For years, some have been calling for adaptation in the sense that Bitcoin becomes accepted at precisely these levels that are now being discussed. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some), we have come to a situation where we are waiting for what the FED will decide or what the US president will write on social networks.

It doesn't seem to me that this is temporary, but that it will continue - especially if we know how much BTC ETFs have accumulated and that these companies are extremely powerful considering that they manage more than $15 trillion. Their influence (lobbying) on ​​politicians and banks should not be ignored.

And I always wonder if something like that is possible, because in that case the verification on the hardware wallet would be completely pointless. However, for something like that to happen, hackers would have to have some kind of super access to that user to be able to do something like that. Maybe if they managed to install a remote access trojan on the user's computer, they would gain full access and be able to completely manipulate such things.

I think the only way we can protect ourselves from such a scenario is to use air-gapped wallets and separate computers for cryptocurrencies. If hackers don't have access to our devices, then they can't do anything to us.

There is no detailed list on their site, only a warning that the use of the cards is prohibited in countries that are on the FATF list. Another provider of the same card had several EU countries on the banned list at the time, so I advise everyone to contact their customer support before buying the card and ask for confirmation that the card can be activated/used where they want.

All of this reminds me of the situation in the EU where some countries, despite having been members of the union for more than a decade, cannot move from the bottom because the old structures do not want to change, as they are a continuation of the old communist structures that remain deeply rooted in all systems of government. When one political party rules a country for ten years continuously and has about thirty ministers who are caught in dirty business, and receives praise from Brussels, then it is a clear sign that even here in the West things are not nearly as they are portrayed.

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Some say it's always smarter to choose the lesser evil, but I say it's important to go to the polls and exercise your right, even if that means taking the ballot and crossing everything out, thus making it invalid. In a way, it's a message to the candidates that they're all the same and not worth being elected.

A saying goes something like this: "bad people (politicians) are elected by good people who stay at home during elections."

I personally never trust the fees suggested by any wallet and always look at sites like mempool.space to see the actual data. Even now when mempool shows that the fee is only 1 sat/vB, BW shows that the fastest fee is as much as 7 sat/vB. Those who do not check such things pay (completely unnecessary) fees, which in the specific case are even x7 higher than necessary.

The only ones who benefit from this are the miners, but people should still pay more attention to every detail if they don't want to overpay fees.

It may seem like I'm somehow favoring that company or CEXs in general when I talk about the level of security that some of them have, but far from it I would ever advocate that an individual or in this case a state keep something like BTC in custody. However, as you yourself say, it is difficult for them to escape from who they are, and as they are, they will always strive for centralization in any way possible.

In addition, the idea that CEXs are actually safer than non-custodial wallets comes from geniuses like CZ who say that 99% of people will probably lose their coins if they keep them in non-custodial wallets. I hope that as few people as possible will accept such and similar ideas, although we all know that most people still blindly obey the orders of their governments and various influential (rich) people.

You have to look at the bigger picture because it's not just about what someone from the Ledger team could do, but what those who would be able to use Ledger as a bridge to attack their users could do. They always claimed that the seed can never leave their devices, only to have that become a lie overnight when they announced their new option (Recovery) that extracts the seed from the device and then divides it into three parts, two of which go to two external companies, and one remains with Ledger.

It's true that there's no concrete evidence that seed could have been pulled out even before they admitted it was possible, but who wants to take the risk and believe it?


I would say it in a slightly different way - they are actually a negative story that keeps repeating itself. Despite everything, people still use and buy their devices.

Politicians are almost the same everywhere, so I will tell you that I live in a country where, with small interruptions, for 30 years, a party that has been condemned as a criminal organization has ruled, and their prime minister ended up in prison - and now they are in power and are destroying the country as best they know how. The key to their success is to convince the majority of voters that nothing can be changed, and at the same time, their party army goes to the elections as if by strict military command.

Unfortunately, people in such countries have two options, to become politically active and try to change something, which is a very difficult option - or to leave the country, as is the case in my country (about 500 000 people left in ten years), but I see that a lot of Filipinos have immigrated, because they are obviously better off than in their homeland.

I noticed that some global cards like VCC (Rewarble) are also offered when select a specific country, but I'm sure it didn't support my country when I last tried their service. What you should do is contact them and ask them to send you the official list of countries where the cards cannot be activated/used.

When trying to open your page, the following message is received :


In other words, the connection is not considered secure, and the sooner you fix it, the better.

