The Ethereum blockchain is the world's biggest smart contract platform and the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. It's impressive to see each "ETH" coin being worth hundreds of dollars when the core devs have designed it to be highly inflationary. Without a defined total/max supply for Ethereum, it may never reach exorbitant prices like Bitcoin.

Now what if ETH's supply would be limited (finite) instead? If devs take this approach, I believe that Ethereum would be much more valuable than what it is right now. It'll become a great store of value just like Bitcoin is today. This could increase demand for ETH by a long shot, as it's widely used as "fuel" (gas) for decentralized applications.

Will such model be suitable for a smart contract platform like Ethereum? I mean if Ethereum Classic has adopted a hard cap of 210m coins, then doing something similar on the ETH blockchain should be a no-brainer. I'm not sure how feasible would to limit ETH's supply. But the community and dev team will decide whenever this will become a reality or not.

What are your thoughts?

Have you ever been concerned about Bitcoin's longevity in the mainstream world as a decentralized cryptocurrency? While BTC has been going strong since 2009, there exist the possibility that it could vanish from existence sometime in the future. After all, we know that nothing lasts forever.

My guess is that once governments start circulating their own digital currencies, they will try to crackdown on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as we know them. It's no secret that the entire crypto space is largely dependent on centralized infrastructure (centralized exchanges, centralized wallet services, etc). People will not want to use something that's considered "illegal" by worldwide governments. While it'll still be possible to continue using Bitcoin regardless of government bans, regulations, etc, not many people will support it (only libertarians, geeks, anarchists, etc.). By that time, it'll be nearly impossible to get access to Bitcoin with Fiat currency or even exchange Bitcoin to Fiat (as the government crackdown will make all centralized exchanges to cease their operations).

Considering that governments want to stay in power, they'll do anything to force people to use their Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) instead of any other alternative payment system. If that happens, Bitcoin will be doomed.

Do you think that we're close for Bitcoin's End Game to happen? Will it ever happen? What are your thoughts?

I want to create my own Bitcoin paper wallet at home with keys I control using the most durable paper or material ever created. It's no secret that standard paper tends to get wet, breaks easily, and ink could erase itself over time. I have an inkjet printer at home, but I've heard that laser printers have better quality.

I'd like to know which paper/material is the best for printing paper wallets at home? If there's a way to make ink last forever, it'll be great. I've stumbled upon something called "Archival Ink" used in fountain pens which lasts a very long time. But I don't think such an ink would be available for an inkjet printer. I could try writing the seed words or private keys manually with said ink, but I'd need a very strong and durable paper that will last a lifetime (if possible) to preserve my BTC funds.

Any recommendations or suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

In crypto land, an emerging cryptocurrency project needs to have in mind security and censorship-resistance to be able to perform as intended. While Blockchain promises safe and reliable transactions, it depends on network participants' support to be able to stay that way. I have seen many small PoW blockchain networks experiencing a 51% attack because of their small hashrate compared to other big cryptocurrencies in the Blockchain space.

While many projects have proposed a solution to counterattack 51% attacks, none have come up with the idea of living across multiple blockchain networks (AFAIK). Imagine if a cryptocurrency would rely on various public blockchain networks for security? The more networks it relies on, the more secure and resistant it'll be against 51% attacks. For example, "Foocoin" could rely on both Bitcoin and Ethereum's network security to be able to protect itself against such a threat. By combining both cryptocurrencies' hashrate (BTC + ETH), it'll be nearly impossible for anyone to disrupt the "Foocoin" blockchain.

If new cryptocurrencies would rely on a multi-chain architecture like this in the first place, many undesired events would've been prevented. Do you think it's possible for cryptocurrencies to rely on multiple blockchain networks for security? Is it cost-effective? Will an existing blockchain network need to hard fork in order to adopt said model? What are your thoughts?

There are many Ethereum-based games which provide one-of-the-kind tokens for gamers to collect. Depending on their "rareness", they could be worth a ton of money in the long term. I know that some people have made a lot of money selling unique and rare CryptoKitties within the Blockchain. This has led me to wonder what are the best non-fungible tokens (or ERC-721 tokens) to buy right now?

