11 Apps That Pay You To Play Games (2021) - Are They Legit?

I can tell you right now with complete confidence that the only thing brokers who halted trading are guilty of was bad PR and nothing else. I was pissed when trading was halted, but now I’m just upset that I’m hearing people trash some trading apps which did absolutely nothing wrong and has done so much good in the past years. People are piling on, politicians from left right and center are wrapping their own agenda around it, and somehow we finally saw AOC and Ben Shapiro agree on something. People are thinking “they” control it from the top and they stopped it because they were scared of us. I can assure you none of that is true, it is conspiratorial thinking and it is all nonsense and unfounded.
Wanna know why? Read on, education ahead, and it’s good for you.
When people in aggregate from exchange A buy 1 million dollar worth of a stock, if there’s not enough people selling that stock on exchange A, that stock needs to come from exchange B. That means that 1 million needs to be transferred from exchange A to B. Money transfer is very complicated (as you’ve probably seen with wire transfers) and take 2 business days to clear even for the big guys. Now, what would happen if before money clears, exchange A collapses and goes bust? Exchange B is fucked. It still promised and have to give its users by law who sold those shares a 1 million dollars. Enter: Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation(DTCC)
DTCC is probably the biggest bank in the world and you’ve never heard of it. It acts as the man in the middle insurance company of sorts, it’s a self regulating private entity on wallstreet who’s existence is required by law. It exists to absorb all the risk of ripple effects of an exchange going bust and impacting other exchange. They basically want to take the risk of “what if that market we’re trading with doesn’t pay us?” completely off a brokers book. Also note, DTCC is not just for stock brokers, it’s for banks, institutional investors, hedge funds, mutual funds, all of them.
In my example, DTCC fronts exchange A the cash by guaranteeing the 1 mil for exchange B. All good so far right? Well there’s a small catch, DTCC needs to still protect itself from going insolvent, since it’s basically the backbone of the market, their chances of going insolvent cannot be even 0.000001%.
So they have this formula that calculates an upfront collateral for a particular stock. This collateral needs to be given cash to DTCC on the time of the trade. It’s not speculative, it’s just math and it takes a lot f factors in like the broker’s finances(how much cash they got on reserve, etc.) and also factors in the stock being traded. Usually it comes down to 1-4% of the security. Say that 1 mil I mentioned earlier was all SPY stock, since it’s safe and all the upfront fee is 1%. So when the 1 mil buy happens, exchange A immediately gives $10,000 to DTCC, and starts a wire of 1 million to fund B. Once the transaction clears, DTCC gives the $10,000 back.
All that was happening with GameStop, but then the morning the guys got block, DTCC raised their collateral requirement for the meme stocks to 100%. Why? Well, because it’s volatile as fuck and they did not like the odds of keeping it lower. We all know that this is a bubble and given that so many retail investors are buying this stock on margin at $300+ which is for sure crashing to $20, most likely in an instant, there’s a solid chance some exchanges might go broke over it, so they can’t insure it.
Now what does this mean for exchange A? That means for every 1 million dollars of GameStop, exchange A needs to wire 1 mil to to exchange B AND immediately send another million cash to DTCC. Well now we got a sticky situation, at the current market cap, we’re talking hundreds of billions (that’s not a typo) that these firms need to cough up to DTCC for 2 business days! They simply don’t have the money so they halted it. That’s it. Then the next day they secured some loans, and managed to re offer the stocks at a limited quantity that their loans enabled them to.
One small clarification, I simplified my explanation by combining clearing firms and brokerages as one entity. In reality they’re usually separate(sometimes they’re not, for example the popular trading app I can’t name does their own clearing), the connection goes broker -> clearing firm -> DTC. Clearing firms are actually the companies that are trying to secure loans to support more, and it’s the clearing firms who don’t have enough money to pay DTC, so they just tell brokers “sorry, no GME, can’t clear it”
“Dude fuck DTCC, they’re evil, they’re the ones controlling from the top they should’ve left us be”
Well last time they were too slow to raise the collateral was 2008. Lehman which was a clearing firm collapsed. Finally DTCC did what it was supposed to do! They paid out $500bn to clear all of Lehman’s outstanding transactions. But that’s not all, since DTCC was slow to raise their rates for certain securities at the time, they were legit at the risk of going insolvent if more banks and hedge funds collapsed. Enter Bailout, a loan to help everyone sort their shit out, clear out their transactions and not collapse. Had enough banks and hedge funds collapsed to push DTCC into insolvency, the entire United States paper market(stocks, bonds, etc.) would’ve collapsed(total market breakdown). Little known fact: DTCC technically owns almost all paper assets in the US, including yours and mine in a trust. Technically we are just beneficiaries of those stocks. Also, government has every right to take those away from you due to “national emergency”. Fun fact eh?
“DTCC is helping out their wallstreet buddies”
No, they’re protecting the system, they raise collateral for all ultra volatile securities. They’d do it if hedge funds were profiting too.
“But why some markets did allow buying?”
Well their clearing firms did, and some did their own clearing and they had enough cash to allow trading. And if you noticed, it was a ripple effect. TD was a clearing firm that was first to stop doing GME, then a bunch of brokers ran to other clearing firms, and now a clearing firm is servicing their existing brokers and all the refugees from TD, and naturally they got overloaded with GME. So they fell, and now two sets of refugees went and crash another, and eventually almost all brokers stopped offering GME and friends.
“Why sell only then?”
Selling doesn’t require DTCC collateral, cuz a stock is going out not money. The stock is just a digital signature in DTCC’s database, it ain’t going anywhere, it’s not gonna go insolvent. Money on the other hand is more complicated and not just a digital signature on a database, it’s no guarantee you’ll get it from a buyer until it’s in your vaults, so you need a collateral until you get it
“Why was so and so broker selling GME without my permission”
Alright dude this one on you for getting a margin account, you agreed to it and all brokers do it. You know how those boomers always tell you don’t get a margin account? This is why
“Why do we need DTCC anyways?”
They prevent cascading failures that doomers wish for on their birthdays. If a broker goes bust, suddenly that $2bn that broker was supposed to send to some other broker goes poof, and now that other broker is in the negative and goes bust, and so do all their debts to other companies
“Does DTCC raising the collateral requirement mean we were at risk of collapsing the financial system?”
Yea probably, but that’s why they raised the rates
“Why can’t markets just trade inside themselves and avoid sending money and DTCC”
They still need a transaction with DTCC because you all have your own bank accounts on a brokerage and DTCC being the owner of all stock needs to know which account which stock belongs to
“Wtf why does it take 2 business days to transfer money? Can’t they Zelle or some shit?”
It’s how things work at that large of a scale, they record transactions all day, end of the day they add it all up and move the money. One day to take the money from broker the clearing house, one day to move the money from clearing house to the receiving broker. It’s the same system as ACH transfers, which stands for automated clearing house
“Why is DTCC private and so centralized, break it apart!”
[blockchain shills have entered the chat]

I am in my early 30s, make $75k a year ($120k joint), live in the South, work as a Development Director, and hate capitalism but love a little luxury!

