I think now the situation with Ethereum is not the most stable. They are just looking for ways to solve problems with scalability.
On the other hand, there is a project Zilliqa, it has already solved this problem. That is, from the very beginning this project doesn't have such problems.
Therefore, I would ask the question in another form.
 What projects are now breathing down to the second largest coin necks? Will Vitalik be able to carry out the update and maintain position in the market?

I certainly do not doubt that the price of bitcoin will grow after the conference. But I'm waiting for the performance of the TheKey team.
I hope they will tell you something new since this is one of my favorite projects. I'm just amazed at the speed of their development.
I'm in one telegram group. So the admin will be in New York's conference during all three days. I look forward to his reports and impressions. Maybe one day I can afford to attend an event of this level.

A hotel with seven stars? 
I traveled the world a lot, but I have never seen a hotel of this level. Who in Venezuela will stay there? I think that the month spent at this hotel will cost like buying a house.
President Maduro is certainly a "good man", maybe he is trying to somehow revive the country's economy and overcome the collapse of inflation. But the hotel is 7-star. Oh my God. Maybe it's rumors, as many wrote in this post.

I think you do not need to compare these two platforms. Moreover, you do not need to invent a winner. It's just as strange as comparing Ford and Honda. Which of them will win?
These two platforms have their pluses and minuses. Many bright projects have been created both on the Etherеum and on the basis of NEO. The Chinese platform is still very young, but it has good potential. Etherеum has problems with scalability of the network, but it tries to overcome it.

Very often after end ICO company block some of the tokens. I do not know the amount of money you spent. But usually, the more money you invested, the more you got a discount or bonus, the later you get your tokens.
First unlock expensive and then gradually to the cheapest (or bonus).
I think you need to wait.

Always read white paper. There you will find the answer. How much money does the project developers have? If it is more than 51%, yes, they can manipulate the price. If the tokens are frozen and gradually unblocked in small quantities during the year, then the possibilities of manipulation are minimized.

In my opinion, the three leaders - the most successful projects of 2018 are not yet known. Perhaps it will be something radically new and super successful. To date, this is
TheKey
Zilliqa
Elastos
DragonChain
Bee

If I advise only one coin. Then I would invest money in Zilliqa. Today, such a drop in the market, that the price is very attractive for buying. Do not limit yourself to "only up to 1 dollar." Just study the project and think - does it have a future.

Yes, I participate in ICOs, that requires KYC. Maybe I'll regret it. But too much temptation to take part in promising projects. I know about all the dangers, but I try to ignore them mentally. But I send my documents only to top ICOs, not all in a row.

I would recommend you Quantum1net, but the bounty ends after 2 days. Of the new probably the Dragon Inc. I'm not very fond of all kinds of gambling, I do not know much about it. But they collected a lot of money. They write that this project is something new in the Asian market.

Today, the craziness in the market. On all exchanges are large warrants for sale. I do not know whether this is connected with Japan and Japan’s financial regulator statements. But the fact remains. Whales sell a large volume of bitcoin and the rate fell within an hour.

Binance collected documents to obtain a license to trade in Japan. Therefore, these are related things. If you do not see any threat for yourself and you do not trade in Binance and do not keep your money there, you can not pay attention to these facts.

Just want to remind everyone and the beginner and experienced traders / users about the danger of phishing sites. Before entering your passwords and personal keys, look carefully what is written in the address bar. Learn by heart the sites of exchanges.
If there is one extra letter in the address bar or a dot or a double letter, this is a cloned site (scammers). It looks the same, everything is like on original site, only in the address bar an extra letter, a digit.
Today I switched over the link to watch the course and got on a cloned site. Be careful always.

Japan promised to restore order last year. It seems that the words do not differ from the work.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-japan/japan-to-punish-several-cryptocurrency-exchanges-sources-idUSKCN1GJ1AE

Binance started to have security problems. Some hackers with the help of API keys artificially increased the price of Viacoin and cashed out a lot of money. Japan has closed some exchanges, and in fact they are somehow connected with the Binance servers. Be careful!

There are too much realy good projects with their own blockchains (like Elastos, for example) and don't connected anyway with ethereum. There also projects that use Ethereum for token sale only but develope their own blockchain (like Wanchain, for example). But in general - yes, 90% new projecs use ethereum and this is sad.

Tell me please, what is your opinion poll? All three options are the same "1". What does it mean "1"?
And answering your question. No. This judgment is fundamentally not true. A cat in gloves catches no mice, no sweet without sweat.

In fact, you very correctly noticed. If one day something happens to Ethereum. Well, there's something wrong there, a virus, hackers will crack, I do not know. All the thousands of tokens that are created on the Ether platform will disappear?
Projects that create their own purse and have a unique platform certainly have an advantage. However, it is difficult and expensive to do this everything.
The path of least resistance is Ethereum. With your thought of slavery, I agree.

Both these coins NEO and Ether are really safe investments. If you are looking for something similar, then look at Stellar. This year a real breakthrough is expected. And the project itself is very promising and it is actively developing.

I have not heard this before. Of course I like NEO and I try to increase the stock of these coins in my purse. But to overtake bitcoin, no, I do not think so. Look at the capitalization of these two coins, too big interval.

Team KuCoin is very creative. They always make up all sorts of incentives for anything. Deposite coins on the exchange, which you bought on ICO and get bonuses. Or trade in a certain coin and receive gifts. It is very cool.