There doesn't seem to be any logical reason to fork Monero right now, this is likely to be a pump and dump by the founders.

Never support forked coins, they are the plague of the cryptosphere (usually, but not always).

Supposedly Telegram is also having a second stage of funding, which would probably put it over the $1 billion mark. This would make the market cap of the Telegram token already higher than some quite established tokens including Steem and Verge, and approaching the market cap of tether. I suspect once the Telegram ICO is finished the token value will drop quite rapidly, as I can't remember any coin having a >$1B market cap instantly. The ROI on this seems very low to me, at least in the short term.

I know I'll probably get a lot of hate for this, but I'm going to post it anyway.

I agree that the merit system has done wonders for the forum, it essentially acts as a mesh through which only the worthy can squeeze through and make it to the upper user ranks and hence better benefit from being a member on this platform. However, the system doesn't account for those who made it to the upper ranks before the merit system was introduced, and hence have bypassed a great filtering system that may have prevented them reaching their current rank.

I'm sure most of you have seen a few Sr/Hero/Legendary members that still continue to contribute nothing to the forum, or simply spam the forum with referral links, copy-pasted posts or otherwise low quality responses. Currently, a member will require an additional 90 merit to reach Full member, the rank at which people would assume you've at least got the basics of around things operate around here. However I suspect that if you check the amount of merit earned by Sr members+, probably less than 10% would have achieved this amount of merit since the introduction of the merit system over a month ago.

Why should members who happened to register before the introduction of the new system be immune to the difficulties faced by new members? I would even go as far as to suggest that the merit system is almost completely useless once you reach Hero rank, as there is not much difference to make acquiring another 500 merit to go from Hero > Legendary worth it. Once you get to legendary it is definitely useless, as there is no end reward, maybe we should at least get an extra coin or something for the additional merit.

I would suggest a way to resolve this would be to put upper level users on a probation system where they have to gain a certain number of merit over the probation period to maintain their rank, otherwise they get demoted. Also, I would also suggest creating an additional tier of user above Legendary that has additional privileges such as Ultimate or Diamond users at 1500 merit, something to give the old users something to strive towards. I know a probation period for all upper level members would probably cause a big uproar, but I do believe it would be in the best interest of the forum.

Or you could simply implement a minimum merit/month feature to maintain your current rank, if you don't earn a certain amount of merit within the month you drop to the previous user level, this might ensure that even upper level users continue to contribute to the forum, or risk losing their rank. I would be happy to participate in such a scheme as I believe it would force me to focus more about what I write, and how to best help the community.

Opinions are welcome Sorry for the essay. 

Most ICOs don't have access to public databases, and simply do a visual inspection of the ID. They cannot be expected to have a 100% secure KYC protocol, nobody does. I suspect all they do is check the name, check the ID, if they match up and the photo doesn't appear modified, then KYC passes, otherwise it's a fail/flag. I'd expect you to be perfectly fine doing this for the most part, though if you get caught you may have to forfeit your tokens.

Well, we have already seen a single ICO (Telegram) raise over $1 billion alone, obviously this was an outlier but still shows that the absolute valuations of some ICOs is increasing from when they first started. I think 2018 will lead to a small improvement in the amount of money invested in ICOs, particularly as we begin to see novel examples such as EtherJack.

Honestly, I really do believe in cryptocurrency. Having recently read through the Whitepaper for Ethereum and NEO I can say for sure that they have the potential to revolutionize the world. Yes, bitcoin started the game, but it would need significant upgrades to compete with the sheer potential of NEO with its decentralized applications and NeoContracts, it is a gamechanger for sure. There is a place for bitcoin, but there is an even bigger place for ETH/NEO.

It's interesting how these websites can't seem to get their opinions straight, one week they say Bitcoin is dead, the next week they say it will reach $100,000. Yes, bitcoin certainly has the potential to reach astronomical heights, but a number of puzzle pieces need to fall into place first. It is needs to have beneficial regulations, greater adoption and lower volatility, and also absolutely needs a completely noob friendly way of interacting with the cryptomarkets. Right now it's simply too complex for the layman, the company that solves this issue on a wide scale will absolutely explode in popularity.

