Bitcoin. In my opinion it will, no doubt. Because this coin is the beginning of each other coin. Ethereum provides smart contracts and tokens, but there are already many coins that can replace eth because they are faster, cheaper, with another algos and etc, so they are the better versions of ethereum(maybe not already, but they do their best to become so).
When Bitcoin is like gold. Everyone don't use gold in everyday life and don't pay gold in supermarket for products. But it is still the asset that costs money. Because it is money

So, we have not a lot of guarantees that the ICO we have invested to will launch declared program and make a product and now we need to collaborate in pools that can someday become a donate thing
ICOs are risk. Such pools are increasing this level of risks. What are guarantees to receive money back if something went wrong?
Also I don't understand pros of such system where common investors - ex workers with depo near $1000 - can't make investment cuz it should be $10000 and more

The system was introduced in January, now is late April and I see that almost everyone have no more merits left. And the largest amount of smerits are accumulated on legendary and hero members.
But I don't know what should I do to impress legendary to receive his merits
So I think that merit is more rare than bitcoin, really. Two merits sent generates only one sendable merit. It is possible to earn them, of course. But you should do something special. Maybe kill bitcoin cash I don't know

Talking about my opinion - I think airdrops are not healthy for projects. At least nowadays projects.
Yes, they help to accumulate the community(sometimes) and it enlarges, but it can't help to find investors as good as free-hunters. And sometimes all airdrops goes to bots because now it is normal to see projects with 90k+ participants and I see ~300 messages in 4 days that I was not offline(for example one group with 30 participants had 3k unread messages, and this is the community).
If these airdrops will distribute on bitcointalk only, it may stimulate the interest of our community. Otherwise - 

I would like to specify your reply..
Everyone here got resources. Different - someone got money, someone got a lot of time, somebody is smarter than others. So if you have money and don't have time - ICO investment is the best thing imo. If you got money and time also it is good for trading experience. When you have time but don't have enough money to invest - than bounty would be helpful. And when you are smart you will get money, time, and other

Very difficult question, for one reason only - when you got 10k you can make 20k by making some right actions with them. But when you got 0 you should make something more original to make 10k.
It is always harder to make something from nothing. As you listed all bounty programs I should add a little - you can do anything
Because you know, bitcoin is electronic cash so you can do anything for bitcoin and then make investment in something you like. That simple

Wow. Interesting. Firstly I will be thankful if you share with me the strategy of investing which depends on google trends. Cuz I don't understand how these statistics can help to make a right decision(I understand generally how it works, but show me how it worked for bitcoin, and how it was predicted before please).
And secondly for lurker you have a thin rage of coins to choose from imo Don't you think that they are the only way to invest in?
Answering your question directly - I would rather buy bitcoin only, and for long timeframe

I think the era of airdrops has gone. Or maybe it was only the first wave of profitable airdrops, but I believe in the first point of view(it is over).
Airdrops were very hyped because it was free marketing for projects, simple actions to gain reward in crypto - what can be better. But some time passed and now airdrops don't send coins, or even turns out scam that just promote groups.
Bounty is better way to be rewarded. You do the job and get paid. But compare to usual job you receive reward not in fiat. It is good because it is impossible when fiat in your wallet get increased by itself. In crypto it can.
But same way it is not better because it can decrease same way. But if you remember what you did to receive these tokens - you understand that this is ok. If you are not so lazy of course

Wow, very impressive - all people who wrote in this thread believes in crytpo but right above the thread I see some threads like "Is crypto ded yet"
It is very important to believe in coins you buy. I should say more - in my opinion the majority of people don't use coins they bought, they don't know how they work outside the exchange.
So this majority can be disappointed during this year. Those who came for crypto gain crypto. Those who count something from crypto in dollar - they should prepare to feel the pain

Umm so you have a bag of altcoin already and you want to know how to get extra money without selling them out, just gaining more coins?? Interesting
Of course you can try something like lending, so you can earn money for sharing your tokens, but don't count on a huge profit, it will be a few percents per month best way.
And another suggestion - just sell your coins and buy POS instead. So you will get coins by having coins, perfect There is no more possibilities to get more coins just for free. If you get them for free you should understand their price

I searched a lot for something interesting and something that can become really useful, and the only project that I find the most attractive is the project from my signature campaign(yes, I decided to gain extra tokens )
This is Yumerium - decentralized gaming platform which allows gamers and game developers earn tokens by their actions in games and on the platform itself. It can be like kickstarter for games.
And all we see how intensive VR collaborates with our lives, and it is only the beginning, when VR sets will become more affordable to get this ecosystem can spread worldwide. And I think the link between VR technologies and blockchain can be very useful in the nearest future.

