A supportive team with good technology can contribute much to the success of a coin.  I feel that we always rely a lot on technology nowadays but forget that they are developed by a human resources that made its existence possible.  Before a coin could exist, i feel that it should have a reserve manage by an existing known company or team ready to take a risk.  Beefcoin campaign is one of the coin that is not only supported by green organic technology but also have a guaranteed resources for its created token (stated in its whitepaper) coming from its own creator.  It has a feature that makes it unique from the rest.

I am integrating various app to track coin price changes/news.  In monitoring my coin and its value, I used Blockpolio.  Google app to visit sites such as Investopedia for news.  Facebook lite and Twitter lite for tweets from my followers or the one I am following with especially Etherdelta for new altcoins in the market.  My telegram app for notifications, airdrops and most important to make queries and clarifications with bounty I am participating with if problem arises.

ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering used to gather funds or raise money to finance a project also known as first token sale.  The new token issued in the ICO become functional currency if the ICO funding is met (hard cap) and the project launches.  The risk in ICO is somewhat high because the coin can either be non value or priced value.  Sometimes it is advisable to study carefully the white presented by the token developer in order to know the viability of the project that could mean a successful token sale.

If I have to speculate as a bounty, I would prefer to be paid by the projects created token.  I know it would be a risk because ETH is a stable token but on the brighter side I could earn more with the project token.  New tokens has the potential to be price value if it has a very good company link, better roadmap and very active managers.  The share value of the created token is much better than the token value of ETH. 

Ethereum becomes in demand because of the issuance of so many ERC20 compatible tokens but Doge can become a stiff competitor.  Why? My country only accepts Bitcoin and trading altcoins is a long process.  Usually this altcoin are easily convertible to ETH but highly expensive in gas whenever you directly convert your ETH to BTC.  To reduce the cost, only Doge can reduce the gas fees.  ETH to Doge to BTC.  I think if Doge developer could make an innovation that altcoins can be directly converted to Doge then Ethereum would really be beaten.  

Having enough ETH in my MEW is my number one struggle.  Gas or gwei is needed whenever I deposit, transfer or withdraw tokens from my MEW.  It is quite a joy to see that I have a free airdrop tokens with a high price value but later become desperate when I found out that I need a bigger amount of gas to trade those tokens.  Sometimes, I made a mistake of pushing a transaction and was a failure because my ETH is not enough to process it.  This mistake has eaten my ETH in my MEW.  Being a beginner trader is truly painful whenever you see that you lost your precious ETH because of GAS.

The art of investing depends on research, speculation and luck.  There are those who invest little but earns a lot on ICO and token sale.  Everybody has a period of critical self-appraisal of projects in review.  Personally, I was amazed how BEEFCOIN has presented and defined their objectives and formulated their strategies.  Budgetary schedule was developed too and they clearly defined the uses of fund resources.  "Issued tokens are backed by assets of a profitable business model (a farm and restaurants) with total value over $4,500,000".

Crypto in the future may improve the central banking system but can never end it...only to compliment.  The world is too diversified to be considered one and gradually the intro of crypto has tried to unify the currency system.  There are so many speculations that crypto is the future of money.  True it might be but its volatility has prevented other countries to accept it.  Other countries welcome digital currency because the consummation of transactions are much faster.  Crypto has much improved the banking regulation system to suit to the innovation of this cryptocurrency and at the same time take necessary measures to prevent money laundering.

Lower gas could mean slower processing of transactions or a failure.  I think there is no other way to lower transaction fee or gas if the network is congested especially that a few weeks ago crypto kitties boom has massively clogged the network.  Now, companies are busy making an end of year transaction closure that also congest the network. Well if is not so urgent need, wait for a few days until the congestion reduce and then make a trade. This page might also help you reduce gas at a safe level  https://medium.com/@ethgasstation/the-safe-low-gas-price-fb44fdc85b91.

Everyone has a chance for success. Have a purpose and be driven by the desire to succeed.  You have a very good portfolio to start with.  Try to research and evaluate the purpose of each token why it was created in the first place.  ETH, Ripple, Monero and Neo are altcoins I would advise to hold because they are already known to be an asset rather than liability while the rest may still be subject to your valuation.  

