Well, it's very hard to say that btc is now losing its popularity but according to what's happenning right now, we are now having a bearish market. This only means that people continue to dump their coins (maybe because they want to cut their losses) and in return,  only few buy again making the price more stable than before. This is a bad sign but I think this is not a valid reason to say that btc is now getting out of the trend.

Going to your second concern, still up to you if you will remain hodling or not. If you now can't afford to lose any further then much better to cut your loss as soon as possible before you regeret.

You are right sir, making this experiment is not necessary at all since we already proved that having a low rank here in the forum is not the problem for not gaining merits, ignorance and poor attitude does.

In my opinion, as long as you know about crypto and not a shitposter here then you have a chance to earn merits. Like in the case of nullius, he was supposed to be only a Full Member according to his activity count (but actually he's a copper member) yet still be able to gain hundreds of merits. Another good example, Hugeblack once became a full member but he is now a Sr. Member.

For you OP, instead of conducting this kind of experiment by calling someone to accept your challenge, why don't you try to accept your own challenge and prove those complainants that merit system is working well.

You are right, patience is one of the important keys need to be considered in order to become successful here in crypto world. That's why it's very annoying everytime my classmates tease me about my bitcoin income, make some a little bit offensive jokes about it and treat me like a purse full of money even though it's not. What they just knew is that I earn this very easily without knowing the fact that I wait for a long time first, and undergo stress and frustrations (whether to sell or not) before making a profit. Maybe they thought that engaging in cryptocurrency provides us a chance to instantly earn with only a snap of our fingers.

Well, explaining my thoughts seems doesn't matter for them anymore and besides, that's not my obligation so I prefer to keep quite. I just continue working hard and patiently waiting for the blessing to come.

I don't really get what do you mean of emotional satisfaction. If you want to tell us is that you trade crypto just to get entertained or at least have an experience for it and don't really much care despite you're losing or not then that's so ridiculous. All traders who deal here in crypto world definitely want to earn money whether they treat it as their main source of income or only a hobby, I'm very sure of that.

If you look for entertainment then look it to another places because here in crypto world, money is waht matters the most and every drop of it counts.

I understand the OP for creating this thread, he only want to express his opinions about merit system, that he don't care for it and already feel contented for the knowledge he gain here in the forum. That's great because at least he's not like the one who complains a lot.

But all of you are right somehow, I think his post is not necessary anymore. It makes me wonder why OP will exert effort and time posting a merit-related post if in the first place he really don't care about it? If he really don't care then he supposed to just continue his usual business and will not make this thread, right? I'm having a doubt about this, maybe sir hilariousetc was right that OP's statement is just a technique to gain merits (well, who am I to judge someone).   

I don't think instant swaps already have the ability to totally replace exchanges.

Disregarding the talks about the fees, they are all the same for me in a sense that they can both change one crypto into another crypto but to be honest, exchanges still possess an edge over instant swaps and that is being able to support more coins/tokens. For this reason, exchanges are still much preferable to use.

Here in our country, $20 worth of bic is already quite good amount (in my own opinion only). I can now sustain my weekly school expenses with that one, that's already a lot of help, right?  

But to be honest, other repliers are right! Your current bitcoin savings right now are still small. Since btc's price are not yet soaring high, much better for you if you will just hold it first and try to buy even more. But if you are good in gambling then maybe you can use it as a capital to have a chance in doubling your money in an instant.

I hope his prediction will happen because I'm already bored of hodling and I think there's nothing wrong if btc will recover and skyrocket again right?

Though what Mr. Tom Lee stated is another speculation again, I'm willing to believe his statement not because it is accurate but because he is in the side of btc, gjving us hope that btc will rise sooner.

Before, I thought that it will be impossible for banks to accept not only bitcoins but crypto in general because it's very obvious that they are opposite, and besides we can't deny the fact that btc serves as a threat for banks since they have the potential to replace them. But now, collaboration of fiat and crypto are no longer impossible, I believe that there is now a chance for this to happen. I say so after I've heard a news here in our country that one of the leading banks here is now planning to use bitcoin in their system. This news is not yet official but if there's a smoke, there's a fire right? So maybe this is not a hoax at all.

