Yeah, they're popular because they operate in more than one country, deal in fiat and thus act as an on-ramp for people with cash to buy crypto--but I can't pinpoint the reason at the moment, but they've left a sour taste in my mouth for at least a few years now.  It doesn't help that they delisted some of the popular privacy coins (like 'em or not, they're an important part of the cryptocurrency world).  On the other hand, every legitimate exchange has at least one master to answer to, and it's safe to assume Binance was given orders to nuke coins like XMR by the US government at least. 

The bottom line for me is that centralized exchanges can be ranked according to whatever criteria one chooses, but they're just spying eyes for the regulators and who knows if they even care about their customers' privacy, e.g., not handing out customer data without a proper court order.  I just don't trust 'em.

Of course, economic conditions will be a determining factor that will support them to gamble for any reason, parents who are already rich or have a good economy can gamble just for fun or to fill their free time besides relaxing at home and besides gambling just for entertainment which can be in the form of social interaction with other gamblers without thinking about how much money is spent and after feeling satisfied they stop and this is the same as gamblers who are still young and the economy is a determining factor because gambling requires money that is ready to be lost after satisfaction is obtained and victory occurs only by luck and becomes a pride.

Different from gamblers who are old and also gamblers who are still young who have a poor or low economy, and what is clear is that they gamble potentially want to win to find money to meet their needs and they do this because they are forced by circumstances and also because they are lazy to find money by working.

Sometimes the strongest move is knowing when to step back. It takes integrity to prioritize others’ safety over pride or persistence. Respect to the team for choosing the harder path with honor, kudos to exch till then end.

To me, being pressured by an authority to take the service down (and exch taking it down as a result) is taken down. Though yes, they were definitely honorable to the end, and the whole situation is a darn shame.

I think that it depends on which country you are referring to, and as we (or at least in my case) don't know where Queentoshi lives, I wouldn't take for granted that she is used to see slot machines in bars.

In my country it was very typical to find one in bars even since before I was born. But in the image in the OP we can see three machines in line, which is a bit out of place because it is a bar and not a gambling room. What I have seen is a slot machine and a sports bets machine together at most.

Situation with banks in my country frankly speaking is a bit weird. Weird because bank are somehow in a privilege position of running business and opening accounts. A person has to pass a little quest before bank opens an account for him. You can just go to a bank, to a manager and ask to open an account for you. Your candidacy will be considered first, and only then banks will open an account for you. So it isnt a problem to withdraw your money; banks with a pleasure will give what is yours. But it might be problem for you to open an account and deposit your money. As you will have to first prove that your money is yours, and you dont have something unclaimed, hidden, unpaid tax and etc. That is why people are OK if banks not just hold their money, but use them.

Just a little of my recent experience. I saw that one of the banks offer good % for term deposit. Contacted them, created an account, made a deposit, but they refuse to accept it until I will send them bank statement for last 2 years and a proof that I have earned that money. Since I have earned them many years ago (I wasnt spending more than earning, so I saved that amount during years), they ask me to provide basically history of my full expenses and incomes. I consider that to be a very private information, and other bank should not ask for that just to open a term deposit. That is too much.

I was not that police or other authorities shut them down Instead of this team themselves decided to stop. Reason they gave that they wanted to prevent harm to innocent people or this online place and that they were doing right thing until end makes them like they were responsible. It shows they might have seen potential dangers or problems if they continued to operate.
It is interesting that you stressed that tauthorities did not actually do anything they did not take over their website and did not tell them to stop and did not even file any lawsuits. This makes it even clearer that decision to shut down was themselves because of how they saw things not because they were forced by law.

They would do it only if their lives would depend on it, because, clearly, the BTC they have is the thing that keeps them coming into the spotlight again and again daily.

Hey everyone, great to see the responses and interesting ideas so far!

@Darker45, I like your point about integrating crypto into small businesses - offering a Bitcoin discount is a clever way to attract customers. And the crypto talk sessions with friends sound like a fun way to learn and socialize at the same time.
@TheUltraElite, I hear you on forum posting being a hobby - it definitely can be! And shield132, your idea about convincing businesses to accept Bitcoin for the marketing benefits is insightful. Its a different angle than just focusing on sales. Also, your UI/UX design project for Electrum sounds really cool; I hope you get to finish and share it.
@Despairo, the idea of DIY crypto solutions like a cheaper air-gapped wallet is interesting, especially if you are also enjoy tinkering with electronics and building small gadgets. But not sure how can you build trust around your brand. That would probably be the biggest obstacle, imho.

Keep the ideas coming! Im really curious to see what other creative ways we can find.

When it comes to getting money out of the bank, I think it isnt most difficult thing to do. If your account balance is large, the bank can only make you a call and ask for a reason why you want to move. It will be a little more questions, if you try to get your money out of the bank in cash. But, when it comes to bringing big money in the bank, that is the moment where problem starts. I will say that getting money in the bank is more problematic than getting them out.

On the topic. "Money must work". If a person isnt using his money, someone else will do it. Banks use our money and I find it ok. It the price we pay for sleeping well and being sure nothing will happen to our money.

You are right. Their “100% exchange guarantee” claim is misleading.

Bitcoin is decentralized and it means that nobody can control who holds it, governments, institutions and retailers only have control over the amount of Bitcoin that they hold. Ordinary people or the retail investors will benefit if governments starts to adopt Bitcoin as part of their reserves because the result will be increase in price due scarcity that it will create in the market. Trust in Bitcoin will increase because people that are skeptical will get in because their government has done so, in the future both the government and retail investors will be profitable. Governments and institutions can manipulate price on the short term but nobody can control Bitcoin, it remains decentralized.

Hehe it appears that everyone has forgotten that it was the Biden administration that started the crackdown on the cryptospace and the Trump administration is the procrypto administration. However, we cannot blame the skepticism.

Also, @Darker45 is correct. Despite this positive update, it is still not a win. We should give this more time until the developers have been declared innocent of all charges and removed from the custody of the government. I am very much bullish on what will be coming next, however.

Thank you! I'll be linking the translations in the OP.

I think consolidating amounts into a single unused address is recommendable if one of these conditions apply:

1) the amount isn't too large (e.g. consolidating several small outputs),
2) you explicitly want the fortune to be on one address, e.g. to store it in some cold-walled solution (metal, paper etc.),
3) the addresses already are connected in some way, so chain analysis companies already identify them as a single wallet, e.g. if you got different payments from a single exchange, service etc. on all of them, or if you use them without additional protections in a single Electrum wallet for example.

In all other cases I agree with you that it's better to store the coins on several addresses.

$75K was the ideal bounce point and now we are back bullish so at first glance it is quite easy for Bitcoin to break through its highs again. The bull run is not over considering how positive sentiment towards Bitcoin investment demand will continue to be triggered from various directions starting from large companies and even developing and developed countries are starting to use Bitcoin as a hedge after gold.

The act of demanding documents before withdrawal is even worse than asking for it after sign-up in my opinion. Unreputable services that ask for your docs at the beginning might be trying to scam you.

As Darker45 said, it depends on what he says, bitcoin won't go up if he keeps repeating the same old and generic things. Bitcoin won't react to those things anymore, and he's not so important that if he just mentioned it, Bitcoin would react immediately.

Also, even as he speaks positively about bitcoin, but he maintains a hardline stance and makes negative statements about the tariff war and continues to cause chaos in the economy. Bitcoin will still react negatively because at the end of the day, it is the economy that has the strongest impact on bitcoin, not any individual.