I think my gambling addiction came back and then changed from playing Monopoly to playing the stock market....

I don't have my gaming PC since locking down at my parents' so maybe I'm just really bored and needed something to keep me occupied and interested...

Playing stock market is only gambling if you don't know you are doing. Playing monopoly on the other hand is definitely gambling (joke intended)

The sad thing about monopoly is that the creator actually make the game to teach about the corrupt system of owning monopoly.

@mr-user I check the PE, debt to cash, but recommendations, and dividends. I don't read the financial statements.

Where does that put me?

Currently the market feels less rigged than the digital monopoly game though that may change if I go from net profit to loss....

@billgates

Let me be honest with you here. I put you better than me in term of stock market.

Some say you have to control your mind in stock market and just look at the numbers in stock market. For example let say you have a specific number that you can handle lose.

Let say you decided to sell if there is a 2 point lose.Then you have to sell even though your gut feeling say I will go up again.Please don't quote me on it I don't know anything about stock market and just had a family and friend who does it and just heard the term.

Think of me as that CEO who read about the latest term and think he should use that in projects.

@mr-user yes I know that saying, seeing a stop loss. I bought GPRO before... Took me a long time to get out.... Kept hoping it's go up but refused to believe it. Bought at $20... Kept hoping till it was like $4, I only bought $1000 so not a huge position and bear the end eh... The lowest it can go is 0. But finally sold in order to offset gains. From Google... I think the net profit then was around 0

I would recommend crypto instead of stocks -- less misinformation and inversion narrative designed to screw you out of your capital.

If you want to stay with stocks/options, I'd recommend watching anything Anton Kriel from ITPM puts out. He's blunt, describes what's really going on, and doesn't hesitate to anyone out on their bs. He's kind of like the trading version of Gordon Ramsay, but nowhere near as nice.

@mr-user Emotion (and hope) has no place in trading. Your feelings towards investments have no impact whatsoever on their behavior, but have a large impact on your behavior -- and none of it good.

Emotion only serves to distract.

@Root

The thing about crypto is the crypto farm are closing in my country.I live in the country where the electrical bill is very cheap compare to rest of the world.The government actually lose money while providing electricity and government is the only electricity provider.And then they increase the electricity bill and crypto farm started closing.

I don't see much future for crypto.I think the block chain technology is great (for other usage) and now there are much regulation for crypto currency. The government are trying to regulate crypto (due to illegal money channel,ransomware use crypto,---etc) Some of the banks are also providing crypto bank account and I say w**. The point of crypto currency is to be anonymous and cut out the middle transaction fee and regulations means it is actually missing it point. I am not saying regulations is not the good thing but for crypto currency it is a deal breaker.

@mr-user banks providing crypto-related services are just fishing for the idiots more money than braincells, while using their activity as pr leverage.

Regulation will never actually stop cryptocurrencies. Need a simple example? Look at drugs: illegal in most countries, yet they make up an insanely huge market worldwide.
And don't forget: drugs are physical goods. Someone has to physically produce them, ship them, deliver them, pay off enough people in charge of stopping them, and the end user has to physically get them.
Do you really think that something digital could ever be prohibited?
The only was I see that happening is if the world turns 100% into a dystopian regime.

Not that authoritarians aren't trying to get there, but it's still not an easy task, as long as people have enough incentive to care.

@endor

The reason I think drug work and not for crypto currency is the differences between physical and virtual item.

In drug case there are market for it and you can use them (if all else fail). There are consumption to it.

Even though crypto currency is a virtual item it need to have a trust in a system. Let say you sell coffee and you accept crypto currency as a payment. If you are only seller dealing in crypto currency and you cannot trade it back to other currency you will not crypto currency as a payment anymore.If the bank and other financial institute declare crypto currency to be illegal doesn't allow exchanging them with other currency,crypto currency have no future. The only way I can see the crypto currency to success is for a lot of major seller (Amazon,Ebank,Target,--etc) to accept crypto currency and have it own community which use crypto currency. For example in X city everyone trust and use crypto currency.

@mr-user what if access to cryptocurrencies was provided by the very people using them? That's the whole point of p2p decentralized networks, after all...
And since users are the ones controlling it, they get to decide its worth. Not some corporate entity that only cares about its shareholders.

But for that to happen, we need a shift in people's mentality. We need people to decide to stop depending on these large companies. We need to bring down the entry barrier so that even the most uneducated users can still access this technology.

@endor you need something of value that can only be acquired using it.

That's how game companies get people to but their consoles...

@billgates How about financial freedom?

How about being able to send whatever you want, to whoever you want, for whatever reason you want, without being watched, analyzed, or restricted?
How about being able to do that within minutes and 24/7, and not just Monday to Friday 9-to-5, with a day or two processing time?

