I noticed that most of the coins/tokens that was launch now are almost behind their ICO value by almost 25-50%, Basically if you purchased in the ICO someone could even double their holdings with the same amount that you used during your ICO purchased. So for me it will be wise to purchase in the exchanger but the risk is few of them wants to delayed their market launch due to market situation.
I also noticed that if the bounties are released in the same date with the investors the possible scenario is the coin/token will going to dump once it hits the exchanger, so better sell and rebuy once it dips because no matter what they say the bounties are free money and someone which is not a hodler will going to sell her/his holding once the coin/token hits the market ( always check the realease date of the bounties). I'm not an expert but tried to share my insights according to my experience, I'm an small ICO investors and the same time bounty hunter. Thanks and Godbless!!!

I think now fixed deposit interest rates are less than 5% p.a in USA and Europe. In India fixed deposit rates are 6.5%.

Gold and Silver gives average profit of 8% to 12% per year. Silver will most likely give 20% to 30% profit each year from here on to reach $60/ounce.

Example:

Profit for gold and silver for year 2016 is 12%.

Profit for gold and silver for year 2017 is 0%

Profit for gold and silver for year 2018 is 8%

Profit for gold and silver for year 2019 is 16%

So average profit for 4 years is +9%

How secured/safe are investments in gold and silver if you decide to remove/withdraw your money from banks fixed deposits and invest them in Gold and silver ??

A serious subject! (Theft of portfolios)
Airdrop Scam.
These days there is a promotion of some of the erydrobates of the coins and some are victims of registration and pay the bill that the loss of his portfolio.
briefly :
When you register Airdrop and you are asked to enter your wallet or insert the private-key or click on the wallet link to make sure you complete your registration in the Airdrop, cancel your work and know that there is a theft of your data. Some scammers create a site similar to Myetherwallet. Or add to the main site of the portfolio and then click on the link in the Adurdop, which will take you to your wallet here steal your data, especially the pre-emptive portfolio

Notice :

Do not open your wallet except through the official website of the portfolio
https://myetherwallet.com
Beware of e-mails that have an invitation to register in a website or e-mail.
For example, airdrop Scam is the same way to steal data and also sends an e-mail (invitation to register) which is now widespread these days and many have fallen victim to it
https://www.eosgas.io/kyc/
Please pay attention and caution
good luck for everbody.

Original post by: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1955384

topic: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4754508.0

I started to like crypto and being an enthusiast with it lately. I had read many articles around in the internet and found some good attributes regarding on the  different kinds of crypto in the crypto market. And i found out that ethereum is a platform which also supports mostly of the altcoins being introduce by  its mean using ICO. Conducting a project from the crowds budget and in return from the contributions are the giving of tokens instead. And afterwards the tokens will be used in an exchange they prefer to partner with. That is why i am taking credit to ether as best crypto next to bitcoin because of the platforms being used by most of the crypto as well. What do you think? isn't it ether is the best crypto?

This and other questions are part of a questionnaire that we, a research team from the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL) are doing. It seeks to understand the drivers' usage of cryptocurrencies by the end user such as you and me. Considering 10 different dimensions, from perceived usefulness to privacy to profitability, among others.
It takes on average 3 minutes to answer.

Here is the link for the questionnaire: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/cryptocurrencies_usage

More details if you want to know more about it:
For this, it was created a questionnaire with Likert type scale questions. These dimensions will then be used to construct a model, based on the traditional Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) developed in 1989, and some others developed afterwards, but with more adapted to the cryptocurrencies ecosystem. Then it will be done some data analysis and compilation of results.
This questionnaire has some focus on the financial area, but this does not mean it is the most important. We know there are some other dimensions not being addresses in this questionnaire, such as decentralisation/government influence, that may be addressed in the future.
After analysing and publishing the thesis and papers I will post on this forum with infographics and the most important conclusions of the study.

There are no open questions, but you can post here or message me about this.

