Anyway, they have their right of speech. 

Idiots who have plenty of money to waste will invest in such currencies and then lose all of their investment. Only a few altcoins looks promising in the long term, including Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Monero. Even the long term survival of Ripple looks doubtful to me.

Another false flag here. The statement was not made by any of the government officials. On the other hand, it was made by the head of a small private bank (GN Bank) in Ghana. I don't even know why we are giving such importance to his statement. Even inside Ghana, not many people have heard about Papa-Wassa Chiefy Nduom.

It depends on your risk taking capability. In normal case, I would never advice filling your entire portfolio with just two assets (gold and Bitcoin). You should diversify more, and invest in other assets such as treasury bonds, equities, NCDs, ETFs, mutual funds, and real estate. And secondly, you must never fill more than 20% of your portfolio with a high risk asset such as Bitcoin. 

I am using the Blockchain.info online wallet for Bitcoin Cash, and so far I am happy with its performance. I just want them to add the other forked coins, such as Bitcoin Gold, Super Bitcoin, Bitcoin United and Bitcoin Unlimited.

1. BTC to physical cash: In my place, there are several buyers who will pay you in physical cash for your coins. You can identify and contact such traders from Localbitcoins.

2. BTC to fiat through bank accounts: The most common method when you sell through exchanges.

3. BTC to physical cash through ATMs: When you sell through pre-loaded debit cards.

4. BTC to fiat through mobile wallets: When you sell BTC for PayTM, Mobikwik.etc

5. BTC for gift cards: Possible in forums such as BCT.

Earlier I used to think that it will be impossible for the altcoins to exist without Bitcoin. But now, it looks like I was wrong. The Bitcoin dominance is at an all time low level, with the market share hovering around 36%. Adding insult to injury, now another crypto-currency (XRP) has breached the psychologically important $100 billion market cap.

Actually I am more worried about the dropping market share than the exchange rates. If I remember correctly, then the Bitcoin dominance was more than 60% just a few weeks back. Now it has dropped to around 36%, with the Ripple and Ethereum market-shares growing at the expense of Bitcoin. Rather than the temporary dips in the exchange rate, this is the real threat to the long-term survival of Bitcoin.

Altcoins are not recognized either as a currency or as an asset in the United States. So only when you involve fiat cash in the transactions, they become taxable. So my guess is that we don't need to pay any taxes on our airdropped coins. The situation can change however, if the senate passes a law making crypto-coin airdrops taxable.

I don't think that you are being very accurate here. Bitcoin is illegal in Bangladesh and the authorities have started taking actions against the Bitcoin users there. The same is the case with Nepal as well. Recently the police arrested 7 Bitcoin traders and sent them to prison. On top of this, Bitcoin is completely illegal in countries such as Kyrgyzstan and North Korea.

I am not sure. I guess there were attempts to create digital currencies even before Bitcoin. But none of these earlier attempts were successful and all of them died down in a matter of few months or at the most a couple of years. A well known example is that of E-gold (a currency which was invented by Gold & Silver Reserve Inc.). They operated from 1996 for more than a decade, before closing down in 2009.

The market share is dropping with every passing hour. Right now it stands at 36.1%. Ripple is closing on the $100 billion market cap figure, and Ethereum is not far behind. Bitcoin Cash too would have joined the rally, but unfortunately the crackdown in South Korea resulted in the exchange rates dropping by almost 20% during the last few days.

Can't agree with your post. Bitcoin will not make everyone rich. The early adopters might benefit out of the high exchange rates, but their numbers may be quite low. How many people in the world own more than 1 BTC? I read somewhere in this forum that the number is around 350,000 (If I remember correctly, this is given in a thread made by rpietila). This number represents less than 0.005% of the world population.

OK.. I agree that the Bitcoin prices went up from $10,400 to $13,000 in a few days. But do you remember what happened during the previous week? The prices had dropped from $19,000 per coin to $10,400 per coin, which represents a decline of more than 40%. The attractiveness of gold is that it is immune from such high volatility.

Don't you think that you are taking a huge risk if you devote 2/3rd of your investment in to alts and ICOs? My advice would be to keep at least 50% in Bitcoins and at least half of the remaining in various forked coins such as Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold and B2X. ICOs can be very profitable, but you need to do a lot of research before investing in them.

It is quite difficult to answer this question. Old people generally refrain from investing in high-risk assets due to two reasons. The first reason is that they are no longer looking to increase or multiply their wealth. The second reason is that they can't afford to take very high risk, as they are beyond the working age. If something goes wrong, then they will run out of money very quickly.

There is no tax on Bitcoins, but you definitely have to pay the taxes once you convert Bitcoins to cash. This tax can be ordinary income tax, if you are not claiming long-term capital gains. As such there is no specific tax law regarding profit from crypto-currency. But right now, the taxes which are applicable on the sale of digital assets will apply on Bitcoins.

What if it goes down to $8,000 per coin? If it can decline from $19,000 to $10,400, then for sure it can also fall from $14,000 to $8,000. Do you have any doubts regarding it? My opinion is that if you want to purchase Bitcoins, then it is fine. But don't expect the prices to go up to $19K in a few days. Be ready to hold your coins for a few months, or even a few years.

A lot of them does, but very few want to make their investment details public. In fact, none of the big Bitcoin investors will make their investment public. Because doing so makes them more vulnerable to hackers and wallet thieves. And now Bitcoin is attracting a lot of media coverage, and that means that even more billionaires will be investing in BTC in the near future.

I don't now whether the forks are good for Bitcoin or not. But they have been good for me. Check the exchange rates of Bitcoin and the various forked coins (as per Coinmarketcap):

1. Bitcoin: $15,574 (per coin)
2. Bitcoin Cash: $3,012
3. Bitcoin Gold: $302
4. Bitcoin Diamond (futures): $62
5. Bitcoin Unlimited (fut.): $238
6. Bitcoin United: $550
7. Super Bitcoin: $337

There are 7-8 other forked coins as well, but I am not listing them. In total, if you had 1 BTC on August 1 2017, then you will be having more than $20K worth of coins right now.

I would advice the same. Never concentrate all of your wealth in a single asset. You need to diversify. I am not saying that you need to dump half of your BTC. You can convert small amounts, such as 10% or 20% to other assets such as bullion or equities.