#but max often just looks at people from below his cap even if he's the same height

[lost-in-fandoms]

Max and Charles in the press conference at the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix by Clive Rose

[mattygraygubler]

our campus: chapter 5 (tom holland fic)

summary: frat!tom and reader go to the same college and y/n is tasked with being his tutor, they don’t really get along at first (because i love reader and tom hating each other trope)

warnings: drinking, cursing, mentions of sex, making out

word count: 3.3k

a/n: the end to this was tough 

for a list of characters click here

to be added to the tag list send me an ask !

masterlist

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“Y/N, you may wanna slow down...” Isabelle said as you downed your third shot. 

“C’mon it’s delt… I need something to help face my fear.” 

“Y/N we really don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” Emily said. You shook your head. 

“Nope. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll finally get frat bingo.” Isabelle laughed and you all grabbed your various phones and keys and headed downstairs to grab the uber. 

Black outs, and theme parties in general, people tended to go a little nuts for. Everyone brought their best. Like dchi’s toga party a few weeks ago? The image of Kyle wearing a bed sheet is burned into your mind forever. 

Isabelle, never one to wear a dress, was wearing a black lace bodysuit (you insisted it was lingerie but she ignored you) with a pair of black flare jeans over it. For Ally, every day was a blackout party, so she wore one of her many black dresses, this one a velvet flare. Emily couldn’t wear all black, it wasn’t in her nature, so she wore an adorable black babydoll dress with little blue flowers all over it. 

And you? You pulled out all the stops. Your dress was simple, a black mini dress from urban outfitters, but you spent years looking for the perfect LBD and this was it. It hugged your body in all the right places, you didn’t wear it too often, but when you did you felt like a 10. 

You all piled in the uber and were on your way to the house, which wasn’t a far walk from campus, but you were already running late. It was already past 11:30, the party started at 11. It was typical for your friend group to make a fashionably late entrance. 

When you got there it was almost 11:45. You made your way to the back of the house where two brothers stood at the back door, one with a clipboard in his hands, the other rolling a joint. 

“Evening, ladies,” one of them said. Emily smiled, introduced herself and you guys, and they were soon letting you in. 

You walked inside and noticed the party was already in high gear. It wasn’t packed, thanks to the list, but there were a lot of people hanging around, drinking, some playing beer pong, some dancing, others making out on the couch. 

Immediately Harrison noticed Emily and came up to give her a kiss on the cheek. He greeted you all very friendly, kissing the backs of your hands. 

This kid was not like Tom at all. 

Speaking of… You didn’t want to admit it but you noticed him almost immediately. There were a lot of guys looking at your group, probably because you weren’t regulars to delt parties, but one boy in particular couldn’t keep his eyes off you. 

You felt his stare on your body, and you finally looked to make eye contact with him. He was at the beer pong table, but he stopped paying attention to the game. 

You couldn’t help it, but you bit your lip. He looked… well, hot. Incredibly hot, even though he was just wearing ripped black jeans and a black tee shirt. 

“Harrison!” You said, turning your attention away from Tom. “I need a shot of tequila and a rum and orange soda.” Harrison laughed. 

“A girl that knows what she wants, I like it. Follow me ladies.” The four of you followed him to the kitchen where a makeshift bar was set up. You groaned internally when you realized who one of the boys was behind it. 

“Y/N!” Dan said with a smile. “You’re the last person I expected to see here.” 

“Well, everyone changes, Danny. Could I have-” “Lemme guess. A shot of tequila and a vodka orange soda?”

“Rum and orange soda, but very close.” Danny laughed as he poured you the drinks. Isabelle and Ally both had beers in their hands and were behind you, talking to each other while Emily and Harrison appeared to be in their own little world. 

“I’m Noah,” the kid next to Danny said. He was a typical frat boy, but you were surprised. So far every delt boy you’ve seen was… very attractive. 

“Y/N,” you heard a voice behind you. Max put his hand on the small of your back. 

“Hi!” You greeted happily. 

“I’m glad you came. Wanna dance?” he asked. You nodded, downed the shot of tequila and headed for the dance floor, not before you saw Dan hand Max a five dollar bill. 

Max held your hand as you led him towards the room where people were dancing. It was much louder in here. Immediately you made your way close to the DJ, which was really a delt boy with a baseball cap and soundcloud. Max put his hands on your waist and you started to dance back and forth. 

You sipped your drink, realizing you were five drinks in, and were starting to feel great. The room was spinning, in a good way, the music was so loud you could feel it in your chest. 

“If I was straight, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off you,” Max said into your ear and you laughed. “Besides, one of my brothers already called dibs.”

The smile left your face immediately. Did Tom call dibs on you?! Danny?! You looked at Max’s face and he could tell you were confused. 

“Noah. You met him at the bar earlier.” You grinned. Nothing to worry about.

After what felt like an hour of dancing, you and Max were both sweating and decided to go back to the rest of the party. On your way out of the dance floor, Max holding your hand again, you spied Tom on the end of the circle, a girl sucking on his neck. He looked like he was enjoying it, until he saw you. You looked away as soon as you made eye contact and let Max drag you back to the rest of the party. 

Tom could let anyone he wanted suck on his neck. Why should that bother you? 

You quickly let that thought leave your mind when you saw Noah and another boy waiting at the pong table. 

“Pong?” Max asked. You grinned. 

“Hope you can keep up, Parum.” You said. Noah was playing with a boy named Cal, who looked like a nerd with glasses and a band teeshirt, but was 100% Isabelle’s type. Boys that were totally below her league made her go crazy. 

You and Max were an amazing pong team. He was a lefty and you were a righty so you had the sides of the table you preferred, and were totally kicking ass. Once Noah and Cal started to lose, they totally just collapsed. 

You sank the final cup and Max quickly wrapped his hands around your waist, picking you up and spinning you around. You laughed but yelled for him to put you down before you vomited. 

“Alright rematch.” Noah said immediately. This kid was almost as competitive as you. 

“Seriously? You’re already ready to get your ass kicked again?” You asked. 

“Feisty, I like it.” Noah said and took a step closer to you. You stepped closer to him too. 

“Shot gun contest.” He said. 

“You’re on.” You said. He nodded, a cocky grin on his face. It’s been a while since you shotgunned, but what’s the worst thing that could happen? 

A crowd had gathered, more of their brothers, who obviously knew Noah had dibs on you, Ally and Isabelle, who had befriended a few boys, and Emily, who was leaning on Harrison, giggling and already drunk out of her mind. 

Cal handed you and Noah each a beer. 

“Care to make this interesting, Y/N?” Noah asked. 

“How much were you thinking?” You replied. 

“Not how much. I win, you have to kiss me.” All the frat brothers said ‘ooooo’, but you just laughed. 

“And if I win?” You asked. 

“I have to kiss you.” He said and you laughed. 

“No way.” 

“Fine. $20 bucks if I lose, if I win, you have to kiss me.” You groaned, delt boys had formed a circle around you and were edging you on. 

“Deal.” You said and shook his hand. He pulled your hand, bringing your body towards him and kissed your cheek. 

“Just a taste of what’s to come.” He said with a wink. 

You got passed a pair of keys and punctured a whole in the can. 

“Em, would you do the honors?” You asked. Emily stepped into the circle, pulling the neckscarf off her neck and waving it like at a racetrack. 

“THREE… TWO… ONE… GO!” You quickly brought the bottle up to your lips, popping the cap and tilting your head back as you guzzled the beer. 

In just a few seconds, Noah crushed his empty can and dropped it to the floor, beating you by barely ONE SECOND. 

Everyone was cheering, and Noah looked at you. 

“Sorry, babe,” he said with a grin. You smiled, walked up to him, and wrapped your arms around his neck. Immediately his strong arms were around your waist, pulling your body onto his, and dripping you on your back. His tongue slipped into your mouth and you were making out as he dipped you, your arms still around his neck. The kiss tasted like beer, but his hands were strong.

After a few seconds, you finally became aware of the shouting and whooping from around you. You laughed, hiding your face in Noah’s neck as he stopped dipping you, but didn’t take his arms away from you. 

“You wanna head upstairs?” He whispered in your ear. You turned to your friends, who were right on the edge of the circle. 

“One sec.” You replied, took two steps to your friends and had a hushed conversation. 

“So you’re about to win, N/N,” Isabelle said with a giggle. 

“What are you talking about?” 

“Frat bingo!” She said with a smile. You rolled your eyes. 

“Will you guys be pissed if I stay over?” 

“No way!” Emily said. 

“Are you staying Em?” You asked. She shook her head, you should’ve expected that much. 

“Y/N, please be safe, and call if you need anything.” Ally said. You smiled and turned back to Noah who was waiting in the center of the circle. 

“So?” He asked, still smirking. 

“So you said something about upstairs?” He grinned and picked you up bridal style. You screamed with a smile and a laugh as he made comments about winning, and not to wait up, on his way to the stairs. 

You got to his bedroom, immediately you pushed him down and climbed on his lap, making out. It wasn’t long until you ripped off his shirt, and he was pulling your dress over your head. 

He was hot, and a good kisser. Plus, you’d do anything to get Tom and his stupid ripped jeans and tight black tee out of your mind. 

You didn’t know how long you were up there, but soon you were unbuttoning his jeans and pulling them down. He was grabbing your boobs, leaving you hickeys everywhere he could. 

It was a few minutes before you realized what was happening. You looked at Noah’s face, the smile he was wearing all night had disappeared. 

“Uhm… I think I may have drank too much…” he said quietly, referring to the fact that he couldn’t get hard, despite you being practically naked on top of him. 

“Hey it happens,” you said. 

“You know, I could uhm,” he looked down and you realized what he was implying. However, you hadn’t shaved and hated having boys go down on you when you weren’t prepared. It was a weird thing. 

“It’s ok, I’ll go,” you said and started to get up. He grabbed your arm, pulling you back down and kissing you. 

“Stay,” he said and kissed you again. “Please.” 

“Fine,” you said with a grin. “But if you try to tell anyone we had sex, I’ll tell them exactly what happened tonight. I can also make sure no other girl at this school ever goes down on you again.” He laughed, throwing his head back. You realized that you actually really enjoyed his laugh. 

“Y/N, you have nothing to worry about. I’m not like-” He faltered and knew exactly what he was going to say: Tom. “I’m not like other guys.” He finished and kissed you again. 

You stayed practically naked, your bodies intertwined, kissing and making out until eventually dozing off. 

* * *

Your body woke you up at 9, which you were grateful for. Staying past 9am in a frat house is never a good idea. 

You slipped on your dress, trying to quietly pull on your shoes without waking Noah. 

“Hey,” he said groggily. “Where do you think you’re sneaking off to?” “Shhhh,” you said, giving him a soft kiss on the lips. “Last night was fun, but I have homework calling my name.” 

“Here,” he said and got up, grabbing one of his tee shirts for you to wear. You pulled it over your head and were grateful it was so large and gave you more coverage. A walk of shame was embarrassing enough, but you hated being seen in skimpy nightwear during the day time. 

“Thanks,” You said and found yourself smiling again. 

“I don’t normally say this, but would you maybe wanna do this again sometime?” 

“My numbers already in your phone, baby,” you said and kissed his cheek. He fell back on his bed. 

“Hey Y/N?” 

“Yeah?” You said, one foot out the door. 

“I think you may be my dream girl.” You just laughed. 

“Get some sleep,” you said and started to make your way quietly down the steps so you wouldn’t wake any of Noah’s brothers. 

You were almost home free when you reached the living room and saw the last person you wanted to see: Tom. He was sitting up on the couch, his head in his hands. He looked up when you walked into the room and you made eye contact. 

“Hi,” he said, his voice raspy from just waking up. God, he was so hot. 

“Hi,” you replied. 

“So you and Noah got along well then.” He managed to choke out. “Nice shirt.”

“Yeah... Anything happen with the redhead?” You said. You bit your lip, regretting showing him that you noticed him at all last night. He gestured around the empty room. 

“Does it look like anything happened?” 

“Sorry. I better go, I’ll see you tomorrow?” His head was in his hands again and you didn’t hear what he muttered. 

You had finally got the door open and were about to be free when you heard him again. 

“Y/N?” He asked, his voice breaking a bit. You turned to look at him. 

“Yeah?” He broke your eye contact. 

“Nevermind. See you tomorrow.” He muttered and you bolted out the door. 

Walks of shame were never good, and ubers of shame were not much better. If another uber driver chuckled and said “had a nice night, I see” to you, you would lose it. 

Thankfully you made it home and jumped right in the shower, but texted the group first. 

♡girly girls♡

You

just got back, gotta shower, hearst cafeteria in 30 mins

Your friends all liked the message and you jumped into the hot water. 

* * *

Saturdays were for no makeup, sweatshirts, glasses, and mountains of homework. Your friends had already made themselves more than comfortable in your booth in the cafeteria, surrounded by pancakes, coffees, notebooks, and laptops. Just like every Saturday. 

You tried to bite into the pancakes they had gotten for you, but Isabelle pulled the plate away. 

“You can have food after you spill the tea.” You groaned. You not-so-secretly hated that expression. You proceeded to tell them what happened with Noah, including his unfortunate… flaccid accident. 

“And then he gave me his shirt and he called me his dream girl and asked if he could see me again.” You finished. 

“Y/N!” Emily said giddily. “That is absolutely fantastic! Unfortunately no frat bingo though.” You laughed. 

“Can I have my pancakes now?” You asked. 

“Nope. There’s more.” Isabelle said. 

“What? No there’s not.” “Yes, Y/N, there is.” You silently cursed yourself. Isabelle could smell a lie from a mile away. It was her gift. 

“Fine. There’s more.” You said and told them about the awkward interaction with Tom in the morning. 

“Holy fuck.” Ally said after a beat of silence. “He’s into you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Al,” you said as you stole your plate back from Isabelle and greedily dug in. 

“Nope, he is absolutely one hundo percent into you.” Isabelle said. 

“There’s no way.” 

“Oooo!” Emily said. “I’ll text Harrison!” 

“Emily Gold don’t you dare.” You said. 

“He’s already texted me, like, ten times today, I need to respond at some point.” 

“Fine but I get to craft the message.” You said. 

“No way.”

“Fine, let Isabelle do it.” You said. Once again Isabelle was the level headed one your group desperately needed. 

When she was done, she handed you Emily’s phone. 

You (emily) 

last night was fun, id love to see you again too

btw is everything ok with your friend tom? Y/N said he looked really sick this morning 

“Fine.” You replied and hit send. It was only a few minutes before the bing came in, alerting you all Harrison had texted back. 

Harrison<3

dinner tomorrow?

and he got dumped over winter break, hasnt been the same since

well except for this week, he really seemed to be doing good this week, but something mustve happened last night to set him off

he should get back to our room soon, its sweet of you to ask about him

“Wow, he’s whipped.” You said after reading the message. Emily simply giggled. 

“Y/N, you realize what this means right?” Ally asked. You sighed, knowing a ridiculous theory was about to spew from her mouth. 

“No, Al, what does this mean?” You said sarcastically.

“He was in a good mood after he met you, and when he saw you with another guy he was in a bad mood again! He’s obviously super into you.” You groaned. 

“Al that’s insane. I barely know the guy, I’m sure his drama is completely unrelated.” Your friends all gave you skeptical looks. 

“Whatever, I like Noah and I’m gonna see where this goes. Can I eat in peace now?” 

* * *

Saturday passed and it wasn’t long until you all found yourselves at the delta chi party. You weren’t drinking, as you still had a ton of homework to do and were still secretly trying to be dchi sweetheart, which meant being responsible. 

“What’s wrong babe?” Kyle asked approaching you. You were sitting on the kitchen counter talking to the boys at the bar and sipping on a soda. 

“Nothing!” You said and plastered a smile on your face. 

“Uh uh, nope, somethings wrong.” 

“Ky, I’m fine. Just stressed about school and stuff.” Your phone pinged beside you and before you could stop him, Kyle grabbed it.

“Whose Noah?” Kyle asked. You grabbed your phone back, reading the message. 

Noah

miss u babe

this party is boring why dont u come over

You and Noah had been texting on and off all day, nothing super serious, just little flirty messages. 

“He’s no one.” You replied. 

“Doesn’t seem like it,” Kyle said and raised his eye brows. You just rolled your eyes. 

“Leave it, Ky.”

“Y/N!” You heard a voice call. Sam, president of delta chi, stumbled into the room. 

“Hi, Sam,” you greeted with a smile. 

“I’m so glad you’re here,” he said. 

“Me too.” 

“You know we’re voting tomorrow.” He said with a wink. 

“Is that so?” You replied. 

“So expect a phone call tomorrow night.” He said before leaving the room with 2 fresh beers. 

[nicoletteduclare]

 These fireside meetings were always a bore, and Maxwell tried not to close his eyes for the brief respite that it would provide if only for the fact he did not need an earful right now. Someone giving him grief for not paying attention would require him to actually reply, and to reply, well, he'd have to cough up the whole reason for this meeting quite literally. That would be a whole new conversation and involve more questions and annoyance then Max was particularly interested in dealing with.

Besides, there was a headache blooming behind his temples, most likely thanks to the flowers in his throat. There were very few people he'd humor with listening to right now. They're all complaining about managing their own (admittedly, rather fragile for most of them) sanity more often. The surprising fact is that he is too. Unlike the lot of them, though, Maxwell is acutely aware of the source.

It would be lovely if they could just finish up already, he can make out some idea of moving camp, seeing as they can't seem to find the source, and he closes his eyes to ignore the shadow out of the corner of his eye, desperately wanting to cough.

This batch seems like it'll be painful. The dark petals are amazingly useful, or, well, they would be if he could actually use the codex more often, but having them come up randomly is quite damaging, even to his own mental resilience. Not to mention his physical state, which is far more delicate. There's been quite a lot of blood lately. Feels like his mouth always tastes of copper.

Even as a child who was far too eager to believe in magic and the fae, even then, Maxwell had considered this a myth. Coughing up petals because the heart yearns for someone and never telling them, being scared to tell them? Absolutely ridiculous, a complete fairy tale. Not to mention that he'd completely been too afraid to tell Charlie for at least a good few months, and he'd never coughed up petals then.

And he absolutely loved her, loved her so much... and then he'd managed to screw the whole bloody thing up and fail to protect her and ruin the both of them. If he'd just... if he'd only...

That always left a bitter taste in his mouth, petals or no petals and Maxwell valiantly tried to shake the thoughts of the past from his mind. That, honestly, is probably the biggest reason for these blasted flower petals, though there are quite a few.

Why get close to someone else again, when all he's ever brought to anyone is misery? Why fail someone again? He's ruined every single good thing in his life through a wonderful mix of no forethought and too much pride. Everything good crumbles in his hands, and who's to say, even if his affections where returned, that it wouldn't blow up in his face, that he wouldn't fail and ruin them the same way he'd ruined Charlie. What if they ended up worse off than Charlie?

What was the point of even considering that it was possible?

He'd rather let himself choke to death on flowers before letting that happen to someone that he cares about again.

There's a nudge from his side, and his eyes flutter open. "I'm really starting to wonder if you ever pay any attention to anything we talk about." Wilson was practically glaring at him, a scowled frown on his face.

He either has to reveal the petals by coughing them up or just swallow them down, and as painful at it is, Maxwell chose the later, looking away from Wilson to speak. "I pay plenty of attention, Higgsbury." Even though his throat ached, probably scratched raw, he managed a dry, even tone, though it was a little strained.

Wilson pinched the bridge of his nose, an annoyed sigh escaping and Maxwell noticed the brilliant flower crown perched quite nicely on his head. "Whatever you say. We're going to start moving camp tomorrow, maybe see if there's something new we've missed that's driving everyone insane. It's been getting pretty bad... though I doubt it even bothers you."

He just nodded along, pretending that whatever it was absolutely did not bother him, and watched Wilson sigh again and get up. A few moments in front of the fire before turning to go off to the tents, and Maxwell is glad they're all scattering, he can feel the urge to cough start to rise.

If only Wilson knew the half of it.

Though, if he even knew... Maxwell bit his tongue to keep from coughing just yet and moved to go find a quiet, private area to discreetly cough up the blasted mess from his throat. If he knew, it wouldn't matter anyway.

-

It'd been what, a few weeks since they'd completed moving, a setting up the new camp (not too far from the old camp, they'd judged about a half a day's walk back and forth was far enough if it was something new they'd missed that was draining sanity) and yet... Wilson pitched the bridge of his nose. He'd just staved off a headache and the shadows at the edge of his vision, between flower crowns and green mushroom caps. No one else seemed to be fairing any better either.

What a waste of a good chunk of their fall prep period then. They could have stayed put and put more effort into making the best of the fall growing period before winter made any sort of plant growth stop. It probably wouldn't be a disaster, they did have good stores in place already, but it was frustrating that this move solved nothing.

