This thread linked here is in the process of dressing a tentative list of all trustless crosschain exchanges, some of them could potentially be solid candidates to explore.

First make a backup of your wallet as a precaution, then install the new 2.7 version. The software will take care of everything; it will take some time to automatically reindex the blockchain on your laptop.

Probably, as any block with a version less than 2.7.0 is rejected after 95% of the network has upgraded.
https://www.bitcoinplus.org/blog/segregated-witness-bip9-soft-fork
https://www.bitcoinplus.org/status

On which wallet version do you are?

Given the recent developments at Cryptopia, it presents a real opportunity for the community to put to the test this decentralized exchange. 

Is it possible to use it right now, and what are the steps needed for non-technical users to start using it in a straightforward manner?

Bitcoin Plus has been the first alternative to BTC with the Bitcoin name, and has existed before all the recent forks of BTC: Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Diamond, Bitcoin SV, etc...

All those surrogate brands inundating the market since 2017 have not done good to Bitcoin Plus, but XBC has existed for many years prior to all of them.

Its proof of stake system is unique in that the staking % per year is fixed at 20%, irrespective of the cumulative time the wallet has been online or not.  The staking weight of each address increases with time, even if the wallet is offline. A rare quality in the cryptocurrency space, this has proved to be a convenient and energy-saving feature.

Many wallets are not staking.  Examples include cold storage addresses at exchanges (mainly), third-party service wallets like Coinomi, etc...  Because of that, the addresses that are staking beat the inflation of the circulating supply, which we can guess must be around 15 % or slightly less.

No need to add nodes, it will find and sync up by itself.

Mine too, 3-4 connections on average.

On another note, does anyone know if staking is possible by letting the wallet open just a few hours a day, or it must always be open 24/7 to stake ?

Quite the contrary indeed.

This shows exactly why privacy coins are needed.

Financial privacy is a fundamental right of everyone doing commerce.  A concept that the control addicts in human society have a hard time understanding.

A modern version of the Tesla tower has just recently been discovered in Texas by a team of reporters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ATzLkr9JXk

" in 2018, Tesla's dream has been revived, and a company called Viziv swirling in the military industrial complex has erected a new tower with aims to test and someday broadcast wireless electricity to places close and remote around the world."

http://vizivtechnologies.com/technology/

"Our Viziv surface wave system allows the Earth itself to be used for clean, safe and efficient transfer of power between any two points on the globe, wirelessly.

A Zenneck Surface Wave is an electromagnetic wave that uses the surface of the earth as a waveguide enabling it to carry communications signals or electrical power efficiently over long distances.

This wireless power system will employ a “transmitter probe,” located near a power generation plant, to launch a Zenneck carrier wave.  Receiver antennae will be positioned appropriately around the world to receive the signal and download the power into a local microgrid or conventional grid architecture."

Finally I decided to install the Teslacoin core wallet.

I am actually impressed by the wonderful design.  Well done.

Tesla being pictured as a smart wizard mastering lightning spells, quite inspiring.

Just opening the wallet will give anyone a real boost of free energy.   

I wonder what is the meaning of the symbols located at the bottom of the wallet?  That almost looks like some alien language.

What is going to happen with the community fund that is held by Poloniex?

https://www.bitcoinplus.org/sustainability_plan.php

Poloniex has sold its soul to the devil, so that now they are just an empty shell, the puppet of the banksters that are behind, for whom only money matters.

Good riddance.

I guess we will witness the XBC volume & liquidity shifting from Poloniex to Cryptopia. That is already happening indeed.

Cryptopia still has a soul and appreciates small, innovative projects. They don't usually delist coins because of low volume. They delist coins because of severe technical difficulties or intractable network problems.

What is most important for Cryptopia is to be treated with respect, and informed promptly and comprehensively with all the details and help when there is a network upgrade like a hardfork.

This is nothing to worry about.  Cryptocurrencies like Teslacoin are not registered brands, they are decentralized concepts designed in part to disrupt the old system, and as such there is no need to cater to the needs of the parasitical, old-school, brand/patent system.

Elon Musk is free to have an awakening and expand his perspective so that he can truly embrace the values, philosophy and vision inherent to Tesla's legacy.  The company's name is misleading, because up until now, we have seen nothing developed by his company in terms of free energy technologies.  Only electric cars and spaceships powered by conventional energy sources.

When enough people wake up and reclaim their power, a new golden age of abundance and prosperity would rapidly emerge and the world would be a very different place.

Will the Tor feature stays natively integrated in the upcoming Segwit wallet?  There was a debate around the feasibility of keeping this wallet option with the coming upgrades.

I just had an idea that I want to share about this.  What about implementing Dandelion technology in the wallet?  I think it's relatively straightforward to implement, and with that you don't even need Tor to obfuscate the IP address associated with a transaction.

In addition to that, I suggest the Bitcoin Plus project would benefit tremendously by adding more privacy features in its future development, beyond IP address obfuscation.

Vitalik is becoming increasingly pro-privacy:
https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1000869998385074176

McAfee urging all crypto enthusiasts to become proactive and take matters into their own hands.
"We are coins, we are currency. They are frightened of us, he said."
https://bitcoinist.com/john-mcafee-says-war-cryptocurrencies/

Declaration of Currency Independence:
https://currencyindependence.com/read-en.html
"This Declaration of Currency Independence is a direct response to the continued manipulation and destruction that stems from the deliberate degradation of Value across the whole of humanity.
We, the undersigned, will dedicate our lives building networks and systems that restore the Integrity of Value and directly challenge the authority of those who seek to destroy Value."

I have never used Poloniex.  I hope you are able to recover your funds without prejudice. I heard that Goldman Sachs is behind Circle.  
Cryptopia is much better, and still anonymous for the time being, although this could change too, since it is also centralized.

I think it's a good time for the community to reflect and take their power back; and be a witness to the disruption of the old artificial monopolistic regulatory framework that is coming through the emergence of decentralized/distributed P2P exchanges.
 
Financial privacy is a fundamental right of every human being. It is also a choice.

I'm putting this news for those concerned:

"Poloniex Freezing Unverified Accounts: Get Your Funds Out Now If You're Not Verifying!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JG9-Vrar-E

For all those who care about privacy  ==>  decentralized exchanges are coming...

Bitmain Releases a New ASIC Miner for the Equihash Algorithm:

https://themerkle.com/bitmain-releases-a-new-asic-miner-for-the-equihash-algorithm/

"Among the currencies using the Equihash algorithm are Bitcoin Gold, Zcash, Komodo, ZClassic, ZenCash, and a few others."

When MTP launches, Zcoin will be one of the few remaining POW cryptocurrencies to be ASIC-resistant.

Didn't know about that one, found some info here:

https://cointext.io/technical-questions-about-cointexts-security-and-private-keys/