you first have to prove that there exists a consensus algorithm that is actually better than PoW then discuss why bitcoin is not choosing that "better" algorithm.
so the real question here is "why do you think other consensus algorithms are better than PoW?"

this is not just about Goldman Sachs and it is not about their fraudulent activities. they might have been the most honest group in the world and still their speculation would have been the same.
the thing is, whenever you read some speculation like this which is mostly nonsense, you have to think about why they are bothering with releasing something like this. the answer is that all those who ever speculate about bitcoin like this want to make profit from their speculation! in this case they want to buy bitcoin cheap. not so long ago in 2017 they were publishing the exact opposite of current speculation and were talking about how great bitcoin is and how it will be worth A LOT more than what it was worth back then in the long run! why? because back then they were trying to sell their bitcoins at a higher price.

this has nothing to do with ATMs but I think eventually we will see some sort of bank notes that may be used instead of bitcoin and issued by banks or some centralized entity like that sanctioned by SEC or something. right now ETFs seem to be the hot topic which is basically similar to notes since you are not buying bitcoin but a virtual IOU from that company and I have to say it is a terrible thing for bitcoin. it brings all the centralization that we got rid off, back to bitcoin.

I'm afraid Tether is the only viable choice despite being a shady and high risk coin. other alternatives are either shadier or they are too small so they lack liquidity and in some cases even stability.
any trader is already facing a lot of risks with exchanges they are using so you have to ask yourself whether this additional risk is tolerable by  you. sometimes it depends on how much you are going to sell for these stable coins, sometimes it is the question of how long are you going to keep that coin. for instance you may want to escape a dump that is happening in one  day. sometimes you want to transfer money between exchanges. in these cases it is ok to use it.

I don't know what "scripts" are? do you mean something like programming scripts similar to trading bots?

in that case it is a good thing but only if you know how to use them correctly. like many other things, bots also require experience to be used effectively. and any script will need you to know how to use them and more importantly you should be familiar with the market because the decisions are still up to you and only making the right ones will mean profit.

I think the first thing to consider should be an estimation of how much money you are expecting to be paid through bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies if at all. for instance if you don't expect less than a couple of payments per month then going with a payment processor like Bitpay may not be the best idea. setting up a simple light (SPV) wallet such as Electrum and accepting payments that way is a much easier option. you can print out the QR code of a single address and stick it in front of the cashier with a bitcoin is accepted here sign so that if anyone wanted they can pay that way.
if it is more number of payments then you may want a more elaborate setup and possibly think about setting up a full node instead of an SPV wallet and generate a new address for each payment.
and if it is a lot of payments and you want the fiat equivalent so that you never have to worry about the fluctuations but also if you are ok with the fees they take from you then use Bitpay.

you don't have to be Satoshi Nakamoto to own 1 million bitcoin, not to mention that Satoshi owning 1 million is something of an estimate and is debatable.

in any case OP is the only one who is making this claim so far! and it is a very strange one at that. not just because of debates about whether he is satoshi or not or if he even has that much bitcoin to dump. but because WHY would he even do that now! he is releasing an altcoin soon and every idiot on the planet knows if bitcoin goes down altcoins get dumped hard.

not to mention that a bitcoin price drop at this point triggers a massive scale FOMO buy of bitcoin and to do that people have to pull their money from altcoins. in other words if bitcoin drops, people rush to bitcoin and his altcoin fails in its first day

actually lack of middle man and lack of reversabity if transactions is the factor of this decentralized payment system that is preventing a lot of different types of fraud! for example the merchants don't have to worry about the charge back scams that is the most common scam of the old payment systems. or they never have to worry about being paid with a stolen credit card and then bank taking that money away from them!

what the hell?!!!
I am not really familiar with EtherDelta, I have only heard of it and read a quick description but if it is truly a decentralized exchange then why is the developer paying SEC money? that doesn't make any sense!