First thing I should mention - you started from the right place. This forum and people there(not all, so remember it) can help you to orientate in this market.
If you want to join ICO you can search for the bounty topic. It is not for joining campaign but to see how the team doing their job. And if there is many people in campaign, it says that project is interesting for them.
After entering exchange you can make things go a few way - you can sell half of your assets when the price will reach x2 and go to the other ICO, continue holding the remaining half of coins.
Or you can try to sell all high. But it is very difficult sometimes too see high for new coin, so you can sell much earlier. So first variant may be easier.
And repeat the whole cycle. And enter only good ICOs which have good rating and good project

Crypto is not that thing based on the time of the year or market which have vacation. It cant be closed because of the end of working day or weekend.
Of course we can see cycles and all things can be repeated generally, but the cycle is not right a year long. You should analyze the current situation and understand - if the market is low, you can enter(but it can go dipper of course ) but if the market is already high it is very risky. So no link between months and market phases as for me

I think that its normal to blame yourself even for pro traders Because losing money making not right decisions - it is hard on each level of self-development. I saw a few traders(I cant name they pros but they make money, so) who were very disappointed in February when the market decided to go all the way down
Maybe when the time passes everyone teaches to gain and lose in right way - so gains will be always higher. Maybe this is the key

This really a great article, maybe someone from newbies will enjoy reading it and will gain useful info from it. But I have a little question for you
You made a little review on TOPs but you decided to not to notice few coins that are strongly in top - Bitcoin Cash. And Tron. Why?

If you want to get help with your question maybe you need to share more information with us like what is your comfortable amount to invest in new coins, your experience in ICOs, your ability to get good coins in the beginning of their path and etc. cuz it's not that simple answer like yes/no. But I think if you have understood all these aspects you will be able to make the decision self
Lets start the comparison from the beginning. Lets take for example a good coin that has great team, good marketing, advisors, not bad roadmap and everything that should have average crypto for technology(instead of crypto for money which has only marketing).
When you buy it from ICO: you support developers(and this is the most important fact as for me), you buy cheaper than from exchange, but you gain risks to freeze your money.
When you buy it from exchange: you support the seller who bought on ICO, you buy more expensive, but you take less risk. But if you buy right after ICO you should understand that the price can go back to ICO.
But this works only if you buy good coin. If you want to buy some fake crypto just for speculation - your choice of course(I prefer to not to buy such things at all), but it is better to get these only on exchange.
Hope I helped you a little with this

Thats a good list of bounties with really good reward on the first sight
But I prefer to choose the bounty campaign not by seeing how many people are participating in it but depending on project itself. Good project with great team and nice development ideas always will give good reward, also it it is pleasant for me to be a part of such projects that may change something in this world using blocjchain.
But thanks for your list, it was interesting to look through. Sweet stakes Maybe it will be very useful for someone

All depending on your investment strategy and your deposit size.
For example, if you have $50 millions it is better for you to invest in something like real estate. And there are some reasons - firstly, because crypto is volatile. You can get +35% as easy as -60%. But if you will have 10% annually in real estate - it is $5 million, and it may be enough for you. Secondly, you cant enter crypto with big depo fast and easy and without affecting the price. And maybe this is more like a problem compare to first one.
But if you have $500 to invest, you can buy some alts or join ICO that can give you 1000% in first year instead of 10%(but it will be only $4500). So the strategy is the key

Well, he is not no-brainer at all, I think. He is very famous person in crypto community and it is necessary to get a closer look on these people cuz their words can play serious role in market forming.

So this person is not usual youtube-crypto-trader. But I think it is very pessimistic point of view. Of course there are many scams or some projects that are something near fraud(that continue marketing but zero development for example) but their amount can't be around 99%. Especially when we are saying about top-100. Yes, there are some coins that need to be out of crypto at all but that is just a small amount, all people with IQ 40+ understands this and support real crypto with real development, useful cases

Looks like you are making the project in your university and decided to get an answer to all your questions just in one post on this forum
Answering generally - nowadays they are not so necessary as they can be. Bitcoin now is something like one of the Tesla's inventions - they were too innovative for the time they were invented.
Bitcoin is not something from the future, it is right in place and in time, and world is ready to accept it. But not the big market makers, not the governments. Bitcoin will literally kill them.
So now it is in that stage when not only geeks are interested in bitcoin and other crypto , but people all around the world don't use it every day.