Edited to remove the tables because when I obsessively checked this post on my phone I couldn't read them?? Also I tried to, but was prevented from, editing the title. I know it looks sanctimonious but that's just one small part of my personality I swear. D:
❤️ Section 1: Assets and Debt
Total Net Worth: $30,875 - all equity.
Retirement Balance: $0 for me; $20,500 for my husband in the state pension program for teachers. (My partner, L, has been paying into the state teachers' pension system for 5 years. For most of my 20s, I either worked at very low-paying jobs, or supported myself and others on a teacher’s salary, so no retirement for me. My current job does not have a retirement program, but one of my goals for this year is to either start a Roth IRA or get a new job with a 401k match… or maybe both?)
Savings Account Balance: $23,733 We’re moving this summer to a city closer to our families, and are saving all we can for a down payment on a dreamy spot. After we move, some amount of what’s left over will go into a retirement fund, and the rest will stay in this HYSA as our emergency fund. For us, three months of expenses, including childcare, is about $18,000.
Checking Account Balance: $455
Credit Card Debt: n/a, pay off each month
Student Loan Debt: $80,000 for L’s undergrad and MAT. $18,000 for my undergrad and (unfinished) MAT. (My undergrad degrees were mostly covered by the Pell Grant, scholarships, and a $10,000 529 from my parents. L was a nontraditional student - didn’t start undergrad until he was 24 - so none of his was covered. Most of my debt is for a MAT program I dropped out of after one year. I was trying to find any way out of teaching at the time (it is demanding, all-consuming, and carceral at once) and thought a PhD would be my only route. When I got my current job I promptly left the program and any dreams of a PhD behind.)
Equity: $83,875 (This number is from an online equity calculator, and is for our house in a very popular neighborhood in a very popular city. Our outstanding debt on the house is $295,000. We put our whole savings down in 2019, which was $9,000 at the time.)
❤️ Section 2: Income
Monthly Take Home: My base pay is $65,000, and L’s is $45,000. I worked a side gig last year that totaled about $10k in additional compensation; all of it went to savings so we don't budget for it. My take home is $4096/month for my full time job, and my current side gig income (grant writing) is variable, between $300 and $600 a month. L’s take home is $2262/month. My health insurance is paid in full by work. L’s insurance and B’s come out of L’s paycheck, as does L’s retirement contribution.
Income Progression: I’ve been working since I was 15 years old, moved out for college at 18, and paid my own bills starting that year. I won’t include that money here though (it was like $12,000 a year as a college student, for reference). Income below starts when I graduated with two BAs that had nothing to do with teaching.
Year 1: $15,600 (part time ABA therapist, full time baby anarchist)
Year 2: $32,000 (year 1 teacher salary: I accepted a spot in Teach for America for this giant salary even though I thought it was an obnoxious neoliberal org. Yes, I was also obnoxious at the time.)
Year 3: $33,000 (teacher, step increase)
Year 4: $34,000 (teacher, step increase)
Year 5: $35,000 (teacher, step increase)
Year 6: $15,000 (community organizer; at the time this felt like a dream job)
Year 7: $20,000 (community organizer & cafe worker)
Year 8: $40,000 (back to teaching, felt rich; this includes a side hustle writing grants on the side for $50 an hour)
Year 9: $45,000 (left teaching for my current job, quit the grants side hustle)
Year 10: $55,000 (got a raise, got pregnant)
Year 11: $65,000 (got a raise and promotion, had a baby)
Year 12: $75,000 (was promoted again in January but waiting on the pay increase to hit, hopefully with backdating. This money diary doesn’t reflect this salary as it hasn’t been reflected in my check yet)
❤️ Section 3: Expenses
Mortgage/PMI/Insurance: $2,110
Retirement Contribution: n/a (L’s retirement is pulled out of his check before he receives it: it’s $169 a month. Right now, I don’t have a retirement contribution)
Savings Contribution: $1000 to main savings, $400 to sinking fund (This is a super aggressive goal for us and is only possible because our childcare costs are covered by work)
Debt Payments: n/a right now (We have student loans to the tune of $100k but haven’t been paying a dime since they were paused due to COVID. But then the other day I checked and saw they've gained interest? Should we be paying them then? WWJD? I legit don’t know.)
Electric: $130
Internet: $100
Cellphone: $65 (For L & I both. We are on a bigass family plan with 40 gajillion other people.)
Subscriptions: $45 ($10 Spotify; $10 Youtube music; $2.99 Apple data (Why?!); $22 NYT (for newspaper and cooking app); also have a split subscription to the New Yorker with bestie F but we paid for a yearly deal.)
Car Payment and Insurance: $150 for a car payment; $202 for insurance (Insurance covers both of our used cars and my dad’s used handicap van. Our car payment is for our used Honda. We only owe $6,850 on the car and I’m back and forth on whether to pay it off with savings)
Medical/Therapy: $0 (My therapist is $140 a session, and I just started seeing her again once a month, but this is reimbursed by work. I also get an inhaler at least twice a month - that’s reimbursed too, costs $60 total.)
Misfits Market: $120 (For a weekly box, which really helps us cut down on overall grocery cost)
Gym membership: $30 (For my intense local yoga studio’s app which is so great in the winter. We also run and bike a lot, as long as it’s warm enough)
Donations: $100 (We give monthly to our local Democratic Socialists of America; the Working Families Party; and a small, local org. I’m also on an organizing committee for that org. We’ll give them one big gift of at least $250 this year, probably in May. I support a couple organizations with grant writing and grant-finding support as much as I can, which usually amounts to a few hours a month.)
Childcare: $0 B goes to a very precious Montessori preschool, and we can walk him there. It’s pricey af ($1300/month). The other $200 is to account for some babysitting from my little sister when L or I have to work weird hours. For now, work reimburses this full amount as a COVID perk; if that changes, we will have to cut costs significantly.
House cleaner: $160 (They come twice a month and charge $80 each time.)
❤️ Section 4: Money Diary
NOTE: We are masked and afraid everywhere we go.
✨DAY 1: THURSDAY✨
4:20 am: Good morning world! I shuffle into the kitchen in my panties and my slippers to fill up the gooseneck kettle. I recently got into pour over coffee even though it’s quite a commitment. With a toddler, a full-time job, and a Libra sun, I don’t really have time for meditative morning routines. This lengthy, half-naked coffee regimen is my closest attempt. As soon as I get the coffee brewing, our 18 month old, B, starts making noise. I open the door and see he’s got his pacifier in his mouth and his pillow in his arms. He wants to lay with Dada. I help him get in the bed with my husband, L, as quietly as possible. Last week L was super sick and we thought for sure he had picked up COVID. Blessedly all of our tests came back negative, but on the heels of that, he started having major tooth pain and had to have an emergency tooth extraction, AND he got an ear infection as he was coming down from whatever virus he had. I hate it :(
I get dressed and do some chores while they snooze to ease L's morning. I start the diaper laundry (usually his job - we use cloth), put away the dishes, start the Eufy vacuum, and get B and L’s breakfasts together: sunbutter and a little bit of syrup on some banana pancakes I prepped earlier this week.
6:30 am: B and L are up! The hour before we take B to preschool is kind of a marathon. L eats with B (and supervises his syrup consumption) as I clean out some more dirty diapers, brush my teeth, make another cup of coffee, strip our sheets, spray my hair with water to refresh the curl, return a few group texts, and wash some breakfast dishes. Somewhere in here I also eat two boiled eggs with Everything But the Bagel seasoning, and a bunch of grapes.
I help L get B loaded up in the car, and just as they pull off, my parents Facetime me. They’re calling to see B but are polite enough to talk to me for a few minutes. They live a few hours away, and are divorced, but cohabitating. The full story is long and spiritual for me so I’ll spare you. Anyway, my mom and I talk for a while about this couch she thinks I should buy from one of her friends, but it’s two hours away and we’d have to rent a U-Haul, so I think we’ll pass. I do hate our current couch though. Please drop comfy toddler- and dog-friendly recommendations in the comments!
8:15 am: I set out to walk the dog and listen to the Daily’s recent update on the coronavirus. Donald G. McNeill, Jr., says we’re in this through the summer, which is a bummer on the personal and global front, but I suppose it could be worse??? Maybe?? As soon as they finish talking I switch over to You’re Wrong About. I’m deep in the Jessica Simpson series and highly recommend this pod for any other nerdy, lefty, kinda burnt out millennials, especially those of you that are queer or queer-adjacent. Once home, I take my whole operation onto the front porch to work, since the cleaner will be here soon and I don’t want to crowd her in this time of COVID. I LOVE a clean house and I love paying someone else to do the big stuff, which is a recent luxury for us.
11:00 am: I’ve been working steadily in my email and google docs for a couple hours now, and it’s COLD out here. The cleaner leaves and I am grateful to go back into the heat. I Venmo her $80 for the cleaning (included in monthly expenses). I take a break from work and check out the job boards. My current job is the best, and highest-paying, gig I’ve ever had, but I’m planning to leave some time this year for several reasons. The premier reason: I recently learned that I’m qualified for several positions that pay over $100k at similar organizations. With that kind of money we could pay off our student loans, help our families out more, make sizable donations, and L could explore a career outside of teaching without freaking about a slight cut in his pay for a few years as he finds his niche. Or - maybe he’ll get into Edtech somehow and we’ll join Resource Generation. Who knows.
12:30 pm: I have a quick break and pull together lunch: half a cheese quesadilla, a big bowl of Smitten Kitchen’s roasted tomato soup, and a LimonCello LaCroix. L is on his planning period and asks me to edit his most recent job application, and I oblige. Since we’re both job hunting, I ask him if I can buy a resume template and guide on Etsy. I have sworn off online shopping for the year to curb my impulse spending, but he says we’ll just count this one as his purchase. Great news because I hate the formatting of my resume from 2016 and don’t want to fix it myself! $9.95
3:30 pm: My Zooms are over, my inbox is at 0, and I put up my out of office message because I’m taking the day off tomorrow to work on my resume and do some things to prep our house for sale. My high-functioning anxiety created an ambitious backwards timeline for this process back in December, and that timeline currently runs my life. I work for a few more minutes to tie up loose ends, and then walk O to a nearby shop to buy my favorite candle, curbside-style. When I get there the owner gives me some percentage off because it’s slightly discolored from the sun. Huzzah! $27.25, marked down from $40
4:45 pm: My angel of a baby sister, J, who lives just a few blocks away and is in a pod with us, comes to hang out with B for an hour so L can rest. I head to my good friend D’s place for my investment overalls appointment. She's going to alter their awkward wide leg into more of a tapered, mom jean shape. I have a capsule wardrobe which means I’ll wear these babies at least once a week, and plus I get to pay my friend, so I’m fine with the extra expense. When I arrive, she and her partner have the fire pit going, and we drink a couple glasses of wine together, yet more than 6 feet apart. I learn they are planning to move to the same new city as us in the next couple of years and legit cry happy tears.
Afterwards, I head out to pick up dinner for tonight. We are getting burgers from L’s favorite place as a treat. On my way, the WOLF MOON appears over the water and my stomach does triple flips. Then I pick up our dinner: a veggie burger with eggplant jam and kale for me; a real-meat burger with mushrooms, bacon, swiss, carmelized onion, and horseradish mayo for L; and an appetizer plate with pretzels, pimento cheese, onion jam, pickles, and chips for B. Delicious and unhealthy. The total is $34.54.
6:30: Home and eating dinner. B loves his meal, especially the “chokes.” He calls pretzels “chokes” because when L first started feeding them to him, I worried aloud that he would choke every time. I just couldn’t stop thinking about how a pretzel almost took out George W. Bush. Turns out our toddler is better at chewing than George W. Bush.
After dinner, L gives B a bubble bath while I do my own, very minimal, bedtime routine. Then L and I lay down with B to put him to sleep. He has a floor bed, which is a Montessori thing I learned about on mom blogs. L is a very hot and talented woodworker, so he took my floor bed dream to the next level by building a lovely house-shaped frame. The top beam is wrapped in twinkle lights and fake ivy. It’s a nice place to sleep, and we pass out here all the time.
10:30 pm: L wakes me up and we wander to our own bed.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 71.74
✨ DAY 2: FRIDAY✨
4:15 am: Wake up and go look at the clock. Decide this is a silly time to get up on a day off, drink some water, and go lay back down. But once in bed all I can think about is how much I want to read the news, organize my resume, and update this money diary. This is the problem with falling asleep at toddler time. So I get up again at 4:45, make my coffee, read a New Yorker article about Biden’s pandemic response on my phone, and sit down to work on this diary.
6:00 am: L wakes up! He works on breakfast for himself and B and I start meal planning for the month. This is one of my best and most recent life hacks. I found that if I chart out our cooking, weekly takeout, and leftovers at the start of the month, we save lots of money and are so much less stressed about the labor that goes into feeding ourselves. I pull out Smitten Kitchen Every Day and use it to inspire the month’s meals. So quaint to cook from an actual BOOK.
6:45 am: B walks out of our room and announces that he drank my water off the side table. He’s so proud! And so ready to eat. While he eats breakfast, I snack on some grapes and, at B’s request, blast 7 Days A Week by They Might Be Giants. This is the consummate children’s song for any household that dreams of a self-determined world. Over the next hour I take B to school; make myself a real breakfast (a soy chorizo and egg taco); and browse TikTok. Eventually I find a series about this Gamestop situation by a smart Irish woman and L and I watch it together. When it’s over we feel like shrewd stock brokers ready to win money, and L gets to work teaching virtually.
I spend the morning painting our front door and our kitchen wall to prep our house to sell, and talking to my (other) little sister on the phone. She’s an HR person with a job that’s taken her far away from our family, and we don’t talk that often. It is so good to catch up on her life. After that I have a fun, day-off Zoom call with longtime bestie and coworker K. We drink coffee and talk about The Future.
12:30 pm: I make lunch (tomato soup with goat cheese on top, and a savory scone on the side) and get a text from another bestie, M, who offers me a little grant writing contract work this week. Yay! I love them and love working with them. Next, I order our groceries for the week. I get baking powder, eggs, cremini mushrooms, vegan sausage patties, oat milk, ginger root, shredded cheddar cheese, plantains, black beans, doggy bags, broccoli, vegan chicken strips, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, capers, ciabatta bread, grits, bananas, avocados, greek yogurt, and on impulse, a pineapple on sale (?!). Maybe B will love it. The total comes to $94.08.
1:15 pm: I do a brief power vinyasa class in B’s room and take a shower. It takes me approximately two Drake songs to shower and dry off, as I don’t have to wash my hair today and I never shave. I work on my resume until L and I leave to pick up B. On the way home we stop at the park to play, and then we all get in the car to pick up groceries.
6:30 pm: We get home later than planned and eat together: leftover tofu ramen for us and veggie lasagna for B, who is so sleepy that he hardly touches his lasagna. L gets him in the bath around 7:15 and I run through my evening routine. There’s a lot going on in the house - preschool lunch and clothes to put up, a mountain of laundry in our room, all of the groceries for the week waiting to be put away, and dinner dishes are languishing in the sink. L starts on chores while I get B dressed.
As I’m dressing B, my mom Facetimes and B shows her several of his board books. While we’re talking my dad texts me a heart emoji - he overheard B and my mom talking from his room. He lives with a disability and a painful illness, so he goes to bed very early. We hang up with my mom and record a video of B making “P” sounds and saying “I love you” to my dad, and send it over. This is the first time B’s ever said “I love you!” Huge news. We read books and fall asleep next to B.
9 pm: I wake up and nudge L but he wants to keep sleeping. I go clean the dinner dishes, put away the food and reorganize the cabinets and fridge, and mop the kitchen floor while I listen to The Daily’s latest reporting on QAnon believers who are at once totally bananagrams and also remind me very much of my aunt. L wakes up at 9:30 because he and Y, my sister’s boyfriend, are gonna game. Cute! He finishes the laundry and I fold a few diapers to help out. Then we lay in bed together until game time, when I fall asleep.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 94.08
✨DAY 3: SATURDAY✨
