They're not all scams. There are some great projects out there, but if you really want to play it safe you use the working product when it ships and stop seeing ICO's as means of making money but means of improving your life in other ways.

Only invest in things you would want to use yourself and would solve a problem that needs to be solved.

https://hubpages.com/technology/Virtual-Currency-For-A-Digital-Being

Schools are basically indoctrination institutions to convince kids from a young age to participate in the rat race, be "nice" and follow directions. Right now, they prepare children for the past and essentially serve as means of babysitting for parents and cities who don't want youth on the street.

Insane that they completely ignore life's most important skills-correct money management, investing, health (emotional and physical).

Makes kids think that sitting down for 8 hours a day under fluorescent lights is normal, with the reward of the weekend to forget their horrible realities and get drunk or buy things to numb the pain.

China is going to rule the world and surpass the US in every category. Most people don't even use cash anymore in China and they're way ahead of the game. No longer a copycat nation.

They also have the most motivation to do so. They need extreme efficiency for their sheer population size that would become completely unmanageable and chaotic without integration of such tech.

I think we need to stop simply viewing them as assets and start using them. Not a good idea to enter the realm of crypto just to make a quick buck!

Buy altcoins that you can use right now to buy things because you'll enjoy faster transaction time, financial privacy, etc.. Verge and Monero are also good.

If you are interested in making money in crypto, focus on investing in projects with functionality, practicality and security! The principles still remain the same. We need escrow systems, the opportunity to buy tangible goods with crypto etc.

There's a lot left to be done.

Using crypto has a ton of benefits that the majority of the population aren't aware of because of its technological nature. Makes it seems much more complicated than it is.

You get to have control over your funds, transactions are cheap, and no one can know how much money you have (financial privacy), etc. Most people would understand these things.

Why isn't this being promoted? Why is there no crypto lobby?

For example, pharmaceuticals are complicated in nature, but there is so much advertising making their benefits understandable and it works extremely well lol.

Decentralization won't happen if people aren't aware.

Tricky. Some might say that cancer is nature's way of controlling the proliferation of its greatest enemy:mankind. If cancer no longer were an issue and everyone died past 100, or not at all, quality of life for everyone could very well go down. It's because we see death as something that's bad that we think such advancements are good.

Now this is civilization. Of course I would! I think this is our inevitable future, but it will take widespread and paradigm-changing applications to make this a reality. It can't only be designed for rebels and idealists but for everyone to recognize and use such a world's advantages.

First step is making crypto safer, more easy to use and spreading the word!! The main problem is there is little mainstream marketing for it.

The trigger for what happened to the market is still unclear.

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/12/01/bitcoin-has-lost-most-of-its-value-this-year

"One popular theory is that the the supply of brave buyers willing to take a punt has now been exhausted.

Regulatory interest may be another reason."

"Technical faff, and the volatility that makes it attractive to speculators, means that it is hard to use bitcoin to actually buy things."

One thing is certain. Once everyone can easily use cryptocurrency to buy things without any chance of regulation, its value will inevitably increase.

We still have yet to be able to do this because we still have to use crypto exchanges to deal. These exchanges are still registered companies and can be shut down at government's whims.

Eliminate crypto exchanges and give people the ability to easily use crypto in everyday life and these problems go away!

A distributed exchange network complete with widespread use of a decentralized marketplace would fix the fundamental crypto issues we see today.

Thoughts?

There is a very well-known museums in my hometown that accepts crypto as payment.

Don't think it's worth acknowledging the non-online stores doing this though..Almost all business (to buy products and experiences) in the near future will be online or virtual. VR museums, concerts, etc.

I think we're eventually heading towards a global and virtual decentralized marketplace. You'll be able to check out what you're buying in VR and have extremely fast drone delivery. If you want to buy an experience, you'll be able to do that in VR. It's adoption is heavily being pushed and the combination of technologies makes this almost inevitable from my perspective.

Once it's socially accepted and risk-free to make crypto transactions, no one in their right mind would stick with traditional banking systems.

You have little control over your hard-earned money and very little financial privacy or freedom. Various people can know exactly how much you make, what you buy and these funds can be seized by governments. Also expensive to make foreign transactions!! Not too practical in a globalised world.

