Crypto investing

[CyberB0b]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...-plunge-in-steepest-drop-since-may/ar-AAKP7aY

Bitcoin dropping big again on the news that the FBI recovered the Bitcoin payments to the Colonial pipeline hackers. It turns out Colonial was cooperating with the FBI when they made the payments. But investors are concerned that Bitcoin's security, or anonymity may not be as strong as advertised. Could it be Bitcoin support is cooperating with authorities to stave off possible sanctions which would destroy the currency?

Bitcoin has never been anonymous. The entire backbone of the currency is literally a ledger of transactions.

 

[65fastback2plus2]

Bitcoin has never been anonymous. The entire backbone of the currency is literally a ledger if transactions.

Not entirely true. You can create a public key wallet address and it not be tied directly to your name or identity. Its just code at that point.

 

[CyberB0b]

Not entirely true. You can create a public key wallet address and it not be tied directly to your name or identity. Its just code at that point.

Yes, but it's very easy to trace where it goes. The 3 letter agencies have been able to do this since the Silk Road days.

 

[65fastback2plus2]

Yes, but it's very easy to trace where it goes. The 3 letter agencies have been able to do this since the Silk Road days.

Partly.

You can paper trade bitcoin too still. Its, in a lot of ways, trying to trace cash or trying to trace a person-to-person gun sale.

If cash went via a US exchange then to bitcoin, then ya, they'll trace the crap out of that.

 

[Reality]

The paper handers just need to avoid the news altogether. They sell at the slightest bit of negative news.

A lot of people got into crypto thinking it was going "to the moon" and they were going to be rich and some of those people invested money they could not afford to lose.

I remember reading a reddit thread last month where someone actually said if it was not going up a lot in the new couple of days they would have to sell so they could still pay part of their rent.

Crypto investing is no different than traditional investing in that to see a real return you have to buy it and leave it alone for a long time.

 

[Creeper]

Yes, but it's very easy to trace where it goes. The 3 letter agencies have been able to do this since the Silk Road days.

It is not easy, but I don't dispute it can be done. This is why I suspect the operators of the Bitcoin network helped. I imagine the FBI could make a credible threat to Bitcoin saying, either provide us the information we need or the US government will ban Bitcoin as a currency - which would virtually wipe out Bitcoin. The more difficult issue is identifying the owner of the wallet, and recovering the Bitcoin. In this case, from what I can tell, the FBI did trace the Bitcoin ransom payment to a specific PC containing the wallet linked to the address of the payment. Once they identified the system where the wallet is located they apparently installed spyware to monitor the communications to and from that PC hoping to learn the identities of all of the hackers involved. My guess is the already know who they are dealing with or they would not have revealed as much as they have already. Since the FBI admitted they recovered the Bitcoin payment Colonial made to the hackers only one of two things could have happened. 1. the hackers cooperated and returned the Bitcoin, or 2. The FBI hacked the wallet passphrase and simply stole the Bitcoin back.

The hackers could have easily defeated this scenario if they were expecting the FBI to trace the wallet.

In any case, I doubt the FBI will reveal all the details or the truth because it could jeopardize future investigations.

 

[CyberB0b]

It is not easy, but I don't dispute it can be done. This is why I suspect the operators of the Bitcoin network helped. I imagine the FBI could make a credible threat to Bitcoin saying, either provide us the information we need or the US government will ban Bitcoin as a currency - which would virtually wipe out Bitcoin. The more difficult issue is identifying the owner of the wallet, and recovering the Bitcoin. In this case, from what I can tell, the FBI did trace the Bitcoin ransom payment to a specific PC containing the wallet linked to the address of the payment. Once they identified the system where the wallet is located they apparently installed spyware to monitor the communications to and from that PC hoping to learn the identities of all of the hackers involved. My guess is the already know who they are dealing with or they would not have revealed as much as they have already. Since the FBI admitted they recovered the Bitcoin payment Colonial made to the hackers only one of two things could have happened. 1. the hackers cooperated and returned the Bitcoin, or 2. The FBI hacked the wallet passphrase and simply stole the Bitcoin back.

The hackers could have easily defeated this scenario if they were expecting the FBI to trace the wallet.

In any case, I doubt the FBI will reveal all the details or the truth because it could jeopardize future investigations.

There is no bitcoin operator. It is completely decentralized. The FBI can't make a threat to "bitcoin". The reason BTC exists is to prevent exactly what you are saying.

 

[kapolani]

I've been in crypto since 2014'ish. Bought my first BTC at $180.

Been DCA'ing ever since. Favorites are:

BTC, ETH, LINK, and DGB. All top 100 coins since 2014.

DGB is my darkhorse. Lots of work on it. Truly decentralized. Faster than BTC and LTC. 5 algorithms for security.

If the coin had pre-mine or ICO's stay away from it. Centralized coins such as XRP is also a no go in my eyes. Anything that's centralized can be controlled by the entity.

Please don't get into DOGE unless you understand supply and market cap. You can make money short term, but don't put the life savings into it.

 

[ShortRound]

Hopefully this trends crypto green. I've been red for a few weeks.

 

[Creeper]

There is no bitcoin operator. It is completely decentralized. The FBI can't make a threat to "bitcoin". The reason BTC exists is to prevent exactly what you are saying.

I use the term "operators" loosely. I was referring to the Bitcoin core developers - and there is a pecking order among developers.

 

[kapolani]

I use the term "operators" loosely. I was referring to the Bitcoin core developers - and there is a pecking order among developers.

