Lightning app Strike partners with Bitrefill, paving the way for users to effortlessly use their bitcoin to purchase essential everyday items and services.

Strike Enables Bitcoin Spending on Everyday Items with Bitrefill Integration

In a groundbreaking move, Slice, a pioneering advertising solution, has joined forces with Bitrefill, a prominent platform specializing in selling gift cards for cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. This strategic partnership is set to open up exciting ...

Unlocking New Possibilities: Slice Partners with Bitrefill to Empower Users with Bitcoin Spending Options

Today, advertising solution Slice announced a partnership with Bitrefill, a leading platform that sells gift cards for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, to give new opportunities for users to spend ...

Slice App Now Allows Users to Buy Gaming Gift Cards With Bitcoin Earnings

This collaboration between Slice and Bitrefill is just the beginning of their shared mission to redefine online earnings and spending.

Bitcoin-friendly mobile top-up platform Bitrefill announced support for eSIM purchases with a number of cryptocurrencies. Failed to load news. Bitcoin phone home: Use crypto to buy sim cards in 140 countries with BitrefillA partnership between crypto ...

Bitrefill Adds Support for eSIM Purchases With Cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin News

A partnership between crypto marketplace Bitrefill and data provider eSIM Go allows users to buy sim cards in 140 countries using cryptocurrency. This development aims to make it easier for crypto users, especially travelers, to live on crypto and travel ...

Bitcoin phone home: Use crypto to buy sim cards in 140 countries with Bitrefill

Leading crypto e-commerce platform collaborates with eSIM Go, revolutionizing connectivity for digital nomads.

Bitrefill Empowers Bitcoin & Crypto Travelers with Global eSIM Service Across 140 Countries

A partnership between crypto marketplace Bitrefill and data provider eSIM Go makes living on crypto a little bit easier.

Momint has launched a blockchain wallet that lets traders spend their cryptocurrency at over 10,000 retailers across South Africa.

South African crypto wallet launches voucher payments for Woolworths, Dis-Chem, Vodacom, and MTN

2. It is recommended to short in batches at 9230-9330, stop loss at 9400, and target at 9000-8900.

How Much Is A ADA Worth In Us Dollars

Bitrefill

bitrefill

Currently, the use of cryptocurrencies depends on two main things: electricity and the Internet. In general, you can’t send or receive coins without, at least, being connected through a previously charged mobile phone. So, can we conclude that offline transactions with cryptocurrencies are impossible? Not really. There are functional ways, some of them easier than others. Over the years, several projects and proposals have been shared to do exactly that. Sending cryptos via radio, Near-Field Communication (NFC), mesh networks (local networks built with users’ nodes), SMS, and satellites have been tested with more or less success. Let’s check some of these methods. Offline cryptocurrency with dedicated devices This is the more expensive way to do offline crypto transactions because it requires extra equipment. Remarkable players in the sector are the firms GoTenna and Blockstream, which offer their own devices to make this kind of transaction. NFC devices, mesh networks, and satellite communication can be included in this category. Blockstream operates a global , broadcasting the blockchain worldwide, even in areas lacking reliable Internet. With four satellites covering six zones, it facilitates uninterrupted access to Bitcoin data. Although some remote areas are uncovered, most of the world, including America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, can access ledger information offline through a small antenna and USB receiver setup costing $500. Bitcoin satellite network For its part, GoTenna (in collaboration with Blockstream) introduced a Mesh Network enabling offline crypto transactions. GoTenna's nodes connect independently, allowing users to share messages and conduct Bitcoin transactions via mobile without the Internet. Each device/node was priced at $200, but they’re for the moment. sold out The TxTenna app was developed with Blockstream and Samourai Wallet to work with the mesh network. It enhances privacy, and security, and bypasses potential local censorship by making offline Bitcoin transactions among GoTenna users. In addition, companies like are offering specialized devices for businesses. Their Cold Vault, with its own plug-and-play platform, promises high security with a patented unidirectional solution for crypto transactions without the Internet. The price is yet to be published, though. GK8 Offline cryptocurrency via SMS Several wallets offered , but now they’re mostly discontinued. The premise was, mainly, sending a link to claim some coins. Another service of this style still in operation is , developed by South African coder Kgothatso Ngako and available for seven African countries. this service in the past Machankura / 8333.mobi . Users dial a number, register with a 5-digit PIN, and access menus for learning about Bitcoin, sending, and receiving. Integrated with Bitrefill and supporting Lightning Network transactions, it transforms phone numbers into Lightning addresses. Targeting users in Africa with feature phones, it addresses the limited penetration of Internet-enabled smartphones in the region They also partnered with Azteco, a service of Bitcoin vouchers. Individuals lacking Internet-connected devices can claim Bitcoin through Azteco without accessing their website. Users simply dial a USSD code and include the Azteco Voucher's "reference code" located at the voucher's bottom. Offline transactions in Obyte + Other Coins A common characteristic among the projects mentioned above is that they mainly focus on Bitcoin transactions, not including other tokens. This is different from the Obyte Wallet and its . Textcoins feature You can send offline any token previously sent to your wallet, even one that you just created yourself. It’s also easy and inexpensive, without requiring any extra equipment. A textcoin is like a paper wallet, built with 12 secret words that could contain any amount, in any Obyte-compatible and public token. The path to creating one through the wallet app is quite short: Send Tab – [Select Token and Amount] – Share Via Message. You can share it with anyone via text, digitally or physically. Share it in Morse code if you want! However, to receive it and verify its legitimacy, it’s important to have an Internet connection, even for some moments. The app will generate 12 secret words with that amount, and that’s it. Besides, if the recipient rejects or loses your gift, you still can recover it in your wallet. Just go to the History Tab, find your transaction in that token, and click on “Claim Back.” As for the available tokens to use, you can check a wide variety in the . This is a user-friendly platform that imports and exports cryptocurrencies into and out of the Obyte ecosystem. For instance, you can use several stablecoins ( , …), ETH, WBTC, BNB, , and more. Counterstake Bridge USDC USDT MATIC The recipient doesn’t need to have an Obyte wallet initially, but they’ll need one to claim the funds eventually. After claiming the funds in their own wallet, the recipient can exchange them for fiat and other coins using the Counterstake Bridge and/or the crypto exchanges (decentralized), Kaiserex, CoinSpot, and Bittrex Global (centralized). You can start using textcoins now! Oswap.io Featured Vector Image by jcomp / Freepik

