exactly what he needed to make people sit up, and notice him again. We all know hes a good wrestler, but he needed to make a statement, which I believe he did with the TKO.

There's no more risk than having a bank account, because the same security measures are likely taken. So, if someone isn't securing their Bitcoin wallets, they probably aren't securing their bank accounts very well either. Hackers don't just break everything, and are able to break encryption, its usually the user themselves that's the weakest link.

However, what your advising i.e using an exchange wallet rather than one which you have full control over is potentially dangerous, since they're definitely the least secure of all wallets. Pretty much any other wallet, is more secure. Since, they don't have the attack surface that an exchange wallet has, and usually you'd pick a wallet which allows you to own the private key.

Think your missing the point? You say that privacy, and all that is important, but then you want to bring in some sort of regulation, and governance, which would take that away from you? I'm not sure what your goal is, we don't really need anyone to do the talking for us, just avoid using anything which infringes on your privacy.

Also, what do you mean by controlling pump, and dump? How would you be even able to control something like that? Bitcoin isn't that affected by the typical pump, and dump strategy anyhow.

We all live in high inflation countries. Seriously, the cost of living has just been adjusted to an insane amount, and that's in developed countries. Poorer countries are feeling the crunch even more so. However, I do believe the potential of Bitcoin will be in those poorer countries, because its a way of getting money that isn't being restricted as much. Places like Africa I believe have a lot of issues with corruption, I'm saying that like we don't in the West, we definitely do, but to less extremes.

what you're saying is Bitcoin can go up at any time, however the same is true for the opposite effect. People putting money into Bitcoin, are taking a risk even if you deem it a small one. There's a risk to it, in another thread we were discussing the possibility of sanctions, and governments banning Bitcoin, while I'm not entirely sure that would benefit them or would happen, it is a possibility that it could happen, and would effectively reduce the price of Bitcoin for the immediate future at the very least.

Yeah, I'm not going to pretend that Bitcoin will be hit hard. Although, there will be resistance. I just don't see a world wide ban happening, so Bitcoin will always be used for me. In what scneario do you think Bitcoin becomes banned? Russia starts using it, and therefore the entire West bans it? Doesn't make much sense, we rely on Russia to a certain extent via gas, and oil. Until that changes, I don't see a threat as sanctions have to be withdrawn at some point. The UK are already feeling the crunch, our fuel has sky rocketed massively, so it does have to end. The sanctions hurt us aswell as them.

Bitcoin, being banned I just don't see it. There would be far too much resistance to it, and not any real legitimate reason. The only reason would be if Russia started using it to escape sanctions, but that would be temporary too.

This was somewhat predictable. Russia had already taken Crimea eight years prior, that was the first stage of the attack, it was always known that they didn't want Ukraine to join Nato, so when they threatened to, Russia made their move. So, this was somewhat predictable. Russia knew the amount of sanctions it would receive, and they know its not sustainable in the long run. The West as much as we like to pretend we don't need Russia, we are reliant on it. Its not as simple as switching a button, we will be reliant on them until a few years have passed at the very least.

I'll keep an eye on it, I know its been dealt with, and locked. However, there's usually pop up a new thread once in a while. These accounts should be reported though, more often than not they'll be banned/nuked.

Probably, very likely. There's probably multiple groups that are owned by one person. A lot of the bounty spammers, can often be traced back to connected accounts. When, they are owned by the same person, its usually a sickly amount of accounts connected like 20+ most of the time, sometimes even 100+.

I'm not sure, he's still a very technical fighter when it comes to it. The only problem with Fury is motivation, he's performed worse (Wallin) when he isn't motivated. If he isn't motivated his technique drops, as well as his power. He just looks like he's trying new things, rather than focusing on winning, He takes a lot more chances, now we kind of got accustomed to that because of the Wilder fight after, since he had to take chances, since despite how technical he was, one hit, and it's over.

The thing is I think Usyk despite being technical, doesn't carry the same knockout threat, and outboxing Joshua isn't exactly a massive achievement, in a technical way at least. Joshua isn't technical, and hes never been a traditional boxer like Usky, instead he won his fights because of his power. Now, ever since he was dropped by Ruiz, hes backed away from fire fights, which has been his undoing. He seems to lack that confidence he once had. If Joshua gets that back, I see him beating Usyk, but he will absolutely not out box him. Same with Fury, except I believe Fury could match him toe to toe in a technical boxing match.