The ICO landscape has changed significantly since the early days of crypto and as you said, there are a lot of scams out there. Investors must practice vigilance, they must exercise their due diligence and research thoroughly before investing. Research the project, the development team, assess their growth potential, their potential for mass adoption, look into their social media presence (does their community look legit or paid?), overall you should be looking at how transparent/honest they are. In the end, even with all of this research, you still can't be 100% sure of the project's future or validity--that's just the nature of the business. If you believe in a project, though, invest in it. If you'd like to learn more about ICO's feel free to check out our blog, we expand on everything you should know before participating in an ICO: http://bit.ly/ICOGuide

Cheers!

It's happening already and faster than you think, it just may not be present in your everyday life yet. However, cryptocurrency is being integrated in high school and universities across the globe. In Japan there is even a girl band that tours and educates people about bitcoin. There are cryptocurrency start-ups forming with the goal of helping poor nations as well. The crypto movement is spreading in all sorts of different ways, regardless of price dips and peaks, people are convinced by the technology and what it can do for future generations. Below are links to all the examples I talked about, check them out and then do your own investigating!

Cheers!

https://blog.humaniq.co/experts-share-their-views-on-crypto-distribution-in-developing-areas-9badf2dd8b94

http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/new-all-girl-band-set-up-in-japan-to-educate-people-about-bitcoin

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/07/bitcoin-education-at-high-schools-and-colleges.html

When you get yourself into any currency, you can't forget that it is a very volatile game. We all have a different risk tolerance...check out our blog post we wrote about this. Maybe it'll help you out 

bit.ly/WhenToBail

Good luck!

Besides an exchange, as many people mentioned, another alternative is a direct sale through LocalBitcoins, BitQuick, Bittylicious and BitBargain. People who are interested will contact you if they like your price. Transactions are usually done via deposits or wires to your bank account.

Good luck!

Cointelegraph, DeCenter and Whale Team are three popular groups. There are so many though, do some research on your own, as a newbie this is imperative!

Cheers!

"This is likely because you are using a segwit address with an old version of the chrome application that's not adapted to segwit."

Check out the link below to the ledger wallet's support page, you'll find a detailed explanation of what they call a "change address" which is the 2nd output you saw...

https://support.ledgerwallet.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005469005-What-if-two-Outputs-are-displayed-Transfer-to-a-Change-address

Cheers!

Probably a little but of both intuition through experience and what they call: technical analysis. Technical analysis (TA) is what traders use to predict price movements-many of these techniques have proven to be successful in traditional financial markets. On the other hand, with how volatile cryptos are in comparison to traditional stocks, many people are skeptical of this strategy's applicability in the crypto world. Nevertheless, if you are interested in learning more about this check out the links to the articles below, they cover TA for beginners...

https://cryptopotato.com/bitcoin-crypto-technical-analysis-beginners/

https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@crypto-ta/how-to-use-technical-analysis-to-profit-from-trading-cryptocurrency

Cheers!

Blockonomi.com is a solid source for articles on cryptocurrencies, technology and blockchain economy--might be a good place to reference for your piece. As far as the impact on developing nations, the articles below are great reads...

https://www.ccn.com/will-bitcoin-blockchain-build-finance-developing-economies/

https://blockonomi.com/cryptocurrencies-developing-countries/

Feel free to check out our blog as well at http://bit.ly/MintDice for the latest crypto-space news.

Cheers!

Diversifying is usually the preferred method of investment. Of course, if you cannot invest in multiple coins then a popular way many people look at this dilemma is: start slow, purchase what you can afford in bitcoin and hold it as a long term investment. Later on you can start trading for your favorite altcoins using your bitcoins--before you know it, you've begun diversifying your crypto portfolio.

With any earnings you make you could invest back into bitcoin or high market cap altcoins (eth, ltc, etc) or into cheap altcoins--it depends on your preferred growth strategy (long-term vs short-term) and your willingness to get into trading. There are cheap alt-coins out there right now that have high growth potential and could make you a quick profit but you will have to be a much more active investor who researches and monitors the market meticulously. If you're new to the crypto world I suggest investing into high market cap coins or "blue chip" coins first to get your feet wet.

Cheers!

This is a common strategy, but you have to stay on top of it. This "buying in the dip" strategy can yield good results as long as you know what you're doing and are only putting out what you can lose.

Oyster Pearl has a goal to provide two solutions at the same time: decentralized data storage and mitigating the need for web ads. People hate online ads, and many want secure decentralized storage options, so that’s where PRL wants to come in. It’s important for you to do your own research and only do what your comfortable with, because small-cap coins are very prone to price manipulation or tanking altogether.

Hope this helps 

Not sure where you are located, but you can also try a p2p marketplace like localbitcoins.com, just be wary and only do business with users who have the strongest reviews.

Cheers!

The experience behind the development team and whether or not the project has the potential for mass adoption are key factors to look into. Of course, it's also good to assess their reputability, are they providing a time frame, are they being transparent?--that is the key. Exercise your due diligence and research as much as you can on the project before participating, unfortunately there's a lot of opportunity for scams out there now with how saturated the alt-coin market is. Our blog expands on ICO best practices, feel free to check it out!  http://bit.ly/ICOGuide

Cheers!

Binance is one of the most popular exchanges! The crypto community trust them and they have definitely proven to be secure. It's not advisable to store funds in an exchange though--try going for a hardware wallet   

Perhaps cryptocurrency usage will expand into representing a natural resource or asset like what we are seeing with the Venezuelan Petro Project. Who knows, it seems like it could be useful for countries that want to circumvent sanctions. 

A huge driving force behind the massive rush into Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is the millennial generation! We touch on this more in our blog post: bit.ly/MillennialsFuelingCrypto
The downside is that inexperienced or uninformed millennials can easily get sucked in by bad information and make poor investment decisions. However, with careful choices, Crypto is the perfect innovative fit for millennials.

If you can't afford to lose the money you've invested, maybe you should pull out. Although the future of BTC does not look bleak according to predictions, you never know what can happen. We touch on Cryptocurrency bailing a little bit more in our blog post, so check it out 

Bit.ly/WhenToBail

What goes along with this are security tokens, which allow for the potential for a wide variety of applications, the most promising of which is the ability to issue tokens that represent shares of company stock.

An ICO is essentially the first public offering to purchase coins for their blockchain project. The chief advantage is the same as being an early investor in any company or business project. The objective is that the company or blockchain project is going to use those funds to grow and make the company and/or coin more valuable in the future. We have a blog post expanding on this, so check it out:

Bit.ly/GuideToExchanges

 

it's actually impossible for the network to know if coins are "lost." Without the private key, you can't prove the coins do or do not belong to someone, thus no btc are mined from these "lost" coins nor can you prove the owner is truly inactive, he/she may just be storing.