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OT: Bitcoin, Altcoins, NFT's & All Things Crypto

With crypto getting accepted more and more by the mainstream, I ( and @T2Kplus20) felt it was worth having a thread on all things crypto. I k now this thread is going to open up pandora's box of shitposts, but I really don't care. I'd like to see this used to help educate people on a growing technology and mindset.

I've only become a Bitcoin bull in the past year. The printing of 4 Trillion dollars was what put me over the edge in looking for an inflation hedge. After digging aggressively into gold I began to realize that BTC was what I was looking for. Only 21 million BTC will ever be in existence and its a deflationary asset that can be transported anywhere in minutes.

In the past year, I've witnessed companies and institutions get involved in BTC, eliminating any concern I had that it would one day "go to zero." The image below I ripped from the sub-Reddit on Bitcoin, showing institutional headlines towards BTC in the past, and their recent headlines.

The current market cap of BTC is over 1 Trillion. BTC is the fastest asset to ever reach that number. The market cap of Gold is roughly 10 Trillion.

The people who say that Bitcoin will never be a currency are pretty much right. It's not. It's become a digital store of value, just as gold is a store of value. You wouldnt walk into Chipotle and shave off some gold to pay for a burrito, just as you wouldnt pay for it in a fraction of BTC.

An important phrase to remember is: "Not your keys, not your coins." The mindset behind this that if you do not hold the keys to your coins (digital proof theyre yours), you will never really own crypto. Everything you do with the "crypto" you own will have to be based around a traditional or Fiat currency. By holding your keys, you're future-proofing your crypto holdings and leave you less dependent on Fiat currency to perform any transaction with your crypto.

Where to buy crypto:

I strongly recommend if you're interested in getting involved in crypto, you open an account with one of those sites. They're easy to signup for, insured and MOST IMPORTANTLY, give you the ability to withdraw your coins if you would like. Do NOT purchase crypto on Robinhood, Square or Paypal. They do NOT let you withdraw your coins. You can never take possession of your coins. All you can do is sell them back to that exchange, which you will get a capital gains tax on.
Also, crypto on Robinhood is not insured. If they have a liquidity crisis and go belly up (GME proved that this is not outside the realm of possibilities) you will lose your coins.

The sites above let you buy as much or as little % of a bitcoin as you would like. For example, my Gemini account does a weekly buy of $25 of BTC for me. It also alerts me if there is a massive price swing in BTC. People often think you have to buy a whole coin. This is false.

Other Ways to Buy:
You could also invest in Grayscale or Galaxy funds to get Bitcoin exposure. IMO, it's not worth the premium they charge. You also never own any actual coins.

Ethereum and other Altcoins:
While BTC, serves as a store of value coin, The Ethereum network serves as utility, running smart contracts on other apps on it's blockchain network. The token for that ETH is the second largest crypto, with a 200+ Billion market cap.

There's thousands of other coins out there. You can see how they rank here. https://coinmarketcap.com/

The ranking is not necessarily a good barometer of how good a coin it is. 4 out of 5 of the top 50 coins I wouldnt touch, but that's me.

I currently hold BTC, ETH, ELA, DCR, AAVE & FIL. I'd be happy to discuss why I own any of these.

Blockchain:
Blockchain is the underlying technology that allows the coins or tokens to run on them. For those who used to download things using BitTorrent, Blockchain is very similar. This video is an easy explanation of blockchain: Login to view embedded media
NFT's:
This video is probably the easiest way tolay out NFT's. Its Cramer asking Anthony Pompliano (one of my favorite people in the BTC space) about NFT's
Login to view embedded media
Resources:

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OT: What are everybody's plans to attend spring games

While the last spring game thread got derailed for reasons we won't mention, what are everyone's plans for attending spring games this year (ours/others)?
Mine are below, in order of date:

4/20 - FSU (Battles End, the NIL venture, is having an event Friday night with Coach Norvell) - Meeting a few buddies down in Tally, hit up College Town, and search for Herbstreiit (joking)

4/21 - Monmouth (TBD on the game, I can't get a concrete answer on the time) - The boys from West Long Branch are always fun to watch. It's a nice set up and relaxed atmosphere.

4/27 - Rutgers (Plan is to arrive by noon 12:30, cook a few burgers and have some cold ones) - My neighbor, what I'd call a "budding" Rutgers fan is coming with me. He gets out of work around 11:30, I'll have the car packed the night before. His wife graduated from Rutgers, they fly the flag in front of their house, and he likes coming to games, but doesn't follow recruiting and looks at me like I have 6 heads whenever I talk about road trips, NIL and season tickets.

I usually wouldn't be hitting 3 games, but this winter was a rough one with all the snow.
There's no Arena League team in Jersey (not rooting for the Soul in Philly, regardless if they play the entire season in Trenton)
And the Generals are now defunct - I looked forward to them playing games at Rutgers or possibly Red Bull Arena

Hence, getting this in before the dog days of summer kick in.
Anyone else have plans for spring game action?

