Most "normal" people are safe from Cyber attacks, due to the fact that most Cyber attacks are done on high profile targets. Think, exchanges, healthcare systems, and banking systems. An individual such as yourself, and I aren't going to be massive targets. Sure, we can be targeted just like anyone else, but its far more likely that the malicious attacker would target the highest paying outcome, and therefore target bigger profiles.

Luckily, most companies have a cyber security team in place, and invest from hundreds of thousands, to millions per year to secure their platforms. So, what we can do as individuals is stay up to date with cyber security news, as well as learning the basic ways of protecting yourself online. More advanced attacks can be left to the experts. Of course, another way to reduce any information leaks, or attacks can be to stop relying on third parties whenever possible. The trade off of that is then you're responsible for protecting your information, and money, and depending on your skill set it might even be wise for a third party to be involved.

Anti Viruses are a waste of space for the most part. Unless, you're not very well informed about the vulnerabilities in the software you're using or your habits on a computer you can protect yourself even better than a anti virus. What I don't like about recommending anti viruses is it gives a false sense of security, and people assume what they're doing is fine due to the anti virus not flagging up a issue. However, the way anti viruses work is by keeping a database of vulnerabilities, and detecting them on a computer. Sometimes, they even guess whether something could be a virus or not leading to a lot of false positives.

If you download open source software, verify the checksums, and don't visit untrusted websites, without disabling most pathways to attacks (think javascript etc) then you should be fine for "script kiddie" attacks.

I'm thinking Liverpool will get the title again this year, unless the recent signing of Diaz to Manchester City can shore up their backline, and get some stability back there. I think we're looking at a very good Leeds side that will finish in the top half of the table, while Everton could throw their hat into the mix into the top 5/6. Despite Tottenham winning right now, I'm not overly impressed by them this season, and I don't think Gareth Bale will have an impact like everyone is expecting. At least not until he regains some sharpness, and fitness.

I thought Chelsea were really going to push top 2 this season between Liverpool, and Manchester City, but that West Brom performance, and Thiago Silva mishap might have just put some doubt in the mind of that team. Thiago Silva given the armband, and then I believe being stripped of it after that mistake isn't the best way to start his premier league debut.

Sheffield United have a horrible fixture list coming up, and although I do believe they'll pick up points against Man Utd, they might have some confidence issues after this very difficult schedule of theirs in the opening few weeks. Especially, since they've yet to score.

I know this will be a big night, and a big seller for the fans. However, I'd just like to see Conor actually get back into the UFC, and start earning his way back to a title shot. I'm not a fan of these boxing crossovers, since someone of Conor's quality, and persona should be fighting for titles, and not these white collar boxing events. I do think this will be a good fight, and ultimately Pacquiao will come out on top. Although, I'm hoping Conor, and Dana sort out their issues, and get Connor back in contention for the title within a few years.

I do doubt it though, I believe Conor thinks he deserves big money for the once big name he was. Don't get me wrong hes still a massive name inside UFC, but he was taken apart in his last but one fight against Khabib, and against Cerrone it was too short lived to really get an idea of whether he can return back to the big names.

Whatever the decide on getting, I would recommend trying to get something fun for them instead of a collectible that they are not going to appreciate unless they're already into Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. As for paper wallets, this can be an okay way of getting someone interested in Bitcoin, especially if its already loaded with a small amount to boot. They might be intrigued by redeeming it, and tackles one of the common problems Bitcoin; People don't know that you can redeem it for "real" fiat currencies. If you provide some instructions along with the paper wallet on how to redeem it could intrigue them enough that they start looking into Bitcoin itself. Although, from my observations, people really don't know what to do with Paper wallets when they're introduced to Bitcoin.

Explaining that Bitcoin is usually a paperless bank that you are in total control of, and then handing them a paper wallet can be quite confusing. 

Interesting that there's so many European countries which don't regulate Bitcoin through capital gain tax. I would have thought that most European countries would be jumping in on the act, since its quite popular in some of those countries that are listed. Perhaps that's why is is so popular. As for Israel, I think the benefits outweigh the cons, and could lead to more adoption since if the government somewhat acknowledge it as a currency people will see it as a legit source of income rather than just a commodity. I think the problem with Bitcoin adoption is the bad press, and reputation its got over the years as criminal/shady money on the internet, as well as simply not having enough documentation for a layman to digest. Bitcoin is way to complex for mass adoption, and this will continue to be a problem for the foreseeable future I believe.

