This one is old, but at least it gave me a laugh, Murraycoin:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=436190.0

I was talking with a colleague today about possible applications of blockchain technology in education, in particular standardized testing.
We're not experts in blockchain technology but we're both in education and can see how this can cause a huge paradigm shift in academics.

I've been looking for a project in education and am really curious as to how they can utilize the technology.

That is something different that I would willingly become a part of.

The ann forum and bounty forum are absolutely nuts.  I've been looking up a bounty program to join soon and kept running accross the same uninspired projects over and over again.  I noticed there were 5 types of projects that kept popping up:

-decentralized banking
-decentralized exchanges
-tokenized gaming
-healthcare on the blockchain
-social media/social communities

well, there were more, but each project proclaimed stuff like "The world's first blah blah blah" and in each thread there would be like 10 posts immediately after the OP saying random shit like, "This looks promising!" or "Great idea! Great team!" and of course a bunch of people reserving translations.

I actually get excited when a weird one pops up.  Like doing an ico to fund a utopian community based on renewable energy out in the middle of siberia. That shit is lit.

Honestly, people's opinions on bitcointalk is probably the worst place to go for advice on if ICOs are worth your time or not...but here's my opinion anyway.

The days of short term flipping for huge gains are really coming to an end.
Investing in an ICO that you believe will be successful long term is risky.

...in the end, hasn't it always been better to just get more bitcoin?

You can avoid buying tokens because of hype by not buying tokens because of hype.

This is where the thinking of investors and "I'm gonna be RICH!" types differ.

Investors (whales or not) don't hardly ever cash out, especially now that the industry is still in it's infancy.
Gains are reinvested to get more gains and so on and so on, it's like the basics of building capitol.

For all of the dreamers who want to invest a couple thousand and hope to hit the jackpot with some shitcoin, of course they think about cashing out.
"Oh! Crypto is gonna make me a millionaire and then I won't have to work ever again!"

Bitcoin, it will drop down to $100 for sure.  My magic 8 ball told me so.

I actually have no problem with coins like this.
They're good for a laugh.

Jesus Coin (has a hilarious website), Trumpcoin (you could purchase toilet paper with trumps face on it with the coin), Fucktoken, Sexcoin, and on and on

Go check out the 700 to 900 rankings at coinmarketcap, all kinds of weird stuff there.

Now if you are seriously thinking of investing in this or mining this then . . . well . . .

Tons of posts about Electroneum lately.  Lot's of Love, Hype, Skepticism, and Hate.
Thought it would be good to start a thread to try and consolidate it all.
Yes, I am biased cause I invested a bit in it, but I tried to include threads that were critical as well as positive.  Feel free to raise any concerns or skepticism to help people be informed.

And yes, I am throwing out my referral code: FC5E94
If you want to invest in the ICO use my code to get an extra 1% (an I receive an extra 5%)


Here are some previous threads:

Announcement thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2065043.0

Everyone's favorite scam thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2167305.0

Investment thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2274258.0;topicseen

Shorter thread that raises issues and tries to address them:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2271192.0;topicseen

General ICO warning and advice thread that has insight into Electroneum (critique of electroneum on pg. 3):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2243157

Electroneum website:
www.electroneum.com


Quick Overview of what it's all about:

British Company headed by Richard Ells
Basic gist of it all: Mass adoption of crypto, this will be achieved by targeting smart phone users, get smart phone users on board through an easy to use app where you can "mine" ETN,  get people to use the app by viral marketing it as "use the app to earn enough to pay your phone bill
Development: Blockchain developed, app developed, currently localizing and marketing app in different regions around the world, currently developing gaming platforms to use ETN,  currently exploring gambling use scenarios for ETN, Everything goes live on Nov. 1st

ICO:
1ETN = .01 cents
Currently at 10% bonus until tomorrow (Wed. Oct. 18th)
After that no bonus until end of ICO on Oct. 31st.
Can join ICO through their website and can purchase in ETH and BTC
Paperwallet available but app will have wallet function also.
Tokens distributed on Nov. 1st
Hardcap of 6billion tokens available.  Those not sold in ICO will go to mining pool.
No update on exchanges yet (that I  know of)


Share your thoughts and have fun!