5:40 am: Wake up at a ~*~weekend hour~*~!! Start my kettle, clean and moisturize my face, pull out the ingredients for waffles, and pick up around the house while I wait for it to boil. I try to read some, but get bored a few pages in. I’m currently reading How to Do Nothing and it’s good enough, but I think I need to chill on the nonfiction and read, like, saucy romance novels with hot bisexual leads. Send me your recs please!
Waffle time! This recipe is my go-to. I recommend whipping the egg whites first. B wakes up around 7:15 and helps me cook which is cute and very messy. He eats his waffle with honey, peanut butter, and grapes. L wakes up after him - he had a late night gaming!
8 am: I open yesterday’s mail and find an anti-abortion DVD from L’s grandma. It’s Abby Johnson’s “memoir.” Abby Johnson is an opportunistic right winger and documented liar who once moonlighted as a Planned Parenthood clinic manager. L is a preacher’s kid, so we’re not surprised to receive this from his grandma. For example: 10 years ago, when L and I were a couple years into our relationship, her Christmas gift to me was a book about how one can recover from being a slut by getting married and finding Jesus. This particular package really sends me over the edge, though. I decide to write them a short note later that states my own experience with abortion and sets a clear boundary on this kind of propaganda, and includes an article about Abby Johnson’s bullshit life. It’s unlikely this will change their minds - they are septuagenarian Southern Baptists, after all - but at least I’ll be in my integrity.
In the meantime, I group text L’s siblings, and they commiserate with us. His one sibling who is transitioning shares that grandma recently sent them a book about how to tell your gay friends they’re sinning. We agree that’s hilariously dense (and fucking rude) of her, and talk about how everyone under forty is a gay slut living their best life, so really it’s grandma’s loss. During this time I clean the kitchen, finish the waffles, and freeze them for B’s weekday breakfasts.
9:30 am: B asks to use the potty and does a great job peeing on his own! He’s geeked about it and is especially excited to have my parents on Facetime cheering him on. After that we head out on our morning walk. L takes B to the playground and I take O to the dog park nearby. She gets tired pretty quick and we all head to the thrift store. We need chairs for our hand-me-down kitchen table. The ones that came with it are awkwardly wide. L spots two sturdy ones that are just $5 each. Score! $10
11:30 am: B and L are both wiped out once we get home. They eat lunch and go to sleep. I clean up the kitchen, repot one of my plants, water our porch plants, and eat some leftover ramen for lunch. The Marie Antoinette episode of You’re Wrong About keeps me company all the while. 10/10 would recommend.
2 pm: B wakes up and eats some lunch. We watercolor together for a while (he on his big paper, I in my bullet journal), then walk down the street to the local high school while L preps potatoes for our fondue. The high school grounds are open on the weekends, and there’s an amphitheatre on site. B loves the echo in there.
4:30 pm: L joins us in the amphitheatre and together we drag B two blocks back home. I prep the fondue: brie, gouda, and more gouda with white wine. It ends up being a little clumpy but so delicious. My sister, J, and her boyfriend, Y arrive while I’m cooking. Y brings yummy baguettes from his bakery job for the dipping and we prep broccoli, green beans, and tempeh too. We sit down in our new chairs to eat and for the zillionth time I am so thankful we’ve been able to make a pod together this year. Fondue would be a terrifying proposition with anyone else, really.
While we eat, Y tells us he put in his two weeks at the bakery because their COVID protocols aren’t so tight and his coworkers are continuing to go to bars and out to eat. His plan for now is to get back on unemployment and find a virtual job sometime soon. Both he and my sister have worked food service their whole adult lives so the pandemic has been tough on them. Besides the fact that they’re delightful and perfect, this is one key reason we’re planning to move with them to our new city this summer: L and I will be able to easily afford the majority of the rent, deposits, and utilities on a pretty big, and centrally located, house. Living together will allow us to grow our savings and take our time looking for a Forever Home, and will allow J and Y to pay really low rent as my sister goes back to school full time and Y looks for a full-time job. I’m really looking forward to living with them and know it’ll be good for B, too. They leave around 7 pm and we put B to bed, this time without falling asleep ourselves!
8:30 pm: Turn on How I Met Your Mother in bed and the episodes are baaaaad bad. One entire episode casts sex workers as a punch line. Ick. L and I agree to find a new show, and fall asleep around 10.
11 pm - 2 am: B is up and between our two beds. Wahhhh.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 10
✨DAY 4: SUNDAY✨
6 am: Up and at ‘em! Discover I’m out of my fancy coffee and don’t want to emphasize the flavor of our grocery store beans with a slow pour, so make a french press instead. B wakes up too early so we watch toddlers together on TikTok while I drink my coffee, then read books while L makes us all eggs for breakfast. We head out for our morning walk around 9 am and stop at a coffee shop a few blocks away. I pick up Counter Culture’s Iridescent beans, buy an espresso brownie on a whim, and tip the cashier because she’s so sweet and tipping is good. The total is 23.03. L takes B to the playground and I drop my purchases and O back at the house before I head out for a run.
9:45 am: It’s 65 degrees and my run is glorious. I run to the water and pause Lil Yachty for a minute to take it all in. Once home I shower and put on a black LA Apparel catsuit and a marled black and white cocoon sweater from AA of the past (I like what I like!). We feed B lunch and then L puts him down while I clean up.
Around 11:30, J comes over after to watch B while we remove the storm windows from our whole house and clean the windows underneath as part of our work to prep the house for sale. We’re a solid team: L removes the storm windows and caulks all the gaps in the wood while I follow behind him and wash the windows inside and out. Our sweet neighbor catches us cleaning and offers to let us use her power washer for free next weekend to clean up the front of the house. I resolve to bake them some cookies.
2:30 pm: We are done with the window operation and it’s time for me to water all 57 plants in the house. Along the way, discover that I overwatered B’s hoya last week and it’s rotting. Noooo! I unpot it on the porch to dry the roots, but it’s raining so this might not work. There’s only one surefire solution: buy a replacement plant! I try to convince L we should go to the nursery, but he’s not so into it. I walk around dejectedly with a towel to clean up all the water I spilled, and Zelle J $70 for babysitting even though she insists she would do it for free. Next B, L, and I share a snack: crackers with goat cheese and harissa. Mmm. B skips the harissa but loves the goat cheese. Meanwhile I begin to stress about making dinner. We’d planned goddess bowls but L and I just aren’t feeling it after our marathon of house work. L requests Chinese and is suddenly more amenable to visiting the nursery, which is near our favorite Chinese takeout spot. Score!
5:00 pm: We leave the plant shop with a heartleaf philodendron for B’s room and a giant, lovely, perfect monstera deliciosa just because. The total comes to $53.24. Then we pick up our food: $33.08 including the tip. L ordered a large veggie lo mein to share with B and General Tso’s chicken, and I got family style tofu and vegetables. We start B’s bedtime routine at 6:30 and he’s out by 7:00 - early for him!
After he’s down, L preps his breakfast sandwiches for the week and I do some dishes. Then we take mutual advantage of the extra hour we have together. Even after 12 years it’s always so good with L. I fall asleep around 10 pm feeling blessed.
🌿 Daily total: 179.32
✨DAY 5: MONDAY✨
5 am: I make my pour over and get started on work first thing. I have a couple of deadlines this week and the side gig to balance so I’m already feeling pressed for time! I wrap up an entire grant report before 6 am and feel very accomplished. Then I pause work to start our breakfast, which is all pre-prepped, hallelujah. While L and B eat breakfast, I get dressed in a black turtleneck minidress, busted old tights, black ankle socks, and my Doc Martens.
I help L load up the car with B and all his gear, and tell L to be careful. Today is L’s first day back teaching in person since December, and we’re both nervous since COVID is still running wild in our red state. On the way to work he fills up his car for $18.33.
2:30 pm: After another grant report, seventy gajillion emails, forty Slack messages, and several hours of Zoom calls, I’m ready for a break. I finish eating the quinoa salad I prepped during Zoom call #2 and then eat a pear too. I see our Misfits box has been delivered. It’s $30 a week, and is included in our monthly expenses. I unpack it, clean the counters, wipe down the bathroom sinks, take O for a walk, and sit down to work on my side gig grant report, which is due Wednesday. I set a 30 minute timer because I don’t want to be too late picking up B.
4:25 pm: Worked longer than I meant to! Pack some snacks and pick up B. On the way home we get a giant bag of potting soil so I can repot those plants. It’s $18.52. Come home and engage in B’s favorite winter activity: pressing all the buttons in the turned-off car. Meanwhile, in another car across town, L picks up a big bag of Purina One, butter, maple syrup, and applesauce. That total is $28.64.
5:30 pm: The whole family is home and we kick it inside until it starts to get dark. L and I gather all the things and take the creatures out for a walk even though there’s a light, but very cold, rain happening. B is cranky and so are we, so the walk is quick.
We eat leftover Chinese food around 7 and start B’s bedtime routine. B falls asleep at 8 and I update this diary for a while, then go watch Ted Lasso in bed with L til about 9:30. It’s much better than How I Met Your Mother, for the record.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 65.51
✨Day 6: TUESDAY✨
3 am: B wakes up and needs a diaper change. I have the hardest time falling back asleep after: I can’t stop thinking about how I left B’s hoya out in the cold with its roots exposed most of the day yesterday and into tonight. But it’s too cold for me to get up again and pull it inside! So instead I toss and turn and hope it’s not dead yet.
6 am: L’s alarm wakes me up! No early morning reading and writing time for me. I get right up, make a giant pour over, and get breakfast together while L wakes up B. Then I actually sit down with them to eat: B and I both eat boiled eggs with everything but the bagel seasoning and some coconut milk yogurt, and L sips his coffee while his breakfast sandwich heats in the oven. I get dressed in my workout gear and walk the dog while L gets B ready for school. They leave, and I finally bring the hoya in, and start work, around 7:30. L buys coffee and snacks from the gas station on his way to work: $6.88.
9:30 am: I grab some crackers and peanut butter from the kitchen and notice a DMV bill on the fridge I’ve been meaning to pay, but don’t totally understand. I call them up and respond to emails while I sit on hold. Turns out I owe the DMV $10 for paying my Dad’s van insurance late. With the “processing fee” it comes to $11.17.
1:30 pm: Been on Zoom calls all morning, and decide to switch over to the side gig work for a bit. Meanwhile I eat that quinoa salad I prepped yesterday. At 2 pm, my longtime bestie and neighbor F comes over and we take O for a walk in the park together and have such a good conversation. While the context is (very) different, I’m reminded of the Toni Morrison quote when I think of F: “She’s a friend of my mind.” Such a gem, and such a smartie. At 3:30 I start a HIIT yoga class and it kicks my butt even though it’s only 20 minutes long. Afterwards, I shower and pick up B.
5:00 pm: L arrives home while B and I are playing, and we get in the car once more to check out a cute couch L scoped out on Facebook marketplace. It’s a sweet vintage brown velvet actually-for-real midcentury situation. Unfortunately we discover it’s also small and very uncomfortable. $200 not spent. Once home, my family goes for a walk and I make dinner - this grits and beans recipe from NYT cooking. It’s blessedly quick to pull together. Meanwhile D texts me and says my overalls are ready! YAY! She’s gonna drop them off in a couple of days. She says the total is $30. I include a tip and Venmo her $40.
7:00 pm: At bedtime, B cannot get enough of his books and we read All The World several times. He finally falls asleep around 8:20 and L and I eat dinner on the couch, with Ted Lasso. I drink a glass of red wine, which is a mistake: my anxiety spikes right after, my stomach hurts, and I can’t sleep. This is very upsetting as I want very much to be a wine mom. Does this happen to anyone else?
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 58.05
✨DAY 7: WEDNESDAY✨
5:45 am: Wake up with B cuddled into my back - L moved him to our bed in the middle of the night after his second wake up. Get my coffee and breakfast together and sit down at my computer to work on the side gig grant while everyone's asleep. Then L and I manage the morning rush together. I eat sourdough toast, two scrambled eggs, and some pineapple along the way.
7:30 am: Take O out for a walk and on a whim decide to listen to one of my favorite easy-listening pods: A Beautiful Mess. Normally the two sisters and co-hosts, Elsie and Emma, chat about things like home decor or craft making or how to balance kids and work. This episode is about the host’s evangelical upbringing, though, and is a real raw and honest tear jerker. Pair it with this, one of my top reads of 2020: “What Does the White Evangelical Want?” It gets me thinking about L’s upbringing in the church. He and all his siblings are all agnostic now.
Finally sit down at my desk and debate taking Adderall. I used it regularly in college and for a few years after in order to Do All The Things. I try to stay away from it now - I’m not trying to live an impossible life any more - but I also really want to pick B up earlier than normal today, and that means I need to meet all my deadlines and make it through two Zoom calls with my direct reports by 3 pm. I decide to take 4 mg. Right after I take it, three different friends text me at once and then, suddenly, I’ve spent an hour catching up via text. Get to work for real around 9 am.
3:00 pm: Wrapped all my calls, answered all my emails, washed all the dishes, ate some lunch, and finished the side gig work! OK Adderall, you beautiful bitch. Spend a few more minutes tying up loose ends and then gather my things to pick B up from school. The plan today is to go “play basketball” in the park near his school because he is OBSESSED with balls, and I’m trying to do more magical things every day with him. It’s cold but I’m ready to brave it on his precious, curly-headed behalf.
At 4 pm J calls and asks to go pick him up with me. Hooray, things just got even more magical! We head to a different-than-usual park together and run around until B sits in, and then drinks from, a puddle. We panic and J googles “What happens if my baby drinks from a puddle?” The search returns lots of stories of babies eating muddy rocks and surviving, so we decide it’s ok.
5:00 pm Head home and L is back from work! We take the smols on a walk and I tell L that I think nighttime screentime is making me anxious. I’m a sensitive creature and I really don’t want to blame the wine. He’s very perfect so he helps me think through an alternate plan for this evening: hot tea and book reading in bed, and maybe sex, too! Fun.
Next, I head home with O to pot the plants we bought the other day, and L takes B to the playground. They get back around 6:30 and I am very excited to reveal my new plant placements. Everyone feigns interest except O. Then we eat leftovers together and B gets in bed around 7:30. L and I promptly fall asleep next to him and don’t wake up again til 11 pm. Guess our new nighttime routine will have to wait til tomorrow!
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 0
❤️ Section 5: TOTALS
Total Expenses: $478.71
Food & Drink: $220.25
Fun & Entertainment: $0
Home & Health: $109.01
Clothes & Beauty: $40
Transport: $29.50
Other: $79.95
❤️ Section 6: REFLECTION
This week reflects a new normal for us, I think! We just set the goal of saving up for another down payment in December, and that’s when I swore off online shopping both to save money and to stop lining the pockets of evil billionaires like Bezos (no shade to anyone who uses Amazon, this is purely a personal goal & I’m not sure I can meet it). This self-imposed rule is helping me reign in my discretionary spending overall. L and I have only been living a two-income, middle class life for a few years, and my lifestyle creep was a little out of control in 2020. That said, I can and do still regularly justify spending money on things that make life more luxurious and beautiful - like a $40 candle or a totally unnecessary but very lovely plant.
There are a couple of things not reflected in this diary that we regularly spend on: gifts (my achilles heel - for example, we spent three! thousand! dollars! on Christmas gifts in December), and medical bills. Both B and I had to visit the emergency room in 2020 and we are still getting random bills in the mail as our insurance company and the hospital duke it out. As I was editing this diary on Thursday, I received one for $787. Wahhhh. I think I’m gonna get on a payment plan, but even so that it will be over $200 a month.
Last thought: this process got me thinking in some detail about the contradiction of organizing for the fall of capitalism (and the rise of a more gentle and just economic system), yet believing everyone - including ourselves and our own families - deserve to live full and abundant lives. This means I compromise my own anti-capitalist values and beliefs every day, in big and small ways. Discuss?

