Firstly, no one should sell their house or any action that would leave them in debt in a bid to own bitcoins. Only invest spare money considering the risk and reward ratio.

You have been answered already, being debt free takes precedence over any potential reward from hodling. You can use the same risk reward ratio.

Congratulations on getting your account back, this is more proof that the current system is functioning.

For those who are not aware a link has been added to the MORE icon at the forum top.
After clicking MORE you would see Support for lost/hacked accounts.
This leads to a detailed guide from the foeum administrator on how to go about the recovery process.

I share this opinion that there should at least be a guide of what deserves a tag and what does not. The cases I've observed has been very broad, from possible scams to low quality post. Users can get tagged for whatever reason depending on the discretion of the one leaving the feedback.

I have also come across a situation where a user was red tagged for possible pliagarism whilst the account was not banned.

Bitcoin has no racial or religious sentiments. I wouldn't equate bitcoin as love, it's just an asset and a means of exchange and personal affiliations do not matter.
It is borderless and as such it could be a global currency accepted by all.

The coin community is the building block of bitcoin's network and it supports the price and is the reason for rhe adoption and attention bitcoin is getting.
There have been lots of seminars and webinars on bitcoin awareness organized by enthusiasts.
Centralized authorities in your context is not limited to the government. Industries and infrastructures would be a great addition and would form more solid support for the community.

Fiat offers price security as the value barely fluctuates and does so around a very limited range.
Tether is useful for transferring funds to someone through the blockchain as it ensures the value as when sent is the same when received.
But for long term use I would rather hold some other cryptocurrencies.

The price was never stop through out any year, so no particular price could represents a 12 month chart.
Putting the price evolution in perspective it shows the progress that has been achieved within a decade, and shows that bitcoin is not at a bad spot.

Majority of these are already popular among the community, and there are helpful guides already on them.
As has been pointed out, faucets are of little value in the current market, and only a small percentage of total airdrops organized turn out valuable, and personal data is sometimes required.

Welcome to bitcointalk, do well to read designated threads made to get you  acquainted to the forum.
There are sticky threads here on beginners board and also the meta section. Also check out the forum rules and guidelines.

Go to your profile and click on ignore board preference, which is the last link. Then choose the board to put on ignore


Ignoring a board would make it inaccessible to you

This is the largest cryptocurrency discussion forum, and while this is not an endorsement, it would surely get a lot of people interested in grin.

So could this open the door to more additions to the bitcointalk model? Or is this a one off experiment?

It has not changed much in over the four years you were away. The adoption has increased and also attention from government and external industries.
Bitcoin is not slowly replacing fiat, I do not think it is meant to replace fiat currencies.
It is an alternative currency

When new to cryptocurrency, one would have to start from the very basic in order to get a full idea of how it works.
There are many helpful guides on the forum which are designed for newbies.
The proper orientation is necessary for people new ro cryptocurrency.

Account recoveries are possible without having a signed message from a bitcoin address listed to the account
I do not know how the account recovery process works, check the MORE option for support on how to recover locked/hacked.

So your are judging cryptocurrency solely based on the possibility of it getting stolen or hacked. Which is more likely to happen only when you outsource your assets on an exchange?
Responsibility is one that comes with decentralization. Complete control over your assets with no interference from governments or agencies.
If you feel safer with banks, you are under no obligation to change.

Long term goals are not influenced by short intermittent changes. There would definitely be speculations ans price dumps and pumps.
The true value would be realized with time, patience is the top virtue of a bitcoin enthusiast.
You would not lose till you sell at a loss.

Blockfolio exposed me to direct information about coins I hold or am interested in. It gave me an understanding of charts which I could not get from exchanges, maybe due to the website interface.

On this forum i frequent the economics board and also it's child board. I also visit project development board for information about bitcoin and cryptocurrency in extension.

Not just fiat, there are still coins which are backed by commodity currency, some by other cryptocurrencies and some yet operate a system where they are not collaterized by any asset.

Regulations and centralization are linked with stabke coins, hence the controversy it attracts.

Whales is not a coterie of elite who plan together and move to swing the market is theri favour, it's just one who owns a large percentage of a currency it's possible they know each other, but this is not always the case.
Your best bet would be to go with coins which you have understanding of the fundamentals and use case.

Coins with high cap provide more stability and less risk, there are also a few good ones lower on the rank, it takes lots of finding.

I do not like to see bitcoin mentioned in the same sentence or mentioned in the same breadth as regulation or centralization.
Bitcoin is meant to be used as a means of exchange, a currency and not an asset class with speculative value.
Furthermore, I doubt ETF would be beneficial in the goal of achieving price stability.