Thank you for your time! Best Regards,
The University Institute of Lisbon research team

This is my new article, I am posting it here for discussion, thx for your comments. original article medium link is https://medium.com/@paul.fabozzi/what-makes-bitcoin-so-special-6734b54f689

What Makes Bitcoin So Special
And why a “better” version of Bitcoin won’t replace it so easily

Bitcoin, an invention by the anonymous cypherpunk Satoshi Nakamoto is the worlds first successful cryptocurrency. Prior to Bitcoin it wasn’t possible to pay anyone on the internet without having intermediaries or middle men involved. Shortly after its introduction many variants of it arrived on the scene called altcoins, with promises of faster confirmations, better scaling, better privacy features, and with more robust smart contract support. However Bitcoin holds far more value than any of the newcomers. Where does this value come from, and why do so many consider Bitcoin far superior? This article will explore some of the properties of bitcoin and how they come together to make something truly unique, and not very easy to duplicate.

Decentralization

There would be nothing special about Bitcoin if it were not decentralized. Its that its decentralized that gives it such appeal, nobody is in control, and that’s good. Its natural to want to solve problems by centralizing the solution, but as you do this you create centralized power, which is basically what bitcoin was invented to replace. Bitcoin was invented to be the peoples money, not a crypto PayPal.

Decentralization is not always black and white, or yes/no. It’s a scale, and this scale is always under constant pressure. Sometimes centralization attempts are hidden from view, disguised as scaling upgrades. Bitcoin has resisted these well-coordinated attacks on the network successfully.

Bitcoin was born in the wild of the cypherpunk internet back corners, and has grown decentralized from there organically. Its, still anonymous inventor (Satoshi Nakamoto) disappeared shortly after starting up the network, and since then the software that runs the nodes are developed and maintained by thousands of volunteers and contributors. Even its development is the most decentralized.

Decentralization also means there is nobody to ask permission to use it, nobody who can sensor it, no way to keep transactions inside real world borders, nobody who has ability to seize funds or reverse transactions, nobody to ask permission to start a new application or startup on it. These qualities are all features, not bugs.

Bitcoin has the highest overall level of decentralization among all cryptocurrencies.

Immutability

One of Bitcoins most valuable properties is the immutability of its blockchain. To be immutable means it cannot be changed, and having an unchangeable ledger is something that has never been possible before bitcoin. This is where bitcoin and all of the other coins are different, none of the other coins or altcoins can claim to have a truly immutable ledger or blockchain. Bitcoins consensus algorithm is what regulates and controls how bitcoin works, and it’s very difficult to change consensus without all the interested parties agreeing. There is no president or founder who can wave their magic wand and force consensus changes upon the network like all the other altcoins have. There is no one person, or group of people who are in control of bitcoin, and that’s good.

A certain level of inertia in regards to the consensus algorithm exists in bitcoin that is beneficial to its immutability. You generally don’t want to have a system that can be changed very quickly on a whim containing Billions of USD worth of value. For instance, if it was decided by the miners that the mining reward needed to be doubled, such a proposal would be met with great resistance from the other interested parties, and would fail. (*Bitcoins interested parties include bitcoin holders, wallet software developers, miners, developers, merchants, application developers, and others. )

As a side effect, while bitcoin adoption grows it will be harder and harder to get network upgrades into consensus to support increased scaling, and improved privacy features that are on the developers roadmap. Eventually it will be impossible to change the consensus algorithm and it will be locked in stone.

· Bitcoin miners provide the processing power that secures the Bitcoin blockchain with 50,599,447,508,000,000(as of this writing) SHA256 Hashes Per Second. This hashing power significantly contributes to the security and immutability of the Bitcoin blockchain.

· To be able to keep a secure global immutable ledger without having any intermediaries involved is a tremendous advancement in modern financial technology.

· Participants in such a network should also expect reduced counter-party risk exposure.

Antifragility

Antifragility is a property of systems that increase in capability, resilience, or robustness as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks, or failures. — Wikipedia.org

Bitcoin has been under constant attack ever since its early days. A network that, as of this writing, holds $110 billion in value makes for a big honeypot. As a result bitcoin has developed a certain immune system that continues to improve into the future.

• One of the early fixes to the early bitcoin protocol was to make the script language turing incomplete, which means you cannot write very complex smart contracts on its blockchain. This was removed from the bitcoin protocol because it introduced a broad attack surface. The removal of turing complete scripts from bitcoin hardened it and protected it from many possible attacks. It was decided early in Bitcoins development that it would favor safety and security over flexibility. Many other adjustments have been enacted along the way in response to the constant barrage of attacks.

