I spent the past 6 months outside all crypto communities, here's what a I found out: - As the title suggests, I spent the past year (pretty much from May 2022 - July-ish 2023) away from all crypto communities, including crypto subs, discord servers, etc. And here's what I found ... See More out:

**We used to talk about how this sub itself is an echo chamber and all, so I kinda wanted to give y'all a sense what most people outside the crypto community think.**

*Disclaimer: I live in a first-world, Asian country where crypto is fairly popular (but only as an investment). Your anecdotes may and will differ.* *Please bear in mind that these are completely anecdotal, and that you obviously shouldn't take this as financial advice.*

1. The vast majority of people don't care about crypto.
1. Crypto still remains an "investment" rather than an actual day-to-day payment system. Even with stuff like Chainlink and XRP partnering with banks to facilitate int'l transactions, the vast majority of people **are not willing to try out crypto for transactions** and would **rather pay a slightly higher fee for a solution that involves traditional banks****.**
2. In fact, people outside the US are even willing to just go through the exorbitant exchange rate commissions and paypal / eTransfer someone if they're buying something from the US.
3. And the fact that it is still perceived as an "investment" means that there is a very polarising divide between people who are in the crypto space, and people who are not. This is worrying.
4. Even in my country, where (in the 2022 elections), candidates from both major parties were very supportive of crypto, crypto is seen more and more as a risky investment that just pull people in their 20s and 30s into a debt trap.
2. However, there are some niche markets where crypto is welcomed
1. There were two times that I found crypto being used out in the wild, and they were both really niche but I still want to point them out.
2. The first was in online tipping, I saw someone on Youtube doing a livestream, and they were playing really nice pieces on their ukulele and they had a Nano wallet Address as a pinned comment on the Live Stream chat. And viewers were able to request songs by tipping like 2-5 Nano to the wallet. I asked them why and they said it was because Youtube Revenue sharing wasn't allowed in their country, so they couldn't actually receive any money from their channel even though it was eligible for monetization.
3. Next was the grey-area market. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but there's a lot of discord servers all kinds of gaming account trading, in-game currency trading and etc. And the people who sell/buy these gaming accounts tend to accept only Paypal/CashApp/Crypto, Just as an FYI, the only crypto they tend to accept is LTC (for smaller transactions) and ETH (for larger ones). They tend to prefer Paypal and CashApp for smaller transactions (<100USD) too.
3. There's a significant number of people who instantly lose interest / actively distrust something when the hear the word "crypto" or even "blockchain"
1. This is a massive deal-breaker, and a really big issue that this community needs to solve if we really want crypto to go mainstream.
2. Because of the numerous and frequent media reports about Crypto A being a scam and Crypto B tanking 99% overnight, many people have developed an inherent distrust for anything that is mildly crypto-related.
3. As an example, I see a lot of people on software subreddits not recommending Brave Browser just because it has a crypto feature (which can be opted out of btw).
4. There was another like spaceflight project that was affiliated with something something crypto, and i remember people in the comments were trashing about it JUST because it was crypto-related.
5. Similarly, another argument / statistic that I heard about this was if there are 10000 coins listed on an exchange, how many will really be alive at the end of say 5 or 10 years? In fact, many projects get hacked, devs exit scam, some just get lost to the depths of time, etc. And many don't end up surviving for more than a year. By "surviving", I mean actively used, talked about and developed for.
6. In contrast, you can look at the stock market of any G20 country and if you ask how many companies will be alive by 2030, the answer is likely to be much closer to 80ish%, while crypto is more likely to be below 50%.
4. Except in certain developing countries, a lot of people have a lot of trust in TradFi (for investment purposes)
1. This is a bit more time-specific, so I left this until the end. If you're viewing this however many years' time, things might have changed.
2. Currently, a 1-year deposit of more than the equivalent to 1000USD in my country, at any random reputable bank, will give you a 4.05% interest rate (its meant to be a bit higher but I'm taking into account taxes). A slightly riskier bank gives about 5.2%. Staking ETH is like only 2-3% higher than these rates. **Even at the most riskiest bank (5.4%), the government (in my country) can protect your deposit up to the equivalent of USD50k.** So there's no point in putting money into crypto, which can lead to a loss in the original money put in ( you can have a net loss).
3. In fact, a better investment strategy (that I heard from my cousin) is actually just to short Russian Rubles. He's made a net profit of about 20% over the past 1.5 years shorting the Ruble-USD ratio.
4. Even better, my dad has bought some stocks at a Telecoms company in our country, and appr the dividends (give quarterly ) add up to an ROI of 10% in 4 quarters. The dividends for this company has not dropped by more than 5% ever since 2015.