Educational Byte: Exploring Offline Cryptocurrency Transactions

শিক্ষাগত বাইট: অফলাইন ক্রিপ্টোকারেন্সি লেনদেন অন্বেষণ

Bildungsbyte: Erkundung von Offline-Kryptowährungstransaktionen

Byte educativo: exploración de transacciones de criptomonedas sin conexión

Octet éducatif : Explorer les transactions de crypto-monnaie hors ligne

शैक्षिक बाइट: ऑफ़लाइन क्रिप्टोकरेंसी लेनदेन की खोज

教育バイト: オフライン暗号通貨トランザクションの探索

교육 바이트: 오프라인 암호화폐 거래 탐색

Byte Educacional: Explorando Transações Offline de Criptomoedas

Образовательный байт: изучение офлайн-транзакций с криптовалютой

Eğitim Baytı: Çevrimdışı Kripto Para İşlemlerini Keşfetmek

Byte giáo dục: Khám phá các giao dịch tiền điện tử ngoại tuyến

教育字节：探索离线加密货币交易

It’s been a roller coaster ride in the crypto world these past months and the market is yet to recover from the tragic effects of the tumults. While most cryptocurrencies are witnessing epic price tanks, many projects have spun off the wheel and are barely standing. Here’s why the market is in its current state and some other exciting developments that have erupted in spite of the chaos. The downward move started with a regulatory crackdown on Celsius which caused the lending network to suspend withdrawals from US accounts. This was followed by the UST and Luna crash in May 2022, leading to a $300 billion dollar loss altogether in the crypto market of just over a billion dollars in market capitalization at the time. its eventual crash was the “domino effect” of the Luna collapse which reduced optimism in the market. Celsius claims All the events which were to unfold were roused by the Ukrainian war in February 2022. The global markets were punctured and had much blood (dollars) to shed. has been wiped out of the US stock market this year alone. As customary, the stock markets moved, and the crypto market followed. Ukraine and Russia are powerful contenders in the global markets. As the two shook, the world had some vibrations to endure. Over $9 trillion Federal interest rates have been spiking up the inspired party by the war. Amongst numerous factors affecting the crypto market, interest rates have a very direct and almost immediate impact. On January 26, when the Federal Reserve first met in 2022, . A lot more increase in interest rates has occurred all having negative impacts on the high-risk crypto market. BTC fell 6% China and Russia also induced negative sentiments with plans to abolish the use of crypto. But away from these crypto-costly events. Some amazing developments have sprung up even in these dark times. Let’s take a look at some of them. Interesting Developments In this Crypto Bear Market The bear market births projects, adoptions, initiatives, partnerships, and seeds prosperity for those who make use of it. These developments will prove that. Soulbound Token Amidst the heat of decline and market-unfriendly events, Ethereum co-founder, Vitalki Buterin has proposed non-transferrable NFTs linked to human identities. With Soulbound tokens, every human has an indelible record of achievements and identity etched on the blockchain. According to , It will “help navigate the trustless and largely pseudonymous nature of Web3 by creating socially verifiable reputations.” amongst many other advantages. CoinDesk.com OpenSea and Warner Music Group Any development tied to NFT or other aspects of the blockchain world is inadvertently tied to cryptocurrencies. WMG has partnered with OpenSea to allow select artists on its platform to go Web3 on OpenSea with their customizable landing pages. They can roll out limited edition NFTs, tell their stories uniquely with tailored templates and enjoy other features. According to WMG, their “collaboration with OpenSea helps to facilitate these communities by unlocking Web3 tools and resources to build opportunities for artists to establish deeper engagement, access, and ownership.” RobinHood RobinHood has opened up its stock investment platform and drifted away from its “walled garden” approach to accommodate cryptocurrencies. It launched its “RobinHood wallet” built on the Polygon blockchain which accepts no fee for transactions and allows you to swap trade, and even import previous wallets. It currently has 11 cryptocurrencies listed on it. Walmart—Metaverse Walmart steps into the crypto world with a form of indirect acceptance. You can use crypto to purchase Bitrefill and Coinsbee and then buy items at Walmart with gift cards. Walmart also dives head-on into the metaverse with the launch of Walmart Land on the Roblox platform. a “physics-defying Ferris wheel, unlockable tokens and badges, an interactive piano walkway, and a D.J. booth for users.” It has many fests in its lineup of events with artists like YUNGBLUD, Madison Beer, and Kane Brown performing. It offers an “immersive experience” that integrates characters from Jurassic World, Magic Mixes, Paw Patrol, etc. It features Fundings Despite the bear market sending investors back to the base, we’ve witnessed immense funding rounds in the different quarters. A teenage founder has for his crypto start-up. The most iconic is Epic Games which raised $2 billion through a round led by Sony and Kirkbit. Other noteworthy funding rounds include Circle and Lithosphere - $400 million each,  Crusoe and Near - $350 million each. Other smaller investments include $20 million raised by the Solana Coral platform and $200 million by LootMogul. raised $30 million National Adoption Russia, against its initial stance, has come to accept crypto as favorable and has approved it for cross-border payments. It’ll have anti-money laundering eyes on guard and require proper KYC from exchanges and wallets that’ll operate within its borders.  Kazakhstan, due to the influx of Russians into the country is also set to legalize crypto. France on the other hand just permitted the operation of Crypto.com, a major crypto marketplace. A lot of countries are adopting crypto and others are speaking about CBDCs as a step to getting digital with currencies in these past months. Other Crypto Partnerships Partnerships are important to crypto going mainstream. This is because it takes the familiar to introduce the unfamiliar. IRL brands and other traditional businesses teaming up with Web3 brands are essential. Binance has partnered with Christiano Ronaldo to create NFTs. Along the lines of sports, to provide a “blockchain-supported wallet solution”. Other major partnerships include , , and . FIFA has also partnered with Algorand Reddit—FTX Virtuozone—Binance Ripple—Travelex The Ethereum Merge Ethereum set the major stage for environmental sustainability in crypto by moving from the proof of work consensus mechanism to proof of stake. The move will drain its energy use by over 95% and potentially inspire other blockchains to make a similar move as well. The merge as it was dubbed didn’t save the market as many envisaged. Nature definitely has it to thank, saving it a great deal of decline. Starbucks One of the most profound moves into crypto by traditional brands is that of Starbucks. On the Polygon blockchain, Starbucks has launched its NFT as an extension of its loyalty program. Starbuck’s Odyssey as it’s called will offer stamps in form of NFTs that’ll give customers access to rewards and other immersive experiences. From its web app, users can purchase collectibles with no cryptocurrencies necessarily required. Shardeum Shardeum is a new blockchain that allows lower transactions per second through a linearly scalable blockchain. One of its most iconic perks is the low gas fees that it sustainably offers. It is fast and energy-efficient and permits Ethereum-built dApp. Conclusion The crypto world is extremely fast-evolving and every hour come with numerous headlines of news hard to comprehensively track or note. Adoption is speeding up and the industry keeps opening even despite the adverse market conditions. Blockchain and its extensions have definitely come to stay and so is the Web3 movement it has heralded. Also published . here

An Investor’s Guide to Crypto Bear Market in 2022

There are several reasons why the world is talking about retailers accepting Bitcoin in the first place. Firstly, there are millions of crypto holders worldwide with over . In some countries, the number of people who own crypto reach up to 25% of the population. Secondly, the transactions are fast and secure. Thirdly, the transactions are cheap. 42 million blockchain wallets But sending Bitcoin isn’t faster or particularly less costly compared to bank transactions, you might say – how this can ever work for retailers with thousands of transactions daily? You will be right, but here’s exactly where Bitcoin’s Lightning Network comes in. I won’t go into the details – there are several good materials explaining the technical layer of how it works – you can find it here and there. In several words, the Lightning Network enables users to generate secure off-chain channels and send payments in Bitcoin back and forth almost instantaneously, at almost zero cost. It enables vendors to accept Bitcoin as a payment method, without experiencing the inconvenience and potential drawbacks, while fully enjoying security of blockchain. This material is focused on those who already accept Bitcoin and looks into implementing the Lightning Network for day-to-day payments, and those who create solutions to make this happen. Who is already doing that? While the original Bitcoin raises a lot of questions in the context of retail payments, its Lightning Network seems to suit the needs of retailers perfectly. While the concept of Lightning was originally by Thaddeus Dryja and Joseph Poon in 2015, the talk of wide-scale adoption for retail purposes was out there only in 2018. described As we are about to enter 2020, we have already seen major use cases of retailers adopting Bitcoin payments: Swiss nationwide provider Worldline has just announced that 65,000 merchants in its clients network to accept Bitcoin in retail stores. will soon be able We have seen many announcements of a kind recently, including enabled Bitcoin payments in (we’ll touch upon that below). However, few of those are utilizing the Lightning Network. Not surprisingly – it took Bitcoin almost 10 years to make its way to some retail stores! So we probably should give Lightning some time and a chance to shine. Airbnb and Starbucks For now, Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network are mostly possible in many rather exotic crypto-specific locations, like - pizza ordering service enables customers to order pizza and pay for it with Bitcoin using Lightning Network – and Bitrefill – service that enables to buy pre-paid phone minutes with crypto. Lightning Pizza By the way, the latter that so far Bitcoin payments with lightning are more popular than any other crypto they accept. You can see the full directory of places that accept Bitcoin Lightning payments . stated here Meanwhile, there are several strong projects that are working on software and hardware solutions to enable those with a much wider network of retailers – both online and offline. Let’s take a look at who they are. Who is making this happen? Fold Founded in 2014, Fold was one of the earliest startups that enabled crypto payments. Originally, the app gave its users a tool to pay for their Starbucks coffee with Bitcoin and save 20%. With Fold, users can either spend fiat at retailers and get bitcoin rewards, or send Bitcoin to the Fold app and use it for any payments. Fold app supports integration with two lightning-friendly wallets: BlueWallet and Breeze. In September 2019 the startup $2,5 million from Fulgur Ventures among others – a VC specifically focused on the Lightning network – to develop and strengthen partnerships with retailers. raised GeniePay GeniePay is creating an ecosystem for both online and offline retailers that consists of a PoS terminal, e-wallet and online merchants payment system. The startup supports payments via the Lightning Network to enable businesses accept Bitcoin instantly and at a fraction of a cost. An NFC chip reader embedded in the terminal enables contactless payments at retail locations by communicating directly with GeniePay wallets. For the merchants the company offers stablecoin settlements and assured-value transactions to tackle the volatility issue that still remains a concern for many traditional retail businesses. Moon This startup is developing a for Google Chrome, Brave and Opera that will let you you pay for your Amazon purchases with BItcoin via Lightning Network. browser extension How it works: Moon automatically tops up your balance on Amazon account by converting your crypto and makes the payment directly from it as usual. The extension currently supports few test sites, but will soon let you pay with Bitcoin on eBay, AliExpress and Target. -- As more people around the world start to own crypto and recognize its benefits, they are looking for ways to spend it for goods and services. This puts the pressure on retailers to start accepting Bitcoin – the cryptocurrency with the highest market cap so far, over $127 billion (!) – to access this large pool of capital. Whether the Lightning Network will become the ultimate solution that will facilitate adoption of Bitcoin worldwide – only time will show, but it will certainly pave the way for many retailers in 2020.

