Actually a student of mine told me today that they were studying about cryptocurrencies in their economics class (I am an english teacher).
I was curious so I went to go talk to the economics teacher and it turns out she is an investor lol.
We were pleasantly surprised that we were even hodling some of the same coins (polymath and nano).

For this situation, it was included in the class because of the teacher's personal interest.
however, I believe there is a lot of merit to studying crypto.
Just by tracing the short history of the market, you can see clear examples of how supply and demand works.
Also, the nature of speculation and bubble economies.

Not only that, discussing how blokchain can transform the world is a good deep dive analysis into how bloated our organizations and companies are.
For anyone remotely interested in economics it is a terrific area of study.

It's amazing to think that this was posted last march.
Already back then, the ico market was showing signs of collapsing.

Now, I think it is safe to say that 2018 marked the downfall of the entire ICO market.
Ask yourself a simple question, do you know of ANY ico that is trading above ICO price?
And if they are, are any of them even giving 10% or more returns?

Compare this to last year when it was very easy to flip an ICO for 200% - 300% percent returns.
Not to mention the Neos and OMGs, the golden ones that gave 1000% and more profit.

I saw some pretty great ICOs this year that have struggled due to the poor market conditions.
Some of these, I think if they would have released a year ago, their situation would be so different.

99% of the time, I would say no.
I'm not saying 100% because there are always exceptions to things.

since investment isn't so cut and dry, it takes a diverse range of assets (all rising and falling in value) to come ahead in the long term.
The same goes for crypto, especially since the market is so volatile.
There are many who dream of making one big trade and being able to retire, this just does not reflect reality.

I suppose though, that if you would choose just one to invest in, it would actually be good ol' plain BTC.
the reason is simple, it is the only coin that you can readily liquidate (meaning sell it for cash).
In fact, when you think about it, isn't the whole goal just to get more btc?
Until another coin is just as easily liquidible (eth is getting there) there isn't any other option.

Panic selling is never a good choice, hodling can eventually work out for you (sometimes it doesn't), but buying when everyone is selling almost always works out good.

When I first started, I tried my best to follow, "When others buy, sell, when others, sell, buy."
It was really hard to follow as I was inexperienced.
But as I got more disciplined, this simple rule has made all the difference.

So, for the past three months, I have been buying up.
I don't have tons of extra money to spare, but I've been able to set aside a portion of my paycheck to invest more.
I first focused on buying up more of the coins I already have.
This has significantly decreased my cost per token ration.
Then I started buying into solid projects that had gone below ico prices.

Syscoin...meh.

Not bad, good, but not amazing.  Masternodes have built a stronger following for sure, but at this point in the crypto market, brand awareness and market penetration are essential.
There are so many platforms out there building great platforms, it isn't just about what is techinically superior.

And that's why I think, in the end, people still go back to eth.
It is probably the least viable from a technical standpoint, but it is by far the largest ecosystem out there.
There have been numerous times where competing companies have gone up with each other.
Even with better tech, there are many who have lost the battle cause they didn't have name brand awareness and adoption.

In the end, it is not about what is technically the best, but what other people consider to be the best.
And basically, all signs point towards eth.

Bitcointalk is a pretty bad place to see the sentiment of the entire market, especially the altcoin section.

I get the feeling that most who post HODL! here are doing so because they bought in last dec/jan during the all time high.

If you have lost more than 80% value on your portfolio, most people feel the only thing they can do is just wait it out.
Everyone has their way of dealing with the losses, but active trading isn't feasible for a lot of people.
for me, I just don't have the time for it with my busy schedule, social and family life, and full time career.

So instead, I just take the time to hedge my holdings and reinvest in the coins I've lost value in.
This has decreased the cost per token ratio quite significantly and has allowed me to enter different markets.
Specifically digital asset arrays and btc futures.

It is important to get a real grasp of you current finances and time, then figure out the most effective way to trade.

Yes, I expect it to hit 12k.
In fact, I expect it to reach a new all time high in the 20ks.
Perhaps this sounds crazy, but over and over again, people have cried doom on btc and it has always defied expectations.

If someone said, just one year ago in november 2017, that btc would hit 19k in just a month and a half in early jan 2018, people would have called him crazy.
But it did.