He flipped through his journal to the last handful of pages, where he'd been writing down various scenarios. He still thought that it was something new he was overlooking. Maybe it was small, like a new flower. He wouldn't be too surprised, the roses were something he overlooked until he needed a flower and got thorns in his hand.

Some of the other things seemed a little less probable. He doubted anything underground could affect them up here, and he wasn't sure there actually was a cavern below them. And something they used might have started to drain their sanity, but he really doubted that.

There was a note about feeling better after leaving camp, and Wilson frowned. He'd forgotten about that. Maybe someone had drug something back, and didn't realize what it was doing?

That would be a bit harder to find, really. They may have brought it back to trade with the pig king later, like other new trinkets that occasionally showed up. Or maybe something like the rose pedestal, something that followed light, and hung around camp if you were unlucky to find them.

He could ask Max for help, honestly. This obviously wasn't affecting him, the man rarely ended up in the mental state the rest of them constantly were trying to avoid; Max's occasional careful use of the shadow amulet excluded.

If anything, Maxwell would at least tell him if something seemed completely impossible. While his memory wasn't infallible, he at least could have some knowledge of what one could do in control of this world. Though, stubborn bastard he was, Wilson didn't doubt he might have to bribe him with doing a few hated chores.

Though... that brought to mind the fact Maxwell had been trading off his shifts for night watch for other chores. Hadn't... Wilson thought back. Maxwell had actually asked to trade a shift for going down below for lightbulbs and mushrooms with Wolfgang.

Wilson wasn't sure as to why Maxwell hated the underground so much, but he'd had his suspicions that the enclosed, dark space was uncomfortably close to the throne room he'd found Maxwell in at the end of his little adventure. 

So that was one of the chores Max used almost always tried to shove off onto him. And Maxwell usually tried to trade that off for a night shift if he couldn't weasel his way out of it, Wickerbottom might have permanent insomnia, but Maxwell was frequently also victim to it and so it was an easy swap.  

He had also been going off on his own a lot, avoiding everyone really, though that wasn't surprising, but he usually had one of his shadow puppets out. Now Wilson tried to remember the last time he'd even seen Max with a shadow clone.

Perhaps Maxwell wasn't as immune as he thought, though the underground thing was still a bit of a mystery. Something was going on there.

He'd have to ask, really. Wilson didn't expect a straight response, Maxwell used to not even let him know when he'd been injured. Fun, discovering that your only companion at the time was incapacitated because of an internal wound. That he'd known of. Weakness always seemed to be something Maxwell hid.

Maybe some of the others would think Maxwell was up to something, and

honestly, a cynical bit of him said he was stupid for not really entertaining the idea. But as much as he argued with Maxwell, he was fairly certain Max wasn't about to stab him in the back. 

He could hear someone stiring, a tent rustling as someone pulled open the fabric, and he looked up. It was time for a new shift, and Wilson's shoulders relaxed. It'd be good to get some sleep.

He'd talk to Maxwell in the morning. It'd be a nightmare, but Wilson would either have an assistant (he could almost hear Maxwell denying being one, and the mere thought produced a smile,) or manage to get him to admit that something was wrong.

-

Death was becoming far too frequent, though it wasn't like any of them really noticed, or at least if they did, none of them pressed it. The most reaction he'd picked up on was Willow muttering something about being irresponsible, and he almost scoffed at her. He couldn't remember exactly what of this lovely floral disaster was the crux of all of his dying, the usual fog of revival masked it.

Since he couldn't remember, and he didn't want to exactly risk being found out, Maxwell fell into the habit of being alone for his own sake, and in some ways, everyone else's as well.

The idea of this... affliction, being found out, was mortifying. Besides the agonizing questions, this did destroy some of the facade he'd worked hard to put up; that none of them meant anything to him. And considering that, the idea that his affections would even be remotely reciprocated was downright laughable in the worst possible way. Much like the rest of his life, a giant cosmic joke.

So, Maxwell had accepted the thorny stems, sharp edged rust red and ink black petals, and the pain that came with it as his penance for even daring to let his heart consider another love after the first one had been utterly demolished by his own hubris. The headaches, the shadows out of the corners of his eyes, the world slowly becoming a gray husk shot through with streaks of red? That was an added bonus. Even as he managed to keep himself from teetering at the edge of his sanity, the world was never quite as vibrant as it should have been.

The time between deaths was getting shorter, and the Maxwell couldn't help but wonder if there was a point where the time between his deaths would be only hours. That, or he'd finally succumb to the terrorbeaks.

Maybe this is what he deserved. It was about time, considering how many years it's been since Charlie pulled Wilson from the throne and threw the two of them together. Besides, the guilt surrounding this mad little game he'd thrown together certainly wasn't enough.

Just as well to have a bloody punishment to fit the crime.

The last death was only a week ago, or was it five days? One of the two, and no matter, even though he couldn't remember the circumstance surrounding the last handful of deaths, something told him this was near the end. He was on his hands and knees at the base of a pine tree.

He'd actually been trying to make himself useful for once, what a joke, honestly. There was a tiny notch in the tree from an axe, but it didn't matter. What mattered was the not-so-tiny pile of blood soaked petals underneath him, more blood dripping from his mouth as he stared at them, eyes trying to focus under the strain.

His arms were shaking to hold up his weight, and yet, as he heard a voice, Maxwell tried to force himself to stand. A mix of pride and self-preservation, he couldn't let this be seen. Especially not by...

"Stars and atoms, Maxwell, what the hell are yo-..." The question was left unfinished as Max's strength left him, collapsing back down as he choked up more petals, an awful gagging noise before silence. Wilson was already next to him as there was a pathetic gasp for air, a warm arm trying to help him up or heimlich, one of the two, winding underneath, but it was far too late this time.

-

The next thing Maxwell could remember was the cold marble flooring that meant camp, and that frankly, was absolutely terrifying. He hadn't had the materials, or really the strength to recreate a meat effigy since the first death by his affliction; touchstones were his main means of revival while he worked to at least manage the coughing fits somewhat.

Instead of the wood and broken stone around a touchstone, dead pig heads staring at him, Wilson was looking at him in the twilight, a small fire going, his own pack tossed nearby.

The place seemed... empty, for camp. Usually there was a lot more fuss if someone was revived, and while there was a little bit of relief towards that, it was... unnerving until he saw the lack of any of their usual structures, things were broken down to be reused. It was their old, recently abandoned camp, seeing as the fire-pit was still in good condition.

He hadn't gotten up yet, eyes just tracing so he could figure out what to do, but before he could get farther into figuring out the situation, Maxwell was joined by Wilson kneeling next to him.

"Why didn't you tell anyone, you absolute idiot!" He hissed between his teeth as he dug for something. While it was obvious he'd died, the reality of the situation didn't quite set in as he gave Wilson a confused look before pushing himself away in shock, sitting up.

Wilson must have seen him die. Logically, then, Wilson had seen the petals. Not that he could remember the man's reaction, which was probably a good thing, but it was the only conclusion to his words. However, this posed a problem.

Wilson knew.

That was quite frankly terrifying; and while he was trying to process this horribly unlucky turn of events, Maxwell couldn't react before there was a godawful needle jabbed into his arm, the sleeve having been pushed up before he was fully awake.

"How long?" Wilson asked, eyes alert and narrowed as he practically glared at Maxwell, before turning back to the bag, fishing something else out with a mutter of "Frankly, if it wasn't for my mother's stories about her younger sister's death due to this, I wouldn't believe it." Maxwell used the mild distraction of rustling for something to stand up, his own pack was near enough to scoop up, ignoring the wobble in his legs.

"It's none of your business, Higgsbury." Lies are so easy, still, and but this one was quiet, Maxwell's shoulders tensed as he backed up, ignoring the gold chain in Wilson's hand.

It's dropped back into the bag as Wilson stood up, glaring at Maxwell, arms crossed. "None of my business? Really, Maxwell?" Looking away was so much easier then confronting this. Heavens, everything truly does go wrong, doesn't it.

"You think that it's 'none of my business' when this is probably what's been affecting the rest of us? I saw the kind of petals you're dealing with, I'm not stupid. Not to mention that you're wasting resources then. I thought you might have just gotten into a few scrapes, but no, you were hiding this from us. You think that it isn't my business? Really?" It's certainly venomous, and while it looks like Wilson might have more to say, he isn't in the mood for this, teeth clenched to keep himself from coughing up more of the blasted petals right then, before he turned on his heel, not a word, and walked away, ignoring the start and stop of Wilson's voice trying to protest.

It was always a lost cause, he knew that from the get-go, but this proved it far past a shadow of a doubt, and Max knew that he was going to be saddled with this for a long, long time, as he closed his eyes and made his plans, heading for the woods.

-

Maxwell sorted through the pack, making sure his things had been undisturbed by any other survivor or monster that might have stumbled upon his bones from the last death. The codex was there, despite how useless it was in his condition.

Every little bit of sanity counted, but on the off-chance he was surprised by a giant or something, a shadow fighter might buy him some time to get away. He already had enough deaths to handle.

Then there was his winter gear, traps and tools, water skin, some medical supplies; bandages and salves, plenty of torches and fire wood, and finally, thankfully untouched, was his stash of food. Nothing extremely wonderful, Maxwell wasn't stupid enough to risk being found to stop and make a crock pot, but rabbits and moleworms were easy enough pickings to supply him with meat, along with berries and carrots and the occasional gobbler.

He'd retrieved a few choice materials in the middle of the night, after Wilson revived him, but frankly, he'd already had most of his own supplies. Thankfully, his tent and chest were at the outskirts of camp by choice, and he was quiet enough to head off without anyone noticing. He hadn't actually taken much more then the winter gear and his copy of their maps, the essentials considering that it'd turned to winter only a week after he'd left.

He had a walking death sentence. Carrying more then the basics seemed stupid.

Still, sometimes it was a bit obnoxious, he wouldn't mind having a fur roll to wrap around himself right about now. Instead, he shivered as he slid the vest off the skeleton and retrieved his stupid looking but warm hat. He managed both of them on before pulling out a frozen thermal stone out of the interior pocket of the vest, another shiver wracking his body.

He slid the thermal stone back into his pack to reheat soon, pulling out the map of the underground caves instead, x's through certain locations. He'd have to mark it off properly once he got a fire started, but he mentally noted where he'd been in the caves when he'd woken up. Another touchstone down.

It was obvious that he was going to run out of them soon, but he didn't want to, well, he couldn't really face any of the other survivors right now. Knowing Wilson's inability to keep his mouth shut (far more charming when it was about science, less so when it dealt with... well, this, and he probably had, as he said, it affected everyone,) he had to hope none of them had believed it. He wouldn't have, certainly. Even with the reality of honest to god magic, Maxwell would have scoffed at the idea of this fairytale being real. It was a story, told to children and young adults to warn them away from being foolish with their hearts. To keep people from pinning for those they couldn't be with.

Well, he'd never been good at listening to warnings, had he? His chest ached all the time, these days, probably due to the floral infestation. He'd suffocate on them once again, and waste yet another touchstone.

Maxwell started to cough as he put away the map and stood up, a few petals falling out of his mouth and laying against the white snow. For all the problems the cold had, being tracked through the snow wasn't one of them, at least. The footprints left would quickly vanish, intended to keep certain horrors hidden.

Normally, one would expect to see the tracks in the snow from monsters such as the MacTusk or the hounds, but that made things too easy. It also had the benefit of keeping surviors from retracing their footsteps, and while it had been a pain, now Maxwell was silently thankful for it. All he had to do was keep the petals from leaving a trail, and he was hidden, bones excluded. No one could tell they were his anyway, and he had no space for bone shards.

He couldn't help but remember the first morning this had happened as he gathered up the petals and walked away from his latest death.  

The night before this started, the pair of them had been forced into watch after stumbling back into camp late, and they took the time to patch themselves up.

Hound mounds were always trouble, but cactus flowers were too useful to not gather in the summer. However, Wilson had forgotten the territory range, and ventured just a few inches too close for the hound's comfort.

A few shadow clones and a spear were perfectly fine for getting rid of the nuisance, but neither of them came out of it unscathed.

At least it hadn't been the dragonfly, but still. Wilson had pulled a hound off of his back, the last one, thankfully, but it'd torn open the flesh under his shoulder blade.

Normally, he'd have insisted he could take care of it himself, but between the exhaustion and pain, he accepted Wilson's offer of help, besides, it was hard to bandage his back. The normal banter, a few light jabs of 'how do you honestly survive out here, you're paper,' from Wilson, as well as a mutter of being glad it was superficial, hands gentle on the bare skin next to the wound as Wilson looked it over.

It'd been surprisingly... nice, but over all too soon. Wilson had shifted over so they could sit next to one another as Maxwell had looked at the damage to his clothing. He had to repair both his shirt and suit jacket, Wilson had poked at him wearing it in the heat earlier that day.

He was already planning that out before he looked over at his companion. Wilson looked... exhausted, slumped on the log. The permanent bags under his eyes looked darker then normal, and he was well aware of how badly Wilson (and most of the others,) handled the night. It would be worse on an already tired mind.  

Before he could really think about it, Maxwell offered to take over fully, a smart comment of "I don't need you falling into insanity on me," dying on his lips when Wilson smiled.

A tired thank you, and between the smile and the slightly wilted flower crown perched on Wilson's head to try and make the night easier had completely derailed any thought besides the soft, fluttery feeling in his chest as Wilson left.

He'd tried very hard not to think about it for the rest of his watch as he repaired his shirt and suit jacket, until Wickerbottom arrived from her nightly reading nook to relieve him. He'd gone to bed halfway through the night with a frankly terrifying realization, and woken up to the start of a nightmare.

 Obviously, hindsight was 20/20, unlike his own eyesight. That wasn't the catalyst of his affectionate feelings towards the scientist, but it was moment it finally, really, dawned on him. He'd tried to keep his distance from the other survivors once he was thrown into the mix, but Wilson was apparently a special case, and that was terrifying. Caring deeply about him scared Maxwell down to the very core of his being, and the realization of his feelings came with that terror.

It may have been that feeling, the fear that had buried in his stomach as he repaired his clothing, that brought these suffocating flowers along. Choking on his own fear.

But that fear was warranted. He ruined things so easily... especially Charlie, the last person he'd felt anything like this towards, he'd ruined her life and that was a something he could never make amends for. Maxwell was fairly certain that even on the slim chance that these feelings were returned, he'd destroy it, without meaning to, as well. And with their last conversation, words that still sometimes came up in his thoughts, and another reason for avoiding the whole lot of them... well, at least he couldn't break something that was never going to happen in the first place.

A cold piece of comfort, and he shivered as the wind managed through the layers.

-

Wilson huffed as he looked at the fractures in the gold flecked rock he'd been working on shattering. It wasn't the first rock of the day, he'd been at this for a while now, trying to get a handle on the anxiety that had come forward in full force this morning. He'd been headed to the rocky field to get some supplies for new thermal stones, some people hadn't been keeping theirs repaired and he had found a new skeleton. There wasn't a satchel or anything of note around it, but it was most certainly new. It was in the normal path to the northern cave entrance that was right near the outcrop of rocks, there was no way it was just a skeleton they'd missed.

It made him sick to see. Stupid, idiotic... he took another breath and looked at the rock again, trying to ignore the knots in his stomach. Maxwell had vanished. He'd been silent and left before Wilson could even finish saying what he'd been trying to get out of his system after seeing the man choke to death on petals.

Hanahaki is what he knew it by, mostly due to his mother. She'd never elaborated, and it was apparently ignored by the medical community as he'd never encountered it in undergrad, but she'd given him a brief description that he decided was just a poetic way of saying that her sister died of a broken heart.

What a horrifying thing to witness, to see the whole thing play out in front of her, in her own sister, and to not even be able to revive her. It had been horrifying enough for Wilson, and he at least could bring someone back to life in this realm. He kept thinking too much about how pale Maxwell had looked, blood trickling out of his open mouth and onto a pile of blood soaked petals on the ground as the man asphyxiated and Wilson tried and failed to get him to breathe again.

He shivered and picked up his pick-axe, hoping he could stop this train of thought again. But, alas. His brain fixated on things too well. Why hadn't Maxwell just said something? To any of them? It didn't have to be the whole camp, but someone should have been told so at least, maybe, they could fix it before it had gotten bad.

Instead, he got to find out with Maxwell suffocating on petals as Wilson desperately tried to get him to breathe. His words after the fact were maybe, well, less maybe and more most certainly, sharp. He'd been angry, it was affecting all of them, but he was also incredibly scared and he didn't know how to phrase it.

Maxwell had used his effigy earlier, and it'd been a tiny bit eyebrow raising, but none of them had questioned it. He'd started to go off on his own before then, he'd probably just bitten off more then he could chew.

Well, he had, but not in the way Wilson was expecting.  And then he had the gall to go and disappear! He'd looked for Max, had been for weeks, and the most he'd found were bones. He swung, listening to the rock shatter. Doing these sort of chores usually helped when he was dealing with overthinking, certainly had the last time he'd turned a thought over and over in his head til he could scream.

The physical activity usually wore him down, and that stopped the pacing around. Usually then, it'd shut up or he'd pass out to sleep.

He could only hope that would be today's remedy. Wilson was sure he'd already talked Wickerbottom's ear off about this, she was the only one he'd really discussed Max's condition with at length. He needed to confide in someone, and she was the most likely to have maybe a lick of experience with the illness. Everyone else got a hand waved 'he's sick and being stubborn' because it was the barest truth he could say.

The two of them were understandably concerned about the fact he was coughing up up dark petals, for both the effects on the rest of them, and discussion on what that meant for Maxwell. He was always more steady, mentally, then the rest of them, so there was a point in his favour, but that only could last so long. Which, as Wickerbottom pointed out, was probably why it took so long for someone to find out.

The signs were far more blatant now, but weren't things always more apparent when looking back? Maxwell had been relying less on his shadow clones, he'd ceased using them practically all together before the curtain had been pulled back on his condition, but he'd been using only one for quite some time. It was a little crass, but Wilson found it ironic that when he had a steady source of the material for nightmare fuel, it would be in a way that rendered his clones unusable.

Well, it was more sad then ironic.

They'd talked carefully about it, no need to stress everyone else about it, mostly at night during watch. The one question neither of them posed was the question of who Maxwell was pining over. He didn't want to focus on it, it was an obvious thing really. Who else could it be but Miss Charlie?

He never talked about her very much, some things Wilson had only picked up on from overhearing Maxwell talking to himself. Whenever she did come up in conversation, the guilt and pain was an undertone that had originally been surprising, but it mixed with the sad adoration that was far more apparent. Just through a few short conversations it had been obvious that to him that Maxwell was in love with her.

So Wilson kept his own feelings close to his chest. It was more then a little bit frustrating, an old flame that had started to burn anew. Maxwell had gone from his loved voice on the radio, to a demon, then to a pain in the ass ally, to... well, a soft, unrequited love again. He accepted it with ease at the time when it struck him, that was just how his life always went. There wasn't anything he could do about it; why bother tying himself up in knots about it? He tried not to at least, shoving his feelings to the side and acting like it was the same as always.

That was why he'd just stood there as Maxwell walked off after the initial outburst of frustration. He didn't know what else to say that wouldn't reveal everything. Wilson figured, hoped really, that he'd be back at camp, or something sensible instead of running off. Max refused to be sensible, it seemed.

He had wanted (he still did) to help. Find something to ease the coughing, or at least keep him from dying.  It was impossible to solve the pinning problem, really. There wasn't any other cure, the few scraps of knowledge Wickerbottom had pointed towards the only thing that was even remotely close to a cure had a tendency to have side effects relating towards memory loss, even to the point of becoming cold. Wilson honestly didn't understand how that was possible, but it was something to look into. But he'd rather not toy with someone else's feelings.

There had to be another way.

-

Sunlight was one way to wake up. Waking up from hacking up his lungs was another, and it was never a pleasant way to come out of sleep, but these days Maxwell was getting used to it.

 There were some embers still left of his fire. Before it could extinguish itself, he threw the petals from the night and morning onto the fire, the fire starting to properly burn again. That awful straw roll he'd used to sleep on (Maxwell yearned for the days of beefalo wool and rabbit fur now) was rolled up into a tight bundle to sit on. He'd burn it before he left, but he needed to cook on a more controlled flame right now.

A gobbler leg, wrapped in scrap paper to keep the meat from the rest of his bag was today's breakfast. Better then some days, and he sighed as he tossed the paper into the fire and skewered the leg into a stick. Roasting these things was never an exact science, but as long as it wasn't raw.

Semi-burned wasn't too bad, and the meat was far more comforting and filling then a few charred carrots. It made him feel a bit warmer, though the more likely source of that was the thermal stone tucked into his vest being warmed by the fire.

