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I prefer to use fully legal tax minimization and avoidance strategies to illegal tax evasion strategies, so I keep the majority of my crypto in a Roth 401k. I will never have to pay taxes on the gains. Staying completely legal opens the most doors to me.

Crypto is more traceable than any other currency or asset. Washing through Monero may work, assuming it isn't a NSA project, but ultimately you have to pull that money into fiat, and the tax man will get you there.

OTC and P2P can help, but unless you are willing to work with the kinds of people that have access to millions in off-the-books cash, you are kind of screwed.
You think crypto is more traceable than stock trading on a sec regulated exchange? Or a bank transfer? Why are the criminals always asking for such a traceable source of money?
 
Oof. I wouldn't stake ETH. Way too many unknowns, and many other ways to earn yield. Too late now, though.

Where was I during the dip? Backing the truck up. $1700 was an absolute gift, but my ETH bag is full at sub 1k, and I wanted things with higher risk and returns. SOL, SRM, and Luna were my biggest plays on the dip. Could the market have gone down from there? Certainly. Could it still still drop below the summer lows? Certainly, but the probability grows smaller every day. Less than 10% at this point. The bears really need to make a move if they are going to win here.

If I had $100k to put into ETH, would I put it all in at sub $3k? No. I would put $33k in, and wait to average in at the next dip, with the understanding that there is no guarantee that the next dip will take us below $3k. I agree, if you aren't in this for at least 3-4 years, or more, you shouldn't be playing it. Too many people in crypto have way too short of a time frame. 80% dips are common. Still, the fact remains, no one who held their BTC for 3 years has lost money.

Bears and bulls both agree that we are at the inflection point in the decision of whether this rally is a bull trap, or a continuation of the bull market. If the bear thesis of a bull trap is right, we will have to see a heavy dump into this week's close. A close below $42k ish would pretty much confirm the bull trap, but the bears are running out of time.. Tomorrow is the mid-point of the 60-day cycle, and the dip of the last few days is very healthy, going into day 30. It sets us up nicely for a right translated cycle that would send us to all-time highs before year's end, after the Sept dip, of course.

There are no certainties in any investment. There are only probabilities and time. The fractal to 10k BTC and 1k ETH is still in play. If it plays out, it just sets up for an earlier start to the next bull market. It could stink to be stuck in a losing position for a year or so, but as long as you hold through, you don't lose.

If you’re playing long on ETH, and by that I mean > longterm cap gains time at a minimum, why not stake?

Of course, next summer it could peak and you’d wish you could sell but if you’re a >1yr player, say 3-4 what’s the downside to staking to ETH2?
 
If you’re playing long on ETH, and by that I mean > longterm cap gains time at a minimum, why not stake?

Of course, next summer it could peak and you’d wish you could sell but if you’re a >1yr player, say 3-4 what’s the downside to staking to ETH2?

There are exchanges that pay interest on ETH that allow you to sell at anytime. I wasn't aware of that when I decided to stake. Unlike earned interest, I believe staking rewards are not taxable until unlocked since you can't sell.

I decided to stake because I planned to hold until 2030 or so.
 
PLS will be the base token for Pulse Chain, a hard fork of Ethereum. Much like Binance Smart Chain was of GETH. Pulse will support all the ERC-20 projects, if they want to migrate over. The goal is to reduce gas fees, and beat Ethereum to a POS model. All of the features that the Ethereum Foundation wants to do with ETH 2.0, will be present in PLS at launch. It will support smart contracts at launch, which probably comes before Cardano supports them. There will be other features of Pulse that will develop over time.

Richard Heart is the principle behind Pulse. He has a unique take on crypto, NYKNYC, but with centralized control of the token. He made HEX into the most successful asset launch in history, up 326,000% in under 2 years.

Part of the PLS launch will be the airdrop. All ERC-20 tokens will be duplicated as PRC-20 tokens, and will be available for free to the holder of the ERC-20 version. If you have ERC-20s, and you want Pulse Chain copies, you need to have your ERCs in your own wallets. If they are on exchanges, the exchange will get the tokens. You will have 30 days to claim your copies.

All PRC-20 tokens, including PLS, will start with a value of $0, and the market will determine the value from there. Some will be dead end tokens that never gain any value. Some will do well.

To get PLS at launch, you needed to participate in the sacrifice phase. That is over now, so you will have to wait for the chain to launch, with a bridge for converting other currencies. Expect the usual mega-spike and mega-crash at launch.

