Could someone explain why Dogecoin would be a good investment?
There's not really any valid reason for it to exist, is there? I'd like to hear why.
In the future, it's hard to imagine there being 100 similar versions of every crypto and all being valued highly.
Why would Doge win the race?

While I do agree with you on the money-part, Bitcoin Cash does seem to have different fundamentals, it is undeniably easier and faster to use Bitcoin Cash currently.
However, Bitcoin Cash is not as distributed, and with Roger Ver as an active spokesman and all the misleading, the price is moving in ways it wouldn't if it was fair play involved.
I think a lot of people will be disappointed in the end..

if it wasn't for the distribution of Bitcoin, I can't see why either Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash are the main topics of discussion when talking about "which one will be #1".
So much debating that harms crypto and divides the community.

I don't really understand the technical things, sure I understand the blocksize but not really the technical debate so it's difficult to get a good grasp on BCH vs BTC.
BCH increases blocksize, fantastic, the blocks are still empty?
Isn't this "0conf" thing an issue aswell? I think I read something along the lines that  merchants are expected to run their own nodes?

BCH is actively marketed, and has a spokesperson more than Bitcoin has I think. I know Bitcoin has an 'official team', but Roger Ver is everywhere talking about BCH, and misleading people with his websites, the reddits etc.
You're talking about speed, but speed isn't really a selling point I think, since there's tons of super-fast alternatives out there?

Either way, it's difficult to form an opinion without understanding all the technical details, and there's few neutral people presenting them in an easy to understand way..
it's either people shilling for BCH talking about all the pros of BCH and the cons of BTC; or vice versa.

I don't know how OK it is to post here, but I wrote a "guide" about analysing ICOs, it's a pretty long text so if it's not really good to post here!
but if anyone has their own tips maybe you can add them in the thread 

I don't see why bitcoin is more advanced than other cryptos, nor why it's easier or why it could process larger transactions?
There's plenty of alternatives out there, with more functionality, faster, is there not?
I see the only gain is how well distributed Bitcoin is, because no new coin can ever acquire the same kind of distribution, since now everyone is aware of any new crypto that comes out, therefore, people can collect a large amount early on, since people are now always prepared for all the good projects. Compare this with when Bitcoin was created initially, all these years of low value, crashes, people who sold, traded, lost their wallet access etc - the coins are distributed in a way that can never happen again. I believe this is why Bitcoin is #1.

I'm no expert on this subject(rather quite a noob), but I'm thinking about the way crypto currently offers semi-anonymousness to people.
I know there are 'fully' private coins, but hard to see that become the main currency-crypto.

If we somehow manage to move away from the current fiat system, in any timeframe - 5, 10, 30 years -
how do people imagine the system will work? Will there still be a government in control, and knowing everyone's wallets?
If so, did we really progress in the right direction with crypto, if all it does is basically provide the government with an open ledger?

In a way, it seems like this would result in criminals being 'more criminal', and again, more damaging for regular people.
A bit like limiting guns and such, where regular people no longer can protect themselves, while criminals still has access to weapons.
If crypto becomes mainstream, wouldn't this mean the government, as well as any type of like advertising companies etc - could easily see exactly what 'regular' people are doing with their money?
People would need some type of wallet to receive salaries etc, which probably would be required to be known by the government to be legal.
In terms of privacy, decentralization, trustless etc - isn't this kinda the opposite of the goal?

I do understand there are alternatives and ways to combat this, but - personally - I find it hard to believe that 'regular' people truly would adopt any crypto currency as the norm, without some type of government 'support'.
I mean, people who barely knows how to send an email, won't really go through monero for their purchases?

Anyone care to share their opinion? Is there maybe some good articles about this?
Again, I'm no expert, I believe in crypto and importance of privacy, decentralization, immutability and so on -
I'm simply curious on what we could expect if crypto did overtake fiat somehow.

In a way, doesn't Bitcoin (or any other crypto) have to be used in order to actually ever become mainstream-adopted?
I guess people could buy bitcoin > use it(send to someone, buy something etc) > buy new bitcoin, instead of using fiat.
But doesn't in a way make bitcoin redundant if we're talking about like, how easy it is for someone to use it?
If everyone buys Bitcoin only to hold, it's hard to see it becoming adopted, we need to somehow push for adoption, by 'voting' with using Bitcoin above fiat perhaps?
(like using Bitcoin on stores and such that accept it, which as adoption grows forces others to allow Bitcoin as payment).

