You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments. It all started with the release of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper however that will probably go over the head of most readers so we recommend the following articles/books/videos as a good starting point for understanding how bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:
Limited Supply - There will only ever be 21,000,000 bitcoin created and they are issued in a predictable fashion per the inflation schedule. Once they are all issued Bitcoin will be truly deflationary. The halving countdown tells you how much time until the next drop in block rewards.
Open source - Bitcoin code is fully auditable. You can read and contribute to the source code yourself.
Accountable - The public ledger is transparent, all transactions are seen by everyone.
Decentralized - Bitcoin is globally distributed across thousands of nodes with no single point of failure and as such can't be shut down similar to how Bittorrent works. You can even run a node on a Raspberry Pi.
Censorship resistant - No one can prevent you from interacting with the bitcoin network and no one can censor, alter or block transactions that they disagree with, see Operation Chokepoint.
Push system - There are no chargebacks in bitcoin because only the person who owns the address where the bitcoin resides has the authority to move them.
Low fee scaling - Most wallets calculate on chain fees automatically but you can view fee estimates and mempool activity if you want to set your fee manually. On chain fees may rise occasionally due to network demand, however instant micropayments that do not require confirmations are happening via the Lightning Network, a second layer scaling solution currently rolling out on the Bitcoin mainnet.
Borderless - No country can stop it from going in/out, even in areas currently unserved by traditional banking as the ledger is globally distributed.
Trustless - Bitcoin solved the Byzantine's Generals Problem which means nobody needs to trust anybody for it to work.
Secure - Blocks and transactions are cryptographically secured (using hashes and signatures) and can’t be brute forced or confiscated with proper key management such as hardware wallets.
Programmable - Individual units of bitcoin can be programmed to transfer based on certain criteria being met
Nearly instant - From a few seconds on the lightning network to a few minutes on-chain depending on need for confirmations. Transactions are irreversible by normal users after one confirmation and irreversible by anyone (including miners) after 6 confirmations.
Portable - Bitcoin are digital so they are easier to move than cash or gold. They can be transported by simply carrying a seed (a string of 12 to 24 words) on a device or by memorizing it for wallet recovery (while cool, memorizing is generally not recommended due to potential for forgetting the seed and the potential for insecure key generation by inexperienced users. Hardware wallets are the preferred method for most users for their ease of use and additional security).
Scalable - While the protocol is still being optimized for increased transaction capacity, blockchains do not scale very well, so most transaction volume is expected to occur on Layer 2 networks built on top of Bitcoin.
Divisible - Each bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals, which means you don't have to worry about buying an entire bitcoin.
Bitcoin.org and BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin (even just a few dollars worth) and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular resources are below, also check out the bitcoinity exchange resources for a larger list of options for purchases.
You can also purchase in cash with local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin use Bitwage. Note: Bitcoin are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
Securing your bitcoin
With bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoin OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold the bitcoin for you.
If you prefer to "Be your own bank" and have direct control over your coins without having to use a trusted third party, then you will need to create your own wallet and keep it secure. If you want easy and secure storage without having to learn computer security best practices, then a hardware wallet such as the Trezor, Ledger or ColdCard is recommended.
If you cannot afford a hardware wallet there are many software wallet options to choose from depending on your use case. Mobile wallets like BlueWallet are generally more secure than desktop wallets. Beware of fake mobile wallets and check reviews from reputable Bitcoin websites. Avoid paper wallets or brain wallets.
If you prefer to let third party "Bitcoin banks" manage your coins, try Gemini or Unchained Capital but be aware you may not be in control of your private keys in which case you would have to ask permission to access your funds and be exposed to third party risk. There is a saying in the community, "Not your keys, not your coins" meaning if you don't store your coins in a wallet that you control the keys to then you do not really own your bitcoin as you have to ask permission from the third party in order to move them.
Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email! 2FA requires a second confirmation code or a physical security key to access your account making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes. Avoid using your cell number for 2FA. Hackers have been using a technique called "SIM swapping" to impersonate users and steal bitcoin off exchanges.
Physical security keys (FIDO U2F) offer stronger security than Google Auth / Authy and other TOTP-based apps, because the secret code never leaves the device and it uses bi-directional authentication so it prevents phishing. If you lose the device though, you could lose access to your account, so always use 2 or more security keys with a given account so you have backups. See Yubikey or Titan to purchase security keys. Both Coinbase and Gemini support physical security keys.
Watch out for scams
As mentioned above, Bitcoin is decentralized, which by definition means there is no official website or Twitter handle or spokesperson or CEO. However, all money attracts thieves. This combination unfortunately results in scammers running official sounding names or pretending to be an authority on YouTube or social media. Many scammers throughout the years have claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin. Websites like bitcoin(dot)com and the r / btc subreddit are active scams. Almost all altcoins (shitcoins) are marketed heavily with big promises but are really just designed to separate you from your bitcoin. So be careful: any resource, including all linked in this document, may in the future turn evil. As they say in our community, "Don't trust, verify".
Avoid using ad-based search engines like Google or Yahoo: ads are shown based on how much the advertiser bids, and scammers can easily outbid legitimate providers for ad space, since immoral ways of earning money are far more lucrative than moral ways. Use DuckDuckGo instead, which has no ads, and never tracks you as well.
Ignore private messages offering services.
Never enter your seed words in a website of any kind. Hardware wallets will recover by displaying possible seed words on their own interface, never on a website.
Always check addresses on your hardware wallet before sending or receiving. Some malware has been known to replace addresses in your web browser or that you copy-and-paste.
Avoid clicking on links like that look like links, such as https://www.google.com/, without first hovering over it and actually checking where they go to. Just because a link is labelled with an HTTPS address does not mean it actually sends you to that address. It is trivial for someone to comment a link on Reddit that looks like it will send you to one website when it actually sends you to another, and you might not notice the difference until a scammer has gotten all your money, or you have downloaded and installed software that steals your money.
Common Bitcoin Myths
Often the same concerns arise about Bitcoin from newcomers. Questions such as:
Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme?
Will governments ban Bitcoin?
Will quantum computers break Bitcoin?
All of these questions have been answered many times by a variety of people. Here are some resources where you can see if your concern has been answered:
Check out spendabit or bitcoin directory for millions of merchant options. Also you can spend bitcoin anywhere visa is accepted with bitcoin debit cards such as the CashApp card or Fold card. Some other useful site are listed below.
Gift cards for thousands of retailers worldwide including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc.
There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;
1-3% savings over credit cards or PayPal.
No chargebacks (final settlement in 10 minutes as opposed to 3+ months).
Accept business from a global customer base.
Increased privacy.
Convert 100% of the sale to the currency of your choice for deposit to your account, or choose to keep a percentage of the sale in bitcoin if you wish to begin accumulating it.
If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;
Mining bitcoin can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read the mining FAQ. Still have mining questions? The crew at /BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out. If you want to contribute to the bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions you can run a full node. You can view the global node distribution for a visual representation of the node network.
Earning bitcoin
Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoin by being paid to do a job.
You can also earn bitcoin by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoin for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoin).
Bitcoin-Related Projects
The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the bitcoin space.
One Bitcoin is quite large (hundreds of £/$/€) so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:
Unit
Symbol
Value
Info
bitcoin
BTC
1 bitcoin
one bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis
millibitcoin
mBTC
1,000 per bitcoin
used as default unit in recent Electrum wallet releases
bit
bit
1,000,000 per bitcoin
colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin (μBTC)
satoshi
sat
100,000,000 per bitcoin
smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor
For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $10000 for one Bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:
0.001 BTC
1 mBTC
1,000 bits
100k sats
For more information check out the Bitcoin units wiki. Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit. Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval. Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!
My Big Recommendations List for the Steam Winter Sale
This has been an absolutely miserable year but finally it’s coming to an end, and even looking up now that Facebook and Google are being sued by Federal and State governments. If you played Cyberpunk I’m sure you’ll also have your fingers crossed that both companies get the sledgehammer into little pieces, with Amazon and the App Store soon to follow. Next year is up in the air right now; it could be the year XR is completely strangled by those soulless corpo’s at Facebook, or it could be the year that OpenXR, anti trust action, and consumer apathy towards VR cut their legs out from under them. Things look completely up in the air at this point. So take the holidays and enjoy VR while you still can, next year we might just be playing Valve’s Citadel while the ship goes down. Well Steam’s Winter Sale is here and it’s a great time to pick up a lot of great games, hidden gems, and so on. This is my list of games to pick up. Some of them are the best prices these games have ever had. I categorized them by price tier, and I put a few standouts in bold either because they’re a great game or a great deal, or both. Merry Christmas [I also made a hardware guide for headsets and PC components, a guide to using steamVR, a guide about how to use the Index for AR, and a master acab list of great VR games, demos, and software] The Sale ends on January 5th at 10AM PT
PAYDAY 2 (-90%, $0.99) Has a full VR mode that makes the whole game VR and lets you play with flatscreen players. It’s a lot more impressive than you would expect, especially at this price (free with the base game). It has two handed guns, full access to all the content and crossplay with non VR players, a UI on your tablet watch, etc
Half-Life 2 (-80%, $1.99) You need to use Garry's Mod to run this in VR but the whole game works.
Naked Sun (-90%, $0.59) Two hand wave shooter style game where you’re being moved through a robot city and fighting ogg enemies with guns and a shield.
Scanner Sombre (-75%, $1.49) Spelunking through echolocation and a great art style. At this price and with this concept I’d say it’s definitely something to experience in VR.
Steady (-50%, $2.49) Like the lockpicking puzzle from Alyx or those boardwalk games were you move a ring over wire without touching them together. 50 levels.
fpsVR (-20%, $3.19) This is a must have utility for SteamVR. My guide to using SteamVR explains why and how to use it.
Windlands (-90%, $1.99) the first windlands game, it’s a grappling hook style adventure exploration game.
Evolution VR (-51%, $0.49) This is like that first phase of Spore, where you’re an amoeba eating larger ones and evolving with new limbs. I consider it a steal at this price, although it’s going to become free soon according to the devs.
PROZE: Enlightenment (-85%, $2.99) Puzzle adventure game set in the tundra
Evil Robot Traffic Jam HD (-80%, $0.99) Tower defense
Interkosmos (-33%, $3.34) A space survival game where you’re sitting in a tiny broken space capsule and have to make it back to earth.
Neonwall (-90%, $0.99) Guide a ball through neon obstacle puzzles
Spuds Unearthed (-75%, $2.99) RTS TD type thing. I found its balance super frustrating when I tried it but it has a lot of polish and this price is great.
Squishies (-75%, $2.49) Puzzle game with nice art that looks polished
Zooma VR (-66%, $2.03) Look at the steam page, it’s basically an adaptation of that arcade game where you shoot colored balls at other colored balls to match them up and pop them.
Obstruction : VR (-68%, $3.19)
Fingers: Mini Games (-35%, $1.94) Screw around with finger physics mini games with your index controllers.
Chroma Lab (-40%, $2.99) Particle simulator that’s kind of trippy
Drone Hero (-90%, $0.99) Drone obstacle course game
Defendion (-80%, $$2.19) Laned fantasy strategy game
Bonfire (-50% $2.49) A little story where you’re crash landed on an alien planet with Ali Wong and meet cartoon aliens
Cliffstone Manor (-75%, $1.99) Difficult escape room style game
Moonshot Galaxy (-65%, $1.74) space mini golf game
Protogon VR (-80% $1.99) Combination minigolf pinball game with neon crazy graphics
Power Tools VR (-50%, $0.99) Chip away at a stone block with power tools
Race The Sun (-80%, $1.99) Endless forward obstacle racer with options VR support
SpellPunk VR (-73%, $2.96) Competitive spell casting game
Strings (-90%, $0.99) It’s a smaller, more basic game, basically a shooter with different items you use to fight enemies as you teleport around stages.
