Bitcoins/Litecoins/Virtual Currencies

Tmac said:

If you listen to the podcast, this shit happens regardless of the user. They're exploiting password/username leaks, using Coinbase's own security gaps, and then literally stealing a manager's tablet (or paying them off) at Verizon, ATT, or T-Mobile to sim swap so they can verify fund withdrawels.

Not sure how a user's savyness can avoid this. It's happening in spite of the user.

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Weird, I just got called in to T-Mobile to do a sim swap, since they merged with Sprint and apparently Sprint sims are gonna be non-functional at some point.

I doubt I got scammed because how would they know what store I'd go to, out of the 60 stores in the area? I did make sure to get back and destroy my old sim after they switched it. I don't keep anything crypto-related on my phone anyway, as it's my device most likely to get stolen. I guess it could be used to get into an exchange via verification access though.

With widespread sim-swaps going on due to that huge merger, it's a primo time for scam artists to strike.

Break said:

I know this will probably drop back down, but it's interesting to see these spikes. Something has been slowly pushing the average price up in the last 2 weeks.

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Flobee said:

Get your Bitcoin off exchanges. Exactly the kind of thing you can expect the West to try to overreact on IMO. They can't stop it, but they can make life a lot harder for you by trying

Russia Is Open To Selling Natural Gas For Bitcoin

Russia can trade with ‘friendly’ countries in national currencies or bitcoin, the chairman of the State Duma committee on energy said.

bitcoinmagazine.com

EDIT: Digging a bit deeper, this article is true but I wouldn't be confident that any trading in Bitcoin is actually happening anytime soon. Was some context missing in translation. Plenty of bullish stuff happening today though:

Exxon Considers Taking Gas-to-Bitcoin Pilot to Four Countries

Exxon Mobil Corp. is running a pilot program using excess natural gas that would otherwise be burned off from North Dakota oil wells to power cryptocurrency-mining operations and is considering doing the same at other sites around the globe, according to people familiar with the matter.

www.bloomberg.com

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Bitcoin is even higher today, think it hit 47k a little while ago. I'm up significantly from a couple months ago. The thing is, I've been fully hands-off with it for those months, and I was mulling over whether the Russia stuff is going to tank BTC (at least temporarily) so I was considering going on there to pull my funds for now. Was very surprised to find that I was actually way up, and the past week has seen a continual rise.

Wasn't planning to sell any BTC until it got back into the 60's but right now might be a good time to pull it and wait to see what happens. 47k is definitely higher than I expected it to be given current events and I'm not sure what's propelling this but it seems like a temporary anomaly.

Creating as few taxable events as possible is something we should all keep in mind going forward. The IRS is basically militarized now and audits are going to be a lot more common than they used to be. Wouldn't surprise me to see people on the wrong side of the political spectrum finding themselves being audited repeatedly.

Mist said:

Yeah I'm pretty sure the whole "IRS is militarized" thing is just some bad Rajaah BS statement, they're still absolutely drowning from being understaffed.

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They hired 60,000 new employees and will now track anything bigger than a $400 transaction.

IDK what you call that, but it's not business as usual.

Khane said:

There goes my golf gambling Venmo side hustle

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$400 transaction limit. So...do 10 transactions, lol.