How about being able to do all that with just an internet-connected device, without any registration, verification, or pre-approval process, and no maintenance fees?

How about having actually better digital security without having to remember a million passwords, pin codes, tokens, security questions, and a ton of other crap that still passes for "secure" these days?

Does that sound like a good deal to you?

@endor security.... How many bitcoins exchanges got hacked....

@endor
You need a really great scandle to start using bank.
We can make bank goes under just by everyone withdrawing every money from their account but nobody does due to trust and convience.

Crypto exchange getting hack is not helping anytime soon. Somebody should just start Ecommence by crypto currency but I think there are regulations in place to stop crypto Ecommence.

@billgates exchanges are the equivalent of banks. How many banks got hacked?

Not your keys, not your coins. You keep your coins in your own wallet that you control.

@mr-user there already are ecommerce websites that accept crypto payments, though they are mostly small and niche sites. A bunch of VPNs accepting crypto payments too.

Unfortunately adoption is a chicken and egg problem: nobody wants to bother setting up crypto payments, because not enough people want to use it, therefore nobody has any use for it.
You have to show merchants that there is indeed a new market waiting for them, and then follow through with your promise. Otherwise they'll just think they got burned for nothing.

@endor I remember you need to download the full blockchain for that which is huge? Otherwise you use some online system that just gives you a login

@billgates there are some systems that do that, but they're typically platforms that hold your private keys for you. Those platforms are no different than banks, and they infringe the rule I previously mentioned: not your keys, not your coins.

If you use a good wallet software (like the official clients), you can just connect your wallet to somebody else's node instead of your own, and check your wallet balance against their copy of the blockchain. (Or at least, that's how Monero typically does it)

There are some caveats, but generally speaking, as long as you trust that the node operator isn't doing anything shady, you're good.

@endor well I think that's the problem? Realistically crypto is the same as currency but riskier from a regular persons point of view.

It's unregulated where at least banks are. Trusting another node is like trusting a stranger. Platforms that hold your keys are unregulated banks. No transparency.

So in the end the only option is to hold the whole blockchain yourself or create your own "community bank" with people you know and trust.

If a bank blows up, it's insured by the government and well if the govt blows up then we're all screwed. In that case maybe crypto has some value but I think bartering would the more common less messy option. Bitcoins u need electricity and internet, how u gonna pay? Though same with banks too... Most are online....

The other issue again is just if no one accepts it, it has no value. Difference is if a government backs a currency well, they're the government of an entire nation... so a bit more trust.... There are certain public services they provide.... Just because politicians need to look good...

The other option is living in anarchy.

@endor just in my morning news... Crypto is very volatile... Even more than palladium... And well I only bought $1,000 of that...

The problem with crypto is your basically a small fish swimming with big sharks... Without any protection

https://bloomberg.com/news/...

@endor

When bank get hacked , they can refund the loss to their country. If crypto get hacked , it's bye bye. They cannot refund the crypto value because they technically don't know who own what value. The only way they can refund it is to have some kind of personal information of account holder and keep track of how much money that account holder have. If you give personal information you lose anonymity which is the point of crypto.

Chicken and egg problem can be solve by large amount of money. Just give the big company insurance and your service free of charge. The big company will use your product and now you can use the big company brand name and get other company to use it. How do you think the big company name come up in "Used by" section of website?

@billgates
> trusting another node is like trusting a stranger

I think you don't fully understand the implications of trusting someone else's node, and what actually happens when you connect a wallet client to a node. You should read more on how it works.

> platforms that hold your keys are unregulated banks

So don't use them. As I said multiple times: the point of crypto is that you are the sole responsible for your own money.
Holding a copy of the blockchain is the *ideal* solution, but it's not the *only* solution. And no, third-party services are not the only alternative.

> you need electricity and internet

And how do home banking websites work? By magic?
This is no different.

Yes, cryptocurrencies will not replace physical cash - not directly, anyway.
But given the general shift towards a cashless economy (in some countries more than others), I say crypto is a much better alternative to traditional banks.

@billgates @mr-user yeah, and we've seen exactly how much the banks' and governments' words are worth exactly in 2008, and how much their regulations protect their citizens.

Yes, there are no refunds or do-overs in crypto. That's part of the deal. That's the responsability you take when you become the one in charge of your own money.
But I'd much rather know that my money is protected by cryptography, than get in trouble because some phone-support guy got social engineered by a skiddie who knew what my childhood dog's name was.

And don't confuse trading prices with value. Right now, those numbers are 99% pure speculation, and mean absolutely nothing.
Real value comes from *usage*. It comes from those who need to make a secure transaction in a hostile environment. It comes from those who want to protect their privacy.
It comes from those who want to improve upon a system that has repeatedly shown its weaknesses.

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