So, that makes it 4 within the month alone, right? There was BigONE with $27 million in stolen funds, CoinDCX with $44 million, and then WOO X with $14 million. I've also read about the exploit on GMX with $42 million.

It seems hackers have scored well this month--3 from centralized exchanges and 1 from what's considered decentralized.

I hope the funds stolen are from traders and not just from those who are lazy or confident enough to keep funds in exchanges.

Crypto betting remains a niche in the online betting industry. The gambling world generally revolves around fiat.

Is it right to label the likes of Polymarket as decentralized simply because it uses the blockchain technology or that it supports non-custody of bettors funds? At most, it's partly decentralized and partly centralized. But if it's centralized in certain aspects especially in decision making, then it isn't decentralized at all?

I guess everybody loves decentralization here. It's probably needless to ask whether one prefers a centralized platform or a decentralized one, but it isn't the only thing that counts.

Although this incident happened years ago, I guess this kind of discussion won't go obsolete. I'm afraid there won't be a perfect way to be your own bank. It's difficult.

I have reservations about breaking down your seed phrase and keeping them in several pages in a book or different books. There are risks that go with it.

Also, does it not make you uncomfortable not having access to your funds? Yeah, it's risky not to carry with you your seed phrase, but if you're far away and won't be home for months, does it not make you anxious?

Then you're not anymore talking about Bitcoin. You're practically referring to an altcoin, a fork from the Bitcoin network, the original network. But don't call it Bitcoin. You can call it Bitcoin sh*t or Bitcoin 10.0 or whatever. That's no different from Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, and a dozen other Bitcoin copies. But, yeah, it may happen. The possibilities are endless. It may also happen that one day there's a consensus to discard Bitcoin and adopt a meme coin instead.

I think it was in one of Sean Carroll's lectures that I heard that time isn't actually scarce. It's not even limited. But that's as far as Physics is concerned.

What's limited, of course, is our existence, our time here. However, as to how our short existence should be lived is highly subjective. Do we have to be rich while we're here? Who says we should be making as much money and as fast as possible because tomorrow we might be gone? Do we have to be the best version of ourselves? And what's the best version?

Perhaps there are lessons to be learned from those who take it slow. Perhaps there's wisdom in the approach of others to just chill and live one day at a time.

I don't think there was anything catastrophic or even a dramatic mistake that happened to me in gambling. There were painful losses, though. There were so many of them. Countless, in fact. But it had to be that way.

Sometimes, we're carried away with the challenge in gambling. Betting appears to me as a challenge. It's like I'm asked, is your analysis right? Are you confident in it? Can you put your money where your mouth is? Especially when this is an argument against somebody in person, I'm challenged to risk a much bigger amount. That's my way of saying I'm right. Of course, in the end, I could be wrong.

In my country, online gambling alone is a multi-billion industry.^[1] That's only limited to platforms that are duly registered. The rest of the platforms like the ones promoted here on the forum and outside aren't even included. That's probably billions as well.

In addition, the state-run lottery, operated by PCSO, has also billions in bets. Apart from that, the state regulator and operator of brick-and-mortar casinos and other land-based gambling houses, PAGCOR, also has billions in revenue.

Cockfighting alone is a multi-billion industry in this small and impoverished country. Almost every town and city has a cockfighting arena. Some have more than 1 or 2. Not to mention that illegal gambling is probably way bigger than any of the ones mentioned. It exists all over the country.

Gambling is highly cultural here, so rampant that 66% of youngsters between ages 18 and 24 gamble online, 57% of adults with ages between 41 and 55 are regular online gamblers.^[2] I bet these are even mild figures.

Gambling is so common in this part of the world you can find it in almost every family gathering, whether it's a celebration or a wake.

---

[1] https://business.inquirer.net/536673/online-gambling-addiction-the-lures-and-hoped-for-cures
[2] https://www.fides.org/en/news/76582-ASIA_PHILIPPINES_Online_gambling_is_a_public_health_crisis_that_destroys_society_Bishops_call_for_it_to_be_declared_illegal

"Lots of development still to come." Of course, because, in the first place, the project is far from being finished. But it's prematurely offered to the market, anyway.


I appears to me it's not even a swap service, strictly speaking. It's merely an aggregator. It doesn't have its own liquidity.

I tried BTC to XMR conversion and it provided me only a couple of options: Exolix and ChangeNow. I believe both have shady track records.

To call itself the safest exchange is, therefore, a misnomer. To promote "Private Swap" is also, therefore, misleading. Both Exolix and ChangeNow are bad platforms in terms of privacy.

I guess the keywords here are "state-backed Bitcoin buys." El Salvador has ceased buying Bitcoin using government's budget. That's one of the conditions set by IMF when they requested a loan, to which El Salvador agreed.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean the country stopped buying Bitcoin. That doesn't even mean the IMF is preventing the country from stacking Sats. What the loan agreement with the IMF prevented El Salvador from doing is buying Bitcoin using the country's fiscal accounts.

Of course, the country can fund certain programs outside the government's budget.

The growth of my country, if there is, is hardly felt. There's growth in myself and the family, but it's not because of the country's economic performance. If at all, the government is racing hard to cancel whatever progress you're making. Taxes upon taxes are imposed on everything.

In all fairness, of course, there are newly-built concrete roads, bridges, and whatnot, but they don't necessarily reflect the growth of the country. They're mainly built out of loans and taxes. Everybody, born and not yet born, will pay for it.