Long term, I really don't think that Dogecoin has a future, it was created as a sort of parody, how it has survived this long is unbelievable. I think it won't go much further from here, particularly as it is eclipsed by more promising upstarts that actually have utility.

This will probably be the biggest ICO ever, as the company that launched it was already a global success, meaning they have easily had the largest reach of any ICO yet.

However I do not believe that investors will multiply their money, simply because Telegram is already over $1B in market cap, very few coins get much further than $1B particularly ones that offer little to no improvement over currency altcoins.

I'm currently holding the following coins;

1. Bitcoin (6 months)
2. Ethereum (3 months)
3. NEO (2 months)
4. ADA (3 months)
5. Ripple (3 months)

I'll also be investing into TRON and ICON once they're accepted on Bittrex (if ever).

Maybe you should confront them on it, wear a microphone and record the conversation, this can be used as evidence against them later.

Alternatively, you can contact them posing as somebody else, try to set up a deal with the bitcoin, and then catch them out and report them.

However, most police forces do not take crypto theft seriously as its often not considered cash.

You will only start earning once you're accepted into either a signature or bounty campaign, however being a Newbie member it's unlikely you'll be accepted into either of those, unless it's something like a Telegram/Facebook or Twitter campaign. Check out the altcoin bounty section in the marketplace, I'm sure you'll find some potential to earn money. Otherwise, focus on contributing to the community and sharing insightful tips and you'll rank up soon enough.

More like sell everything and invest in NEO/ADA/ETH, definitely spread your investment across multiple coins otherwise you're liable for a heavy loss if one collapses. I doubt whatever you will be selling will come close to appreciating as fast as these assets, so get in quick whilst the price is low.

ADA and NEO are pretty much Ethereum's ONLY real competitors right now. There is definitely room for all three in the cryptosphere, but I do believe that each of these will exceed $1000 by 2019, certainly NEO, Cardano may lag behind slightly. Invest in both, you wont regret it. Also NEO has a bunch of airdrops and ICOs surrounding its hype, might want to invest in the most promising of these also.

In my personal experience, I assume that extremely negative news regarding a cryptocurrency from a reputable news source is likely to tank the price somewhat. For example, any headlines mentioning hacking of a large website and theft of a significant number of coins, bans or negative regulations in a large country such as China, USA, Germany etc. Or even large investment firms or popular individuals expressing negative opinions about cryptos might have a detrimental effect on its value. However, good news such as a new corporation accepting crypto, or relaxation of taxation etc will usually lead to a price improvement.

Overall, the source and how prevalent the news is determines the extent of its effect. You generally don't need to worry about what the small fish say, unless the big fish are saying it too.

Well first of all, it's sad to hear what your friend did to you, that's a dick move. Probably a stupid move to put your life savings into something you don't understand but it's done now. As for your coins, you only actualize lose money when you sell your coins, as you still have the same amount of those coins that you bought initially. I would recommend learning to trade currencies. Take your worst performing coins, and trade them against better performing altcoins, over time you can make back the losses your incurred.

Or you can just invest a bit more in a few high risk, but high potential ICOs, they have the potential to multiple 1000 fold, and recoup all of your losses in one sweep.

Good luck.

Bitcointalk username: spiker777
Bitcointalk profile link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=528645
Current number of posts: 459
Are you wearing our avatar?: I will change signature and avatar once accepted, I'll check back periodically.

Seems like an interesting project, definitely appears to have potential to really take off. Please see my previous posts for an indication of my post quality.

Could you please confirm whether I've been accepted into the signature campaign? I've checked the spreadsheet, and my name is listed, but it doesn't appear that I am being counted towards the bounty.

Edit: I have had to modify the sr member signature slightly as the BB code provided went out of bounds.

If this is not OK, I can switch it to the Full member variation. Just let me know.

I have applied the signature and avatar as per the signature campaign requirements.

This honestly looks like an extremely promising project, I will be participating in the signature campaign, and will be looking to purchase jacks.

I will be watching this ICO with intense interest, can't wait to see how it goes.