SweeperVR (-50%, $1.99) Minesweeper in 3 Dimensions
PolyCube (-50%, $2.49) complex 3D tetris
UNTITLED (-50%, $2.49) 3D surreal puzzle game
Intruders: Hide and Seek (-90%, $1.99) Gamepad horror game
WRG games bundle (-96%, $0.65) Escape room and a non VR game
Apex Construct (-75%, $4.99) This is where the energy battery puzzles come from. It's early VR but really strong on story, progression, and interactions, the combat is mostly archery
FORM (-70%, $4.44) “A surreal adventure where puzzles are built from dreams and memories”
NIGHTSTAR: Alliance (-60%, $3.99) Bullet Hell in space, but with a story and customization
Blasters of the Universe (-75%, $3.74) Bullet Hell with a lot of polish and progression and you unlike new weapon parts
FREEDIVER: Triton Down (-50%, $4.49) Drowning simulator, shorter but high quality
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (-70%, $4.49) This is one of the best VR party games, easy to play remotely or in the same room with other plays holding a printed out or mobile browser manual helping the VR player disarm a bomb.
Out of Ammo Fun Bundle (-78%, $4.48) A bit rough but still getting updates and still low poly fun. First one has multiplayer. They’re both FPS/RTS but the first one is war themed, while the second one is a zombie game.
Orb Labs (-50% $4.49) A stealth puzzle game where you use different orbs to complete puzzles around lasers, turrets, and other hazards.
Thumper (-80%, $3.99) Best selling surreal rhythm game, best with a gamepad. I definitely recommend it if you are fine with the gamepad controls.
Vetrix (-20% $4.79) Tetris inspired. It has a two layer deep grid allowing for lots of 3D shapes that you can stick into place by hand in a twist on the usual formula. It has its own 8bit tunes, special blocks, multiple modes, and a bunch of color profiles based on the gameboy’s aesthetic.
Transpose (-75%, $4.99) A game where you solve puzzles with a recording of yourself. It’s one of the best and more creative puzzle games in VR.
Operation Warcade VR (-75%, $4.99) Old but the concepts work really well. It’s like a 3D light gun game that pulls you in for some moments
Echo Grotto (-50%, $3.99) Echo Grotto is a spelunking game with stylized graphics. You pick your gear and then use a throwing based teleportation system that leaves a trail behind you.
HATCHICK (-75%, $3.74) Like Xortex from the lab, a bullet hell inside a dome
Journey For Elysium (-50%, $4.99) Greek mythology adventure game, a black and white art style
Just In Time Incorporated (-75% $3.74) You appear in slow motion to save people who have Just In Time Insurance. Super basic graphics but the gameplay is fun and for this price it’s a good buy.
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin (-75%, $4.99)
Shooty Skies Overdrive (-50%, $4.99) It’s a bullet Hell with polish and a voxel style.
Portable Farm (-20%, $3.99) It’s a light farming game, but the hook is that this runs on top of other games like an overlay.
Balloonatics (-65%, $3.49) Single and multiplayer hot air balloon combat. A big update is coming.
Axegend VR (-50%, $4.99) Tower Defense mixed with some fantasy combat
Buzludzha VR (-60%, $4.79) If you like VR tourism then this is pretty good.
Carnival Games VR (-75%, $4.99) Party game style game. It crashes unless you turn off the game’s haptics in input bindings
Bandit Point (-50%, $4.99) Renaissance robot shooter where you possess different robots in combat
Downward Spiral: Horus Station (-70%, $5.99) Zero G space thriller
Flotilla 2 (-50%, $4.99) Turn based RTS in 3D between space battleships
VR Furballs - Demolition (-60%, $4.79) Angry birds style game
Townsmen VR (-50%, $4.99) This was barebone and felt like a demo, but it’s going to get a big update that scales it up into a game and should be free for anyone who owns this version.
Starblazer (-75%, $4.99) A 3D space RTS with multiplayer
Skyworld: Kingdom Brawl (-50%, $4.99) This is a classic VR RTS scaled down to a quick 1v1 RTS battle.
RuneSage (-60%, $3.99) Open world puzzle fantasy game
2945VR (-45%, $3.29) Space shoot em up
Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son (-33%, $10.04) Sequel to the movie with a similar idea where you relive the same day over and over and progress
HORIZON VANGUARD (-33%, $10.04) Sega Saturn Style arcade shooter on a hoverbike. Don’t let the graphics fool you, this is a really well made puzzle game in a Sega Saturn style
Fujii (-35%, $9.74) Gardening with a weird forest spirit
Garden of the Sea (-50%, $5.99) Animal Crossing looking zen farming game by the devs behind Budget Cuts 2, early access but steady updates are coming adding features and more mechanics..
GORN (-50%, $9.99) Cartoon melee colosseum game, VR classic that has killed a thousand controllers
Contractors (-50% $9.99) smallest player base of the big shooters but full of good ideas and strong gunplay. Now has mod support, including custom maps, weapons, and modes like world war II, ninja warrior, Halo, etc
1976 - Back to midway (-50%, $7.49) Just came out, it’s a good game, already on sale. This is a good deal. This is a 2.5D shoot em up that has “immersion zones” where you take direct control in first person. It really captures the idea of stepping inside an old arcade machine really well.
Creed (-75%, $7.49) This is a pretty good multiplayer boxing game that goes for a more arcade style, Graphics are good, it’s polished, and obviously it’s licensed from the movie
Bizarre Barber (-50%, $5.99) Arcade game about cutting aliens’ hair as they come by in passing subway cars. It goes for a more surrealist vibe.
Garry's Mod (-33%, $6.69) This needs a community hack to be VR, but it works and even lets you play HL2 in VR
Cubism (-20%, $7.99) A tetronomo style puzzle where you need to figure out how to make the finished shape out of the pieces you’re given, in 3D. Feels like it’s made by Apple.
Gravity Lab (-40%, $8.99) Rube goldberg puzzler where you build machines to get the ball from the start to the finish, sci fi settings.
Pierhead Arcade Bundle (-63%, $7.48) The first one is stronger and a great little VR boardwalk with multiplayer to show off to people with high quality minigames,and with an update this week they made it so if you own both, then the games carry over into 2, which has index support and a ton of its own games too.
Prison Boss (-60%, $7.99) The best crafting game in VR, you play a prisoner who makes and sells contraband, so it’s business sim as well since you buy equipment and supplies to make various products.
Tabletop Simulator (-50%, $9.99) (4-Pack for $29.99) (Most DLC -50%,) Look, the VR support here has issues but since it’s a board game simulation all you need to do is make sure you can sit down, move around, and grab things (just make your own bindings from the desktop SteamVR settings). Since it uses the Steam workshop it’s an insane value with endless excellent quality content. The matchmaking system means you can play all kinds of games at all hours with thousands of people.
Westworld Awakening (-80%, $5.99) If you love the show this is a must have, pretty well received as just a good game overall.
Superfly (-34%, $9.89) This is a super hero sim game in VR. You can have six different types of powers with their own movement and combat mechanics around a cartoon city
Ultrawings (-50%, $7.49) Super user friendly flight sim with VR controls. I definitely recommend it. You complete missions to get money to spend on new planes across several cartoonish islands that you fly between.
Shooty Fruity (-55%, $8.99) One of the best wave shooters in my opinion, but the controls are a little broken for the Index since it doesn’t use SteamVR input.
RUSH (-60%, $7.99) Wing suit skydiving game
Climbey (-31% $6.89) A classic VR climbing game with multiplayer and steam workshop support for courses
Space Pirate Trainer (-40%, $8.99) Everyone’s favorite wave shooter, one of the first wave of room scale VR games that came out with the Vive. There’s no progression but it handles the mechanics of dodging bullets and dealing with growing waves of enemies really well with a lot of modes for your weapons.
Spectro (-50%, $7.49) Ghost hunting game that feels a bit like it’s made for kids but it’s still a good roguelike.
The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets (-50% $7.49) Cutesy puzzler abou finding a bunch of stolen pets on little floating islands you interact with.
ViSP - Virtual Space Port (-50%, $7.49) You build these blocky space stations in third person trying to hold off attacks by aliens.
A Fishermans Tale (-35%, $9.74) A recursive puzzle game where you’re a fisherman in a box messing with a fisherman in a box who has a fisherman in a box…
I Expect You To Die (-60% $9.99) A james bond style escape room game with a ton of polish and a lot of content, one of the best of the genre.
The Forest (-50%, $9.99) Port, has good co op, suniverseurvival with crafting and base building in a forest full of mutants.
The Mage's Tale (-70%, $8.99) I haven’t been able to try this one, but it’s well reviewed and has a nice art style.
2MD: VR Football (-30% $9.09) This is basically quarterbacking in VR. You throw the ball but you don’t run around with it. Also you throw with the trigger by default, for safety reasons. It’s still fun, but it’s definitely not a full football experience.
Deism (-30%, $5.59) This a god game with a low poly art style, it’s in early access with a lot of updates.
Cave Digger (-50%, $9.99) Steampunk mining game with multiple endings
The Thrill of the Fight (-20% $7.99) This is the more realistic boxing game more like a simulation, and it's good as a workout.
Carly and the Reaperman (-50%, $9.99) Escape from the Underworld (-50%, $9.99) One of the best asymmetric games, this is a co op platformer adventure where the VR player helps the gamepad player. Works with Parsec/Remote Play Together
Gun Club VR (-60% $7.99) For a gun sim, get H3. The value in this game are the missions where you have to hit cardboard targets across different themes and weapon types like WWII, modern day, zombies, or carnival style targets.
Swords of Gurrah (-30%, $6.99) Multiplayer sword fighting with a little community.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (-75%, $7.49) Port of third person game, really high quality but gamepad controls.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad (-85%, $7.49) A HOTAS based WWII combat flight sim
Marble Land (-60%, $5.99) A physics base puzzle game about getting the marble to the goal
Combat Tested (-69%, $6.19) This is a mixed game, but it’s really creative with the gritty super powers you have while you try to escape from a lab full of people trying to stop you.
Blind (-75%, $6.24) You can only see by making noise (canes, throwing things, etc)
Adapt or Perish (-40%, $5.99) Evolutionary strategy game with a VR mode
Pinball FX2 VR (-60%, $5.99) Made for VR realistic pinball
Assetto Corsa (-90%, $7.93) Racing sim with optional VR
Seeking Dawn (-80%, $5.99) Not great, but super ambitious with story and alien enemies and crafting and base building and just generally more than I expected, and it actually kind of works.
Pavlov VR (-40%, $14.99) Pavlov is basically a game that set out to be Counter Strike VR and became the Garry's Mod of VR and the most creative community outside VRChat. I’ve seen and played everything from roller skate racing, a remake of the entirety of Super Mario 64, TF2 Payload, over a hundred TTT maps, some of the best Battle Royale I’ve seen in VR, Slow-mo zero G modes, SCP, LifeMod and DarkRP, five completely different kinds of zombie modes, and a lot more. It’s been a fixture of SteamVR and pretty soon they’re releasing a World War II update with character models and new guns for the USSR, USA, Germany, and UK, new maps, and multi user tanks that you use in first person. It’s as much a must have as there can be, as long as you like multiplayer shooters.