So many exciting games are out there on the ETH blockchain, yet not all NFTs are worth buying and "hodling" for the long term. For instance, I've created some "marble cards" from different websites which are truly unique. But I haven't been able to sell a single one as of today. This could mean that demand is quite low for NFTs within the Blockchain space. For those unaware, you could create your very own unique "Marble Cards" on the ETH blockchain by heading to marble.cards

Any recommendations or suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I'm looking for a way to send Bitcoin to people in countries which lack Internet access. After all, being able to send Bitcoin in a safe and secure way over SMS/Text messaging would prove to be extremely convenient for "offline" transactions. For once, I've heard about a crypto service which allowed people to send Bitcoin over SMS/Text messaging. But I can't recall its name. Still though, it relies on a central operator/middleman. I'd prefer a solution that would allow me to send BTC though SMS/Text messaging in the most decentralized way possible.

Do you think it's possible to do this? Are you aware of any methods to sent BTC through SMS/Text messaging without relying on third parties? If it cannot be done in a decentralized manner, I'd still like to know if there are mainstream companies offering such possibility to Bitcoin users. Thanks in advance.

Do you happen to know of any online service/marketplace which accepts Bitcoin in exchange for a VISA gift card (not eGift card)? So far, I've toppled with eGifter which only provides VISA eGift cards for US customers. On the other hand, Bitrefill doesn't seem to provide any option to do this. If it were possible to sell Bitcoin for a VISA physical gift card, it would've been a blast. This would prove to be much more convenient for me instead of cashing BTC for Fiat directly to the bank.

Do you know of any service that would allow US customers to buy a physical VISA gift card with Bitcoin? Any recommendations or suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

For long, "XRP" has been one of the most prominent cryptocurrencies on the market with the ability to provide quick speeds at a fraction of the cost. The Ripple company has made some partnerships with several banks in order to increase the adoption of the "XRP" cryptocurrency within the mainstream world. While "XRP" works great as a financial system with real-time settlement of transactions, I believe that its use cases within the mainstream world could be expanded via the use of smart contracts.

After all, XRP's main contender (Stellar) already has smart contracts functionality. I'm not aware of this being possible with XRP yet, but it'll be blast dealing with "dApps" (sort of since XRP is centralized) someday that would have near-instant performance on the distributed ledger (unlike Ethereum and other smart contract platforms). If successful, the XRP Ledger could gain the likes of mainstream businesses and companies looking to issue their own tokens or develop "dApps" that would prove to be cost-effective and efficient in every way. Even though XRP is largely centralized (unlike Ethereum) it could become the top choice for STOs, IEOs, and other tokens because of its unparalleled performance.

Do you think XRP will adopt smart contract functionality someday? If so, do you think I'll become a viable competitor against Ethereum or any other established smart contract platform? What are your thoughts?

For years, Ethereum has been the number one smart contract platform in existence. Despite having limited scalability, the world's second-largest Blockchain network has been able to maintain decentralization and censorship-resistance above all else. This is what differentiates Ethereum from other smart contract platforms like EOS, Cardano, or TRON. These chains may be quicker and cheaper to use than ETH, but they lack decentralization above all else.

I've been looking through the number of dApps (decentralized applications) available within the ETH blockchain, and I'd have to say that they're built with quality in mind. Other smart contract platforms like TRON and EOS have an ever-increasing number of dApps, but their quality is not as good as Ethereum's (especially TRON). Maybe that's why people often use the ETH blockchain for dApps than its competitors?

Considering that ETH is largely focused on "quality" instead of "quantity", it'll have a quite successful future within the mainstream world. After all, what matters is the number of use cases you're able to provide for the mainstream world. Scalability/performance is nothing if you're unable to provide a truly decentralized blockchain platform where applications are truly unstoppable. Do you agree with me? What are your thoughts?

For long, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have been a viable solution for preserving one's privacy and anonymity. In today's world, there are many VPN services which rely on a middleman (or a central operator) that could be paid with Fiat or crypto. But what if we'd eliminate the middleman from the system, and bring a self-autonomous VPN service to the world using Blockchain technology? In this model, people would pay for a VPN service that will last for "x" amount of days using a crypto of their choice. Everything will be settled on-chain in a completely decentralized way. Node operators would serve as "gateways" that would constitute the whole VPN.