Once he'd eaten, he pulled a few green mushrooms from his pack to roast quickly on a slowly dying fire before tossing the straw roll into the flames. It burst back to life, and he stepped back to keep from letting any of his clothing catch on fire and yet allow himself, and his thermal stone, to bask in the warmth.

Sadly, he couldn't stay too long around the fire. Just long enough to let the thermal stone hit peak temperature as he wrapped his mushroom caps and place them at the top of his pack. He left as the fire started to wane, it would soon die, and the ashes would vanish under the snow.

It felt like they were gearing up for another storm soon, he'd have to head to the caves again. As much of a pain as it was, he rather prefered to not be underground, it was safer during these blizzards, since he didn't have a stable camp. He'd been using the caves to avoid the hounds as well. They'd cleared the areas closest to the entrences of danger ages ago, and he didn't have to go too far into them just to avoid hounds.

Besides, it probably wasn't too long until he died again, he'd want to get closer to the caves so he didn't have to travel too far to retrive his things anyway. He'd had a few good days, and now he was fairly certain that he had at most, three days left. Not that it truly mattered. He was just going to die again.

In order to get away from the places he was more likely to be discovered in, he'd been forgoing sleep (he used to do it all the time, the nightmares in his head were harder to fight off) but a terrorbeak almost solid enough to bite his head off was reminder enough that those days were gone. Staying up all night wasn't helpful for his already diminished sanity.

Maybe it'd be easier to just give up the ghost and let one of those terrors kill him. Oh, it'd be bloody painful, but it wasn't like he'd be able to full remember it anyway. If he was lucky he might not ever remember getting letting himself get to that point until he saw the skeleton.

He'd been hoarding blue and green mushrooms whenever he could find them, and the mushroom forests underground he'd usually have to go through after dying also gave him a decent supply, but maybe it'd just be easier to get it over with. Ignore his health and sanity and just let it happen, again and again until he couldn't revive any more.

Not today though. It sounded tempting, but right now, he wasn't even sure if he had a touchstone left. The map could be wrong, or a more likely option, any of the unmarked ones could be one he'd used when the lot of them were in the caves and he'd made a mis-step. Then, his options would basically be the other survivors. Ghosts were drawn towards the living when there wasn't any other source of revival, and while he doubted any of them would want to bring him back, if they did, he'd just be cornered.

Maxwell would sigh if it wasn't for the need to cough, and he leaned against a tree to hack a batch of the blasted things up into his hand. At least he wasn't too far away from his goal, and the petals weren't too bloody. He'd have to pocket and burn them, better to not leave breadcrumb when you didn't want to be found. He'd make fuel, but he had plenty, and making more then he could carry was stupid, another thing to lead people to him. At least the petals could rot, but Max wasn't taking a chance on that.

It wasn't even mid morning yet, and he could tell there were shadows lurking at the edges of his vision. Maybe he was more out of it then he’d thought, or the petals were making things even worse then they had before. He thought that barely being able to last a day, not to mention the nights, was bad enough, but just a few short hours?

He shuddered and started to cough again, petals not caught this time as they instead hit the snow, a bit of blood joining them. Stupid flowers, he thought as he took a deep breath, trying to steady himself against the tree, watching slightly more firm shadows take their place in front of his eyes instead of at the side.

Mushrooms, he tried to remind himself before the thought slipped away. Right, he needed a cap or two or three to handle this.

He pulled around his pack and pulled the freshly cooked ones out, thankful that he always stuck these at the top. They wouldn't help the pain in his throat, but some more bleeding was nothing compared to trying to fight off shadows, and as much as he entertained the idea earlier, he really didn't want to die to one of those.

He'd barely gotten to swallow the first one down when there was a crunch, the icy layer of the snow being broken through by something. He hadn't heard any howls, so it couldn't be the hounds.

Maxwell swallowed again as he slowly turned to stare at Wilson, who was staring back, bearded and looking quite concerned.

He barely thought, just turned and ran, ignoring the cry for him to stop, please. He wasn't that far from the caves, he could lose him.  

-

Once again, Wilson had gotten himself gently kicked out of camp for a few hours for pacing. Even the kids knew something was bothering him, and he had a feeling most of the adults in camp were ready to throttle him. Wickerbottom had her usual calm demeanor, but Wilson wasn't blind, he could see the tension underneath. They were all fed up with his hand wringing, and she'd kindly asked him to go chop some wood, as Woodie had watch tonight and so was dozing off for a few hours. It was something useful to do at least, even with the approaching nightfall.

So, now here he was, in the midst of a quiet woods, his small campfire the main source of noise around. The light it gave was enough to keep him safe from the night as he worked on chopping down a lumpy pine.

These chores were becoming rather frequent, more so then hunting or gathering food, but it was probably a good thing. Being away from everyone sometimes gave him a better perspective, and the repetitive swing of an axe or pick axe was surprisingly soothing. The steady rhythm of hits was background noise as he thought about solutions. None of them were actual solutions, but he figured the more he chopped at it, much like the tree, he'd find something useful.

Not that any actual solution would be much of any use if he didn't find Maxwell first and foremost. But there had to be a way to keep him alive, even if the flowers had to stay, a way to keep him from dying so frequently at the very least. Something to ease it, if not solve it, living with flowers in your body had to be better then dying to them by choking them up. Maybe even keeping them from affecting everyone else.

But, once again, the biggest problem was finding the man. He'd kept an eye out, and the only sign that Maxwell was even alive was that people kept stumbling upon new skeletons, nothing around them. Nothing else. He was surprisingly good about covering his tracks.

Still, the number of skeletons gave him a bad gut feeling. The latest one he'd found himself, heading off to get rabbit fur from the caves, yet another chore he did alone to keep his relentless pacing down. His stomach sank at the thought of dying out here alone, freezing while choking up blood and petals and stems and such. Even though they've all died on a fairly regular basis, going back to dying alone and scared was something unimaginable these days. Not to mention the possibilities of dying to terrorbeaks and crawling horrors.

He had no one, and it'd been so long since Wilson's been well and truely alone that anyone going through that was hard to think about. Maybe back when it was just a shoddy alliance between them, and he was waiting to be back-stabbed, he'd find some dark bit of humor in Max suffering like that. Now, it was just depressing. No one to lean on or force him to accept help for once.

Well, he was going to force him to take help when he found him. And it was a when, not a if. There couldn't be that many places around to hide, even the longest trek from from camp was a handful of days, not to mention wormholes and beefalo. Someone was bound to encounter him at some point.

Another few whacks, and the tree started to fall. Wilson stepped back and felt the audible thump as hit his the ground, taking a second before he start to peel the branches off to feed his fire.

Stars, it didn't help he still felt like he should have done more, said something better after he'd revived the moron. Bit back the anger, expressed the worry underneath the frustration of Maxwell hiding things. Maybe he'd have saved himself all of this anxiety .

He huffed and capped his axe into the stump of the tree before starting to gather up the now peeled off branches. He'd gather up the logs he'd made later, the stump could stay for now.

Even with all of this, even with knowing exactly who was at the heart of Maxwell's pining... his chest had a dull ache in it just at the mere thought of him dying alone. Even now, he couldn't shed the unrequited feelings. Oh, he'd worry if Maxwell was just a friend, sure. But somehow, the man had managed to make him care about him again.

It was never going to happen, and that was something he had to keep reminding himself, he'd accepted it, sure, but the thoughts still crept in. Wilson had managed to put it under lock and key for the most part.

Instead, he enjoyed their stupid, petty arguments that were mostly for the sake of arguing until they went too far. He greatly enjoyed the times Maxwell would actually talk about magic, few and far between, but it always was insightful. It was nice, when he wasn't being a cagey bastard. Then there were the times that Maxwell ended up being the voice of reason when something new had cropped up and Wilson was over-eager to test it, though at times, it was the reverse.

They both had the tendency to get in over their heads, and when Wilson did, Max pulled him back. Once again, it was his turn to pull Maxwell back and help him, because he was most certainly in over his head.

His fire was starting to flicker, and Wilson threw another branch into the flames to feed it. At least the chores were physically exhausting. Maybe after some food he could get some actual rest. It'd be nice instead of staying up all night overthinking everything.

Thankfully, his pack had more then his usual jerky for travel. They'd had plenty of vegetables sitting in the fridge that he'd made a stuffed eggplant, along with a few morsels. Warming it wasn't exactly easy, but he'd done it before, and after skewering some morsels, he had a warm, filling meal.

With luck, he'd sleep.

Before that, though, he gathered up the last of the excess tree limbs and threw them into the fire, making sure that he'd have light through the night. Between that and his fur roll, Wilson felt like it should be quite comfortable, granted that it didn't start snowing.

He watched the flames dance for a few moments after lying down before turning over, the fire warming his back and his eyes adjusting to the darkness. The last thought before he slid into sleep was that he hoped Max was managing to stay alive.

Maxwell was once again on his mind after being woken up by the sunrise and groggily trying to suss out what he was up to the night before. After fishing out a piece of jerky from his bag, he could only assume that the best place to look was probably around the caves. The entrances to the vast underground below their feet had been where quit a few of the new skeletons had been showing up.

He bundled the logs into the bottom of his bag as he settled on a plan. He'd check the entrance near the rock field before heading back to camp, he could check in on the closer one in the evening before he got back. It wasn't a walk to look forward to, but maybe it would put his mind at ease, even if he didn't find Max.  

The last thing he had to do was pull the axe from where he'd left it in the stump, and that was easy to put away, right into the little loop he'd added to his pack. Kept a spear or axe handy without cluttering up the space he used for torches, as well as leaving his hands free.

Useful in the winter, he could shove his hands into the vest to stay warm. At least they hadn't had another late winter snowstorm yet. Walking in the old, refrozen snow was hard enough without an extra layer of white, fluffy snow. And even without the new layer of snow, tracks never seemed to stay. It seemed to be some joke of the Constant to keep you from following your own tracks back home, or discover a monster before they snuck up on you. The snow was nothing more then a hinderance, but at least it wasn't knee deep yet.  

Besides, the wind was cruel enough, snow or no snow. Even a full beard didn't keep his face warm. It always seemed like no matter how much he prepared for this weather, it never was enough.

The walk was uneventful, really, the winds were bad but nothing else . Mostly, Wilson had to turn out of the wind for a few moments when it whipped up into a harsh breeze to keep his eyes and nose from turning into icicles, otherwise, it was a quiet, if long, walk. It'd been a few hours since he'd woken up, and Wilson was fairly certain he was almost out of the woods and into the empty clearing before a rock field that would have one of the entrances to the caves. Then he'd turn around and head back to camp along the tree line, staying out of spider nests and trouble in general until about the area where there had been the grass geckos. He'd take a left and go look at the other-

Wilson's train of thoughts went right out the window as he heard a distinctively harsh hacking in the distance. Oh. Relief and some panic mixed together as he tried to silently walk over. It was an impossible task, but he didn't need to sound like a hound or something gallivanting over to maul him.

Maxwell was leaning against a tree, hunched over and shaking as he coughed, dark colored blobs against the ground which could only be petals. As he stood up, the man looked panicked, still shaking slightly, glancing around like he was surrounded. Wilson could only assume that he was, quietly watching with an ache in his chest as Max pulled his pack off to grab a packet of mushrooms, stuffing one into his mouth as he swung it back on.

He stepped closer, thinking about what he had in his own bag that might help.

That was what alerted Maxwell. His back tensed, and Wilson winced before the other spun around and they both just stared at one another. The moment felt far longer then it was, but he also wasn't expecting Maxwell to turn on his heel and bolt like a scared animal.

He didn't even pause when Wilson shouted "Wait, stop! Maxwell, hold on!"

So instead Wilson followed. Through the last bit of the woods and across the clearing he'd been headed towards and down into the caves themselves, both of them not even hesitating to pull out a torch and light it, too much practice to need a moment to stop. The cave was abnormally dark, not even light-bulb flowers in the distance. That, or all of them were withered at the time. It didn't matter much, Maxwell wasn't slowing down, and Wilson wasn't about to stop and lose him now.

"Maxwell! Seriously, stop, please!" There wasn't any response to his shouting as they turned a corner into a narrow causeway. He wasn't stopping as he turned a corner marked by a crossed out rectangle, one of their crude markings that meant dead end. He must have missed it while in a panic to get away. While the dead end was useful, he really didn't want to trap Maxwell to get him back to camp.

There was a rumble around them, and Wilson almost stopped to regain his balance as the cave floor shifted under him, if this dead end caved in... "It's a dead end, Max!" He shouted, trying to be heard over the rumble as he headed forward. At least if it caved in and they were together he could get them out of it.

At least it looked he'd already hit the end of the corridor. Maxwell was leaning against the back wall, coughing so hard is seemed like he'd cough up his lungs first, torch discarded onto the floor. Wilson winced as he caught a few stones on the arm as he rushed to catch up. Closer, it was obvious  gently pushed down on his shoulder to get him to sit as the man caught his breath.  The moment he did, however, he started into another fit, petals in a growing pile in front of him.

For all the planning, Wilson felt very helpless in the moment, kneeling down to rub the other's back  with his free hand until the fit started to calm again. He hated this. Hated feeling like there was nothing he could do, that nothing was going to work... "Do you have any water?" He asked quietly, shifting to finally get a good close look at him in the torch light. He kept looking everywhere, scanning for things that weren't really there, not yet, anyway, though Wilson could tell it was bad enough that he was starting to notice things out of the corner of his eyes.

Wonderful. He didn't want to fight the damned shadows here, so Wilson gently pulled Max's bag from his shoulders. He'd had a mushroom earlier, hopefully he had more.

There were more, thank the stars, and there was a water-skin as well, half full. he took both things out and handed the mushrooms over to Maxwell first, before moving away to start a fire before his torch burned out. At least he'd been cutting wood, there was plenty of cords to keep a fire going it they had to stay here a while.

The cave had gone silent, but with the last of his torch's flame, he lit the logs and sighed in relief at a fire going. It wasn't as cold without the wind, but the cool rock sapped heat away quickly. At least they'd lucked out with the earthquake, but here they were. Maxwell wasn't even looking at him, pointedly looking towards a wall, his water skin in hand. "You've been gone awhile, you know?" Wilson said, trying to get the man to look at him, trying to be reassuring, that there was something that could be done.

Maxwell just made some sort of noise that sounded like it was agreement at the sentence, and nothing else. He didn't even look towards him. They were going to do this again, Wilson wanting to help and Maxwell just... refusing it.

Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

-

Oh, this was absolutely fantastic. Maxwell leaned back, his eyes closed, silently condemning everything.  Why did it have to be Wilson? Any of the survivors would be a problem, but when it just made his chest ache worse... some force of the universe must enjoy him suffering.

Not to mention the man was quietly trying to ease the pain... it was exceedingly comforting, unfairly so, to have someone care. Not to mention that it was Wilson of all people, but Maxwell was fairly certain that this was bound to end up going from comforting to questioning. Wilson had expressed some sort of familiarity, he remembered that much from the last time they'd been a few feet from one another. Family, if he was recalling it correctly. He'd only known about it from fairy tales, the more glamorous accounts. Roses and peonies and other lovely flowers falling from pining maids and princesses' mouths, for some dashing prince or knight or brave peasant boy or something. It glossed over the wretched details.

If Wilson knew more about this then he did, well, it was to be expected that it would go poorly. There was bound to be a inquiry as to whom it was that captured the 'heartless Maxwell's heart.' He could even hear the gentle ribbing in Wilson's voice just thinking of one of the many epithets the other used. The taunting had become comfortable and expected.

His 'whom' was currently staring at him, evaluating him, and Maxwell was continuing to avoid his gaze. Ever since he'd given him something that was barely a reply, Wilson was just watching.

Couldn't this just be over already? The last coughing fit was more violent then the last, his throat was raw... and the cherry on top was the fact he'd been followed down here and the most Wilson had done was make sure that he didn't hit the rock bottom of his sanity, a few quietly, oddly concerned words. Why? He didn't deserve by any long shot, wasn't he the one 'affecting everyone else' and such? Wasn't Wilson just making things worse on himself anyway? Why did he care? Maxwell made sure that it, and by extension, himself, were no longer any of Wilson's business. Wasn't that what he wanted?

There was that familiar urge rising in the back of his throat, and in barely any time he was back to hacking up a lung, he pushed forward to keep the blood off of his clothing. The petals past his lips felt larger this time around, something that felt like a full flower a well. The pain was contrasted with the warm hand on his back again, steady circles. The urge to shove him away was as strong as the urge to lean into the hand.

He took a breath and opened his eyes, looking at the mess of blood and flower petals, tongue tracing the cuts on his cheeks and gums, there must have been brambles and thorns mixed into the batch. Maxwell sighed and tried to quell the shaking in his arms. The world was dull, even the fire seemed dull before he closed his eyes, trying to gather his wits again. Heavens, he was exhausted.

His eyes shot open at the sound of a music box ringing in his ears. "Wils- Higgsbury, the fire." He managed out, voice raw as he saw a shadowy hand start to snake towards the fire, and Wilson left his side immediately, a few curses at the dratted thing before he also grabbed some things from his bag. Maxwell figured it was more logs and closed his eyes again, bone deep exhaustion settling in.

There was a gentle nudge at his shoulder, a small mess of mushrooms handed over, including some blue ones, one roasted, one not. Once those were in hand, Wilson wandered back to the fire, and it was silent. He saved the raw one til last, eating the cooked green and blue caps first, before letting the healing properties from the blue mushroom soothe his sore mouth and throat.

Wilson was quietly weaving a flower crown, the silence was... stifling, to put it mildly. But, Maxwell didn't doubt that it was probably because Wilson needed the flower crown if he had any hope of keeping himself together. The pile of petals he still hasn't gotten up to burn looked like it was the equivalent of a whole ring of evil flowers. He tried not to stare, instead turning his head to watch the light and shadows on the cave wall, but he could see a glimpse of that focused, narrowed in on what he was doing look that Wilson tended to have when he was working on something important to him, something he'd been quietly fond of seeing. It made him close his eyes and ignore the painful want in his heart. Why didn't he just leave already?

Instead, there were footsteps coming closer, not away. Maxwell silently debated trying to shove him away somehow but before he could even figure that out, a flower crown was gently settled on top of the awful winter hat he had to wear to stay warm. "We're going to head back to camp." Wilson said, putting a certain insistence behind the 'we.' "I'll see if we don't already have supplies for an effigy or life amulet, if not, well... I'll have to make you a heart or something as back-up. Don't need you hovering around as a ghost for a while if this gets worse."

Maxwell finally opened his eyes, looked up at Wilson and instantly regretted it. Wilson had a sad smile under all that awful beard, and if he was a hopeful man, it almost could have made him think there was something else closer to love there, instead of pity.

The cynic in him said it wasn't even pity. There was probably something he was needed for, though it wasn't completely sensible, considering that everyone's own sanity was in jeopardy if he was around them. The honest truth was probably Wilson being unable to leave a problem alone combined with his tendency to extend help to people. After their initial fist fight after being thrown into the same world, Wilson had passed him a kebab after everything he'd done.

Granted, this was after a day of both of them mulling over everything (acting like children, really, though he'd never admit it,) but it was still surprising. But it meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. Wilson didn't want to have someone's death on his conscious, they didn't exactly care much about one another then.

So this didn't exactly mean much of anything either, now did it?

He just nodded, all the fight gone from him, as much as he should push Wilson away. Instead, Maxwell just gathered all the petals from the cave floor and threw the whole lot into the flame. They at least burned well, they were as good at fueling a blaze as they were at making nightmare fuel. Wilson pulled another torch from his pack and lit it with the fire and started down the pathway.

Maxwell took another second of warmth before following to keep in the light's radius. Didn't need to die in the dark after everything, though... no, it would be pointless. Instead he just tried to keep distance between them, arms crossed to conserve heat as he felt the air grow colder as they made their way back to the exit. The urge to cough was coming back, but thankfully, not bad enough that he couldn't hold it back to swallow the petals down. There wasn't the time for that.

Swallowing the petals was also a bad idea for his sanity, but it was better then making a scene and having Wilson react with the same pity from earlier.

The pair of them shivered the moment they hit wind, right at the mouth of the cave. It was snowing again, and it seemed like the wind was picking up. One last horrible storm before the winter was up.

Still, Maxwell reasoned, if Wilson was dead set at getting back to camp today, they'd just have to brave it. He was too tired to argue against it, not like it mattered much anyway.

 If he died again, then he died again.   

