At the heart of innovation is research, and research is carried out due to perceived inadequacies, cars were created because bicycles and motorcycles could no longer be adequate to move far distances, planes were created cos cars proved inadequate also, likewise rockets, so man could go to the moon.

Telephones were created to solve the problem of time wasted in getting letters delivered.

The thing with innovation is that it perceives a problem, a research is made to solve that problem and after solving the problem, another problem is created that also needs to be solved, hence innovation never stops.

Bitcoin is a crptocurrency, it's a digital form of currency, it's far different from the regular fiat currencies, it's decentralized(no body controls it) as opposed to fiat currencies that's controlled by the government and banks.

As for mining been centralized, anyone may be possible to  a mining rig, but cannot control or hijack bitcoin transactions, all miners do is to validate the transaction, they have no effect on the price and doesn't make bitcoin any centralized.

And judging by their last two games, I think they now are my odds on favorite to take the trophy home(Abuja), they've stepped up their game in the knock out stage and that's where it matters most.

Algeria will definitely be a hard nut to crack, but I kinda love how Rohr has set up his attacking team in the last games.
Looking out for that game, it's a must watch .

People gamble for diverse reasons, it could be to raise funds, it could be for fun or leisure, etc
The more one gambles, the more difficult it becomes to stop it, it's true so many individuals are actually addicted to the act of gambling, but controlling such addiction is needed or else sooner or later such person will lose far more than they bargained for.

Those real life experiences OP mentioned aren't gambling in any way, those are actually individual choices.

That's if there are any actually, and even if they do exist, they can only manipulate the price for a short period of time, not totally run it down to zero as you claim possible.
Bitcoin cannot even be likened to a country in any way possible, this network is decentralized, no one can control it, there are no leaders(whales) and it's future seems bright judging by how it's doom has been predicted time and again, yet failed.
The first rule is never to invest more than you can lose, every investor should be aware of that.

You cannot get any exact number of persons who actually bought it sold at that price even though there may be quite a substantial number of them.

When you talk about mentality in trading, you need to understand that it differs, every investor has his target, and most times when it's reached, they go ahead and sell, hence they miss out on any future rise in price.

And I wonder why he or she did, even though giving out merits are subjective, I do not see any reason why it should be given out for generic questions on "how can I earn merits"
This same questions have been asked and answered a thousand times already, and anyone still asking such is either not reading or doesn't want to. If OP can ponder on this question, then I think he'll understand how he'll get merits from others.

The best thing to do is not to reply on generic threads, it's always likely that either the entire thread would get deleted(alongside your post, though without a direct message to you).or your quoted reply to an insubstantial message in the first place.

What i do is totally avoid useless threads that I predict may get deleted or not reply to one word/line/not properly articulated replies.

While this may be true, it may not entirely or even be part of the reasons why bitcoin is currently falling at the moment.
The impact or effect of whales seems to be one very common excuse for bitcoin drop in price amongst enthusiasts.

But even before we came to know about whales, and that's even if they actually do exist, the coin has always been volatile, one minute it's up and in 24hrs we can experience as high as 10% drop, it's nothing to fidget about.

Just remember to always pull out when you've actually reached your target profit, or else just hodl on.

You'll have to agree with me that quite a substantial number ask just for the sake of it, and talking about stickies, there's one over there on the beginners board: "newbies read before posting", if they actually did, they wouldn't be asking afterall.

Even if one is giving let's say the said 1 merit every anniversary, that'll mean taking 10 years to get to member rank, 100 years to full member, 250 years to snr member, 500 years to hero member and a thousand to legendary. It actually shouldn't be this difficult.

I do not think too many people(crypto enthusiasts)are too concerned about this, at the early stages, they probably were, but as the system has grown immensely with satoshi staying anonymous, then I think it's not much of a problem, except for curiosity sake.

I do not think last season can be said to be a successful one for Chelsea, based on their standard, the board expected more from him, that's the more reason why even before the close of the season, there was talks of removing him already.
I don't think this is true, at least not in this coming season, as Chelsea are currently on a transfer ban, losing a player like hazard, without being able to replace him, is a negative one for Chelsea and they're definitely going to feel the impact of his loss this coming season.

This is very correct, this is the sort of games I usually stay away or go through proper research before trying to place a bet or predict them.
When two weak teams play, it's more difficult to choose between them, this stages are pretty tricky.
I think having the thread every season would be best, and it'll help to keep it clean and reduce the possibility of it turning to a spam thread.

It's become the order of the day, strange users sending random messages to users, hoping they get to defraud one or two, they usually come in disguise of one discount or the other, I think this sort of scams has become too obvious and only a very few percentage of users can fall for it.

What I do is to simply block users who send me such messages, I do not even try to engage myself in any conversation with them, I immediately report spam and block.

Seems like that to me, it's an arduous tast to run any forum of any kind, firstly to generate traffic which is the lifeline of the forum is very difficult.

Most forums do not last long as its use case becomes obsolete and irrelevant, bitcointalk has really come a long way and is here to stay as its developers have kept up with upgrading the system. As for this betting forum it looks as good as dead.

By reading before posting, newbies should always read before posting, that's the most proper thing to do, and if you're new to a forum, the first step should be to understand the nuances that guide such forum, and the only way to do that is by reading.

But the annoying part is that most of this newbies are here for the wrong reasons, they were told they could make few dollars from the forum, hence they come here with that mindset and make a mess of themselves.

I think at the initial stage, the forum was popular because it provided an avenue for enthusiasts to discuss really technical issues about the bitcoin, as well as giving trading strategies and techniques to support others, it was indeed a forum then and more so why it was popular then.

But really at this stage now, I think it's popular because it has an option to earn, if you remove that option, I think the forum would lose popularity as well as a lot of plastic members.

It depends on the part of the world you're from, where I come from people of all ages understand the bitcoin and it's blockchain technology, and not all countries are laden with aged leaders.

Crypto ban didn't start today, since bitcoin became a currency so many countries have tried to stop it's trade in their country and it's definitely not due to the fact that they have old leaders, every country has policy makers and it's not just the president alone.

Every user is allowed freedom of speech, as long as its meaningful and coherent, read the rules properly,low value stuff and spam posts are not acceptable in here.

So many users are willing to give advices and share their opinions to others, but it must be on questions that are worth it.
Not every question actually should be asked here, Google also has a part to play in assisting newcomers.

More often than not, it's "greed" that lures enthusiasts(individuals)to fall victim to scam.Thats why scammers usually embellish such messages with one discount or the other, and this makes it more attractive though too good to be true.
It's still inimical for one who clicks on such links, if you click on a suspicious or an evil link, the hacker(depends though)already has an access to your device and can steal your assets and funds.