This is not a short-term play. This is probably like buying BNB at the BSC launch. 100,000% in 4 years is not out of the question. A small play can return big results. At the very least, you should work to ensure you get the air drop.

 
If you’re playing long on ETH, and by that I mean > longterm cap gains time at a minimum, why not stake?

Of course, next summer it could peak and you’d wish you could sell but if you’re a >1yr player, say 3-4 what’s the downside to staking to ETH2?
The number one reason is that nobody yet knows when you will be allowed to unstake. It would stink if they don't allow unstaking until the bull market run is over. and ETH has dropped 80% from the high. I could stake 20%, but I would rather earn interest on all of it, and have it all liquid.
 
You think crypto is more traceable than stock trading on a sec regulated exchange? Or a bank transfer? Why are the criminals always asking for such a traceable source of money?

Absolutely. Is there a public, distributed, immutable ledger where I can trace every stock I have ever sold, or every dollar I have ever wired, see every account it ever passes through, and see every other stock/ wire that passes through that account? There is for crypto.

Give me a wallet address, and I can tell you the entire history of that wallet.

One of the least understood foundational cornerstones of crypto is trustless verifiability. In the case of your SEC regulated exchange/ bank, sure, the exchange/ bank itself can track all the transactions, but you personally can't, and neither can the government. You and the government have to rely on the info the exchange/ bank gives you. With trustless verifiability, no trusted 3rd party is required to trace and verify transactions.

Crypto is far more traceable than cash, which still makes up the bulk of illegal transactions. The "crypto is primarily for facilitating illegal transactions" claim is a canard that should die.

Criminals aren't always the sharpest tools in the shed. Why would someone demand payment in a currency that is completely transparent and traceable?
 
Absolutely. Is there a public, distributed, immutable ledger where I can trace every stock I have ever sold, or every dollar I have ever wired, see every account it ever passes through, and see every other stock/ wire that passes through that account? There is for crypto.

Give me a wallet address, and I can tell you the entire history of that wallet.

One of the least understood foundational cornerstones of crypto is trustless verifiability. In the case of your SEC regulated exchange/ bank, sure, the exchange/ bank itself can track all the transactions, but you personally can't, and neither can the government. You and the government have to rely on the info the exchange/ bank gives you. With trustless verifiability, no trusted 3rd party is required to trace and verify transactions.

Crypto is far more traceable than cash, which still makes up the bulk of illegal transactions. The "crypto is primarily for facilitating illegal transactions" claim is a canard that should die.

Criminals aren't always the sharpest tools in the shed. Why would someone demand payment in a currency that is completely transparent and traceable?

What about the 850k BTC that were stolen from Mt Gox?
 
What about the BTC ransom that was recovered from the pipeline hackers, in like a month?

You're comparing the recovery of 2.3mil vs the loss of 40bil?



According to this, they have recovered 2.3 of the 4.4 million worth. That's still 1.1mil missing.

Mt Gox had 850k BTC stolen in 2014 which is worth around 40bil. What's taking so long to recover this?
 
You're comparing the recovery of 2.3mil vs the loss of 40bil?



According to this, they have recovered 2.3 of the 4.4 million worth. That's still 1.1mil missing.

Mt Gox had 850k BTC stolen in 2014 which is worth around 40bil. What's taking so long to recover this?

At the time of the theft, 1 BTC was only $850 so the value of stolen BTC was $720mil at the time. Still a lot but not $40bil.
 
You're comparing the recovery of 2.3mil vs the loss of 40bil?



According to this, they have recovered 2.3 of the 4.4 million worth. That's still 1.1mil missing.

Mt Gox had 850k BTC stolen in 2014 which is worth around 40bil. What's taking so long to recover this?
No, I’m not comparing the dollar amounts (obviously). You cited an example of Bitcoin being stolen, I cited an example of *some* stolen Bitcoin that was traced and recovered. Some people say that the latter is impossible “because blockchain bro”.
 
The moment of truth is here, guess we will find out if BTC is bullish or bearish after this weekend! I don't think it goes much higher from here, hope I'm wrong though.
 
So is this thread only for crypto? Do you guys ever talk about stocks?
 

Upgrade Bitcoin Rewards Card​

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How to earn crypto with the card​

With the Upgrade Bitcoin Rewards Card, you'll earn an unlimited 1.5% back in Bitcoin, but you won't receive the rewards until you pay off your purchases on the card. As you make payments on your purchases, Bitcoin will be purchased on your behalf and held in a wallet provided by NYDIG, a custody and trading platform. You can sell your Bitcoin, after a 90-day holding period, and receive the proceeds in the form of a statement credit. You’ll have to pay a 1.5% transaction fee when you sell your Bitcoin.