You are right, this is quite alarming not only for me but for all of us. I don't know either the reason why btc is continuously falling then rise only a little bit and then fall hard again. My intuition says that there is something behind this and not only an ordinary fluctuating scenario. Well, I'm not sure about that and maybe I'm just over thinking   

Though crypto's dips are normal, I'm still not used to it, what I mean is I'm still worrying and scared to see my earnings falling down in terms of fiat (I'm sure others too) especially nowadays that I really need some money due to lots of school expenses.

In the end, let's still prefer hodling because that's the best move for now despite of the bad things happening right now.

It seems that you already realized that this game is not a good idea. Well it's alright, just be more careful next time. Always remember that "Think before you click".

I know that your intentions are good so if you really want to make a game for merit rewards then I hope this might give you some idea. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3055616.0

What?! You want us to guess the number which you are thinking just for merits? No offense but that's so insane dude. Do you really think this is a nice idea? Because for me, it seems non sense at all.

I understand that you are tired of discussing topics here in the forum over and over again that's why you wanted to add some fun by doing a game, but what I can't understand is why this game has no connections to bitcoin/cryptocurrency or being educational at least.

Besides your game has a very small chance of winning since there's a huge gap between 0-2000 so I bet no one can guess it. Anyway, I don't want to make an argument with you, I'm just sharing my opinion. So once again, no offense and good luck.

It's already April and yet we still don't see a lot of improvement when it comes to bitcoin's price, this is definitely a bad news for all of us but much better if we will look in its bright side. So instead of getting upset everyday, let's buy more while this dip lasts .

During bad times, I usually hold my coins and wait for btc to pump but now I might have a possibility to not able to follow my plan since I really need some money now for my thesis project. So even I strongly want to hold my savings I still can't due to such expenses but that's alright because I'm confident that I will earn that money again next time.

Though it is true that bitcoin is suffering from its downfall right now but I can't still imagine that it will hit $5000 by the end of April. Btc is just moving around between $7400 to $6900 mark and it seems that its is now stable there so for me, $5000 is way too far to reach for this month because that's a huge drop to attain (maybe that might happen in the first quarter of May but I hope not).

You are not yet in prison and never will be because you didn't violate a rule at all since you only post crypto-related infos on your wall which is not included on the conditions of the ban. In my perspective, what's not allowed anymore is that ICOs' advertisements are directly promoted by FB (e.g. Ads tgat are popping on the side of our wall).

Also me, I see crypto-related posts in some  groups who uses btc 'til now and I'm pretty sure that FB will also prohibit it because that will means suppression of freedom of speech.

payment received. Thank you sir and Eligma team.

Then are you saying that many members here in the forum should be reported? Because the reality is we are the one who is mainly responsible for creates large-volume threads and megathreads up to the extent.

I think there's nothing wrong if lots of replies are existing in a thread as long as your reply is not plagiarized at all because you are only expressing your own idea about the topic. If there is the one who made certain lapses, that would be the creator of the thread for not locking his thread after getting the answer he is searching for.

What?! Before, facebook and google and then now, twitter? Is that true?! (I can't verify it for myself because i don't have a twitter account).

If this news is legit then I'm pretty sure that it will greatly affect ICO's sales because some of them have twitter campaigns. On the other hand, i don't think btc will be affected since it is already well known compare to alts.

Just to give an addition, you should also develop your emotional aspects because that's important too. In trading, you should have the guts to risk your assets because if you are not brave enough then I'm sure you will not become fruitful since you are scared all the time.

I believe that it's useless even how knowledgeable you are if you don't have the guts to deal with the risky nature of trading.

That's a crucial decision my friend. If you really want to sell your house for btc then so be try to consider this. Assuming that you already sold your house for btc, then the question is how sure you are that your money will be spend for good? Ok, let's say you invested it in crypto world then now, are you sure that it will make profit and will not be prone from scams? If so then how long? Will it be worth for waiting?

Ask those questions into yourself because that might enlighten you. I think selling your own house will definitely a bad idea, if you don't like it anymore then try to renovate.