Copay is no longer recommended as their parent company, Bitpay, have been trying to switch their users to 2X without their knowledge or consent. Regardless of your feelings about 2X, users should have complete control over their coins and not be forced to chance if they don't want.

Check out this link for some recommended wallets:

https://bitcoin.org/en/wallets/mobile/android/

Personally, I have used Electrum and Mycelium, and would recommend either.

You "back up" a wallet by writing down the 24 word recovery phase that will be given to you when you first set up the wallet. Those 24 words allows anybody with them to recovery your wallet - so keep them safe and secure!

Is it open source? If not, there is no way to trust you and no reason to swap from one of the well established open source wallets and mixers.

There are a number of phone apps that will give you an extra number depending on your country/location. Alternatively, most phone companies give out free pay-as-you-go SIM cards.

Not only is this illegal, but you are just begging to have your identity stolen. Don't do this.

We've all been there, waiting for the price to go down just a little bit more before we buy, and then suddenly it goes up by a few hundred dollars and you've missed your chance.

If you are buying to hold for the long term, dollar cost averaging is probably the way to go.

You are correct - that is exactly what happens.

If you have a Coinbase account, then you also have a GDAX account, as they are run by the same company. GDAX will let you perform instant market buys and sells, and transfers between Coinbase and GDAX are free and instant.

I tend to avoid any airdrops that require you to download their wallet or other software - too high risk of being malware that is trying to scam you.

I've not used Bitpetite, but 4.5% daily is simply too good to be true. Any site/trader/person that offers that level of return should be avoided.

If some random stranger on the internet can offer you 4.5% interest, why can't the biggest banks in the world offer those levels right now?

Almost certainly an HYIP/Ponzi scheme.

Yeah, I stand corrected.  

How high will we go tonight? What will we level out at?

It was above 6000 only for a few moments on a handful of exchanges. I'd hardly call that "tearing past".

Have a read of these sites:

https://bitcoin.org/en/getting-started

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page

Holding bitcoins for 20 years as an investment for your children could give you huge returns. However, it would be risky to hold only bitcoins or crypto. I think it would be wise to diversify a little and have some fiat in a standard long term savings account for then too.

What is the general consensus about the price after the hardfork (Bitcoin gold or the more serious 2x fork)? I usually buy small amounts every few weeks - are people expecting big dips in price after these forks, and should I wait for these dips to buy, or is it better to buy sooner to get the freecoins that come with the forks?

The analysis of ICOs is absolutely correct - the majority turn out to be worthless long-term. However, BTC is here to stay, just like it was during the "bubble" at $10, the "bubble" at $100, and the "bubble" at $1000.

You can find horror stories about any exchange if you look hard enough. Bittrex is very popular and the majority of people, myself included, have had no issues with it. OP has been very unlucky by the sounds of things, but that doesn't mean the entire website is a scam.

The issue with a lump sum is predicting the dips. If it dips to 3k and you buy, what if it then dips to 2.5 or even 2k?

Bear in mind that your BTC address and your ETH address are two different addresses, even if you use the same wallet software to store them both. Don't try to send BTC to ETH or vice versa - you may lose your coins.

Your insurance policy is your Wallet Recovery Phrase which you should write down and keep somewhere private, safe and secure.