As for your question, I don't think regulation has a massive effect on adoption. It can go both ways, some people will see it as a legitimate business just because its not acknowledged by the government, and to be quite honest those that are interested in Bitcoin, I don't think it being taxed will effect their chance of adoption, since they'll be taxed on fiat currencies at the same or similar rates anyway.

Unless, Bitcoin gets taxed more than traditional currencies, I think regulation through tax isn't too bad.

The first to really capitalize on the market I would say. Since, eCash, although being very different from Bitcoin of today was a concept back in the 1980s, which I think was implemented into Digicash? As far as I know, this is the very foundations to what we now call cryptocurrencies, and its interesting to me that the concept was thought of many years ago. I'm not sure of the success of eCash, or Digicash, but I believe Bitcoin is the closest thing we've had that uses similar ish concepts that has garnered the interest of the mainstream media.

I think we might see an increased hostility of the "system" towards VPNs, and I don't think its hard to imagine that VPNs could possibly be made illegal in certain countries or at the very least ISPs will write it into their contract that you''re not allowed to use a VPN service or any service which masks your IP address. As you may know, its big business for ISPs to see exactly what you're viewing so they can serve ads effectively, and possibly even sell your data on.


That entirely depends on what you view as the goals of Bitcoin. It has achieved decentralization in itself. There are various countries which regulate it, but by design it is decentralized. Depending on the country you live in, also depends on the amount of regulation that its subjected too.

Agreed, centralization is usually for profit or a way of controlling. If they have all your information then they can profit off of that in several ways. The market of data is extremely lucrative as we all know. I mean, most people already live in a massively centralised world. They use monopolies such as Google (not just the search engine), use banks, and use telephone companies which collect your data willingly. Not to mention the ISPs, which are completely in control in what they see of its customers.

It is mentioned in Computer Science, and related degrees already. However, I've yet to see a non specific Bitcoin degree have a module solely on the Blockchain. Although, I know there are universities within the United Kingdom which do case studies on the Blockchain within the course syllabus. Honestly, growing up, and looking at the early stages of education money, and finance needs to be introduced in a practical way. I honestly, believe that taxes should be taught from a early age, because of something which you'll always be subjected too you never learn about. Especially, when its such a complex task to do. However, as we all know the majority of your education life is teaching you how to be a good employer, and not what you're suppose to use during your life. The system is broken, and I don't see Bitcoin being implemented effectively until there's a complete change in both the attitude towards cryptocurrencies in general, and the education systems structure.

Probably the best thing to do if you're communicating without any sort of encryption. Delete any private/sensitive data just in case of a compromised account. I'd assume that this is sort of a unwritten rule with a lot of people who have done trades on here. A while back I started to delete all conversations unless they were important enough to warrant staying there, but those that are important are few, and far between. I ultimately stopped when it became quite tedious.

Nowadays, if I were in a trade, and someone had to give me their PO box, or address, maybe even their email address I'd probably delete them; same with names etc. However, keeping the trade details or the back, and forth conversation is probably a good idea as long as it doesn't have any sensitive data. At least, that's now my approach. I sort of have a spring cleaning every so often, where I will go through, and delete any PMS of outdated questions, or conversations which aren't related to a trade.

I don't there's anything worth saving outside of the forum for my own personal records though. Unless, I wanted to delete certain PMS on the forum, and only have a local copy to free up my inbox, but for me I don't see any particular gain from that except a nicer looking personal message section.

The thing is with most modern designs I feel like there's too much white space, and not enough content. I know people generally like the minimalist view of modern designs, but I'm quite a big fan of getting the most data possible while also retaining some sort of readability. I think SMF does this perfectly, and I'll be honest I'm not a great fan of the new forum software layout how it currently is. There was a forum software out there that I liked the look of, but can't remember the name of it. It has some modern features which made the usability pretty nice too.

Although, I don't think the software is whats causing the traffic to dip, or at least the illusion that traffic is dipping. Since, I haven't been able to verify whether there actually has been a significant downtrend of users recently.