I'm going to leave the conclusion for y'all to draw.

Whether we're early, late, or just reaching for an unreachable star is up for you to decide.

Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Binance records massive $150m Bitcoin withdrawal in 60 seconds

Shopify integrates with 'zero-fee' Solana Pay, prompting businesses to adopt crypto transactions

Chinese official sentenced to life in prison for Bitcoin mining, corruption

Bitcoin Developers Say Craig Wright May Be Admitting That He Stole 80,000 Bitcoin from Mt. Gox

What is the situation of Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador? (From a Salvadoran) - Hi guys,


I am quite new in this subreddit and I saw everyday people is posting about news from El Salvador.
There are some point that I would like to share from my ... See More perspective.


In El Salvador one of the main problems is that we are very behind in tech in general, the population don't like changes.
Honestly the BTC as a legal tender have not been successful as it was expected, for many reasons, I will do a list here:
1. Average Salvadoran earn USD 400 per month: This is one problem since make people only believe in cash, there is a huge percentage of the population that dont even have bank account, therefore for them use "Chivo Wallet" (The wallet founded by the government)


2. "Chivo Wallet ATM" at the very beginning didnt have cash, so the people lost the trust they had, since there was always a sense of risk (don't be able to cash out the balance in "Chivo Wallet")


3. The population didnt have time to study, and also no one teach how crypto (or at least BTC) works.


4. The population in general start to panic after the bull run, since the government purchase very high, and started to decrease the valu day by day (Saying this at the beggining the government gave away for each user $30, therefore the people were tracking everyday their wallet and saw one of the risks of crypto (Volatile) within the first months.

&#x200B;

5. In El Salvador most of business are not accepting BTC anymore, only a couple located in Bitcoin Beach (El Zonte)


6. Recently there are some news about the government teaching kids about BTC, this is a pilot plan, only 2 schools are running the program right now, and it was in rural areas, there are complains from parents, since in rural areas people is agains anything that is not cash.


Of course there is many people in the crypto community in El Salvador, but usually in the crypto events there are only a few salvadoran, most of people that attend to these events are foreigners. Most of people feel it is only for the "elite"

I hope this give you an insight of what we are living right now in El Salvador.
If you have other questions about what is the "real life" in El Salvador, please feel free to ask, I will answer according what I know (No speculation hahahaha)


PS. Sorry for my grammar errors, English is not my first language.

YouTuber finds only 900 daily users in Horizon Worlds — Meta's $36B metaverse

3 weeks after WorldCoin launched, it's already down 44% even though only 1% of its max supply has been unlocked so far. Current WLD token price means that people who scanned their eyes basically sold their biometric data and privacy for whooping price of $38 - So this dystopian project ... See More by Sam Altman (OpenAi CEO) that has no space in crypto space has been launched around 3 weeks ago. Price at the launch stayed at around $2.7, and later on it settled down at prices around $2.3-$2.6. But now only 3 weeks later price is very sharply down to $1.51 at this given moment.

They have already scanned millions of people all around the world under pretenses of just verifying their digital ID and verifying their humanity, whatever that means. Most of the places that they've scanned people, or better said the locations they preyed on, were mostly rural areas in poorer parts of the world, parts of the world where people are more desperate and few dollars means a lot more to them than others. Most of their orb scans have come from Africa, South America and India.

Kenya already suspended it after hundreds of thousands of people were standing up in lines to receive scan of their eyes and receive 25 of WLD tokens that at the time were worth about $60, but now only $38. It has to be taken into consideration that they only unlocked exactly 1.26% of the supply of the token and fully diluted market cap of this token is still abnormally high at more than 15 billion which would very easily put it into top 5 non-stablecoins (just behind XRP).

People that scanned their irises basically sold their biometrical data and privacy that Sam Altman can sell to whomever or use it however he wants with multiple projects in his AI companies like OpenAI, and all for meager $38, and if they hold for longer, that amount will soon be maybe $20 or $10. Worth it?

Ethereum Whale sells minutes before market crash. Saves $5 Million

Buyers of Bored Ape NFTs sue after digital apes turn out to be bad investment

Understanding liquidity and why a sudden $800m drop can tank a 1T market by 10%. - Good morning everyone.