 
Let's say I want to open an IRA (traditional) with some money. Which IRA would you recommend?


I would think that given the volatility of the asset class, you would put crypto in a taxable account to have the ability to harvest losses.
E.g, if Bitcoin is down a bunch, sell it and immediately purchase another coin that is correlated with it.
I do this tax loss flipping all the time with equity ETFs and mutual funds.
 

Upgrade Bitcoin Rewards Card​

Card details​

Rewards:
  • 1.5% on all purchases
Sign-up bonus: None.
Annual fee: $0.

How to earn crypto with the card​

With the Upgrade Bitcoin Rewards Card, you'll earn an unlimited 1.5% back in Bitcoin, but you won't receive the rewards until you pay off your purchases on the card. As you make payments on your purchases, Bitcoin will be purchased on your behalf and held in a wallet provided by NYDIG, a custody and trading platform. You can sell your Bitcoin, after a 90-day holding period, and receive the proceeds in the form of a statement credit. You’ll have to pay a 1.5% transaction fee when you sell your Bitcoin.



You can just get Citi Double Cash for 2% cashback and buy whatever you want.
 
So is this thread only for crypto? Do you guys ever talk about stocks?

this is the crypto thread, there are probably hundreds of threads about stocks and investing in this forum you could bump up. I recommend search function. So much hilarity within them over the years to see the prognostications that ended up terrible in hindsight.
 
2.5% GBTC in Roth IRA
2.5% BTC taxable/coinbase
2.5% ETH taxable/robinhood

out of curiosity, if using a Roth for GBTC, why not ETHE in the same Roth as opposed to ETH in taxable?
 
this is the crypto thread, there are probably hundreds of threads about stocks and investing in this forum you could bump up. I recommend search function. So much hilarity within them over the years to see the prognostications that ended up terrible in hindsight.

I saw a guy say that chipotle was gonna hit 500+ when it was running in the 100s and now it's 1000+
 
out of curiosity, if using a Roth for GBTC, why not ETHE in the same Roth as opposed to ETH in taxable?

When I rebalance the Roth (September??) I'll add some ETHE as well, unless someone smarter than me tells me not to. :laugh:

Right now just has VTSAX and GBTC.
 
You can just get Citi Double Cash for 2% cashback and buy whatever you want.
The cashback card doesn't have any chance for a 10 X increase. The Crypto card is way to not notice your small investments in crypto. I found it very interesting that these credit cards exist.
 

BlockFi Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card​

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Annual fee: $0.

How to earn crypto with the card​

Unlike the SoFi Credit Card and the Brex Card, the BlockFi Bitcoin Rewards credit card will earn crypto as the default rewards option. It’s not available yet, but you can join a waitlist. To get approved for the card, which is expected to debut in summer 2021, you'll need good or excellent credit (FICO scores of 690 or higher)
 
The cashback card doesn't have any chance for a 10 X increase. The Crypto card is way to not notice your small investments in crypto. I found it very interesting that these credit cards exist.

I'm saying you can take the 2% cashback and buy crypto yourself. You'll be getting 2% instead of 1.5%.
 
After CNBC inquired about what happened to the couple, Coinbase sent Tanja an email on Aug. 20 that said the company “does not have the ability to reverse crypto transfers sent off our platform. Unlike traditional banks or credit card companies, once crypto currency transfers are confirmed on the blockchain, they are permanent.”

“Because this attack was not the result of a breach of Coinbase security or our systems, we cannot reimburse you for this loss. This attack was only possible because the attacker had prior access to your email account and access to your 2-factor authentication codes (meaning they had access to your phone number through a SIM swap) before they attempted to access your Coinbase account,” the email said.

Jared, a nurse, said he knew a hack was possible. “But you don’t think it’s going to happen to you. You think that as long as you’re careful with your password, you don’t have a virus on your computer.”

 
For example, Matthew Miller, a contributor to CNET sister site ZDNet, fell victim to a SIM-swap scam and he experienced the fallout for months afterward. Whoever took over Miller's phone number gained access to his Gmail account, and promptly changed his password, then erased every email, deleted every file in his Google Drive account, and eventually deleted his Gmail account altogether.