Regional Blackouts are a joke!

ELI5: GameStop retail investor buy restriction [Educational]

I wanted to create a post to document the market events/forces surrounding GME and why the buy restriction imposed by American Retail Brokers is disgusting market manipulation, not just affecting investors on their platforms but world wide. This is for educational purposes, so that we can have something to point to when explaining to others what transpired. Please add relevant information and post links to news articles as sources if you'd like to contribute.
GameStop is well known video game retailer that was suffering losses over the past several years, reducing its stock price as it was considered to have a failed business model. Several hedge funds want to profit on the company’s failure started shorting the stock.
Short Selling ELI5: You think to yourself hey this stock is overvalued, so you borrow it from someone who owns it and sell it getting money today in the hope of buying it back at a later date at a cheaper price pocketing the difference (minus borrowing fees). Hedge funds are greedy, they will hold out until it goes to zero because why leave money on table.
GME stock was heavily shorted, over 100% of the shares available. This means that the shares that were shorted, were shorted again. Everything is finite in this world, and hedge funds thought they had a sure thing that GameStop could not recover. The stock price stayed low and flat for a long time, but some investors saw value in the company, notably Ryan Cohen who started accumulating shares to develop a minority stake in the company. This also happened at the same time that GameStop signed a deal with Microsoft which included a cut of digital sales. When the media/analysts report that the price rise has nothing to do with fundamentals they are half right. First the media is looking at what the company is today not what it can be tomorrow. Secondly, they are ignoring other market forces that can drive stock prices.
Cohen and MSFT are not enough to drive the price up in the short term, what is driving the price up was an amplifying feedback loop of an over shorted stock and retail investors learning a new trick. The year 2020 saw many things, including a rise in option trading among retail investors.
Options ELI5: A Call option specifically is a contract that gives you the option to buy shares at a predetermined price (strike) at a future date (expiry). Options are not a new thing, been around for decades along with futures (do a quick read how many big investors hit home runs on futures back in the day). They serve a legit purpose in portfolio planning and risk management, but also have a way to supercharge returns because the initial investment can be small relative to large payoffs if the stock rises. However, options are risky as they will expire worthless if the stock is below the strike at expiry. Each option contract is for 100 shares. For example, if a stock is trading at $5 dollars, and you buy a call option with $10 strike prices which was trading at $0.50. Your investment will be $0.5 * 100 * 1 option = $50. Now if the stock goes up because of some market forces to $12, you basically made ($12-$10) * 100 = $200 - $50 for the initial investment = $150 profit. There are some time value effects but not important for the ELI5.
Why do the options matter, and how does this create a feedback loop? The best way to protect yourself as the person who sold the option is to buy the stock. So, let's game play this out a bit, you don't think the stock is going to up so you sell an uncovered call (you don't already own the stock) laughing to yourself that the option is going to expire worthless and you just pocketed the premiums. However, the small up ticks from retail investors buying up stocks makes other retail investors think "Hey theses options are cheap, and I think the stock is going to go up" so they buy up options. Now enough of these "worthless" options are out in the market that just the sheer volume requires some stock purchases to hedge the risk. Which causes and uptick in the stock price. Which then drives up the hedging requirements. Rinse. Repeat. This is what was labelled on WSB as a Gamma Squeeze, as the stock price rose, more options became valuable, which increased stock buying, which increased the price making more options valuable. Limited Supply for increasing Demand.
The Gamma Squeeze was one market force that drove up the price, the other is the the hedge funds that shorted the stock. As the price goes up, they are losing money, remember they were hoping to buy the stock back at a lower price, but now it is higher. As the loses start to increase, they will be hit with a margin call, basically saying "you are in the red a bit too much ante up". Working through a simple example, you short $1m of stock. Now the value of the stock has gone up to $2m, so the people who you borrowed the stock from are going to say, "how about you put up 50% of that just incase you go bankrupt" (margin call) which now the hedge fund has to find that money by either selling other stocks or borrowing that money. The other option they have is to close out their short position by buying shares in the open market solidifying their losses. This large scale buying will further cause the stock price to rise, increasing the losses for other hedge funds. Limited Supply for increasing Demand.
The price rise was just beautiful efficient supply and demand of a finite commodity in a free market, retail investors were saying no to hedge funds "This company is not going zero, you were wrong, now you have to pay me for your mistake". This created fear of a "short squeeze" that hedge funds would have to franticly buy back shares (from retail investors) at high prices to close of their positions, losing billions in the process. This happened with VW stock in 2008.
Jan 28th 2021 the market wasn't free. By brokers restricting the buying ability of retail investors, the market was no longer operating efficiently. Market prices are determined by a bunch of random people saying, "Hey I'm willing to pay X for this because I think it's worth Y", and when two people agree on price X a transaction is made. Another transaction will be made when two people agree on Y. The buying restriction took out the ability for retail investors to have their say what the price should be, having the price now dictated by the funds who were still allowed to trade and had the most to lose. Any investor who had stop loss set would have been doubly screwed. The stop loss would have forced shares to be sold, while not having the ability to buy back as the prices was falling. When investors set stop losses, they expect the market to be operating efficiently, meaning the price reflects the true market sentiment of all participants.
Stop Loss ELI5: When you buy a stock, you can tell your broker that if the prices fall below a certain threshold sell, limiting your losses. Good practice so you do not get wiped out because you are not sitting at a trading desk all day. That is if the market price is efficient.
I do not want to put my tinfoil hat on, but the ones who had the most to gain from the restriction were the hedge funds. This has nothing to do with protecting the average retail investor from market volatility, if anything it did more harm than good. We make our own decision to risk our money.
Wall Street created this beast, trading apps made it easy to trade commission free but with some sketchy filling practices (not always at the best price for the investor). The rise of option trading by retail investors was due to people having more time on their hands due to the pandemic, and to be honest, people who are down and out looking at it as a lottery ticket.
I fear that these events today will dissuade working class from investing, they have been shown that the game is rigged.
That is all I have right now, if this post gains traction I will do my best to incorporate feedback.

After a confrontation with my dad about my FA status, I'm finally trying to find someone. Dating apps, reaching out to people I haven't talked to in years, etc. I'll keep you all updated in weekly posts from now on.

Doges for Doofuses (A Quick Guide to Dogecoin)

Doges for Doofuses (A Quick Guide to Dogecoin)

What is Dogecoin? - A crypto currency. (If you don't know that, you might want to look into other investments) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency
Should I buy/sell Dogecoin? - This strongly depends on why you are choosing to invest in cryptocurrencies. If you are looking for a quick buck, Dogecoin isn't for you my friend. You are better off with other short term investments. The truth behind the coin is that it is a long-term investment just like bitcoin was for the first few years it was available.
Terms you need to familiarize yourself with before we begin -
Wallet - The place where your Dogecoin is stored. This can be a Physical Wallet (Hardware/Cold Wallet) or a Digital Wallet (online/Hot Wallet). More on that below.
Address - Think of this as your Dogecoin bank account number.
Receiving/Public Address - An encrypted key string that you use to get Dogecoin into your wallet. (Explained more in step 3 and 4)
Sending/Withdrawal Address - An encrypted key string that you use to send Dogecoin out of your wallet. (Explained more in step 3 and 4)

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Private Address/Key - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT GIVE OUT THIS INFO. Your private key is what you use to authorize sending your Dogecoin to another address. If you lose your private key, you will lose access to the Dogecoins associated with that key’s public address. If someone else knows your private key, they can take all the Dogecoin from that key’s Receiving/Public Address . PROTECT YOUR PRIVATE KEY(S). Your private key is only ever needed to backup your wallet or to change wallets. Most Wallets allow you to import your private key from another wallet.
*Note Each Receiving/Public Address that you create has it's own Private Address/Key associated with it and each wallet has different methods of showing you your Private Address/Keys.
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Faucet - This is generally a website that says that they will pay you to play games, take surveys, click links, and or do other small tasks in order to earn cryptocurrencies. Most of these sites are not legit ways of earning Dogecoin because either they do not pay out or they pay out such small amounts (Fractions of a whole coin), that they just aren't worth the hassle. If you do choose to try and earn some side coin this way, I will have to say it is best to do your own research on whether or not the faucet is legit and actually pays out.
Exchange - A place (Website) that allows the buy, sell, and trade of currencies or stocks.
Transaction/Trading Fee - A percentage that you pay to complete most transactions with cryptocurrency. Some exchanges have no fees.
TAX PURPOSES IN THE UNITED STATES - This isn't a term, but it something you should be made aware of lest you get in trouble with the IRS.
[If Dogecoin is held as a capital asset, you must treat them as property for tax purposes. General tax principles applicable to property transactions apply. Like stocks or bonds, any gain or loss from the sale or exchange of the asset is taxed as a capital gain or loss. Otherwise, the investor realizes ordinary gain or loss on an exchange.] This means you need to keep track of all transactions involving your Dogecoin, down to the day, and the price at the time of the transaction. (Example: Bought 100 Dogecoin at $0.008 USD each on December 12th, 2020) Keep a ledger or something to keep track of this info for your taxes.
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Ok, I think I am ready to invest. What now? - Time to get to the fun part! Let's set up our wallet and get some Doge!

STEP 1. (This is technically optional since most exchanges have a built-in wallet but having your own wallet is more secure)
First we need to get a Wallet. This wallet can be a physical piece of hardware that you keep in the real world (Cold Wallet), or it can be a virtual wallet that you keep on the internet (Hot Wallet). In terms of security, a physical wallet is always best, never let anyone convince you otherwise. The downside to having a physical wallet is that you may pay more in transaction/trading fees because you have to move your Dogecoin around a bit in order to buy/sell. If you are looking to hold on for the long haul then this is what you want overall.
#1 Rated Physical Wallet based on cost and support is the Nano Ledger (latest model) https://shop.ledger.com/
If you are going for a virtual wallet, which I personally never had an issue with, then you have many options. The downside to having a Virtual Wallet is people will try to trick you into giving them your Private Address/Key or if your PC gets compromised (virus or something) the hackers could potentially get your Private Address/Key, compromising your wallet.
These are the best online wallets I have found:
Multidoge Wallet - MultiDoge is the most traditional Dogecoin wallet available on the market. This is an open source virtual wallet. With a simple but functional interface, MultiDoge wallet allows you to store your funds and send your DOGEs anywhere safely. Its desktop version is available on Windows, OS X, and Linux.
Dogecoin Wallet - This Dogecoin Wallet is a good choice for users who intend to store Dogecoins on a smartphone or desktop. The downside to this wallet is that is is severely depreciated and the network takes forever to sync on the desktop version. You can speed this up by downloading the entire blockchain first. This will be worked on again since the developers are fixing the network with the recent hype. This is available on Windows, OS X, Linux, and Android.
Dogechain - An online wallet made for the storage of Dogecoins. It has a light and functional interface that allows sending and receiving DOGEs in a simple way. For those who do not want to store Dogecoins on hardware, desktop, or smartphone, this wallet is the best option. As the data is stored on the cloud, you can access your funds anywhere in the world with only your password.
*But be careful!\* Cloud wallets are more vulnerable to hacker attacks. Many cloud wallet services have been stolen in the past. Hackers can explore a security failure or a bug in the system to steal funds from hundreds of users.
Exodus Wallet - Exodus Wallet is a multi-crypto wallet that supports more than one hundred kinds of cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin. It offers 24/7 support plus live graphs and real-time crypto prices. Exodus is a desktop wallet.
Jaxx Liberty - This wallet became famous for being one of the first wallets to give support to more than one kind of crypto. Nowadays, it’s possible to store a hundred kinds of them on it. Jaxx is available on both desktop and mobile. You can have it on your Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, or iOS device. It also offers a Chrome Extension version.
Atomic Wallet - A powerful multi-crypto wallet that supports DOGE and more than one hundred other cryptocurrencies. It’s useful for users who want to store more than one kind of crypto in the same place. Also, Atomic Wallet allows easy swaps between coins, although the conversion rates sometimes aren’t that good. This wallet is available on Windows, MacOS, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Android, and iOS.
*HONORABLE MENTION\*
Robinhood - This is not a wallet and therefor not on the list of wallets. Yes you can buy and sell Dogecoin on Robinhood, but since it is not an actual wallet, you are not supplied with any addresses to send and withdrawal from. Robinhood holds the majority of your coins in cold storage, entirely disconnected from the internet. This gives you an additional layer of protection. They also carry crime insurance that protects a portion of the assets held across our storage systems against losses from theft, including cybersecurity breaches. The policy is underwritten by certain underwriters at Lloyd’s, the world’s leading insurance marketplace, and placed by Lloyd’s registered broker, Aon.
Once you have set up your wallet, you should now have a Receiving/Public Address and a Sending/Withdrawal Address and you can now get started with your trades!

Step 2.
Now it is time to find an Exchange! There are several exchanges to choose from and you can even support multiple if that is what you desire.
Here are some of the best known exchanges on the market right now:
Binance - Binance is one of the largest and most well-known cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. The benefits of purchasing Dogecoin here is that you benefit from the lower exchange fees than competing exchanges, and the increased liquidity enables you to buy and sell quickly to take advantage of market moving news. Binance is currently the largest cryptocurrency market in terms of market cap. The platform has a large volume of DOGE, with DOGE/USDT, DOGE/BTC, and DOGE/ETH accounting for a substantial volume of the cryptocurrency’s total market cap. DOGE/BTC is the most popular pair on Binance.
CoinEx - CoinEx has the most substantial trading volume of Dogecoin amongst crypto exchanges. The platform is responsible for roughly 26% of the daily trading volume of Dogecoin. The DOGE/USDT, DOGE/BTC, and DOGE/BCH trading pairs account for 16.3%, 5.1%, and 4.9% of the total trading volume of Dogecoin. Due to its high liquidity of Dogecoin and an excellent trading platform, CoinEx is one of the best platforms to trade DOGE. The substantial trading volume means you can buy, trade, and withdraw your Dogecoin on this platform with ease.
Coinsbit - Coinsbit is another cryptocurrency platform that has a large trading volume of DOGE. It accounts for 17% of the total Dogecoin trading volume. The DOGE/USD, DOGE/BTC, and DOGE/ETH trading pairs make up the 17% of Coinsbit’s Dogecoin trading volume. The total Dogecoin trading volume on this platform is almost $3 million, making it quite substantial for those willing to buy and trade cryptocurrency. Coinsbit has other smaller trading pairs of Dogecoin including that of EUR. The availability of purchase with fiat currencies could be the appeal of Dogecoin on Coinsbit.
Coinbase - Coinbase is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world and offers an extensive range of options and tools. The platform offers a stand alone wallet called Coinbase Wallet, but you don’t need to have this in order to store your currency directly on the exchange. Coinbase is suitable for both new and experienced traders. It only offers a handful of different cryptos, so you might seek a Coinbase alternative if you are looking for a specific and less popular coin.
P2PB2B - The third best platform to trade Dogecoin is P2PB2B. The cryptocurrency exchange has a large volume of DOGE, accounting for over 12% of the crypto’s total market volume. Similar to Coinsbit, P2PB2B allows users to purchase the cryptocurrency using fiat currencies as the DOGE/USD pair is ahead of the other trading pairs on the platform. With substantial liquidity and a vibrant trading platform, P2PB2B is an excellent cryptocurrency exchange to buy, trade, and sell Dogecoin.
Kraken - Kraken is one of the longstanding names when it comes to cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the industry. The trading costs are competitive with other exchanges and they have continued to evolve now offering both futures and margin trading.
Changelly - Changelly is one of the few places that will allow you to buy Dogecoin with almost any currency (fiat or crypto). Changelly is a conversion service that works relatively quick and doesn’t require anything more than an email to sign up. The downside is that it can take up a lot in fees (especially if you buy Doge with your credit card).
Bittrex - Bittrex is a US based cryptocurrency exchange that has grown in popularity in recent years. It offers a DOGE/BTC pair similar to Kraken. This means that you will need to either buy Bitcoin or deposit Bitcoin in order to exchange it for Doge.
*HONORABLE MENTION\*
This goes to Robinhood again! - While Robinhood is a great platform to buy and sell Dogecoin, it just does not have the support nor financial backing that most of these other platform have. If you ever have a problem on Robinhood make sure to set aside 3 weeks before you get help. Robinhood also is seen as distasteful in the eyes of the majority of the community because of the limitations they put on certain stocks during the GME short squeeze. I think Robinhood is a fantastic app but it is mainly for beginners who aren't as vested in the project.
*It should also be noted that several Exchanges allow you to buy other currencies and convert them into doge. Some of the aforementioned Exchanges do not allow the direct purchase of Dogecoin and solely rely on you trading one currency for actual Dogecoin.