[i-love-jade-harley]

alright heres some of my homestuck/warcraft headcanon shit

basically just like

what race they’d be/play, what class, what spec, how theyd play, how often they play, etc, etc...

idk how many characters im doing so more below the read more bullshit

mostly a ramble tbh lmao

(beta + alpha kids, beta trolls, calliope + caliborn. sorta a everyone lives/nobody dies au)

if u need to know what smth means just hmu

OKAY so lets start off with the kids

ok personally i think john would play either a monk or a paladin?? like i think he’d prefer the playstyle of a paladin but his monk would be for heals in case a raid group or smth needs it. he’d honestly probably do LFR and just casually play in general, but sometimes he’d play for like 11 days straight then not get back on for 2 months. but when he’s playing casually he just does LFR and world questing, maybe sometimes doing dungeon groups with dave or something. he’d probably be a DPS paladin because tanking is bullshit and so is healing. (believe me i know) he’d also use the heckin goofiest mounts there are. like you know the chicken? he’d spend the money to get it. like actual cash. he wants the chicken. let him have the chicken. but back on the topic of race he’d probably play a dwarf or a gnome. he’d probably have a level 2 gnome hunter. he also runs a prank guild that all the kids are in! a few trolls are in it, too. vriska, kanaya, terezi, and karkat are in it. 

rose??? would probably play a shadow priest. probably nothing else, really. she may go heals every once in a while but dont expect her to want to. she plays a human. she only plays human and worgen. belf if she has to go horde. i dont really know if she’d just play casually because dave roped her in, or if she got really into it so now she has 12 max level characters. even if she doesnt like the game itself, she’d probably really like the lore!!! she’d probably also love the idea of xmog and what you can make your characters look like, bc some of the xmog is really badass. she’d probably use the emo purple bird thing as a mount (i forgot the name) or maybe she’d use the wotlk undead dragons. maybe the bc netherwing dragons?? im not sure!!! for pets she’d def have the feline familiar with her at all times (roxy would too) because who doesnt want a little witch kitty flying on a broom with you???

dave would honestly play a survival hunter. except he’d just punch shit to death. just autoattack. though when he’s ACTUALLY playing like a normal person he’d probably play a dps warrior. i could also see him tanking sometimes if he needs to. he probably only has one or two max level characters, but they have decent gear. he probably sometimes actually plays his hunter in a decent way but he probably just goes to low level neutral areas. he probably plays on a pvp server for that exact reason. he has one level 10 belf. he uses it to dance on mailboxes and get gold. he really just trolls people on it. he also roleplays, but makes sure to do it in the shittiest way possible. he only uses walk. no running. he uses the biggest mounts he has and walks on roleplayers when hes playing on an rp server. he probably raids on his warrior and is probably in a raiding guild. he purposefully mic spams the raid so he just gets muted, though. for mounts he’d obviously use the love rocket that he worked oh so hard for. for pets i dont really know what hed use?? probably brightpaw or whatever the purple cat thing is. he makes rose disappointed because he pays for mounts and pets with real money. tsk tsk. he has no professions except fishing, which he has maxed out. he may also have a DK that he has just to piss people off. hes the second highest tier in the prank guild. whenever they do raids (they occasionally do) he rp walks across the map to get to the raid. kanaya screams at him to accept the summon but he insists that he’s almost there. 

jade would def have herbalism as her main profession!! she may also have mining to sell on the auction house. she would DEFINITELY play a bm hunter!! its a worgen all the way. she prefers to have it in worgen form too. since she doesnt really like horde and cant use many wolf mounts, shed def go with the mechanostriders! for flying i think she’d use the serpents!! i could also see her using the pandaren turtle moutns. her fave xpac is def either mop or wod. she actually liked garrisons. she’s really slow w leveling so she isn’t max level for legion, but her friends still play with her!! (me too buddy) she likes doing mount/pet/reagent farming and regularly gives her friends herbs and other mats to level their professions! she also sometimes roleplays with dave in goldshire to mess with people. she loves using emotes like /lol and /joke! she also uses toys VERY often. her hunter pet is a white wolf named bec, and she has a team of battle pets consisting of fel pup, frostwolf ghostpup, and cinder pup! sometimes she’ll use lil bad wolf, though. she’s actually super good at pet battling, but she only battles friends. she doesnt play to be the “best”, she just plays because its a fun game! she also loves playing hearthstone.

jane doesnt play much, and has a level 60 dwarf resto shaman. the only reason she has looms is because roxy gave her the gold to get them. she only has level 20 riding, and only has a single horse. she still plays with friends, but the game just really isnt her cup of tea. she has a few cool pets she found while playing in low level areas, and she likes playing the auction house when she does play! she’s in a prank guild that john owns (all the kids are in it, they prank the trolls and roleplayers) and that’s honestly the thing she enjoys the most. 

roxy loves doing pvp with dirk. some of her friends call them the sneakies. she plays a rogue, and switches around her spec depending on what kind of pvp she’s doing. (as in she switches specs for open world, battlegrounds or arenas) she’s decked out in full pvp gear and always gets the newest tiers when theyre released. though she loves pvp she really does love raiding but she prefers playing with her friends! she helps everyone exploit game bugs for the prank guild, and will help cover peoples tracks when gold buying and such. she has all of her fun mounts set as favorites and just randomizes which one she rides. she uses the feline familiar pet EVERYWHERE. she wont use any other pet. at all. roxy also datamines ptr and spoils new lore for rose occasionally.

hoo boy. dirk is a top tier pvper. he mostly mains a ww monk and a rogue for pvp. he has 12 max level characters and 12 horde ones that are also max. he chooses class/race combos based on which one is the most reasonable for lore. he has an orc hunter named getshrekt. hes gold capped on all of his alliance characters. hes basically sleeve (if you play on bonechewer i hope you know who im talking about) he multiboxes 25 accounts to shit on leveling players. roxy helped him set this all up. all of his bots and multiboxes are hal. hal plays with him. he buys gold from a third party source and overthrows the wow economy. he causes the great depression in wow. he buys out every mat and then puts them back on the auction house for a few silver. since hes gold capped this has 0 affect. his character for the prank guild is maxed out and in pretty decent pvp gear. its also gold capped. he buys level boosts and uses actual money to buy tokens to increase his gold numbers. hes everyones worst nightmare. hes the reason no one plays horde on dirks server. dirk plays with roxy a LOT. they do arenas and basically just crush anyone who dares standing up to him. he exploits game bugs and has items people didnt know exist. he uses his special snowflake mounts that people thought were unattainable. he has bots farming spawn points for herbs and mining nodes. he plans on ruling the economy of his server. he ganks people that are his own level. he camps their corpses until they force quit the game. hes absolutely hated. he’ll be flying, and itll look like someone with a glitched name. then he’ll land in front of someone, and 20 multiboxes will spread out behind him. he ganks his victim. there is no escape. no mercy. 

jake plays a worgen mm hunter! he refuses to use bows and crossbows. it ALWAYS has to be xmogged to a gun. he mostly does world quests and only has horse mounts to keep it simple and traditional. he likes to collect pets and plays with jade a lot! he’s also in the prank guild and absolutely LOVES it. he loves the open world aspect of the game. he also collects random items in-game, like the scarabs from ahnqiraj (i personally collect those oops) he’s also a bit of an altoholic, and loves leveling, but never really finishes anything. he has all of the exploration achievements. ALL OF THEM. he love love LOVES exploring the maps in the game. he also actually LIKED the cata revamp because it gave him more to explore. he has a goblin thats also a hunter thats level capped just so he could explore horde areas without worrying about being ganked or attacked. he knows his way in all of the major cities. you know huntards? well jake is the complete opposite of that. hes an amazing hunter. it surprises his friends. 

bonus: hal helps dirk with being an asshole to everyone on the servers he plays on. he multiboxes with dirk and set up bots to watch the auction house for him. hes just as much as an asshole as dirk is.

NOW FINALLY ON TO THE TROLLS!!!! 

aradia plays a belf destruction warlock. she’s a casual player and plays with sollux a lot. she doesnt play very often, but when she does she gets really into the game, especially when playing with friends! she doesnt have many mounts, but she has the headless horseman mount and thats what she uses most of the time. she has maxed out archaeology and has all the items for it. though she has the pets from it, the only pets she uses are frogs.

tavros plays a gnome bm hunter unironically. hes not a very good hunter but not huntard level. he mostly plays with the other lowbloods, sometimes vriska. he only really got roped into wow because of its ties to hearthstone. he wanted to know more about the characters, but stayed because of the animals. it really isnt too much of his cup of tea, but still plays because his friends do. he doesnt have professions nor a maxed out character. he has the mechanostrider mounts and the default pets. he also has the heartstone mount.

sollux heckin loves wow. he plays a troll mage. he switches between fire and frost, but never arcane. he hates arcane. he mostly plays with aradia, but he likes the occasional raid. he has good dps with decent gear. hes mostly a casual, but he loves messing with the games files and datamining. 

karkat is a....special player. he has a blood dk that hes maxed out but hes in all green quest gear. he keeps trying to defeat dave in a dual but it doesnt work. dave got rose and john to help convince karkat that gnome is masterrace. he believed them. now hes a shitty little gnome aggroing everything and getting caught in the fire. he’s very upset because he cant beat dave. help this poor boy. his only pets are crabs. he has all of them. every single one. they’re all the poorest quality, but he loves them anyways. the only mounts he’ll use is mammoths to be an asshole to everyone. he plays a lot because he wants to crush dave’s pride. help this boy.

nepeta plays either a bm hunter or a feral druid! she roped equius in, and they tried to level together, but equius went too fast, so nepeta doesnt have a maxed out character. she enjoys playing with him nonetheless, even if its just running around stormwind! she plays on a roleplay server (NOT moodguard) and loves roleplaying and meeting new people. she rides the tiger/saber mounts and has all of the cat pets! she almost refuses to go out of cat form when on her druid. both of her toons are nelfs.

kanaya mains a human affli warlock and a nelf demon hunter. she likes the aesthetic of both locks and dhs, but prefers the play style of a warlock. she plays with rose most of the time, and they do world quests when they play. she has tailoring and enchanting as her professions, and both are maxed out. she prefers this because she can just make her own gear to sell and get gold. she has the jade panther that rose made her, and uses that mount most of the time. she doesnt really like collecting pets, but rose gave her a moth that she adores. 

terezi plays a resto druid on nepetas server, and mostly roleplays with vriska. she roleplays as a dragon most of the time. she has all of the dragon pets and mounts, and shes VERY proud of her collection and wont hesitate to rub it in vriskas face. she almost got banned multiple times trying to complete her collection. she prefers doing old world raids and farming to get xmog to improve her roleplay outfit, and so she can have different sets for different characters. she sometimes roleplays with nepeta, but most of the time she roleplays with vriska.

vriska plays a nelf demon hunter, and roleplays with terezi on her server. sadly theres no spider mounts but she has the recruit a friend rocket because she did raf with tavros. she does pvp when shes not roleplaying, and she’s trying to get on the highest level. she has all of the spider pets. every single one of them. she tries to overthrow the auction house, but cant. (shes not on dirks server, so hes not messing her up. its just that she doesnt have much gold because of xmog.) she likes to ruin some peoples rolaplays, but loves roleplaying with terezi and sometimes nepeta. 

equius only got into the game because of nepeta. he didnt think hed like it at first, but he really does. he prefers to tank. he has a maxed out dk, warrior, monk, and paladin. he and nepeta tried to level characters together, but he went too fast for her. he has all of the horse mounts and will only ride those. hes not very interested in pets except the engineering ones, and engineering is maxed out on his main toon. he enjoys raiding in his free time, but will also pvp for mounts. hes mostly casual.

oh man, gamzee should be interesting. he plays a troll shaman. no one really knows what he does, really. they just see that hes online and in a major city. is he playing the auction house? is he talking to people? no one knows. when the darkmoon faire comes around, he plays for all 7 days straight. he doesnt really ride mounts or have pets, but he collects them. no one knows why he plays or HOW hes maxed out in raiding gear. he just is.

eridan is a whiny bitch when it comes to wow. he wants to get on dirks level but doesnt know how to. even though hes sometimes a bitch about it, he does enjoy roleplaying and playing with karkat. he plays an arcane mage or a mm hunter. the only mount he rides is the sea turtle mount. you know the one? the one that makes you slow on land but fast in water? yea. he rides that. he HAS other mounts, but he wants the turtle.

feferi does NOT like wow. i mean, yea, she’ll heal for raids, but she doesnt like killing things. she plays a resto shaman and doesnt use a specific mount because she doesnt play that often.

calliope also doesnt like wow, but will play with roxy. she likes doing pet battles, and thats really all she does. she has a level 10 druid that doesnt have a spec. she has no mounts but has cool pets that roxy gave her. she camps in stormwind and refuses to go ANYWHERE else. 

caliborn LOVES world of warcraft. he roleplays with dirk on moonguard, but dirk says nothing. just to piss off caliborn. he tried to multibox to kill dirk, but he ended up freezing his game. he constantly pesters the alpha kids, and really doesnt talk to anyone else except to make fun of new players. he has 1 mount and its the goblin mount. he mains a goblin rogue thats level 40. 

[samuelfields]

Three Favorite Ways To Earn Money And Pay Less Taxes

John F. Kennedy once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

I took his message to heart when I came to America as a teenager. As soon as I started my first job out of college, I was proud to pay taxes to help our country thrive.

Starting around age 26, I began paying more than $100,000 in Federal and State income taxes a year. I distinctly remember coming home after a 14-hour day exhausted and finally analyzing my pay stub.

25 percent of my pay went to Federal taxes. 6 percent went to State taxes. 7.65% went to FICA taxes. After contributing to my 401(k), more than half my gross paycheck was gone.

It’s one thing to pay taxes when you’ve got a pleasant job with relatively comfortable hours. It’s another thing to pay lots of taxes when you’re often miserable at work. The desire to be so patriotic like JFK said declines.

Making W2 income is the most inefficient way to earn money. High taxes is why some CEOs gladly accept a $1 salary in exchange for earning stock grants that are taxed at long term capital gains tax rates.

Let’s look at my three favorite ways to earn money and pay less taxes.

How To Earn More And Pay Less Taxes

One of the easiest ways to pay zero income taxes is to make your income equal to your standard deduction.

Single filers get a standard deduction of $12,200 while married couples get a standard deduction of $24,400 for 2019. The standard deduction should continue to inch up over the years to keep up with inflation.

Unfortunately, not many adults can comfortably live off $12,200 a year. In fact, the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is $12,140 for one person and $16,460 for a two-person household.

Besides making less money, we all know about the benefits of an HSA plan, contributing to a 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA (not a fan for higher income earners), and opening up a 529 plan for your kid. Letting your investments compound tax-deferred or tax-free is wonderful.

Let’s talk about bigger picture ways to pay less taxes that may also provide you a better lifestyle today. After all, we might not live until the age when we can withdraw funds penalty-free from our pre-tax retirement accounts.

1) Generate More Qualified Dividends And Long-Term Capital Gains

Generating more qualified dividend income and long-term capital gains is highly tax advantageous compared to earning more W2 income.

Qualified dividends are those paid by domestic or qualifying foreign companies that have been held for at least 61 days out of the 121-day period beginning 60 days prior to the ex-dividend date.

Long-term capital gains is generated by holding and selling any asset for more than a year.

As you can see from the chart below, once you start making over ~$38,701 as an individual, you get to pay a lower long-term capital gains tax rate (15%) than your marginal Federal income tax rate of 22%. If you make less than ~$38,601 you pay a 0% long-term capital gains tax rate.

Impressively, you can actually earn up to around $425,800 a year as an individual in long-term capital gains and still only pay a 15% tax rate. Even if you make multi-millions in long-term investment income, your maximum tax rate is capped at 20%.

But let’s not forget the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT) on income over $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples to help pay for more government waste.

It’s logical that long-term capital gains tax rates are lower than Federal income tax rates since the income used to build an after-tax portfolio was already taxed.

The larger you can build your after-tax investment portfolio, the more passive income you will generate. The more passive income you can generate, the more options you will have to become financially free.

Remember, your goal is to try and live your best life now, not when you’re too old to move.

2) Own Rental Property

Owning a rental property is like owning a business. All expenses related to running your rental property are deductible from the rental income. Just be careful and remember that deductions start phasing out after you make over a certain income amount.

A key rental property expense is depreciation. Depreciation is a non-cash expense to provide a fair way for the normal depreciation of your property.

There’s no escaping property tax, but at least it’s a deductible expense. While owning your property, it’s worth trying to convince your property assessor that your property is worth as little as possible.

One of the good things about owning rental property is that you usually acquire rental property during your higher income tax bracket years. But rental income is generally the lowest during the early years of ownership, hence the lack of taxable rental income.

Once you’ve retired, you’ll probably be in a lower tax bracket and should receive more rental income given your rent will be higher and mortgage interest and amortization will be lower. In other words, rental income becomes more meaningful as you get older, which is exactly what you want.

The only thing about owning rental property is that it scores low on the passive investing scale. The older and richer you get, the less you want to deal with maintenance and tenants. This is where investing in real estate crowdfunding and REITs come in if you continue to want real estate exposure without the hassle.

Finally, you’re always free to “house hop” by buying a fixer, renovating it, living in it for at least two out of the past five years, and then flipping it for a tax-free profit up to $250,000 as an individual or $500,000 as a married couple.

Just know that you might have to prorate the tax-free profit if you make the house a long-term rental.

3) Earn Business Income

Starting your own successful business is harder than just working a day job, but it’s one of the most gratifying things you can ever do once you gain inertia.

A lot of your normal living expenses can be considered business expenses. For example, you can have annual board meetings in Hawaii if you want. The flights and accommodations are deductible. Nobody says your annual board meeting has to be held in a place of suffering.

You can also deduct your cell phone bill, laptop, car lease payments, and a bunch of other common things that are required to operate your business.

Before you start a business, you must at least start your own website in this day and age. Over three billion people are online and this figure is only going to grow over time.

In the above example, your cupcake business grosses $100,000 in revenue and $90,000 in gross profits after paying for the ingredients used to make the cupcakes.

$25,000 for normal operating expenses leaves you with an operating profit of $65,000.

Since you want to reduce your taxes, you contribute $31,000 to your Solo 401(k) and $10,000 to two IRAs. Your business’s taxable income falls to just $24,000.

Depending on how you structure your business and earnings, you might be able to deduct additional items from your taxable income or salary. The chart above is just a simple illustration.

You want to incorporate as a C-Corp, LLC, or S-Corp. For most small businesses, I recommend incorporating as an S-Corp as there may be tax benefits in the way you pay yourself a salary and distributions.

Once you start making an operating profit above ~$300,000, the S-Corp loses its benefit in my opinion because the maximum income for FICA tax is $132,900 for 2019. You don’t want to pay yourself much more in distributions than salary to minimize chances of an audit.

Also beware the IRS has an eye for businesses that are perpetually loss-making. They know there are unscrupulous people out there who establish a business for the sole purpose of shielding their income. After several years, your business should start earning a profit or else.

How A Big Business Pays Less Taxes

Before media company Gawker Global went bankrupt, we learned it had set up a Hungarian subsidiary to help the parent company drastically lower its tax bill. As a result, Gawker Global was paying an effective tax rate of ~4.5% versus a ~30.6% effective tax rate had it not created the subsidiary.

Check out the chart I created below to help illustrate how Gawker Global paid less taxes.

The chart shows the US company earned $1,000,000 in advertising revenue in one year. But because it hired its own Hungarian subsidiary and paid $1,000,000 for editorial, website, and design work, the US company claimed no profit and therefore pays zero taxes.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian subsidiary earned $1,000,000 in revenue and deducted $100,000 in labor expenses of its own for a $900,000 operating profit. Because Hungary only has a 5% corporate tax rate, it only has to pay $45,000 in taxes.

Instead of Gawker Global paying $306,000 in taxes, it ends up paying only $45,000 in taxes. Now that’s what I call tax-arbitrage!

I’ve yet to understand how Amazon was able to pay zero income taxes in 2018 on profits over $11 billion. That is a truly amazing feat that partially shows why Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people in the world.

He must be thinking to himself, only the little people pay taxes!

Reconsider Your Day Job Income

If you are a W2 income earner, the only things you can do to reduce your tax liability are max out your pre-tax retirement accounts, contribute to your HSA if eligible, and see if you can defer bonus income to a potentially lower income year.

Consider earning qualified dividend income, long-term capital gains, rental income, and business income instead. Not only are such income sources more tax efficient, but they might also provide you with a better lifestyle.

Although I still pay over $100,000 in Federal and State income taxes a year, my effective tax rate is lower than while I had a full-time job. Further, I’m having a lot more fun running a lifestyle business than grinding away in the banking world. My patriotism runs high!

At the end of the day, if it means making more money, it’s better to pay more taxes than less taxes. But eventually, there’s a law of diminishing returns where you’ll no longer want to work as hard if your marginal tax rate gets too high.

That day might be coming sooner than we think.