Vertigo Remastered (-40%, $14.99) A 19 year old genius kid who worked at Valve and Cloudhead games made this on his own. It feels like a scaled down Alyx with nice physics, creative weapons and tools, and great personality across a campaign.
Paper Beast (-30%, $13.99) One of the standout PSVR games. You’re in a surreal papercraft desert with dynamic and lifelike paper animals. It has a story and then a smaller sandbox mode. It’s a surreal style experience that works well in VR.
Jet Island (-35%, $12.99) take on a huge open world with an island of enemies on your hoverboard
Falcon Age (-35%, $12.99) You play a young falconer who uses her whip and bird to fight off colonizing robots that are strip mining her planet. It’s a pretty high quality game and semi open world.
Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency (-50%, $14.99) VR stealth with a portal style teleport gun and a bow. It’s well written and has a lot of polish. Sequel to one of the standout classics of early VR.
Superhot VR (-40% $14.99) This is the game that sold me on VR. It’s basically the Matrix, where time moves when you move. It’s actually not a port of the original superhot, which is why the sequel isn’t coming to VR. I think it’s slightly overrated, there isn’t a ton of content, it just seems more concise than the marketing conveys
Gadgeteer (-20% $11.99) Even more rube goldberg puzzler, but more of a dominos style of gameplay.
Ironwolf VR (-30%, $13.99) Submarine simulator, has destroyer mode now too with coop and some competitive multiplayer. I definitely recommend this as a co op experience.
Hotel RnR (-40% $11.99) You’re a dead rocker who makes a deal with the devil to destroy hotel rooms
Duck Season (-35%, $12.99) Make someone else play this without explaining it to them. Tell them it’s just Duck Hunt.
Down the Rabbit Hole (-40%, $11.99) Third person Alyx in Wonderland game with player choice
3dSen VR (-40%, $11.99) 3D NES emulator that makes them feel like a totally new experience.
The Wizards Bundle (-68%, $15.92) The first one is an okay wave shooter, the second is more of an adventure game with great graphics and more variety.
Thief Simulator VR (-27%, $14.59) A semi open world game where you go around stealing people’s phones, jewelry, and cars.
Vox Machinae (-45%, $13.74) If you like Mech games this is basically a must buy, you control it by hand with all the bits and bobs of the cockpit and the graphics look really good. VR and flatscreen with crossplay multiplayer.
Yupitergrad (-15% $12.74) A grappling hook adventure game set aboard a collapsing soviet space station
Windlands 2 (-60%, $11.99) This is a grappling hook style game with somewhat basic graphics but large worlds and big enemies. Some people have called it the best spiderman game in VR.
Hello Puppets (-30%, $13.99) Cartoon horror with weird humor, your hand is an evil puppet
Moss (-50% $14.99) A third person platformer adventure game about a little mouse
Skytropolis (-55%, $11.24) A vertical citybuilder, which is a rare genre in VR. It’s from 2017 and doesn’t get updates any more but it does work and it’s not a bad game in the genre.
Pixel Ripped 1995 (-30%, $13.99) A love letter to 16 bit gaming. You play video games inside the game and have to avoid getting caught playing in the middle of the night, etc.
ModBox (-25% $11.24) This is a sandbox game creator with steam workshop support. IT has a lot of potential and supports asymmetric play, VR multiplayer, and creation inside and outside of VR.
New Retro Arcade: Neon (-35%, $12.99) This is kind of buggy, and you need to use the unofficial arcade builder, but as a social VR experience for friends it can be pretty cool. Roms aren’t shared online unless the other people are on parsec or something, but a few activities like movies, the built in games, and bowling are actually multiplayer. The arcade is persistent for you and your friends even if you’re doing different things in different rooms.
Phasmophobia (-10%, $12.59) The big new co op horror multiplayer game, but this one also supports VR
Synth Rider (-40% $14.99) This is the closest Beat Saber style game to the original, with a smoother style of gameplay. But the maps feel unbalanced, like every difficulty or gameplay setting is the exact same map just being automatically tweaked. This can make it feel unfair or constricting.
Into the Radius (-30%, $20.99) Basically Stalker VR, kill enemies and complete missions for cash as you progress
Mini Motor Racing X (-50%, $19.99) Racing game that you control with your actual hands which is great but the tracks can be pretty small and with lots of tight turns since it’s a micro car game. Also has a rocket league mode which is fun.
Stride (-25%, $14.99) Basically mirror’s edge in VR. You run and jump and wall run across different environments, with some combat and stealth too. There are two modes out now and another one coming soon with a story.
BattleGroupVR (-30% $17.49) This is probably the most polished RTS in VR, made by one dev but it’s right up there with final assault and works better in singleplayer. Multiplayer is being tested right now. It’s a space real time RTS where you’re on the bridge of one of your ships and you can command the others in holograms, see the battle in third person, and the graphics are great. There’s a story and campaign too
Until You Fall (-20%, $19.99) This is basically Infinity Blade in VR. It does melee by having lines appear in the air and you need to line up your sword with them to block enemy attacks, with some later enemies requiring you to duck off to the side to dodge attacks. It’s a roguelike so you fight through as many enemies you can, small stage by stage, until you die and spend the money you earned on new weapons and abilities.
STAR WARS™: Squadrons (-40%, $23.99) As an experience, Squadrons is exactly what you expect. It’s really immersive and really feels like being in a star wars dogfight
The Talos Principle VR (-60%, $15.99) Croteam are the devs of the classic Serious Sam series, and when the Vive came out they went all in and converted all their games over to VR, including their puzzle game Talos Principle. It was one of the higher quality experiences back then and it still holds up.
Tales Of Glory (-40%, $17.99) First person medieval war RTS. It’s been in early access for a long time but the dev has put in a ton of work and made it a pretty unique experience with some of the best medieval combat outside Blade and Sorcery combined with strategy and base capture.
Universe Sandbox (-33%, $19.99) Just got an update redoing the entire VR UI side of the game.
Automata Break (-15%, $16.99) An asymmetric tower defense game you can play with a friend or alone.
Skyrim VR (-67%, $19.79) Good port, works better than Fallout4VR with a big modding scene. This price is a bit higher than it has been in the past.
Ragnarock (-15%, $16.99) Rhythm game where you beat the drums on a viking ship to metal and celtic rock. This seems like the best beat saber style game I’ve seen alongside Synth Riders, and the music is distinct.
Industrial Petting (-15% $16.99) You farm alien pets to sell them back on earth. It’s an industrial production kind of game, with multiplayer support and VFlatscreen modes
In Death (-50%, $14.99) Roguelike archery game set in Purgatory. Price feels a little steep when it stopped getting updates on PC in early 2019.
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (-30%, $10.49) Basically Angry Birds in 3D. You can shoot in room scale and teleport to different spots to get a better angle. There's a fair amount of content too.
Arizona Sunshine (-63%, $14.79) The first big co op zombie game. It shows it's age but it's still popular and has some DLC. I would recommend this one only on sale and mostly if you're planning on playing co op.
L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files (-50%, $14.99) I think the cases are taken from the original game, but it's LA Noire in VR. There's driving, shooting, interrogations, looking for clues, everything from the original game. Seven cases.
Half-Life: Alyx (-25%, $44.99) The best looking VR game and one of the best games of this generation.
Boneworks (20%, $23.99) This game is a must buy, but do not get it if you’re new. This is a game where pushing on a wall with your hand pushes the camera back. It will make you sick if you don’t have VR legs. The combat, melee, physics puzzles, are all extremely strong and it has an 11 hour campaign, along with arena, zombies, and sandbox modes. Another content update is also coming soon.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (-20%, $31.99) This is a great game. It’s less Left for Dead and more realistic in the sense that tension is very high and both humans and zombies are threats. There’s light crafting, upgrades, and collecting supplies, complete with physics and a faction systems and multiple paths to go down.
Vacation Simulator (-20% $23.99) The best minigame collection game with the games integrated into three worlds with a lot to do, across multiple settings with progression and a basic story. Super immersive.
No Man's Sky (-50%, $29.99) All new updates apply to VR too. Performance is spotty but the entire massive experience is carried over into VR, and there’s multiplayer too.
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades ($19.99) This game isn’t on sale but it’s getting an advent calender with daily updates until christmas. This is basically the ultimate “labor of love” game in VR. Detailed physics simulation of lots of guns, big recommendation for those with any interest in sandbox, has game modes like Take and Hold and Team Fortress, single player only.
Pistol Whip (-20%, $19.99) This doesn’t go on sale as often. I would say it’s the first rhythm game that can actually go toe to toe with Beat Saber. It doesn’t have custom maps, but it gets regular content updates and just got a set of five campaign levels.
VTOL VR (-15% $25.49) This is the most advanced made for VR flight sim with full VR controls, tons of customization, and a bunch of modern fighter planes. It’s a community favorite and it’s even getting multiplayer soon.
AGOS - A Game Of Space (-33%, $20.09) This got a super mixed reaction. It’s basically a third person satellite simulator. If you like the movement method you’ll like the game, otherwise you probably won’t. Watch some gameplay on youtube.
Sairento (-35%, $19.79) This is like a ninja version of Superhot. I didn't enjoy it too much but many people like it. It has a lot of different weapons and you can do things like bounce off walls up to an enemy and cutting their head off with a katana.
Gnomes & Goblins (-35%, $19.49) This got a mixed reaction. Basically it’s a game where you visit a community of gnomes and has two parts. In the first part you go on a little adventure meeting the gnomes and hanging out with them. But the rest of the game is doing activities and collecting artifacts around their town to fill your house.
Disassembly VR (-30%, $20.99) Destruction and deconstruction physics sandbox simulator, just added melee combat.
Also worth taking a look at, over at Fanatical they’re doing a “make your own bundle.” 2 games for $6.99, 3 games for $9.99, 5 games for $14.99
Cosmic Trip - A very polished VR base capture RTS in first person where you build and manage drones and mine for crystals on an alien planet.
Sprint Vector - Basically a footrace game you play by swinging your arms, set on an alien gameshow.
Polybius - A trippy tunnel shooter with surreal pixel graphics, based on the haunted arcade game.
Rainbow Reactor- Kind of like a sac toss arcade puzzle game.
Conductor - An escape room style adventure game with a physics gun.
Battlewake - This was a really hyped game that kind of flopped. Basically it looks really great graphically but the gameplay loop feels really repetitive and kind of shallow. For co op at this price it's a good buy.
Raw Data - Early polished VR wave shooter, but it shows its age. It has multiplayer but the index support is pretty bad.
Dungeons & Treasure VR - A small voxel fantasy roguelike with multiplayer support.