Step 2 1/2.
Most Exchanges have a built-in Wallet and you do not need to transfer your Dogecoin to another Wallet if you are comfortable with this. I definitely suggest using a more secure wallet as explained in Steps 1, 3, and 4.

Step 3. (Optional)
Now that you have an exchange picked out you can start buying your Dogecoin! Once you have your Dogecoin, depending on the Exchange you chose, you need to find your Exchange's Wallet. From there you will need to initiate a Send/Withdrawal. Your exchange should have a Sending/Withdrawal Address. You will need to open your wallet of choice and find the Receiving/Public Address you would like to use. Go back to your Exchange's Wallet and put in the Receiving/Public Address. Finish your trade and you should now have your Doge safely tucked away, never to see the light of day, until we reach the moon.

Step 4. (Optional)
There is no step 4, you should pretty much be able to send Dogecoin to your wallet once you have the process down. Taking your Dogecoin out of your wallet is just the opposite of putting it in. You will need to open your Wallet, start a send/withdrawal, open your Exchange's Wallet and find your Receiving/Public Address, then go back to your Wallet of choice and put in Receiving/Public Address. Complete trade and done!
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Miscellaneous Terms related to dogecoin -
What are Diamond Hands and Paper Hands? - In short, Diamond hands are people referring to others who refuse to sell their Dogecoin even through the high volatility of the market (Diamond Willpower). You can already guess what the Paper Hands are at this point! You guessed it. It refers to the people who tear like paper when the stress of dips rears its ugly face and sell their Dogecoin in hopes of cutting loses before they become too great.
Why the moon? What does it mean? - Because Elon Musk hasn't colonized Mars yet. It just means to drive up the price.
What are Whales? - This is a term used to refer to people who have hoards of Dogecoin just laying around. They control the majority of the capital and when a Whale sells their Dogecoin, it impacts the market price heavily.
What is Hodl? - Just another way to say "Hold". Someone is telling you to not give into the presser of a dip in price and hold onto your Dogecoin and do not sell.
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Please let me know if anything needs updating or correcting!
I love tips from sodogetip, they really make my day!

What are NFTs? How to mint an NFT? Why are NFTs valuable? - Starting guide to NFTs

Hello everyone, welcome to the world of NFTs.
You may be new to blockchain and crypto, or you may have been in crypto for years at this point - but you in both cases - you probably are just now learning about NFTs.
This will be a guide that is ever living/changing to help introduce NFTs, what gives them value and how you can get started in the NFT space.

What exactly is a Non-Fungible Token or NFT?

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique, individual token existing on a blockchain such as Ethereum. Unlike cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, each NFT token contains unique data meaning non-fungible tokens are not interchangeable with each other. This non-fungible nature of the tokens means their use cases differ greatly from their fungible counterparts.
A normal token can be exchanged for the same type of token equally without any difference.

A good example is a dollar - if you and I both have a dollar — we can swap dollars and it doesn’t matter, neither of us lose out they are equal. Whereas, with non-fungible tokens they are both >unique, meaning if we both have an NFT, mine could be a baseball card, and yours could be your Birth Certificate — obviously we cannot exchange these two >equally. Therefore making our tokens non-fungible.

Non-fungible tokens are used to create verifiable digital scarcity. NFTs are used in several specific applications that require unique digital items. This has initially proven popular for blockchain games and collectibles like CryptoKitties on the Ethereum blockchain. NFTs can also be used to represent in-game assets, which are in control of the user instead of the game developer. One exciting benefit of this arrangement means the non-fungible tokens or digital items, may actually outlive the game they were initially created for and find incorporate into separate future games. Yet another potential use is in digital art, by helping prove authenticity and ownership.
Artwork is another example of how powerful NFTs can be. By allowing artists to create artwork on the blockchain as NFTs, it means their content now becomes sellable globally, on decentralized marketplaces. Providing a means to collect, earn, and make a living off crypto.
NFTs are one of the best ways to actually earn crypto over time, without needing to invest in it directly. (unlike scams that say the same thing, NFTs are legit. Its like opening a store on ebay or etsy, your trading your time and work for money).

What gives an NFT its value?

There are a ton of reasons to buy NFTs.

Unique - Each NFT is unique, its the only one of its kind. You cannot make another NFT that is the same token number on the same smart contract. Meaning there will only ever be one of that token. This is verified by the blockchain and can be seen by anyone.
Copyright - Your NFT might come with copyright if you are using Mintable.app. If the seller chooses to do so - it means that its on the blockchain that the owner of that token would have complete commercial copyright to use that image and asset.
Rare - Since they are unique and cannot be copied, they are rare. Most of the time, there are very few NFTs from an artist or seller - very rarely do they have 1000s of NFTs. Therefore, you can safely assume you would be one of the few people in the world that owns an collectible item, that can be resold.
Collectible - These NFTs/items are collectible. You can hold onto them, and their value will only go up in price since there are little ways to dilute the collection. Buying them to resell them can earn you thousands of dollars. There are plenty of people who do it everyday and earn a living from it.
Downloadable - If on Mintable.app, only the current owner of the NFT can download the file attached to it. Making it unlockable to the owner. If your NFT has something like, game assets, music, a PDF, or more locked inside it, you might want to buy the NFT just to download that song/PDF/etc.
Immutable - No one can change the metadata on the token, no one can remove your image, or the name of the token, etc. This means it will never change, it will never be removed, it cannot be taken down off the blockchain. This is what gives it so much value and collectibility
Forever - NFTs are forever. Because the data doesn't change, and because the blockchain is forever, you will always have that token if you buy it. You can always resell that token if you want. Its like buying a bar of gold - you own it, and you can do with it what you want.
Resellable - You can always resell your NFT. You SHOULD resell your NFT and trade it. You can make some serious cash trading NFTs. Some NFTs have gone for 20,000 USD + when the original buyer only bought it for a few thousand dollars. Making them over 15,000 USD in a short time in ONE trade!

NFTs are valuable

How do I get started with Buying/Trading NFTs?

You need ETH and an ethereum wallet to get started. The most common is Metamask.io - then you add some ETH into that wallet. This is required by all sites in order to interact with an Ethereum application.
Step 2: Find a marketplace.
The top NFT marketplaces are currently:
Mintable.app
Opensea
SuperRare
Rarible
there are more NFT marketplaces but these are the leading open marketplaces, others may not be open to all NFTs and only select items
Some of these let you create your own NFTs (if your a creator) and some of them are closed like SuperRare, where only approved artists can create items.
Below we will discuss creating NFTs.

How do I get started minting NFTs?

If you are a content creator, whether its artwork, graphic designs, 3D models, videos, PDF, research - it can all be turned into an NFT using platforms like Mintable.app. Mintable is the most flexible and has the most possibilities so we will be using it and discussing how you can use it.
Note: there are plenty of places to make NFTs, but they either are: more expensive, have file size limits below 50mb, don't let you control your contracts, or do not offer decentralization.

Minting on Mintable.app

On Mintable you can sign up for an account and then its free to start Minting NFTs. You have three options to select from when you choose to mint:

Your own store

Mint in Mintables store

Gasless minting

Your own store:
When you create your own store, you are making a smart contract on the blockchain - that you own, you control, your the only person who owns it. This is the preferred method for creating NFTs but there is one single downside....
Deploying a smart contract COSTS a ton if gas prices are above 50 gwei. Around $100 initial investment to deploy the smart contract - but after that, you can mint hundreds of NFTs for as little as $10 using Mintable's batch minting.
If you think of it as an 'operational cost' to get an online business going, $100 isn't that bad. But if your struggling to pay that - then you can mint under Mintable's store, where everyone shares the contract and can mint NFTs (that still are owned by you!) but don't need to worry about deploying your own store.
When you create your store you can choose where the data is stored:
Most Flexible: Let Mintable handle it
Decentralized but no batch minting: Data is on IPFS
Complete control: Your own servers or other locations you can pick
Mintable is the only place that lets you pick where the data is stored, and so this is one of the big reasons people use it
Mintable's Store
You save on transaction fees when you use Mintable's store as you don't need to pay the initial overhead of deploying your own store to the blockchain. Everyone can use Mintable's store for free, and can mint thousands of NFTs in a single transaction doing so. This is one of the reasons Mintable.app is the most flexible platform for creating NFTs, no where else can you make so many NFTs for so cheap.
Gasless Minting
You are able to mint directly on Mintable's store without needing to submit a single transaction, meaning no transaction fees from the blockchain.
This is the best way to get started. You can do it at https://mintable.app/gasless

Minting the NFT

Once you've decided what store your NFT will be minted on - the next step is actually Minting!
There are a ton of possibilities when minting on mintable, so here is a more in depth breakdown of everything that is happening Creating an item
Once you click sell - you will be taken to a page to create your listing for your NFT and the mint it on the blockchain. Its very similar to listing an item for sale on ebay, etsy, or amazon.
You can create your title, the subtitle, add a description (make it good and tell a story behind your NFT!)
Uploading your content
Mintable has huge file limits, 3gb for the private unlockable file, and 200mb for the preview images.
This is great as it means you can upload huge 4k mp4s, high res photos, zip files, or more.
Unlockable private file
This file is a private file that ONLY the current owner of the NFT can access, so if your selling a video NFT, you may upload a low res, short clip as the preview image that anyone can see - but once a buyer purchases your NFT, they can download the full, 4k resolution video.
Preview images
You then can upload the image for the NFT itself, and the preview images for the listing. The first image you upload is the NFT image that shows in wallets, and the other images are shown on the listing page. Think of it like Amazon, the first image is the image people see when browsing amazon, and the other images are the extra images shown when they click on the item page.
Set your price for the item, select a few other options like transferring copyright or making it non-resellable, and then list it for sale!
After your transactions are submitted thats it, you just created an item on the blockchain that you own, you control, and you can sell. Congrats!

More info

Over time, we will update this to add more info, fix typos, and add new sections. For now, here are some links to where you can learn more about NFTs
Mintable Guides
NFT blog
What are NFTs
NFT info from opensea
Have questions? Need help? Want some guides added? Leave a comment and discuss!

2020 r/Choices Community Survey Results (1 of 3): Demographics, Play-style, and Series

Hey everyone!
After a lot of number-crunching, we're finally ready to post the first of three posts with responses from our third annual community survey! It is, to our knowledge, the largest such survey in the Choices community.
(Note: You can see all the responses here) We had 2,210 responses.
We are posting the results in four parts:

Demographics, playstyle, MC choices, and series.
LIs and their popularity, etc.
Book questions.
Questions about the app and community, as well as spoilered questions.

This is part one.
There are too many free-form answers overall, so what we do is present both aggregate data and a selection of free-form answers as well chosen by the mods to represent broader opinions as well as just plain humorous ones. Please remember that what you're seeing are just opinions! You're free to agree or disagree.
Note: Answers have NOT been edited for spoilers. Please proceed at your own risk.

Demographics

Age

Consistent with the results from last year, where like the rest of Reddit, our community skews younger, with over two-thirds of respondents being 25 or younger, and 95% of respondents being 35 or younger. The community has slightly grown older compared to last year.

Age	Respondents	%
13-17	443	20.7%
18-25	1089	50.8%
26-35	496	23.2%
36-45	97	4.5%
46+	17	0.8%

Gender Identity

Three-quarters of Choices respondents identify as female, a slight increase from last year. For full results, please consult the results page.

Gender	Respondents	%
Female	1621	75.2%
Male	431	20%
Non-binary	52	2.4%
Genderfluid	17	0.8%
Demigirl	14	0.6%
Agender	6	0.2%

2.3% of respondents identified as trans, across all genders, while another 2.2% were unsure.

Sexual Orientation

A majority (for the first time) of the community identifies as LGBTQ+. For full results, please consult the results page.

Orientation	Respondents	%
Straight/heterosexual	962	44.7%
Bisexual	496	23%
Lesbian	162	7.5%
Questioning	145	6.7%
Gay	108	5%
Pansexual	75	3.5%
Asexual	81	3.8%
Queer	52	2.4%
Demisexual	42	2.4%

Demographic Breakdown

If you treat a subset of demographic groups broadly speaking as “gender identity x sexual orientation”, these are the subreddit's largest groups, ordered from largest to smallest:

Gender Identity	Orientation	Count	Percentage
Female	Straight	732	33.12%
Female	Bisexual	420	19.00%
Male	Straight	223	10.09%
Female	Lesbian	143	6.47%
Female	Questioning	117	5.29%
Male	Gay	103	4.66%
Female	Asexual	59	2.67%
Male	Bisexual	51	2.31%
Female	Pansexual	50	2.26%
Female	Queer	37	1.67%
Male	Questioning	21	0.95%
Non-binary	Bisexual	15	0.68%
Non-binary	Pansexual	10	0.45%
Male	Pansexual	9	0.41%
Non-binary	Lesbian	6	0.27%
Male	Queer	6	0.27%
Non-binary	Gay	2	0.09%

Continent/Region of Residence

Consistent with last year, the bulk of respondents reside in North America and Europe, with South/Southeast Asia being the third-largest region.