Lightning fast: Bitcoin payments for retailers

The are a series of interviews featuring various important voices and perspectives in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Each interviewee was carefully selected and asked the same group of questions. The main goal was to provide the world with a collection of commentary and opinions on the state of the current Bitcoin and crypto market. Some of the names you will recognize while others don’t wish for the limelight but have great insight and experience we all can learn from. Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries These interviews are raw and unfiltered with no agenda other than giving each individual their opportunity to speak their mind. If you like what you see, please share with your friends. If something offends you, you should probably X out and find another crypto fluff piece that gives you warm fuzzies. Jeremy , formerly known as @SeasideCrypto , is a low key Bitcoiner who founded SeasideCrypto in Seaside, Oregon where people could go to purchase Bitcoin. The shop has since shut it’s doors, but Jeremy’s practical experience is a perfect example of the trials and tribulations of a Bitcoin entrepreneur. Jeremy is currently putting together the Portland Bitcoin Conference on May 19, 2019 and has an interesting story we can all learn from. Name Jeremy Country Seaside, Oregon, USA How do people know you? First as @SeasideCrypto, now as @________jeremy How long have you been into Bitcoin? First Contact: Early 2012 First Purchase: Early 2013 First Capitulation: Late 2013 First Payment Accepted: Early 2014 First Node: Late 2015 Started Seaside Crypto: Mid 2017 Best Bitcoin experience? There were several times people came to my shop and brought along a skeptic — usually a family member they couldn’t convince. I was able to help them frame their arguments differently, allowing them to talk to their loved one in a more productive way. Those were good experiences for me. Worst Bitcoin experience? Overextending myself with Seaside Crypto and hanging on too long when it obviously wasn’t attracting much attention locally. I don’t regret it, but I probably could have found a cheaper way to accomplish my goal of spreading awareness and education. What do you think is Bitcoin’s biggest threat? Climate change. What are your thoughts on the various Bitcoin forks? I never understood the logic. Bitcoin has always been about its network of users, and any fork is just a smaller, less secure network. I don’t understand the appeal. What are you optimistic about in this space? The ultimate destruction of surveillance-fascism. Biggest regret during the last Bull market? I actually feel like I handled the last bull fairly well. The one prior I royally screwed up. But you live and (hopefully) learn. What have you learned during the current bear market? To set aside the fear of my own technical incompetence and try to implement as many different types of software as possible, even if I make a mistake. And to tweet more openly and honestly about the challenges I face in that process, even if it makes me look dumb. What is the biggest fail you have seen during the bear market? My own arrogance regarding my ability to predict price movements. I try really hard not to do that anymore. What do you think helped trigger the current bear market? I honestly don’t know what that means. Is this a bear? Maybe it’s a bull if you change your perspective. Bitcoin is up over 30% since the beginning of the year. I’m not sure these labels offer any real insight. I have the feeling they are merely projections we use to reinforce our egos and satisfy our own inner narrative about what we hope will happen. What kind of damage do you think latest price drop has done to buyer sentiment? If a price drop like the one we’ve seen over the last year affected your sentiment, you aren’t really a buyer of Bitcoin. You’re a speculator dealing with just another financial instrument. I think there is a fundamental difference between the two. How do you feel about the current state and future of lightning network? I feel optimistic. The BOLTs are very clever and many intelligent and capable people are bringing their efforts to bear. There are a great number of challenges ahead, some we’ve only begun to discuss, but I think they’ll be solved in due time. What are your thoughts on HODLing Bitcoin? Identify a reasonable, terminal value for Bitcoin. I say we hit 2019 dollar / Satoshi parity before 2030. This is an aggressive position, but I have my reasons. But make your own determination. Once you’ve decided on a terminal value / timeframe, acquire the amount you’d like to have at that point and put it in a cold storage method of your choice. Then for good measure, do it again and put it in a different cold storage method. Repeat as desired. Once you’re satisfied with your level of redundancy, acquire more and spend it supporting interesting projects and people in the space. What are you thoughts on alt-coins? I’ve been interested in ‘digital money’ since the late 90’s. Back then I was in the Army, as a Legal Specialist for a Military Intelligence Battalion that investigated, among other things, a sort of proto-privacy coin called DMT that was being developed in Costa Rica by a team of expats, and I became fascinated by the subject. This experience gave me an advantage toward understanding the value of Bitcoin when I finally discovered it (although it still took an embarrassingly long time to ‘get it’). So I’ve followed with great interest a number of different projects over the course of the last 20 years. Before I understood Bitcoin as I do now I thought there might be some value in fostering an ecosystem of different coins. I now see them as irrelevant and inefficient. The point is to create a new money that actually works well for everyone. That’s Bitcoin. Everything else is a software project that doesn’t need its own money/token to work. Some of those projects may be really awesome, but they aren’t money. Do you hold any? If not, why? No. I did buy one ethereum when it first listed and tried to sync a geth node to experiment and see what the fuss was about, but I was unsuccessful and sold it back fairly quickly. What kind of impact do you think the radical drop in alt-coins will have on their future? I haven’t really given it much thought, but I imagine it would increase the pressure from early investors on the respective development teams, leading to a vicious cycle of unrealistic expectations and unmet demands resulting in the projects being abandoned. Few will survive beyond a hobbyist level of development. Thoughts on the notion of bitcoinization? 1) It’s inevitable. 2) It represents an existential crisis for the aristocracy. 3) It won’t be pretty, but if we survive it and don’t burn down the planet in the process, it will be regarded as a revolution along the same lines as the agricultural, industrial, and information revolutions. This will be the monetary revolution. What Bitcoin startups are you excited about? I’ll take a broad view of the term ‘Bitcoin startup’… 1) Blockstream 2) Square 3) Wasabi 4) Samourai 5) BTCPay Server 6) Twitter 7) Bisq 8) Lightning Labs 9) Tor Project 10) Zap Wallet 11) Hackernoon 12) Purism 13) GoTenna 14) Nodl 15) Cyphernode 16) Coinkite 17) Paralelní Polis 18) Betterhash 19) QubesOS 20) Cwtch 21) Infinite Fleet 22) DCentralTech 23) Trezor 24) Bitrefill What “crypto influencers” do you think get it wrong and why? See below. What “crypto influencers” do you think gets it right and why? I’ll take both of these together. Ignore these people and follow folks who build things instead. What’s it going to take for this bear market to turn around? I’m not sure and I don’t really care. It will happen when it happens and everyone will have a theory. How bullish are you on Bitcoin despite this recent pullback? My last doubt about Bitcoin vanished on August 1st, 2017. Any tips you want to give to people new to Bitcoin? Go sign up for an ‘Intro to Linux’ class at your local community college. Best tips for storing Bitcoin? Buy a cheap computer with cash from a pawn shop. Install Bitcoin Core. Send your Bitcoin to it. Unplug the computer. Wait 10 years. Name some of your favorite information sources and/or podcasts in the space. I have enjoyed (in no particular order) WorldCryptoNet, Block Digest, TFTC, Stephan Livera. I am sure many others are good too, but I prefer reading to podcasts, so I don’t listen to very many. Any last words of wisdom? There are far more Bitcoiners that are building the future than there are people who are trying to stop it from happening. Don’t let anyone fool you into believing otherwise. Don’t let idiots divide us, we are powerful and we will win a new world, a fair and free world. I look forward to seeing you all there! Stay tuned for the next Bear Market Bitcoin Diaries. You can find more volumes and articles here!