*This is long; I got lots of great questions after the whales 101 post so I’m trying to be thorough. If you don’t want long shit skip to positions and TLDR. If you want me to search a ticker, you can comment it or PM me and I’ll try my best to get to it and we can talk shop. Inbox open all night like the trap house. * Some Unusual Options Activity caught my eye from Friday for this week. I typically like to scan the prior Friday on the weekend, so I figured I’d share what I was looking at in case it gives you confirmation bias or an idea. REMEMBER: UOA IS AN EDUCATED GUESSING GAME WHERE YOU ARE TRYING TO STAY ABOVE 50%, AND HAVE A FEW AMAZING BAGGERS HERE AND THERE. DO NOT YOLO WHALES The way I’ll break this down is by laying out my.. C choices: Options activity that is intriguing, but seems like there is a strong possibility it could be a hedge, a sell the news event, isn't confirmed once I do more research, or hasn't been called out by Unusual Whales. No precise formula. B choices: Ones I am pretty down to hop on, but need to see more. I might be waiting for a dip, a related news event to play out, or this is one I feel could go against me big if it's an institutional hedge because of its Greeks. A choices: Shit I will likely buy right at the open, fits into what my thought process on a sector generally has been, and is simply a ticker I like. ———————————— C choices some whales bought: FSLR and SPWR: Somebody is betting solar UOA cluster example for bothFSLR: underlying=96.85 Order: 110c 1/22 (IV 63.98%) SPWR: underlying= 31.96 Orders: 33 and 37c 1/22 Unusual Whales Alert: FSLR no/SPWR YES Earnings Reports: Mid February Why I like it: Solar cooled down a little bit after the Biden-stonk frenzy to start off the week. ICLN, EV, etc could just be refueling, and aren't necessarily done running. Why I don’t like it: Falling knives, and could still be finding the bottom of it's channel. It had a hell of a run, and hopping in now feels greedy. The volume on these orders is also low, which can be a coinflip as to what it means. Sometimes 600-1,000 volume is the sweet spot, but IV and Greeks [SPWR greeks]: shitty theta (you’re giving back almost 20% of premium price each day on the 1/29c) and IV at or near the money is already about 100% by this point. The only upside to straight buying a call is playing the IV/Vega on Joe Biden's inauguration speech News confirmation and catalyst(s): Biden's inauguration speech could lay out a great renewable energy plan that gives the whole sector a boost. Last week people played weed, energy and EV in hopes that his Thursday speech would touch on these things--there is a much higher likelihood his inauration speech will. Also, huge news about the Keystone pipeline came out this weekend , and I don't know if this means uppies or downies for other oil companies, since big oil is trying to appeal by saying they'll switch sources. Position: Waiting to see how Keystone decision fallout hits them tomorrow morning. If there is a significant dip I'll probably buy it for some 1/29 SPWR calls Wednesday morning and dump with a swiftness after inauguration. B choices: PEP🚀🚀 underlying=141.39 Orders: 152.50 2/12c (IV 20.74%), 143c 1/22 (IV 16%) Unusual Whales: No alert Earnings Report: February 11th Why I kinda like it: Didn't see many KO calls around, but saw the PEP calls; that contrast made the order stand out to me as more than a sectoindustry bet. The fact that the ER is one day before the 2/12 call expiration makes me like this play because I can pick up some IV along the way for what feels like a very oversold tech stalwart. [IV and the Greeks: Looks good to me, no major caution flags. BUT, the bid/ask spread is a little wide. This partially keeps it at C level; I’ll probably put in a low bid, forget it, and see if the price action during the day gets the order filled. News confirmation and catalyst(s):On Friday Lebron James announced he’s switching his KO sponsorship to a PEP sponsorship--which probably played into this UOA. Looking into this more, I saw that it's an energy drink play and he's now attached to Mountain Dew's Rise energy drink. Maybe PEP gets some price upgrades since people saw how much of a beast MNST has traditionally been, maybe this starts some conversation around the sector as a whole on CNBC, or maybe neither of those things happen. BUT, with a relatively safe stock making a big name play leading into earnings, I'm willing to lose a little theta for a week to see if anything plays out. Position: A relatively safe PEP 145c 2/12 while I play the waiting game for a week or so and reevaluate. If it's smooth sailing, likely hold for a bit into the earnings run and sell before. FB🚀🚀: Underlying= 251.36 / b: 252.50c, 257c 1/22, others (IV: 38% for 1/22, ~50% for 1/29) Unusual Whale alert: No Earnings Report: 1/27 Why I like it: Welcome to earnings season for big tech, and FB is a steal right here. They’ve been pummelled, fairly or unfairly, in the "censorship" aftermath and is at a great level to bounce...you can't cuck the Zuck. I have been seeing Fb calls with their own hedges trickle in like this since Wednesday and Thursday nonstop--there was some bad What's App backlash to their new privacy policy, but if anything that will be a tastier dip for Monday entry that is to be bought. IV and the greeks: slightly elevated IV because ER is coming, but fine. Still plenty of room for an upward trajectory on IV/Vega. The premium for 1/29 is a tad bit pricey, so if you can't afford that I'd look at a vertical call spread capping at 255 if you're going to play it with a close expiration. News confirmation and catalyst(s): What's App issue is a potential albatross for tomorrow, but I do believe this will be a relatively smooth upward earning trajectory. Also, their Oculus 2 demand numbers are going be through the roof and has great meme potential. I don't usually hold through ER, but I may keep a lotto for this. Been hovering around MA200, ready to bounce bounce. Position: FB 1/29 255c, FB 2/19 260c DVN 🚀🚀🚀: underlying= 19.57 / Orders: 19.50, 20c, 21.50 1/22, many others with exp. from now to May. (IV high, around 100% on ATM weeklies) DVN UOA Unusual Whales alert: Yes Earnings Report: Feb 16th Why I like it: I've been seeing it pop up so much in clusters I can't ignore it any Longer. The volume has been intense in the whole sector. This Barron's article confirmed the activity I've been around energy. They compare it to TSLA--yes, TSLA. IV and the greeks: IV is getting a bit high because of the overall energy spike, but I have confidence it's heading higher. The bid/ask spread is problematic, though. Will enter low and hope the order gets bought on a dip. News confirmation and catalyst(s): aside from the call activity and the Barron's article pump, we have the inauguration for Biden to lay out a true vision for energy. Early indications are that while solar, EV, etc are the hot names there is a place for truly evolving big oil companies. They also just completed a merger on January 7th. Plus we have a nice dip tomorrow as an entry point with the Keystone news Positions: This is one that you buy LEAPS or monthlies on-- I'm looking at *2/19 121.5c and 3/19 121.5c *but I fully acknowledge that the bid/ask spread is a bitch at the moment. A list: EDIT 🚀🚀🚀: underlying = 76.14 / Order: 1/22 85c (IV 116%) Why I Like It: Ever since I missed the NIO/PLUG everything EV launch a couple months back, I've been looking for the next industry to go off. Energy is one of my choices, the other is whatever the fuck is going on with Gene Editing. Genetically constructed super-babies, so hot right now. I know ARKG exists as well, I consider that a part of this play too. IV and the Greeks: Unideal for the short term, as under 100% is a general rule of thumb, but I really like this as a long term hold--so much so that I'm going to recommend the S word here (ssssssshares). Confirmation and catalyst(s):Barron's came out with this piece over the weekend, which is part of what I'm sure that whale was chasing.
While gene-editing start-ups will lose money during years of clinical trials, it’s hard to say the stocks are overvalued. If their one-time interventions can cure diseases that otherwise require chronic treatment—or lack any treatment at all—then the stocks will fly.
Position: Opening up two LEAPs if I can get a dip so the 1/20/22 ask is only around 2,300. Will chase on a 2/5 77 because the bid/ask spread on that strike is (relatively) reasonable and it feels doable. If this one is pricey for you consider call debit spreads. Two interesting trends from Friday UOA that I’m trying to connect some dots on: 1) Cruiseline puts were everywhere I saw this enough that it made me think. My hunch was that a lot of bad COVID recovery-stonk news is coming during inauguration (plus global trends). That contrasted a little with the second interesting trend... 2) Vaccines all got Unusual call options at various times I saw MRNA got some UK upgrade attention today--maybe that was some of the reason, maybe that was none of the reason, but interesting nonetheless. I checked Unusual Whales to see if they have any cruise alerts and they had the opposite of the orders I saw--a CCL 1/29 call alerted. They also had MRNA 2/5 145 calls. I'm going to stay away from the cruise puts, and probably go with some MRNA and NVAX 2/5 calls, slightly OTM depending where we open up. It seems like the cruise puts were a hedge for a good week for vaccines. Open Interest change notables: 1) Oil saw huge OI increases for January and Feb expirations (XOM, PBR, etc). 2) Uber had huge OI increase for 2/19 both calls and puts. Earning are 2/10 3) F and GM having obvious increases from their big splashes 4) SRNE had serious volume as well and lots of sporadic call buys —————————- Other options I saw I liked:BZUN 2/19 45cFEYE 1/22 25c I will play as a 2/5, WKHS 25c 2/5 Positions: PEP 145c 2/12 FB 1/29 255c, FB 2/19 260c DVN 2/19 21.5c and 3/19 121.5c EDIT: 2/5 77c INO/NVAX/MRNA take your pick (Cruise puts hedge) EDIT: JUST NOTICED A 170c 1/22 NVAX I MISSED VXX: 1/29 18c and 19c. bigly hedged for inauguration shenigans. waiting for a dip for some of these because I’m Nervous about Thursday. TLDR: Energy, Gene editing, and Vaccines were all trending on Friday UOA. FB has been getting a lot of call activity as well ahead of earnings. PEP looks good for a run too on the heels of Lebron James signing pre-earnings. —————— This doesn’t update so I’ll put screenshots and stuff if more interesting stuf comes in when I check in the daily thread. I try to update these on my twitter as well @yourboymit. Mods, trying to be helpful since there are no edit notifications, not shilling or selling anything. Go Bengals.
Comprehensive List of Retail Brokers & Their Association with Citadel & Apex
Introduction
This is my first piece of DD that I'm posting on here so I'm sorry if I fuck something up. You can roast me in the comments if I do. TL;DR at the end but you should read this if you're considering moving from RH (and you should be). TL;DR: I used public filings with the SEC to find how much money brokers made from Citadel and whether they used Apex or not. I found that largely,
Apex is to blame for the trading halts on many of the popular retail brokerages
Most of the trading halts related to Apex lasted <1 day and the brokerages were not thrilled about what they had to do
Robinhood is one of 2-3 brokerages still maintaining halts. It appears that Robinhood did not have the adequate financial assets in place to securely handle sufficient volume given collateral requirements by the National Clearinghouse. Though my original anger at RH is now less given the new info we found out, my trust is still critically low because of this.
Vast majority of brokerages get shittons of money from Citadel, for selling our order flow. In some cases the revenue is in the $millions per month.
I think that Vanguard and Fidelity are by far the most safe options. Other retail brokers might be less risky than RH but still have ties to Apex which can still go wrong, as we saw. The smaller retail apps that did make it through without halts seem to have had very low volume to begin with, meaning their "strength" is not necessarily a result of robust practices on their behalf. Obligatory disclaimer: I'm not a financial advisor. This isn't financial advice. Everything in this post is based on my understanding of exclusively publicly available information—any dumbs can look this up. All I did was synthesize publicly available information & other people's analysis for people to enjoy. Some information in this post may contain my own personal analysis or opinions—they shall hold no weight and I encourage all readers to make their own decisions and do their own research. I am monke 🦍 Positions: $GME 2/5 $800c (pleas print) & 18.61 shares at $15, $30, $38, $143 currently getting a prostate exam by Robinhood's risk management intern. 💎🤲! Following the fallout with Robinhood, I wanted to find brokers that wouldn't bend me over in a critical time. I was pissed that Robinhood would fuck me silly behind my back. I literally had the perfect move lined up and involving 0 DTE options and shares that got destroyed by RH. Stressing out about not fumbling the bag with trades is enough by itself - but dealing with broker market manipulation made me shit bricks and I don't want to do this anymore. I decided to switch to Fidelity but the UI stinks and I didn't want to be left bag holding if doing high-speed trades. I actually make quite a few trades on my phone and not having the appropriate features is detrimental to my tendies. Surely capitalism would produce meaningful alternatives to Robinhood. So I activated my 1.3 braincells and dug as deep as I could. I tried my best to synthesize the context surrounding the retail brokerage debacle, figure out the main bad actors, and determine which brokers would be least shittiest to switch to.
The Setup - What happened with Robinhood? How do we avoid it?
