BTC in the PP

[dualstow]

There is barely a mention of bitcoin on page 16.
Should I move the posts? Ugh

Anyway, I saw an announcement that Proton Wallet (from the Protonmail team) is now out there for anyone to use. I got one.

Not doing self-custody at the moment, but maybe I’ll move everything (Marc de Mesel’s gift) to it eventually.

Here’s a page from last summer about the initial launch.
https://proton.me/blog/proton-wallet-launch

[whatchamacallit]

I saw this reposted on twitter and enjoyed the read

A crypto fairy tale

https://www.acadian-asset.com/investmen ... fairy-tale

I do think it has use case myself though in Transferring wealth across borders. I assume this happens and Bitcoin wins this one for now?

[yankees60]

The Little Book of Bitcoin: What You Need to Know that Wall Street Has Already Figured Out 1st Edition
by Anthony Scaramucci (Author), Michael Saylor (Foreword)



Put in URL twice. Don't know why it's showing the way that it is.

[dualstow]

Put in URL twice. Don't know why it's showing the way that it is.

Maybe this site is trying to render it with a preview and stuff.
I'll wrap it in code things: (that icon just to the right of the underline icon above (when editing a post))

Code: Select all

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1394286643/?ref_=cm_wl_huc_item

[Smith1776]

Yeah, my Amazon link didn't work in the daily check-in thread. I had to embed it as a link in my text instead. Not sure why it's not working now?

[yankees60]

https://www.citationneeded.news/crypto- ... okescreen/

The crypto industry’s debanking smokescreen

Cryptocurrency companies have co-opted legitimate concerns about banking discrimination to fight regulation — and Congress is buying it



Crypto hijacks the debanking debate
Against this complex backdrop of legitimate debanking concerns spanning racial discrimination, religious profiling, and industry-based exclusion, the cryptocurrency industry has recently mounted its own aggressive campaign about banking access. The industry has pushed a narrative that they too are victims of discriminatory debanking — specifically through what they've dubbed “Operation Choke Point 2.0”.

As I’ve discussed before [I71, 73, 74, 76], powerful figures in and outside of the crypto industry have been broadly claiming that the FDIC and other financial regulators have been engaged in a nefarious pressure campaign to force banks not to offer services to crypto companies or people associated with crypto. Aided by over $130 million in crypto industry spending on Congressional races this cycle, these claims have made their way to the top of some Congresspeople’s lists of concerns. The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on February 5 titled “Investigating the Real Impacts of Debanking in America”, and the House Financial Services Committee held one the following day, rather more pointedly dubbed “Operation Choke Point 2.0: The Biden Administration’s Efforts to Put Crypto in the Crosshairs”. On the morning of the Senate hearing, the FDIC also released a nearly 800-page document containing 175 records of correspondence between the FDIC and banks and other financial institutions pertaining to crypto.

But when it comes to the crypto industry’s claims, there has been a lot of disagreement regarding their veracity. Many cryptocurrency companies and individuals associated with the industry have come forward to say that they have lost access to banking, blaming it on a coordinated government effort under the Biden administration via the FDIC and other regulators. Republicans and some crypto-friendly Democrats have been quick to echo these claims. However, some, including some of the Republican-invited witnesses brought to testify in front of Congress, have disagreed (apparently to at least one Republican Congressman’s surprise):

[Jack Jones]

Another article on the topic of debanking:

https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/ ... debunking/

[seajay]

There is barely a mention of bitcoin on page 16.
Should I move the posts? Ugh

Anyway, I saw an announcement that Proton Wallet (from the Protonmail team) is now out there for anyone to use. I got one.

Not doing self-custody at the moment, but maybe I’ll move everything (Marc de Mesel’s gift) to it eventually.

Here’s a page from last summer about the initial launch.
https://proton.me/blog/proton-wallet-launch

Fundamentally its just another private keys security choice

As a Proton Wallet user, your encryption keys, and consequently your Bitcoin, belong exclusively to you.

"Self custody" is just not having a record of your private key online. The actual bitcoin (digits in a public ledger) are still online. Visible by anyone, can be added to by anyone with the public key, conceptually can only be spent/moved with the private key. With conventional banking the ledger is locked away within banks, requires a PIN and maybe phone message PIN to access, limited to no more than three guesses before further attempts are locked out. With a public ledger you can copy that and try to guess the PIN (private key) as many times as your like and a lucky guess enables you to clear out that account (bitcoin).

Conventional computers process sequentially, are powerful and fast but take time to repeatedly apply guesses. 'Quantum' computers are many many simple/basic CPU's all running in parallel and are more ideal for the likes of applying guesses far far quicker. As that scales so finding lucky guesses will also scale, so even though your private key might have been offline you could still find that your bitcoin had disappeared.