Region	Respondents	%
Africa (excluding the Middle East)	15	1%
Central Asia	6	0.3%
East/North Asia	23	1.1%
Europe	564	26.2%
Middle East	42	2%
North America	1,015	47.2%
Oceania	90	4.2%
South America	129	6%
South/Southeast Asia	249	11.6%

Play-style, MC Choices and Series

OS

54.4% reported using Android (excluding emulators), 46.6% reported using iOS, and 5.7% used Android emulators.

Least-Played Series

Please see the results page for the full results, but the least-played series were:

Sunkissed (47.7% have not played it)
Most Wanted (42.4% have not played it)
Save the Date (41.2% have not played it)
Home for the Holidays (41% have not played it)
Across the Void (40.9% have not played it)
Baby Bump (40.5% have not played it)
Wishful Thinking (37.8% have not played it)

Baby Bump is the only one among these that has gotten a sequel.
The most-played series, conversely, were:

Open Heart (only 14.9% have not played it)
Perfect Match (only 17.3% have not played it)
The Royal Romance (only 18.3% have not played it)
The Freshman Series (only 20.1% have not played it)
High School Story (only 20.2% have not played it)
Queen B (only 21.9% have not played it)
Blades of Light and Shadow / America's Most Eligible (only 23.1% have not played them)

Most Liked Series

Please see the results page for the full results as well as the overall spread of answers, but the most liked series (response graph skews to the right) were:

Blades of Light and Shadow
Queen B
Open Heart
It Lives Series
The Elementalists

With Every Heartbeat was the most-liked VIP series.

Least Liked Series

Conversely, the least liked series (response graph skews to the left) were:

Witness
Passport to Romance
Sunkissed
Baby Bump
Save the Date

Hot Couture was the most neutral VIP series - none of the VIP series were particularly disliked.

Why did you like the series?

Bloodbound. Kamilah.
BOLAS duh. the adventure, the flirting options, the LORE in this story- so good! and for once MC is not some boss over their friends, they’re just with them. and so badass with that!
BOLAS, for polyamoury and brilliant storytelling
Distant Shores because it has everything I love - pirates, time travelling and very cute love interests that have a massive nut worthy personality
The Elementalists because of Harry Potter vibes and awesome story
Endless Summer, because it was one of the first books I've played, and it's just such a solid book. I mean, [spoilers] the player having to go through multiple realities just to save their friends? Best book. EVER.
The heist: Monaco! I can be a lesbian cometting crimes.
High School Story as it was the first book I ever played. I am very attached to all the characters I got super emotional in the last scene of HSS:CA. Ignoring the nostalgia bias, my favourite book is Endless Summer because of how your choices matter, the uniqueness and the wonderful LIs.
Mother of the Year had the best love interests. All of them were funny, supportive, and charming. So hard to choose. And I love that kid.
The Nanny Affair - It is hot, sensual and sexual.
Queen B. It's a lesbian paradise.
Queen B cause I’m gay and I love all the LI for me and also the story is actually interesting
Ride or Die. I just don't think there's any other book that can match the overall quality of its writing and thematic nuance (Though there's some really good runner ups). From the incredibly compelling character arc for the MC, to a fantastic set of LIs that make the experience feel incredibly unique, to the impactful supporting cast that just add on to the world and its brilliant, bittersweet open ending there's just no book that does it like ROD does.
Sunkissed cause grief
Wishful Thinking, Big Sky Country: I find joy while playing those.

Why did you dislike the series?

Across the Void, it was a mess but I HATED playing as the siblings, HATED that the brother got a better plot and was treated as the mc, why tf did we share a love interest with our brother
I hate two books/series equally, which is Across The Void and It Lives Series. Across The Void has way too many intergalactic jargons to the point of boredom. It Lives series is annoying as HELL as you have to spend diamonds so none of your friends die. I spent so many keys and time just to watch my friends die which is unfair.
America's Most Eligible. I actually enjoyed the first book, but after that it was just wasted potential. Books 2 and 3 makes absolutely no sense, what kinda show just keeps bringing the same people for 3 seasons, besides I hardly think you should get married on a show about single people. It was also very annoying the fact that male MC was clearly written as female.
Baby Bump; the way i was forced to have fucked a man🤢 cannot relate🧚‍♀💕
Blades of Light & Shadow because it's just a bad remake of Lord of the Rings.
BOLAS, it’s not bad, but I don’t get the hype
Bloodbound, f*** vampires, I hate them.
Desire & Decorum I was disinterested in the settings as well as the characters and their interactions and as such could not truly get invested in the story or how it progresses
Endless summer. It doesn't make sense
TE, choices do not matter, weak plot and character development.
It lives in the woods because the MCs are ugly......
Lovehacks, what is this shit? looks a lot like buzzfeed behind the scenes, the fuck?
So far, I didn't like love hacks, I think I just got bored of it and left the book. Too straight for me. For me games are a break from real life and also a medium for social change, the last thing I look for is more straight things. Just boring.
MOTY, I couldn't even finish it, got stuck in the middle, the only ray of sunshine was MC's daughter, but even she couldn't make me like the story. I couldn't relate to MC, the plot was dragging, the LIs were extremely boring and was just forcing myself to read it. Still couldn't make it.
MFTL, It‘s okay I guess but I hate that it‘s not really a „choice“ book. I‘m playing choices for 3 years or smth and that‘s the first book that literally forces u to hang out with certain LI‘s
TNA: creepy solo LI, forced cheating, no meaningful choices, extremely uncomfortable and inappropriate dialogue, harassment, just generally gross and without any real redeeming qualities.
Nightbound was such a disappointment it causes me physical pain
Nightbound, because Nick is a douche
Open Heart - emotionally manipulative
Open Heart, it's a bit... pretentious(?) with its messages and tries to do more than it actually does. The hospital of POC are constantly sidelined for my least favorite LI ever, the patients range from either memorable af to forgettable, and OH had a huge break just to end up back to where it started: mediocre. Sadly, Bryce is one of my favorite LIs so I also don't really want to diamond mine it.
Unpopular, but open heart because it’s so overhyped in the sub and I didn’t even finish the first book. It’s just meh. The LIs aren’t even that great tbh
Passport to Romance. The only redeeming things about this book was the backgrounds which were wonderful, and whoever on the Reddit took the theory that the rich white guy LI with family issues was a serial killer and made group chat memes with all the PtR characters. Absolute gold.
Perfect Match, I have no words for how much it sucked, been a while now
Platinum, I can’t ever stay focused on it
Queen B. I started to play it but I just really didn't have the will to finish it. The whole sassy, bully, competing for social glory book isn't my style.
Red Carpet - Addison wasn’t a love interest in the third book. I am still made about it.
Ride or Die because 'cars go fast vroom vroom' is boring af to me,
Royal masquerade because it started out promising but then made no sense
I think it's TRR. It turned me off straight away because the set up seemed to make no sense. I normally insert myself as MC and I don't get how I would just happily up and leave, no mention of paying rent at my apartment, no other friends or family. I also pay a pretty much non-diamond route so don't get a lot of the LI development that may be there. I only joined recently and I don't think the story is strong enough to make me invest in 6 books of diamond choices. Also I'm a big abolishonist so monarchies aren't really appealing to me, especially this one that seems to be stuck in 13th century.
the whole royal romance series. seriously, the should have stopped at Book 2 instead of beating the dead horse. they're really milking this series cause all the spin-offs and chapters didn't matter anymore. oh, and in this story, if you didn't pursue Liam, the plot never made sense. it's like all the Choices i've chosen for my desired LI didn't matter.
The Royal Romance/Heir. Too many books with dragged out barely-there plots and nothing happening for the majority of them, other than going on balls.
Rules of Engagement, probably. I hate the forced aspects of it and how dated it is compared to more recent releases.
Rules of Engagement was quite boring, and I found the writing very cliche. Also, why did they even give us the hot female chef as a LI for the sister, when we barely got any scenes with her? And why did MC HAVE to marry a guy? She had three LIs, and they were all men. I also find it interesting how both of the straight couples (MCxHusband and MC’s brother and his girlfriend) had to get married, but the gay couple (nerdy sister and Audrey) couldn’t. Gays can start families too, you know... But hey, it’s a great book to diamond mine! Even though I did end up spending some diamonds on the lesbian couple in order to fill the void created by my very straight childhood. I’ll take every bit of representation I can get.
Witness, you get it..
Witness/HFTH, where the hell is the flavor 😩
Least favorite book is Witness. There’s no plot and the whole book was mostly about MC and Cassian just f*cling each other.
Witness, and MTFL. Amazingly poor writing and direction on both.

Most Underrated Series

Baby bump - i thought it was a sweet story! It was no endless summer, but i clicked on it expecting a cheesy love story involving pregnancy and thats exactly what i got
I didn't expect to enjoy Bachelorette Party but it was hilarious.
Big Sky Country. Because it's simple romance story and most people are bored with this type of genre. But the book it's not that bad. We can even choose mc gender in BSC. And book 2 have a plot revolved around female LI. Asha is best girl.
The freshman series, I think a lot of people hate it, by no means to I think it's too tier, but I do think it has a lot of strengths and led the way for the Choices app in general.
The Haunting of Braidwood Manor is usually ignored because it’s so short, but I loved the plot
The heist Monaco. People need to talk about it more. It’s great and Sonia is bae
Hero. I thought the twist being an alien was a little cliché, but could respect the fact it was paying tribute to the gold and silver age of comics. I loved how all the characters were fleshed out, even the side characters, and the comic book art style was an excellent idea. I also thought the slow progression into becoming a true hero was an excellent writing decision and I enjoyed it very much. The only thing I didn't like was that the free superhero costume didn't really feel that superhero. It doesn't need to be 10/10, but I'd have liked some recognizable shapes, designs or colours to make it feel more legit.
HSS: class act, I know it’s not as good as the first one but I think people are too hard on it
High School Story: Class act. Its a really light book that you can easily enjoy. Yes it can be childish but I feel like this childishness is what make this book so enjoyable.
LoveHacks: I liked the LIs and I thought the characters had good chemistry together and good friendships. It wasn't the most exciting story but it was a feel-good story that I looked forward to reading each week.
I think Most Wanted. PB acts like it doesn’t exist, but it has great writing, and is super unique to the regular Choices formula.
Nanny affair, people complain about the MC and their questionable choices and high horse attitude. All the time. but it was still fun and was a hit with the memes
Red Carpet Diaries, as I feel it could've been EVEN MORE than what we have gotten
I don’t think Rules of Engagement is that bad. The family is fun and I especially love Violet. The in-law implications if MC marries Leo is too funny to me.
Save The Date. Okay, yes, Justin is terrible, but I like the plot overall and Simon and Lindsay are adorable.
sun kissed is rarely talked about but it’s a cute lighthearted summer romance
Veil of secrets. Sometimes I forget it exists because I don't see anyone mention it but I loved this book so much.
Wishful thinking. It’s a light and funny story, with good characters and LIs
Wishful Thinking was a really great book and I believe a sequel would be great to expand its fan base.
Wishful Thinking because: talking. animals. (that only MC can understand)
witness. name me a more iconic scene than erotic shucking

Upcoming

The most anticipated books were:

Blades of Light and Shadow, Book 2 (73.3%)
Queen B, Book 2 (61.8%)
Untitled Mystery Book (59.9%)
Foreign Affairs (39.6%)
Wolf Bride (23.3%)

Diamond Choices

People's biggest weaknesses continued to be "alone time with my LI", "recruiting allies", along with completing collections. Here are some other responses:

NONE. I rarley pick a diamond scene because they mean nothing.
Gender of choice books, in which I buy pretty much everything
I mean, I wish I had enought diamonds for everything, but sometimes I need points for a cooler ending and diamonds really mess that up.
If the book is well witten enough to the point where I'm enjoying myself without diamond choices (in other words, still getting fun/explanatory/etc scenes without spending diamonds), then I'm much more likely to spend diamonds.
hairstyles only if the free ones are really bad
Group sex (multiple partner) or Sex with WLW enemy (like in Queen B)
Choices that really change the end of the story. I.e >@staying with LI in VOS!< or >@Eleanor not dying in THOBM.!<

Preferred MC Gender / LI Combo

This broadly reflects the demographics earlier, but remember, these are chosen independent of demographics (e.g. someone could be female but only play male MCs):

Female MC, Male LI (30.2%)
Female MC, Either gender LI (24.4%)
Female MC, Female LI (13.7%)
Random/Mix it up by book (12.2%)
Male MC, Male LI (8.7%)
Male MC, Female LI (6.4%)
Male MC, Either gender LI (4%)
Female MC, No LI (0.3%)

MC Gender per Book (if selectable)

For full results, please consult the results page.
Female MCs were by far the majority for each book, but the books with the highest percentage of male MCs were:

The Heist: Monaco
*It Lives in the Woods
High School Story
Perfect Match

The book with the highest percentage of female MCs were:

The Elementalists
Blades of Light and Shadow
Passport to Romance
Nightbound

Favorite Names

People's most favorite name was... their own name, followed by Alex, Raine, Emma, Elle, Olivia, Sara, and Emily. The most popular unambiguously male name was Andrew.

