Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

[Gyrsur]

please lost WO brothers don't take any post too serious because this is not the real life.



^^this is not me but Thermos!

[El duderino_]

We only are serious when it comes to WO 

[El duderino_]

@nutildah, I can only say I have seen some of the truly most beautiful spots I have ever seen in my life in the Philippines .... For real!

[Icygreen]

Phillipines are really on my radar recently, speaking with friends and plenty of recommendations here. . Palawan is where the missus wants to go.  Videos look unreal!!

[bitserve]

Very sound advice, Bitserve.  I agree that having a spread of safe savings that provide income away from the BTC rollercoaster ultimately makes absolute sense.  

Hodling Bitcoin does not provide income, it's an investment that you have to realise; whether that be incrementally, or all at once.

There is a time to diversify and make sure your retirement is not dependent on any one asset, and to make sure you're safe in most eventualities.  If anyone gets to have 'enough' to retire on from BTC and leaves it ALL IN, they will feel the pain of every dip severely, often to the point where they dare not cash any in during that dip.  

Having a decent trickle of income sorted for your retirement that you can feel comfortable with is a good thing - keeping some Bitcoin too also makes sense, but depending entirely on the BTC price after you've stopped working would not be an easy ride.

TLDR: At the point when you have done well enough, it makes sense to cash some in and diversify.  

It's not just that Bitcoin doesn't provide income... which is not completely true, because there are places where you can earn an interest from it. You incur in additional risk though. But even having full control of your Bitcoin and storing it safe has its risks. In fact it is a (way) riskier asset than many others. Thus the extraordinaire ROI till date... and possibly in the future.

There is not ONE single completely risk free asset. NONE. So yeah, that's why some hedging/diversifying is very recommended.

Life is all about balance... Finances too.

#bitserve, indeed that the worst case scenario, when you believe complete and go all inn ( what is never the most sane option, but if), but are forced to cash some out at the worst time possible   ....

Imo some real estate or a house and a bit of land to own isn't the worst, if those options are possible.

Yeah, as I have previously said I love RE. My first home, which I finished paying it a couple years ago, is my main asset (not counting Bitcoin). My second one I bought it past year and its basically all mortgage at this time... but as soon as I decide to cash out some Bitcoin, a good chunk will go to reduce or even wipe out the mortgage. Probably just reduce some, as my mortgage terms are very reasonable (30 years at around 1% interest) and it was probably my last opportunity to ever finance like that again.

I am very far from the point in which Bitcoin (or anything else) would allow me retire (something I don't really WANT to do anyways) but the first thing for me before "upgrading my lifestyle" would be to be completely debt free again.

RE/land won't probably make you rich in itself, but I don't see any point in being "rich" without having some RE... at the very least a fully paid home and some more if possible.

Of course part of that thinking is cultural, as in Spain most everyone decides to own home instead of renting, being the main "saving asset" of net worth. I know that's very different in many countries, specially in US where people do prefer (extreme) mobility instead. Also the type of construction, repair labour wages and related property taxes in the US mean the "maintenance" of most properties may require ridiculous amounts of money in many cases.

[bitebits]

Today we learned that Apple dropped its plans to end-to-end encrypt users' iCloud data backups.
I've been researching the issue of secure cloud backups recently; here are my recommendations.

https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1219670250767208451

How to Securely Back Up Data to Cloud Storage
https://blog.lopp.net/how-to-securely-back-up-data-to-cloud-storage/

For all your encryption needs, I highly recommend VeraCrypt. The continuation of the highly successful TrueCrypt project, it's free, open-source, and thoroughly tried and tested. The "open-source" part is especially important, and is considered a requirement for an encryption product that's worth your time and trust, as a closed-source product may have backdoors that no one can detect.

Need to store data on the cloud, but worried about others having access to it or the cloud server getting hacked? Simple! Just create an encrypted VeraCrypt container, put all your sensitive data in there, and then store the container file itself in the cloud. No one can access your files without the container passphrase, which only you will know.

That's not a backup. Seen this too many times, people trusting the cloud, then comes a thunderstorm and that specific cloud where your goodies were is blown away (with or without encryption).  Think decentralization!
I used duplicity with free protonmail accounts to backup some important data offsite (additionally to local backups).