I feel more secure today, but it's mainly because of the fruits of my labor, luck, or perhaps good graces from somebody up there.

If I were to choose between money, time, and trust, it's probably trust. But since we don't exist in a vacuum, it's probably money. We don't have to trust anybody, anyway. And what's time when you're suffering? But, of course, hitting a more or less perfect balance is the key, or the goal. In all honesty, Bitcoin has contributed so much to the kind of balance I'm experiencing right now.

They're not legit. They're not profitable. So, forget about it. Don't even consider profit because it doesn't work.

Since you're curious about Bitcoin mining, you might also stumble upon cloud mining. You dismiss that as well.

Just keep on doing your research and asking questions if necessary. Your "little knowledge" will soon grow. At least you didn't hop right into it before asking for "honest insights or advice". That would have cost you the most powerful Android phone.

But, hey, do you even read the responses in your threads?

It seems to me there are many rich gamblers who are just gambling to kill time. They aren't necessarily enjoying what they do. I guess they oftentimes physically turn up on the floor, wink at the staff, take a seat, place bet, but their minds are wandering off. They're not reacting to any result, whether it's a win or loss. They're not thrilled when they win. Neither are they down when they lose. They're not emotionally where they physically are.

Well, I haven't been one of them, so I can't be certain. That's just an impression.

Painful, annoying, irritating, frustrating, confusing, and more. That's what you feel communicating with a centralized exchange's support. And, yeah, submitting the same concern twice might produce different responses and results.

CS in majority of exchanges I assume aren't only short-staffed, the staff are also most likely overworked, underpaid, clueless, and don't really care. They're mostly cheap, nocturnal, dropout virtual assistants hired from a depressed community somewhere.


Same here. And the same rules generally apply whether you're using OKX, Binance, ByBit, and others.

It's one thing for an asset to have limited supply; it's another to have fixed supply. That's a world of difference. If it becomes cost-beneficial in the near future, the gold market will even have new supply coming from outer space. Extra-terrestrial or asteroid mining will become a thing as soon as technology makes it affordable enough.

It's even wrong to say we can't create any more gold. Gold can be produced in a laboratory, at least theoretically. Of course, it won't be worth it, but it can be done.

Bitcoin's supply, on the other hand, is cast in stone. There are IOUs and hollow numbers and paper coins, though.

Couldn't agree more.

Your comment probably hurt the great majority of my countrymen. Here, those who are complaining no end about the economy, the government, the way the modern world has seemingly been ruthless, life even, and a million other things have so much idle time and so little productivity.

Most people here seem to feel so entitled it makes you wonder whether they were all royals in their past lives.

If a government can't be successful in curbing gambling addiction by a strict ban, what reason do you have in believing it would be successful by educating its citizens?

If a ban that comes with penalties, even jail time, won't stop people from gambling, do you think a TV program telling them the negative effects of uncontrolled gambling will?

I don't think so. I think the government is trapped in a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation in confronting the evils of gambling. You can't easily kill gambling, that's why some governments would rather embrace and earn from it than make it illegal but still have it as a source of so much problem.

I've never been addicted but there was a time when I was irresponsible. There's still that urge to risk a significant amount until now, but it's so unlike before. I used to love the feeling of risking money. The bigger the risk, the better the feeling. There's a kind of thrill that you can get from it. I lost considerable amounts because of this.

But nothing too serious was done to address that. If you have a little time alone after you lost, you'll actually ponder on what you've just did. That's enough for me to realize I was crazy to risk money that could have been put into more productive use. But that may still go on and on. I gambled big, I lost big, I realized, and then I gambled big again, I realized again, and so on. Eventually you'll give up wasting so much money.

I'm not saying do what I'm doing, but I'm not selling, especially not during a correction, even a "short term draw back". If I have to sell, I do that during an ATH. Whether that proves wrong or right in the end, there won't be any regrets as I'm selling when Bitcoin is at its ATH. I actually had to sell when Bitcoin hit an ATH of around $72,000 last year. That may sound a wrong decision, but I had to. At least, I wasn't forced to sell during a dip. That would be worse.

Overall, I'm a hodler, so I won't advise you to try to time the market--selling at a correction, setting a target buy-back price, and so on. That's a great recipe for disappointment. That's how many Bitcoin owners incurred losses.

Did OKX give you the reason/s why they have to do that? Since they're asking about ROI, is it possible this has something to do with your tax responsibilities?

By the way, do you declare your cryptocurrency investments and pay their taxes accordingly?

Regardless, it's probably closing time. You've had your great moments with the exchange for more than a decade. It's probably not entirely a bitter goodbye.


Exactly. And vice versa. OP might have a bad experience with OKX now, but others probably think OKX is the best exchange out here.


Most likely, but doesn't have to convert to USDT to trade with fiat via P2P. Could be BTC, ETH, or XRP directly to fiat and vice versa.

It will probably not exist forever, but I certainly agree with you that putting a cap on Bitcoin's price is most likely wrong. I'm more or less sold to the argument that if fiat can go down in purchasing power for years and decades and centuries, and gold growing more valuable for not only centuries but millennia, it is also possible for Bitcoin to go on appreciating for as long as it's relevant.

Unlike fiat and gold whose supplies inflate continuously, Bitcoin's has an end. And if Bitcoin remains relevant a hundred years from now, its value in fiat must already be staggering.