It will continue as long as ordinary people elect bad people to govern the country. If they do this in every election, then a large part of the responsibility lies with them. Change can only come if dishonest people are removed and those who will work for the benefit of the people are appointed.

However, it should be noted that such things do not only happen in countries like the Philippines, because it also happens in some EU countries with one important difference, which is that politicians steal money in all possible ways, but at the same time they do something useful for the people, who then turn a blind eye to their misdeeds.

In the end, I don't see how someone who is not from the Philippines can help that country get rid of corruption, because after all, these are internal matters of an independent country.

It's one thing to warn people about the danger, but when I read how they boast that only their devices have secure screens that show the correct information, then it's clear to me where this story is going. Their devices are the only ones that allow users to share their seed with third parties, and the only ones that we suspect have access to all generated seeds at all times.

For me personally, it is a greater danger to use that hardware wallet at all than this danger that they warn about.

The responsibility lies with the one who provides the custody service, which in this particular case is the already mentioned company. If we take into account that the same company (CEX) provides custody services for practically all BTC spot ETFs (US), then it is not surprising that the US government also uses them.

Of course, from our perspective, they are all doing it the wrong way, behaving with Bitcoin the same way they behave with fiat currencies - that's why CEX is just another type of bank for them. However, that CEX is one of the more serious ones on the market, and they say that only about 2% of cryptocurrencies are in hot wallets, while everything else is in cold wallets.

I read the article on the link posted by @lovesmayfamilis and it seems that the matter is very simple, the person really has to literally click on a link that the attacker sends in the chat in order to download the malware, which then enables the attacker to have complete control over the user's computer, something like a remote access trojan (RAT).


However, even full access to the computer means that you cannot empty all crypto wallets just like that, unless they are not protected by a password at all, or the attacker knows which wallets the user has and prompts him to open them and thus find out the password.

I don't understand how it was possible to empty 150 different crypto wallets with just one click on a link? What comes to mind is that this user may have protected his wallets with a password that was very simple and identical for each wallet, but again, if we take into account that someone stores so much value in hot wallets, then it is possible that he also stored his backups on the same computer in unprotected text form.

Anyway, all these stories we read over the years confirm that being rich and being intelligent are not related to each other.

If you use HW like Ledger then that might be possible too, because they have clearly stated in the past that they will always cooperate with the authorities, and recently they have new rules of the game.

Those who believed that the US would become a paradise for cryptocurrencies and have the first crypto president could be badly disappointed in the near future.

Compared to the period from 2015-2018 when it comes to spam, today the situation is much better because spammers have a hard time advancing in the ranks, and sig campaigns are run by people, not bots as was the case in the past. So if it's just a question of spam then I don't see that as a reason for someone not to return to the forum - although I find it strange in itself that the OP would even ask such a question.

To return or not to return, that is the question now, to paraphrase Prince Hamlet

Maybe that was the case 5+ years ago, but it seems to me that today there are many more coins in non-custodial wallets than are held by CEXs. Some estimates/analyses when I last read about it speak of around 1.8 - 2 million BTC being held in CEXs wallets, which considering the almost 20 million mined coins, is maybe a maximum of 10% that are being stored in such a bad way.

I don't know if the situation has changed with regard to spot ETFs which mostly use the custody services of CEXs, but it seems to me that all the coins they buy just move from CEX wallet A to CEX wallet B.

We can blame them all we want, but the fact is that they don't care about the end user, and that legally they are fully insured in case someone sues them for financial damage. It all comes down to the fact that everyone needs to be careful about their actions, whether it's on FB or this forum, because that's unfortunately how the internet works.

The only way to suppress such advertisements is detailed checks by all these companies, which they do not want to carry out because on the one hand it is too expensive for them, and on the other hand they would lose too many clients. It has been my decision for a long time not to use FB and similar social networks, not because I am afraid of false advertisements, because it has already been scientifically proven that they are extremely harmful for everyone who uses them, especially for children.

Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency, but on the other hand, it has proven to be something worth investing in for profit. Without a doubt, there are many more who invest in it solely for profit, and no one can deny or forbid them from doing so - but on the other hand, there are those who understand the primary purpose for which Bitcoin was created and use it in every situation when the opportunity presents itself.

For me personally, Bitcoin is a currency, but also an excellent hedge against inflation, which is devaluing fiat currencies to the point that it seems to me that in the future we will have a pile of worthless paper in our wallets. The knowledge that there is an alternative to fiat currencies is, for me, the real value behind Bitcoin.