ICO researching are done on an extensive basis. I believe that Beefcoin has a fine definition for this.  They have clearly defined broad objectives and goals to formulate strategies in order to achieve their objectives that is "expansion of restaurants and farm."  They coordinated their activities clearly by defining their funds distribution and integrating the plans by pulling everyone in the same direction on how they will allocate the fund resources and where they can be used effectively.  The team are preparing and uncovering for potential bottleneck in the operations before they can occur quoting "There is a problem and we have a working solution".  And lastly, setting a standard or benchmark for evaluating actual operations by means of bonus coupons and buyback of tokens.

There are so many factors why gas becomes expensive.  The recently reported hacking of etherdelta has prompted ICO to use smart contracts not just simple transfer.  Smart contracts allow the performance of credible transactions without third parties and are trackable and irreversible.  Miners also opted for higher transactions fees because of the increase expenses that they incur in mining.  All transactions, from simple transfers to ICO smart contracts, require some amount of operations to perform. Each of these operations has an associated cost in gas. Thus, simple transactions like transfers will require less gas to perform than more intense smart contracts.  The associated costs of mining like electricity has increased too because of the increase of fuel in the world market.  Especially in the Philippines,  the government has increase the excise tax for petroleum starting this January 2018 that triggered an increase in electricity, hardware parts and the like.

ETH price is quite volatile like BTC.  The acceptance of ETH in a wider network has the effect of making its price go up.  ERC20 tokens needs a gwei for exchange and eth is used in the transaction.  With the creation of so many ERC20 tokens, the demand for ETH also increase.  It is rather wise to have an eth balance in your .wallet so that you can make a withdrawal or transfer of your tokens from your etherwallet whenever the need arises or the price is high.  ETH becomes a handy tool for liquidating ERC20 tokens.

Altcoin becomes valuable once it is listed in an exchange like etherdelta, yobit and kraken.  It has a successful token sale and continue to gain acceptance from the public.  It is following its roadmap and has continually meets the requirement in the exchange in order not to be delisted.

There are other alternatives to Etherdelta like Coinbase, Poliniex, GDAX, Bitfinex, Kraken, Yobit among other else.  However, there are advantages and disadvantages when trading on this alternatives just like etherdelta.  These sites may use a user friendly interface or a hard one, it may asks for a low transaction fees or a high fees.  The exchange sites has histories too of being hacked.  Lastly, they  may track your purchases and spending too.  Well, it depends on high brave you are to try these alternatives.

I recommend that you buy beefcoin with a bonus beefgold coin credited to your account for their first month of token sale which is January of 2018.  Issued tokens are backed by assets of a profitable business model (a farm and restaurants) with total value over $4,500,000...visit http://beefcoin.org/.  There will be an annual coupon bonus for beefcoin and a 20% share on profit beefgold.  Beefcoin is the new coin to watch for.

I know that they try to raise money more to know if they gain popularity but the basic reason is wanting to be listed on a market.  They must maintain a certain standard to be listed in an exchange. Falling below the minimum required share price, or market capitalization, is one of the major factors triggering a delisting or a failure in their project.  ICO has to proved that people do value the new coin they create by gathering investors and to attract established companies in order to establish a stock price.

Trading is a risky investment.  It is better to start with an amount that will not hurt your budget.  You can start little as initial investment and gradually increase by adding the amount of income you received from your initial investment.  Profits are created by timing purchases when the price is low and then selling when the price is high.  Just learn how to speculate. 

Investopedia is good source of news on market and trading (https://www.investopedia.com/). The website can provide with the latest information on bitcoin and altcoins.  It has a simulator too where you can practice your trading skills for free.  It has a comprehensive financial dictionary and the latest market news, price quote and more.  It has an academic link for beginners who wanted to learn investment and finding great value stocks.

Ripple is an alt coin generated through the concept of bitcoin.  It is a bit off if ripple can replace its head.  Bitcoin has move quite far to be overtaken because its acceptance in the network has reach a global stage and has passed the standard of regulated banking institutions of countries that allows bitcoin to be accepted as digital currency payments.