Bitcoin Bear Market Diary Volume 20 with Jeremy

The are a series of interviews featuring various important voices and perspectives in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Each interviewee was carefully selected and asked the same group of questions. The main goal was to provide the world with a collection of commentary and opinions on the state of the current Bitcoin and crypto market. Some of the names you will recognize while others don’t wish for the limelight but have great insight and experience we all can learn from. Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries These interviews are raw and unfiltered with no agenda other than giving each individual their opportunity to speak their mind. If you like what you see, please share with your friends. If something offends you, you should probably X out and find another crypto fluff piece that gives you warm fuzzies. If you don’t know who Max Keiser or at least heard his name before, you really need to get out more. Max has been into Bitcoin since 2011 when it was $1 and has been making bold market predictions since. Max is also co-founder of Heisenberg Capital one of the first crypto VC funds and has invested in companies like Kraken, ₿itstamp, Shapeshift, Bitfinex, Bitso, BitPesa, BitPay, CasaHODL, Unocoin, Uphold, Minds, BitRefill, ABRA, Kim and the list goes on. Name Max Keiser Country Various How do people know you? Keiser Report How long have you been into Bitcoin? 2011 ($1) Best Bitcoin experience? Satoshi Roundtable Worst Bitcoin experience? Craig Wright What do you think is Bitcoin’s biggest threat? Bitcoin has no known predators. It is the ultimate apex predator. All fiat money will die. What are your thoughts on the various Bitcoin forks? Imposters. What are you optimistic about in this space? Banks, and central banks, will continue failing. As they crumble, Bitcoin will engulf the global economy. Jack Dorsey, Bitcoin maximalist, is a huge positive. Biggest regret during the last Bull market? Not writing a book. What have you learned during the current bear market? Never too late to write a book. What is the biggest fail you have seen during the bear market? BitTorrent. What do you think helped trigger the current bear market? CNBC. What kind of damage do you think latest price drop has done to buyer sentiment? None. When prices start going up, they’ll all be back, and many more. How do you feel about the current state and future of lightning network? It’s the future. CryptoSprings in Palm Springs last fall, helped launch Lighting in a big way. Crypto Springs is back again this year. It’s the most important event of the year, IMO. Elizabeth Stark and Jack Dorsey will blow people’s minds this year. What are your thoughts on HODLing Bitcoin? It’s the number-1 use case. What are you thoughts on alt-coins? I don’t spend much time thinking alt-coins. Do you hold any? If not, why? Nope. Waste of time. What kind of impact do you think the radical drop in alt-coins will have on their future? None. Thoughts on the notion of bitcoinization? It’s coming. What Bitcoin startups are you excited about? Our VC fund, Heisbenberg Capital was, I think, the very first VC fund in this space, (making investments in BTC startups at about the same time as Roger Ver). We are very excited about our investment in Kraken, a massive Unicorn. We just invested in CASAhodl recently. We’ll be making an investment in BitRefill very soon. And Samson Mow’s “Infinite Fleet.” We are focusing on Lighting right now and have talked to a few startups in that space that we’ll be funding. What “crypto influencers” do you think get it wrong and why? Crypto influencers very quickly become boiler rooms. Keep your head up, or you’ll get REKT. What “crypto influencers” do you think get it right and why? He keeps it real. @cryptoblood. What’s it going to take for this Bear market to turn around? It bottomed when the Fed signaled ‘Infinite QE’ recently at around $3,300 BTC. Global Central Banking is about to go bust. How bullish are you on Bitcoin despite this recent pullback? My position from 2011, when I recommended BTC at $1 has not changed, and has never varied. The price is going to $100,000. We’re still on track for that. Any tips you want to give to people new to Bitcoin? Read the white paper. Study it. It has 90% of everything you need to know, with one caveat. Replace the word ‘cash’ with ‘Gold.’ It’s clear to anyone who knows anything about the history of cypherpunks, or who has read Satoshi’s writings and chat logs, that Bitcoin is meant to be digital Gold, not digital fiat. This is where I differ from Roger Ver. I believe he fundamentally misreads the White Paper and after a few years now, we see my position on this is winning in the market. Not to take anything away from Roger. He’s a pioneer and has probably got as many people interested in Bitcoin as Keiser Report has. Side note: We think we’ve created more than 300,000 or so Bitcoin millionaires around the world who have been watching our show starting when BTC was $1. Best tips for storing Bitcoin? CASAhold/ Trezor Name some of your favorite information sources and/or podcasts in the space. There are two sources of info that are best in class and worthwhile: Jameson Lopp and Trace Meyer. Any last words of wisdom? If you’re not prepared to hold for 10 years or more, you’re gambling, not investing. Stay tuned for the next Bear Market Bitcoin Diaries. You can find more volumes and articles here!

Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 19 Max Keiser

The are a series of interviews featuring various important voices and perspectives in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Each interviewee was carefully selected and asked the same group of questions. The main goal was to provide the world with a collection of commentary and opinions on the state of the current Bitcoin and crypto market. Some of the names you will recognize while others don’t wish for the limelight but have great insight and experience we all can learn from. Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries These interviews are raw and unfiltered with no agenda other than giving each individual their opportunity to speak their mind. If you like what you see, please share with your friends. If something offends you, you should probably X out and find another crypto fluff piece that gives you warm fuzzies. Tuur Demeester is an economist and investor with a background in Austrian economics. He is also founding partner of Adamant Capital and has written in depth market research reports for years. Name: Tuur Demeester United States Country: How do people know you? People usually know me from my tweetstorms, or from my Bitcoin focused research reports. How long have you been into Bitcoin? I first learned about Bitcoin in Buenos Aires in 2011. Started recommending it to my financial newsletter subscribers at close to $5 in early 2012. Best Bitcoin experience? To me, the best thing about Bitcoin is the friends you make along the way. Nothing beats unexpectedly meeting an old friend on a Bitcoin conference in a faraway place. Worst Bitcoin experience? The worst experiences for me have been when I found out that particular people I thought were trustworthy eventually proved themselves not to be. Also, at times I’ve gotten caught up in the mass psychology of the crowd, who usually is wrong. I give myself a hard time afterwards when that happens, and work to figure out why I gave up my independent perspective. What do you think is Bitcoin’s biggest threat? Complacency. If Bitcoin users as a whole stop caring about decentralization, privacy, protocol robustness, then over time significant vulnerabilities will start building in the ecosystem. What are your thoughts on the various Bitcoin forks? I think they are very healthy for the ecosystem, and if you count all the altcoins that were forked off of Bitcoin, then we’ve had over 1,000 forks so far. Bitcoin forks show people that they are always free to leave if they don’t agree, and do things their own way. There is zero coercion here, zero barriers to entry or exit. Of course it’s painful when people not only want to leave but actively try to attack and boycott the Bitcoin blockchain, but in the long run these attacks are to be expected and only help improve the ecosystem’s immune system. What are you optimistic about in this space? After being a decade in production, the technology is robust and we have a solid basis to scale out this platform in a modular way. Bitcoin has some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. Biggest regret during the last bull market? Starting too soon with selling. I have a conservative bias, which sometimes makes it hard to grasp the dynamics and full potential range of a market mania. What have you learned during the current bear market? Patience and a level of detachment is healthy and necessary. Psychological planning for bear cycles pays off great dividends. I’ve learned a lot more about Bitcoin Valuation (here’s our ). write-up on that topic What is the biggest fail you have seen during the bear market? Around the $6,000 level last summer, we felt there was still too much optimism and hope in the market compared to the very weak demand. We put out an opinion piece at the time to warn for lower prices in the second half of the year. What do you think helped trigger the current bear market? The seeds of Bear markets are sown in the Bull phase, no different here. Around the summer of 2017 we entered a phase of absolute exuberance with great retail participation. It , with lots of information asymmetry, skewed incentives, low transparency, and a plethora of low quality assets. was a true lemon market What kind of damage do you think latest price drop has done to buyer sentiment? We think we’re currently in the capitulation phase. Sentiment among retail is very pessimistic to even apathetic. Many people bought “crypto” as a basket and feel cheated now that so many ICOs seem to be going nowhere — a throwback to the dotcom crash. On the other hand, high net worth individuals and value oriented institutions are now accumulating. How do you feel about the current state and future of lightning network? The current state of Lightning is very experimental, with a lot of bugs and currently with relatively high failure rates. But it appears to me that the fundamental architecture is sound. I come to that conclusion because since the ideas were first presented years ago, I haven’t has seen it conceptually falsified, i.e. I haven’t seen convincing, in depth arguments about why a payment channel layer on Bitcoin couldn’t work or why it couldn’t scale. It’s also encouraging that there are different, extensively tested Lightning implementations whose transactions are compatible with each other. What are your thoughts on HODLing Bitcoin? The only way to understand Bitcoin is through HODLing. It’s like how the only way to really understand a smart phone is to switch it on and use it. Bitcoin is digital gold, which naturally invites the investor to hold it for the long term as a store of value. What are your thoughts on alt-coins? I think it’s important that there exist alternatives to Bitcoin, though I think the altcoin ecosystem is quite complex and often misunderstood. The existence of altcoins prove the case that we’re really dealing with a free market in startup currencies now. I think Bitcoin will eventually have a market dominance of 80–90%, which leaves quite a bit of room for alternative coins to carve out a niche. Do you hold any? If not, why? My long term play on altcoins was my Kraken equity investment in 2014 (a crypto exchange), which was a way to get exposure to the whole market. I thought Kraken would do well if at some point retail investors became interested in altcoins, and they did, and it did. I currently hold some Litecoin, and have exposure to Chia Network. Litecoin is a retail darling (though hated in bear markets) that’s been around for over 6 years, and often seen as a hedge against Bitcoin. I hope the coin doesn’t experiment with new features, as I think its appeal is exactly the fact that with exception of its mining algorithm it’s near identical to BTC and thus can systematically import all the battle tested code by the Bitcoin core developers. I like coins that are in close conceptual proximity to Bitcoin, because I think proof-of-work with inflation control is what Satoshi’s big breakthrough was all about. I’m not convinced that proof-of-stake can properly secure a decentralized cryptocurrency protocol. What kind of impact do you think the radical drop in alt-coins will have on their future? I expect that many of them, probably over 90%, will become comatose over the next five years. Many people weren’t around then, but in 2013 there also was an altcoin boom. At the time investors thought that national coins would become a thing, and started pumping things like “Spaincoin” and “The Dutch Guilder”. But during the ensuing 2014-’15 bear market, a huge amount of those original altcoins flatlined, meaning that miners, traders, and node operators collectively gave up on them in favor of other altcoins or Bitcoin. Check out to get an idea. https://deadcoins.com Thoughts on the notion of bitcoinization? I agree with Daniel Krawisz’ original definition, that hyperbitcoinization is “Bitcoin induced demonetization”. I think if Bitcoin can retain its properties of decentralization, censorship resistance and inflation control, it has a good shot at inducing bitcoinization around the world in the next several decades. What Bitcoin startups are you excited about? I like many startups in the space, the pace of innovation is quite staggering. To name a few names: Blockstream, Kraken, Trezor, Unchained Capital, Casa, Bitrefill, Zap, Lightning Labs, HodlHodl. What “crypto influencers” do you think get it wrong and why? I often have quarrels with Vitalik Buterin, usually because I disagree with a premise behind his arguments. What “crypto influencer” do you think get it right and why? In my experience, work and integrity have compounding effects over time. When I hear people like Adam Back, Pieter Wuille, Gregory Maxwell, Andrew Poelstra, Bryan Bishop, or Tamas Blummer sharing an opinion or making an argument, I always take a moment to pause and listen. What’s it going to take for this bear market to turn around? Enough accumulation by value investors will lead to rising prices, which will eventually catch the attention of the retail public. How bullish are you on Bitcoin despite this recent pullback. I’m incredibly bullish on Bitcoin. It’s the perfect storm. We have bottom-up second layer scaling happening via Lightning, a new generation of hardware wallets, satellite and mesh nodes. And we have top-down financialization of Bitcoin happening via institutional custody solutions, the Liquid Sidechain network, lending startups, Bitcoin securitization, Bitcoin insurance, and more. Any tips you want to give to people new to Bitcoin? It’s hard to give out general tips, but I think the credo “don’t trust, verify” has served me well so far. Best tips for storing Bitcoin? I’d say google “multi sig wallet” and buy a Trezor hardware wallet. Try to be thorough in your research but avoid making things too complex. It’s very likely that most coins so far have been lost simply by people forgetting their passwords. Name some of your favorite information sources and/or podcasts in the space. To me Twitter works great as a big aggregators of information, so I follow individuals there and see what they link to. For some reason I don’t consume a lot of crypto podcasts for the moment — I think it’s that I’m immersed in Bitcoin all day already, so I prefer to use podcasts and audiobooks to broaden my horizon beyond Bitcoin. Any last words of wisdom? I’ll just repeat my pinned tweet here: “Bitcoin is digital gold in the eyes of a growing subset of the population. To some extent this group already operates on a Bitcoin Standard: investments are evaluated on their ability to yield a return in Bitcoin.” Stay tuned for the next Bear Market Bitcoin Diaries. You can find more volumes and articles here!

Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 11 Tuur Demeester

The Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries are a series of interviews featuring various important voices and perspectives in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Each interviewee was carefully selected and asked the same group of questions. The main goal was to provide the world with a collection of commentary and opinions on the state of the current Bitcoin and crypto market. Some of the names you will recognize while others don’t wish for the limelight but have great insight and experience we all can learn from. These interviews are raw and unfiltered with no agenda other than giving each individual their opportunity to speak their mind. If you like what you see, please share with your friends. If something offends you, you should probably X out and find another crypto fluff piece that gives you warm fuzzies. John Carvalho or @BitcoinErrorLog is an outspoken OG Bitcoiner who once debated Roger Ver in the notorious middle-finger video where Roger melts down and rage quits the debate. John has an interesting perspective and is never shy about voicing his opinions. Name John Carvalho Country Portuguese American living in Romania, working for a company in Sweden How do people know you? Depends when you got here, I suppose. Some know me from Whale Club, some from Twitter, some from my video interview with Roger Ver, some from my work on Xotika or Bitrefill and some from Bitcoin Meetups I host, etc. How long have you been into Bitcoin? 74 long months that went by really quickly. Best Bitcoin experience? I have a lot to choose from, but I guess I have to say the days (and memes) following the infamous Roger Ver middle-finger interview. Lately I really feel good when people privately thank me for helping or defending Bitcoin. I’m also inspired every work day by all of potential I see while working with Bitrefill. Worst Bitcoin experience? I have a lot to choose from, but I guess I’d say when I traded full-time. That shit will kill you, whether you are profiting or losing. Dear readers, stop trading, start providing more than liquidity. What do you think is Bitcoin’s biggest threat? Probably buggy code. I know it’s not a popular sentiment, but we really should be treating every code “upgrade” as an attack on Bitcoin and be more careful with updating to the latest software available, even when it comes from reputable developers. What are your thoughts on the various Bitcoin forks? They are all people scamming others or scamming themselves. Purely. It was a cute iteration of older scams like pre-mines and centralized altcoins, but in the end, they are just market-distorting distractions. Maybe hard forks will become interesting if someone can design a way to migrate a whole network of value programmatically. What are you optimistic about in this space? Bitcoin’s power to correct all behavior that is inefficient in its regard. It might seem like I spend a lot of time defending it, or “worrying” about Bitcoin stuff, but I really do take comfort in seeing things eventually unfold as they should under the incentive design. It’s a real phenomenon. Biggest regret during the last bull market? Living off of Bitcoin instead of earning it. What have you learned during the current bear market? To trust my experience with the previous cycles. To focus on my career and ignore the price. My new view is that Bitcoin is always worth its all-time-high price. You just have to be financially secure enough to wait for it. What is the biggest fail you have seen during the bear market? Traders trading, particularly those that got attached to picking bottoms on altcoins. What do you think helped trigger the current bear market? The inefficiency of information propagation. I could be more specific and say things like “ICOs investing in ICOs” or “greed”, but mostly it comes from ignorance, I think. What kind of damage do you think latest price drop has done to buyer sentiment? The same as it always does. People are the most interested in buying at the top, and the most interested in selling at the bottom. Really it’s just a cycle and people should have better strategies than trying to pick tops and bottoms. The damage hits people the hardest when they are overexposed. How do you feel about the current state and future of lightning network? I am super excited about it, truly. Working on Bitrefill.com and seeing what we have planned really makes me stoked about the coming years. The people dismissing it and biding their time to integrate will probably regret it. People are severely underestimating what the LN can facilitate, and I intend to take part of demonstrating examples of what is possible. What are your thoughts on HODLing Bitcoin? It’s the best way to save on the planet, but you do have to live your life and that does mean earening & spending value as appropriate. Ask not what Bitcoin can do for you, ask what you can do for Bitcoin. What are you thoughts on alt-coins? The best I can say about them is they are at least a better way to gamble than most options in a casino. The worst I can say is they are total distraction and delaying the world from access to sound money by wasting billions in resources and gambling losses. Do you hold any? If not, why? No. I prefer to add value to the world, not to spend my time pressing my luck. What kind of impact do you think the radical drop in alt-coins will have on their future? I think each Bitcoin bull market will make it harder and harder to pick winners, and that people will eventually associate altcoining similarly to gambling. Thoughts on the notion of bitcoinization? I think I’ll probably be dead before Bitcoin has any chance of being the primary money of the world, but that it’s still a sound theory to ride. What Bitcoin startups are you excited about? Bitrefill, of course. I’ve never been more excited about a Bitcoin company than this one. I really hope I get to see all of our crazy ideas come to life. What “crypto influencers” do you think get it wrong and why? They all do sometimes. As humans we get overconfident or lazy sometimes. I make an effort to keep my chops up in various ways, but it is hard to keep up with all of the facets of Bitcoin. All we can do is try to zoom out and be humble as best we can. The ones that lack humility, morality, etc, they end up stuck with shitty tribes and losing their signal amplification where it counts. What “crypto influencer” do you think gets it right and why? I can’t think of any single one that I’d point you to without a disclaimer. I’m more interested in current events and trends and topics than any specific people. What’s important or interesting emerges if you curate your inputs well. What’s it going to take for this bear market to turn around? Time. I’d say capitulation, but I’m not so sure we’ll get that in any obvious way this time. How bullish are you on Bitcoin despite this recent pullback. I think Bitcoin is always worth at least its all-time-high price. So I guess going from $3000 to $20000 makes me pretty bullish! Any tips you want to give to people new to Bitcoin? Be skeptical of everyone, and don’t fancy yourself a trader unless you already were one before you came to Bitcoin. Best tips for storing Bitcoin? Be a moving target. Don’t be lazy. Double check your backup methods. Name some of your favorite information sources and/or podcasts in the space. My current favorite is What Bitcoin Did by Peter McCormack. I love that he is a former noob and going through all the conflicts of becoming a Bitcoin OG while surrounded by Shitcoiners. Any last words of wisdom? Get a job in the Bitcoin world. You’ll love it and it’ll set you up really well for the new paradigm. Stay tuned for the next Bear Market Bitcoin Diaries. You can find more volumes and articles here!

Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 5 John Carvalho

The are a series of interviews featuring various important voices and perspectives in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Each interviewee was carefully selected and asked the same group of questions. The main goal was to provide the world with a collection of commentary and opinions on the state of the current Bitcoin and crypto market. Some of the names you will recognize while others don’t wish for the limelight but have great insight and experience we all can learn from. Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries These interviews are raw and unfiltered with no agenda other than giving each individual their opportunity to speak their mind. If you like what you see, please share with your friends. If something offends you, you should probably X out and find another crypto fluff piece that gives you warm fuzzies. Matt Odell is a tried and true Bitcoiner and has been in the game since 2013. Most people know him as CoHost of the Rabbit Hole Recap on the Tales from the Crypt podcast. Matt is one of those guys with a wealth of practical Bitcoin knowledge and experience that everyone can learn from. Name Matt Odell Country USA How do people know you? Horrible opsec. How long have you been into Bitcoin? Discovered it in 2012 — thought it could never work. Realized I was wrong in 2013 — never looked back. Best Bitcoin experience? Bitcoiners are awesome. Worst Bitcoin experience? I should have bought more. What do you think is Bitcoin’s biggest threat? The US government, but I’m growing increasingly convinced they don’t have the willpower or awareness to take Bitcoin down. Every day they don’t it becomes much more difficult. The only two other governments that could reasonably have a shot at fatally crippling Bitcoin are China and Russia and both seem to have more to gain by letting it play out. It would be hard to effectively enforce anything without global collaboration which seems increasingly unlikely. Also a massive solar flare would be pretty bad, but the traditional financial system would get rekt as well. What are your thoughts on the various Bitcoin forks? Generally speaking, forks without a premine that maintain the most recent bitcoin utxo set are a good thing. People shouldn’t be afraid of forks. They are a key aspect of bitcoin’s ability to upgrade through rough consensus and game theory. In general, chains that use bitcoin’s current utxo set should be encouraged. They are a net benefit for bitcoin holders who have the option whether to sell or hold either chain. The only reason it isn’t more common is because devs can make a lot more money starting with a fresh chain and/or premine. Once a fork occurs, the market (users) will dictate which chain has more value to them. This process could last days or weeks; shorter if there are liquid futures markets ahead of time, but once a month or two have passed, it will become absolutely clear which chain is the dominant one. The incumbent chain is heavily favored in these situations since bitcoin is extremely resistant to change by design — a feature not a bug. If it were easy to change, then attack vectors could be introduced by malicious or inept actors easily, jeopardizing the whole system. Failed minority forks — including bch, bchsv, btg — will trend to zero over time because they will always be at risk of having a new fork of the dominant chain poach their market positioning. For example, a new fork of bitcoin with a larger block size/weight would probably be valued higher than Bitcoin Cash. What are you optimistic about in this space? Lightning is progressing way faster than I expected. More user friendly privacy tools such as Wasabi Wallet and soon Whirlpool by the Samourai team. Schnorr in 2020. More user friendly non-custodial multisig options coming to the market. Hardware nodes and the ability to easily connect them to your hardware wallets and phone will lead to many more full node operators over the next few years. Bitcoin “cash back” rewards from Lolli, Square, and others will introduce millions of new users to bitcoin. Next time the Mayer Multiple is over 4 I’m taking some profits and buying a ranch with a dope podcast studio. Biggest regret during the last Bull market? The same narratives are going to play out every cycle with some new ones mixed in. Think mining death spiral, fees are too low so a tail emission will be needed, bitcoin is tulips, halving is priced in, etc. On a more positive note, bear markets are the best time to focus and learn more about bitcoin. I have doubled down on my efforts to help others, as well as diving head first into lightning. What have you learned during the current bear market? What is the biggest fail you have seen during the bear market? Pham and the whole SV crew. They’ve lost the plot. What do you think helped trigger the current bear market? It’s just bitcoin being bitcoin. The first truly scarce asset the world has ever seen going through its adoption phase results in boom and bust cycles. The price should trend up over time and volatility should trend down as adoption — and therefore liquidity — increases. What kind of damage do you think latest price drop has done to buyer sentiment? We have a new class of hardened bitcoiners ready to drive bitcoin into the next bull cycle. Human psychology is fascinating, few come in at bottoms, most come in during bull run euphoria near the top, lose a bunch of money, and then sell for major losses. The few that stick around prep the next cycle with existing bitcoiners through the halving. And it repeats. How do you feel about the current state and future of lightning network? It has beaten all my expectations so far. I am incredibly impressed by the work of the community and more optimistic than I have ever been. What are your thoughts on HODLing Bitcoin? Most people suck at trading. 95% of people are better off dollar cost averaging with money they are comfortable losing — money they can live without if the worst case scenarios happen. Otherwise it’s easy to get sucked into fomo buying and panic selling. HODL comes with the added benefit of not relying on trusted third parties, storing bitcoin on exchanges is a risk traders take on but hodlers can avoid. Last but not least, when you need bitcoin it may be hard to obtain — especially at a reasonable price. I think if someone truly understands the value prop of bitcoin, they would never go full fiat, even in a bear market. What are you thoughts on alt-coins? Altcoins aren’t a threat to bitcoin — they are a threat to uneducated users who choose to speculate on them and end up losing their shirts. Alts are essentially a free market bug bounty program. The best ideas will be merged into bitcoin. The failed ideas will be ignored with real world examples showing why. Do you hold any? If not, why? There’s nothing wrong with trading alts for more bitcoin. Alt-coin traders who measure their profits in bitcoin, are bitcoiners in the truest sense of the word. That said, shilling alts to the general public through the use of false claims, promises, and straight up lies is extremely unethical. The overwhelming majority of people are better off focusing on stacking sats than trading alts. Altcoin markets are brutal. What kind of impact do you think the radical drop in alt coins will have on their future. Alts aren’t going anywhere. There’s too much incentive to keep creating new chains. Most alts will trend to zero in bitcoin terms long term, some will survive longer than others, new ones will be created, and the cycle continues. There will be many different cryptocurrencies & tokens in our future, but most will fail due to intense competition. Just look at the top 10 list from last cycle, it looked completely different than this cycle. Bitcoin will back the whole system as a reserve currency / store of value / immutable ledger. Its chain the most secure with trust minimized swaps connecting it all. Altchains will effectively become unpegged side chains with a utility token. Thoughts on the notion of bitcoinization? There are few things more powerful than free speech and sound money. What Bitcoin startups are you excited about? ZkSnacks, Samourai, Nodl, Casa, Unchained Cap, Lolli, Lightning Labs, ACINQ, Blockstream, OpenNode, Trezor, Coinkite, Zap, Joule, Bitrefill, Koala Studios, Bisq, GoTenna. Special mention to Square, although no longer a startup, their bitcoin push is a big deal. What “crypto influencers” do you think get it wrong and why? 90%. Some are legitimately confused, but there’s a special place in hell for the ones who know what they are doing and intentionally mislead their followers. Too many to list so I’ll just stick to three: Emin, Rhett, Tiffany Hayden. What “crypto influencers” do you think get it right and why? Nobody is perfect, myself included, but if you follow me on twitter, it should become pretty obvious who has earned my respect. Also the term “crypto influencer” should die. What’s it going to take for this bear market to turn around? Time. This is the most bullish bear market there has ever been. How bullish are you on Bitcoin despite this recent pullback. Any tips you want to give to people new to Bitcoin? This community is extremely welcoming and many of us are happy to help. Stay humble and don’t overextend yourself. Always be skeptical. You have to look out for yourself or you will get burned. I have a twitter thread for newcomers . here Best tips for storing Bitcoin? Not your keys, not your coins. Use multiple methods. Keep it simple, yet creative. Adapt your setup to your needs. Start with a hardware wallet from trezor, ledger, or coldcard, get comfortable storing and interacting with your own keys, then graduate to cold storage for the majority of your funds. A solid guide for cold storage is . here Name some of your favorite information sources and/or podcasts in the space. Twitter can be extremely useful. The hard part is learning how to cut out useless noise. I make sure to listen to every episode of these podcasts: Noded Podcast, Stephan Livera Podcast, Block Digest, Reckless Review. I listen to most episodes of these podcasts: What Bitcoin Did, Crypto Voices. Some solid websites: bitcoin.page, theblockcrypto.com, bitcoinmagazine.com, coinmetrics.io bitcoinacks.com, onchainfx.com, oxt.me, blockstream.info, fork.lol, mempool.space, jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,30d, coin.dance, 1ml.com. , Some sites you should avoid: bitcoin.com, ccn.com, bitcoinist.com, newsbtc.com, blockchain.com Any last words of wisdom? Stay humble. Stack Sats. Stay tuned for the next Bear Market Bitcoin Diaries. You can find more volumes and articles here!