I didn't bother going back and seeing what this is about.

But, it seems like you're implying that BTC developers can do something malicious and modify the code to enrich themselves.

It's open source. The code is available for all to see.

That's the last thing you have to worry about.

 

[Creeper]

I didn't bother going back and seeing what this is about.

But, it seems like you're implying that BTC developers can do something malicious and modify the code to enrich themselves.

It's open source. The code is available for all to see.

That's the last thing you have to worry about.

No, that is not what this is about. It was abut the FBI getting help from Bitcoin developers to trace ransom payments. I was speculating.

 

[InTheZone]

Figured this deserves another bump. Crypto seems to be gaining a lot of traction recently and be should gaining more in the upcoming month or two. Too lazy to look at the previous pages, may have stated it before, but my focus lately has been on the Voyager app, investing as much into tokens that get you interest. I never bothered to look at using it as a savings account, but I may end up using USDC for my savings since they offer 9% annual interest. Many apps out there offer interest, but for me I just use voyager.

Last few months I've been obsessed with depositing what I can into select tokens (VGX is my primary token btw), not worried a bit about selling. and I believe we need more people to be aware of the FUD that drives them away - it should be obvious at this point the media isn't there to help in any scenario.

Crypto obviously isn't a game, but to me it feels like when consumers started moving towards digital games and movies instead of physical, I get the same feeling crypto will be widely adopted and accepted by many more not too long from now. The way banks are responding make me think they're the next blockbuster and hollywood video. Obviously they're not going away completely, but they will continue to miss out. Crypto is being sponsored and many employers are exploring the possibility of paying in crypto. I only wish I got in sooner.

 

[kapolani]

I've been earning interest off my crypto by using Celsius and BlockFi.

Will probably move some over to Gemini as well.

As always - not your keys - not your crypto. But, I'm not putting my full stack in.

 

[jterrell]

It is not easy, but I don't dispute it can be done. This is why I suspect the operators of the Bitcoin network helped. I imagine the FBI could make a credible threat to Bitcoin saying, either provide us the information we need or the US government will ban Bitcoin as a currency - which would virtually wipe out Bitcoin. The more difficult issue is identifying the owner of the wallet, and recovering the Bitcoin. In this case, from what I can tell, the FBI did trace the Bitcoin ransom payment to a specific PC containing the wallet linked to the address of the payment. Once they identified the system where the wallet is located they apparently installed spyware to monitor the communications to and from that PC hoping to learn the identities of all of the hackers involved. My guess is the already know who they are dealing with or they would not have revealed as much as they have already. Since the FBI admitted they recovered the Bitcoin payment Colonial made to the hackers only one of two things could have happened. 1. the hackers cooperated and returned the Bitcoin, or 2. The FBI hacked the wallet passphrase and simply stole the Bitcoin back.

The hackers could have easily defeated this scenario if they were expecting the FBI to trace the wallet.

In any case, I doubt the FBI will reveal all the details or the truth because it could jeopardize future investigations.

NSA did break in and get the cipher.
There were national security reasons.

But aren't there always.

Thus why there are so many offshoot decentralized branches off of ethereum.

Nothing anyone does on a computer is truly anonymous.
But you certainly can make it painful to track you with vpn's, encryption and virtual machines that are deleted.

Gov't is very reluctant to make it known they have these tools but it is out there now.
US, Russia, China all have these tools. Likely others such as Isreal have some or all.

 

[jterrell]

strat-wise I buy USDC and DAI and USDT which are "stable-coins" tied to the US Dollar.

I place them on sites like AAVE and earn interest at very little risk.
When crypto was jumping i'd actually stake meme coins and other crypto.

I still have a lot of Doge and Polydoge and Safemoon but it is all just sitting there for long term get rich or bust investing.
Most of the cash is in stable coins drawing interest.
Make about 1 dollar a day lol so not exactly getting rich anytime soon off it but it has been fun to learn and play with this stuff and I've made decent money thus far. --farrrrr outpacing my 401k returns.

Sites I use:
coinbase.com -- easiest to buy and then transfer out or convert back to cash
metamask: this is an add-on (firefox/chrome) crypto browser wallet


app.aave.com -- decentralized banking.
article on Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrap...-how-should-you-invest-in-it/?sh=2d5e8ed12193


https://quickswap.exchange/#/swap --change currencies. right now earning rewards in something like Matic then exchanging it weekly to USDC seems pretty smart. --then re-stake the USDC and compound that interest to earn even more matic and keep it pushing in this manner.
https://polycat.finance/ --another yield farming site. I stake polydoge here and make pennies a day off basically worthless memecoins.
video about this:


I also stake AMP on Flexa.
Here's a video about that:

 

[jterrell]

I've been earning interest off my crypto by using Celsius and BlockFi.

Will probably move some over to Gemini as well.

As always - not your keys - not your crypto. But, I'm not putting my full stack in.

My Doge is on Gemini earning 2%
It's a stashhouse I pay no attention to.

I earn interest on ALGO and ETH2 at coinbase both coins I want to own long term.

I play a lot on Polygon because it is basically free after the one tome transfer from ethereum mainnet.

 

[CyberB0b]

HODL?

 

[InTheZone]

HODL?

of course, been buying some all week, especially yesterday lol

 

[Montanalo]

For you experts with crypto-currency: now that mainstream investing and even many countries are acknowledging and accepting crypto, what do you expect to happen in terms of governmental regulations and controls.

To be clear, I am a real neophyte at this.