Related Articles:

How To Pay No Capital Gains Tax After Selling Your House For Big Profits

The Only Reasons To Ever Contribute To A Roth IRA

Ranking The Best Passive Income Investments

Readers, what are other great ways to earn income that hasn’t been mentioned in this article? Tax professionals, feel free to share your thoughts on our complicated tax system.

The post Three Favorite Ways To Earn Money And Pay Less Taxes appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from Finance https://www.financialsamurai.com/three-favorite-ways-to-earn-money-and-pay-less-taxes/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[ronaldmrashid]

Three Favorite Ways To Earn Money And Pay Less Taxes

John F. Kennedy once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

I took his message to heart when I came to America as a teenager. As soon as I started my first job out of college, I was proud to pay taxes to help our country thrive.

Starting around age 26, I began paying more than $100,000 in Federal and State income taxes a year. I distinctly remember coming home after a 14-hour day exhausted and finally analyzing my pay stub.

25 percent of my pay went to Federal taxes. 6 percent went to State taxes. 7.65% went to FICA taxes. After contributing to my 401(k), more than half my gross paycheck was gone.

It’s one thing to pay taxes when you’ve got a pleasant job with relatively comfortable hours. It’s another thing to pay lots of taxes when you’re often miserable at work. The desire to be so patriotic declines.

Making W2 income is the most inefficient way to earn money. High taxes is why some CEOs gladly accept a $1 salary in exchange for earning stock grants that are taxed at long term capital gains tax rates.

Let’s look at my three favorite ways to earn money and pay less taxes.

How To Earn More And Pay Less Taxes

One of the easiest ways to pay zero income taxes is to make your income equal to your standard deduction.

Single filers get a standard deduction of $12,200 while married couples get a standard deduction of $24,400 for 2019 and beyond.

Unfortunately, not many adults can comfortably live off $12,200 a year. In fact, the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is $12,140 for one person and $16,460 for a two-person household.

Besides making less money, we all know about the benefits of an HSA plan, contributing to a 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA (not a fan for higher income earners), and opening up a 529 plan for your kid. Letting your investments compound tax-deferred or tax-free is wonderful.

Let’s talk about bigger picture ways to pay less taxes that may also provide you a better lifestyle today. After all, we might not live until the age when we can withdraw funds penalty-free from our pre-tax retirement accounts.

1) Generate More Qualified Dividends And Long-Term Capital Gains

Generating more qualified dividend income and long-term capital gains is highly tax advantageous compared to earning more W2 income.

Qualified dividends are those paid by domestic or qualifying foreign companies that have been held for at least 61 days out of the 121-day period beginning 60 days prior to the ex-dividend date.

Long-term capital gains is generated by holding and selling any asset for more than a year.

As you can see from the chart below, once you start making over ~$38,701 as an individual, you get to pay a lower long-term capital gains tax rate (15%) than your marginal Federal income tax rate of 22%. If you make less than ~$38,601 you pay a 0% long-term capital gains tax rate.

Impressively, you can actually earn up to around $425,800 a year as an individual in long-term capital gains and still only pay a 15% tax rate. Even if you make multi-millions in long-term investment income, your maximum tax rate is capped at 20%.

But let’s not forget the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT) on income over $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples to help pay for more government spending.

It’s logical that long-term capital gains tax rates are lower than Federal income tax rates since the income used to build an after-tax portfolio was already taxed.

The larger you can build your after-tax investment portfolio, the more passive income you will generate. The more passive income you can generate, the more options you will have to become financially free.

Remember, your goal is to try and live your best life now, not when you’re too old to move.

2) Own Rental Property

Owning a rental property is like owning a business. All expenses related to running your rental property are deductible from the rental income. Just be careful and remember that deductions start phasing out after you make over a certain income amount.

A key rental property expense is depreciation. Depreciation is a non-cash expense to provide a fair way for the normal depreciation of your property.

There’s no escaping property tax, but at least it’s a deductible expense. While owning your property, it’s worth trying to convince your property assessor that your property is worth as little as possible.

One of the good things about owning rental property is that you usually acquire rental property during your higher income tax bracket years. But rental income is generally the lowest during the early years of ownership, hence the lack of taxable rental income.

Once you’ve retired, you’ll probably be in a lower tax bracket and should receive more rental income given your rent will be higher and mortgage interest and amortization will be lower. In other words, rental income becomes more meaningful as you get older, which is exactly the way you want it.

The only thing about owning rental property is that it scores low on the passive investing scale. The older and richer you get, the less you want to deal with maintenance and tenants. This is where investing in real estate crowdfunding and REITs come in if you continue to want real estate exposure without the hassle.

Finally, you’re always free to “house hop” by buying a fixer, renovating it, living in it for at least two of the past five years, and then flipping it for a tax-free profit up to $250,000 as an individual or $500,000 as a married couple.

Just know that you might have to prorate the tax-free profit if you make the house a long-term rental.

3) Earn Business Income

Starting your own successful business is harder than just working a day job, but it’s one of the most gratifying things you can ever do once you gain inertia.

A lot of your normal living expenses can be considered business expenses. For example, you can have annual board meetings in Hawaii if you want. The flights and accommodations are deductible. Nobody says your annual board meeting has to be held in a place of suffering.

You can also deduct your cell phone bill, laptop, car lease payments, and a bunch of other common things that are required to operate your business.

Before you start a business, you must at least start your own website in this day and age. Over three billion people are online and this figure is only going to grow over time.

In the above example, your cupcake business grosses $100,000 in revenue and $90,000 in gross profits after paying for the ingredients used to make the cupcakes.

$25,000 for normal operating expenses leaves you with an operating profit of $65,000.

Since you don’t want to reduce your taxes, you contribute $31,000 to your Solo 401(k) and $10,000 to two IRAs. Your business’s taxable income falls to just $24,000.

Depending on how you structure your business and earnings, you might be able to deduct additional items from your taxable income or salary. The chart above is just a simple illustration.

You want to incorporate as a C-Corp, LLC, or S-Corp. For most small businesses, I recommend incorporating as an S-Corp as there may be tax benefits in the way you pay yourself a salary and distributions.

Once you start making an operating profit above ~$300,000, the S-Corp loses its benefit in my opinion because the maximum income for FICA tax is $132,900 for 2019. You don’t want to pay yourself much more in distributions than salary to minimize chances of an audit.

How A Big Business Pays Less Taxes

Before Gawker Global went bankrupt, we learned it had set up a Hungarian subsidiary to help the parent company drastically lower its tax bill. As a result, Gawker Global was paying an effective tax rate of ~4.5% versus a ~30.6% effective tax rate had it not created the subsidiary.

Check out the chart I created below to help illustrate how Gawker Global paid less taxes.

The chart shows the US company earned $1,000,000 in advertising revenue in one year. But because it hired its own Hungarian subsidiary and paid $1,000,000 for editorial, website, and design work, the US company claimed no profit and therefore pays zero taxes.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian subsidiary earned $1,000,000 in revenue and deducted $100,000 in labor expenses of its own for a $900,000 operating profit. Because Hungary only has a 5% corporate tax rate, it only has to pay $45,000 in taxes.

Instead of Gawker Global paying $306,000 in taxes, it ends up paying only $45,000 in taxes. Now that’s what I call tax-arbitrage!

I’ve yet to understand how Amazon was able to pay zero income taxes in 2018 on profits over $11 billion. That is a truly amazing feat that partially shows why Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people in the world.

He must be thinking to himself, only the little people pay taxes!

Reconsider Your Day Job Income

If you are a W2 income earner, the only things you can do to reduce your tax liability are max out your pre-tax retirement accounts, contribute to your HSA if eligible, and see if you can defer bonus income to a potentially lower income year.

Consider earning qualified dividend income, long-term capital gains, rental income, and business income instead. Not only are such income sources more tax efficient, but they might also provide you with a better lifestyle.

Although I still pay over $100,000 in Federal and State income taxes a year, my effective tax rate is lower than while I had a full-time job. Further, I’m having a lot more fun running a lifestyle business than grinding away in the banking world.

At the end of the day, if it means making more money, it’s better to pay more taxes than less taxes. But eventually, there’s a law of diminishing returns where you’ll no longer want to work as hard if your marginal tax rate gets too high.

That day might be coming sooner than we think.

Related Articles:

How To Pay No Capital Gains Tax After Selling Your House For Big ProfitsP

The Only Reasons To Ever Contribute To A Roth IRA

Ranking The Best Passive Income Investments

Readers, what are other great ways to earn income that hasn’t been mentioned in this article? Tax professionals, feel free to share your thoughts on our complicated tax system.

The post Three Favorite Ways To Earn Money And Pay Less Taxes appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from https://www.financialsamurai.com/three-favorite-ways-to-earn-money-and-pay-less-taxes/

[kyaranflowers]

what are the best blockchain books

This rule advocates the best blockchain books and that fifty% of your portfolio must be in Bitcoin, 25% in large market cap coins, and the remaining 25% in small market cap coins. CryptosRUs has at all times taken the position that variety is energy, therefore the 50/25/25 rule. Bitcoin foreign money comes to take a monopoly place in the cryptocurrency scene. Bitcoin Maximalists consider that the underlying blockchain can also be an vital factor to take under consideration at the time of judging why Bitcoin is the ’best’ cryptocurrency available in the market. In December 2016, I opened a Coinbase account to purchase Bitcoin. However, maybe one of the compelling arguments in opposition to Bitcoin maximalism is that it is a “maximalist” place. There isn't a want for the absolute position taken by maximalists. There can be the network impact of Bitcoin as a medium of exchange and investment. Bitcoin Maximalists are aware of these shortcomings therefore the idea for a mixed network with side chains was proposed.

There are a few different arguments which can be made by the Bitcoin maximalists which might be more practical than theoretical. Nevertheless where the maximalists differ from the remainder of the Crypto Area is that maximalists believe that Bitcoin will adopt these options and that is really what I consider. Despite falling sufferer to fraudsters in the area and having just one Bitcoin left, the man affectionately referred to as “Woz” is declaring his perception in the potential of Satoshi Nakamoto’s creation. You probably have been in the cryptocurrency area long sufficient, you will have heard the phrases Bitcoin maximalist being used every so often. We aren't Bitcoin maximalists, a term that implies one thing else could also be higher and a term invented by an enemy of sound money, Vitalik Buterin, to vilify us. In the case of Bitcoin, the argument states that not solely does the network grow to be extra highly effective with increased customers, the market becomes rather more liquid as the number of traders increase that are exclusively trading Bitcoin.

In the intervening time there are 1000's of various virtual currencies accessible in the market. That shows that there is a giant difference between the first and the second most precious currencies in the market. I additionally imagine that altcoins and tokens have a net benefit to Bitcoin best books on blockchain applications and likely there will likely be some tasks which discover a spot within the ecosystem. Bitcoin maximalism is the notion that there is only one cryptocurrency that is worthy of your investment, and that is Bitcoin. And it is the only one which issues as a result of block chains work. And it’s the only one that issues as a result of block chains work. One thing Bitcoin Maximalism must address is what it sees as Bitcoin’s uses. Bitcoin appeared nearly 10 years ago after the monetary disaster that hit the world in 2008 and 2009. The well-known virtual forex has succeeded and has attracted the eye of many alternative traders all around the world. Ethereum, furthermore, heaps legitimacy over recent hacks. However, they stay very invaluable available in the market attributable to the truth that they are related and linked to the Bitcoin community. Furthermore, even if technology will be constructed on top of Bitcoin, the community was not designed to be used for these purposes.

Extra units means extra connections, and subsequently extra worth to the network. As protocols grow to be more superior, the harder it's to show 100% provable safety. It was a easy course of: Google "purchase Bitcoin", click on on Coinbase hyperlink, register an account, deposit from the bank and buy. What I was not ready for was the choice to buy Etheruem too. Efficient money will emerge off chain based on The Bitcoin Commonplace just as environment friendly cash emerged off chain based on The Gold Normal. In essence, they claim that this may allow for improvement of a separate chain that will share the provision of Bitcoin. ICO-funded tasks. So as to add insult to harm, the lack of scalability and tooling continues to decelerate new dapp growth (which is desperately needed to assist the various projects in the ICO-funded ecosystem). It’s not possible to foretell cycles, however it certainly appears like we’re getting into the “trough of disillusionment” in the ICO ecosystem (pulling down ETH with it).

Less adoption for Bitcoin, they claim, is a less secure cryptocurrency ecosystem. Within the cryptocurrency area, you’ll hear all types of names that crypto lovers use to describe themselves. Capital inflows via ICOs will slow down. One of the best what users can do is to make leveraged investment in Bitcoin somewhat than utilizing other coins. Taking a stance on something that requires adherence to only one maxim may be restrictive to progress. He noticed that one normal would emerge and the competition would come up on that commonplace. He bought some Bitcoins on the time, but he has since bought all but one. Although they know that it has some issues reminiscent of scalability with the best blockchain books problems and lack of sensible contracts, they are convinced that in the future Bitcoin would provide every little thing what traders are trying to find. You might be MISTAKEN, FERDOUS . For example, zkSNARKs, that are the privateness enhancing feature of ZCash, could not be added.

StartEngine is your full stack resolution. The rationale why rational is bolded, is that any carefully researched VCB answer assuming rational agent backfires at greatest or collapses altogether if our people are not rational. That isn’t, however, to say that there is something inherently flawed with proof-of-work, and even that it won’t end up remaining the perfect methodology of securing cryptocurrency networks. Can you say how much you have got in assets below administration? However upon getting ample penetration on the final population, you truly can do peer to peer payments. You deposit Bitcoin, Ethereum, tokens - whatever it is - and we provide you with a debit card that you can attach to your wallet, and then spend it anywhere on the planet the place Visa and Mastercard are accepted. Do you hold any tokens aside from Ether? Mathematically, the worth of a single community with a specific amount of customers is worth more than two completely different chains even when they've the identical variety of total customers when combined.

So if you have two sorts of money, each kind of accepted…let’s assume first that you've got two sorts of cash accepted at the identical fee at the market round you. Many individuals have written about this subject corresponding to Vitalik Buterin, Daniel Krawisz, and just recently Hivemind creator Paul Sztorc. I’m personally kind of nice with people who I consider doing very very scammy issues. Who knows, we might even learn one thing in the method. Metcalfe’s law claims that the effectiveness of a network - reminiscent of telecommunications internet, or even social networking - is proportionally related to the square of the variety of users connected to that community. Ripple has been on a tear these days, and now ranks because the quantity two cryptocurrency by market cap. It remains to be everyone’s choice underneath a free market to decide on any altcoin and/or Bitcoin. In essence, they declare that it will permit for development of a separate chain that can share the availability of Bitcoin.

August 13th. For some, the concurrent phenomenon of bitcoin’s return to over 50 % market share was inevitable. The swing of the pendulum within the blockchain world has taken a natural development from the largely unregulated markets of ICOs of last year, with STOs now developing because the antidote and regulated counterweight to the market. Solar Alternate members all around the world are incomes cryptocurrency whereas solar powering businesses and communities in rising markets. While vital, its decline starts to look higher when put within the context of different massive cap currencies. But Bitcoin is a better store of value.” Bitcoin has a hard cap of 21 million coins that may ever be issued—it is digital gold, the story goes. Because of the inherent fallibility of those base assumptions, Bitcoin maximalism is hardwired for self-destruction. So the title itself was already an attempt at self irony as a way to current maximalism as a religious factor. These complications indicate that single-chain maximalism is not a obligatory outcome.

Over time, its safety (whole hash energy) has additionally elevated, which also means that each time it survives attacks, folks will begin to belief it more and more, hence fortifying its position and increasing its life expectancy. Crypto will disrupt, but it would take a while, and it could shape up fairly differently to the way it looks now. Based on this stance, Bitcoin is the one true cryptocurrency, because it was the original one; the alpha coin, if you'll. For example, on December 9, the Bitcoin proponent and present host Max Keiser defined on Twitter that the protesters may induce an actual French banking disaster by withdrawing funds and depositing them into bitcoin. For instance, Bitcoin Cash has a bigger block measurement, Litecoin has sooner transaction speeds, and Monero has better privacy per transaction. The pseudonymous bitcoin maximalist wrote to the CFTC saying bitcoin invented excellent decentralisation, and all different cryptocurrencies simply co-opted it for the needs of buzzword profiteering with the best blockchain books.

[freedomfactory0]

Today's episode of the podcast, Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory discusses "What Are the Types of Business Buyers".

Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below.

Additional Videos From Freedom Factory

Strategy to Sell My Business if I am in Tiger 21

What Type Of Contract Do I Need To Sell My Business?

  Transcript of Podcast

Hi, Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory. And I just had this really interesting question, and it was from a buyer of a business. And in one of my other videos I was talking about different kinds of buyers, right? There's first-time buyers, entrepreneurial buyers, strategic buyers, and we'll go into a whole host of them. But, but he said, well, what kind of buyer am I? I'm not sure. And I made the joke, I said, well, that means you're a first-time buyer. He was actually a serial entrepreneur and we got a good kick out of it. But I wanted to talk about the different types of buyers for businesses. And this is important not just to buyers, but to sellers because we're going to have different campaigns for different styles of buyers.

So let's talk about the first one. And this is what I affectionately refer to as the first time buyer. These are people that traditionally leaving the corporate world. They've got a great education and they're saying, should I buy a business or should I buy a franchise? And sometimes franchises look good to people coming from the corporate world because they have systems and processes and they sell franchises often sell on fear. They say, well, you can't get a big account if you're not part of a national company with a national marketing campaign, you're going to get a really big leg up.

In my experience, that hasn't been true. We've sold a lot of franchisees in the past. But the reality is when someone makes a decision for you, they're not making a decision based upon the sign behind you or the name they want you. And so if you're a sign maker and they go to a national sign franchise, they're not going to say, well, that sign franchise is great signs.

They'll go with them. They say, you know, Robert, I really trust you and I think you can make a kick-butt sign for me. Let's do this. And so I often recommend to my corporate kind of people making the big transition and the big jump to look at businesses that have been around for a long history, that have a great track record and great sales and really good systems and processes. So that makes a transition as easy as possible. But that's really the first time buyer. And so businesses like that service businesses are great, product businesses are good, but ultimately you want something where your skillset is really going to add to the business.

The second type of buyer is serial entrepreneurs like me and I’ve been doing this for 29 years. I've been in every business I can think of, and some have gone well and some haven't, but overall more have done well than haven't. And I usually transition every two to five years. A lot of entrepreneurs, you do your best and let's say you're going to 100% a year or 150% a year, and all of a sudden you dropped a 10 or 15% and it turns more operational. For me, when it gets operational, there are people better suited to it than me, so I'm happy to sell it to them and get in something where I can be more strategic.

And so as an entrepreneur or a serial entrepreneur, I like to look for strategic businesses where you can really dramatically shift the line, maybe something where you're buying it fairly inexpensively and someone owns a job and doesn't own a business. I talk about the difference between that, but the bottom line is if you don't know if you own a job or a business, you just stopped showing up.

And if the revenue goes up, you own a business. If it goes down, you own a job. And there's a lot of value to be created. Transitioning people owning jobs into owning businesses. Other strategic buyers like that, if for example, let's say you came out of an industry that you have a lot of connections in and you can really leverage it in this next business. I've seen entrepreneurs buy businesses for five times earnings. So let's just say in this example, it's $1 million and it throws $200,000 200,000 times five is a million dollars, and that's its market cap or what it's worth. And they buy it and they can pay it off and sometimes is as quickly as three or four months.

We had a travel technology business. The guy came out of the travel technology space. He made three calls. All of a sudden he's on Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity, and the business has grown six X in a fraction of a year. Amazing things can be done there, and that's kind of the entrepreneurial or the strategic buyer.

We also have the financial buyer, which is private equity or venture capital, and they can be buying it for different reasons. They can buy it as a standalone. The good news is I love dealing with private equity and venture capital groups because usually they have a set of deal criteria. They're very specific on, they're looking forward to meet five criteria. We need to have debt to equity of this. We need to have earnings of this. We need to be able to buy it on these terms. And if your business fits that buyer, it's usually a very quick and smooth transaction. No fundraising, no SBA loans, nothing along those lines.

But sometimes when you're a seller, you want to put yourself in the buyer's shoes. So for example, we've helped private equity groups do roll-ups, and what a roll up is you buy a company, maybe that's at the center of it. We did a roll up business in the software as a service space. They would buy it for the customer set and for the software. And then they buy the three major competitors, and let's say they're doing $1 million in earnings, so $1 million in earnings, and let's say in this multiple, they're probably doing four maybe five times that earning. So the cap is with four or 5 million.

Well, if you stick those three companies together, now a company doing 3 million might be worth six to seven. So what they bought for 12 million all of a sudden is worth 20 million. So that type of financial engineering is usually going to come from a financial buyer or private equity or venture capital group.