Update: The software I was thinking of is Discourse. Its modern, and has a lot of blank space, but I quite like it for some odd reason. Although, even so I don't think I prefer it over SMF. There's just something quite appealing about SMF.

I personally tend to avoid mobiles due to the security risks associated with them. Plus, I'm not a fan of most operating systems since they are often either partially open sourced with certain parts "closed" source or they're completely non open source. Plus, the screens are generally way to small to do any sort of long formatting of posts. Too many mistakes, when a keyboard offers ten fold more accuracy.

Think it entirely depends on the sort of jobs that people have here on the forum. For example, our industry was considered essential right through the pandemic, and therefore we've had an insane workload throughout it. We did initially have a few people furloughed, but the essential workers within the company were still running around all over the place. I'm only now starting to see a reduction in our workload, and it seems its just in time for a 2nd full scale lockdown, so we'll see how the next few weeks pan out, but in our industry its largely being run by a few individuals that have to take a lot of work on, while others are completely without work on furlough. Thus, my time personally has been reduced recently, as well as being exhausted half the time.

I can't speak for everyone, but that's a little insight into one of the industries which the country relies on. Of course, not everyone works in essential jobs, and I don't think the vast majority do as I would probably take a guess that a lot of users here work within the IT industry, and even if that does involve what is deemed as essential work it can usually be carried out from home.

Also, it seems that a lot of people took advantage of furlough, and started having BBQs, parties, and all sorts of random stuff that they usually wouldn't do. It was treated as a holiday by many. I won't get into the numbers being manipulated as I think its pretty evident the government, and news sources have been picking, and choosing their headlines, and statistics to push a certain narrative. Right through this pandemic there's been several contradictions.

It's probably worth noting that generally forum software in this sort of forum has been declining for years, and social media is starting to take over. Reddit, for example despite how much I hate the upvote system that seems to be the rising way of discussing all sorts of things. Personally, I like this sort of software, and won't be making the transition to other social medias in a hurry.

Unfortunately, it is human nature to judge a book by its cover, and that's why exciting technologies don't ever get off the ground. Theymos gets judged just for being the image of Bitcointalk, and for some reason outside Bitcointalk there seems to be hostility towards its users in general. I'm not sure what the image of Bitcointalk is outside Bitcointalk as I'm way to involved in the forum to take a step back, but I've read quite a few statements of hostile towards this forum. I don't know if they've been wronged, or at least feel they've been wronged, but I get the feeling its not that, and just the cool thing to say. I dunno, maybe the general consensus of how much spam is located in certain sections on the forum contributes towards that attitude.

I also judge a book by its cover when it comes to threads on this forum. For example, there's certain tell tale signs of a thread title on whether or not its going to be using multiple accounts to create fake buzz, or in general invite lower quality users in.

When it comes to finances, and especially taxes I would recommend an accountant no matter how small/large you're dealing with. I know that its somewhat frowned upon in certain crowds due to it involving a third party with your finances, something a lot of us as chosen Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies for, so we can avoid the reliance on others, and be in total control, but honestly if you aren't familiar with the complex nature of taxes, then an accountant can save you a lot of money, and time. They don't have direct control over your finances, but they will require information on how much you've taken, and spent, but in my opinion the issue of privacy is worth it in this sense since making a mistake on your taxes could result in a heavy fine. I personally, don't understand all of the tax implications, and thus I've got an accountant that does all of my taxes. I've tried to wrap my head around it several times, and there's just so many little bits that trip you up, and to me personally was not worth the time investment to learn everything or stress that it caused to do it myself.

Although, the OP has put out some very good information for those that are residing in the US, and its always good to have a good understanding of the system, and I would encourage anyone to get up to speed on it, but I would still recommend an accountant to actually check, and file the appropriate documents.

Also, if you're concerned about privacy, using the websites linked above are likely more of a target to malicious use than that of an accountant, simply because its a easier target since all the data is kept online.

Personally, I can only recommend software which is open source, and this usually applies to almost all walks of life, but particularly encouraged if you are using it for finance related things such as handling money. Bluewallet as suggested by others is probably the most popular choice. Remember, whatever software you are using, you want to be able to trust it with the information you're giving it. If that's a private key you want to be sure that its secure, hence the suggestion of a open source wallet since it can be verified by not only you, but others.