I agree thet Veracrypt looks mature, unlike i.e. encfs based things that shouldn't be trusted with important data as its not good enough for that. But it's a nice overview that VB1001 posted, thanks.

A local folder that syncs with a cloud service does not have this problem. Dropbox for example.

[Globb0]

If that 4% thing is right and you have enough coins. You can get 4% from freebitcoin

So you could withdraw the 4% eternally without degrading the principle at all

Oh and without the 20x longs

[bitserve]

If that 4% thing is right and you have enough coins. You can get 4% from freebitcoin

So you could withdraw the 4% eternally without degrading the principle at all

Oh and without the 20x longs

Would you really put all your Bitcoin stash there to earn that 4% and be confident that they will be safu during all of your remaining lifetime?

Guess not.

Also that doesn't mitigate the volatility risk nor the catastrophic event one. You still have all your eggs in the same single asset and just add a great lot of third party risk.

I thought one of the goals of "retiring" was to be able to sleep at night.

[mindrust]

freebitcoin is cool for a short term profit but i have my doubts they will last till you die. Not just freebitco.in, I wouldn't trust anything that gives you interest for the long term, especially the banks.

RE is better than those but then your enemy is the government. You don't know if they are going to increase the tax rates next year.

Actually when you think of it, you should never ever lower your guard.

First you work to have wealth, then you work to protect it.

Sometimes trying to protect isn't even enough, you know what they say: "attack is the best defense". If you don't expand, you shrink.

Maybe that's why we are seeing those millionaires/billionaires still working even though they are rich.

It is a never ending journey.

[psycodad]

Today we learned that Apple dropped its plans to end-to-end encrypt users' iCloud data backups.
I've been researching the issue of secure cloud backups recently; here are my recommendations.

https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1219670250767208451

How to Securely Back Up Data to Cloud Storage
https://blog.lopp.net/how-to-securely-back-up-data-to-cloud-storage/

For all your encryption needs, I highly recommend VeraCrypt. The continuation of the highly successful TrueCrypt project, it's free, open-source, and thoroughly tried and tested. The "open-source" part is especially important, and is considered a requirement for an encryption product that's worth your time and trust, as a closed-source product may have backdoors that no one can detect.

Need to store data on the cloud, but worried about others having access to it or the cloud server getting hacked? Simple! Just create an encrypted VeraCrypt container, put all your sensitive data in there, and then store the container file itself in the cloud. No one can access your files without the container passphrase, which only you will know.

That's not a backup. Seen this too many times, people trusting the cloud, then comes a thunderstorm and that specific cloud where your goodies were is blown away (with or without encryption).  Think decentralization!
I used duplicity with free protonmail accounts to backup some important data offsite (additionally to local backups).

I agree thet Veracrypt looks mature, unlike i.e. encfs based things that shouldn't be trusted with important data as its not good enough for that. But it's a nice overview that VB1001 posted, thanks.

A local folder that syncs with a cloud service does not have this problem. Dropbox for example.

That's still not a backup, the article VB1001 quoted talks about backing up to the cloud, not just having a synch'd copy there.
(I know backing up is for coward pussies but still I beg to differ)

[bkbirge]

By the time folks like him come around to believing in bitcoin as a store of value then I'm guessing we'll all be pretty happy we didn't wait for his signal before accumulating.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ray-dalio-calls-for-investment-diversification-but-not-in-bitcoin

But while many believe in the store of value thesis of Bitcoin, its performance so far has not indicated meaningful correlation with global markets. While it does appear to have slightly positive correlation to gold, the indexes are small enough that they can be attributed to coincidence.

[bkbirge]

This whole concept is scary af...
https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinese-experts-suggest-using-blockchain-tech-in-social-credit-system

The social credit system establishes a score representative of every citizen’s trustworthiness. The score is largely influenced by artificial intelligence and the processing of data from the millions of CCTV cameras installed in mainland China.

....

In mid-November last year, Andre Szykier, the CTO at Bitcoin ATM operator Blockchain BTM, suggested that cryptocurrency speculation will likely negatively influence one’s social credit rating.

[AlcoHoDL]

Today we learned that Apple dropped its plans to end-to-end encrypt users' iCloud data backups.
I've been researching the issue of secure cloud backups recently; here are my recommendations.

https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1219670250767208451

How to Securely Back Up Data to Cloud Storage
https://blog.lopp.net/how-to-securely-back-up-data-to-cloud-storage/

For all your encryption needs, I highly recommend VeraCrypt. The continuation of the highly successful TrueCrypt project, it's free, open-source, and thoroughly tried and tested. The "open-source" part is especially important, and is considered a requirement for an encryption product that's worth your time and trust, as a closed-source product may have backdoors that no one can detect.

