Yes, you are right. The wealth that is easily obtained is not so valuable, that is, if those wealth are lost carelessly, then it does not cause much trouble for that wealth. But when a person earns money by working hard, then every penny speaks of the sweat of his body and every blood cell and it is very difficult to spend money. Every cent earned by hard work is very valuable. But if this money is earned very easily by a person, then the value of that money is not so much, so they do not hesitate to lose that money by trading or gambling.

Someone should try all the swap exchanges at the same time. You can send the same amount and compare the output for what they announced and what was received after all the spread and fees. If a exchange constantly gives a different quote compared to another that has a more stable and better quote, that would be an easy win.

This idea has given me another inspiration for an improvement on the last concept detailed in my last answer to Darker45. In this case, we do _not_ integrate a counterfeit-checking machine, because that item probably makes all attempts of considering it "just a locker" and not an "ATM" very doubtful (regarding legal consequences).

The "refined" idea is the following - it can be used with cash or with other physical items:

- a locker like those in a train station. The distinctive thing about this locker is that it has an unique number painted on its front, and a lock that can change its state reliably, and each state requires a different code to open it. That state can be marked by a colour visible clearly at the front of the locker opening.
- a smartphone app (features described below)

People:

- Alice: a Bitcoin buyer / Item seller (sells an item or deposits cash to get Bitcoin)
- Bob: a Bitcoin seller / Item buyer (buys the item or want to sell Bitcoin for cash)
- Carol: a P2P exchange escrower connected to the smartphone app with the Bitcoin seller (i.e. the person that retires the item in the locker as exchange for the BTC).

Steps:

1) Alice and Bob arrange the exchange. Example: 0.001 BTC for a book.
2) Alice goes to the locker and deposits the book there. The locker is first in State "Idle" (e.g. green), where it can be opened without a code, and then changes to state "Deposit / Unopened" (e.g. yellow). Alice also has to pay a penalty deposit, which will be paid back if everything runs fine.
3) Bob initiates the escrow transaction. It will reach Alice only if Carol approves it. It contains a timelocked output which will reach Alice after e.g. 14 days (well behind the arranged exchange).
4) Bob arranges a video chat with Carol, e.g. at 10 AM.
5) Alice transmits the "yellow" locker code to Carol.
6) Bob goes at 10 AM to the locker and starts the video chat. Carol gives him the code to open the locker while he's filming the number and location of the locker.
7) Bob can now examine the items in the locker. If its cash, he can check the authenticity, and he has to film the serial numbers. Always with Carol observing what he does via the video chat app. Based on that, there are two possible outcomes:

7a) Bob in accordance with Carol retires the item (ACCEPTED). The locker is again placed in "Idle" state. Carol unlocks the escrow to Alice. All penalties are paid back.
7b) Bob rejects the item and places it again in the locker, videochatting all the time with Carol and recording arguments for the reason, closing the door of the locker, and putting it in red state (REJECTED), transmitting the code for that state to Carol. Carol will thus not unlock the escrow. He is of course not entitled to retire the object.

Here we can have again several outcomes:

1) Carol is convinced that Bob has a valid reason to reject the item and placed the item completely in the locker. She will then propose to send back the money to Bob (or do some contract magic to achieve that). Alice will be penalized.
2) Carol believes Bob has rejected the item without a valid reason. A penality will be charged to Bob, similar to the Bisq penalties.
3) Carol believes Bob could be trying to trick Alice (e.g, ran away with a part of the money, or exchanged it for counterfeit money). This would be probably the standard procedure if Alice has deposited cash in more than 3-4 banknotes.

In all these cases, if Alice wants to challenge that decision (very much the standard in 1 and 3), she will then have to go to the locker and Carol will give her the code to open it. Like Bob, she has to film from the moment she opens the door, with the "state" of the locker clearly visible. Then she has to check the items she got back by Bob. She can now also find arguments that Bob has not given back her the correct item, like replaced real money with counterfeit money. Carol should be able to check that (e.g. via the serial number on the banknote, that's why Bob had to film them).

This of course achieves no 100% security but it should give escrowers about as much information about a possible fraud than with online P2P exchanges from fiat to BTC.

It really shows how powerful countries in the Middle east are. If they halt any exportation of oil, that cuts off almost every country’s supply and we all are found struggling. If this isn’t a lesson to how influence oil has and particularly the middle east over the world then I don’t know what else will be.
We don’t know if they’ve actually built one. If they did, will they use it just against the US? There’s a lot of considerations that they might not want to use nuclear weapons after all.

In general I agree with OP. The "endgame" should imply increased usage "as a currency". Only this way Bitcoin can really deliver its biggest strength: censorship resistance and independence from authorities.

However, I think governments are currently not the main "blockers". In most countries it is perfectly legal to transact with Bitcoin and pay for goods and services. There are some caveats to that - for example, in some countries you have to track all payments and report them to the financial authorities to calculate your capital gains tax, which can be bothersome - but in general only Turkey, China and a few other small countries outlaw the usage for payments.

The real "blocker" as Darker45 already suggested is the current speculative usage pattern, which leads to volatility, which is detrimental for "currency usage".