Bitcoin Bear Market Diaries Volume 18 with Matt Odell

Most people know Matt Odell from the podcast he co-hosts with Marty Bent. He is also cofounder of , and an advisor for and . For more background and history on the Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries check out Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries Volume 1 Interview with Hodlonaut . Tales From the Crypt Final Message Bitcoin Citadel Bottlepay givebitcoin I met Matt over the last year and really appreciate his Bitcoin perspective and his authentic personality. He may not have invented the saying, "Stay humble. Stack sats," - but I give him credit for making it commonly used saying among Bitcoiners. Name Matt Odell Country USA How do people know you? Destroyed my Op-Sec on Twitter and then I doubled down by hosting a podcast with Marty Bent. You may have read my , my views have not changed much so make sure you check that one out too. previous interview in the bear market version of this series How long have you been into Bitcoin? ~360000 blocks Best Bitcoin experience? Bitcoiners are awesome. Worst Bitcoin experience? Didn't buy enough. How did you get involved in the Tales From the Crypt podcast? Marty seduced me on twitter and after a couple of weeks finally got me to come on the show as a guest. The episode went great, we hit it off, and quickly became friends. When he later approached me to join him for a weekly news show, I said yes immediately. What do you think is Bitcoin's biggest threat? . Specifically the US Gov. Expect laws that require routine disclosure of bitcoin holdings and moves to restrict self custody altogether. Governments What are your thoughts on the various Bitcoin forks? . Minority forks tend to zero What are you optimistic about in this space? Btcpayserver, bisq, lightning, hardware nodes, hardware wallets, multisig tools, and using all of those in combination easily. Biggest regret during the last Bear market and what did you learn? . We will see the same narratives play out every bear market. No regrets What is the biggest fail you observed during the last bear market? Generally speaking, insecure shitcoiners attacking bitcoiners as their bags continue to lose value when measured in bitcoin. Specific instance, Fred Wilson straight up lying about Kin usage. What do you think help turn things around to the current Bull market? Millions of bitcoiners stacking sats and the builders who have made it easier than ever. Who are the heroes of the last Bear market? Too many to list. I love you all. Why do you think alt-coins are still struggling? The key value prop has always been censorship resistance, specifically State resistance, but most altcoins failed to prioritize that. They often prefer vanity metrics that can pump the price short term which results in their networks getting more centralized rather than less. Bitcoin is still too centralized in my opinion, but it's by far the most distributed and censorship resistant network in the space – it's not even close. Everything ultimately trends to zero when priced in bitcoin. What do you have to say to those who claim alt-season is coming? Lol altseason isn't a real thing, the 2017 pump was unprecedented and fueled by dumb money after the eth pump. Do you hold any alts? If not, why? Holding alts isn't diversification, it's high risk leverage. Trading is brutal. The overwhelming majority of people are better off stacking sats than trading. Long term everything tends to zero when priced in bitcoin. What do you think about the upcoming Bitcoin halving and what it will do to the price of Bitcoin? It's not priced in. We heard the same thing before the last halving. Halvings are a strange beast, they are the first time in history where there is a known supply shock. Usually supply shocks are a surprise, hence the name shock, but with bitcoin that's not the case. That said, even though it is known ahead of time, people aren't capable of fully appreciating how much that reduced supply will impact price. Most miners are professionals who have to sell their earned bitcoin to pay for their expenses – electricity, rent, labor, taxes, etc – that selling pressure will be reduced by half while buying pressure will continue to increase with adoption. TL;DR Number go up. What do you think makes Bitcoin superior to anything else out there? Bitcoin is a new type of money that is digital and independent of world governments or corporations. It is hard to seize, block, or inflate and easy to send around the world. It is the best money we have ever had. . As more people realize this, the price should rise Do you think central banks are or will be accumulating Bitcoin? Yes. It's the only smart move. Smaller countries - especially those that are sanctioned - will be the first movers. Some may have already started but it is in their best interest not to admit it until they have accumulated a substantial amount. How do you feel about the current state and future of lightning network? Bullish. Huge improvements in usability over the last year and we should see even bigger improvements over the next few years. Next step, make it easy enough for grandma to use. What are your thoughts on HODLing Bitcoin? Slow and steady constant accumulation is the most conservative investment move you can make when it comes to bitcoin. Short term bitcoin is highly volatile, but long term the price should rise with adoption. Dollar cost averaging with money you are willing to lose – stacking sats – allows you to average out that short term volatility while gaining exposure to the long term upside. Trading is brutal and most people will lose more money than if they had avoided it in the first place. If you started stacking sats at any time in bitcoin history you would be in profit right now. You can check the numbers yourself at stackingsats.com. What are your thoughts on Bitcoin Maximalism? Bitcoin maximalism is a straw man argument created by Vitalik to sell his token ICO. “The only reason you don't like ethereum is because it's not bitcoin.” Thoughts on the notion of bitcoinization? Gradually, then suddenly. There are few things more powerful than free speech and sound money. Where do you think Bitcoin dominance will do as the price increases? Bitcoin dominance is a flawed metric and we shouldn't focus on it. It is extremely easy to inflate market caps of altchains through large supplies and low wash traded volumes. What will someone have to do to prove they are the real Satoshi Nakamoto? Anyone who claims they are Satoshi should first prove ownership of early keys, either through a signed message or by moving them. If they don't do that then you can safely ignore their claims, it is a waste of time. That said, doing that alone would still not be definitive proof, other supplemental evidence would need to be presented if a credible claim is ever made. I would prefer if Satoshi remains anonymous and I expect that to be the case. He/she/they pulled off an extremely impressive level of opsec over the last 10 years so I find it hard to believe Satoshi would throw that all away now. What Bitcoin startups are you excited about? ZkSnacks, Samourai, Nodl, Casa, Unchained Cap, Zap, Lightning Labs, ACINQ, Blockstream, OpenNode, Coinkite, Trezor, Ledger, Zap, Joule, Bitrefill, Satoshi Games, GoTenna, HodlHodl, Bitmex, Chaincode, Kraken, Bottlepay, Breez, Bittr, BullBitcoin, Foldapp, Lolli. Special mention to Square, although no longer a startup, their bitcoin push is a big deal. Another special mention to the teams at btcpayserver and bisq, they aren't companies but are arguably more important projects than any of the companies I listed above. What “crypto influencers” do you think get it wrong and why? 90%. Some are legitimately confused, but there’s a special place in hell for the ones who know what they are doing and intentionally mislead their followers. Here's a list of people who have blocked me on twitter after I called them out on their bullshit: Vinny Lingham, Kyle Samani, Preethi Kasireddy, Tiffany Hayden, Ari Paul, Emin Gun Sirer, Erim Finman, Bitfinexed, George Kikvadze, Nouriel Roubini. What “crypto influencers” do you think get it right and why? This is a pretty good place to start: https://hive.one/bitcoin/ Nobody is perfect, myself included, but if you follow me on twitter, it should become pretty obvious who has earned my respect. Also the term “crypto influencer” should die. Where do you envision the market heading in the next 5 years? Moon. Just not sure which one. What is Bitcoin Citadel and Final Message, and where do you see them going? is an educational effort that I started with Evan Kaloudis, Joshua Stokes, and a handful of other NYC bitcoiners with the goal of running bitcoin focused workshops. It is not being run for profit but rather is our way to give back to the community. The first workshop is tomorrow and we are very excited. Bitcoin Citadel is a privacy focused dead man's switch service that is ideal for use with multisig and shamir secret schemes but can be used for any text based delivery need. When you stop renewing your subscription your encrypted message is automatically sent to your desired recipients. We have plans to improve upon our base design with additional features and delivery options. Final Message Best tips for storing Bitcoin? Buy a coldcard. Consider using it with multisig. There's at least two user friendly multisig tools in development currently: Junction and Spectre. If you haven't already moved to multisig I would wait a month or two for them to be tested and released fully. They will make it much easier than the current standard process using electrum. Any tips you want to give to people new to Bitcoin? This community is extremely welcoming and many of us are happy to help. Stay humble and don’t overextend yourself. You have to look out for yourself or you will get burned. Name some of your favorite information sources and/or podcasts in the space. Twitter can be extremely useful. The hard part is learning how to cut out useless noise. Publications: Bitcoin Magazine Newsletters: Marty's Bent, Coinmetrics, Bitcoin Optech Podcasts: TFTC, Stephan Livera, Noded, Block Digest, What Bitcoin Did Resources: bitcoin.page, coinmetrics.io, bitcoinacks.com, onchainfx.com, oxt.me, blockstream.info, fork.lol, mempool.space, jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,30d, coin.dance, 1ml.com, bitcoin-only.com Sites you should avoid: bitcoin.com, ccn.com, bitcoinist.com, newsbtc.com, blockchain.com Any last words of wisdom? Stay humble. Stack sats. Stay tuned for the next Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries. I have some awesome interviews in the queue and will be dropping new volumes regularly. Special thanks to Matt Odell and all of our fellow Taco Carnivore Bitcoin Plebs out there!