"signal" is a pretty word for a "pump group".
a couple of years ago the pump groups were very popular. we even had a couple of topics here on bitcointalk. I believe one of them was called "ryan pumper". but eventually people figured out that these things were big scams so they stopped giving their money to them willingly.
that meant they had to change their ways. so they started masking the fact that they are pump groups and started using things like "signal groups" as a way to get the same old attention and abuse the fact that this market is filled with newcomers who have no idea what to do and need someone to take their hands and walk them through things.

I actually believe that the opposite is true! looking at charts in long term helps you predict bitcoin price a lot easier than looking at them in short term and trying to predict the short term movement because in short term it is impossible to predict bitcoin. for instance you can not say if price is going to rise in 1 day from now or 1 month from now or... but looking at long term you can clearly see that the pattern is shaping in a way that bitcoin is getting ready for the rise so being above $10k in at most 6 months is predictable.

if you read the topic  before making a post here you can see that somebody already posted a link that seems to be answering your first question here.
as for the second one, I assume that there are two reasons for this. first is the fact that people always love making drama and are too fast with branding stuff with things such as "censorship" which is clearly what these people have been doing. second is that I think the content creators saw this as an opportunity to advertise themselves while playing with user's emotions.

in addition to that, the bitcoin market compared to gold market is tiny. the price is determined on exchanges that are small too. we have seen the high volatility which is the product of that. it doesn't have to be manipulation for price to swing like that up and down.

all these theories aside, I believe the "big boys" are already in. but they have used bitcoin as a place where they parked their money because it is decentralized and nobody including banks or government can touch it. and they will continue doing that. but if things like ETF become a thing they may start thinking about bitcoin seriously and as a way to make money. in which case we may see even more manipulation and swings. which is not what we want. and maybe that is why whey are not accepting ETF.

well you first have to understand that topic you are talking about before you can claim that your "design will open eyes"! from what I can see based on your comments here you have no understanding of how elliptic curve cryptography works and what these fields that are defined by a specific elliptic curve mean. I suggest that you first educate yourself about this topic then come back and think about what you just wrote in this topic...

this is what I also believe. and that is why I always reserve my judgment whenever I hear a news like this. in the past enough people have used the name of bitcoin only for gaining some attention and hype that we can't trust anyone who does it anymore. besides what we want is action not just talks. they can talk all they want but as long as there is nothing happening that talk is also meaningless.

I haven't read such news but in any case this has nothing to do with bitcoin. this sounds like a terrorist act rather than being an extortion and this would be the first time they ask for bitcoin. in the past there has been thousands of cases that they did the same and asked for fiat since fiat like US dollar is easier to use by the terrorists and is impossible to track. that is why what you posted here is strange to hear.

no, SEC will most probably reject this ETF and any new ETF in the near future for about a year or two and will not change their stance against bitcoin and its ETFs anytime soon.

and no even if they approve this ETF there will not be any "big" bull runs because you can not change the trend with a simple news. what you can do is that the news can speed up the process. for example now we are in a fixed trend of accumulation then soon after a small rise followed by testing of resistance. and then we have bull run if the resistance is broken.
what positive news can do at this point is that it can speed up the accumulation to reach its end and the "small" rise to begin.

in a way this is an obvious prediction for bitcoin. we all know that next year things will surely change and the rallies will eventually begin. most probably in early 2018 but what we don't know is when exactly and how big the first rise is going to be.
as for institutional investors, it seems to me that they are trying to advertise their own services and get those kind of investors in their own service not that they are actually predicting an increase!

investors who are already in the market and are trading are always more knowledgeable than before. and they never FOMO buy. the FOMO buys which make the price jump up mostly happen because of newbies. and newbies come in when the rises are already happening and the hype is at its max. that is also why we have the big drops/crashes with every rise that bitcoin has. but when rises are small the crashes are also small like the dozens of 20-30% crashes that bitcoin had in 2017.

this is exactly the biggest problem that decentralized exchanges are facing: people prefer to stick to centralized ones and don't use decentralized exchanges! at the same time they expect a perfect solution!

well that won't work because if you and I don't use them, they won't improve because they need to be tried out so that the bugs can be found or at the very least they can improve their platform using our suggestions. not to mention that the volume won't go up as long as everyone sticks to centralized exchanges while getting scammed by them!