The power of btc is that is the driving force of the entire market.
The more it goes up, the more it brings the rest of the market up.
The more the rest of the market goes up and trading volume increase, the demand for btc becomes even higher.
It is also the entry point for all new investors.
There really is no reason to think that it won't take off again, so it is best to be prepared for when it does.

Meh.
Sorry but I am very doubtful when I hear that you do "a lot of hard work".

I have been doing bounty hunting for over a year now and I never thought it was hard work.
Even the "hardest" one: translations, doesn't take that much time.
I suppose if you are doing a lot of bounties at once, then it can add up and take some time.

But, wouldn't that make you a scammer too?
Most bounty projects limits you to just one bounty, you aren't allowed to do two or more from the same account.
So if you are doing a lot at once, that means either you are cheating the system or have a lot of fake accounts.
Cause there is no way that you have 5 or more legitimate twitter, facebook, bitcointalk accounts.
If you think you do, then I'm guessing you are doing a lot of copy and pasting.

this is just terrible.  Like others mentioned Satoshi would be rolling over in his grave.

Obviously, they are capitalizing on the recent rise in "full time bounty hunters" (aka: people desperate and stupid to get rich without working).
For these types of people, a video call would seem like very little effort to get "free money".

But here's the thing, the whole airdrop is wrong on many levels.
First off, just airdropping that massive amount of XLM will really devalue the coin.
Especially if you consider that the the types to do this would sell it right away.

Also, video KYC is just beyond ridiculous.  There is no legal precedent for it anywhere, not even in banks or the stock market (so of course, not in crypto).
Actually, the suspicious side of me sees this as datamining on a large scale.

Don't be a fool, don't participate in these types of things.

This is some terrific research.  It's rare to have such quality posts nowadays.

Any coin that just suddenly jumps into the top 100 I am suspicious of.
So coins like verge, tron, and of course, bytecoin I instantly don't trust.
Especially if for years it had no value and no market penetration, there is obvious manipulation going on.

Bytecoin was an interesting one because of the binance listing.
Typically, that is a sign it is legitimate so I think a lot of people flocked to it.
But, now, lo and behold, it got delisted not only there, but on other exchanges as well.

On top of all of this suspicious activity, there is the simple question of: is Bytecoin even necessary?
There are so many privacy coins, with Monero being the obvious best choice.

isn't this such an interesting post?
It was made last summer, wow! things have changed.
When looking at coinmarketcap every single moment, I can see how you can interpret it to mean something.
But long term, things are quite different.

The demand for btc has proven stronger than ever.
Yes, the value is lower than back in jan. but if you look at btcs performance in relation to last year, and then in relation to other alts, btc has done very well.
And it is holding steady in strong in the $6000 range.

Whereas you have numerous top coins dropping in value lower than even last year, btc is still ahead.
People still see it as the foundation of the entire market, and the next bull run will see its price fly high.

Unfortunately, I used to really believe in cardano but now, I am pretty sure it has missed its window of opportunity.
Without any mainnet release and the chance to build up an ecosystem before the year ends, I don't see it catching up to all the other smart contract platforms.

Now, with even eth giving people doubts, I would start to triple check my stance on smart contract platforms.
But if you really are looking for "the next eth" then it looks like neo is it.

Rather than focus on marketcap and value, it is important to look at the bigger picture.
Neo has been around for just a year and it has the 2nd largest ecosystem out of all of them.
We have decentralized nep5 exchanges coming up and a clear migration from eth to neo.

Just because others might sound better on paper, it can not compete with the real world value neo has.
So that is why I migrated all my ada to neo.

I would say no.
The main reason is, if you have to come to bitcointalk to ask for advice on a career choice, then I don't think you have the aptitude for trading.

First off, asking random strangers on a forum about such an important life choice doesn't show any sign of independent research or initiative.
These are all essential in becoming a successful trader.

Also, trading isn't some magical job that will make you money jsut because it's crypto.
It takes a lot of knowledge, research, data crunching, analysis, and skill.
When I hear someone say they will quit their job to do crypto trading full time, I just laugh.

That would be like someone who doesn't even know how to make instant ramen saying, "i'm going to be a celebrity chef".

The most dangerous thing about this, is it isn't just a hobby, you have the real risk of losing all your money.
So I would be much more wise in making decisions if I were you.

It is risky to trade during a red market, mainly because volume is low and it is much harder to move your coins with good timing.

