That's only assuming that Bitcoin will go back down, there is no guarantee for that. If you look back, you'll see many users on this forum share their anger how they waited when it was $50 etc, and are now regretting the decision since its not gone back down. Do I personally think it won't go down again? No, but what I'm trying to say is there is no telling if this figure is going to be common sight from now on, and this period of time might be the best time to invest, especially when it depends on the individuals personal circumstances, as well as how long they want to be holding Bitcoin. Holding Bitcoin, bought today for 10 years, might very well be a good investment, or even a terrible one. No one really can give a definite answer, but if you believe in the technology, and Bitcoin then you'll probably have very high figures in your mind.

If you truly are compromised, then you have to assume that its a pretty sophisticated piece of software that you have been compromised, although the reality is that most malicious software is minor, and recycled among "script kiddies". However, the only real safe way of uncompromising yourself would be to nuke everything you have, and don't use it again. Obviously, most of us aren't going to go to that extreme, but nuking the hard drive, or simply replacing it might be the better option. Sometimes its worth booting into qubes os, and plugging in the hard drive, and trying to recover some of the files using a compartmentalized system to prevent it leaking elsewhere. This is usually extreme too, but when it involves private keys, or any sensitive data then its worth taking the precautions.

Most malicious software doesn't touch anything other than the operating system, so most of the time replacing the hard drive, so there's nothing left on it is the best option. Of course, you could write 0's to it, and probably be fairly confident its fine, but its up to the individual if they want to take that risk.

However, disconnecting the internet after finding out your already compromised means its probably already too late, and has spread via the network if it has that capability (which most don't). That's why I'm always an advocate to using compartmentalization software to protect from spreading anything to other areas.

I won't touch upon the mining difficulty, and the issues of trying to mine with computers as I believe its been covered already. I.e, mining on a laptop will likely not yield much profit, if any at all. However, I will go into the effects that Bitcoin mining can have on either your computer or dedicated mining equipment. Everything, that is constantly running will wear down, this goes for the electrical cables that is connected to your device, and the device itself. Bitcoin mining due to the hashrate it needs to generate, usually causes a little bit of heat, which can wear down your machine all that quicker. If you are running it 24/7, then components could become defective. You would probably need to apply thermal paste to your CPU, fairly often, and would need to check each component for any signs of defects. This should be factored into your costs, and downtime. Maintenance will cause downtime, which in effect will reduce your profitability.

Dedicated mining machines are usually manufactured to mitigate these problems as much as possible, however a personal computer would not be. So, these issues are far more apparent on non dedicated machines. If you can afford the dedicated machines, and the electric that it would use, then I would definitely recommend that over a personal computer, even if a personal computer does manage to scrap a little bit of profit every month, its likely to be largely reduced by the long term effects of mining on your machine.

If you are determined to use your personal computer, then it would need to be a pretty sweet computer to be able to get any profit, and those sweet computers tend to cost more to replace components that have become defective. The maintenance required probably isn't worth it, and this isn't something you can factor into your calculator.

I do still think Bitcoin mining has a certain wow factor about it, which interests newbies, but its certainly not beginner friendly. First of all it requires a tonne of knowledge to be able to setup correctly, efficiently, and of course needs to be profitable. This usually requires knowledge of how the market performs, and how to get through the tougher times. While, being able to pay for electrical costs, accounting for the variance that the Bitcoin difficulty presents, and maintaining equipment for the long term.

Its definitely not beginner friendly anymore. Before, you could mine on a few computers that you had lying around, and although it still might not be efficient it was still fairly easy to do. Its become more complex the more Bitcoin has matured, and requires quite a bit of knowledge before getting into too.

This entirely depends on the person you ask. Many people are more than comfortable with holding hundreds of thousands in banks, and its the same way for exchanges. However, personally I can't recommend storing coins on something which you don't own the private keys too, and even if you can retrieve the private keys, you should be the only one to have seen them. This is just me, and some might argue that its being paranoid. However, if Coinbase was compromised there's a potential issue of losing your funds, if they haven't stored the coins correctly. Some exchanges make use of cold storage, but I can't say for sure with Coinbase.

