If you are limiting your choices to centralized exchanges, then you will be forced to choose the lesser evil. If you are looking for alternative to centralized exchanges, then you can have DExes, although with much lesser features, lower volume, lesser trading pairs, and so on. But if you are looking for an alternative centralized exchanges, then I guess you will have to risk with the big names such as KuCoin, Coinbase, OKX, Huobi. The assumption is that they're relatively safer since they're large enough to crumble easily, but it is never a guarantee.  

Has the US dollar been acting as the world's reserve currency for over a century already? Isn't it that its status as the world's reserve currency was agreed upon under the Bretton Woods System? The Bretton Woods Agreement which made the US dollar the globe's reserve currency was entered into in 1944. If this is the case, then its status as a reserve currency is only 79 years old, and it seems it is already weakening.

Aside from the fact that you can safely and easily self-custody Bitcoin, it is decentralized. That is the most convincing feature of Bitcoin. It doesn't have the abusive rulers who got all the powers in their hands as far as money is concerned. Bitcoin is ruled by codes that are etched in stone, that can't easily be tweaked in whichever direction the greedy fiat gods think of. The same decentralized feature means it doesn't have a CEO or a president to kill, a headquarters to raid or burn, central server to seize, and so on and so forth, which government agencies are fond of doing to anything in their way.

But if a skeptical person isn't convinced of this, try telling him/her the real situation of fiat and banks and governments and how ludicrous the monetary system actually is. If he/she is still skeptical, it might help mentioning to him/her that the likes of Elon Musk, Ray Dalio, Tim Draper, Jack Dorsey, Robert Kiyosaki, Tim Cook, and many others also own Bitcoin. If he/she isn't convinced of Bitcoin, perhaps these influential personalities, one of which he/she might idolize, have found something.

It is quite expected that the best time to gamble for most people is during the evening. It is when they are already done with their work and other responsibilities during the day. But if I am to think about it, evening is not really the best time to gamble. It's just that most don't have a choice. There are works to do, so gambling time will have to adjust.

But if I am vacant all day long, I actually prefer to gamble in the morning, when I am at my best mood. Evening is a time when you are already wrapping up the day, when you are already sort of exhausted after the entire day's activities. I think I just want to bond with my family in the evening and share stories of the day.

45- Darker45

Please and, as always, thank you, krog!

It will be good for Joshua to fight Fury. That would give him a nice paycheck. And he's already made it clear that he's mainly after the "money, money, money."

I think there have been opinions from boxing pundits that Joshua is not somebody who is really a feared heavyweight warrior. I sort of agree. His name is actually way bigger than his accomplishments or his boxing performance and skills. His résumé is lacking. To be quite frank, he has not really made a name by beating all the seemingly insurmountable odds. It was more or less smooth sailing for him. Some are even implying that Joshua is kind of babied all the way to the championship. Indeed, he's always been fighting in his own backyard. The first time he left his home court, he was knocked out.

Well, I guess you will have to do some research. There are videos and articles and even podcasts on Bitcoin online. Many are already mentioned above. If you try to search for some good old threads here, you will also find a lot worth reading. There are also new ones, although it is getting harder to separate the wheat from the chaff lately.

As to engagement, if you have something worth contributing, then make a reply. If you find a discussion not worth participating, then skip it and look for another one more intellectual. There are countless of threads here.

This is all founded upon a subjective presupposition. This is based on mere opinion. In the first place, why is this standard applied to Bitcoin when it is not even applied to fiat? Is a soiled 1 dollar bill lower in value than a newly printed 1 dollar bill? Does a crumpled or creased 10 dollar bill have lower value than a smooth one? The answer is no.

Scientists and chemical analysts actually found out in a number of studies and surveys that more than 90% of US bills are contaminated with cocaine.^[1][2][3] Do these 90% contaminated bills have lower value than those cleaner ones? Of course, not! So why should Bitcoin be treated any differently?

In terms of Bitcoin used in criminal activities and transactions, they should be confiscated the way US dollars used in illegal transactions are confiscated. And then they will go back into circulation carrying the same purchasing power.
 

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_currency#:~:text=%22It's%20virtually%20impossible%20for%20cocaine,was%20confirmed%20by%20Ronald%20K.
[2] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/cocaine-on-money-drug-found-on-90-of-us-bills
[3] https://www.acs.org/pressroom/newsreleases/2009/august/new-study-up-to-90-percent-of-us-paper-money-contains-traces-of-cocaine.html

02- Darker45

Please and thank you, icopress!

The process of dedollarization has been gaining momentum already. This doesn't look good for the US. The influence and power of the US dollar in global affairs is waning. The sad thing is that the strongest competitor is a currency of the enemy, not from an ally country. It would have been less troubling if the competitor is the euro or the pound or the yen, but it isn't.

The Chinese yuan is a considerable threat. Its growth is fueled not just by its strength but even more by its desire to dethrone the USD. Just recently, the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) will also start to replace the USD with the Chinese yuan.

