From what I get from Discord, the new wallet is in the process of testing and bugfixing. No news about a new exchange, however.

It is possible to achieve, but impossible to predict. I can only hope that bitcoin will continue its current slow but more or less steady recovery.

Financial institutions are not going to disappear, crypto or not. The are an essential, integral part of the current economic system. Retail banking is just a small part of it, financial institutions providing capitals for corporations are much more important, and crypto is of no danger for them.

Yes, 180% staking was good. The transition to lower PoS percentage was planned well in advance, the main problems now are the chainsplit and the absence of exchanges.

Starting from block no. 240000 the PoS percentage has been greatly reduced, from 180% per year to about 50%. I think it make little sense to stake less than a few hundred coins.

There was a chain split and Yobit is still on the old (ALTCOM) chain. Do not buy there. Currently there is no exchange for SONO.

It is very unlikely. I think there will be solution(s) for technical problems such as network capacity, fees and transaction times (Lightning Network looks promising). But, first, bitcoin is too volatile for an everyday currency and, second, many governments are not going to allow payments in anything except local currency within their borders. Bitcoin may become a currency for some purely online transactions, however.

"On Wednesday, Tom stuck to his midyear Bitcoin price prediction of hitting $20,000 by midyear and an end year’s goal of $25,000."

Unlike wild speculations about bitcoin hitting $100k, this is a reasonable prediction. I would not be surprised in the slightest if it comes true.

I think chances of bitcoin crashing to zero in the foreseeable future are very small. Crashes like one in the beginning of this year are almost guaranteed to happen from time to time, but, I hope, they will be followed by recoveries, as were the previous ones in 2013 and 2011.

It depends on your definition of 'plenty'. While most airdrops are of very little value, last year there were hidden gems that brought me a few hundred dollars.

Agreed, Lightning Network implementation would be a major milestone.

It certainly is risky. No investment with such high returns is without risk. Nevertheless, I think there is a very good chance bitcoin will not collapse and will be even more valuable than it is today.

While I'm optimistic in the long term and I feel that $50k is quite possible, I doubt it will be reached this year. That would mean 50x increase in two years, which is very unlikely.

It is possible in the future, but right now there is no indication that bitcoin will be replaced. Its market cap may decrease but I doubt it will lose the first place soon. The situation with fees has improved a lot, and Lightning Network may be ready for use this year.

I hope 2018 will be good, but pricewise I doubt we will see another 10x increase. That would mean 100x in two years, which is very unlikely. I would be happy to see the return to $20k until the end of 2018.

The procedure is described on the first page of this topic: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2105778.msg21047127#msg21047127.

Right. I sold small amounts when the price was below $1000, and now I regret it.

I'm very skeptical about bitcoin reaching $100k by the end of 2018, but even if it does, I will not sell everything I have. I'm going to  cash out slowly, probably rebying at corrections, starting from $30k or so. But I'll keep at least half of my stash even after $100k.

$15k before the end of February is extremely unlikely. I would be happy if bitcoin continues a slow but steady recovery, breaking $12k and reaching $13k in March. Then $15k may become a possibility in April.

Do not do this. Coins after the split will go to the old chain only, they will not appear as SONO. The 'wallet.dat' file actually does not hold  coins, only keys. Balances are stored in the blockchain. ALTCOM and SONO share the same chain before the split, so old ALTCOM balances automatically appear in the SONO wallet. But now there are two separate chains and coins sent to the old (ALTCOM) chain will not appear in the new (SONO) chain.