I probably don't share your optimism so early on, but I do believe we'll be seeing Bitcoin cross the 50k mark eventually, not that it matters at that point. It all depends on the person, some people will be able to make more money by trading regularly, and reinvesting, some will do a mixture, and some people who doesn't want the risk of trading simply hold. It depends what your end goal is, and how much risk you're willing to take. Of course, holding does have a risk too, and trading might be less of a risk if Bitcoin wasn't to reach the aspired amount you want, but trading requires a little bit of skill, and a lot of luck.

Despite other economies suffering as a result of the pandemic, and other related things Bitcoin has proven to be fairly formidable. I do believe this might actually benefit Bitcoin adoption since it wasn't Bitcoin that was fragile during this time, but more traditional currencies. I still don't know what to think of the Paypal announcement since it helped adoption, but the fees they charge are a little ridiculous compared to alternatives. I wonder what the market share of Paypal is in Bitcoin, despite higher fees than competitors I think I would expect them to still be doing fairly well.

The thing is with Whyte is he always looks for the knock out, and usually finds himself in trouble by doing that. He was easily up on my scorecard against Povetkin, and got a little bit too excited as per usual, and suffered a knockout as a result. The guy is fairly talented, but he has 0 boxing IQ. Povetkin has a monster chin, which has been proven time, and time again. I wouldn't be looking for the knockout if I was Whyte, just win the boxing match, and move on. Of course, that's assuming this goes similar to the first fight.

Unfortunately, what makes whyte exciting to watch, is also what keeps causing his downfalls..

Its going to be hard not watching any live UFC for the next few weeks. I really got used to watching it every weekend possible. Anyway, what do we think about a Moreno vs Figuerido rematch this year? Must be one of the fights of the year, and honestly I'm fancying Moreno. I don't think Figuerido will be happy with a draw, and I think Moreno will think he might have even deserved it on the night. I'm not arguing against the draw as I thought it was very close, and could have gone either way. I do think Moreno might take it the second time though.

Yeah, you could deem having less than 50% of the networks hashrate a success if you simply wanted to disrupt the network, its probably fairly achievable for a lot of people out there, but as discussed several times over by now, its simply not worth it, especially on a prolonged basis.

Pretty much this. There is no great benefit of doing it on a prolonged basis, and all it ends up is the attacker losing money, while not benefiting other than maybe bragging rights of disrupting the network? As soon as the attack stops, the network can get back to "normal", and get through the backlog which might have been created.

Merry Christmas everyone! Here's to hoping santa drops us some Bitcoin.

I'm almost convinced I've seen this particular image on a Christmas card before, or at least very similar.

I predict in a few years time instead of the Santa's little grottos for children where they give presents out, it'll be Bitcoin drops almost like a faucet of a few years ago. Heard it here first folks.

In this particular case just sounds like someone trying to promote a subreddit they created any way they can. There's usually some motive, or gain to be had from posting this type of spam, and if you can't find the link immediate its likely been obfuscated, and by quoting the post you'll be able to identify the link more accurately.

Its quite common all over the internet for people to post illegally streamed events, since they from it.

I personally think Klopp's achievement has been several seasons long. Personally, I would like to see different categories such as a 3 year reward, and possibly a 5. Since, Klopp has definitely built up the Liverpool squad over time, and they were probably one of the favorites leading up to their title win. Although, I do believe Klopp is more deserving than Flick. As suggested, Liverpool were ONE of the favorites, because of their previous seasons, but Flick, and Bayern were favorites out of the league, and while they may have won everything put in front of them, their league is generally a little less strong than the premier league, at least in my opinion.

Bayern may have struggled, especially on the morale front,  but they certainly had a starting 11 probably better than most teams in the world, very much like Liverpool honestly. However, the difference is, Klopp brought in a lot of those players, or transformed them over a few seasons. While Flick, took over a team he largely inherited, and they were all world beaters. Bayern were never going to slump for that long. Plus, this season I've been impressed with Klopp even more so, ravaged by injuries, yet still sitting at the top of the league, and that's with the added audacity of having to use teenagers, that have really impressed when they've played. Obviously, Trent, Curtis were fairly established, but Rhys Williams, and even Nathan Phillips have really impressed so far.

Just remember, that if you are using that android phone as a regular device, and downloading apps from the app store you should be wary of storing any wallet on that device. Many apps on the app store have ridiculous permissions that they require, and Google can't verify that every single app isn't malicious. So, with the correct amount of permissions, and a malicious piece of code your wallet could be susceptible to an attack. The risk is the same on a computer, except for people are more likely to download unknown apps on their phones, because in modern times phones are used as a primary device.

