New? Ethereum already process more transactions then all other cryptos combined and holds more value on their blockchain then bitcoin.

Coins in the top 100 or top 10 are there for a reason. In my opinion find a coin with the best platform for developers because that is the network that will get used the most and will therefore be the most valuable *cough* ethereum *cough*.

Ether hands down. The network is so amazing to use and there are just so many devs on the network now that will spur innovation.

Yes to cryptos being mainstream, not necessarily for Bitcoin, it has to be faster and cheaper if it wants to become a world currency. However I do see a whole freedom of choice when it comes to currency like we have with the internet and a relative freedom of choice for the information we ingest.

I would argue when it comes down to it a lot of coins are assets. The token/coin represents an application on a network of computers. Let's take Ethereum for example. You can use the network to enact contracts thus creating real world value. You can send code to the network to be able to be accessed and have functions called upon from anywhere in the world. This has value to me and takes ether to do, so ether is an asset that will eventually be backed by the usefulness of the Ethereum network. There are a lot of utility tokens as well, for example golem which price will be backed by the usefulness of the golem supercomputer.

I most certainly do. I think we have to change our view on ICOs also, they are when it come down to it a startup and should be treated as such. They can fail at things but most importantly they must build measure learn. Pivot when they can, build an MvP and grow slowly.

You are going to get eaten up a little on transaction fees with that amount so I would recommend 1-2 coins. I would also recommend long holds which mean pick projects you believe in, team, tech etc. I will always recommend Ethereum they have done a great job fostering developer interest by being the first platform to have a virtual machine. They have a great team and a significant portion of the innovation in this sphere in the next few years will be on their platform.

Airdropping is free coins sent to your address. If you have an Ethereum address sometimes you will just look and see new kind of worthless ERC20 tokens in them. I have had a friend click a website for one and then have his wallet hacked. Realistically he shouldn't have kept his coins/tokens on his laptop but I would avoid anyone giving our "free" money. A better way to earn tokens is to find a somewhat reputable ICO and check out their bounty program.

So many reasons a lot very practical but lets go ideological for fun. I like to compare Satoshi and what he did to Martin Luther and what he did when he posted the translation of the bible to the church wall. Took the power of knowledge away from the powerful and gave it to the people. Satoshi took the power of money away from the powerful and gave it to the people as well. This led to the separation of church and state and I can't wait until we get a separation of money and state.

Its supply is not infinite per-say. It will eventually reduce inflation to cover the amount of coins lost (spoilage). The point is that Ethereum's value does not come from scarcity yet from actual usage of the network. The network allows you to do amazing things and if ether's price increased exponentially that would make the network useless. That being said the price to use the network will decrease as changes are made.

Yes, for example ethereum allows you to use a Turing complete language and is a great platform for writing smart contracts. A lot of these "altcoins" are actually utility tokens which are awesome, they are like money backed by the usefulness of a certain software. However, yes there are more than we need but at the same time not enough, eventually the strongest will survive.

I use the ethereum platform a lot and it is great to use, there are a lot of developer tools. I understand the scalability problems very well and know they are working to fix that. I read through some replies because I am curious about other platforms. Apparently Waves seems hard to use and no ability to make smart contracts this is a big deal. Ethereum will fix its problems eventually and it takes time and effort to switch to a new platform, developers are not waiting around for one to be built they are using what they have now, learning becoming entrenched building projects. At least I am, a new platform would have to be significantly better immediately for me to consider switching over.

An ERC20 token really solves those problems. I personally love utility tokens I think you should look into BAT and Golem.

I joined their telegram channel a few weeks ago and literally 15 min after they cancelled the fork. Which was a bummer because I was curious how they were going to prevent infinite loops from being sent to the network, with ethereum gas limits prevent that.

The parity kill was in a contract not an individual account, no your account can not be killed. Your funds should be safe they are not stored on MEW they are stored on the blockchain and the only copy of the keys to access it are on your USB. The points of failure here are your computer before it broke, so if someone was watching your screen and already has your keys however this scenario is really unlikely. The second point of failure is the ethereum blockchain itself which of course is possible to be hacked but is some of the strongest protection available on the planet. Your funds are safer now than fiats in a bank.

Mining will not stop although it may change in nature. When the cap of certain coins are reached then miners will get paid by transaction fees.

Long term Ether for sure. It is easy to build on has thousands of tokens, more than a few in the top 20. You can do so much with it and it will only keep getting better with the forks. There is no set amount but as the network gets more useful the use will increase to compensate for that. 

This question goes under the assumption that Ethereum is stagnant and has no plans for growth. The Ethereum killer will be Ethereum. When PoS, sharding and tight coupling come into play it will revolutionize the Ethereum network. Your metaphor is a little flawed because you are comparing an application to a protocol, however, some companies grew adapted and are still the top of the market today, think of Ethereum as amazon. Amazon today is almost unrecognizable to that in 1996.

Eth, BAT, Golem, IOTA

If you still consider it an altcoin then yes ethereum because I can use it in ways I never thought possible.