Citadel As we all know, the chief clown in this circus is Citadel Securities - a massive exchange venue and market maker that basically matches buys & sells between people and bots and shit. Robinhood sells our order flow to them for pennies like a sloppy behind a Wendy's. Citadel uses their HFT bots made by nerds to front-run out trades and scam us on market orders, among other things. This was fine and most people would never give a fuck. The grand catharsis came to play this week when Citadel's deadpan conflict of interest came into play - Citadel just threw $2 billion at Melvin, all of which practically went tits up, and suddenly we see Robinhood shutting down trading on GameStop & other highly shorted assets right as they hit boiling point for a runup. Shady. Involvement with Citadel is inevitable. It's THE biggest execution venue and virtually every single broker uses them. What's more important is the revenue that a broker like Robinhood gets from them. What most of you probably don't know is that every single broker releases a 606 / 607 formand they're publicly accessible**.** This form not only discloses how many trades are funneled through a particular venue, but how much money a broker makes from them. More people should know about this! Sometimes, the broker doesn't post the 607 and only shows how many trades they funnel through a market maker. This is shady and doesn't seem fair. Brokers should disclose how much money they specifically make from selling our order flows. Special thanks to CardinalNumber for disclosing this information on the Robinhood sub. Here's the link to his post about Citadel. I used some of his information in my own table below. Apex & The Cleaners Thanks to Only-Tells-The-Truthfor his incredible post on clearing houses and what likely happened with GameStop trading. Here's a summary: The second player in this game is Apex Clearing. The number one reason most brokers had to close up shop on meme stocks is because Apex felt stingy and required near-100% collateral for brokers exchanging these hot assets. Why, you might ask? Because clearing houses exist to basically make your trades official. After Citadel processes your order and scams your ass, they send that shit over to Apex Clearing Corporation or whoever else for certification Apex Clearing is part of a clearinghouse, which is an SEC-regulated entity that tracks every security on the market. Real big problems - bigger than your magnum dong - arise if there are no shares to certify. The clearing corporation then Fails to Deliver the certified shares to you and the clearinghouse accounting gets bonked. This is very bad. The reason this happened this week is because we (independently) literally bought millions of $GME calls expiring ITM, which have to be exercised on expiration date and the shares delivered, and there's not enough float on the market to continue operating without collateral. Failing to Deliver is instant K/O. It's a complete and total failure on behalf of the clearing house to ensure efficient market operations. Risk management at the National Securities Clearing Corporation, the main clearinghouse in the US, shit their jorts and called an end to the party: brokers & their clearing corporations had to make sure they could maintain the necessary liquidity to dig up stock certificates on demand, instantly. Trust is out the window. Now Robinhood and every other broker affected has to acquire literally hundreds of millions of dollars to keep on deck as collateral in case the share float is too low. Before you call me a conspiracy theorist, Robinhood confirmed this in their blog post today. Apex Clearing is the main clearing corporation that modern brokerages use. This is why Webull, Public, and SoFi had to chill tf out on the $GME trading along with everybody else. Robinhood uses their own Clearing corporation which is part of the same clearinghouse anyway. Why does this whole shit matter? Because unlike some other Clearing Corporations, it appears that Apex and Robinhood specifically might have been caught with their pants down on the collateral they had available. I think so because a number of other brokers had no issues with resuming trading, such as Vanguard and Fidelity. I DON'T KNOW THIS FOR SURE AND IT'S JUST A GUESS SO TAKE IT WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. FUCK OFF SEC. This will happen again in high-volatility events and why I'dprefer not to associate with these clearing companies anymore. Here's a list of the most popular brokerages out there and what clearing house they use. You'll notice a funny pattern. All brokerages that restricted trading used Apex. Additionally: a couple self-clearing brokerages also had to restrict trading. But others did not. This shows there's a potential relationship between the Clearing Corporation a brokerage uses and their ability to handle high volume of trading. With that in mind, let's move forwards.
Suspicious: the only non-Apex Clearing Corporation that I noticed had to shut down for a sizable amount of time is Merrill. Merrill is owned by Bank of America, which has a short position in $GME and other meme assets. Make your own judgment here. Suspicious 2: Apex themselves send between 16% & 27% of market orders via Citadel Execution, and up to 34% of limit orders. Make your own judgment here. "Earnings from Citadel averaged <$0.002 per share."
Ok, so you hate Apex, Robinhood, and maybe Merrill. Fidelity and Vanguard are clunky. Who do you go to? If you want a tradeable mobile UI, you want to go to a Starbucks Brokerage aka a broker with a millennial-friendly interface aka good fucking design. So, a UI rating will be included on top of everything else. Anyway: Citadel revenue exclusively is considered here. If it's more than 0 you should probably take a shit and come back and reconsider switching to them. Conflict of interest are no fun. All Citadel revenue sharing is found form publicly-available, latest Form 606 & 607 filings with the SEC. The filings are linked for every broker in the table. Everyone uses Citadel so volume of transactions is irrelevant, no matter who you use you're getting fucked on that. If you think paying omissions will save you, it won't. Brokers with commissions still sell your shit and Citadel & other HFTs frontrun your trades. Clearing corp self-explanatory. UI rating will either be a ☕️ or 👴🏻: Starbucks or boomer. Starbucks good boomer bad. The overall rating will either be a 🚀, 🤔, or 💩. Self-explanatory. Omissions: these are all commission-free. Fuck commissions. Some have options commissions but it's literally some 60¢ per contract or whatever. Also, some apps with fewer than 3* on the App Store or ones that are notoriously garbage like the Stocktwits one have been omitted. These are US brokers only, I don’t have the bandwidth to sort through the global stock trading landscape (feel free to make your own localized list and tag me in it!) I listed my favorites first, based on whether or not they halted trading & how good the app is.
💩 one of the only brokers with restrictions still on
A note on Vanguard: They’re currently Beta testing their Beacon app which is a ☕️ version of their current 👴🏻 offering. Check it out here .
Conclusions
Looks like Apex was a real dick to everyone and very few companies don't have revenue sharing agreements in place with Citadel. These 2 firms have literally the entire retail investing market's backend cornered, and I don't like anal. GME 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 with good brokers Hope this was helpful, please lock me in a GameStop if it wasn't. Have a good weekend. EDIT: Please feel free to cross-post this where applicable if you want. EDIT2: Added 1 more broker from this comment. To clarify, these are brokers operating in the US. EDIT3: Vanguard update & clarifications on omissions EDIT4: Dough & new TL;DR
MSFT, AAPL, and AMZN are making in-house chips based on the ARM architecture. ARM is company that licenses this architecture to other companies, and NVDA bought ARM in September. This design requires less power per unit of performance, making this the future of cloud computing. Use this dip wisely.
I previously posted ARK invests 2021 research pdf, which you can find here (post, pdf). While I didn't immediately provide an analysis or my thoughts on it, I have since taken the time to do so. A central part of ARK's investments is AI and related hardware. These stocks are dispersed throughout all of their funds as ARK believes this will fuel innovation across sectors. I agree. When we are thinking about things like space travel, three dimensional printing, EV and autonomous vehicles, VR gaming, drone deliveries and eVTOL, and simply cloud based computing - AI plays a roll in all of it. I struggled to find a single likely beneficiary for AI software because AI is uniquely adapted to the task at hand, and has yet to be generalized. I write a lot of machine learning code, and I know of no single algorithm that performs best across different datasets. Some regularization methods or methods of critiquing networks can be useful across the spectrum, but none of these are patented, which allows anyone and any company to use the same principles as they see fit. The more I have looked into this, the more I realize the future of AI from an investing standpoint is not with third parties like SNOW, or PLTR, or AI, or SPLK; but rather is in the platforms like AMZN AWS or MFST Azure where the computation is actually done. This provides huge upside for AMZN and MSFT in that they will likely have an oligopoly on computing into the future. While AI software companies will provide initial benefits to helping various industries utilize AI, as more and more AI engineers look for jobs, I wouldn't be surprised to see more companies doing their own in house work to better suit their needs. This could result in a boom and bust cycle for SNOW, PLTR, AI, SPLK and many more. That is not to say these aren't great companies, but in terms of making investments that will ensure growth regardless of which company or how companies implement AI and high performance computing, I think the providers themselves will provide the most consistent returns. ARK's assessment agrees with this analysis: https://preview.redd.it/4yqubirjsbe61.png?width=1041&format=png&auto=webp&s=798aa586136e9a1b45bdd2388bb1d48b11f4a973 https://preview.redd.it/8ayaqvzmsbe61.png?width=1044&format=png&auto=webp&s=f74006c8c3f2e07b137968f0714cb85a2115dc12 https://preview.redd.it/kv6r6jzqsbe61.png?width=1053&format=png&auto=webp&s=b564f913206758d37c68552cd224dcaa4e4c2993 The most important insight ARK provided from an investment stand point is that ARM chip architecture is positioned to benefit profoundly from this. https://preview.redd.it/zswltevusbe61.png?width=1064&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b297d022a8fcd87efe59adec354a0c4cc13eb64 This goes back to the fundamental shift away from INTC, which created the 86x architecture, and has dominated 100% of the servers and computational power backing the internet today. However, with more and more demand for more computational power combined with the pressure to spend less energy to achieve this power, this is where ARM really starts to shine, which uses less power. ARM is also a company that licenses this architecture other companies. From wiki:
Arm Ltd. develops the architecture and licenses it to other companies, who design their own products that implement one of those architectures—including systems-on-chips (SoC) and systems-on-modules (SoM) that incorporate different components such as memory, interfaces, and radios. It also designs cores that implement this instruction set and licenses these designs to a number of companies that incorporate those core designs into their own products. Due to their low costs, minimal power consumption, and lower heat generation than their competitors, ARM processors are desirable for light, portable, battery-powered devices—including smartphones, laptops and tablet computers, as well as other embedded systems.[3][4][5] However, ARM processors are also used for desktops and servers), including the world's fastest supercomputer.[6]
ARM is positioned to capitalize on the AI computing trend, and grow from less than 1% of the industry now to over 70% in the next ten years, we can expect an outrageous growth opportunity, and thus lots of money to be made. Softbank has been the owner of ARM, but recently NVDA announced plans to acquire ARM in September of 2020 for 40 billion. However the deal has been delayed since the start of 2021 while the UK investigates the competitiveness of the arrangement, article here. Specifically the investigation is concerned with the following:
However, the deal has caught the attention of the U.K.’s competition regulator, CMA, which will investigate the proposed takeover on competition grounds. CMA along with other competition authorities will ensure that the deal does not result in more expensive or low-quality products for consumers. CMA will consider whether Arm will withdraw, increase prices or provide lower-quality Intellectual Property (IP) licensing services to NVIDIA’s competitors. NVIDIA’s rivals include Arm’s customers such as Qualcomm QCOM, Intel INTC and Advanced Micro Devices AMD, which raises major concerns. Further, as reported by Bloomberg, the U.K. government intends to keep a check on the numbers of staff that will be maintained. Moreover, the takeover will face review from local regulators in Beijing, since Chinese technology companies like Huawei have raised serious concerns about the merger, in October 2020.