Need to store data on the cloud, but worried about others having access to it or the cloud server getting hacked? Simple! Just create an encrypted VeraCrypt container, put all your sensitive data in there, and then store the container file itself in the cloud. No one can access your files without the container passphrase, which only you will know.

That's not a backup. Seen this too many times, people trusting the cloud, then comes a thunderstorm and that specific cloud where your goodies were is blown away (with or without encryption).  Think decentralization!
I used duplicity with free protonmail accounts to backup some important data offsite (additionally to local backups).

I agree thet Veracrypt looks mature, unlike i.e. encfs based things that shouldn't be trusted with important data as its not good enough for that. But it's a nice overview that VB1001 posted, thanks.

A local folder that syncs with a cloud service does not have this problem. Dropbox for example.

That's still not a backup, the article VB1001 quoted talks about backing up to the cloud, not just having a synch'd copy there.
(I know backing up is for coward pussies but still I beg to differ)

Well, the very definition of backup is that you have some data stored locally, and you perform a backup by copying the data somewhere else, at regular intervals (or in real-time), so that if something happens to the local data, you have the backup version to restore. So, in that sense, you'll always have a local copy, even if the cloud server gets hacked, or loses the data, or gets obliterated by aliens, etc.

The main point I was trying to make, was that strong encryption tools like VeraCrypt can protect you from someone on the cloud side looking/stealing/using your data. To them, they are just a bunch of useless random numbers. The chances of Google or Dropbox losing your data are very remote IMHO, as their data farms are backed up continuously and in a highly robust, professional way, so they can restore a very recent version of the data if need be. OTOH, my daily backups can fuck up much easier by a mistake or h/w failure.

Generally I'm against anything cloud-based, the only reason being the lack of privacy. With tools like VeraCrypt, the privacy issue is resolved, so one can benefit from the positive side of the cloud.

Having said all of the above, I don't even think about putting my cold storage private keys / recovery seed anywhere near a PC or other online electronic device. It is backed up safely in several places, physically far away from each other, and in non-electronic form. But the beauty of the recovery seed is that you only need to do this once (storing in several places). No matter what happens inside your wallet, whatever you deposit/withdraw, etc., the seed is always valid and always stays the same, no need to update it. It's not the same with actual data, where you need to regularly update the backups when you make changes to the data. That's where the cloud comes in, and with tools like VeraCrypt it saves you a whole lot of trouble in maintaining your privacy while enjoying its benefits. It kind of like Bitcoin, but with data.

Edit: ...and I wouldn't go anywhere near an online service like freebitco.in, trusting my coins to someone I don't know for a mere 4% gain... No way!

[vapourminer]

(I know backing up is for coward pussies but still I beg to differ)

i know what an idiot i am. thus, like a squirrel who buries nuts all over the place, i count on at least finding one good backup somewhere.

in all seriousness though the rule of 3s (i think its called) 3 backups on 2 different media, one of which is offsite. and i dont count "the cloud" as any of those.

i do rolling backups so they go back quiet a ways.

[nutildah]

(I know backing up is for coward pussies but still I beg to differ)

i know what an idiot i am. thus, like a squirrel who buries nuts all over the place, i count on at least finding one good backup somewhere.

in all seriousness though the rule of 3s (i think its called) 3 backups on 2 different media, one of which is offsite. and i dont count "the cloud" as any of those.

i do rolling backups so they go back quiet a ways.

Forgive me if I've droned on about it in this thread before, but one time I had a laptop stolen with wallets for anywhere between $15k and $40k worth of coins. This was in 2015. During the peak of the bull run it was closer to $200k.

I did make a backup indeed; however, my backup was on a USB stick contained in the laptop case, which was also stolen.  I can look up my coin addresses in their respective block explorers, and see my balances just sitting there, laughing at me.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't keep your backups all in one place, and yes, the offsite idea is a good one. There's no shame in burying your nuts in different places.

[Paashaas]

Venezuelan Team Working on Bitcoin Mesh Network Based on Offline Radios.