To say that bitcoin has survived and thrived in this environment is an understatement. Bitcoin has never once suffered a hack to its protocol, not once has an invalid transaction been included into the blockchain, not once has a transaction been reversed after suitably being recorded onto the blockchain. Sure, many have had there bitcoin hacked, but its important to know that all of those cases are of people being sloppy with their private keys. Bitcoin was not hacked, your keys were stolen. If you are sloppy with the combination to your safe, don’t be upset when you find it empty. Not your keys, not your bitcoin.

I expect that bitcoin will continue to adapt and evolve in response to future threats.

Scarcity

Bitcoin could possibly be the most scarce asset on earth. There will only ever be barely 21 million bitcoin in existence. Taking into account its decentralized nature, and its immutability, and the inert nature of its protocol development its hard to see this ever changing. With over 7 billion humans on earth, there are not many to go around. fortunately each of those bitcoin can be broken into 100,000,000 units called Satoshi.

Unlike gold when the demand for bitcoin quickly rises, the miners cannot just increase the supply in response to increased demand. There is no way to just mine more bitcoin in response to demand. This dynamic along with bitcoins schedule of diminishing mining rewards will contribute to its rarity as adoption grows. This could produce a market cap many multiples of where we are today in a short period of time.

Many of the altcoins have no coin cap, or have such weak security model that the cap can be changed by decree.

These properties are conducive to the bitcoin network being a great store of value outside the traditional monetary system.

The lightning Network

In early 2018 a second layer network on top of bitcoin began to run, the Lightning Network. This new network promises to solve many of the scaling challenges that are inherent with recording every single global transaction onto the blockchain. The Lightning Network basically allows for many off-chain transactions to take place that are periodically settled on-chain.

The Lightning Network also easily allows for micro transactions, streaming money applications, and a new kind of transaction called atomic swaps, swap Bitcoin for Litecoin without an exchange in a trustless environment. Many other applications are being built on top of the lightning network, many more still have not been thought up yet.

Further when making lightning transactions there is never a need to wait 10 minutes for transactions to confirm into a block, like you would when making regular on-chain bitcoin transactions.

With a good lightning wallet, and a few bucks worth of bitcoin in a payment channel you (And everyone else on earth) will be able to get that allusive cup of coffee every morning with bitcoin and not break the network.

The Lightning Network is just one of many possible layer 2 networks.There are also plans for a second layer network www.rsk.co that will support rich ethereum style smart contracts (turing complete) with bitcoin(BTC) as the token. With all the new capabilities made possible by the 2017 segregated witness upgrade to bitcoin, its possible that many nich cryptocurrency applications could be handled on a second layer using bitcoin as its token.

In Conclusion

In modern-day times its natural to think that if something is brand new, just wait and a better, faster, cheaper version will be out soon enough. This is certainly a contributing factor to the allure of altcoins. However Bitcoin has developed in a way that may be impossible for it to be replaced. It seems that the really important properties don’t come along when its copied.

The year 2018 is coming to a close (only 3 months left) and people predict bitcoin price to go up again by 2019. My question, however, is if you think there will be any coins to watch out for in the coming year? If so, how do you think it will fare compared to bitcoins and all other existing altcoins?

My answer to the principle is: NO

Bitcoin is money, the value of money is built on confidence, tradition and security, attributes that Bitcoin offers easily. The analogy between Bitcoin and social networks is completely incorrect, people think that Bitcoin is an myspace that will be replaced by facebook. It turns out that Bitcoin is money and not a social network, so this comparison is completely wrong.

Most of mankind's wealth resides in vaults for hundreds of years, so the circulating medium is derisory close to it. Why are we going to need fast, no-fee coins if we can use paper money and banks? Bitcoin's purpose is to be a safe asset, scarce and superior to gold. What is behind Bitcoin is the fact that no politician can steal you through taxes or inflation, there is nothing safer than Blockchain and Bitcoin. So far no technologically superior currency has emerged to Bitcoin to the point of provoking an abyss between technologies and will hardly emerge.

BUY BITCOIN TODAY AND ALWAYS.

Bitcoin is known as the king(father) of crypto currencies , but why is that so ?I have been for several months now reading a lot about the whole crypto ecosystem, i even bought several bitcoins.
Enough background, now on to the topic at hand.