Rutgers Men's Golf Heads To Ohio For BIG10 Championship Fri - Sun

Rutgers Men head to the 54 Hole B1G Championship Friday to Sunday at the Scioto CC in Columbus. The course held a Ryder Cup, US Open, and PGA in it's original design. Unlike last year where a nor'easter played havoc with the championship at Galloway National outside AC, shortening it to 36 holes, there should be good weather over the weekend.

The Course -

Original course designed by Donald Ross opened in 1916. It was replaced in the 60's by a more "modern" course. A couple remodels later the club said enough, and in 2021 brought in Andrew Green who had successfully brought back Oak Hill to it's former glory and is doing the same at East Lake. The course is now close to Ross's original design.

The course will be played as a 7,240 yard Par 70.

The Field -

For the past 15 years the tourney honestly could have been known as "Illinois and those other teams". The Illini have won 13 of the last 14 (no 2020 - Covid) championships. Minnesota broke the string in 2014. Illinois is once again the highest ranked team in the field at #18, an off year for them. They are followed by #28 Purdue, #36 OSU, #44 Northwestern, and #46 Indiana. At #88, Rutgers is the 8th ranked team, sandwiched between #84 Michigan and #90 Wisconsin. A team to watch may be #73 Michigan State. In late February they finished 9th and last in the Fords Invitational (RU was 8th) with a ranking of #98. Since then they have finished 2nd twice, 3rd twice, and 5th working their way to where another good finish might give them a chance at an NCAA at-large bid. A lot depends not only the B1G but conf championships around the country. The Top 5 I mentioned above should make it no matter the finish this weekend.

The Top Players -

The highest ranked player is Purdue's Herman Wibe Shenke at #38. Following him are 2 Illini, #50 Jackson Buchanan and #52 Max Hendereen, and from OSU, a name we heard a lot about as the low Am and the Butler Cabin interviewee at this year's Masters, #55 Neal Shipley.In all there are 8 players in the Top 75 out of almost 1900 who are ranked in D1. There are also several hundred who either didn't play enough or didn't accumulate enough points to be ranked. did At #290 Xavier Marcoux is Rutgers highest ranked golfer followed by #329 Luke Wells and #386 Rhett Sellers.

A Little History -

Over the past 3 years Rutgers has finished 8th in '21, 11th in '22, and 10th last year. Rutgers best finish was 6th in 2019 when 2 players, Chris Gotterup (4th) and Saylor Dance (9th), finished Top 10. It was one of Gotterup's 2 Top 6 finishes in the championship. From that year, Gotterup and champion Andrian Dumont de Chassart (Illinois) are currently competing (and struggling) on the PGA Tour. Some reconizable names who won B1G titles are Steve Stricker (Ill) three times, John Cook (OSU) and Luke Donald (NW) twice, and with 1, Jack Nicklaus (OSU), Thomas Detry (Ill), Thomas Pieters (Ill), and Joey Sindelar (OSU). That Nicklaus guy went on to win 2 or 3 NCAA Championships. Don't know whatever happened to him after that.

The official scorer for the Championship currently lists 6 players for each team. I am not aware if the format has changed from 5 players, top 4 scores count to 6 and 4. The women have been 6 and 4 in their championships since at least 2021. Either way RU will go with Xavier Marcoux, Luke Wells, Rhett Sellers, Weston Jones, and Martin Leon. If there is a 6th player, it would be Cranford's Frosh and former NJ #1 ranked Junior Golfer, Derek Gutierrez. If as usual, they pair strictly by ranking, RU would be along side Michigan and Wisconsin. Of course, will also know 5 or 6 when pairings are posted.

Kobe Bryant's muse-a tribute to John Battle

Flipping through the dial and caught about 5_minutes of the Kobe Bryant special on Showtime

Anyway, as he was discussing NBA players that influenced his game, he gave a solid salute to former RU player, John Battle, then with the Atlantic Hawks

Bryant marvelled at how John could take a rebound and go coast to coast, dribbling with his off hand all the way, and take it all the way in to score
He said others might not remember John, but he certainly did, and strived to be able to do the same

the Show included a few buckets and moves by John

John was a great player for RU, he made one of the greatest leaps in playing I have seen on the banks

Seedings set for B1G Tournament

Big Ten Tournament​

Saturday, April 27 (Quarterfinals)
No. 5 seed Ohio State at No. 4 seed Michigan
No. 6 seed Rutgers at No. 3 seed Penn State

Thursday, May 2 (Semifinals)
No. 1 seed Johns Hopkins vs. Ohio State-Michigan Winner – 6:30 p.m. ET (BTN)
No. 2 seed Maryland vs. Rutgers-Penn State winner – 8 p.m. p.m. ET (BTN)

Saturday, May 4 (Championship)
Semifinal winners – 8 p.m. ET (BTN)
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