How to solve this "block" and arrive to the "endgame phase"? (in reality, I'd call it "adoption phase" or "currency phase", because the endgame may be entirely different). Three ideas:

- First, as I've said in other threads, I'm quite convinced that adoption by merchants can grow because of the advantages Bitcoin brings them when compared to credit cards (faster settlement, less fees -> credit cards can charge up to 10% , no chargeback)
- Second, I think once Bitcoin becomes less and less volatile it will be used more as a currency, because currently often people simply feel too much FOMO if they spend their "precious" Bitcoins.
- Third, layer2 adoption must increase. I'm currently very bullish about Ark (more than I ever was with Lightning), but it is still in its early stages (see ArkadeOS). I've made a Bitcoin payment a few days ago, and the service provider only accepted on chain transactions, which is a bit lame (but they accepted BTCPayServer, which is cool as it is self hosted). At least Lightning should be "standard" now. The problem is that the fee level can always increase, and it is not even a bad thing because it helps to make mining long term sustainable, but for small payments a 2nd layer solution then is paramount.

An asset really shows its value during extreme situations - wars, global crises, pandemics.
And during the recent conflict in Iran, Bitcoin actually performed much better than gold and other precious metals, which kind of proves its edge.
At the end of the day, Bitcoin is up roughly 17% since the Iran–US conflict began.
It even outperformed stocks, gold, and silver - which says a lot about how it’s starting to behave like a store of value or even a safe-haven asset in times of war and economic stress.
https://x.com/bitcoinarchive/status/2043968430877835445?s=46&t=V07IM8b232m93jXsNncAog

I have read some regrettable testimonies where people deposit in this type of ghost exchanges with little/no liquidity and they don't get their funds back.
In some cases, it will be swapping to another coin and receiving a value extremely lower than what was supposed to be received because of lack of liquidity.

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I think the main thread referenced in this particular one has been moved to this board. So, there are two threads discuss the same exchange. Op, I think it is time to lock this.

That is something to think about and it could be that the op who started the other thread did so in an attempt to promote or advertise this service. This would not be the first time this is happening. Many times we see users seemingly curious about an unknown service when they ask the community what it thinks, unknowing to many of us that it is an attempt to promote the platform and get people to try it. That could also be the case here.

It's another news to the pile of the same news.. I too see it that way.

To begin with the fact that Nuclear weapon actually seems to be like ultimate shield against world powers, but history and recently events shows that it is overstretched. Although possessing nuclear weapons raises the stake actually but they don’t grant total immunity or make any country feel untouchable.

Look at North Korea for example they have nuclear weapons and have also tested missiles yet they still remain one of the most sanctioned country in the world. Im sure the reason why US haven’t invaded and boomed its cities into rubble should because of the massive conventional risk involved like refugees crises and also artillery threats to the southern Korea.

However the situation around the strait of Hormuz has open the US eyes now and that should probably be more diplomatic in their actions because  the feast of the world are feeling the pain they are causing as petroleum production are being held on ground due to the passage of the strait.

we can easily use a calculator for that.. ( https://www.aceodds.com/bet-calculator/odds-converter.html

However, sometimes the odds do not really reflect the true probability. I think this was already discussed before, the difference between implied probability and true probability.

So regardless of the odds, if we are able to find the value, that’s where we should take the risk.
Maybe with that, we can actually be profitable in the long run.

My religion doesn't forbid gambling but many leaders preach against it. This is because many people are not gambling properly. Due to the high number of gambling addicts in my area, most religious leaders ask members to abstain from it. This has led many within my faith to see gambling as immoral. I gamble secretly because of people's stereotypes. This is why I prefer using online casinos. 

True, some were real events and some were just FUD, but Bitcoin keeps surviving and getting stronger. Those who held through it all really made the most of it.

Being kind to others is the real religion, you're right, there are many principles that religious people don't keep even when it's  against their religion, like early sex before marriage and many others, religion has no place in gambling, almost everyone gamble no matter your religion.

If you're a religious person don't be selective to sins to commit and the ones to keep, sin is a sin, observe all. The moment you select your sins them you're an hypocrite. No faith should limit you from making money, without money you can't be faithful to your religion. Gamble with sense and not emotion, to me I feel the only bad thing about gambling is when you're addicted and you start stealing from people to bet, but if you're using your money and you're not being addicted and making money then don't let any faith to stop you.

1 sat/vbyte for transactions to have a first confirmation in a next block is quite popular in recent months, and it's a very good fee rate to use compares to how considerable higher fee rates Bitcoin users had to use in past years.

They even can get a first confirmation quickly for their transaction with fee rate lower than 1 sat/vbyte but they must check Bitcoin mempools and choose a proper fee rate for their favorite waiting time.
How to make a bitcoin transaction and pay less than 1 sat/vByte.
LoyceV's 0.1 sat/vbyte Electrum Server Adventure.

There were FUDs and there were actual events but it's interesting to see Bitcoin has survived through all these things very well and impressively. With time, Bitcoin has become stronger in its network security and bigger in its adoption, so with Bitcoin holders, they have done great jobs if they bought bitcoin and hold their coins from the past years until now.

It is always most exciting when things are done a first time in anything, like a first Peer to Peer transaction between Satoshi Nakamoto and Hal Finney, a first trade of bitcoin for pizza, a first Bitcoin exchange, first Bitcoin Futures CME and CBOE in 2017, and first Bitcoin Spot ETFs in January 2024 for example. Later ones are similar to first ones are no longer similarly exciting with the people.

Charles Schwab is just another late comer in this market, so they will not create similar big excitement like first ones but they will still have contributions for Bitcoin adoption and this market growth.

Like it's always good for Bitcoin market to have new users, new investors, new traders, it's simple and undeniable.

Maybe he just hit the jackpot, who knows. And in that short time, he managed to become rich LOL. Let's just pretend to believe that he owns that shipping company so he can be happy