Some of you might be just coming round from your daze after yesterdays market performance. We all checked our phones to find some pretty shocking news.

The thing I always found strange ... See More when I first entered this space and these sorts of events happened was that everything acted instantly, no matter which coin or which exchange. It all followed the same trend without a moments notice. I was also baffled at how much money could technically leave the eco system in such a short amount of time.

The current entire crypto market cap is very roughly 1 trillion dollars. Yesterday saw just short of 1 billion dollars in liquidation. That’s 0.1% of the entire market cap. Yet everything dropped by around 10%.

How?

Well it’s all to do with liquidity. It boils down to this. Let’s say Microstrategy woke up today and wanted to sell all of his Bitcoins. All 150,000 of them. The current price of BTC is $26,000.

He lists all 150,000 for $25,999 on Binance for sale. Immediately he will sell as many coins to as many buyers that have a bid in for $25,999 or more. After that, the sale will pause until buyers come in with that price. It would be a very tiny portion of his coins sold. Probably less than 50.

So he decides to list the remainder for $24,000. And again, orders are filled but not that many in comparison to the amount he holds. BTCs price has now dropped to below $24,000 because there’s no buyers or liquidity at $26,000 anymore. BTC just dropped 10% and microstrategy still has 140,000 BTC.

In reality, the price or market cap of a coin rests solely on its liquidity properties. If there’s only enough money on the table for 1 BTC at $26,000 then it’s going to be a rough ride when someone sells.

Below are some points I’ve made regarding liquidity and what you should understand.


- Liquidity is the measure of how easily an asset can be bought or sold without causing significant price changes. In the cryptocurrency context, it reflects the ability to convert a digital asset into cash or another asset promptly. Liquidity depends on the presence of active buyers and sellers, as well as the depth of the order book.


- Liquidity acts as a measure of market stability. High liquidity implies a balanced number of buyers and sellers, resulting in smoother trade execution and less impact on prices. On the flip side, low liquidity scenarios lead to heightened price volatility. A large trade in a low-liquidity market can result in exaggerated price fluctuations.


- Market volatility, which often puzzles traders, can be attributed to liquidity dynamics. In markets with low liquidity, even small trades can cause significant price shifts. This results in the price volatility that characterizes cryptocurrency markets.


- In markets with high liquidity, large trades can be executed with minimal price impact. Bid-ask spreads remain narrow, ensuring fair pricing for traders. High liquidity also makes it harder to manipulate prices, contributing to a more accurate representation of asset values.


- Low liquidity markets are prone to price manipulation due to the influence of large holders. Executing significant trades in such scenarios can lead to slippage, where the executed price differs from the expected price due to insufficient orders to match against.

In summary, grasping liquidity is crucial for navigating the cryptocurrency landscape. It directly affects stability, volatility, and the trading experience. While high liquidity promotes stability, low liquidity demands caution due to potential price swings and manipulation risks.

It’s a lot to take in and bend your head around but it is the fundamental force of all crypto markets, even BTC with its massive market capitalisation is subject to its underlying importance.

I hope this helps, if you have any other topics you’d like me to cover please let me know! 😊

EDIT: Wow thanks for the upvotes guys. Glad I could be of some help. Remember if you have any suggestions for more topics I’ll certainly do my best. Have a great day everyone!

EDIT 2: 1000 upvotes? You guys are awesome. Thanks again, happy Sunday!

Spain leads the world's cryptocurrency property market: Almost 300 homes are purchasable with Bitcoin or Ethereum in Marbella, Alicante and Barcelona - I’m summarising the article that you can read on The Olive Press:

“Spain is leading the global cryptocurrency property market with nearly 300 homes available for purchase using Bitcoin ... See More or Ethereum. **Forex Suggest's** recent research reveals **Spain's dominance**, followed by **Thailand and Portugal**. These properties average around €2 million in Bitcoin price, making Spain the sixth-most expensive country for cryptocurrency real estate transactions.

Many of these properties are concentrated in Spain's popular tourist destinations like Marbella, Alicante, and Barcelona. However, while cryptocurrency transactions offer advantages such as fee avoidance, their newness and volatility present challenges. Bitcoin's fluctuating prices can impact transaction values.