So far, I'm aware of two Blockchain-based VPN services (Mysterium and Tachyon Protocol) which aim to further decentralize the Internet by eliminating the need to rely on a middleman or third parties for complete privacy/anonymity. But compared with traditional VPN service providers, Blockchain-based VPN services are a "needle in a haystack".

Do you think that VPNs using Blockchain technology are worth it? Is it still too early too tell? Do you happen to know about other alternatives to Mysterium or Tachyon Protocol within the Blockchain industry? What are your thoughts?

I've been researching a lot about sidechains and other solutions built on top of the main Bitcoin blockchain lately. I came across a new smart contract platform named "RSK" which leverages the main Bitcoin blockchain for security/reliability. Considering that "RSK" is largely compatible with Ethereum's smart contract programming language (Solidity), it might become a huge contender of the world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap (ETH). After all, "RSK" will prove to be much more secure and resilient than the main ETH blockchain. Developers would prefer to create new dApps on the "RSK" sidechain, because of its greater level of security than ETH. Best of all, those who mine "RSK" will also be mining "BTC" (merged mining) becoming highly beneficial for both chains.

What are your thoughts? Do you think "RSK" will be able to "topple" ETH sometime in the future because of its dependency on Bitcoin's blockchain for security/reliability? Will it become one of the most popular smart contract platforms in the world sometime in the future?

For some time, Zilliqa was marketed as a great alternative to the Ethereum blockchain by leveraging a scalable solution known as "Sharding". With a new programming language (named "Scilla") aimed for the development of secure and verifiable smart contracts, the new "ZIL" blockchain could become a real contender of the world's second largest cryptocurrency by market cap (ETH). It's also one of the first (if not the first) smart contract platforms to make use of "Sharding" for scaling the blockchain more efficiently. Considering that Ethereum still hasn't adopted "Sharding" for scaling the Blockchain, I'd say that Zilliqa is way ahead of its time.

Still though, the price per each "ZIL" coin and market cap is quite low these days. With all the features Zilliqa provides today, it should've been worth at least double-digits in terms of dollars (USD) by now. But I guess that it's a coin that's under the radar of many mainstream investors and traders because of the lack of marketing/promotion. This makes me wonder whenever Zilliqa will result a great long-term investment or simply a failed idea that will fade into existence?

What are your thoughts about Zilliqa? Does it still have a future? Will it be able to compete with Ethereum directly?

Does anyone know of a way where I can safely send a cold storage wallet through regular mail (snail mail)? I know that it's not safe to send money this way, but crypto's portability (it can even fit in a microSD card) allows you to hide your utmost sensitive funds without getting noticed by the naked eye. Which is why, I'd want to know how do I transport a cold storage wallet (in this case, a wallet card) with Bitcoin on it through snail mail "under the radar"?

The reason for this, is because I want to send funds to a friend in an offline manner for privacy/anonymity. It can also help me move the cold storage wallet card to another secure place (if the need arises).

Do you think it's possible to send Bitcoin safely through snail mail or not? Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

There's this thing called the "OpenDime" which claims to be some sort of "Bitcoin Credit Stick". You can carry it around anywhere, pass it along to your friends, without compromising the integrity of the funds contained herein. You'd know that an "OpenDime" wallet's funds have been redeemed if its tamper-evident seal (in this case by unsealing the device with a Push Pin) is broken. They also have a Litecoin version at an affordable price than a regular hardware wallet like the Trezor or the Ledger Nano S.

I'd like to know which is better to use (OpenDime or hardware wallet) for day-to-day transactions? I've been using a hardware wallet for a long time now, but the "OpenDime" seems to be quite an attractive option for storing Bitcoin safely without breaking the bank. Of course, hardware wallets like the CoolWallet S or the Ledger Nano S provide a wide-variety of cryptocurrencies to choose from (unlike the "OpenDime" which is purposed for one coin at a time). But if it proves to be a great alternative to hardware wallets, I'd think most crypto users would go this route since it's the cheapest option to store (and spend) crypto anytime, anywhere.

What are your thoughts? Is this worth it? Or am I better off using a hardware wallet?