Bitcoin Bull Market Diaries Volume 5 Interview with Matt Odell

Caption: Chaintimes History Bitcoin was the discovery of either an individual or a group of people with the pseudonym “ ”. Satoshi wrote the whitepaper (a paper that presents a problem and provides a solution) in 2008 called “ ”. Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System Satoshi’s vision was to build a globally accessible digital currency (cryptocurrency, i.e. cryptographically encrypted currency) that was not backed up by any government. The decentralisation allows this new currency not to be impacted by monetary policies (actions by central banks to manage the money supply), limits any exposure to third parties (such as banks where we hold cash), the payments are immune to inflation/deflation and payments can be borderless i.e. all you need is a mobile device. In summary, your information is safe and cannot be tampered (censorship-resistant), you own and control your assets (self-sovereign) and you can get value from contributions (open ecosystems). Today there are a lot of different cryptocurrencies/coins such as Ethereum, Monero, etc. and each one of them is trying to solve a problem, but the most dominant one is still the Bitcoin (BTC) itself (almost 70% market capitalisation of the crypto market). There is a total maximum of 21 million bitcoins that can ever be mined of which 85%+ has been currently mined as of the . 24.08.2019 A Web of Blocks Similarly to the world wide web (www) and to sending an email, a bitcoin transaction can travel from one peer to another, but this time through blocks i.e. ledger entries. These blocks allow data to be stored and recorded (ledger) and when linked together they form what is called a chain of blocks i.e. a blockchain. Data is encrypted through hash codes which can be defined as cryptographic verification functions with a fixed length whilst their ID is linked with the previous block that can be called or referenced. Caption: Simply Explained Therefore, a user can send a bitcoin or a fraction of a bitcoin to another user by knowing his or her public key. The transaction will then travel through blocks (hash discovery) until it reaches the receiver. All the transactions will be recorded in the series of block transfers, i.e. through the blockchain, which can be defined as a transparent database or a shared public ledger. In this way adjustments can be verified, and the spendable balances can be adjusted for each wallet (receiving addresses), therefore the rightful known owners can know their balances. Caption: Sysjolt The Mechanism Every bitcoin account has the following elements: A 256bits long, to ensure that the owner of this address can receive funds; Public key A or seed used to sign transactions, i.e. a secret piece of data (similar to a password — never to be relieved); Private key Ability to process transactions through a process called . Mining Private keys provide a mathematical proof that they come from the owner of a wallet. Mining uses a consensus mechanism that confirms all pending transactions and allocates them into the blockchain. In this way the transactions are in a chronological order, neutral and allow various computers to agree on the state of the system. The rules prevent previous blocks from being modified and also create a competitive lottery that prevents any individual from easily adding new blocks consecutively to the Blockchain. Mining in Detail To mine bitcoins, you need a software program. This specialised software programme searches for a solution to a difficult math problem. This solution is also referred as or proof-of-work, a solution that is hard to be found but easy to verify. PoW The difficulty of the mathematical problem is automatically adjusted every time a solution is found. The solution is broadcasted, and everyone knows about this newly found solution that exists, and with this new information packaged the result is a new “block” every 10 minutes. The miner is then rewarded with a block compensation, i.e. bitcoin fractions of gets distributed among the peers depending on their hash rate contribution to the process. 12.5BTC The reward can also be impacted due to the level of complexity i.e. in a process called halving, whereas through a programmed bitcoin feature the block reward is cut in half, and it occurs every four years (210,000 blocks) once that number is crossed. Each block contains a block hash that represents the work that has been done by the miner; in other words, this is the proof-of-work. Credit: Binance How to buy your first Bitcoin? In order to purchase your first Bitcoin someone needs to be able to sell you one, or you can decide to mine your own one if you have the right software and computer hardware. Some of the best places to buy Bitcoins: https://localcoinswap.com https://paxful.com https://bisq.network Businesses that accept Bitcoin: https://coinmap.org/welcome https://coinmap.it https://spendabit.co https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin/who-accept s https://purse.io https://paywithmoon.com https://www.bitrefill.com https://www.egifter.com https://www.gyft.com https://bitcoin.travel Also, a special thanks to https://bitcoin.org for its resources (a bit outdated but still a decent starting point) for educating people about bitcoin.

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