And some more advice Round 2:

Despite what many people think, you can make very informed, accurate predictions about coins if done right and combined with a lot of research (asking people to say what coin is good doesn't count).

Here are some basics:

Market Cap and available amount of coins - this is the value of the company and how much "supply" they have.  This helps you decide which companies are set to grow and which ones have already ballooned or are stagnating.


Roadmaps, Developments, Releases etc - If the company has a major milestone coming up, like the release of an app on apple store, or a business partnership forming or even a release on a major exchange.  The price of the coin will typically go up.  Companies that have had steady development releases and are meeting their goals will most likely do so in the future and you can expect steady gains and even predict when the price will spike up.


The legitimacy of the company, team, and community - All legitimate projects will have a means of communicating with the team (slack, github, telegram, etc.) You can get a direct sense on how reliable the entire company is by joining the community and being active.  This will guide your decisions about a coin for the long term.

Well, there's a lot more (like the tech behind the coin/platform, the growth history of the coin itself, etc.) but start with these and you will start to get a sense on what projects are worth investing in.

Rather than suggest a coin, I'm going to offer up some sound investment advice.

The percent increase is way more important that the actual price.

At first, some people won't put much money in BTC because they see that it is expensive.
It is natural to first think, "Well, I can put my money in a cheaper coin and get more!"

If you invest 100 dollars in a coin, Coin A costs $1000, Coin B costs .01 cents.
It will seem more impressive to get 10000 of Coin B instead of 10 of Coin A.

But here's the thing, BTC (which is like Coin A) has consistently shown increases.  Every couple months the price crashes but it always goes up.  At the beginning of 2017 it wasn't even at $1000 dollars and its at $5600 now.  BTC has stood the test of time, it is the nearest to mass adoption, it is the most well known.  It will go up even higher next year.  The insane percent gains and returns you hear about is bitcoin.

For the cheaper alts (which are like Coin B), how many have shown 1000% increases? How many more will? Throwing your money at a project because its cheap and might blow up like btc is like randomly digging in places in hopes of finding an undiscovered gold mine.

My favorite coin is the 1 Unobtanium I bought a couple days ago.
It really has no purpose other than just being a rare crypto, in fact that's kinda the whole selling point.  There will only ever be a couple hundred thousand in existence.

So I'm not going to do anything with it.  Just gonna keep it and feel a false sense of greatness that I own something kind of rare.

The easiest wallet and way to get OMG is Exodus wallet.  It has Shapeshift built into it so you can freely exchange your crypto in the wallet to other ones (it supports about 15 different coins that you can exchange amongst each other).
Some don't like Exodus and shapeshift because of the bad rates, but it is definitely the most convenient and user friendly way to move your assets around.
Also, it just looks nice.

Typically, regardless of how great any ico or project is, the price will crash within a day of it being listed on an exchange.
It's mostly people who received free coins through bounty campaigns or those looking for a quick 2 or 3X profit.
sometimes, it can crash below the ICO price (in Electroneum's case the base ICO price is .01 cents for 1 ETN.  It will be cheaper depending on how much bonus you got).
I can't really say specifically what price.  But I can see it rising to .05 or .06 cents by Mar/Apr around the time major mass marketing will take place.
Give it three to four more months to really catch on, another month for it to peak and bam! Viral apps ride the waves of success for about a month or two?
That's how a figured it would be about an 8 month to 1 year long hold.
My personal sell point is going to be .09 cents, .09 cents doesn't seem like a lot but for me that will be about a 13x gain.
Of course, I might hold on to them longer if the price soars above that but realistically, .06 cents to .10 cents will be a fantastic price for the coin.

with that being said, the best way to help this project succeed and help your investment really pay off is to introduce the app to your friends, coworkers, and family and get them using it.  That is what is going to make the company succeed.