1. Low Fees - Nowadays the average fee for BTC is under $0.5 that was a very good sign for adoption of Bitcoin on large scale. In late 2017 Bitcoin fee was very high around $15 and that time the model of Satoshi Nakamoto  is seems to be failed to transfer across the world with almost no fee but the fee is very small and one can easily make a transfer of $5 anywhere in the world.

2 Store of value - It's still a lot. Physical gold has survived wars and governments. Now we have it's virtual version(Bitcoin) that can't be falsified and is easy to carry and trade. Isn't it great?
Bitcoin is functioning as a payment system in Korea and Japan. I could even order food with it or pay the dentist nearby. It's fun to be using something nobody else does, it's a great talk at parties and a great speculative asset, just ask all those traders who made it their full-time job.

3. Lightning Network - LN is making Bitcoin more valuable. Small stores and companies accepting bitcoin using LN that was perfect for small transactions.


Mostly the name, the established brand, as well as the community. Currently people are using it as a safe haven during unstable times. Read what's happening in Venezuela and Zimbabwe. A similar thing was happening in China before the ban. People are using it to do everything the governments are trying to stop them from. Moving money out of the country, hiding income, buying banned goods and services, gambling. It's a rebel coin and the rebel in me is supporting it in full.

In addition, Bitcoin is more accessible, with more exchanges, more merchants, more software and more hardware that support it. Bitcoin is far more liquid, with much larger volumes than every crypto currencies. Bitcoin has the largest developer ecosystem with more software and more implementations than any crypto currencies. Bitcoin has the most entrepreneurs creating companies around it with a lot of intellect, dedication and creativity going toward making it more useful.
When you compete with Bitcoin, not only are you competing with its much larger user base, development team and mining operation, but you’re also competing against the very large ecosystem of startups, open source projects and entrepreneurs.

Based on the understanding and knowledge of following up with the cryptocurrency for the past 6 month, my inference is that the cryptocurrency is highlt volatile.

Is it a good approach to stay invested for long term in the altcoin space?

What's going on with big successful ICO projects? Big Successful Projects like Pumapay, HDAC, Cryptosolartech, Bankex. Look at their coin price, every coin price is like nothing and their trading volume is too low! Pumapay raised 117 Million USD, but their trading volume less than 2 Million USD and coin price are just ridiculous. HDAC, Such a promising Project it was, but HDAC ico investors are lost their investment, ICO price was 1.25 USD per HDAC Coin and now it's trading with 0.037 USD! Seriously? And the same thing happened with Bankex, Cryptosolartech. But Why? What is the reason behind it?

as price is going down what is the best stredigy for for altcoin

This question is especially for those who have been into crypto for a long time. How did cryptocurrency help you, most specifically financially? Did you earn more? Gain more investment? I do have a friend who wants to get into crypto but he does not have a lot of savings in his bank account or any major investment. I told him to save more before getting into crypto because they still have mortgage and car loan to pay. Do you think crypto will help him out to?

I hope to discuss about the future payment methods of BTC and Crypto. Start accepting  bitcoin and crypto currency  payment today,Accept payment security without payment claim and avoid risk ,Send the bitcoin and crypto currency to your employees and customers.

I will ask you which one is the most beneficial of these two things? what will you choose? and explain why you chose it. who knows it will give input to everyone who reads. if I myself might be a bounty can be profitable and maybe the results of the bounty will lead to trading. What is your opinion? share your experience here

There are lots of altcoins(well, ICOs) Can anyone suggest some altcoins to buy?
I searched some on ICO listing cites, but it seems a lot of them are paid to be rated high. Some coins have only 100+ members on Telegram...
I know that the price will go up and down but how to find some altcoins that is really doing something revolutionary and worth to invest?

As we all have been speaking many times that Bitcoin possesses the power to diminish the use of fiat in a country where it's welcomed with full hearts, I wish to know that does it really have the ability to cope up with the challenges a country's economy faces? Can it help in the growth of their GDP?

As we know, Bitcoin is limited in number whereas Federal Reserve has the power to do monetary easing when things go wild with their economy levels. So with such limitations, can Bitcoin really stabilize any country's economic issues?