I've been checking out various cryptocurrencies on the market which can be easily mined via a Hard Disk Drive (also possible to mine them with a Solid State Drive). When using the mining calculator for Burst, I've noticed that mining with an HDD is not as profitable as it used to be a long time ago. Similarly, I've checked Storj and Sia's estimated earnings when renting your available HDD space, and everything was the same. Does this mean that mining with a hard drive is no longer worth it? Comparing other hardware for mining cryptocurrency, it seems to me that both GPUs and ASIC machines will give you the most profit in terms of USD.

What are your thoughts? Does HDD mining does have a future? Is it still worth it?

I've curious lately to know about "Transaction Finality" on the Bitcoin blockchain. Even after being years on the crypto space, there are a lot of things related to Bitcoin's technical aspects which I'm not aware of. I'd like to know how many confirmations does a transaction need to be considered as "final" on the Bitcoin blockchain?

This is important, because if Bitcoin lacks transaction finality, then a few forks here and there could alter the history of your transactions across the Blockchain. Ethereum has been deeply concerned about "Transaction Finality" which is why the dev team has come up with Casper PoS + Sharding consensus to prevent this. Does this mean that transactions on a PoW blockchain are not final at all? I'm sort of confused with this, and I'd like someone to help me clarify about this matter.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I've stumbled across many marketplaces in the darknet which turned out to be a scam in the long run. Most (if not all) marketplaces accept Bitcoin for many obvious reasons. Only a few accept Monero as payment for complete privacy. Considering that the Silk Road and other popular marketplaces on the Darknet have closed their operations, I'm looking for new & trustworthy marketplaces which I could pay with Bitcoin privately over the Tor network. Do you think legitimate marketplaces which accept Bitcoin on the Darknet still exist?

Any recommendations or suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I've seen many Android-powered smartwatches out there with capabilities to run apps in the same way (almost) as an ordinary smartphone would. On the other hand, we have the Apple Watch which runs its variant of the iOS system. Imagine being able to install a lightweight wallet like Electrum on a smartwatch to send/receive Bitcoin transactions. After all, most of these (if not all) smartwatches have Wi-Fi capabilities, Bluetooth, and more. By integrating Bitcoin wallets into smartwatches, you can truly send/receive transactions anywhere with ease. I'm sure not if this is possible yet (as I don't own a smartwatch). But if a developer decides to create Bitcoin wallets for smartwatches, I'll be a big hit within the mainstream world.

What are your thoughts? Is something like this practical/secure? Or is it better to continue using smartphones for Bitcoin transactions?

It's said that there are more men on the Blockchain industry than women. After all, the most prominent figures in the crypto space are male (Vitalik Buterin, Andreas Antonoupolous, CZ, Justin Sun, etc.). When I've talked to females (women) about crypto and Blockchain technology, I've noticed that their level of interest is not as much as it's the case with men. Maybe it's because women are not into technology itself? I believe that if we'd get more females in the Blockchain industry, the field would have a diversity in gender instead of being focused only on men.

What are your thoughts? Do you think that females will be able to adopt Blockchain and crypto over the long term? Or will men continue to dominate the space?

The process of launching a new cryptocurrency is quite a tedious one. After all, the developer (or development team) would need to make sure that the new cryptocurrency is listed on an exchange to provide liquidity for the same. Considering that centralized exchanges have dominated the space for quite some time, they've been the "go-to" route between the worlds of Fiat and crypto. I've seen many centralized exchanges these days which charge exorbitant fees for listing a coin. That's not the case with decentralized exchanges today. But they lack liquidity and provide an unfriendly experience to the end-user.

Which is why, most developers are left with no other choice but to list their coin on a centralized exchange like Binance or Bittrex. I've heard of a few centralized exchanges that are able to list a new coin if it gets an specific number of votes from the community (like Mercatox is doing right now). But I'm wondering if there are crypto exchanges out there that are able to list your coin for free without the need to obtain "x" amount of votes for listing?

If you happen to know of any crypto exchange that does this, please let me know. It could turn out to be a great start for any new cryptocurrency project which lacks funding to get listed on a serious exchange. Else, people would only be able to trade their coin of choice in a P2P manner. Any recommendations or suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.