Despite these hurdles, the appeal of near-**instantaneous payments** is clear, particularly when compatible mortgage providers are available. Spain's strong presence underscores the increasing acceptance of cryptocurrencies in real estate.”

These incredible news about Spain + Portugal’s lenient crypto regulation that’s already been talked about in the sub make me bullish on the Iberian peninsula.

What do you guys think about crypto merging with the housing market? Or merely using crypto as a P2P payment method?

Coinbase Finally Wins Approval to List Crypto Futures in U.S. - Would you buy with them?

Anyone else get introduced to financial literacy and investing because of crypto? - This may come as a surprise, but there are millions of people that grow up in households where investment isn't even talked about. Much less terms like portfolio, bull market, bear market and shorting or leverage.

I ... See More quit my job at the time to be a full time student as I didn't know covid would happen and then boom. Fast forward and at the time Youtube was inundated with crypto content, at the time Youtube also didn't like crypto content creators and tried to hide content based on the absolute flood of scams and so forth, but it was everywhere and you couldn't miss it.

For the first time in my life I heard about stuff like liquidity, bull market and bear market. I spent hours sifting through it all. Learning about crypto and this new digital coin mish mash, I didn't know what I was looking at but when I went to a website to view coins it was like walking into a casino, all I saw were the little pictures and the dollar values next to them.

This is where it all started for me in 2019, I've learned so much and now understand (to a much larger degree) what investments are, how inflation works and stuff like risk on assets and it's all because of deciding to take a look at crypto scrolling through Youtube out of boredom one day.

I officially stopped mining crypto today. This is what I learned during my experience - So I've been mining crypto for a few years using a normal gaming desktop computer. Basically, I keep my computer running 24/7 anyways and figured I might as well have it mine while it is ... See More doing nothing. Even more since I didn't have to worry about electrical cost.

&#x200B;

The amount gain wasn't something to jump for joy about. I was mining only with a RTX 2080. I didn't overclock anything, I did my best to keep the temp down at or below 70 degrees, and I didn't push it. My desktop was a desktop first since I use it for making money through 3D printing, auto cad, making guides, and other methods. And this is primarily am stop mining.

# Why I kept mining after ETH switch to POS, and what got me into it:

It's because of passive income. I know a lot of miners back in the day and some now tried to make it out to be extremely hard. And yes if you are on a professional scale. But for the average everyday person, this was truly plug and play AFTER you got it setup. This is something crypto does extremely well. Unlike everything else, you can have true 100% hands off passive income.

And yes, if I was in a situation where I had to pay for the electric bill, I wouldn't do it. As many have pointed out, it's extremely likely you can calculate how much it will take to mine, and just use that money to buy the crypto. Which I didn't believe in to start with.

&#x200B;

# What got me out of mining:

I started dealing with graphic card driver failures. During this I honestly don't have much to turn to when I'm completely stump on a problem so I go to AI. And after about 2 days of trying to figure out the root cause, a number of test on the hardware, and playing guessing games if it is a driver update that happened a week ago (and why didn't the thing flip out sooner if that was the cause). I started to write down the entire situation because the AI has horrible memory so it can recall. Basically I was writing a summary of everything.


In this, I started to write out how much I made a day in doing this. Roughly 20 cents a day. And this got me thinking. I literally fighting over pennies. I'm 99% sure the issue is with the minerstat software and some conflict with other software or updates. And to confirm how stupid this entire situation is. I did the calculations and it's only $73 a year.

Because of how passive this is and how little I checked on it, I had the mindset of what it was where I was making $1 or more a day. Again not enough to jump for joy over, but enough to help out if needed.

Like it still feels like a gut punch because my mind instantly goes to x MUST make money. But writing it down put the entire thing in perspective.

&#x200B;

# What I learned from this experience:

Once in a while write down your situation or just say it out loud. If I didn't do this, I would be fighting it and be looking at selling crap to just get a new computer I didn't need in order to mine for the highest amount.




Like take a step back and write it down, and see how it sounds. If it sounds stupid, you likely should consider just not doing it.

For example, once in a while people ask on here what people regret from the last bull run. And most including myself admit that we wish we sold and took profit. Many of us had a freaking good indication we went into a bear market after the first bit. Even at a loss and seeing a cliff we were like.... well it will just go up from here, or we are still in the bull market it is just taking a break.

But I feel if many of us that was making excuses actually step back and said out loud the situation or wrote it down and read it as someone else wrote it. We would likely sold.