Miller later discovered he was targeted because he had a Coinbase account and his bank account was linked to it. Miller's phone received his Coinbase account's two-factor authentication code, so the hackers were able to log into his cryptocurrency trading account and buy $25,000 worth of Bitcoin. Miller had to call his bank and report the transaction as fraud. That's on top of the immense vulnerability he felt.

 
Researchers were able to pose as account holders who had forgotten their PIN or passcodes, oftentimes providing recent outgoing calls from the target phone number, called by the actual account holder. How do they know those numbers? They tricked the account holder into calling. Even scarier, sometimes the researchers were able to provide phone numbers for incoming calls to the account they want to take over. Meaning the bad guy simply needed to call the target's phone number themselves.

Once you realize you've lost service on your mobile device, call your carrier immediately and let them know you didn't make the changes. The carrier will help you recover access to your phone number. I can't emphasize this enough -- do not wait to call. The longer someone has access to your phone number, the more damage they can do.

Here are the customer service numbers for each major carrier. Put your carrier's number in your phone as a contact:

  • AT&T: 1-800-331-0500
  • T-Mobile: 1-800-937-8997
  • Verizon: 1-800-922-0204
 
So for your 2fa are you using a cell phone or an Authenticator? If you don’t have a hardware wallet and keep your funds on their exchange they don’t insure you against losses from a hack and unlike a bank or stock exchange you will never get those funds bracket no matter what you do.
 
I assume with my banks, just as with my home, if someone wants in bad enough they’ll find a way.
 
Good post. Everyone needs to be aware of the dangers of sim-swapping. This is a great video explaining how sim-swapping happens and what attackers can do (does not only apply to crypto account holders).

Unlike nearly every other 2fa transaction however crypto is irreversible and not protected by any insurance or laws. It’s the same as burying treasure in the backyard and having it stolen.
 
I want to found a rating agency of NFTs . Maybe sell fractional shares of NFTs. Bundle different tranches of NFTs in a single tradable security. Options on these securities and NFTs in general. Use NFTs as collateral to borrow huge amounts of money to buy stuff with. Of course, do this through LLCs, and off shore companies so I incur no personal liability or risk. Etc, etc., etc.,

Only a fu(king socialist would be against regulation that prohibits these things. The free market will be able to police this and set the appropriate price for these valuable assets.
 
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So for your 2fa are you using a cell phone or an Authenticator? If you don’t have a hardware wallet and keep your funds on their exchange they don’t insure you against losses from a hack and unlike a bank or stock exchange you will never get those funds bracket no matter what you do.

Never use your cellphone for 2FA, especially not in crypto. More and more of these stories will pop up as crypto becomes mainstream. If you have to use your cellphone, I think you can call certain companies to lock your SIM or pincode it before you can make changes, but this still doesn't protect you 100%. I use an Authenticator that is tied directly to my phone with the back up code stored physically (not online) in case I lose my phone.
 
Never use your cellphone for 2FA, especially not in crypto. More and more of these stories will pop up as crypto becomes mainstream. If you have to use your cellphone, I think you can call certain companies to lock your SIM or pincode it before you can make changes, but this still doesn't protect you 100%. I use an Authenticator that is tied directly to my phone with the back up code stored physically (not online) in case I lose my phone.
If you utilize Coinbase's offline hard storage then you get 48 hours to reverse any trade or movement of your crypto. You will get an e-mail or a text about the process well before thieves can steal your crypto. In addition, moving my crypto requires approval from 2 separate e-mail addresses again making it very hard for thieves to steal your crypto.
 
If you utilize Coinbase's offline hard storage then you get 48 hours to reverse any trade or movement of your crypto. You will get an e-mail or a text about the process well before thieves can steal your crypto. In addition, moving my crypto requires approval from 2 separate e-mail addresses again making it very hard for thieves to steal your crypto.

One thing I like about Coinbase Pro is that they have "whitelisted" addresses as well, so only my addresses are cleared to receive any crypto from the account. If you add an address, I think the wait time is 48-72 hours until it gets accepted, enough time to thwart most attempts at stealing. Honestly all crypto exchanges should have this feature. Would avoid a lot of headache and litigation.
 
POD, I appreciate your posts in the forum, so I feel like I should warn you that the HEX guy is a known scammer. (He was scamming even before crypto - notably as one of the first individuals to get successfully sued for spamming. What was he spamming? Scams, of course.) He even looks like a scammer. No, really. Watch the video.

Y'all potentially have the fire hose that is an anesthesiologist's savings rate. You don't need $1k to 200x; all you need is $20k to 10x to get to the same results. You can do that with just ethereum or bitcoin; no need to venture into sketchier waters.