The final buyer is a strategic buyer and strategic buyers are you usually buying for a few things? Right? They're buying gross margin because that margin if they're acquiring more than 80% of the company, goes directly into their financials, but sometimes they're buying to either Aqua hire, meaning they're trying to get the people and the skillset and being able to do that. We just saw that recently with one of our deals.

We've also seen the financial buyer, the strategic buyer come in and buy companies because they just wanted to own it. For example, recently a ski rack manufacturer bought a rooftop tent manufacturer and the ski rack manufacturer was a hundred times bigger. Certainly could have reversed engineered these tents, but they wanted the people, the skillset, and they wanted their customer base.

And the great news about strategic buyers, they're usually less worried about the multiple of earnings and they're more worried about buying a great company. So if you're not sure what type of buyer you are, just go through it and figure out which one fits best. And if you have questions on this or anything even similar to it, just give us a call at Freedom Factory and please hit like and subscribe.

  Thank you so much for spending your valuable time with us and we'll see you soon. Please like and subscribe.

  Contact Freedom Factory

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from http://freedomfactory.libsyn.com/what-are-the-types-of-business-buyers

[freedomfactorybroker]

What Are the Types of Business Buyers

Today's episode of the podcast, Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory discusses "What Are the Types of Business Buyers".

Listen to the podcast, watch the video, or read the transcript below.

Additional Videos From Freedom Factory

Strategy to Sell My Business if I am in Tiger 21

What Type Of Contract Do I Need To Sell My Business?

  Transcript of Podcast

Hi, Robert Hirsch from Freedom Factory. And I just had this really interesting question, and it was from a buyer of a business. And in one of my other videos I was talking about different kinds of buyers, right? There's first-time buyers, entrepreneurial buyers, strategic buyers, and we'll go into a whole host of them. But, but he said, well, what kind of buyer am I? I'm not sure. And I made the joke, I said, well, that means you're a first-time buyer. He was actually a serial entrepreneur and we got a good kick out of it. But I wanted to talk about the different types of buyers for businesses. And this is important not just to buyers, but to sellers because we're going to have different campaigns for different styles of buyers.

So let's talk about the first one. And this is what I affectionately refer to as the first time buyer. These are people that traditionally leaving the corporate world. They've got a great education and they're saying, should I buy a business or should I buy a franchise? And sometimes franchises look good to people coming from the corporate world because they have systems and processes and they sell franchises often sell on fear. They say, well, you can't get a big account if you're not part of a national company with a national marketing campaign, you're going to get a really big leg up.

In my experience, that hasn't been true. We've sold a lot of franchisees in the past. But the reality is when someone makes a decision for you, they're not making a decision based upon the sign behind you or the name they want you. And so if you're a sign maker and they go to a national sign franchise, they're not going to say, well, that sign franchise is great signs.

They'll go with them. They say, you know, Robert, I really trust you and I think you can make a kick-butt sign for me. Let's do this. And so I often recommend to my corporate kind of people making the big transition and the big jump to look at businesses that have been around for a long history, that have a great track record and great sales and really good systems and processes. So that makes a transition as easy as possible. But that's really the first time buyer. And so businesses like that service businesses are great, product businesses are good, but ultimately you want something where your skillset is really going to add to the business.

The second type of buyer is serial entrepreneurs like me and I’ve been doing this for 29 years. I've been in every business I can think of, and some have gone well and some haven't, but overall more have done well than haven't. And I usually transition every two to five years. A lot of entrepreneurs, you do your best and let's say you're going to 100% a year or 150% a year, and all of a sudden you dropped a 10 or 15% and it turns more operational. For me, when it gets operational, there are people better suited to it than me, so I'm happy to sell it to them and get in something where I can be more strategic.

And so as an entrepreneur or a serial entrepreneur, I like to look for strategic businesses where you can really dramatically shift the line, maybe something where you're buying it fairly inexpensively and someone owns a job and doesn't own a business. I talk about the difference between that, but the bottom line is if you don't know if you own a job or a business, you just stopped showing up.

And if the revenue goes up, you own a business. If it goes down, you own a job. And there's a lot of value to be created. Transitioning people owning jobs into owning businesses. Other strategic buyers like that, if for example, let's say you came out of an industry that you have a lot of connections in and you can really leverage it in this next business. I've seen entrepreneurs buy businesses for five times earnings. So let's just say in this example, it's $1 million and it throws $200,000 200,000 times five is a million dollars, and that's its market cap or what it's worth. And they buy it and they can pay it off and sometimes is as quickly as three or four months.

We had a travel technology business. The guy came out of the travel technology space. He made three calls. All of a sudden he's on Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity, and the business has grown six X in a fraction of a year. Amazing things can be done there, and that's kind of the entrepreneurial or the strategic buyer.

We also have the financial buyer, which is private equity or venture capital, and they can be buying it for different reasons. They can buy it as a standalone. The good news is I love dealing with private equity and venture capital groups because usually they have a set of deal criteria. They're very specific on, they're looking forward to meet five criteria. We need to have debt to equity of this. We need to have earnings of this. We need to be able to buy it on these terms. And if your business fits that buyer, it's usually a very quick and smooth transaction. No fundraising, no SBA loans, nothing along those lines.

But sometimes when you're a seller, you want to put yourself in the buyer's shoes. So for example, we've helped private equity groups do roll-ups, and what a roll up is you buy a company, maybe that's at the center of it. We did a roll up business in the software as a service space. They would buy it for the customer set and for the software. And then they buy the three major competitors, and let's say they're doing $1 million in earnings, so $1 million in earnings, and let's say in this multiple, they're probably doing four maybe five times that earning. So the cap is with four or 5 million.

Well, if you stick those three companies together, now a company doing 3 million might be worth six to seven. So what they bought for 12 million all of a sudden is worth 20 million. So that type of financial engineering is usually going to come from a financial buyer or private equity or venture capital group.

The final buyer is a strategic buyer and strategic buyers are you usually buying for a few things? Right? They're buying gross margin because that margin if they're acquiring more than 80% of the company, goes directly into their financials, but sometimes they're buying to either Aqua hire, meaning they're trying to get the people and the skillset and being able to do that. We just saw that recently with one of our deals.

We've also seen the financial buyer, the strategic buyer come in and buy companies because they just wanted to own it. For example, recently a ski rack manufacturer bought a rooftop tent manufacturer and the ski rack manufacturer was a hundred times bigger. Certainly could have reversed engineered these tents, but they wanted the people, the skillset, and they wanted their customer base.

And the great news about strategic buyers, they're usually less worried about the multiple of earnings and they're more worried about buying a great company. So if you're not sure what type of buyer you are, just go through it and figure out which one fits best. And if you have questions on this or anything even similar to it, just give us a call at Freedom Factory and please hit like and subscribe.

  Thank you so much for spending your valuable time with us and we'll see you soon. Please like and subscribe.

  Contact Freedom Factory

Freedom Factory 5500 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Ste 230 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Phone: 844-MAX-VALUE (844-629-8258) https://www.freedomfactory.com/ https://g.page/freedom-factory-denver

Also, Follow Freedom Factory here 

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Learn more about the managing partners, Tyler Tysdal, and Robert Hirsch. About Tyler Tysdal

Check out this episode!

[cryptowavesxyz]

India Ban Overturned, BTC Owners Warned They’ll Lose Everything, Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 2–8

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

India’s Supreme Court overturns controversial ban on banks servicing crypto firms

There’s a lot to chew concerning movements in the crypto markets, but the first story is of a different kind. A controversial ban that prohibited banks from dealing with crypto-related companies in India has been overturned by the country’s Supreme Court. The Reserve Bank of India’s sudden move in April 2018 had proved calamitous for local businesses, with several exchanges closing because of the uncertainty. Three judges decided to strike down the ban on Wednesday — with the RBI speedily announcing plans to challenge the decision, fearful that the ruling could put India’s banking system at risk. It took less than 24 hours for two major exchanges to resume accepting deposits and withdrawals, but India’s crypto industry might not be out of the woods yet. A pending law that would ban cryptocurrencies is yet to be considered by parliament, and this could take businesses back to square one.

Bitcoin falls under $9,000 as coronavirus woes deepen

The stock market has continued its rollercoaster ride for a second week as coronavirus cases rapidly proliferate outside of China. Bitcoin was initially spared from the massive losses disrupting other assets — maintaining support over $9,000 for three consecutive days — but plunged below this level on Saturday. Other cryptocurrencies have also been suffering. Some analysts maintain that BTC will be able to shrug off coronavirus concerns, so its bull run can intensify in advance of block rewards being halved in May. Nonetheless, the outbreak seems to be weighing heavily on the minds of crypto traders. The bizarre search term “Bitcoin coronavirus” has now overtaken “Bitcoin halving” on Google Trends.

New governor of the Bank of England isn’t a fan of Bitcoin

It’s often difficult for the crypto world to find friends among central banks. Although he is an advocate for regulation, the current Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, appeared to be one of them — publicly giving his support for Libra and stating that he was open to central bank digital currencies. Given how he is stepping down March 17, there’s understandable interest in what his successor has to say… and, warning: It isn’t good. Andrew Bailey told a parliamentary committee this week that anyone who buys Bitcoin should be prepared to lose all of their money because it has “no intrinsic value.” He also warned that the cryptocurrency “hasn’t caught on as much as people predicted it would.” Bailey’s anti-crypto stance could indicate that the Bank of England’s attitude will change under his tenure.

Vitalik Buterin and Elon Musk back Jack Dorsey as Twitter CEO

Jack Dorsey is under fire. A billionaire founder of a hedge fund has acquired a 4% Twitter stake in an attempt to push for major changes at the social network, which would include Dorsey’s removal as CEO. Now, the pro-crypto executive is receiving support from major figures in the crypto industry. Vitalik Buterin publicly expressed his backing for Dorsey on Twitter, writing: “Twitter certainly has flaws but @jack has done a vastly better job than what I expect/fear from a hedge fund appointed CEO swooping in to replace him.” Musk also made his feelings known, praising Dorsey for having “a good heart.” It is not known whether these voices of support will hold sway. Activist investors believe Dorsey isn’t paying enough attention to Twitter because he is focusing on his crypto business, Square.

Only 1% of $1 trillion transferred in crypto last year was illicit, Chainalysis says

And the round-up ends with some surprising news from the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The company has revealed that of $1.1 trillion in crypto transactions completed in 2019, just 1.1% were associated with illicit activity. The data implies that the industry is much healthier now than in previous years when much of the volume was associated with darknet markets. Figures show that exchanges remain popular targets for hackers, but their success rate has been dwindling ever since reaching an all-time high of $1 billion in thefts in 2018. Industry-wide cooperation and the involvement of law enforcement agencies are believed to have made the ecosystem more secure — even helping one hacked firm to recover some stolen funds.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $8,262.24, Ether at $209 and XRP at $0.21. The total market cap is at $234,703,416,085.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Hedera Hashgraph, Ren and ABBC Coin. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Synthetix Network Token, Aelf and Ethereum Classic.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. 

Most Memorable Quotations

“The Supreme Court may look at the RBI’s review petition, but as of now, the cryptocurrency platforms can operate in India.”

Abhishek Rastogi, lawyer

“I think it’s still very much up in the air which blockchain will help get crypto from ~50M users to 5B.”

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO

“Just want say that I support @Jack as Twitter CEO. He has a good [heart].”

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder

“This [coronavirus] is the global financial crisis that will catapult the price to $100,000 and beyond.” 

Max Keiser, TV host and Bitcoin proponent

“Key thing is that you know from co-integration (100+ events) that BTC will probably go over $100K before Dec. 2021. How (slower/lower or faster/steeper) and exactly when is irrelevant.”

PlanB, crypto analyst

“I’m looking at around the $100,000 to $250,000 range depending on how long this bull market runs.”

Willy Woo, market analyst

“If you want to buy Bitcoin, be prepared to lose all your money… [Bitcoin] has no intrinsic value.”

Andrew Bailey, next Bank of England governor

Prediction of the Week

Coronavirus will send Bitcoin price to $100,000 in 2020, Max Keiser insists

As global stock markets take a beating because of the coronavirus, Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser argued that the health scare could be a blessing for the crypto sector. On his Keiser Report TV program, Keiser said BTC will hit six figures this year — and even went as far to say that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon will be “begging” the U.S. Federal Reserve to buy some. Keiser described 2020 as “part two of the global financial crisis,” suggesting that part one was the 2008 crash that happened just before the white paper for Bitcoin was released. It might be a bit premature to take his prediction at face value — a week ago, crypto losses were very much in line with declines on the stock markets and in the price of gold. Meanwhile, the crypto analyst PlanB has said “100+ events” imply that Bitcoin will hit $100,000 in the next two years, adding: “How (slower/lower or faster/steeper) and exactly when is irrelevant.” Will their predictions be correct?

FUD of the Week

YouTuber sentenced to 50 years for kidnapping and demanding a Bitcoin ransom

A YouTuber has been sentenced to 50 years behind bars for masterminding a woman’s kidnapping in Mexico. German Abraham Loera Acosta, 25, is one of six men convicted over her abduction. The group had demanded $100,000 in Bitcoin in exchange for the release of Tania Denisse, a 33-year-old lawyer. Acosta had rented a house to hold the victim captive while they established communications with authorities over the internet. Although he was “very experienced” in browsing anonymously, detectives were able to track down the BTC that was eventually sent to the kidnappers. Denisse was later rescued, and the ransom money was recovered, along with a handgun and several mobile phones. Somewhat ironically, Acosta reportedly participated in the World Congress of Young Leaders for Peace in 2017.

Ledger wallet warns of fake Google Chrome extension stealing crypto

Ledger, a major cryptocurrency hardware wallet supplier, has warned users that a phishing attack is attempting to steal their crypto, using a Google Chrome Extension. The fake add-on seems to be asking unsuspecting victims to enter a 24-word recovery phrase to access their wallet. The fake extension is called Ledger Live and tries to mimic an authentic mobile and desktop application that allows users to approve transactions by synchronizing their hardware wallet with a trusted device. The dodgy extension now appears to have been removed from the Chrome Web Store, but not before it was downloaded at least 120 times. To compound the problem, the malicious tool was also advertised on Google Ads.

German financial regulator takes action against first Bitcoin ATMs

Want to buy some Bitcoin at an ATM in Germany? Not so fast. The country’s financial watchdog has halted the operations of a company that ran 24 machines across the country. Regulators said KKT UG didn’t have the necessary license to offer its services. Ultimately, it’s bad news for those who are hoping to use cryptocurrency ATMs in Germany, as they have long fallen into a massive gray area. Starting next year, crypto exchanges, custodians and wallet providers will need a license in order to operate — and they only have until June to submit an application.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Blockchain as a tool to combat coronavirus

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to rise. As this feature explains, blockchain technology has a golden opportunity to make a considerable impact in limiting the outbreak’s ramifications.

Why betting on gold-backed stablecoins is a losing game

Gold has long been regarded as an eternal value — but storage costs a lot of money, and transporting the precious metal is fraught with difficulties. Gold-backed stablecoins have been touted as an effective solution, but as Gregory Klumov explains, many of them have been built on rotten foundations.

The history of the bitter debate over Ethereum’s ProgPoW

The Ethereum community has recently been engaged in a bitter debate sparked by a proposed mining algorithm change. Andrey Shevchenko has more.

Toxic Twitter tribalism: The fuel powering the crypto rocket?

Cointelegraph Magazine’s Stefan Stankovic examines meme warfare’s effect on blockchain development.

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The post India Ban Overturned, BTC Owners Warned They’ll Lose Everything, Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 2–8 appeared first on Crypto Waves.

from Crypto Waves https://ift.tt/39AiwHV

[noisyunknownturtle]

India Ban Overturned, BTC Owners Warned They’ll Lose Everything, Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 2–8

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

India’s Supreme Court overturns controversial ban on banks servicing crypto firms

There’s a lot to chew concerning movements in the crypto markets, but the first story is of a different kind. A controversial ban that prohibited banks from dealing with crypto-related companies in India has been overturned by the country’s Supreme Court. The Reserve Bank of India’s sudden move in April 2018 had proved calamitous for local businesses, with several exchanges closing because of the uncertainty. Three judges decided to strike down the ban on Wednesday — with the RBI speedily announcing plans to challenge the decision, fearful that the ruling could put India’s banking system at risk. It took less than 24 hours for two major exchanges to resume accepting deposits and withdrawals, but India’s crypto industry might not be out of the woods yet. A pending law that would ban cryptocurrencies is yet to be considered by parliament, and this could take businesses back to square one.

Bitcoin falls under $9,000 as coronavirus woes deepen

The stock market has continued its rollercoaster ride for a second week as coronavirus cases rapidly proliferate outside of China. Bitcoin was initially spared from the massive losses disrupting other assets — maintaining support over $9,000 for three consecutive days — but plunged below this level on Saturday. Other cryptocurrencies have also been suffering. Some analysts maintain that BTC will be able to shrug off coronavirus concerns, so its bull run can intensify in advance of block rewards being halved in May. Nonetheless, the outbreak seems to be weighing heavily on the minds of crypto traders. The bizarre search term “Bitcoin coronavirus” has now overtaken “Bitcoin halving” on Google Trends.

New governor of the Bank of England isn’t a fan of Bitcoin

It’s often difficult for the crypto world to find friends among central banks. Although he is an advocate for regulation, the current Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, appeared to be one of them — publicly giving his support for Libra and stating that he was open to central bank digital currencies. Given how he is stepping down March 17, there’s understandable interest in what his successor has to say… and, warning: It isn’t good. Andrew Bailey told a parliamentary committee this week that anyone who buys Bitcoin should be prepared to lose all of their money because it has “no intrinsic value.” He also warned that the cryptocurrency “hasn’t caught on as much as people predicted it would.” Bailey’s anti-crypto stance could indicate that the Bank of England’s attitude will change under his tenure.

Vitalik Buterin and Elon Musk back Jack Dorsey as Twitter CEO

Jack Dorsey is under fire. A billionaire founder of a hedge fund has acquired a 4% Twitter stake in an attempt to push for major changes at the social network, which would include Dorsey’s removal as CEO. Now, the pro-crypto executive is receiving support from major figures in the crypto industry. Vitalik Buterin publicly expressed his backing for Dorsey on Twitter, writing: “Twitter certainly has flaws but @jack has done a vastly better job than what I expect/fear from a hedge fund appointed CEO swooping in to replace him.” Musk also made his feelings known, praising Dorsey for having “a good heart.” It is not known whether these voices of support will hold sway. Activist investors believe Dorsey isn’t paying enough attention to Twitter because he is focusing on his crypto business, Square.

Only 1% of $1 trillion transferred in crypto last year was illicit, Chainalysis says

And the round-up ends with some surprising news from the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The company has revealed that of $1.1 trillion in crypto transactions completed in 2019, just 1.1% were associated with illicit activity. The data implies that the industry is much healthier now than in previous years when much of the volume was associated with darknet markets. Figures show that exchanges remain popular targets for hackers, but their success rate has been dwindling ever since reaching an all-time high of $1 billion in thefts in 2018. Industry-wide cooperation and the involvement of law enforcement agencies are believed to have made the ecosystem more secure — even helping one hacked firm to recover some stolen funds.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $8,262.24, Ether at $209 and XRP at $0.21. The total market cap is at $234,703,416,085.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Hedera Hashgraph, Ren and ABBC Coin. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Synthetix Network Token, Aelf and Ethereum Classic.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. 

Most Memorable Quotations

“The Supreme Court may look at the RBI’s review petition, but as of now, the cryptocurrency platforms can operate in India.”

Abhishek Rastogi, lawyer

“I think it’s still very much up in the air which blockchain will help get crypto from ~50M users to 5B.”

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO

“Just want say that I support @Jack as Twitter CEO. He has a good [heart].”

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder

“This [coronavirus] is the global financial crisis that will catapult the price to $100,000 and beyond.” 

Max Keiser, TV host and Bitcoin proponent

“Key thing is that you know from co-integration (100+ events) that BTC will probably go over $100K before Dec. 2021. How (slower/lower or faster/steeper) and exactly when is irrelevant.”

PlanB, crypto analyst

“I’m looking at around the $100,000 to $250,000 range depending on how long this bull market runs.”

Willy Woo, market analyst

“If you want to buy Bitcoin, be prepared to lose all your money… [Bitcoin] has no intrinsic value.”