But this has its own advantages and disadvantages, just like a bank's reversibility feature. In other words, this is actually a double-edged sword. With a Bitcoin transaction, there is only a very small room for error. If you failed to double-check the address you will be sending Bitcoin to, for example, and you sent it to the wrong address, you might not get your Bitcoin back. In a bank transaction, you may have it reversed. The same goes to fraudulent transactions. The way Bitcoin transactions are designed, it is somewhat unforgiving to mistakes.

Those were the days, the good ol' days!

I was also a big fan of Bittrex back then. Bittrex was the top, the number 1. It was my exchange when I started learning about Bitcoin and trading. I never had a problem with them.

Being admitted there used to be the ultimate dream of new coins. Bittrex listing carried some sort of assurance and guarantee. And it almost always meant a pump.

Binance's arrival in the scene was very timely. It was around the time when Bittrex started to implement mandatory KYC. Binance offered what Bittrex deprived CEx users of. Unfortunately, years passed and Binance ended up implementing the same.

Something doesn't seem right with Rollbit. It's unfortunate that while they are slowly building up their reputation rather smoothly it seems they are doing something fishy backstage. I smell greed.

Well, first and foremost, it seems to me that gambling and trading don't really go along quite well. I've just read the news of Beaxy, a centralized exchange that just ended its operation, whose founder misused the company's funds, some of which went to gambling. There was also the infamous Sam Bankman-Fried who allegedly lost at least a hundred million of FTX's funds to gambling.

It's also worth noting how this derivative trading that they are offering is hidden. And it's primarily because it isn't licensed at all. And these two products, casino and exchange, are offered in the same platform. I doubt Curacao, notwithstanding its questionable process, would approve of it had they known it.

Yeah, they did that. It wasn't the most classy move, of course, but Binance wasn't the first crypto exchange that did that. As a matter of fact, if my memory serves me right, Binance also took that idea from another CEx. I cannot remember which crypto exchange did the same prior to Binance. But I remember reading an interview of CZ around that time attributing that giveaway idea to one of his staff.

There was also a time when KuCoin did a Lambo giveaway. Today, where have all the Lambos gone?

Bitcoin is best for the long term. There may be some who want to play with the volatility of the price, but it is risky and difficult. After all, you cannot really predict the small-term movements of the price with a high level of accuracy. That's no matter how good you are in analyzing charts and detecting patterns and whatnot. So to sell at $28,600 after buying at $23,400 is too early I guess. Well, that's already a good profit. But what's next? Will you be waiting for the price to go back somewhere at your buying price for the buy back?

These attacks aren't new as they aren't shocking. As far as the attacks on the larger crypto space is concerned, they may achieve a limited success. They may win their lawsuit against the likes of Kraken and Binance. As a result, they may effectively shut them down just like what they did to Beaxy just yesterday or they may cripple them and earn from the fines. But what have they accomplished really? Nothing.

The attack on the larger crypto space isn't necessarily an attack on Bitcoin itself, upon which the entire crypto space is supposed to be founded. Try as they may in bringing Bitcoin down in all these efforts, what they will achieve is nothing. They will only bring down centralized crypto entities which aren't really representative of what Bitcoin is trying to achieve.

Also, as far as I notice, these efforts are not even bearing fruits as far as development in the space is concerned. When they shut down Chipmixer, how many new mixers came out? If they will be successful in bringing down Binance, how many centralized exchanges will be coming out competing for what Binance has left?

It indeed rings a bell. This exchange was promoted here through a signature campaign. I even thought this was a promising exchange back then. This exchange was strongly promoted outside of this forum as well. If I'm not mistaken, they even imitated the early strategy of Binance by giving away a Lamborghini. I cannot remember exactly how things have turned awry but it was indeed accused of being a scam.

It's surprising they didn't do something with their lack of registration despite them certainly noticing how regulators are tightening their policies on crypto exchanges. It seems they're just sitting by waiting for their time.

The Bitcoin guys are normally mild trolls. This isn't really violent nor destructive. They cannot equal the bank trolls that have been wreaking havoc to people's lives for a very long time.

Imagine the banks trolling all of us by not giving us the money that we entrust them for custody. These bank trolls are enriching themselves with our money and when we make withdrawals we are even dictated on how much. And then they will also freeze us our very own money with interest. We are even fined for not keeping a certain amount in our deposits. And when there's no activity in our accounts, they would lock our own money. LOL! These banks are hardcore trolls!

Sometimes, I tempt other people to gamble. But it is very limited like betting on a certain game or betting on a cockfight. It is not like bringing them constantly to a casino or introducing a gambling app or site to them. I don't want that. I feel guilty whenever I bring someone to gamble and lost. It's probably the reason why I normally don't want to convince them otherwise if they really don't want to go.

But what I will never do is to suggest to someone who is in emotional pain or depression to combat it by gambling. I really don't think it is a good remedy. Or when somebody badly needs a certain amount of money and I recommend him/her to try bet whatever available money he/she has. I will never do this.

If Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency, things would have been plain and simple. The discord and cacophony and confusion in the crypto market caused by hypes, scams, trading, shitcoins, pump and dump, and the like would probably be minimal. Moreover, since all crypto support is solely focused on Bitcoin, its price is certainly much higher than today. The entire crypto market would be Bitcoin's market cap. The disadvantage, however, as pointed out by ChatGPT is that innovation might be limited.