Also, doesn't really offer anything better than open source alternatives, not that I would wholeheartedly recommend people to use IOS wallets for anything other than a watch only wallet.

Whyte gets a lot of stick for being outspoken, and his exaggerated persona, but hes a decent enough fighter. I don't think his defense is much to speak of, but the guy can definitely throw a punch. I do think that  Povetkin is generally underrated in most of his fights, and is a rounded fighter at least more so than Whyte. However, it was quite obvious the last time around that Povetkin is feeling his age, and although he does have a big heart is getting older. Personally, I thought Whyte would have waited longer to exercise his rematch clause due to the fact that Povetkin would have had an even longer break at his age, and Whyte would be able to recuperate, but I definitely do rate that Whyte just wants to go for it again.

I think I'll go for Whyte this time, although I don't think Whyte is the type of fighter to learn, and adjust to his fighter he usually just comes out swinging for the hills. It still takes a lot to knock someone out, and I'm not sure if Povetkin will find that opening again, especially since its usually harder against a fighter that just doesn't stop throwing punches. Should be a decent fight again, and if Povetkin was several years younger I'd have him winning every single time.

Are we expecting Dillian to come in a little heavier this time?

Lets be honest here, most news sources have some sort of bias, and some users may also have a motive behind posting a particular press release. We see this all the time with mainstream news sources unrelated to Bitcoin, and I'm sure everyone has saw the misleading information over the COVID-19 space. So, although I would really like to see that section get cleaned up in the sense that only important press releases are displayed, and I would also really like to agree with Hilariousandco's proposal I think personally for the above point I made that non censorship is the best way of handling it, otherwise you'll have only sources which have been selected by theymos or whoever, and that in itself could lead to a bias being pushed out within that section. I can't think of anyway of fairly selecting what does, and doesn't get displayed there (ignoring obvious spam).

I think the Press section comes down to personal opinion on a lot of it. Personally, I would prefer not to see speculation based press releases as they usually have little substance behind them other than "Jeff said it will hit moon". Whereas, actual events that have taken place would be more appropriate, but generally its really down to the individual view point.

In regards to threads being posted in the Beginners & help section that are of negative connotation; The assumption is that newbies will be more prone to falling for these types of scams, and phishing attempts. Although, this isn't always the case, I guess there is some logic behind it. Therefore, depending on the actual information within the thread I would say it is OK depending on the content to be posted to the Beginners & help section. However, that's entirely depending on the perception of the moderator dealing with the report, because it could go both ways. My viewpoint is if the thread is quite obviously talking about basic concepts, and is aimed towards a newcomer to cryptocurrencies then it would likely be appropriate within that section.

I would say that guides to avoid scams, and tips about researching would be more appropriate than outright scam accusations. Scam accusations do not belong in Beginners & help, unless they're case studies included with a guide of some sort. As for complaints, and various other things it likely belongs in a different section e.g post about the forum belong in meta, a post about a exchange belongs in the exchange section, and a post about a user belongs in reputation most of the time.

There's also a big chance that misinformation has been spread on this forum whether it was intentional or not. Its very rarely that someone has completely understood a concept, and not only that be able to convey it to someone else accurately. Things like best ways to avoid phishing can be informative, but can also be biased based on their perception, and may even be incomplete. Unfortunately, in every walk of life we can only offer guidance its up to the person to digest that, improve upon it, and find their way.

I believe quite a few countries have updated their laws to become more strict on ICOs, and how they can operate. This may or may not have had a significant contribution to the reduction of ICOs. As well as anything, overtime people will become more aware of bad businesses, and the telltale signs. For example, many years ago scam phone calls were very successful, and although they can still be successful today the general population are far more aware of this than 20 years ago.

A large amount of the demographic here came here to make money, and not to discuss the technicalities of Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies for that matter. Therefore, Bitcoin although can still be a great money making method isn't what tops the list when you look at some of the promises, and hype altcoins receive.  Day trading in particular can be very profitable in altcoins if you know what you're doing. Its only natural that people participate in conversations that they're involved in, and passionate about. The altcoin sections from my point of view are generally lower quality overall due to the sheer amount of posts that are being thrown that direction, but there are some decent discussions in there, and there always has been. The altcoin section isn't all about the new, and upcoming altcoin that's going to make everyone, and their grandmother rich. No, sometimes there's some good discussion about cryptocurrencies in general, and the direction they're taking. Some of which can be quite enlightening, and thought provoking.