Answers

Bea Hughes. The wanabee and queen bee puns PB made were clever.
CatSup for my Bloodhound MC. My MC names are of food because I downloaded the app as a "joke". Now I play for the stories but still keep the food name tradition.
Riley Cyrus (for TRR's Riley lmfao)
They are different people how can they all have the same name? I used to use mine then changed it so they are all different people. With the OH MC sprite being used so often they now all have the surname Valentine because they are related * I always choose MC names with the letter K, though i’m running out of names. Kei,, Kenna, Kara, Kim, Kyle, Kameron, Kendall, Kevon, Kevin, Kai, Katrina, Katerina, Karina, Karla, Ken, Kenny, Katherine. I rarely use default names.
Last name is always Evans (b/c of Chris Lol) The first name always varies. I like to pretend all of my MCs are related in some way
Bellarosa; i had no idea if this name even existed but it sounds so pretty im gonna throw up
Anya! I really love the movie Anastasia a lot so yeah
Ira - for StD MC, cus it is the Latin term for the sin of Wrath
Crackalackin
Neyne. This is my favorite because I let my at the time two-year-old nephew choose the name for my character and he said, "Nay nay," so I took that and made the name Neyne.
TAYLOR SWIFT
Buffy (in BloodBound)
Meredith Grey
I can't answer this one without revealing how childish I am
Honestly, I like the names people put as jokes (especially the witness ones).

Do you self-insert as your MCs?

On average the scores evened out to 3.12 out of 5, indicating that while there is a slight lean towards self-inserting, it's not an always sort of thing.

Favorite / Least Favorite MCs

A Courtesan of Rome's and Queen B's MCs are fan favorites, along with Open Heart and Endless Summer's.
Witness"'s MC was by far the least favorite MC (she accounted for about 50% of all responses to this question), along with *My Two First Loves's MC.

Baby Bump, woman just calm your nerves and stop being so pedantic
Big Sky Country, I put myself in the MC shoes and I'm not the biggest fan of Cowboys and farm life so i'd get my ass out of there ASAP lmao
Distant Shores MC because they were boring as hell and the perfect definition of "fish out of the water". They had basically no personality or actual background and I hated how they suddenly knew how to take down experienced pirates.
The Freshman; she keeps apologizing when she shouldn't
HSS MC. Is it possible to dislike a person for the personality they don't have? But somehow everyone still fawns over them.
Most Wanted. They died immediately. There is no point with the MCs.
Either PTR MC or Baby Bump MC. Both of them are so boring and one-dimensional that it feels like they have no personality. PTR MC is just vapid and obsessed with their blog, and Baby Bump MC's whole personality is being pregnant, ugh. And both MCs have the worst chemistry with their friend groups, because their friend groups are so inorganic and have the most random people thrown together for no reason. The friend groups in these two books really need to take a cue from the ES gang and learn what actual group chemistry feels like...
Most people dislike Witness MC because of her problematic behaviour but Queen B MC annoys me the most. The way she is always on the professor and the way she treated Zoey. Zoey doesn't deserve QB MC.

Gender Choices Opinion

Note that we calibrated this question from last year so that 3 was actually a "neutral" value. The average came out to about 4.25, indicating that as a whole people do feel strongly about having MC gender choice.
About two-thirds of respondents (66.2%) said that they would play a hypothetical book that only had a male MC, about a quarter said they maybe would (22.4%), and about a tenth said they would not (11.5%), a higher percentage than last year.
About a third of respondents (38.4%) said that they would play as an NB MC in a book with that option, about a third said they maybe would (33.6%), and about a quarter said they would not (27.9%).

Resurrection

If you could bring back a book series that has ended/is on hiatus, which one would you choose? We only allowed one book choice for this question, and here were the (obviously very-split) top results:

The Elementalists (13.9%)
It Lives Series (12.6%)
Hero (10.5%)
Distant Shores (7.8%)
Most Wanted (7.3%)

On the other end of things:

Red Carpet Diaries (1 respondent)
Witness (2 respondents)
Passport to Romance (2 respondents)
Save the Date (5 respondents)
Home for the Holidays (6 respondents)

Most Replayed Book

What series do you replay the most? We only allowed one book choice for this question, and here were the (obviously very-split) top results:

Endless Summer (13.9%)
The Elementalists (9%)
Bloodbound (8.7%)
Perfect Match (8.1%)
The Freshman Series (6.8%)

On the other end of things:

Sunkissed (2 respondents)
Passport to Romance (4 respondents)
Witness (4 respondents)
Wishful Thinking (4 respondents)
Home for the Holidays (5 respondents)

Surprised at the results? Expecting them? Want to give your own hot take? Comment below!

SGMO DD- Crispr Patents, valuation, and ARKG

WTF is SGMO? Still the most drastically undervalued gene therapy company on the market. Launch sequence already started, and it’s still wicked undervalued.

How undervalued is SGMO? I’m copying an updated valuation table from my first article, published last Sunday 12/20/20. Here’s that article in case you want more fundamental explanation of SGMO: First SGMO DD Article

Then, the stock price was 14.32. This week, it touched $18.48 and closed at $17.81 on Friday. A month ago it was $9.44…

Ticker	Market Cap
BMRN	16 B
CRSP	12 B
EDIT	5.21 B
ONCE	Acquired for 4B for 1 approved therapy
NTLA	3.67 B
SGMO	2.52 B

At these prices it should go up another 31% to be fairly valued with the next company on the list that would basically be a hairy guy in an inner tube compared to the SGMO yacht.

Want a real SGMO vs EDIT valuation by an actual professional? Here ya go: SGMO vs EDIT valuation thread

Also, SGMO's lead candidate for hemophilia (currently Phase 3 trial partnered with Pfizer) has better data than BMRN’s, so imho it should be worth AT LEAST 6x where it is at right now, and that’s excluding the fact that SGMO has partnerships with Pfizer, Takeda, Biogen, Kite, Sanofi and Novartis, in addition to 7 wholly-owned programs. That gives us a grand total of 18 lottery tickets at the moment: https://www.sangamo.com/pipeline

Why the hell are you comparing SGMO with CRSP? You’ve probably heard of CRSPR but never heard of SGMO. Doesn’t fucking matter, because… PATENTS. CRSPR tech got a lot of attention and press in its early days, mostly from a Radiolab episode and then lots of follow-up news stories. It’s used a lot of places for research because it's cheap and widely available... and that’s the whole problem. So many institutions use CRSPR and publish improvements and modifications to the technique/process that the legal landscape is a goddamn patent quagmire (giggity).

Don’t believe me that CRSP’s patent game is weaksauce? Check out this link: Crispr patents by institution. It has a 2019 table put out by IPlytics showing the # of crispr patents owned by different companies/institutions.

The first two companies are big agra.
The next 4 are UCSF, Harvard, MIT, and UPenn.
Right after that is SGMO.
CRSP isn’t even on the goddamn map.

So SGMO owns the patents covering some of the IP CRSP is trying to use? YES FUCKING YES *bangs table*. At least they sure AF do for this one covering BCL11A promotor genes: https://www.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=1933&mn=153565&pt=msg&mid=21490140

What’s a BCL11A promotor gene? I highly doubt at anyone really gives a shit, but it is a nucleotide strand that causes increased expression of genetic material following its locus in a DNA strand. If you can target insertion of it “in front of” the gene you want to express (maybe genetic material encoding clotting factor in hemophilia) it ramps up expression of the subsequent gene. It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that SGMO has a shiny new patent on it and CRSP is going to get taken to town (and not to have a lovely date at Olive Garden) by all the other IP departments of universities and SGMO if they ever manage to get a therapy approved.

Rake, no big pharma company would be so stupid that they marketed a therapy covered by another company’s patent, right???? Well, Merck had to pay Bristol-Myers Squibb a one-time settlement of 625 million and subsequent sales royalties of 6.5 percent the first 5 years to market, and 2.5 percent the next 2 years on market for Keytruda (pembrolizumab) because BMS had IP protection on the use of anti-PD-1 antibodies.

That must’ve been a one-off screw up, right? Unfortunately not. Kite had to pay Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center 752 million for IP infringement surrounding Yescarta. That was after Gilead paid 11.9 billion to acquire Kite.

Both patent disasters are detailed in this IV article: https://www.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=1933&mn=153598&pt=msg&mid=21490140

Of note, SGMO’s proprietary gene-editing technology, Zinc-finger-nucleases, are wholly owned proprietary tech. And it has better precision and specificity than CRSPR.

Why are they letting CRSP develop the tech and bring it to market? You make more money that way? Patent trolling is pretty reprehensible, but if you can just let someone else put in all the money for development and clinical trials and marketing and FDA approval, then just sue them for royalties, you’re going to make a shit ton more than if you did the upfront work yourself.

You mentioned ARKG? Yeah, because SGMO isn’t included in it yet. But Takeda and Novartis (both partnered with SGMO) are. There is suspicion SGMO might make an appearance on the list soon because it’s massively undervalued, and it would only make sense to shift profits from all the other gene-therapy hockey-stick runups this year to diversify and invest in something with room to run. Don’t take it from me, this analyst believes SGMO is a prime choice for inclusion in ARKG. If you reviewed his linked in profile you might be interested to know he also is overweight on DEEZ with an upside target of $69.

Got eem aside, if SGMO is included in ARKG it will experience a wicked bump in price just the like ARKG holding that has a low market cap and banned ticker that farms genetically modified salmon. They were at about $3-$4 a share for a loooooong time before ARKG inclusion and have since rocketed to a new normal of $9-$10 a share. The ticker starts with an “A” and ends with a “B” and theres a “Q” in the middle if you want to peep some hot price action.
Honestly, from what I can tell, it's mostly rumors at this point, but I highly doubt Our Lady of Gains Cathie Wood would not dip her toes in the SGMO pool.

Shouldn’t funds like ARKG already know about SGMO? I suspect they do, but way more importantly all the big pharma partners I mentioned earlier do. I said it before and I’ll say it again- those guys know a hell of a lot more than I do about what works, and it’s probably the main crux of my thesis.

Unless SGMO’s CEO Sandy Macrae is Elizabeth Holmes 2.0 and this is a hilarious Sangameranos situation where I lose most of my retirement, things are looking pretty goddamn rosy.
And trust me, Sandy Macrae is nowhere near the level of charismatic as Elizabeth Holmes is. Excellent CEO, strong clinician focused on safety first, able to turn this company into a powerhouse through acquisitions (TxCell) and partnerships- yes. Charismatic, kinda hot with crazy eyes and deep Venture Brothers Dr. Girlfriend dominatrix voice like Mrs. Holmes- nope, not even close. Listening to this guy talk is like watching paint dry while you’re stuck in an elevator someone farted in, so I’m assuming he must actually be peddling something good. Macrae is selling the STEAK, not the SIZZLE.

You seem to link a lot of IV articles, what’s up with that? I’m just trying to distill down the important points for my fellow autists riding the short bus with me. PS, if my boy bct1192 from IV is reading this- much love, and know that “undiagnosed autist” is a strong compliment in the parlance of this forum.

Legit stacks? For real-real? Lunar Tendies? Trust, WSB fam. I posted a YOLO screenshot in my first article before the pop this week, it was more than 51% of my IRA, and that’s just one of my 5 investment accounts.

TL;DR summary- SGMO undervalued, owns the patents to CRSP. SGMO stock price should go up 4x to be equivalent market cap.
TL;DR Investment moves- Buy SGMO shares since they are still relatively cheap, otherwise LEAP calls like Jan ’22 $25 strike. I say leaps because it's going to take off, but I'm not miss Cleo, you can't call me now, and I don't know when share price will go up. I don't want my bros losing out on a short-dated disaster. My conservative target price is $25 by EOY ’21. Long term target price $45 by EOY ’23 (following hemophilia A approval with Pfizer).

Andy Freer (former Dash CTO) shared some interesting thoughts on Dash Discord today. Here's a summary.

Andy Freer is the former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Dash who is now taking the lead on Dash Incubator. Andy's contributions have been instrumental to Dash's technological progress over the years and now he's creating quite a buzz within Dash development via Dash Incubator, which is a bounty program for incentivizing development on the Dash network. It was a very interesting read which deserves to be posted here before the comments are buried in Discord chats. Andy is usually quite active chatting with other developers at the Dash Devs Discord, so this was an opportunity for the overall community at Dash Discord to get an insight into where he sees Dash going this year and his idea on strategies to drive utility and adoption. In short he is very optimistic of Dash's future, says Dash is working on "(what I consider to be) the best and most disruptive forthcoming innovation in this space", and expressed full confidence in the DCG team and their technical capabilities.

I have consolidated his recent Discord comments which took place over a few hours, and added context in bold.

