0. decide whether you want to use private key or mnemonic in your paper wallet. (the later is better since it can create as many keys as you want)
1. choose a tool that can be trusted to create the key safely. any popular wallet that has an export option is excellent for this. this choice depends on step 0 since not all tools can create mnemonics, for example bitcoin core (only private keys) or Electrum (both private keys and mnemonic).
2. choose an encryption tool and learn how to use it correctly. this must be an open source tool that is capable of strong encryption using AES. if your step 0 choice is to use a single private key you can choose a tool that supports BIP38 encryption and skip this step.
3. build your step 1 choice from source or download the binaries and verify its signature.
4. download a Linux distribution and verify its signature.
5. burn the Linux OS on a DVD, disconnect your network and boot up that DVD.
6. run the result (the "tool") of step 3 in that live OS, create a new wallet export the key/mnemonic
7. encrypt the result of step 6 with the tool chosen in step 2
8. print the encrypted result. create backups and write down the password separately in another secure place.
9. laminate the paper or use a metal plate and engrave your encrypted result on it and store it in a safe place that is not exposed to things that can damage it.
10. (important step) reboot the same DVD and try to recover the key you just created using your password and see if you can get the same address (this makes sure you have written things down correctly). if step 0 choice was a mnemonic you can send some coins to the first address and spend it using an offline/online combination of master private key (on offline backup) and master public key (on the online machine) to also test spending.

don't be afraid to create more than one paper wallet this way for testing and send money to and from that wallet before you create one final one that you end up using.

we could bend over backwards a little bit and implement it using the bitcoin smart contracts.
but since bitcoin scripts don't have the option to access the "amount" field of input or output the payer has to make deposits into the address with the amount they want to pay at the beginning of the time and the receiver can spend it at the end of the time. it woks something like this:
Redeem script:
create a P2SH address from this and fund it at the beginning of the month. at the end of the month the receiver can easily spend the coins in this address. the second clause above is for receiver to take back their money if it wasn't claimed after 30 days but only be able to claim it after 31 days.

that is very true but at the same time nobody was preventing anybody from owning bitcoin when it was worth nothing and could be mined 50 at a time by just running your PC and using your CPU. again nobody was preventing them from buying it when it was worth practically nothing and you could buy lots of it with something like 10 bucks.

this means anyone who moans about others having more than them have noone to blame but themselves.

this is total nonsense.
anybody should be free to do with their own money as they choose. if a country is so worried about money exiting its boarders then they should try to change their country and create the incentive to keep the money inside and also attract foreign investment. by placing restrictions they will be erasing the problem instead of solving it.

as for your "abuse cases", don't worry bitcoin is not used for any of them since fiat is dominating in that area since it provides both ease of use and a lot higher anonymity. there is also gigantic US banks that help them launder their money in trillions of dollars so the criminals have no incentive to look for alternatives!

if anything it should be doubly prohibited to use altcoins that are stealing the bitcoin name and have the potential of fooling newcomers into thinking they have any sort of relationship with bitcoin. that includes any altcoin that contains the name or any token and it shouldn't be limited to the services board in my opinion.

testing things like this are very easy. all it takes is for you to run bitcoin core in testnet mode (there should be a shortcut in your start menu called Bitcoin Core (testnet)), create a wallet there and send some coins to a P2PK output then try spending those outputs. keep in mind that it requires syncing and current size is 23 GB.

if you don't know how to send coins to P2PK (faucets don't accept it) just post your testnet pubkey here and i'll send you some.

there is nothing to be done about the first two since that is the design of Electrum protocol.
but the third one is not an issue unless user always connects to the same (single) node, otherwise if they connect to randomly selected nodes each time, this won't be an issue.
the last one is also easily mitigated by running Electrum through Tor since there are multiple Electrum Tor nodes to use.

i am curious about this myself too.
but i suppose a better solution is using advanced bloom filters/.

i guess we now have the answer to the question "why is Coinomi closed source?".
they keep fooling people by giving an unacceptable answer as "it is to prevent malicious looking copies pop up", but it seems like it is because they don't want others to just fork their wallet and add their own coin easily which is pretty simple considering majority of altcoins are copies of another coin!
basically this is their revenue and they are protecting it by keeping the wallet closed source. there is of course other shady behavior from them in the past that has made the wallet a "must avoid".

you may have mining confused with something else! there is little to no knowledge required in mining and that has not changed for many years, if anything things are getting easier as people just buy the mining equipment and use them as "plug and play" devices requiring very little setup.
not to mention that what OP is talking about is not exactly mining but staking that requires even less knowledge. you basically buy and store the altcoin to receive profit!

this theory is not new. basically each time we have been about to start a big rise people make the same claims about needing mass adoption to rise above $1, $10, $20, $200, $1000, $5000, $10000 and now again with $20000 and yet bitcoin keeps setting new records every couple of years.
it is because the adoption is already happening and it doesn't need to be some crazy scale adoption to set a new ATH. what we are getting is more than enough for it. the mass adoption is needed to reach $10 million per coin.