Unfortunately, I'll admit this is drowned out by either the amount of posts that are being submitted, but also the fact that the public perception of the altcoin section isn't that great outside of it. The sections tend to get bad mouthed constantly, and sometimes that's justified, but not always. Its gained a reputation for somewhere people go just to spam, and talk nonsense about competing coins to Bitcoin when that's not always true. It is true a lot of the times, there is a great deal of spamming that happens there, and its hard to moderate on a normal day, let alone when there's big events happening outside the forum which is reducing users time spent on the forum due to their real life duties taking over.

Although, this forum caters for all types of cryptocurrencies, and has become in my opinion larger than just Bitcoin, and is more of a cryptocurrency forum. I still think that the majority of the changes over the years to the forum has been revolved around Bitcoin. There's only been a few changes to cater for alternate coins. Mainly, in recent years to reduce the spam issue we currently have. So, I'm not sure I agree with the criticism of the forum becoming a wider discussion platform than just Bitcoin, after all the forum is primarily a Bitcoin forum since the main sections are focused on Bitcoin. Plus, its completely optional if you want to read the altcoin sections or even have them displayed. You get to choose what you digest on this forum, and this is by far the go to place for discussing cryptocurrency. You could go to Reddit I suppose, but I've never been a fan of the way posts are displayed on Reddit.  

Also, I think the majority of users on this forum are aware of the issue with signature spammers or those that are looking to join signature campaigns. They usually, tend to avoid getting reported, and therefore will post in sections, and threads with lots of replies to avoid getting reported or added to a blacklist. That's always been the case, and years ago this happened in other sections, we saw it briefly happening in project development, and there's still to this day posts being made along the lines of "Good project" outside of the altcoin section. Mainly, in the service announcements, and project development sections. Its not completely exclusive to the altcoin sections, and those that post in the altcoin section are sometimes given a bad name for nothing. Sometimes it is justified of course, but it would be nice if we judged on a individual basis instead of applying a blanket statement to all. Don't worry about those that are spamming to get in a signature campaign, and encourage the behaviour of good campaign mangers so their efforts are largely useless. Whenever, you do see bad quality posts, and you want something to happen report them.

Whenever there's databases like this they need to be transparent, and honestly there's no real easy way of going about it. Which means that bias, and other factors can very well be a motive for adding someone to the database, and without any sort of transparency way of verifying the information is true, there would be no way to have a legitimate database. Plus, there needs to be a transparent investigation for it to be worthwhile.

The intention might well be good, but without any way of verifying that information, and a way of knowing that a proper investigation has been undertaken with undeniable proof that someone is in fact guilty then unfortunately its just another collection of accusations, which may or may not be accurate.

There''s also a lot of data to collect, and what constitutes listing someone on a website as a "cyber criminal"? There's many different types of scams out there, and investigating them all would take hundreds of people dedicating the equivalent of a full time job. Just take a look at any policing system out there, and you'll soon find that there's hidden motives, bias, and outright injustice being done. Although, people like to quote the innocent before guilty saying, there's multiple instances where evidence has been ignored, and innocent people have been put behind bars, and there's a whole lot of reasons for this. We've had previous constables come out, and declare that they planted evidence, or just put someone away because the public was demanding it, and any project undertaking this behemoth task needs to try, and avoid these issues which every country has. 

Its all well, and good compiling a list, but compiling a accurate list which can be verified, and most of all trusted is going to be a very large undertaking. However, taken the above into consideration if anyone did actually pull off this it would be an incredible feat that a lot of areas in the world today could benefit from. Personally, I don't see any sort of easy route in doing so.

I'm assuming you're refering to when betting websites have not paid out, and you're classing those sort of experiences by abuse? The thing is, many gambling websites have it written in their terms that they can reject a bet for whatever reason they see fit, and there's been instances of them banning overly successful betters. I've never experienced this personally, but that's because I rarely bet these days, but I've heard cases of people being banned. However, you never know if they are abusing the system themselves or placing what we call matched betting (which is illegal, but gambling websites aren't particularly encouraged by those that do it)