Andy was asked to share his opinion on how he anticipates driving growth for the Dash network in 2021.
I see the key to driving network growth as reaching a broader market of users through making Dash easier to use and providing new use cases outside of the current crypto market which is what Usernames & Dapps enable us to do. The key to achieving that will be driving traction and engagement across 2 new groups on the new features: driving mainstream users to signup to Dash (something which is not possible today in any crypto effectively) and secondly driving developers to create trustless end-user applications monetized with Dash (again not possible in any crypto today) and driving the users to those Dapps. For example, Dash.org landing page should be a signup page to Dash itself and one team focus and are measured on the number of signups we are growing. Secondly we need a dev landing page to onboard new devs (mainly Javascript and Mobile) and furnish Dapp devs with the examples, tools and guidance they need to create great and engaging use cases. For example, payment use cases for retail, subscriptions, social media use cases, games/NFT, ecommerce, kickstarting, video, gaming, any kind of apps that will drive engagement and are monetized via Dash, it all feeds back to increased economic activity on our blockchain, and we need to incentivize both groups, e.g. $10 to legit new signups, and dev funding programs such as Dash Incubator... either way, we need to be growing both groups in tandem and we should be incentivizing people who help achieve that growth.
A Discord user makes a statement comparing this type of activity to airdrops.
It's not an airdrop of tokens in anonymous wallets... we're talking legit unique users signing up to Dash itself. Thats something we want to grow as much as possible, because those users are the customers for what the Dapp devs are building (and potential customers for our money chain off the back of that). Giving the credits removes the friction for that on-ramp within the onboarding and will increase Dapp traction, that should be the focus. The whole point here is to remove friction to onboarding and using crypto. Giving unique users a leg-up to try Dapps (that are driven by economic tx) is a no-brainer. It gives us engaged users that didn't need to learn about wallets, exchanges and withdrawals as their first step. At the end of the day for this to work (and going back to the whole point Evan started this) there needs to be a seamless / frictionless process between telling your normie friend 'hey try Dash', giving them a URL and them actually using Dash for something useful in the same time they do the same on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. Having a signup on the homepage (or some homepage), onboarding to DashPay and receiving small amount of credits, then trying some of the best Dapps all with a few clicks to that is the key. That is where our funding / mindshare needs to be routing right now, not some of the stupidity going on about marketing and 'high level decision making'. Once we have seemless integration with Dapps into DashPay, this will provide some very compelling use cases that anyone can onboard and use, without needing to understand crypto or jump through ton of hoops. We'll start from a great position... new use cases, frictionless onboarding, signup and use Dash with named account from any device. It's hardly something to be negative about. The value will come from mindshare / funding / incentives put into growing that. Marketing can play a part, just not an important part, same as it doesn't with any disruptive startups (and anyone who legit has a background in this knows already).
When asked about Dash's data on Google trends.
Google trends of the search term 'Dash' is meaningless. Dash (the crypto) is a tiny fraction of the market of Dash products (and no I don't think this is an issue in the long term). Second... Google search for alts isn't the main driver or any kind of significant driver at all. People google for 'bitcoin' - but they learn about other cryptos from social media from people already in the space. Within Crypto... anyone around the last 3 years knows about Dash already. The issue is we haven't delivered any innovation with a differential significant enough to drive adoption within the space (which is what then drives new users) since 2016... and because our segment is already saturated with coins with much higher network effect and social presence, but we're about to change that by offering users new features they're going to enjoy and that our competitors don't and we need to focus on that to grow it. This is a tech space... disruptive tech... the innovation is the marketing. The space ranks itself via markets and influencers... new users come in based on the social media of those people and word of mouth and based on what's new and interesting and whats go the buzz / viral uptake. You cannot fake that with marketing in this kind of space. Every Dash spent on traditional 'marketing' right now is a Dash that could be spent on (what I consider to be) the best and most disruptive forthcoming innovation in this space, and the kicker is this... yes we can flip Dash back to a leading crypto... but we need to unify around how to do that... as I said we need to:
a) grow signups (a new feature in crypto) and;
b) grow Dapps for those signups to use directly in browser / mobile and within use cases they already like (social media, video, p2p commerce, e-commerce etc).
Anything else is going to continue sending our ranking in the wrong direction, so please lets all focus and get our game together (and stop trying the same non-innovation strategies that have failed us and get behind the devs who are working real hard to make this happen). We need traction on Dapps... But the core dapps are actually just helpers for existing transactional use cases. For example DashPay is c2c - if we add in Payment Requests (which I know Quantum Explorer etc are planning) then that covers b2c. We've also been working on retail Dapps at PoS etc. So actually uptake of Dapps doesn't have to depend on the advanced ones like decentralized Twitter.. they can make existing Dash cases lot better, username based and frictionless onboarding, usage, both for end-users and merchants. Underneath that our existing features, which although didn't keep us at the front for the reasons I mention so far, when we fix the last mile of removing end-user friction / seamless onboarding and usage, sure they will be indispensable to actually scale and remove delays for users. What I'm saying is whether you think Dash should be allowing decentralized apps or not, the core use cases are actually very simple and very close to what most people are focused on: growing Dash as an easy to use digital cash with the best usability, speed, security in the space...The original point of Dapps was just removing pain-points in the pre and post payments process. For example the exchange of addresses / tx construction between 2 parties (local or remote) before the tx broadcast, then after confirmation the exception handling of oveunder payments, refunds, and meaningful/persistant histories between named parties to make auditing / CRM etc lot easier. What happened was the way this was implemented opened the door for a lot more advanced scenarios... but this is really the core use cases of Dash Dapps... they make transactions easier. Again, rather than counter to our core strategy, surely this is something we should be investing in as much as possible and integrating into all our existing core operations of integrations, biz dev, marketing.
In response to a comment by a Discord user (shortened): "I believe Dash can reach to $500 or $1000 in a very short time if right steps are taken, just think about how much this price increase allow us to spend more on innovation and improving the product."
I mean this is the problem with our decline in rankings, we get this kind of low-end pump and dump talk to dazzle 'investors'.... you should really check out some of the pump and dump groups or start a YT trading channel you might have more luck. Dash is a coin of innovation... we've deprioritized that for lot of failed strategies. Good news is that innovation is soon to launch and all the great devs who are the ones really doing the work here can come forward and make Dash great again. My work is helping our devs to innovate... thats the real driver here and what the market is valuing as it has/does for any leading decentralized crypto project. The less we spend on development both protocol and ecosystem, the longer things are gonna take...people should check how many devs are working on our biggest features and compare this to the total budgets here to understand... anyway we'll get there with patience so no problem from me. The core payment dapps for c2c and b2c would improve our existing offerings a lot - be fully username based and very simple to use (no need to construct tx, manage a wallet, exchange addresses, automated payment requests, subscriptions, recurring payments, invoicing etc). But as I've been saying I think due to the current crypto market we can offer more reasons to adopt Dash than simpler payments to non-crypto users... one obvious market right now is decentralized social media, whether thats messaging, video, there's lot of demand for alternative solutions. But essentially any existing Web 2.0 application that uses fiat for monetization (whether thats paying creators, advertisers, p2p commerce) can be built as a Web 3.0 app monetized with Dash on Platform... so its whatever developers decide to create and my strategy is just to attract and incentivize as much of them as possible, to provide use cases for the new users we want to signup.
You can see some of the use cases community devs have created already on the Incubator: https://dashincubator.app/output
Also there's a doc with ideas that weren't started yet here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NQbRk38I-43FIGcy2FyK4DW_Er_FknpMB2IQprul-Ec/edit?usp=sharing
And more ideas in the first column 'Concepts' on the Trello here: https://trello.com/b/FPJzDcok/dash-incubator-app
Discord user (shortened): "I agree with focusing on development right now but the market does not care. LLMQ's, chain locks, etc. Have limited to no impact on our price. A useful Dapp actually will though."
LLMQ / Chainlocks / DML don't provide anything really new / disruptive for end-users. Evolution is entirely focused on radically changing the experience for the end-user - crypto is really hard to onboard (understand wallets, addresses, concepts, blockchains) so lets just let them signup with an account they can access from any device with a single password (12 words) that contains everything they need. Paying people is really hard because you need to exchange 'addresses' which are stupidly long numbers - lets just make that another username you can connect with one-time then you don't have to trust anyone your payment is going to the right place. You want to buy a burger in a store, the customer doesn't need to mess around typing in addresses and the price, they just connect to the merchant via QR scan and the merchant pings them the invoice they click 'yes' on when it pops up. Then leading to the Web 3.0 use cases where you don't need to signup to a site with an email, you just scan the QR with your DashPay Wallet, and you're logged in. When you tweet and it wants you to pay credits, your DashPay wallet just signs that silently in the background for you and you don't. I think largely the crypto market itself values innovation based on disruption i.e. how does new feature X give crypto Y an advantage in gaining future market share like most new tech markets - recently that's been Bitcoin as kinda reserve currency status within backdrop of dollar devaluation / inflation of asset & commodity prices / bond yields and it already innovated enough for that with its positioning / network effect, then you have DeFi which is providing advanced decentralized financial products like lending, derivatives, dexes and Ethereum as the platform underneath it. For Dash our strategy derived from our new tech is really ease of use - giving all the mainstream users who donperhaps t understand how to get into or use crypto to do that really easily, and bring crypto closer into the apps they already use (through web 3.0 enabling them and using Dash for the underlying monetization where possible). LLMQ / Chainlocks etc are critical to the underlying working of that as is our scalability and instant confirmations... but i've always said I think we need to complete deliver of the ease of use side then market that when its marketable. I don't really want to be spending time getting vocal on issues that don't really concern me and with my obvious undiplomatic / no filter style which I'm fine with (hence how I don't usually come forward on anything). Obviously I'm passionate about our strategy but I'm confident that our new tech will drive the right strategy and actually from my perspective, both on the tech side and interaction with DCG from top to bottom, I'm super happy / aligned and things actually going better than ever for the goals we've been set. I just get frustrated when I see diversion from that and things that with my own experience don't add up.. which translates to essentially less funding for developing the innovation I think we need to achieve the right strategy which is DashPay / Platform backed up by our leading backend features, and more being spent on things that don't achieve that. That's all it boils down to. My opinion will always be deliver and grow Evolution through support and funding, drive signups, drive use cases (Dapps) and hold back the rest until that baby is born and happily toddling around the market as I'm sure it will be soon thanks to DCG coming through on that and bunch of really smart community devs. I'm around here if anyone wants me anyway I'm just gonna keep focusing on development.
A Discord user suggests that maybe we should be getting more communication from DCG leading up to the launch of major developments.
I think with DCG you have to give them leeway prior to mainnet, because I don't think community understands the pressure they're under internally and actually how hard they're working behind the scenes (like 16 hr days). From the outside they can seem kinda aloof and don't care sometimes actually internally its the opposite (time spent talking about mainnet delivery is time taken away from that delivery).. I think once they deliver they'll have more time for community interaction because the hardest part (first mainnet launch of L2 which is a massive deal for them especially) will take off a lot of pressure. For me I'm super happy with their performance these days... we can all measure them by the testnet releases / beta products and clearly they've become a well-oiled machine in terms of development on both L1 / L2 and sure lot of exciting things to come as they launch, mature it, add features. (obviously they have other areas outside of development which I'm guessing have matured too but I don't follow personally). Plus, actually they do manage to answer basically all the dev community questions and there's a lot of interaction going on there as new devs are working on evonet / dapps etc and that's been really important in fostering the dev community growth this past year. But yah I'd say once they have the main pressure off and Evo is on mainnet it would be healthy to open up a bit. For example was really good to watch the stream with Quantum yesterday, lot of technical info / insight actually some stuff I wasn't aware of, and there's lot more devs like Quantum you don't see from the outside. I think their official community interaction needs to be kinda managed though, because too much could easily get counter-productive (like volume of questions, different people wanting certain features or change things or justify things and that can get repetitive and especially devs don't work well when distracted). I think structurally it doesn't help too that DCG is kinda entirely opaque from community perspective... thats natural because of how it was constructed based on corporate structure. We avoided that in the Incubator by starting with full transparency as an experiment which actually is working pretty good, but iIs hard to retrofit that. My own opinion though is we can see that DCG is consistently delivering on the new features since EvoNet launch and the best thing is just support as they complete each step to mainnet which is transparent process in itself and also feature-locked so bothering them with asking them to communicate more right now side or justify their existence is gonna hinder not help what we're all working for. If people want more communication from DCG Im sure that's gonna be more likely after mainnet than before fingers crossed anyway. I know Ryan works flat out and when he has time he's represents us with media, interviews or whatever is needed. Bob has my old job and I can confirm thats not an easy one or one where you have lot of free time to say the least. Im guessing Bob would have more time after mainnet but you'd have to ask him. Dana joined after I left, it would be great if he had more time to interact with the community but again i'm guessing his day is filled up with helping the devs launch. You can say they need to improve on community interaction but you can't say they're not super busy / working flat out thats for sure.
I think there's lots of things that could be improved structurally and with transparency / decision making /scope etc and communications obviously. But the work ethic and dedication going on in DCG is super strong and from technical perspective so is the organization / knowledge / experience they've accumulated, really we couldn't really ask for smarter bunch of people building / delivering Dash at this point. If that's not apparent from the outside right now, once they deliver mainnet and as they work with the dev community to grow the ecosystem and add features on Platform I'm sure it will be.

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You’ve probably heard of apps that pay you to play games, take surveys, and earn real cash. And if you’re kind of skeptical like me, you’ve probably wondered if any of them are legit. The reality is that there are apps that pay you real money for doing pretty simple things. You’re not going to quit your day job or get rich with any of What games give you real money? There are a few game apps that pay you money, believe it or not. Check out Swagbucks, Mistplay, InboxDollars, and Solitaire Cube to make money for playing games. What are the best money making apps? There are a lot of legitimate apps that’ll pay you real money — you can see a full list of money-making apps here. The reality is that most apps that pay you to play games pay very low amounts or only offer a small chance of getting a big payout. If your primary goal is to make money, these apps probably aren These apps pay anywhere from a few pennies to a few dollars for your efforts. With so many apps out there offering cash for your time, we decided to go through and find the top apps that pay you to play games. 10 Best Apps That Pay To Play Games For Free. With that said, let’s get started. 86 Apps That Pay You Real Money Apps that Pay You to Play Games Mistplay. Mistplay is one of our favorite apps here at YMG! The app lets Android users easily make money while having fun and playing mobile video games. The only downside is that you can't get direct PayPal cash, but you can earn free gift cards and sell them online for cash! Earning Potential – Are Game Apps That Pay Legit? Here’s the simple truth… The earning potential for apps that pay you to play games is extremely low and this will never change. Don’t expect these apps to cover any sort of expenses in your daily life unless you grind out every game on your list and sink dozens or hundreds of hours into games. If you like mobile gaming, these apps are

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Demographics

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Sexual Orientation

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Andy Freer (former Dash CTO) shared some interesting thoughts on Dash Discord today. Here's a summary.

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5 Apps That PAY YOU $100 IN PAYPAL MONEY (Make ... - YouTube