Considering NVDA put some of the highest performance GPUs on the market at the lowest possible prices, the UK's concerns of competitiveness and quality should be satisfactorily addressed with NVDA's recent business decisions to increase quality and lower prices. As long as NVDA doesn't plan to gut ARM and keep their employees employed, and as long as they allow ARM to license the architecture to competitors, this deal will likely go through just fine. This does mean that NVDA is an easy way for us to get exposure to ARM, and their future dominance and growth. Even if NVDA doesn't make all the GPUs for these applications, they will still get their piece through licensing contracts through their acquisition of ARM. The announcement of the deal had analysts adjusting their price targets for NVDA to $600-$700 a share almost over night, but the announcement of the UK investigation into the deal 22 days ago has suppressed NVDA's stock price to the low 500s (I lost some cash on that one as I has a load of $600c at the time). When we consider NVDA may well topple INTC's server dominance though this acquisition, the suppressed price since the dump in September and the start of the investigations in December makes NVDA a pretty good deal for those who believe NVDA will successfully acquire ARM. I will be updating riskit with ARM/NVDA acquisition news since this has such a huge upside. OTM Calls would absolutely kill it as NVDA will likely go on a huge run as a result of a confirmed deal. Moving on from NVDA specifically, lets talk about who is currently using ARM - AAPL, MSFT, and AMZN. AAPL from the verge
Apple is on the verge of making one of the biggest platform changes in the company’s history. On Tuesday, it’s expected to announce the first Macs that will run off Apple-designed processors and graphics cards instead of the Intel chips it’s used since 2005.
...
Arm, however, is a whole new ball game. There’s just a handful of Arm laptops that can give even an idea of how Apple’s own chips might fare. And even the best Arm chips for laptops out right now, like Qualcomm’s 8cx or the Microsoft-branded SQ2, are designed for ultralight laptops. No one has made an Arm-based laptop that can offer performance on par with computers like Apple’s MacBook Pros or Dell’s XPS lineup, much less a desktop.
And we know how this ended, AAPL posted huge computing power an longer battery life for their new lineup using this tech. Know that they have to pay ARM liscencing fees, which could soon be NVDA. AMZN This is an older article from 2019
Last year, Amazon announced the launch of its ARM-based processor called Graviton which was optimized for performance and cost. According to a source who spoke to Reuters, the new processors are at least 20 percent faster than this first-generation ARM chip. The technology for the chips comes from ARM Holdings, a British company which is aiming to take on the market dominance of Intel and AMD. At one point, Intel had a near-monopoly with 99 percent market share of server chips, but in recent years ARM has established itself as a serious contender in the server space. The new Amazon chip hasn't been officially announced yet, but it is expected to use ARM's Neoverse N1 technology and to have at least 32 cores, twice as many as the previous ARM chip.
Again, this was also successful. Although, AMZN is still buying chips from INTL as recently as December 2020, which makes me think they are lagging in their abilities to make their own chips, and will likely continue to out source to other companies. MSFT From Bloomberg
Microsoft Corp. is working on in-house processor designs for use in server computers that run the company’s cloud services, adding to an industry wide effort to reduce reliance on Intel Corp.’s chip technology. The world’s largest software maker is using Arm Ltd. designs to produce a processor that will be used in its data centers, according to people familiar with the plans. It’s also exploring using another chip that would power some of its Surface line of personal computers.
While we have yet to see how this plays out, we know MSFT is no stranger to making things in house as they have done with their surface pro, holo 2, and other hard goods. The article above goes on to talk about how MSFT has been poaching engineers, making this seem more and more likely. Based on AAPL's success and performance using ARM, it is reasonable to think MSFT will succeed as well. Putting it all together:
AI is driving the need for computing performance at scale, and cloud providers will benefit the most.
I think MSFT's fully integrated desktop, server, Azure storage and computing platform will become more and more competitive, particularly if they make an easier interface for third parties to build on. If MSFT makes their own chips in house to offer higher performance at a lower rate they should gain an edge on AMZN AWS. Just moving to ARM architecture to bring down energy consumption and thus reducing computing costs will give them an edge.
NVDA is perhaps the most likely to benefit from this move because of it's recent acquisition of ARM, though this is not fully reflected in their share price due to investigations into the deal. Meaning you can bet on this because there is huge upside in the short term.
With AAPL, likely AMZN, and MSFT all moving to ARM architecture, this will be guaranteed business for NVDA after the ARM acquisition is complete.
MSFT posted great earnings this last quarter, and has demonstrated an ability to meet their new guidance for 2021. If they can start to drop their computing costs using ARM or partnering with NVDA to make the chips for them, they should be able to get ahead.
Considering AMZN announce a partnership with INTC in December for more chips, I question their ability to maintain their dominance this space.
The biggest risk in this proposal is the ARM and NVDA deal falling through. It doesn't change my impression of the MSFT vs AMZN cloud computing battle though. I think the safest way to approach this would be to load up on MSFT 2023 leaps. We have previously been discussing 2023 300c, which are still pretty cheap considering the recent bump in share price post earnings. My plan to deal with this is to spend this dip loading up on MSFT calls, and I will wait on buying NVDA calls until the price drops below $515 again. NVDA leaps are pretty expensive, so instead of risking the capital over the long term, I'll risk less and bet on the announcement of the deal approving. That should allow me to capitalize on the majority of the move, which I will roll into shares. I'm looking at 6month out NVDA 600c.
I've been playing Destiny since August 2014 in the first beta. I love the universe, I have some beautiful memories of the game with friends that I'll never forget like one shotting a spider tank with peregrine greaves or doing all the raid challenges in Age of Triumph 2017. I would love to travel back and re experience that period of my life :D But I think it is fair to say the game is not in its best spot at present. The game is lacking in content and has a whole host of issues. I want to express my thoughts as to why this is. Some of you might think I am stating the obvious and others might think I am am talking rubbish, but that's okay (: Note: if you are still enjoying the game that is great, I hope you make some awesome memories (: these are just my thoughts. Feel free to politely let me know your thoughts too.
Is Destiny a depreciating asset?
A depreciating asset is where an asset makes less and less money. Sadly I don't have a profit statement for how much profit Destiny is responsible for, we can only infer. (sources linked in sub-headings) Google Trends When we look at Destiny on google trends, we see peaks at all the big expansion and game releases (Destiny vanilla, Taken king, Rise of Iron, Destiny 2 vanilla, Forsaken, Shadowkeep). We see the biggest peaks on the two vanilla releases, with each subsequent expansion having depreciating levels of interest. Destiny 2 reinvigorated the interest for the franchise. This explains why Beyond Light barely made a dent in the interest of the game. Steam Charts When we look at the Steam Charts for Destiny 2, Beyond Light brought in an average player count of 99,000. Since then, the average player count has depleted to 47,483 players, which is even lower than after Season of the Worthy. If anyone has any figures for console or other DLCs, let me know (: So what exactly am I saying The game has been losing interest and losing players. Players return for big expansion but even that number has been decreasing and there is no Destiny 3 to reinvigorate interest like what Destiny 2 did after Rise of Iron. Bungie's new business model relies on silver purchases for Eververse and season pass content but players are leaving because of tedium and lack of incentive and cheaters and connection issues and whatever else you can think of... When you have less players, you have less people buying silver, meaning less revenue and ultimately less profit. If the game is making less and less profit, it is a depreciating asset. The shareholders are entitled to profits. They can either keep the money for their pockets and use it for other business ventures or reinvest into Bungie. However, I expect that Destiny is getting less budget and most of it is going to Matter (Bungie's new IP). If the game is losing interest as time goes on (the trend was also there with Activision) and the game is making less money, why would you invest more money? This could be why Activision called Forsaken a disappointment or failure and why Luke said we won't be seeing anything the size of Forsaken again. So what do you do when less people are joining the game and silver purchases are not rising? You limit the amount of bright dust a player can earn from bounties. I believe that Bungie are only sun-setting armor so that new players will have to purchase the appearance with silver. So if you want the Gambit Reaper armor appearance, you'll have to pay (Not confirmed just my thought). The content is dripped to us throughout the season at dates which I believe are chosen right before a player's perceived breaking point. The community wants new, exciting loot incentives for crucible and strikes along with new PVP maps but it is more profitable to limit expenses by reusing areas for missions, recycling weapons instead of making new ones and then to make a handful of ornaments. This is a prime example of cutting costs. Bungie might need a bigger budget to keep up with player demand but can't so players are leaving. Therefore, silver purchases are decreasing so Bungie have to entice remaining players to buy more silver and try and cut expenses. Sadly, players are catching on and are continuing to leave... Note: Coronavirus and the Activision split have also had a massive affect and I am sure I do not have the whole story. Maybe Destiny would have the budget capable of keeping up with demand if Activision were still here. Along with that, I do not know the struggles and difficulties of game development. These are just my thoughts, let me know yours too (: Also me sharing this opinion does not make me any less grateful for all the good the franchise has done. I would love to be wrong and Destiny to be thriving (: At the end of the day, I am a Destiny fan and a Titan main at heart. I would love Destiny to have:
An engaging story which has a compelling villain (not a villain of the week) that isn't spoiled by the marketing (Cayde's death could have been more ominous in my opinion. Imagine seeing Cayde die in game without knowing already).
More engaging loot incentive.
A hacker free crucible with new maps.
More Gjallahorn loot moments whilst also having player investment respected. I remember getting Vex Mythoclast after pushing Atheon off the edge and that is another memory I will never forget. But I see how 100 Scourge completions can be unfair when hunting for Anarchy.
More strike modifiers and more enemy spawns.
More customization: maybe after 5000 masterwork weapon PVE kills, killing PVE majors spawns a solar grenade or something like that.
More time trial missions hidden through out the world and whatever good ideas you all have! I'm sure you have plenty.
However, I sadly believe that we will always talk about Destiny's potential instead of the game truly reaching it... I hope everyone is well, stay safe out there everyone (:
I'm not seeing a huge amount of knowledge on this subreddit, so I'm going to list some of the reasons why I'm hoping for some decent price increases.. If you find anything juicy that I've missed feel free to leave a top level comment or even message me and I'll add it. Perhaps we should keep updating this post and sticky it as a goto DD for SCTSCRF?
Score have the most popular sports app in Canada and second most popular in the US behind ESPN, this puts them in a somewhat unique position to integrate sports betting in to a popular sports app (though note FUBO just announced purchasing Vigotry with their intention to integrate sports betting in to their sports streaming service, they closed up 34.32% today on the news and likely caused the dips in the share prices for SCR and DKNG, even PENN's share price seemed to waiver around midday);
Score already have sports betting live in Colorado, Indiana and New Jersey;
Score recently did a share offering and raised $25,649,390 which can be used for growth and expansion of sports betting in the US - check out their careers page and click on available opportunities;
Score have a multiyear partnership with the NBA and the MLB to be an authorized sports betting operator, including access to official betting data and league marks/logos for the betting app;
Score have a strategic multi-state market access partnership with PENN, PENN have access to 11 states, further PENN have a 4.7% stake in Score with the potential for this stake to increase as additional market access fees become payable (the second link, which is from PENN, says the term of the agreement with PENN is 20 years, even DKNG only has a deal for 10 years subject to a 10 year extension);
Let's look at some user numbers. As expected they were down a bit during 2020 due to covid, but that is about to change across the industry with sports opening up properly and sports betting being legalised in many US states and hopefully Canada to help raise tax funds for covid expenses (never will sports betting have been more socially acceptable, almost encouraged!). They achieved 3 million active monthly users (4.3 million in q1 2019, should see this or higher again once sports start up properly - 62% of those users were in the US, 27% in Canada and the remaining 11% in other international markets). Users had an average of 70 sessions per month (75 the year prior), so 3*70 = 210 million users per month. 292 million video views for esports in just Q4 alone, year-over-year growth of 243%! Their esports tiktok account has over 1 million followers while their sports tiktok account has almost 2.5 million (up over 500k in the last quarter). Over 1.5 million youtube subscribers for their esports channel. Their twitter account has ~600k followers, almost double what DKNG have! Their social sports content across Twitter, FB, Instagram and TikTok achieved an average monthly reach of about 103 million;
Score already cover women's sports, doing this without having to follow the competitors or have it requested by women shows a genuine interest in supporting women's sports. Hopefully this will extend to allowing sports betting on women's sports;
Score esports has been named exclusive English language broadcast partner for League of Legends' Demacia Championship, a marquee annual event featuring 24 of China’s top esports teams. Live event coverage will run from December 20-27 and be streamed across theScore esports’ YouTube and Twitch channels. The Demacia Championship will be theScore esports’ first-ever live event broadcast, with production originating from their esports headquarters in Toronto.