Of course those who say, "Bitcoin is the mother of all coins" will hate electroneum.
Here are other types of people who hate electroneum (and hate every other coin, and their mom and their dad and their cat): miners, blockchain developers, leet crypto traders who have known about BTC waaaay before everyone else and are superior to all these other fake wannabe trader newbies like me.

Of course I love bitcoin.  Or, to put it more accurately, I love decentralized digital currency.
In that, BTC is king, but only because we decide it is.
The fact is, there are HUNDREDS of coins, platforms, and projects that are superior to BTC.
Someday, it will be replaced as naturally as VHS was replaced by DVDs.

Rather than look at the actual token itself, look at what the company is trying to accomplish and how they are trying to do that: mass adoption of crypto through viral marketing aimed directly at the common, everyday, cell phone user that has no idea what a blockchain is.

So it is more important to look at the app really, as a gauge as to whether that can actually catch on.

I'm biased cause I invested in it, but yes I do believe it can catch on.

Lots of posts about Electroneum lately.
I invested 2 ETH on the first day and with the 50% bonus I ended up with around 84,000 electroneum.
Right now there is a 10% bonus that ends in two days.
You can use my referral code to get an extra 1% (also I get an extra 5%).

Code: FC5E94

I chose this one after extensive research and narrowing it down to three different ICO's: electroneum, cindicator, and chainlink.

My main reason for choosing electroneum is because it is trying to achieve what I sincerely hope will happen: mass adoption of crypto

Will electroneum itself have uses? Maybe, they are looking to have it used for in game currency and potentially gambling.
The success of the project is entirely dependent on how successful their mining app will be.
I believe they will be successful because the entire thing is meant to be user friendly and they are approaching it as an app that can earn enough to pay your phone bill just by using it.  A simple marketing tactic that will definitely catch on.

As far as flipping goes, I would really like to warn you that this will probably not be good for short term gains.  It's simple mathematics and economics.
However, this will definitely be a medium hold wonder.  Around 8 months to a year hold.

Of course, I have no magic crystal ball, but those are just my opinions after a loooooooooooooot of research.

Yes, hello, I am also someone you can trust because I want to help humanity and payitforward.
I am honorable, have integrity and will never lie.

You can start helping humanity by first helping a specific human being: me.
You can payitforward by first paying it forward to: me.

Help humanity by donating to my BTC addres:

Iamnotascammerthisisnotascamdidsomeonesayscam?notmenoway

(by the way, don't be a cheap ass, donations under 10BTC are way too uncharitable)

Wow, what a crazy thread!

First time hearing about this project, looks like there's quite a lot of baggage.

Is the goal like a humanized version of Internet of Things?

Hackers will never go away.

This is a bit extreme, but if a hacker has the skills and knowledge enough to exploit a codes weakness and steal from people with unsecured wallets...does he deserve his loot?
Shouldn't the code have been more secure? Shouldn't people know the basics about securing your crypto?
Well, of course theft still sucks, but instead of worrying about hackers, secure your shit and use secure platforms.

Don't be the idiot that travels to a developing country, openly takes pictures with your iphone 8 while wearing a rolex, then blame the whole country of being a terrible place after your stuff gets stolen.

From personal experience, I can tell you I had the exact same thoughts and feelings...it's a quick way to get you feeling straight up depressed.

And from a practical standpoint, don't let it affect you.  Feeling like you are too late can cause you to lose patience and try to jump in now before it's too late.
The market is extremely volatile, this means that guaranteed even almighty BTC will crash and price correct.  Of course, not down to last years prices but just wait a couple weeks, instead of buying 1BTC for $5800 you can surely get it for less than $5000 when the price crashes.

And here is a crystal ball for you!
End of Oct. and early Nov. after the hardfork, BTC can potentially crash after everyone gets their bitcoin gold and sells their btc while the price is high.

or

When BTC hits $6000.  Guaranteed professional investors and whales will automatically have a large chunk of BTC sold off at the $6000 mark causing the price to fall.

sumocoin isn't a japanese coin.
It's just a bunch of japanophiles (aka geeky white guys) who wish they were living in japan smashing japanese girls.

well, actually, the community is great and if mining is your thing it's a great coin to jump in on.