The scope of the merit system revolves only on two (2) things:

Either the post contained substantial information about an inquiry on a topic and it provided support/help to the person; or
the post was relatively amusing and entertaining to read.

Doing background checks before sending merits are beyond the scope on why someone should send merits.
Not to mention, there are users who have been granted with merits despite being banned and having thousands of negative DT trusts.

Based from my experience, here is what I did during a bearish slump market:

First, never lose your head and composure. A bearish market can literally destroy your head especially when you purchased something and its initial price is lower to the market price. Seeing your resources lose value can be devastating but never lose your composure and goal;

Second, panic-selling is the worst move you can do during a bearish market. Not only that you sold your resources in a lesser value but this also may give rise to poor decision making and regret at the future. Although panic-selling may be acceptable in extreme situations; and

Third, decide when to sell your investments. This will be relative to every individual but you have to determine on when you should cash-out your investments to fiat. Losses may incur but this can also mitigate the damage further.

There also some cases wherein people develop addiction to something since it provide entertainment and satisfiy their hunger/need for it. I doubt that despite viewing something as a form of entertainment, there is always the risk of losing control and ultimately succumbing to addiction.

The only way to totally address addiction problem or at least prevent it is to replace the act with something that is recreational. Maybe instead of gambling or any other hobby, you can try engaging in the community or by doing service work.
Lastly, the first step towards change will always start at yourself. Without the strong will, determination, and patience, change would be futile.

So far, I have read two (2) books about bitcoin that actually helped me understand more about the blockchain and the coin itself. It contains a vast history of the creation of cryptocurrencies and it also explains the processes on how bitcoin works in the blockchain:

• Mastering Bitcoin by Andres M. Antonopoulos; and
• Blockchain Revolution by Don Tapscott and Alex Topscott

The internet is your friend as it contains millions of information about cryptocurrencies. Your friends can also search in the forum if they have specific queries or questions as everyone here will reply!

In my humblest opinion, I think it is unnecessary to give a comment on why you merited someone. It is already self-explanatory on why you merited someone either his post was substantial enough or because you found it amusing/interesting.



Now this give rise to a plethora of problems involving the merit system as abuse can potentially begin here. Meriting a person directly can give rise to "stealth merits" as it leaves no explanation on why you merited a certain individual. This can be a form of abuse and potentially damage the forum in the long-run.

I am not sure on where your rage stems from as most of the topics under this category are rich of posts trying to prevent people from succumbing to gambling addiction. Even if someone tries to convince someone to gamble, it ultimately depends on the individual and their decision to gamble. You cannot blame entirely the people from convincing someone to gamble as the victims themselves are also at fault.


This sub-category is full of posts trying to prevent people from gambling and stories about gambling addiction. I am trying to fathom on where his rage stems from and maybe he does not want to take all the guilt and just displace his anger to other people.

Like what most people replied on your posts, there are complications when you attempt to sell a piece of land for cryptocurrency since it involves real contracts that the government must accept and finalize. This is both risky for you and the buyer as the contract needs to be honored.

Instead of selling it for cryptocurrency, sell it for hard cash and convert it to cryptocurrency after. The only limitation would be the number of buyers as this only covers from people around your country.
Cryptocurrency acceptance is still on its embryonic stage despite existing for 10 years already. The government is strict when it comes to transactions and they do not adhere to its nature being a decentralized medium.

Hello sir Yahoo,

I would like to inform you that I will now withdraw from the campaign. I would also like to thank you for giving me an opportunity to participate in one of your signature campaigns. Hoping that I may work with you again in the future!

Cheers!

At first, I was against the implementation of the merit-system as being counter-productive. Most quality posts are being overshadowed and buried under the pile of spams and shitposters in a current forum section. But as time eventually took the wheel, the merit system proved itself to be the cross that mostly prevented a number of spammers and hackers from abusing the old system.

Making alt accounts and farming them were the problems before and they have been addressed with this implementation. Of course, there can never be a perfect system wherein everyone can benefit as the implication of the merits also made it difficult for quality posters to have the spotlight of being the deserved ones to rank-up. Overall, I could say that it was indeed a success but we have to embrace all the consequences it follows.

One thing you have to consider before investing, trading, or anything else that involves a huge amount of risk to your resources, is to keep your emotions from getting the best of you. Emotions are what makes us human but this can be a double-edged sword when involving financial decisions and investments.

In addition to panic-selling, one must also avoid being on a rush and panic-watching.
There was a survey gathered about investors and the results overwhelmingly reflected that investors are always on a rush in making profit. From this standpoint alone, if the market falls or becomes highly volatile, they may actually decide to pull-out their investments as they fear of incurring losses.

Obsessively watching the market during a bearish slump can also hamper your decision making skills especially if you disregard time as the focal point of the subject. It is always advisable to always keep your head cool as these can either make or break your investments.


I am still waiting for the materialization of Bakkt and their physical contracts as this would significantly boost the price of bitcoins. With its adoption comes Starbucks as one of their partners, one can construe that the coffee chain may actually implement a feature wherein one can have an option of using bitcoins as their method of payment.
I do believe that it is rather vague that the price may increase up to 50% like what happened year.

Based on the chart below, last month, the price was siting at around $3,700-$3,800 with people claiming that bitcoin has fell on to a bearish slump. But in fact, the price has been steadily increasing despite the high-volatility of ups and downs. Predicting that the price of bitcoin run up to $5,000 this May is actually a conservative approach but it can happen anytime soon.