And to what end? You can use alternatives such as Futures/Options/leveraged ETF's to yield similar risk/reward to bitcoins, that are inclined to be lower cost and taxed less. Whilst peer to peer exchanges may appear anonymous there are means to track transactions/transfers that can associate individuals with what otherwise appears to be like private numbered bank accounts. Doesn't really do anything new or better. And is facing off against many countries that would rather you stuck with using their currency rather than alternative currencies and as such are inclined to instate barriers such as costs, taxation, blocking transactions etc.

[dualstow]

Conventional computers process sequentially, are powerful and fast but take time to repeatedly apply guesses. 'Quantum' computers are many many simple/basic CPU's all running in parallel and are more ideal for the likes of applying guesses far far quicker. As that scales so finding lucky guesses will also scale, so even though your private key might have been offline you could still find that your bitcoin had disappeared.

I think what you’re telling me, seajay, is buy gold Britannias. I will, I will. But let me wait for the price to come down a bit. Also it’ll probably be more eagles or krugs.

[seajay]

https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/21/crypt ... 4-billion/

“a sophisticated attack” led to the theft of Ethereum (ETH) from one of the company’s offline wallets.

Bybit’s chief executive and co-founder Ben Zhou said in a livestream that the hackers stole around 401,346 ETH, which at the time of the theft amounts to about $1.4 billion.

[seajay]

I've now bought some bitcoin, sandbox play amount just to play around with as its a first for me. Basically wanted to test out sending them from coinbase exchange to a paper wallet (for conceptual long term offline storage or that might be passed/gifted on to others via the paper), and back again. I prefer the laminated paper form over digital devices as in 10/whatever years time knowing my luck the digital device would no longer work.

Offline copy of bitaddress.org ... to generate the paper wallet public/private key that you can then send the bitcoin from coinbase to that public key. For larger amounts create/split it up into multiple wallets. When you clear out a paper wallet do a entire sweep/transfer, not partial amounts.

Mempool.space to verify the amount of bitcoin at a address (public key).

Bluewallet to import the private key/bitcoin back on line again (create wallet/import), from where once imported you can send the bitcoin to coinbase/wherever.

Pretty much as tutored by

[Smith1776]

What a wild ride it has been for crypto this week. Wow. Just wow.

[yankees60]

What a wild ride it has been for crypto this week. Wow. Just wow.

Since I do not follow it at all ... but am interested in what happened ... what did happen?

[yankees60]

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/02/trump-a ... -more.html

Crypto World
Trump announces strategic crypto reserve including bitcoin, Solana, XRP and more
Published Sun, Mar 2 202512:19 PM ESTUpdated Sun, Mar 2 20255:55 PM EST
Tanaya Macheel
@tanayamacheel

Key Points
President Donald Trump announced the creation of a “strategic crypto reserve” that will include bitcoin, ether, XRP, Solana’s SOL token and Cardano’s ADA, in a post on Truth Social.
This is the first time Trump has specified his support for a crypto “reserve” versus a “stockpile.”
Many crypto investors feel strongly that a crypto reserve should hold only bitcoin, while some reject the idea of a reserve holding digital assets altogether.

[Smith1776]

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/02/trump-a ... -more.html

Crypto World
Trump announces strategic crypto reserve including bitcoin, Solana, XRP and more
Published Sun, Mar 2 202512:19 PM ESTUpdated Sun, Mar 2 20255:55 PM EST
Tanaya Macheel
@tanayamacheel

Key Points
President Donald Trump announced the creation of a “strategic crypto reserve” that will include bitcoin, ether, XRP, Solana’s SOL token and Cardano’s ADA, in a post on Truth Social.
This is the first time Trump has specified his support for a crypto “reserve” versus a “stockpile.”
Many crypto investors feel strongly that a crypto reserve should hold only bitcoin, while some reject the idea of a reserve holding digital assets altogether.

Yeah a big drop and then a big pump. The chart looks crazy!

[mathjak107]

then a big dump ….

back in the lower 80k range this morning.

which is why i won’t put more than a percent or so in it .

a 1% position in it can be more like a 5% -7% position in gold as far as volatility.

for me it’s purely a fun position and no more than that

[Smith1776]

I ended up selling my MicroStrategy position. I had already told dualstow via DM like a week ago, but wasn't ready to admit it here.

I know. I know. Make fun of me all you want.

I originally liquidated to pay for grad school, and I ended up just getting lucky that it was just before the big dump in the stock.

Average buy price was $252 back in November. Sold out at $328. I made a gain (enough to pay my tuition), but at one point I had doubled my money when the price exceeded $500. Of course, I didn't sell.

[Jack Jones]

I ended up selling my MicroStrategy position. I had already told dualstow via DM like a week ago, but wasn't ready to admit it here.

I know. I know. Make fun of me all you want.

I originally liquidated to pay for grad school, and I ended up just getting lucky that it was just before the big dump in the stock.

Average buy price was $252 back in November. Sold out at $328. I made a gain (enough to pay my tuition), but at one point I had doubled my money when the price exceeded $500. Of course, I didn't sell.