Score has joined the National Council on Problem Gambling as a Platinum member - this bodes well for support of Score from politicians and people normally critical of sports betting who are mostly onside at the moment through the need of raising tax money for covid related costs.
Future catalysts I'm hoping for:
There's a live webcast to report q1 f2021 financial results Jan 13 at 5:30pm EST (details here). Hopefully good news so we 🚀 rather than ☄️ short-term, but I'm still bullish long-term regardless because sports have not really started up properly yet, nor has sports betting opened up in many places yet. With a bit of luck the income from the share offering will be included in the revenue for this quarter which might help;
If we ever get uplisted to NASDAQ/NYSE and get out of the penny stocks then I would be surprised if it doesn't get pumped in numerous places including WSB;
Legalisation of sports betting across more US states and Canada. The governor of NY has now expressed interest after previously being opposed to the idea, so too has Texas for example. Score do not yet have a partnership with a NY casino, but hopefully they will get on to that, they do have access to Texas through PENN;
Partnerships with NFL and NHL would be awesome to go along with the NBA and MLB partnerships;
Successfully competing with the big players like DKNG (and now FUBO too), hopefully with juicy earnings reports in to the future (if we do, look at the performance and current prices of DKNG and PENN, I'd be extremely happy if we ever made it to CAD$20/share, if we got to DKNG's current USD price we'll be in tendie heaven);
Huge uptake in sports betting with a rally of public support to help cover the public costs associated with Covid;
Maybe esports betting could become a huge thing? TheScore seem like they're in a good position to earn a decent market share there, possibly even be the ones to introduce it and bring it to market?
tl;dr: 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 (hopefully at least 10x) If you would prefer an ETF to have exposure to the betting market check out BETZ. position: 42.8k shares
FaMiLY: Well we dont have jobs and spent all our money on pregnancy nutrition to make yet another meat sack. Can you give us your money? You don’t have children!”
If you like breeder cringe, you are in for a treat, this is a long post, but I thought you might enjoy it. TLDR follows right after, so you can skip my wall of text if you so wish. TLDR: As title; cousin’s gf has no job but spend all their money to “get pregnant and make him happy”. So aunt asks me to support them because we have enough money and they are FaMilY Okay, let me set the scene for you: My partner and I left our home country (Germany) a few years back. We got pretty good jobs in the UK where we can live a quite comfortable life. End of last year, we got ourselves a nice house and a few months back I bought a vacuum robot. I gave him a pair of googly eyes and took a few photos.That’s when I spotted a WhatsApp notification pop up. Now my cousins and I have a group chat were we usually chat about video games. This time it was my oldest cousin, writing something along the lines of “I have to share it, we will soon grow the family!” So the rest replies with the usually “OMG, amazing blabla.” I posted a picture of the vacuum robot saying “Wow what a coincidence! We just did the same!” It was beautiful, all the “x is typing” vanish and it’s dead silent. After a while oldest cousin, which we will call OC for the story said “Are you really comparing a freaking robot with a baby? Why did you get one anyways, they are expensive!” Me: “Because I’m too lazy to clean all the floor in the house myself?” OC: “What? How?” Me: “We moved last year. You know more space and stuff” OC: “So you are planning for a baby as well?” Me: “Hell NO! But I need a hobby room, and a pet room and partner wanted a space for his figurines as well … Now, the chat kind of ended after that, but I did learn yesterday, that OC complained to mommy (my aunt). So, let’s jump right there. About two months ago, I did start a new job. I work in Software Development and luckily this field always grows, esp during a pandemic. While a lot of people sadly lost their jobs or got payment cut down, I was really lucky to secure an even better job, less hours, more money and all of that comfy from home. But the best part: There are a lot of childfree colleagues. And even those who have kids, are pretty chill and never put them into focus and barely speak about them. I called my mum yesterday, to exchange the latest slack. What I didn’t know: She currently was at my aunts house and put me on speaker, so the rest of the family can listen as well.This is the breeder part of the family. Aunt and uncle have 6(!) kids, containing OC. The youngest three still live with them, so OC wasn’t there.Anyways, I start to tell my mum how much I love my new job when my aunt suddenly chimes in: Aunt: “So how much do you earn?” Me: “Uhm… why?” Aunt: “OC said you got a house now” Me: “Yeah we do, didn’t mum tell you?” (Mind you, I don’t have much conversation with the breeders. It usually results in my aunt telling me my partner of almost 10 years is not good for me because he doesn’t give me children. Yeah that’s how I know he is the one!) Aunt: “You know, OC and his girlfriend are going to have a baby” Me: “And?” Aunt: “Wow, you should be more excited! I really get the feeling sometimes you don’t like children.” (Yeah no sh*t, took you almost 30 years to realize that DESPITE me telling you over and over) Me: … Aunt: “You seem to earn really well and OC lost his job because of the pandemic. They had to spend a lot of money on the pregnancy consultation. You know, as GF is over 25, she is the risk group and needed special nutrition.” Me: “This has nothing to do with me. If they want a baby, but can’t afford it, maybe they shouldn’t have one! Last thing you told me is that GF never even bothered to get a job and they still hang around in this tiny apartment I assume?” Aunt: “We try to save up some money, so they can get a bigger place, you know with the baby, they need the extra room! The special nutrition GF needed was very expensive and since you earn so much, you could help out FaMiLy. You could easily give us (enter amount) every month to support them.” Me: “Do you know where my money comes from?” Aunt: “Where?” Me: “It’s called a job. You know, you spend some time working and get money for that. Tell GF to try that out. No way in hell I give you my money. I did the work, it belongs to me.” Aunt: “You are so selfish! All we did for you, so you can hop off to this island and live your entitled life. You don’t even have children, you don’t need a house! You spend your money on stupid toys (I guess the robot and my games collection) instead of supporting FaMiLy” Me: “You know, in the time you are wasting bothering me about OC didn’t f*ck GF hard enough so I should hand them some money, do something productive like being a proper mother and teach your children you can’t have what you can’t afford. Good Day to you!” And I hung up. I was fuming and had problems to keep my cool. Partner came downstairs because he heard “screaming” and was wondering what’s up, so I told him. Let me tell you, we did have a happy ending that afternoon. One, which does only contain the fun, but not the trouble of getting pregnant myself. Peace everyone, I love this community! Edit: Thank you kind people for all the comments and the awards! I needed to rant a bit and I'm so glad, I'm not the only person thinking those people are delusional. I understand not everyone shares my points of view and that's fine, but I am entitled to my opinion and so are you. My main issue was the demanding tone of my aunt. Since it was a phone call, it's hard to give that exact one back in words. To be clear: I do not hate them and if the conversation would be more around "Hey, we want to get OC a gift, would you like to participate?" Sure, I would be in. But I hate people making demands about things they don't belong to them. That being said, we probably don't have the healtiest relationship and I appreciate the advice to pull back and make myself rare for a bit. Some people were asking if OC or GF have health conditions or why they claim to be risky and need special food. I honestly don't know and didn't bother to ask. I just try to type down the non-sense I got told, so make of it what you will. Edit 2: The vacuum robot : https://imgur.com/a/i81V7Ay
Who Paid You This Month? December 2020 Earnings Report
Earning report: My best month ever! Had quite a few studies scheduled from November, or waiting to be paid out so that definitely helped. Started using Prolific and UserTesting this month as well. I am based in London, UK and dedicating about 2/3 hours a day, 5 days a week to working on Beermoney.
Swagbucks: Pretty sure everyone knows this one but for the ones who don't Swagbucks is a site that lets you earn money by completing surveys, offers, playing games, watching videos, etc
Slicethepie: Slicethepie is a review site primarily focused on music. No special musical skill or knowledge is required as the site wants the opinion of the wide general public.
Measure App: Easy and quick surveys.
Askable: It is a market research site. It usually puts you in contact with researchers for video calls where you'll be discussing a particular subject. Payment ranges from £15-£50 per hour.
Zap Surveys: Very similar to Swagbucks and Attapoll. They pay you a small amount of money per disqualification as well.
Qmee: Very similar to Swagbucks, Zap Survets and Attapoll.
Streetbees: Decent paid short surveys, they usually ask you to take pictures. I have also done some pet food trials with them so they're good to get some freebies. Ref Code: 74271L (they'll ask you when you're signing up)
Appinio: Another survey app. Took me a while to cash out. Ref Code: 128161 (they'll ask you when you're signing up)
Respondent.io**:** Recruitment for focus groups/paid studies.
dscout: This is the app where I have earned the most amount of money. It consists of small research projects where you are asked some questions on a subject in particular over a few days. Some of them you type to answer, some of them you have to answer in a short video. They pay through Paypal within 10 days of the mission being completed. You might take a few attempts to land your first mission, but once you get accepted for one, they'll start rolling in. Just make sure you check it often and apply to all available missions. They don't have a referral program.
Neevo: Mostly transcription jobs. There was some trouble with job validation a few months back but I think it is fixed now. I got most of the money I was entitled to anyways and I keep working on it whenever there is a project available. They don't have a referral program.
VocalViews: Exactly the same as Askable, just a different platform. They don't have a referral program.
Userlytics: This is a UX testing app. You are given an app or webpage to try out and your screen gets recorded alongside with your voice while you navigate the page and speak your thoughts. A 20 minute session usually pays USD 10. They don't have a referral program.
User Interviews: Just landed in the UK, it is the same system as Askable and VocalViews. They don't have a referral program.
GFK Smoke or Vape Panel: A panel for smokers. They send you a survey every 4 weeks. They don't have a referral program.
Research Helper: Another focus group recruitment page. Same system as Askable and VocalViews. They don't have a referral program.
Angelfish Opinions: Another focus group recruitment page. Same system as Askable and VocalViews. They don't have a referral program.
Take Part in Research: Another focus group recruitment page. Same system as Askable and VocalViews. They don't have a referral program.
Ziffit: Sell old books, CDs, DVDs and games. They don't have a referral program.
Remotasks: You’ll be tagging images, transcribing audio tapes, moderating content, and so much more. You’ll need to take a few exams in order to unlock the different categories on the site. Once you’ve unlocked a category, there are plenty of different tasks you can complete. If you take all the exams on the site, there is a large variety of work to choose from. They pay via Paypal every Tuesday night/Wednesday morning with no minimum.
Mindswarms: Similar to dscout, but with less available studies for my demographic. They don't have a referral program.
Jisp: Jisp is a free app for shopping, saving money, finding deals & sharing. Sign up with my promo code YVCD6E & get 50p.
Toluna: Similar to Swagbucks.
Research Opinions: Another focus group recruitment page. Same system as Askable and VocalViews. They don't have a referral program.
Prolific: University research surveys. They are usually short and there is also recruitments for more lengthy (and better paid) studies.
Storewards: This mobile app pays you for uploading your receipts.
Transperfect: Not too sure what this one is all about yet. They paid me £1 for taking some pictures.
Consumer Pulse: Report your weekly spend for pay!