So actually, the best thing to do is the buy low sell high strategy.
Prices are low all around, buy more!
Since the value is lower than before, rises and falls can be very pronounced.
Buy low, sell when it pumps 5% more, then buy more when it drops back to the original price or below.
Its a very simple strategy that if you stick with (making sure to set the right percentage buy/sell points) will gradually increase the overall value of your portfolio.

You can also do some hedging, basically starting to "bet" two similar coins against each other.
For example, neo vs eos.
This minimizes losses and can guarantee success if you truly believe in the type of coin (in this example, smart contract platforms).

There are always forks, but they aren't as common or as reliable.

Whenever there is a hard fork on a blockchain, essentially it is a "clone" of the original (well, with minor differences).
So if you have 1 btc and btc is hardforked with the new btc being called Bitcoin Silver or whatever.
You actually end up keeping the original 1 btc, and you can also get 1 bitcoin silver.
So you are basically cashing in on free coins.

There is a process with this, and it's different with each coin.
But typically it isn't a difficult process with some exchanges allowing you to do it directly through their wallets.

The thing about this though, is the more coins you have the more you get, so you typically buy more to get more, not exactly "free".
Also, hard forked coins are typically worthless.  The only exceptions have been BCH and to a certain extent bitcoin gold.

Unfortunately I think you are seeing this all wrong.
Taking information and data from a couple years ago is incredibly unwise.
That information is outdated and doesn't apply to our current scenario.

First off, the crypto market is way more diverse than five years ago.
There is absolutely no way that just hodling and waiting for profit will work.
There is an incredibly high chance that will end up with you losing all of the value in your portfolio.

But, the biggest change is, major corporations are adopting crypto like crazy, but not in the way we want.
Instead of investing in current projects, they are just building their own blockchains, which, of course, makes sense when you stop to think about it.
Why spend money on another company when you can just do it yourself?

There are two very real reasons why ethereums future is not so stable.

The number one reason is because the main use of the ETH token itself (to invest in icos) has been totally shot dead.
The entire ico market has crashed this year and there are no signs of it ever recovering.
On top of that, you have more and more smart contract platforms coming out and future projects actively migrating towards them.
With no real use for eth (except for trading pairs, but btc is still the better trading pair), and people hodling.
Naturally, the value will decrease.

The other reason is people are losing faith in eth.
There have been crucial developments in the works for the past year and a half but they just keep getting delayed over and over again.
Where once people 100% believed in eth rockstar devs, now people are wondering if even simple plasma cash can get initiated.

...aren't you being a little too dramatic?
Saying that so many people will quit their jobs to do crypto, so the government goes in and bans it, lacks any kind of logic or even common sense.

First, you are assuming that crypto has never ending value to it.
That is like a country (ahem...venezuela) depending entirely on one commodity (oil) and thinking they can depend on it forever.
Now look at where that country is.

Crypto doesn't have some magic power to make everyone rich.
In fact, more people have lost money than have gained due to not knowing what they are doing.
The more people flock to it the more it will be harder to gain profit, it's the law of supply and demand.

Also, if what you say is true, how come people haven't mass quit their jobs to invest in real estate during the real estate bubble?
Or online businesses during the dot.com bubble?

Yes, theres lots of evidence that shows how scammy ico rating sites are.
Especially ICO bench, they literally ask you to pay more to get a good rating.
So whenever an ICO advertises that it got good ratings on these sites, I immediately don't trust them.

However, ICO rating websites are really useful to navigate from.
They are way easier to go through then teh announcement thread here on bitcointalk.
I can quickly see the token and ico metrics and a general description of what its about.
So I use them to quickly find links to ICO websites where I can start to do my own research.

As with all things crypto, it is always better to do your own research.

That is great advice, and normally I would fully support it.
But I believe btc has one more crazy bull run left in it.
I don't believe it will eternally rise (it's days are numbered), but all signs point towards another bull run.
How high it will go? My guess is at least to 10k, at the highest 15k.
And the reality of the market now is that btc is still the deciding factor in crypto value.
So if btc goes up, it will still literally pull everything else up.

Basically, in the short to midterm, I believe it is highly possible to recoup losses and even gains.

Long term, however, yes, get rid of your shitcoins.
But it is better to have an exit plan then just up and selling them all right away.