LTC has been around for nearly as long as bitcoin has been and so far it doesn't really have any usages since at the end of the day it is still a copy of a better currency.
bcash is also the same (being a copy) but it also has 2 more disadvantages the render it useless. it is both centralized and mutable.

desktop is referred to PCs rather than indicating the operating system. you can run a Linux OS for a much better security than Windows while Windows itself isn't insecure. i also said a desktop wallet on an airgap computer which is the ultimate security if done right.

additionally you can always cut the connection between your PC and the rest of the world (no internet, no lan, no other form of connection) a mobile device on the other hand is not going to be disconnected ever, instead it will always have some sort of connection.

this tool is one of the oldest ones around and it is not doing anything complicated. it is a very straight forward RNG usage, pubkey derivation, hashing and encoding. all easy and simple. chances of having a bug (glitch) are very small.

when bitcoin reaches mass adoption you no longer need to exchange it for fiat, it is already a currency and by then it will be used by majority (by the masses) so you simply use it as you would any other currency without needing to swap it with another one.

as for regulation, you are confusing it with banning. they are very different things. i don't think bitcoin will ever be banned by any more than 1% of the world (just as it is now). but it will be accepted as a legal way of payment just as many countries have already done it. that means regulations as there are regulations for fiat.

the problem is that out of all those who go on other platforms (such as this forum) to trade bitcoin using paypal, a great percentage were scammers who were trying to get the irreversible bitcoin and reverse the reversible paypal payment to make profit that way. i don't think this change affects that market.

1. are you sure that you used the real bitaddress.org and not some similar looking website?
2. when you say saved it offline, you should have downloaded the source code from github not ctrl+s the website you had open in browser.
3. a private key can create multiple different types of addresses. make sure that you are deriving the same address type (checking the first character would be enough for starters. it would be "1", "3" or "bc"). you have to explicitly tell the wallet your address type when you import the key into it.

for this and any other future versions it would be a good idea to check out the Electrum release notes on github[1] to see what were the major changes and bug fixes in the new versions that you would be missing out on if you skipped the upgrade. there could be a case that you also face if you are using the older version (eg. the issues with PSBT that keep being fixed in each version).

another indication is the version numbers. a major version change indicates big changes (eg. from 3.x.x to 4.x.x) that may even be backward incompatible, a minor version change usually indicates big changes too that you may need to upgrade still (eg. x.0.x to x.1.x), the third number (called patch, revision, etc.) indicates very small changes and some unimportant bug fixes (eg. x.x.0 to x.x.1).[2]
although this is not as accurate as looking at the changelog (and the code itself), and although every developer uses their own defined versioning system but it is still a good indication.

[1] https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/RELEASE-NOTES
[2] https://semver.org/

probably by manipulating block times. all these times are measured using the time field in the block headers and a miner could put fake timestamps there within the reasonable range without getting it rejected (i believe it is 2 hours difference from real time).
although i believe it is easier to manipulate the difficulty by postponing the readjustment and the halving than it is to bringing it closer. all it takes is shutting down your miner (removing hashrate).

this would be my conclusion also.
there are some people who think just because something is profitable they can also make profit if they enter that scene, but since they have no understanding of the business aspects of it, have no experience in running a successful business, are too lazy to work on it and improve it,... they simply fail. we even saw some discussion on bitcointalk with someone who was trying to build an exchange and had no understanding of the business aspects!

we see the same thing in different fields too. for example a couple of years ago there was "dice site fever" and within a couple of months we saw dozens of new dice sites be created and 99% of them failed and died.

there is also another problem in the exchange business which is people stick to the big exchanges even if they are the shittiest and shadiest services. for now the Binance exchange has taken over the altcoin market and practically controls it so there is no room for an alternative which is another reason why any new poorly designed exchange fails.

will you also chuckle if he said "sky is blue"?

bitcoin will move as it supposed to regardless of US election and regardless of who wins it, neither of the candidates have any kind of special stance towards bitcoin to have any kind of significant effects on its price rise!
besides who cares about what people like Max Keiser said, have you forgotten that he was in the same campaign as Tom Lee predicting an ATH during the bubble pop and bear market of 2018 just to be seen?!

that is my assumption too, they want to get in on the money making train and get their share for now. but at the same time, they are basically acting like a custodial wallet and a "bank" since they don't seem to have any plans on letting their users take the bitcoin out of their account and to their local (eg desktop) wallets where they control the keys after they dumped their fiat.