I personally wrote a lot of posts(like 200) before I started thinking about gaining merit in order to gain more from bounties.
I was mostly posting for bounty campaigns and because of interest in various topics, and didn't really think I'd ever get merit.
I thought I might as well try do something useful, since I enjoy the crypto-discussions anyway, so I wrote some guides and gained a bit of merit, which I understand might require some english skills.

However, to my surprise, I've also received about half my merit simply from actually just discussing things!
I thought merit mostly were given to people who wrote great threads and such, since it's a bit difficult to find a single post in a long thread, but apparently that's not the case.
I don't think you really need to be an expert in english, and post long detailed threads.
Instead, just discuss in topics, and make sure you contribute in some way. There's little reason to write the same response that 10 other people already has,
or to write one sentence saying something generic. Instead, make sure you interest yourself in crypto, then hang around in Serious Discussions, Bitcoin Discussions, if you're technically savvy, check the Technical Section.
I personally enjoy reading in Political section and chatting in Bitcoin Discussion, there are really great discussions going on, not everything is the "Altcoin Discussions" 500 pages-spam.
There are many other sections(categories), find one you can contribute to, on a topic that interests you, I only gave a few examples.

But, why would someone give you merit, if you only repeat what someone else has said?
So, try to simply find an interesting topic and discuss with people, not just "generic response", contribute with your opinion/your knowledge  

(although I'm a noob and only have 8 merit, so surely someone else has some suggestions )

What do you mean 'be the winner in the line of the same'?

#Proof of Authentication
Telegram: @q_bus

Yes, you're right - even if everything does look good from research, it doesn't guarantee anything!
Both scams, and that 90% of startups fails, we can never be sure, but the more research = less likely a scam! 

if you're looking for the moon, Bitcoin might not be the entirely best decision, in my personal opinion!

I wish you luck with your investments then, I personally haven't heard of any of them 

anyone else has some tips! 

you dodged a bullet! 
I actually found out the same not long ago, I was ready to invest but then I found out that their private sale had raised many millions - ok great, but they don't want to tell us how much the private investors paid 
but as long as they make it clear from the start, that there'll be a private sale, it's fine - one has to make their own decision then.

Thank you for your reply!
That's actually something I forgot to mention here, and in my other thread specifically for Wallets + Crypto Safety, I will add it in there!

They want to keep people happy since they're getting tons of referrals, but I do believe AIRDROPP.IO use emails to invite people when applicable.
I signed up for that site just to get some airdrop information easily, and lately I've been invited to the very same projects they send out in an email to me.
Like, not long ago they sent out an email with information about 'Brickblock.io', and I've since then twice been 'invited by a friend' to that..!
 

Added a note on 2 Factor Authentication for exchanges now! Does anyone else have any good security tips?
Any software related? as I don't really use one and it'd be good knowledge!

Hi, thank you for your reply,
hmm sorry I'm not certain what you mean by the plagiarism? I wrote the entire post if that's what you mean,
only using my own words, so it's not copied from another source.
If you mean sources to other things, I'm not sure which ones - I'm not really making any bold statements?  
It's just the basics of crypto, the way I learned it and I've tried explained to people on various occasions on how it works,
so I made this thread to put it all in one place!  

It did take a while to write!

About commercial part, I'm not really sure as I don't personally do much trading, I prefer investing in certain crypto at times I find right and holding a period of time.
Then there's the technical analysis people, and while someone usually gets it right, 99 other people gets it wrong, so personally I'm not much for technical analysis.
I can't tell you whether any crypto is going up or down short-term, but my personal belief is that long-term, the crypto market-cap will go many times higher than today.
What do you think?

And on the note of investing in certain cryptos, I wrote a guide for analyzing ICOs, which does apply to analyzing crypto in general, if you have any tips to add to it that'd be welcome as I'm sure many people have their own various things to look at for a project! Thread is here.

I made a short guide on analysing ICOs, knowing if they're bad/good - and that also means the bounties, I think.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3752728