The motivations are many and impossible to be certain of, but one thing you said is definitely true: "crypto enthusiasts need to put out maximum efforts to empower decentralization."

In a decentralized world, the public has complete control over what happens and is dependent on itself alone for its prosperity or demise. No one is going to give us freedom we have to take it!

This depends both on the virtual wallet and the court. Not all courts and countries' governments follow their own laws and a certain types of crypto storage are more protected and fool-proof than others.

From my understanding, the Virie market is one of those 'free market' "solutions." Might be something to look into. 

Apart from the obvious indicators of making sure the project is not a scam, prioritizing the analysis of the working product should come first.

These days I am looking for a project that makes buying and using crypto easy and allows you to safely buy things you want with it once you have it.
This is why I think decentralized exchange projects hold the most potential!

What are you looking for in an ICO?

Now when you pick up your cigs and lotto tickets in France you can also buy some Bitcoin!

https://www.coindesk.com/french-tobacco-retailers-to-sell-bitcoin-from-january

"Tobacconists in France are reportedly going to be selling bitcoin to the public from New Year.

According to France-based radio station Europe 1, tobacco retailers will be offering bitcoin vouchers in denominations of 50, 100 or 250 euros (around $57, $114 or $285) from Jan. 1, 2019.

Local crypto startup Keplerk is said to have signed a deal with a cash register software provider to facilitate the scheme. Keplerk will allow customers to convert their vouchers into bitcoin and store it in wallets on its platform.

Initially, some 3,000–4,000 tobacco shops will be selling the vouchers, with others likely to be added later on, the report states.

“Tobacco shop owners are the best channel as they are trusted by customers and they are used to sell vouchers such as credit for mobile phones,” Adil Zakhar, Keplerk’s director for strategy and development, was quoted as saying by Reuters."

Bitcoin will remain the main coin until another one is accepted as a universal currency, which I think will eventually happen.

This coin will have to solve Bitcoin's current problems and those of all other altcoins up until this point-lack of usability, difficult to use, and there is still the risk of getting hacked or being subjected to fraud because we still have to use exchanges.

I remember hearing on a futurist podcast not too long ago that if aliens were to come to earth, the first thing they would probably notice is that our portable screens are our overlords lol.

I'm not sure anything is "good" or "bad" though. Everything has an upside and I guess one benefit of mass VR adoption (and eventual addiction) would be that various resources would be saved as people wouldn't require as much. All wars stem out of resource scarcity at the end of the day. Wars are economical not "ideological."

I think decentralized versions of everything will replace the existing structures because they ensure true democracy and trustworthiness.

Decentralized social media platforms, marketplaces, news websites, fintech services. We're at the beginning of a massive overhaul!

One way to decrease population is to do exactly what the status quo is promoting right now. Become a vegan, change your gender it's awesome, fight for women's rights so they can be happier in an office all day and not have time to give birth and raise children, feminize men  .

It's already happening. Populations are being weeded out because there are too many of us. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria? Vaccines? I don't buy it.

This is why the Virternity project's vision is so important.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virternity

Everybody lies, even doctors. Just because they went to school for a long time doesn't mean they aren't easily swayed by pharmaceutical drug pushers. This is why the supply chain transparency in healthcare will be a great means of blatantly revealing unnecessary, deadly, and highly profitable over-prescription.

As for the smoking? The doctor probably has a broader view on human health, knowing that no matter what we do, we're ultimately only alive for a very short time and it's all mostly suffering anyways (until we achieve digital immortality of course) so fuck it. 

https://cointelegraph.com/news/why-did-crypto-market-experience-a-27-billion-wipeout-experts-discuss-factors

Every situation has a bright side, you just have to look at the bigger picture!

According to Crypto Rand, a currency trader and technical analyst,

"We will have to wait some more months until BTC settle down its path through a potential reversal, but the alternative cryptocurrency market could take its own direction getting rid of the BTC influence. The big caps altcoin response has been amazing so far."

Further on, the article goes on to say,

"Institutional investors are focusing on products that provide investor protection and strengthen the infrastructure of the crypto market."

Such volatility doesn't mean anything. The true value of cryptocurrency lies in a strong foundation (which requires user-friendly decentralized marketplaces where we can use cryptocurrency, and added security in the form of escrow systems) which will be made possible with the upcoming ICO's.

They're not all scams!