My only concern would be Bakkt, as it can significantly boost the price of bitcoins with its implementation of physical contracts which can be traded to banks and stored. As soon as this hits the market, this can either make or break the price depending on its impact to newly acquired investors and such.

I think that most online gambling sites have this warning message and disclaimer about gambling and its effects to an individual. Mostly by just agreeing to their consent and agreement terms, a person could already participate in gambling as they believed they already adhered to it. Online gambling sites are mostly operated by businessmen who are inclined to profits alone and these types of problems stem from the decision of the person playing the game.


Like any other business no matter how humanistic or socially inclined they are, all of them are driven by profits. Their goal is to produce the highest profit margin and earn cash for their needs. What I learned in business school is that all business revolve around the word "PROFIT".

I know someone personally who works in a energy/power corporation and there CEO often participates in social responsible events and host environmentalist projects. But all of those are purely for PR and media in order to look good on paper and on media.

Bitcointalk Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1022860;sa=summary
Current amount of posts (Including this one): 1132
SegWit BTC Address: 3Pg7ka7ygj14tyr9Jai8GxK5nfQVPgJy5o
Amount of EARNED merit in the last 120 days: 8

Hoping to participate in this campaign, Hhampuz!
Will wear the signature and avatar right away if I get accepted!

You have no reason to be scared if what you do does not involve any shady business or illicit acts. I think she is just doing her job from busing spammers and scammers from the forum.



Whoah, calm down! I find no reason for someone to judge her whole character based on what she has done on the forum. You do not know her personality and I think it's unfair to completely judge her for that sole reason.

The screenshots that you posted are her warnings about dealing with scammers. I think that she will not post stuff like those without any substantial proof. I doubt that she did that purely on self-interests but for the betterment of the forum.

Again let me reiterate, you have no reason to be scared if you do things with good faith and conscience. Feel free to post and offer your services under the digital goods section.

Life before discovering BITCOIN:
I was just a normal man thinking linear about the future after college and live a simple life. I always envisioned myself working at a corporate company right after I graduate college and do what most conventional corporate jobs order me what to do. Simply, working non-stop to support my family was the only thing that drives me to work hard.
People sometimes see me as a robot on how I operate things since the I am a person who is inclined to following rules and instructions to finish my goal.

Life after discovering BITCOIN:
It was one Thursday afternoon during my class break, one of my closest friend approached me and told me about bitcointalk.org and he gave me a quick background about the potentials of cryptocurrencies in general. I was hesitant at first and I even doubted him but when he showed me his earnings, it gave me this motivational boost. On that day, my life changed on how I viewed my goals and on how to achieve them.

Earning weekly to campaign signatures and short-term investing to maximize its volatility are some of the ways on how I capitalized earning bitcoins. I lost worth 0.04 bitcoins to USI-tech investment scheme and I mishandled most of my expenses into purchasing irrelevant stuff. But those are some of the experiences I considered that shaped and molded me to become this person today.
Currently, I am earning bitcoins weekly and studying law as my future profession which I would exercise in the future to help my country accept cryptocurrencies.

Realization:
Cryptocurrencies really changed my perspective on how I achieve my goals as an individual. Before I live this life thinking that if I work hard enough, I would be able to reach my dreams no matter how big they are. But the reality is, even if the dream is there, without embracing the perfect opportunity then there is always that chance of not achieving them.

My answer may sound exaggerated on my life before and after discovering bitcoin but that is how it completely changed me mentally and psychologically.
I hope others have positive experiences on how cryptocurrencies changed their lives for the better.

I think it all boils down to your discretion as the campaign manager as you are the one who prescribes the rules and chooses participants.  If you think that they are abusing the merit system, then you can always ignore and move on!
There will never be a shortage of good posters here in the forum and you can always take your time to review each!

I think one possible solution may be checking their merited posts and see if they intentionally did the merit abuse. This may be a difficult job but I guess this can be a solution to problem!

Good luck, Hhampuz!

Let me clarify some things that you mentioned: you can pay the bills using our local wallet but our bitcoins must be converted to cash before we could pay them. Same as booking our travels and paying credit card bills. What you can pay directly using bitcoins are mobile prepaid load, online game credits, send money online, etc.
Although some services are not available, we are indeed in a very fortunate place as we can enjoy these services with the convenience of online transactions. Unlike other local wallets, I believe that coins.ph offers the more options and services compared to others.


Bitcoin adoption is still at its embryonic stage but the exposure is continuously rising with the recent implementations of allowing bitcoin operators in our PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority). There are rumours about cryptocurrencies as being payments for transportations and all of these contribute to the rising popularity of it in the country.

Interesting but I think that transaction fees would be high and the transaction speed would also be taken into consideration. The idea is definitely feasible but there are other problems that should be addressed before implementing this kind of change.
The silver lining would be the exposure of cryptocurrencies in the public. This would attract their attention and potentially transform them to investors soon enough.

Like what others mentioned, the usage of BEEP CARDS are already enough and adding another complication can only bring harm than good.

There are people out there that view gambling as a scapegoat and a way to answer their financial problems. Some people get lucky and obtain a significant amount of money but others succumb to addiction and ultimately destroy their lives due to the negative implication it gives.
Like what I said to other posts, gambling can never be profitable and it only hampers your decision making skills if you see it as an avenue rather than as a form of entertainment.

We cannot integrate a universal medium which stems from the internet itself due to economic barriers surrounding the world. This would mostly affect the underdeveloped countries and their capacity as others do not have access to such.
Assuming that we have a global currency which is based on the internet, transaction fees would replace the conventional tax and other related fees. We cannot escape taxation as it is an integral part of a country's revenue to fund almost everything.