I recommend sticking to ethereum and bitcoin. Maybe chainlink. Even this I'm kind of iffy about just because of how many tokens the creators hold in reserve. It was like 1/3 of supply. Maybe polkadot. They are just terrible at marketing though - the anti-Hoskinson, if you will.

Consider buying GBTC or ETHE in your tax protected accounts when things cool down a bit in September.

Buy crypto. Not too much. Mostly ethereum/bitcoin.

I'm not sure whether to be bemused, insulted, or just LMFAO that you think I don't know who Richard Heart is, and what his background is. I rather enjoy his attitude, his approach, and his live streams. His ostentation rubbed on me a little at first, but it has grown on me as I have come to understand why he does it. In this space, having a visible, readily identifiable, and interactive figurehead is one of the best ways to ensure good coin performance. (Hoskinson, Heart, Sam Bankman-Fried)

If HEX is a scam, it's the worst scam at being a scam ever. Please scam me again like this. The contract has made good on every one of its promises, and has performed exactly as designed, when measured against its native token HEX. When measured against the US dollar, it has performed better than expected. I fail to see how a project with an open contract is a scam, while NFT's, and chains with admin keys are not.

If someone bought on the day that CoinIntelligence did that ridiculous interrogation, he would be up 7,134% today. CI clearly wasn't interested in learning anything about a novel crypto, or hearing why Heart had to set it up the way he did to stay legal in the US, he came in with a pre-determined conclusion, and blustered his way through as though it was a court room and he was a prosecuting attorney. When considering the concerns he brought up... Heart didn't exit scam. The OA hasn't rugged, not that it really could, and the whales and the OA have behaved in the best interest of the token. Nobody in the ecosystem gives a **** that the OA is set up to capture wealth, anymore than Apple shareholders are seriously bothered by Tim Cook's compensation.

Will HEX survive the 15 years that people are staking? Maybe not. But that has to be put into context. How many of today's cryptocurrencies will survive the 2 to 3 bear markets that will hit over the next 15 years? ETH and BTC likely will, but not surviving doesn't make you a scam, or they are all scams. Yes, for the value of HEX to go up in USD requires people to continue buying. You know what else requires continued buying to go up? Every other cryptocurrency and equity and property. That is how assets appreciate in value.

Richard should have pointed out that the use case for HEX is the monetization of time. That is its unique feature. A year ago, people, like Coinintelligence, were ****ting all over the proof of stake model of HEX, calling it a scam. My how the turns have tabled. How many of the new blockchains are now starting as, or moving toward POS.

If I have a big chunk of money to put in the market, why would I not put 1% of it into a project like HEX. Oh, I did, and it grew to be the biggest position in my portfolio, and gave me enough profit to be a one of the bigger OGs in Pulse. I've taken out the original principle, and then some. I'll be happy to let the rest of it ride for a while. I can let the initial 1% go up thousands of percent while the 99% is in safe plays, where 10x is the floor. Just like you should always have a small percentage of your total portfolio in crypto, once in crypto, it is not a bad idea to dedicate a small part of your portfolio to a few plays that show potential for outsized returns.

I could go with the GBTC plays, but why? Outside of the premium, why would I want GBTC when I can have real BTC? The only reasons to hold GBTC are for the premium, and in accounts where you can't hold actual BTC.
 
Whether in crypto or not, protect yourself from sim swaps. Contact your cell service provider, and set it so that new sims must be obtained in person, with proof of identity
 
I would think that given the volatility of the asset class, you would put crypto in a taxable account to have the ability to harvest losses.
E.g, if Bitcoin is down a bunch, sell it and immediately purchase another coin that is correlated with it.
I do this tax loss flipping all the time with equity ETFs and mutual funds.
There is no wash sales rule in crypto. You can sell BTC and re-buy it immediately, and lock in the loss. I do this in my non-retirement trading account all the time. It makes the down days more palatable, and opens up opportunity for taking short term gains without getting raped.
 
Why all this talk of dips and things cooling down in September?
September is historically a lull for crypto. I believe 8 of the last 10 Septembers, were neutral to negative. Also there is a technical setup for a September dip. If we can set a cycle high in the next 10 days, though, we will hit all time highs, and likely 100k before the end of the year.

All we need is a touch of 51k, although higher is better. We will still get a dip afterward, but that brings the technicals in line with the fundamentals to push us positive through the end of the year.
 
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