Good call. Being a Bitcoin Maximalist never used to be about going all in w/ your net worth. The more volatile something is, the less of your net worth should be exposed to it. 5-10% is a good rule of thumb (not saying 5-10% Bitcoin exposure, just saying in general for concentrated volatile risky assets)

[Smith1776]

I ended up selling my MicroStrategy position. I had already told dualstow via DM like a week ago, but wasn't ready to admit it here.

I know. I know. Make fun of me all you want.

I originally liquidated to pay for grad school, and I ended up just getting lucky that it was just before the big dump in the stock.

Average buy price was $252 back in November. Sold out at $328. I made a gain (enough to pay my tuition), but at one point I had doubled my money when the price exceeded $500. Of course, I didn't sell.

Good call. Being a Bitcoin Maximalist never used to be about going all in w/ your net worth. The more volatile something is, the less of your net worth should be exposed to it. 5-10% is a good rule of thumb (not saying 5-10% Bitcoin exposure, just saying in general for concentrated volatile risky assets)

I'm just glad I didn't lose any money on the gambit. Making a gain was just a nice plus. Some guys in the MicroStrategy subreddit are in real dire straits. Some of them having bought in at $400+ or even $500+.

[yankees60]

I ended up selling my MicroStrategy position. I had already told dualstow via DM like a week ago, but wasn't ready to admit it here.

I know. I know. Make fun of me all you want.

I originally liquidated to pay for grad school, and I ended up just getting lucky that it was just before the big dump in the stock.

Average buy price was $252 back in November. Sold out at $328. I made a gain (enough to pay my tuition), but at one point I had doubled my money when the price exceeded $500. Of course, I didn't sell.

At least you made a good amount of money. NO ONE can pick the tops and bottoms.

[yankees60]

I ended up selling my MicroStrategy position. I had already told dualstow via DM like a week ago, but wasn't ready to admit it here.

I know. I know. Make fun of me all you want.

I originally liquidated to pay for grad school, and I ended up just getting lucky that it was just before the big dump in the stock.

Average buy price was $252 back in November. Sold out at $328. I made a gain (enough to pay my tuition), but at one point I had doubled my money when the price exceeded $500. Of course, I didn't sell.

Good call. Being a Bitcoin Maximalist never used to be about going all in w/ your net worth. The more volatile something is, the less of your net worth should be exposed to it. 5-10% is a good rule of thumb (not saying 5-10% Bitcoin exposure, just saying in general for concentrated volatile risky assets)

I'm just glad I didn't lose any money on the gambit. Making a gain was just a nice plus. Some guys in the MicroStrategy subreddit are in real dire straits. Some of them having bought in at $400+ or even $500+.

I think I must have stated here somewhere that during the baseball card craze during the last 80s / early 90s ... I was one of The Greater Fools? I invested $30,000 during the 1988 to 1991 time period. Then in the 1991 recession card values went in half. Stayed there for decades on end. I was quite pleased to see a few years ago that prices have risen dramatically since I'd last looked about 30 years earlier.

[Smith1776]

I ended up selling my MicroStrategy position. I had already told dualstow via DM like a week ago, but wasn't ready to admit it here.

I know. I know. Make fun of me all you want.

I originally liquidated to pay for grad school, and I ended up just getting lucky that it was just before the big dump in the stock.

Average buy price was $252 back in November. Sold out at $328. I made a gain (enough to pay my tuition), but at one point I had doubled my money when the price exceeded $500. Of course, I didn't sell.

At least you made a good amount of money. NO ONE can pick the tops and bottoms.

True.

I decided to keep the bitcoin. Right now the results from my MicroStrategy and Bitcoin investments are about roughly equal at ~$130,000 a piece.

The proceeds from MSTR will go into more traditional investing methodologies that includes some grad school education. I'll do my best to keep track of the returns over time.

What will yield better returns? $130k worth of bitcoin or $130k worth of stocks and education?

It'll be a cool experiment!

[frugal]

There is barely a mention of bitcoin on page 16.
Should I move the posts? Ugh

Anyway, I saw an announcement that Proton Wallet (from the Protonmail team) is now out there for anyone to use. I got one.

Not doing self-custody at the moment, but maybe I’ll move everything (Marc de Mesel’s gift) to it eventually.

Here’s a page from last summer about the initial launch.
https://proton.me/blog/proton-wallet-launch

Hi

Where do you have the gift nowadays?

Hug

[dualstow]

Hey man

I keep it in … what’s it called, I have to look up the app name Coinbase. I always forget because it just says “Wallet” under the icon. Bitcoin_in_the_VP generously helped me transfer to Bread Wallet (stylized as BRD), but eventually Bread went away and everything got moved to Coinbase without my say-so.

There it remains until I make a decision.

[Smith1776]

I recite my seed phrase to myself when I'm driving.

Brain wallets ftw.