UserTesting: This is a UX testing app like Userlytics. You are given an app or webpage to try out and your screen gets recorded alongside with your voice while you navigate the page and speak your thoughts. A 20 minute session usually pays USD 10. They don't have a referral program.
Cash Coach - Here to reward your good saving habits! (All feedback appreciated, thank you!!)
Hey everyone, My team is looking to launch Cash Coach 2.0 on Product Hunt. We pride ourselves at being different from conventional budgeting apps; we bring a gamified element to the table. We have created a gamified universe that rewards good spending habits. This is the UK's first gamified money saving-app. Meet your monthly objective and earn your rightful trophy at the end of the month! How does it work?
Pick a nickname, create your in-game avatar. Next, connect your bank accounts via Open Banking in order to get the full picture. Cash Coach Ltd acts as an agent of TrueLayer, who provides the regulated Account Information Service, and who is authorised by the FCA as an Authorised Payment Institution (reference number: 793171).
Cash Coach comes in three different personalities - Cute, Best Friend & Ruthless. Cute will mother you through your financial challenge whilst Best Friend will keep it real for you. Ruthless however will get mad and instil financial terror in you if you overspend!
Cash Coach will show you how to set the right saving goals, automate your monthly budget and draw your objective line. You will receive daily motivational messages based on how you are performing compared to your objective.
You will be awarded at the end of the month with a trophy depending on the zone you are in at that point in time.
Important things to take note of: 🏦 Works with UK banks through Open Banking 🔐 User data is protected at bank grade level Product Link:App Store Google Play Website We are looking to understand if this is something you would be interested in and what elements of the product you like. The app is free to download everywhere. I personally would really appreciate all the feedback possible! Thank you so much in advance, I hope you have a great day! Edit: We launched this morning, 8:00am (GMT )
You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments. It all started with the release of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper however that will probably go over the head of most readers so we recommend the following articles/books/videos as a good starting point for understanding how bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:
Some other great resources include Lopp.net, Gigi's resource page, and James D'Angelo's Bitcoin 101 Blackboard series. Some excellent writing on Bitcoin's value proposition and future can be found at the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute. Some Bitcoin statistics can be found here, here and here. Developer resources can be found here. Peer-reviewed research papers can be found here, also course lectures from the Princeton crypto series. Potential upcoming protocol improvements and scaling resources here and here. The number of times Bitcoin was declared dead by the media can be found here (LOL!)
Key properties of Bitcoin
Limited Supply - There will only ever be 21,000,000 bitcoin created and they are issued in a predictable fashion, you can view the inflation schedule here. Once they are all issued Bitcoin will be truly deflationary. The halving countdown can be found here.
Open source - Bitcoin code is fully auditable. You can read the source code yourself here.
Accountable - The public ledger is transparent, all transactions are seen by everyone.
Decentralized - Bitcoin is globally distributed across thousands of nodes with no single point of failure and as such can't be shut down similar to how Bittorrent works. You can even run a node on a Raspberry Pi.
Censorship resistant - No one can prevent you from interacting with the bitcoin network and no one can censor, alter or block transactions that they disagree with, see Operation Chokepoint.
Push system - There are no chargebacks in bitcoin because only the person who owns the address where the bitcoin resides has the authority to move them.
Low fee scaling - Fees are chosen by the sender - you can choose your own fee. An appropriate fee for an on-chain transaction depends on network demand and how much priority you wish to assign to the transaction. Most wallets calculate on chain fees automatically but you can view fee estimates here and mempool activity here. On chain fees may rise occasionally due to network demand, however instant micropayments that do not require confirmations are happening via the Lightning Network, a second layer scaling solution currently rolling out on the Bitcoin mainnet.
Borderless - No country can stop it from going in/out, even in areas currently unserved by traditional banking as the ledger is globally distributed.
Trustless - Bitcoin solved the Byzantine's Generals Problem which means nobody needs to trust anybody for it to work.
Secure - Blocks and transactions are cryptographically secured (using hashes and signatures) and can’t be brute forced or confiscated with proper key management such as hardware wallets.
Programmable - Individual units of bitcoin can be programmed to transfer based on certain criteria being met
Nearly instant - From a few seconds on the lightning network to a few minutes on-chain depending on need for confirmations. Transactions are irreversible by normal users after one confirmation and irreversible by anyone (including miners) after 6 confirmations.
Portable - Bitcoin are digital so they are easier to move than cash or gold. They can be transported by simply carrying a seed (a string of 12 to 24 words) on a device or by memorizing it for wallet recovery (while cool, memorizing is generally not recommended due to potential for forgetting the seed and the potential for insecure key generation by inexperienced users. Hardware wallets are the preferred method for most users for their ease of use and additional security).
Scalable - While the protocol is still being optimized for increased transaction capacity, blockchains do not scale very well, so most transaction volume is expected to occur on Layer 2 networks built on top of Bitcoin.
Divisible - Each bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals, which means you don't have to worry about buying an entire bitcoin.
Bitcoin.org and BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin (even just a few dollars worth) and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular resources are below, also check out the bitcoinity exchange resources for a larger list of options for purchases.
Here is a listing of local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin use Bitwage. Note: Bitcoin are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
Securing your bitcoin
With bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoin OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold the bitcoin for you.
If you prefer to "Be your own bank" and have direct control over your coins without having to use a trusted third party, then you will need to create your own wallet and keep it secure. If you want easy and secure storage without having to learn computer security best practices, then a hardware wallet such as the Trezor, Ledger or ColdCard is recommended. Alternatively there are many software wallet options to choose from here depending on your use case.
If you prefer to let third party "Bitcoin banks" manage your coins, try Gemini but be aware you may not be in control of your private keys in which case you would have to ask permission to access your funds and be exposed to third party risk. There is a saying in the community, "Not your keys, not your coins" meaning if you don't store your coins in a wallet that you control the keys to then you do not really own your bitcoin as you have to ask permission from the third party in order to move them.
Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email! 2FA requires a second confirmation code or a physical security key to access your account making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes.
Physical security keys (FIDO U2F) offer stronger security than Google Auth / Authy and other TOTP-based apps, because the secret code never leaves the device and it uses bi-directional authentication so it prevents phishing. If you lose the device though, you could lose access to your account, so always use 2 or more security keys with a given account so you have backups. See Yubikey or Titan to purchase security keys. Both Coinbase and Gemini support physical security keys.
Watch out for scams
As mentioned above, Bitcoin is decentralized, which by definition means there is no official website or Twitter handle or spokesperson or CEO. However, all money attracts thieves. This combination unfortunately results in scammers running official sounding names or pretending to be an authority on YouTube or social media. Many scammers throughout the years have claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin. Websites like bitcoin(dot)com and the btc subreddit are active scams. Almost all altcoins (shitcoins) are marketed heavily with big promises but are really just designed to separate you from your bitcoin. So be careful: any resource, including all linked in this document, may in the future turn evil. As they say in our community, "Don't trust, verify".
Avoid using ad-based search engines like Google or Yahoo: ads are shown based on how much the advertiser bids, and scammers can easily outbid legitimate providers for ad space, since immoral ways of earning money are far more lucrative than moral ways. Use DuckDuckGo instead, which has no ads, and never tracks you as well.
Ignore private messages offering services.
Never enter your seed words in a website of any kind. Hardware wallets will recover by displaying possible seed words on their own interface, never on a website.
Avoid clicking on links like that look like links, such as https://www.google.com/, without first hovering over it and actually checking where they go to. Just because a link is labelled with an HTTPS address does not mean it actually sends you to that address. It is trivial for someone to comment a link on Reddit that looks like it will send you to one website when it actually sends you to another, and you might not notice the difference until a scammer has gotten all your money, or you have downloaded and installed software that steals your money.
Where can I spend bitcoin?
Check out spendabit or bitcoin directory for millions of merchant options. Also you can spend bitcoin anywhere visa is accepted with bitcoin debit cards such as the CashApp card or Fold card. Some other useful site are listed below.
Gift cards for hundreds of retailers including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc.
There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;
1-3% savings over credit cards or PayPal.
No chargebacks (final settlement in 10 minutes as opposed to 3+ months).
Accept business from a global customer base.
Increased privacy.
Convert 100% of the sale to the currency of your choice for deposit to your account, or choose to keep a percentage of the sale in bitcoin if you wish to begin accumulating it.
If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;
Mining bitcoin can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read more here. Still have mining questions? The crew at /BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out. If you want to contribute to the bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions you can run a full node. You can view the global node distribution here.
Earning bitcoin
Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoin by being paid to do a job.
You can also earn bitcoin by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoin for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoin).
Bitcoin-Related Projects
The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the bitcoin space.
One Bitcoin is quite large (hundreds of £/$/€) so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:
Unit
Symbol
Value
Info
bitcoin
BTC
1 bitcoin
one bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis
millibitcoin
mBTC
1,000 per bitcoin
used as default unit in recent Electrum wallet releases
bit
bit
1,000,000 per bitcoin
colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin (μBTC)
satoshi
sat
100,000,000 per bitcoin
smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor
For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $10000 for one Bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:
0.001 BTC
1 mBTC
1,000 bits
100k sats
For more information check out the Bitcoin units wiki. Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit. Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval. Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!
FeaturePoints is so far the best app in this niche where you play games for real money. This company is in business since 2012 and had made payout in thousands of dollars. In this app, you have several tasks that you can do to earn free PayPal money. This includes the following. Downloading and trying the games for a few minutes Lucktastic. Lucktastic (iOS) allows users to play with 100% free scratch cards to win loads of free money. Just pick your theme, swipe digital scratch-offs, and test your luck to earn real money daily. This gaming app is a free and fun way to win real cash and prizes and earn rewards. Boodle is a free app that will reward you for trying out new apps and games. You’ll earn Boodle coins every time you try out a new game or app. And you can earn coins for other activities too, such as answering questions, completing special offers, discovering deals and referring friends. You can also develop apps for iOS/Android for the live auction and earn money out of it. 5. Blockchain Security App . Blockchain Security App is one of the best mobile app ideas 2021 that allows you to store and transfer the cryptocurrencies. It comes with a wallet system where you can sell, earn, hold the interest and brokerage with Ethereum and Bitcoin for making the exchange. These are QuickRewards is the best way to earn money by playing games. Open only to people in the US, Canada and the UK, they offer the best rewards for playing games compared to all other websites listed above. We uncovered the best apps to make money that you may have never heard of with really great earning potential. This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Highest Paying Apps. I love using the highest paying apps to make some extra money using my smartphone. Here are some of the best apps to Playandwin.co.uk is Britain’s best gaming website offering free games and giving you a chance to win real money prizes. Play games like Yatzy, Ludo, Mahjong 3, Pow and more. You can also take part in the tournament and have a lot of fun. 3. 1. Mistplay. Mistplay is one of the most popular ways to make money playing mobile games, and the app is definitely taking over this category of apps in general. Mistplay is really a “loyalty program for gamers” that rewards you for trying out new games. GiftPanda is one of the most highly-rated apps with 4.7/5 stars and 300000 reviews. You earn a lot of money for playing games, taking part in quizzes, getting achievement batches, referrals and a lot more. 6) CashOut CashOut is on the top charts as players love playing the amazing game. The best thing about this app is that you still earn points every time you play, even if you don't win a cash prize. Those points can later be redeemed for gift cards to Amazon, Restaurant.com, and more. Download Lucktastic Android; Download Lucktastic IOS ; New: Gamehag. Play free online games to collect Soul Gems and exchange them for rewards! Earn free Robux, Steam Wallet, Prepaid
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