Like others have shared - it's still used but it's not necessarily preferred as much as other privacy coins. I think with upcoming attempts at regulation, privacy coins (such as in my sig) will become much more mainstream in 2018.

I did some googling and the closest I could find is a golden piggybank for a confirmed scam called PB Mining. You can read about it here:

https://www.cloudminingdirectory.com/pbmining/

Does that look like the one?

Interesting story - how many did you end up losing?

If it makes you feel any better, I got scammed out of 20btc around 2012. The important thing is to not let it keep you from doing well in the space now. Still plenty of opportunity available.

You could always get your feet wet by using a token creation service like Minereum or the like:

http://tokenservice.minereum.com/

The alts I'm mainly focused on right now are ETN, EDG, INT, KCS, DeepOnion and I've got a few sleepers that I hodl, but I'm not really expecting much out of them. I'm mostly focused on privacy coins and coins that have some sort of mobile/ internet of things integration. I expect they'll do well.

I still haven't figured out if the Dev is a genius or insane or some combination thereof, but I'm hodling my URHOC. Actually was compelled to buy 100,000 more today but they're not so cheap these days.

I might try it for the novelty of it, but I wouldn't make it a habit. I think it'd be more popular with a less tech savvy crowd as crypto becomes more mainstream.

If you're just getting started and you're overwhelmed - probably just stick with ETH and BTC.

Once you get some time under your belt, you can always use that to branch into some alts. I'm currently in ETN, DeepOnion, INT, KCS and EDG. I always read the whitepaper, look at the team and take a look at the community support to see who gets some of my cash. Best of luck!

Not sure I agree with your premise - but I hodl some precious metals and crypto. The reason I don't just dump it all into crypto is because although highly unlikely, the internet could always go down. That's the weak point of bitcoin and cryptos. My krugerrands aren't digital, lol.

If you hang out here long enough, then all you really need is an investment of time. I have invested $0 in actual fiat and have done quite well due to airdrops and signature campaigns. Fiat can speed the process up, but it's not a requirement.

I'm not sure if you can calculate circulating supply just based on the ICO numbers, the total supply, and price. If they're on coinmarketcap they'll have the numbers - although they're not always up to date. You'd probably have to rely on information from the token creators themselves.

I show people my bank account - just kidding, lol.

I find the best way to promote it is to just use it and let people know the positive ways it's affected my life. Once people start to learn about it, they start to become more interested.

I can relate - transaction fees and even attempting to day trade were also bad for me.

Inquiring minds want to know, which coins are you referencing? My 2108 portfolio is looking at ETN, EDG, INT and DeepOnion.

I honestly don't really trust technical analysis. I think most of it is smoke, mirrors, and luck which is why I tend to hodl. I have a sneaking suspicion that markets could be predicted with some accuracy using Mandelbrot sets (fractals) - but I keep putting off looking into it as it would be quite an undertaking. 

Very interesting story - I'm guessing he wasn't in charge of the private key or wallet, lol. He's lucky he still has access to it.

I'm also impressed Onion got a mention - granted you can tell by my sig that I'm biased, but this community is killer. Who else is getting free exposure like this? With the new Windows wallet released and the mobile wallets coming soon, 2018 is going to be the year of the Onion.

Sounds pretty interesting. I wish there were such a group in my area of the states.

Hmm, just saw your response as to where you're located. I'm not far down the road in Charleston, SC. What day of the week do you typically meet? If it's a weekend or Friday, I might make the trip.

At the end of my run with buying off of the silk road, I had about 20 BTC worth about $80 at the time. I sold it and ended up getting scammed on top of that. I still think about it, but I'm over it at this point. Se la vi.

I would probably look into blockfolio. I'm sure there's a few out there at this point, but that one will probably fill the needs of what you're looking for.

Agreed, I just purchased a nano ledger. If the coin or token isn't supported though but does have a wallet, I'd recommend a dedicated machine with each wallet in a separate virtual machine.

I agree with you on ETN - I think this is the year that the mobile experience and crypto are going to be tightly intertwined.

I'm also inclined to think DeepOnion (see sig) is going to have a great year.

Beyond that, I'm still checking out a few here and there. I'll be interested to see everyone else's picks.