Andrew Bailey, next Bank of England governor

Prediction of the Week

Coronavirus will send Bitcoin price to $100,000 in 2020, Max Keiser insists

As global stock markets take a beating because of the coronavirus, Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser argued that the health scare could be a blessing for the crypto sector. On his Keiser Report TV program, Keiser said BTC will hit six figures this year — and even went as far to say that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon will be “begging” the U.S. Federal Reserve to buy some. Keiser described 2020 as “part two of the global financial crisis,” suggesting that part one was the 2008 crash that happened just before the white paper for Bitcoin was released. It might be a bit premature to take his prediction at face value — a week ago, crypto losses were very much in line with declines on the stock markets and in the price of gold. Meanwhile, the crypto analyst PlanB has said “100+ events” imply that Bitcoin will hit $100,000 in the next two years, adding: “How (slower/lower or faster/steeper) and exactly when is irrelevant.” Will their predictions be correct?

FUD of the Week

YouTuber sentenced to 50 years for kidnapping and demanding a Bitcoin ransom

A YouTuber has been sentenced to 50 years behind bars for masterminding a woman’s kidnapping in Mexico. German Abraham Loera Acosta, 25, is one of six men convicted over her abduction. The group had demanded $100,000 in Bitcoin in exchange for the release of Tania Denisse, a 33-year-old lawyer. Acosta had rented a house to hold the victim captive while they established communications with authorities over the internet. Although he was “very experienced” in browsing anonymously, detectives were able to track down the BTC that was eventually sent to the kidnappers. Denisse was later rescued, and the ransom money was recovered, along with a handgun and several mobile phones. Somewhat ironically, Acosta reportedly participated in the World Congress of Young Leaders for Peace in 2017.

Ledger wallet warns of fake Google Chrome extension stealing crypto

Ledger, a major cryptocurrency hardware wallet supplier, has warned users that a phishing attack is attempting to steal their crypto, using a Google Chrome Extension. The fake add-on seems to be asking unsuspecting victims to enter a 24-word recovery phrase to access their wallet. The fake extension is called Ledger Live and tries to mimic an authentic mobile and desktop application that allows users to approve transactions by synchronizing their hardware wallet with a trusted device. The dodgy extension now appears to have been removed from the Chrome Web Store, but not before it was downloaded at least 120 times. To compound the problem, the malicious tool was also advertised on Google Ads.

German financial regulator takes action against first Bitcoin ATMs

Want to buy some Bitcoin at an ATM in Germany? Not so fast. The country’s financial watchdog has halted the operations of a company that ran 24 machines across the country. Regulators said KKT UG didn’t have the necessary license to offer its services. Ultimately, it’s bad news for those who are hoping to use cryptocurrency ATMs in Germany, as they have long fallen into a massive gray area. Starting next year, crypto exchanges, custodians and wallet providers will need a license in order to operate — and they only have until June to submit an application.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Blockchain as a tool to combat coronavirus

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to rise. As this feature explains, blockchain technology has a golden opportunity to make a considerable impact in limiting the outbreak’s ramifications.

Why betting on gold-backed stablecoins is a losing game

Gold has long been regarded as an eternal value — but storage costs a lot of money, and transporting the precious metal is fraught with difficulties. Gold-backed stablecoins have been touted as an effective solution, but as Gregory Klumov explains, many of them have been built on rotten foundations.

The history of the bitter debate over Ethereum’s ProgPoW

The Ethereum community has recently been engaged in a bitter debate sparked by a proposed mining algorithm change. Andrey Shevchenko has more.

Toxic Twitter tribalism: The fuel powering the crypto rocket?

Cointelegraph Magazine’s Stefan Stankovic examines meme warfare’s effect on blockchain development.

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The post India Ban Overturned, BTC Owners Warned They’ll Lose Everything, Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 2–8 appeared first on For Crypto.

from For Crypto https://ift.tt/2TT5v5s

[coinretreat]

India Ban Overturned, BTC Owners Warned They’ll Lose Everything, Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 2–8

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

India’s Supreme Court overturns controversial ban on banks servicing crypto firms

There’s a lot to chew concerning movements in the crypto markets, but the first story is of a different kind. A controversial ban that prohibited banks from dealing with crypto-related companies in India has been overturned by the country’s Supreme Court. The Reserve Bank of India’s sudden move in April 2018 had proved calamitous for local businesses, with several exchanges closing because of the uncertainty. Three judges decided to strike down the ban on Wednesday — with the RBI speedily announcing plans to challenge the decision, fearful that the ruling could put India’s banking system at risk. It took less than 24 hours for two major exchanges to resume accepting deposits and withdrawals, but India’s crypto industry might not be out of the woods yet. A pending law that would ban cryptocurrencies is yet to be considered by parliament, and this could take businesses back to square one.

Bitcoin falls under $9,000 as coronavirus woes deepen

The stock market has continued its rollercoaster ride for a second week as coronavirus cases rapidly proliferate outside of China. Bitcoin was initially spared from the massive losses disrupting other assets — maintaining support over $9,000 for three consecutive days — but plunged below this level on Saturday. Other cryptocurrencies have also been suffering. Some analysts maintain that BTC will be able to shrug off coronavirus concerns, so its bull run can intensify in advance of block rewards being halved in May. Nonetheless, the outbreak seems to be weighing heavily on the minds of crypto traders. The bizarre search term “Bitcoin coronavirus” has now overtaken “Bitcoin halving” on Google Trends.

New governor of the Bank of England isn’t a fan of Bitcoin

It’s often difficult for the crypto world to find friends among central banks. Although he is an advocate for regulation, the current Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, appeared to be one of them — publicly giving his support for Libra and stating that he was open to central bank digital currencies. Given how he is stepping down March 17, there’s understandable interest in what his successor has to say… and, warning: It isn’t good. Andrew Bailey told a parliamentary committee this week that anyone who buys Bitcoin should be prepared to lose all of their money because it has “no intrinsic value.” He also warned that the cryptocurrency “hasn’t caught on as much as people predicted it would.” Bailey’s anti-crypto stance could indicate that the Bank of England’s attitude will change under his tenure.

Vitalik Buterin and Elon Musk back Jack Dorsey as Twitter CEO

Jack Dorsey is under fire. A billionaire founder of a hedge fund has acquired a 4% Twitter stake in an attempt to push for major changes at the social network, which would include Dorsey’s removal as CEO. Now, the pro-crypto executive is receiving support from major figures in the crypto industry. Vitalik Buterin publicly expressed his backing for Dorsey on Twitter, writing: “Twitter certainly has flaws but @jack has done a vastly better job than what I expect/fear from a hedge fund appointed CEO swooping in to replace him.” Musk also made his feelings known, praising Dorsey for having “a good heart.” It is not known whether these voices of support will hold sway. Activist investors believe Dorsey isn’t paying enough attention to Twitter because he is focusing on his crypto business, Square.

Only 1% of $1 trillion transferred in crypto last year was illicit, Chainalysis says

And the round-up ends with some surprising news from the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The company has revealed that of $1.1 trillion in crypto transactions completed in 2019, just 1.1% were associated with illicit activity. The data implies that the industry is much healthier now than in previous years when much of the volume was associated with darknet markets. Figures show that exchanges remain popular targets for hackers, but their success rate has been dwindling ever since reaching an all-time high of $1 billion in thefts in 2018. Industry-wide cooperation and the involvement of law enforcement agencies are believed to have made the ecosystem more secure — even helping one hacked firm to recover some stolen funds.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $8,262.24, Ether at $209 and XRP at $0.21. The total market cap is at $234,703,416,085.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Hedera Hashgraph, Ren and ABBC Coin. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Synthetix Network Token, Aelf and Ethereum Classic.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. 

Most Memorable Quotations

“The Supreme Court may look at the RBI’s review petition, but as of now, the cryptocurrency platforms can operate in India.”

Abhishek Rastogi, lawyer

“I think it’s still very much up in the air which blockchain will help get crypto from ~50M users to 5B.”

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO

“Just want say that I support @Jack as Twitter CEO. He has a good [heart].”

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder

“This [coronavirus] is the global financial crisis that will catapult the price to $100,000 and beyond.” 

Max Keiser, TV host and Bitcoin proponent

“Key thing is that you know from co-integration (100+ events) that BTC will probably go over $100K before Dec. 2021. How (slower/lower or faster/steeper) and exactly when is irrelevant.”

PlanB, crypto analyst

“I’m looking at around the $100,000 to $250,000 range depending on how long this bull market runs.”

Willy Woo, market analyst

“If you want to buy Bitcoin, be prepared to lose all your money… [Bitcoin] has no intrinsic value.”

Andrew Bailey, next Bank of England governor

Prediction of the Week

Coronavirus will send Bitcoin price to $100,000 in 2020, Max Keiser insists

As global stock markets take a beating because of the coronavirus, Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser argued that the health scare could be a blessing for the crypto sector. On his Keiser Report TV program, Keiser said BTC will hit six figures this year — and even went as far to say that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon will be “begging” the U.S. Federal Reserve to buy some. Keiser described 2020 as “part two of the global financial crisis,” suggesting that part one was the 2008 crash that happened just before the white paper for Bitcoin was released. It might be a bit premature to take his prediction at face value — a week ago, crypto losses were very much in line with declines on the stock markets and in the price of gold. Meanwhile, the crypto analyst PlanB has said “100+ events” imply that Bitcoin will hit $100,000 in the next two years, adding: “How (slower/lower or faster/steeper) and exactly when is irrelevant.” Will their predictions be correct?

FUD of the Week

YouTuber sentenced to 50 years for kidnapping and demanding a Bitcoin ransom

A YouTuber has been sentenced to 50 years behind bars for masterminding a woman’s kidnapping in Mexico. German Abraham Loera Acosta, 25, is one of six men convicted over her abduction. The group had demanded $100,000 in Bitcoin in exchange for the release of Tania Denisse, a 33-year-old lawyer. Acosta had rented a house to hold the victim captive while they established communications with authorities over the internet. Although he was “very experienced” in browsing anonymously, detectives were able to track down the BTC that was eventually sent to the kidnappers. Denisse was later rescued, and the ransom money was recovered, along with a handgun and several mobile phones. Somewhat ironically, Acosta reportedly participated in the World Congress of Young Leaders for Peace in 2017.

Ledger wallet warns of fake Google Chrome extension stealing crypto

Ledger, a major cryptocurrency hardware wallet supplier, has warned users that a phishing attack is attempting to steal their crypto, using a Google Chrome Extension. The fake add-on seems to be asking unsuspecting victims to enter a 24-word recovery phrase to access their wallet. The fake extension is called Ledger Live and tries to mimic an authentic mobile and desktop application that allows users to approve transactions by synchronizing their hardware wallet with a trusted device. The dodgy extension now appears to have been removed from the Chrome Web Store, but not before it was downloaded at least 120 times. To compound the problem, the malicious tool was also advertised on Google Ads.

German financial regulator takes action against first Bitcoin ATMs

Want to buy some Bitcoin at an ATM in Germany? Not so fast. The country’s financial watchdog has halted the operations of a company that ran 24 machines across the country. Regulators said KKT UG didn’t have the necessary license to offer its services. Ultimately, it’s bad news for those who are hoping to use cryptocurrency ATMs in Germany, as they have long fallen into a massive gray area. Starting next year, crypto exchanges, custodians and wallet providers will need a license in order to operate — and they only have until June to submit an application.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Blockchain as a tool to combat coronavirus

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to rise. As this feature explains, blockchain technology has a golden opportunity to make a considerable impact in limiting the outbreak’s ramifications.

Why betting on gold-backed stablecoins is a losing game

Gold has long been regarded as an eternal value — but storage costs a lot of money, and transporting the precious metal is fraught with difficulties. Gold-backed stablecoins have been touted as an effective solution, but as Gregory Klumov explains, many of them have been built on rotten foundations.

The history of the bitter debate over Ethereum’s ProgPoW

The Ethereum community has recently been engaged in a bitter debate sparked by a proposed mining algorithm change. Andrey Shevchenko has more.

Toxic Twitter tribalism: The fuel powering the crypto rocket?

Cointelegraph Magazine’s Stefan Stankovic examines meme warfare’s effect on blockchain development.

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The post India Ban Overturned, BTC Owners Warned They’ll Lose Everything, Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 2–8 appeared first on CoinRetreat.

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[angryconnoisseurface]

India Ban Overturned, BTC Owners Warned They’ll Lose Everything, Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 2–8

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

India’s Supreme Court overturns controversial ban on banks servicing crypto firms

There’s a lot to chew concerning movements in the crypto markets, but the first story is of a different kind. A controversial ban that prohibited banks from dealing with crypto-related companies in India has been overturned by the country’s Supreme Court. The Reserve Bank of India’s sudden move in April 2018 had proved calamitous for local businesses, with several exchanges closing because of the uncertainty. Three judges decided to strike down the ban on Wednesday — with the RBI speedily announcing plans to challenge the decision, fearful that the ruling could put India’s banking system at risk. It took less than 24 hours for two major exchanges to resume accepting deposits and withdrawals, but India’s crypto industry might not be out of the woods yet. A pending law that would ban cryptocurrencies is yet to be considered by parliament, and this could take businesses back to square one.

Bitcoin falls under $9,000 as coronavirus woes deepen

The stock market has continued its rollercoaster ride for a second week as coronavirus cases rapidly proliferate outside of China. Bitcoin was initially spared from the massive losses disrupting other assets — maintaining support over $9,000 for three consecutive days — but plunged below this level on Saturday. Other cryptocurrencies have also been suffering. Some analysts maintain that BTC will be able to shrug off coronavirus concerns, so its bull run can intensify in advance of block rewards being halved in May. Nonetheless, the outbreak seems to be weighing heavily on the minds of crypto traders. The bizarre search term “Bitcoin coronavirus” has now overtaken “Bitcoin halving” on Google Trends.

New governor of the Bank of England isn’t a fan of Bitcoin

It’s often difficult for the crypto world to find friends among central banks. Although he is an advocate for regulation, the current Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, appeared to be one of them — publicly giving his support for Libra and stating that he was open to central bank digital currencies. Given how he is stepping down March 17, there’s understandable interest in what his successor has to say… and, warning: It isn’t good. Andrew Bailey told a parliamentary committee this week that anyone who buys Bitcoin should be prepared to lose all of their money because it has “no intrinsic value.” He also warned that the cryptocurrency “hasn’t caught on as much as people predicted it would.” Bailey’s anti-crypto stance could indicate that the Bank of England’s attitude will change under his tenure.

Vitalik Buterin and Elon Musk back Jack Dorsey as Twitter CEO

Jack Dorsey is under fire. A billionaire founder of a hedge fund has acquired a 4% Twitter stake in an attempt to push for major changes at the social network, which would include Dorsey’s removal as CEO. Now, the pro-crypto executive is receiving support from major figures in the crypto industry. Vitalik Buterin publicly expressed his backing for Dorsey on Twitter, writing: “Twitter certainly has flaws but @jack has done a vastly better job than what I expect/fear from a hedge fund appointed CEO swooping in to replace him.” Musk also made his feelings known, praising Dorsey for having “a good heart.” It is not known whether these voices of support will hold sway. Activist investors believe Dorsey isn’t paying enough attention to Twitter because he is focusing on his crypto business, Square.

Only 1% of $1 trillion transferred in crypto last year was illicit, Chainalysis says

And the round-up ends with some surprising news from the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The company has revealed that of $1.1 trillion in crypto transactions completed in 2019, just 1.1% were associated with illicit activity. The data implies that the industry is much healthier now than in previous years when much of the volume was associated with darknet markets. Figures show that exchanges remain popular targets for hackers, but their success rate has been dwindling ever since reaching an all-time high of $1 billion in thefts in 2018. Industry-wide cooperation and the involvement of law enforcement agencies are believed to have made the ecosystem more secure — even helping one hacked firm to recover some stolen funds.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $8,262.24, Ether at $209 and XRP at $0.21. The total market cap is at $234,703,416,085.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Hedera Hashgraph, Ren and ABBC Coin. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Synthetix Network Token, Aelf and Ethereum Classic.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. 

Most Memorable Quotations

“The Supreme Court may look at the RBI’s review petition, but as of now, the cryptocurrency platforms can operate in India.”

Abhishek Rastogi, lawyer

“I think it’s still very much up in the air which blockchain will help get crypto from ~50M users to 5B.”

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO

“Just want say that I support @Jack as Twitter CEO. He has a good [heart].”

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder

“This [coronavirus] is the global financial crisis that will catapult the price to $100,000 and beyond.” 

Max Keiser, TV host and Bitcoin proponent

“Key thing is that you know from co-integration (100+ events) that BTC will probably go over $100K before Dec. 2021. How (slower/lower or faster/steeper) and exactly when is irrelevant.”

PlanB, crypto analyst

“I’m looking at around the $100,000 to $250,000 range depending on how long this bull market runs.”

Willy Woo, market analyst

“If you want to buy Bitcoin, be prepared to lose all your money… [Bitcoin] has no intrinsic value.”

Andrew Bailey, next Bank of England governor

Prediction of the Week

Coronavirus will send Bitcoin price to $100,000 in 2020, Max Keiser insists

As global stock markets take a beating because of the coronavirus, Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser argued that the health scare could be a blessing for the crypto sector. On his Keiser Report TV program, Keiser said BTC will hit six figures this year — and even went as far to say that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon will be “begging” the U.S. Federal Reserve to buy some. Keiser described 2020 as “part two of the global financial crisis,” suggesting that part one was the 2008 crash that happened just before the white paper for Bitcoin was released. It might be a bit premature to take his prediction at face value — a week ago, crypto losses were very much in line with declines on the stock markets and in the price of gold. Meanwhile, the crypto analyst PlanB has said “100+ events” imply that Bitcoin will hit $100,000 in the next two years, adding: “How (slower/lower or faster/steeper) and exactly when is irrelevant.” Will their predictions be correct?

FUD of the Week

YouTuber sentenced to 50 years for kidnapping and demanding a Bitcoin ransom

A YouTuber has been sentenced to 50 years behind bars for masterminding a woman’s kidnapping in Mexico. German Abraham Loera Acosta, 25, is one of six men convicted over her abduction. The group had demanded $100,000 in Bitcoin in exchange for the release of Tania Denisse, a 33-year-old lawyer. Acosta had rented a house to hold the victim captive while they established communications with authorities over the internet. Although he was “very experienced” in browsing anonymously, detectives were able to track down the BTC that was eventually sent to the kidnappers. Denisse was later rescued, and the ransom money was recovered, along with a handgun and several mobile phones. Somewhat ironically, Acosta reportedly participated in the World Congress of Young Leaders for Peace in 2017.

Ledger wallet warns of fake Google Chrome extension stealing crypto

Ledger, a major cryptocurrency hardware wallet supplier, has warned users that a phishing attack is attempting to steal their crypto, using a Google Chrome Extension. The fake add-on seems to be asking unsuspecting victims to enter a 24-word recovery phrase to access their wallet. The fake extension is called Ledger Live and tries to mimic an authentic mobile and desktop application that allows users to approve transactions by synchronizing their hardware wallet with a trusted device. The dodgy extension now appears to have been removed from the Chrome Web Store, but not before it was downloaded at least 120 times. To compound the problem, the malicious tool was also advertised on Google Ads.

German financial regulator takes action against first Bitcoin ATMs

Want to buy some Bitcoin at an ATM in Germany? Not so fast. The country’s financial watchdog has halted the operations of a company that ran 24 machines across the country. Regulators said KKT UG didn’t have the necessary license to offer its services. Ultimately, it’s bad news for those who are hoping to use cryptocurrency ATMs in Germany, as they have long fallen into a massive gray area. Starting next year, crypto exchanges, custodians and wallet providers will need a license in order to operate — and they only have until June to submit an application.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Blockchain as a tool to combat coronavirus

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to rise. As this feature explains, blockchain technology has a golden opportunity to make a considerable impact in limiting the outbreak’s ramifications.

Why betting on gold-backed stablecoins is a losing game

Gold has long been regarded as an eternal value — but storage costs a lot of money, and transporting the precious metal is fraught with difficulties. Gold-backed stablecoins have been touted as an effective solution, but as Gregory Klumov explains, many of them have been built on rotten foundations.

The history of the bitter debate over Ethereum’s ProgPoW

The Ethereum community has recently been engaged in a bitter debate sparked by a proposed mining algorithm change. Andrey Shevchenko has more.

Toxic Twitter tribalism: The fuel powering the crypto rocket?

Cointelegraph Magazine’s Stefan Stankovic examines meme warfare’s effect on blockchain development.

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The post India Ban Overturned, BTC Owners Warned They’ll Lose Everything, Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 2–8 appeared first on Tip Crypto.

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[coinfirst]

India Ban Overturned, BTC Owners Warned They’ll Lose Everything, Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 2–8

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

India’s Supreme Court overturns controversial ban on banks servicing crypto firms

There’s a lot to chew concerning movements in the crypto markets, but the first story is of a different kind. A controversial ban that prohibited banks from dealing with crypto-related companies in India has been overturned by the country’s Supreme Court. The Reserve Bank of India’s sudden move in April 2018 had proved calamitous for local businesses, with several exchanges closing because of the uncertainty. Three judges decided to strike down the ban on Wednesday — with the RBI speedily announcing plans to challenge the decision, fearful that the ruling could put India’s banking system at risk. It took less than 24 hours for two major exchanges to resume accepting deposits and withdrawals, but India’s crypto industry might not be out of the woods yet. A pending law that would ban cryptocurrencies is yet to be considered by parliament, and this could take businesses back to square one.