Its preferred to have a dedicated device to host your wallet, and if you don't require regular access, then a offline wallet might be the better option. If you require regular access, then you might want to consider a hardware wallet. Despite the cost, they do have some extra security protocols which help with the less technically minded.

Get an accountant. Export your entire history, and give it to them. I would only recommend not relying on a third party if you understand the laws, and know how to calculate the tax, which a lot of people don't know the ins, and outs of tax declaration, and can either face fines, or losing out on more money, since accountants know exactly what to do to save you money.

If you don't want to rely on a third party due to privacy reasons, then I suggest you do extensive research on your local laws, and tax declaration. Then, use a spreadsheet system that isn't hosted online, since that would also be relying on a third party.

Seems that's its super easy to get verified these days or there's an increasing amount of "plugs" offering to verify people for a fee. I thought Twitter, and other social medias considered verification very serious, and only verified high profile people. I can see why some people would fall for this in combination of the verified tick. Its probably always worth making sure you follow the official sources, by going through their official website, and clicking their social media link.

Personally, the only reason I would recommend Electrum over that of Bitcoin Core, is because its a lightweight client. If you don't need a lightweight client, i.e you don't wish to keep a copy of the Blockchain on your device, then Electrum is the best choice. Otherwise, go with Bitcoin Core.

I would also recommend against using any wallet, on a phone. Especially, one that you connect to the internet with regularly, and download apps on. Phones, are a little bit more difficult to secure due to their operating system, and the way the general user uses them.

There's definitely an art behind predicting a market. There's definitely a way to use what's going on in the world, and tie that to various different markets in the world. Wall street is popular for a reason,  they aren't typically betting on it blind, but are considering many factors that could be manipulating the market. Although, Bitcoin is a little different from a traditional market, the same factors usually are still relevant in predicting Bitcoin.

However, who would have predicted we would be seeing the current price of Bitcoin during a pandemic, which has hit every other traditional currency as hard as it has. The Paypal announcement, and various other things that have happened leading up to this moment. Its hard to predict unless you could have seen the pandemic coming, and have various inside information, e.g like the Paypal announcement. So, even though you might be able to tie events to the Bitcoin price, it is most certainly unpredictable.

However, I think most users on this forum are in Bitcoin for the long run, and probably have hopes that it'll reach way past its current price. So, unless that's blind faith, I think there definitely are reasons why we believe that.

That's entirely dependent on the altcoin of choice. I personally don't think there's any worth while altcoins which are going to last long enough for compound interest to matter. So, having compound interest monthly might be the better option, especially if the altcoin outlook isn't great. Although, personally I see compound interest on altcoins a unrealistic approach for the long term anyway, and they entice their users in by basically promising free tokens through compound interest, which in return creates a buzz for the project, and eventually the coins hit 0 or close too that.

Coinbase has comparatively higher fees because of their popularity, but also because the process is simple.  The main competitors usually under cut them slightly, but its not by a great deal. Of course, if you absolutely want lower fees, then P2P is probably the better choice. You will find people willing to negate most of the fees, unless they are built into the platform you are using. For example, you could trade here with no fees, as long as you can find someone trustworthy, and use escrow.

Technically, you wouldn't need to comply to KYC. Of course, every trades would need to still be reported to the tax man. Personally, I'm not too bothered on the relatively low fees, but there are definitely alternatives out there, other than using dedicated exchanges.

You can usually weight up the probability of a thread being deleted if you spend enough time here, and can judge the quality. Usually, threads get deleted for plagiarism along with a ban, duplicate posts, and spam. I'm not suggesting everyone should be checking for plagiarism, as the normal user isn't required to do that, but those that want to help out the forum can. However, you can likely judge a thread by its quality, and check whether there's a similar thread to it.

Although, duplicates to get removed I don't think technical support threads get removed as often when they're duplicates. Often, when there's a technical issue, people like to personalize it to them, and be sure its the correct way to do it. For example, if someone asked how to create a paper wallet, pointing them to a guide is good, but personally I believe its good to also explain the steps to them directly, as people usually prefer that, because any doubts they can work it out.