A Venezuelan team is developing Locha, a decentralized mesh network that doesn’t rely on the internet to transact with Bitcoin (BTC). The system, based on radio waves, was born in response to frequent electricity and internet outages in Venezuela.

Locha Mesh is an open-source project led by Randy Brito, a member of the Bitcoin Venezuela organization.

[vapourminer]

i know what an idiot i am. thus, like a squirrel who buries nuts all over the place, i count on at least finding one good backup somewhere.

in all seriousness though the rule of 3s (i think its called) 3 backups on 2 different media, one of which is offsite. and i dont count "the cloud" as any of those.

i do rolling backups so they go back quiet a ways.

Forgive me if I've droned on about it in this thread before, but one time I had a laptop stolen with wallets for anywhere between $15k and $40k worth of coins. This was in 2015. During the peak of the bull run it was closer to $200k.

I did make a backup indeed; however, my backup was on a USB stick contained in the laptop case, which was also stolen.  I can look up my coin addresses in their respective block explorers, and see my balances just sitting there, laughing at me.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't keep your backups all in one place, and yes, the offsite idea is a good one. There's no shame in burying your nuts in different places.

oh man that is The Suck

another thing i do is keep several (at least) old versions of important files offline and dont discard them as you never know if any particular file has become corrupt and backing up that corrupt file replacing  the non corrupt one sucks a lot too.

ive build my latest nas with ECC memory (that scubs daily) and the ZFS filesystem that scubs the filesystem (timing varies on the pool). it also keeps old versions of any changed file for a period of time, again varies on the pool.

the nas is of course backed up regularly and the backups are kept offline. the 3-2-1 rule is no joke. i learned my lesson way back.

i theory this protects against ransomware are well as idiot users like myself.

[AlcoHoDL]

(I know backing up is for coward pussies but still I beg to differ)

i know what an idiot i am. thus, like a squirrel who buries nuts all over the place, i count on at least finding one good backup somewhere.

in all seriousness though the rule of 3s (i think its called) 3 backups on 2 different media, one of which is offsite. and i dont count "the cloud" as any of those.

i do rolling backups so they go back quiet a ways.

Forgive me if I've droned on about it in this thread before, but one time I had a laptop stolen with wallets for anywhere between $15k and $40k worth of coins. This was in 2015. During the peak of the bull run it was closer to $200k.

I did make a backup indeed; however, my backup was on a USB stick contained in the laptop case, which was also stolen.   I can look up my coin addresses in their respective block explorers, and see my balances just sitting there, laughing at me.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't keep your backups all in one place, and yes, the offsite idea is a good one. There's no shame in burying your nuts in different places.

Yeah, man, that must really suck... Watching those addresses for any movement... Seeing the funds are safu, but not accessible. Damn!

This reminds me of the story of a guy in the UK who dumped (as in threw away in the trash) a computer in which there was a hard drive containing around $5M worth of coins. Just a guess on the actual number, can't remember exactly, but it was in the order of millions of dollars IIRC. He went at the huge landfill where they dump the loads of trash from the city, desperately looking for that damned drive. I don't think he ever found it.

tl;dr: Always backup, and always keep your backups in separate physical places from each other and from the source.

Edit: I think this is the story.

[lightfoot]

This whole concept is scary af...
https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinese-experts-suggest-using-blockchain-tech-in-social-credit-system

The social credit system establishes a score representative of every citizen’s trustworthiness. The score is largely influenced by artificial intelligence and the processing of data from the millions of CCTV cameras installed in mainland China.

....

In mid-November last year, Andre Szykier, the CTO at Bitcoin ATM operator Blockchain BTM, suggested that cryptocurrency speculation will likely negatively influence one’s social credit rating.

Pretty cool concept: Government can just round up the troublemakers with little effort.

[Globb0]

If that 4% thing is right and you have enough coins. You can get 4% from freebitcoin

So you could withdraw the 4% eternally without degrading the principle at all

Oh and without the 20x longs

Would you really put all your Bitcoin stash there to earn that 4% and be confident that they will be safu during all of your remaining lifetime?

Guess not.

Also that doesn't mitigate the volatility risk nor the catastrophic event one. You still have all your eggs in the same single asset and just add a great lot of third party risk.

I thought one of the goals of "retiring" was to be able to sleep at night.

Sure no risk in margin trading. Right.