Bitcoin falls under $9,000 as coronavirus woes deepen

The stock market has continued its rollercoaster ride for a second week as coronavirus cases rapidly proliferate outside of China. Bitcoin was initially spared from the massive losses disrupting other assets — maintaining support over $9,000 for three consecutive days — but plunged below this level on Saturday. Other cryptocurrencies have also been suffering. Some analysts maintain that BTC will be able to shrug off coronavirus concerns, so its bull run can intensify in advance of block rewards being halved in May. Nonetheless, the outbreak seems to be weighing heavily on the minds of crypto traders. The bizarre search term “Bitcoin coronavirus” has now overtaken “Bitcoin halving” on Google Trends.

New governor of the Bank of England isn’t a fan of Bitcoin

It’s often difficult for the crypto world to find friends among central banks. Although he is an advocate for regulation, the current Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, appeared to be one of them — publicly giving his support for Libra and stating that he was open to central bank digital currencies. Given how he is stepping down March 17, there’s understandable interest in what his successor has to say… and, warning: It isn’t good. Andrew Bailey told a parliamentary committee this week that anyone who buys Bitcoin should be prepared to lose all of their money because it has “no intrinsic value.” He also warned that the cryptocurrency “hasn’t caught on as much as people predicted it would.” Bailey’s anti-crypto stance could indicate that the Bank of England’s attitude will change under his tenure.

Vitalik Buterin and Elon Musk back Jack Dorsey as Twitter CEO

Jack Dorsey is under fire. A billionaire founder of a hedge fund has acquired a 4% Twitter stake in an attempt to push for major changes at the social network, which would include Dorsey’s removal as CEO. Now, the pro-crypto executive is receiving support from major figures in the crypto industry. Vitalik Buterin publicly expressed his backing for Dorsey on Twitter, writing: “Twitter certainly has flaws but @jack has done a vastly better job than what I expect/fear from a hedge fund appointed CEO swooping in to replace him.” Musk also made his feelings known, praising Dorsey for having “a good heart.” It is not known whether these voices of support will hold sway. Activist investors believe Dorsey isn’t paying enough attention to Twitter because he is focusing on his crypto business, Square.

Only 1% of $1 trillion transferred in crypto last year was illicit, Chainalysis says

And the round-up ends with some surprising news from the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The company has revealed that of $1.1 trillion in crypto transactions completed in 2019, just 1.1% were associated with illicit activity. The data implies that the industry is much healthier now than in previous years when much of the volume was associated with darknet markets. Figures show that exchanges remain popular targets for hackers, but their success rate has been dwindling ever since reaching an all-time high of $1 billion in thefts in 2018. Industry-wide cooperation and the involvement of law enforcement agencies are believed to have made the ecosystem more secure — even helping one hacked firm to recover some stolen funds.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $8,262.24, Ether at $209 and XRP at $0.21. The total market cap is at $234,703,416,085.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Hedera Hashgraph, Ren and ABBC Coin. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Synthetix Network Token, Aelf and Ethereum Classic.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis. 

Most Memorable Quotations

“The Supreme Court may look at the RBI’s review petition, but as of now, the cryptocurrency platforms can operate in India.”

Abhishek Rastogi, lawyer

“I think it’s still very much up in the air which blockchain will help get crypto from ~50M users to 5B.”

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO

“Just want say that I support @Jack as Twitter CEO. He has a good [heart].”

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder

“This [coronavirus] is the global financial crisis that will catapult the price to $100,000 and beyond.” 

Max Keiser, TV host and Bitcoin proponent

“Key thing is that you know from co-integration (100+ events) that BTC will probably go over $100K before Dec. 2021. How (slower/lower or faster/steeper) and exactly when is irrelevant.”

PlanB, crypto analyst

“I’m looking at around the $100,000 to $250,000 range depending on how long this bull market runs.”

Willy Woo, market analyst

“If you want to buy Bitcoin, be prepared to lose all your money… [Bitcoin] has no intrinsic value.”

Andrew Bailey, next Bank of England governor

Prediction of the Week

Coronavirus will send Bitcoin price to $100,000 in 2020, Max Keiser insists

As global stock markets take a beating because of the coronavirus, Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser argued that the health scare could be a blessing for the crypto sector. On his Keiser Report TV program, Keiser said BTC will hit six figures this year — and even went as far to say that JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon will be “begging” the U.S. Federal Reserve to buy some. Keiser described 2020 as “part two of the global financial crisis,” suggesting that part one was the 2008 crash that happened just before the white paper for Bitcoin was released. It might be a bit premature to take his prediction at face value — a week ago, crypto losses were very much in line with declines on the stock markets and in the price of gold. Meanwhile, the crypto analyst PlanB has said “100+ events” imply that Bitcoin will hit $100,000 in the next two years, adding: “How (slower/lower or faster/steeper) and exactly when is irrelevant.” Will their predictions be correct?

FUD of the Week

YouTuber sentenced to 50 years for kidnapping and demanding a Bitcoin ransom

A YouTuber has been sentenced to 50 years behind bars for masterminding a woman’s kidnapping in Mexico. German Abraham Loera Acosta, 25, is one of six men convicted over her abduction. The group had demanded $100,000 in Bitcoin in exchange for the release of Tania Denisse, a 33-year-old lawyer. Acosta had rented a house to hold the victim captive while they established communications with authorities over the internet. Although he was “very experienced” in browsing anonymously, detectives were able to track down the BTC that was eventually sent to the kidnappers. Denisse was later rescued, and the ransom money was recovered, along with a handgun and several mobile phones. Somewhat ironically, Acosta reportedly participated in the World Congress of Young Leaders for Peace in 2017.

Ledger wallet warns of fake Google Chrome extension stealing crypto

Ledger, a major cryptocurrency hardware wallet supplier, has warned users that a phishing attack is attempting to steal their crypto, using a Google Chrome Extension. The fake add-on seems to be asking unsuspecting victims to enter a 24-word recovery phrase to access their wallet. The fake extension is called Ledger Live and tries to mimic an authentic mobile and desktop application that allows users to approve transactions by synchronizing their hardware wallet with a trusted device. The dodgy extension now appears to have been removed from the Chrome Web Store, but not before it was downloaded at least 120 times. To compound the problem, the malicious tool was also advertised on Google Ads.

German financial regulator takes action against first Bitcoin ATMs

Want to buy some Bitcoin at an ATM in Germany? Not so fast. The country’s financial watchdog has halted the operations of a company that ran 24 machines across the country. Regulators said KKT UG didn’t have the necessary license to offer its services. Ultimately, it’s bad news for those who are hoping to use cryptocurrency ATMs in Germany, as they have long fallen into a massive gray area. Starting next year, crypto exchanges, custodians and wallet providers will need a license in order to operate — and they only have until June to submit an application.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Blockchain as a tool to combat coronavirus

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to rise. As this feature explains, blockchain technology has a golden opportunity to make a considerable impact in limiting the outbreak’s ramifications.

Why betting on gold-backed stablecoins is a losing game

Gold has long been regarded as an eternal value — but storage costs a lot of money, and transporting the precious metal is fraught with difficulties. Gold-backed stablecoins have been touted as an effective solution, but as Gregory Klumov explains, many of them have been built on rotten foundations.

The history of the bitter debate over Ethereum’s ProgPoW

The Ethereum community has recently been engaged in a bitter debate sparked by a proposed mining algorithm change. Andrey Shevchenko has more.

Toxic Twitter tribalism: The fuel powering the crypto rocket?

Cointelegraph Magazine’s Stefan Stankovic examines meme warfare’s effect on blockchain development.

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The post India Ban Overturned, BTC Owners Warned They’ll Lose Everything, Hodler’s Digest, Mar. 2–8 appeared first on Coin First.

from Coin First https://ift.tt/2W2p91w

[torentialtribute]

Lewis Hamilton can be the greatest, says F1 chief Chase Carey

We'll come to Lewis Hamilton and his record-breaking potential in a minute. But first the serious stuff. The mustache.

For, if there is one thing the wider world knows about Chase Carey, the otherwise enigmatic chief executive or Formula One, it is the twirled white hedge below his nose.

"I've had it for too long to remember," he said, when I asked him in the Silverstone paddock yesterday how it came about, one theory being that it was to hide a scar he made in a road accident. Not so.

Lewis Hamilton shows off his special racing helmet featuring the Union Jack on Friday

'In my younger years to make life interesting I ended up with an array of facial growth that evolved into this.

"When I asked my wife and kids about cutting it off, they were horrified at the thought."

So it was hirsute that Carey arrived in Formula One at the Singapore Grand Prix of 2016, when the media conglomerate Liberty Media, owned by mogul John Malone, founded their £ 6.4billion buyout of the sport.

A few months later Carey, an American television executive whom Rupert Murdoch once tipped as his successor, delivered the news to Bernie Ecclestone that his 40-year Svengali grip was over.

Lewis Hamilton out to claim his sixth triumph at the British Grand Prix on Sunday

Up until that point, Ecclestone, 5ft 2in and then 86, was throwing grenades out of his Knightsbridge penthouse. Armed combat is not Carey's style. He says he prefers to act before he talks. That is not always true. Sometimes he talks before the acts (for example, promising to take the sport to destination cities in America). Sometimes he acts and then doesn't talk (declare yesterday to elaborate on the deal that keeps the British Grand Prix at Silverstone).

Those who work with Carey at Formula One's plush St James's Market headquarters say he is friendly and efficient. A details man. He does not expect cap-doffing from staff. He replies to queries fast. An email is often answered by a call, old school.

Yesterday in the dark paddock battle bus that Ecclestone had designed for himself but which has now been slightly remodeled for its new inhabitants, Carey arrived with a cardboard coffee cup . He gets through eight or 10 a day, usually starting with a skinny latte.

"It gives me something to do with my hands, like smoking."

[19459119]

A glass of wine, red or white, awaits when the day's done.

Carey splits his time, when he is not on the road meeting race promoters from Silverstone to Melbourne, between houses in London and New York – the Hamptons it is thought. But this married father or two grown-up children says as little as possible about his private life. Journalistic inquisitions are as welcome as drowning.

He is not one for outlandish statements. I ask if he would throw himself in front of Vladimir Putin to save the Russian president from a bullet, as Ecclestone said this week.

"I worry about F1," says Carey, laughing. "The broader world is others" challenge. (Putin) is well looked after. He is a good partner. We are proud of our race there. We are proud of the relationship. Bernie can be the secret service agent. I offered Bernie the job of chairman emeritus. Bernie and I are different people with different views. It doesn't mean one way is right or wrong. I have complete respect for what he created.

"But it would be honest to say in the last five or 10 years Formula One was not doing some things. Credit to him for creating one of the sports great franchises. I talk to Bernie with some regularity. "

American Chase Carey, 65, (above) is the enigmatic chief executive of Formula One

If Ecclestone is the little giant he wanted out of the boardroom, not least for free-to-air TV on migrate coverage to the digital channels, Hamilton is the other high, now he needs to keep in the fold. Carey knows the debt of gratitude he owes the quintuple champion, the ace racer who is packing them into the aerodrome here in Northamptonshire this weekend.

The place is looking great this year. Even the car park grass this morning was verdant, smooth enough for croquet. Hamilton, who was second in practice behind his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, is possessed by a character-defining need to win.

That is perhaps the chief reason why, aged 34 and at an increasingly long peak, he will pass Jim Clark and Alain Prost as the most successful racer in British Grand Prix history should win tomorrow: six times.

Carey, a Yankees baseball and Giants NFL fan, does not claim to know his brake ducts from his end plates, though he says he is genuinely enjoying the racing the more he gets into it. But he knows a star when he sees one.

"Lewis is a great champion," said Carey, in his rat-a-tat delivery. "He is certainly the head of the all-time championship leader. He's been a representative of Formula One. Sport is built on heroes and it is second to none.

"There are great drivers on the way up, too. Charles Leclerc at Ferrari and Max Verstappen at Red Bull. I like Lando Norris and George Russell are a wonderful personality.

The big paddock dispute about the new rules and regulations for season 2021 and beyond. It is a chance to reshape the sport, making the racing keener and more open. To this end, Hamilton attended a meeting in Paris last month to put his suggestions forward.

"It was great he was there," Carey said. "We had tried, but not hard enough, to get driver input. They know some of the issues better than anyone. So we want to reach out. "

It is believed that Carey's contract is due for renewal next year. Will this career fix it man move on when Formula One's 2021 future has resolved – a possibility about which Hamilton's boss Toto Wolff, among others, is salivating.

"What, just retire?" Carey asked. This is one where the enigma may well act before the talks.

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How Much Cardio Should You Do When Cutting?

A caloric deficit doesn’t have to come entirely from the diet, and you probably guessed that adding some cardiovascular work to expend more energy rather than restricting your energy intake alone, could also be useful.

A simple way to estimate energy expenditure during cardio requires you to determine a rating of perceived exertion (RPE) during exercise. This can be simply done by considering how hard it feels on a scale from 1 to 10 (note, this is a different form of RPE from the repetitions in reserve based RPE scale discussed in the Training Pyramid).

If you also track the time spent performing the cardio, and if you know your bodyweight, you can estimate caloric expenditure with reasonable accuracy. You burn approximately ~0.2, ~0.45 and ~0.7 kcal per 10 minutes per pound of bodyweight doing light (RPE 2 to 4 out of 10), moderate (RPE 5 to 7 out of 10) and vigorous (RPE 8 to 10 out of 10) cardio respectively, above what you would normally be burning doing everyday light activity in that same time period 1.

How to Gauge the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) of Cardio

RPE 1–2

Very light effort. You can talk with ease.

RPE 3-4

Light effort. You can talk with almost no difficulty.

RPE 5

Moderately light effort. You can talk comfortably with minor difficulty.

RPE 6

Moderate effort. You can talk with minor difficulty.

RPE 7

Moderately high effort. Talking is difficult.

RPE 8

High effort. Talking is very difficult.

RPE 9

Very high effort. Talking is maximally difficult.

RPE 10

Maximal effort. Talking is impossible.

Cardio type, height, weight, and other variables affect these values, but these are decent values to use for estimation purposes. So for example, a 200 lb male performing moderate intensity cardio would burn an additional 90 kcal in 10 minutes (0.45 x 200) over and above what they burn doing normal day-to-day light activity for the same time period. In an hour, they would burn 540 kcal over what they would have burned had they been performing light everyday activity.

Below is a chart displaying the number of calories burned during 10 minutes of cardio activity at 3 different levels of intensity for individuals at 3 different body weights:

Cardio: Estimated Rates of Calorie Burn

Type of Cardio 120 lbs (54 kg) 160 lbs (73 kg) 200 lbs (90 kg) Light 24 kcal/10min 32 kcal/10min 40 kcal/10min Moderate 64 kcal/10min 74 kcal/10min 90 kcal/10min Vigorous 84 kcal/10min 112 kcal/10min 140 kcal/10min

Now if this hypothetical 200 lb (90 kg) male really enjoyed food he might think, “Hold on, if I did an hour of moderate intensity cardio a day, that would put me slightly over a 3500 kcal deficit per week and I would be able to lose a pound weekly which is at a rate of ~0.5%. That’s what you prescribe and I wouldn’t have to restrict my food!” Well, he wouldn’t be wrong, but 7 hours of moderate-intensity cardio per week can cause problems for someone interested in muscle and strength.

Why the Type of Cardio You Do Matters

Doing cardiovascular exercise at moderate intensities is essentially endurance training. The adaptations and the work required to produce endurance adaptations can interfere with the training and adaptations required to generate muscular strength, hypertrophy, and power 2. Not to say that interference will prevent someone from getting bigger, stronger, or more powerful, but if excessive cardio is performed it can slow down the process of building muscle, strength, or power in a dose-dependent manner.

The Interference Effect in Low-intensity vs. Moderate-intensity Cardio

Glycogen depletion and the molecular signaling that comes from endurance training may play a role in interference 3. Additionally, interference might also be related to the extent of the impact and the contribution of eccentric actions from the modality of cardio, considering that cycling appears to interfere less with resistance training adaptations than incline walking 4.

Eccentric actions are essentially when your muscle lengthens while it contracts, often performed when guiding a load into place or decelerating a load; like what your bicep is doing when you set down a coffee mug. In endurance training, this is how your body brakes and controls your inertia and movement. High impact forces can create joint strain, and a high volume of high force eccentric actions can create a lot of muscle soreness. So, you can deplete the muscle of its energy and also go into training with sore joints and muscles if cardio training is excessive.

However, low-intensity cardio (if it doesn’t have an impact component, like cycling, or the elliptical) would be below the threshold of producing overload and therefore wouldn’t be an issue. For someone in decent shape who is lifting weights, casual cardio is not an adaptive stress, so it won’t cause endurance adaptations in the body. Thus, interference is not an issue with low-intensity cardio. However, the calorie burn is much lower when doing low-intensity cardio compared to higher intensities, and thus, you have to do a lot of it for it to add up.

Why High-intensity Interval Training (HIIT) Should Be Used Sparingly

The final option is high-intensity cardio. High-intensity cardio is very taxing, and unlike lower-intensity cardio cannot be done continuously for very long unless you are a well-trained anaerobic athlete. This is one of the reasons you often hear people talk about high-intensity interval training or HIIT. HIIT is when you do a burst of maximal-intensity cardio, followed by a rest period and then repeat.

Similar metabolic adaptations can come from either HIIT or lower-intensity cardio performed for longer periods, but in less total time 5. Also, the risk of interference seems to be reduced when HIIT is utilized because the high-intensity nature of the cardio is more similar to resistance training 6. Lastly, the higher the intensity, the greater the increase in metabolic rate in the short time period afterward. High-intensity exercise provides a short-term, small, but significant increase in metabolic rate 7 while low-intensity does not.

So does that mean HIIT is a home run and that our 200 lb (90 kg) male who loves to eat can do a bunch of HIIT and some low-intensity cardio and keep all his food? Well, unfortunately, some of the same issues that come with moderate-intensity cardio come with high-intensity cardio.

If there is a significant eccentric component or a high level of impact, it can cause problems. In fact, sprinters suffer more than twice the number of hamstring injuries that long-distance runners suffer on average, despite running only a fraction of the distance or time 8.

While a larger risk of injury (with certain modalities) and a greater need for recovery are the only risks of HIIT, these are significant risks. It’s hard to make the argument that you are avoiding interference and retaining more muscle by avoiding moderate-intensity cardio and doing high-intensity cardio when you have a hamstring tear.

What Is the Appropriate Cardio Prescription?

Because of interference, cardio should not be the primary vehicle for fat loss, regardless of whether you perform low or high-intensity cardio. The majority of fat loss should come from the diet.

Secondly, resistance training performance is the most critical aspect of muscle maintenance. The diet supports the training as best as possible while creating fat loss and the training supports muscle retention. Don’t put this paradigm at risk. Remember you are a strength athlete or a bodybuilder, not an endurance athlete.

As a rule of thumb, your total cardio for the week should take no more than half the time you spend lifting weights. So if you spend 90 minutes 4 times per week lifting weights (6 hours), that means you should do no more than 3 total hours of cardio per week. As an aside, smaller women may find that they reach a point where food cannot be realistically further reduced to continue losing weight; in these cases, it may sometimes be needed to max out the amount of cardio performed or even to go slightly above this amount.

Choose cardio that is easy on the joints (low impact) and easy on the muscles in subsequent days (won’t make you sore). Rowing, cycling, swimming, elliptical trainers or even lightweight barbell or kettlebell complexes could all be used.

Cap the number of HIIT sessions at one to two sessions per week that last no more than 30 minutes. Do no more than an hour per week in total of moderate-intensity cardio as this intensity causes the most interference. For the rest of your cardio, keep it at a low intensity. Also, choose modalities you like. When the goal is just to expend calories the modality is not that important, why not enjoy it?

So what might this look like?

In the example of lifting 6 hours per week and doing 3 hours of cardio, you could perform two 30 minute HIIT sessions, 1 hour of moderate-intensity cardio, and 1 hour of low-intensity cardio as one way of doing the absolute maximum amount that should be performed.

This article was taken from the calorie intake setting chapter of the upcoming second edition of our Muscle and Strength Nutrition Pyramid book.

If you’d like to be notified of the release of the books in the new year pop your name and email in the box below.

Thank you for reading. Questions welcomed in the comments.

– Eric, Andy, and Andrea.

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