I agree with louie, your best bet would be to look at coinmarketcap and study the top altcoins. I think that is the most sound plan you can consider.

The figures might just help you invest better. I myself would like to decide based on statistics. At times these are more helpful than soliciting advises and investment suggestions.

I think "independent" is more apt. We know that there is no central authority that governs bitcoin nor it is a corporation.

Since bitcoin operates on an independent manner free from traditional governing controls and works without any intermediaries such as a bank, its independence is quite notable.

But if to be asked whether private or public, i think it is more of a private currency since public has the common notion of belonging to the government.

It is really more of a clarification from the side of SEC. The nature of the investing instruments at hand contradicts with ETNs or Exchanged Traded Notes and somehow lines up more with ETFs or Exchange Traded Fund (of which we all know is under careful studies of SEC).

So i am guessing that the SEC is indeed for the public interest. They already had spent a considerable amount of time studying ETFs proposals just to have it bypassed by an ETN that actually falls under an ETF categorization. And somehow, i think this is a good indicator that an ETF is soon to be approved.

A great article there.

I find it really informational in many aspects. You have detailed clearly historical events that adds significance to bitcoin. Citing how stable it had become and how helpful the current price correction actually is caught my attention.

This is a part where many fail to recognize how healthy it is that even after a fall of 70%, the current value of bitcoin is still largely higher than the previous year before it peaked at its all time high last year.

Better not recommend really, even if the market is in a good shape, i personally would not recommend so to say.

I'd rather discuss with them. Try to explain the basics and how it could prove to be beneficial being in the world of crypto. Cite factual statistics and convey to them possibilities.

Yet, at the end of the day, i would rather they choose to engage in cryptocurrency on their own, with their own set of convictions. That way, there's no blaming anyone.

I guess there's a clear enemy line against regulated and unregulated.

Banks as we know are regulated by the governments, there lies an undeniable co-existence of banks and governments due to taxation. So i guess, there's a much wider consideration when a bank is involved in dubious dealings more than bitcoin related incidents.

And as bitcoin remains unregulated, that same consideration can never be expected i guess. The full force of the law shall be imposed always because there lies no mutual benefits.

I personally believe that you already have a firm knowledge on what cryptocurrencies are.

As for altcoins, there exist a number of them that is backed by a particular product such as virtual contents, precious stones, agricultural products and more. Some altcoins came to realize that it is easier to sell their tokens if it is backed by a certain product or services. So that's good news for people looking for assurance. Those type of cryptocurrency guarantees that you do get something in return in case you want to. So that's a good consideration for you to look at when investing.

I do believe that our continual exchanges of facts, opinions and studies over  cryptocurrency platforms such as bitcointalk helps in many ways. But apart from these informed and intelligent discussions, there's really not much we can do to change the view of the public.

In fact, sometimes the perception only worsens as we struggle to add a pinch of sensibility to others when it comes to crypto. Acceptance of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies require self conviction, one must feel that he is convinced without a doubt.

But don't stress that much, Satoshi Nakamoto himself said that if one can not understand bitcoin then he has no time to explain it further, yet, look at how bitcoin evolved over the years.

I sense that genuine sadness there. But i guess this part of any progressive technological innovation. To get lost in translation, and in the case of bitcoin, for it to be diverted from its primal design as a payment system. As we see overtime how it turns out to be more of an investing instrument because of the all time high it gained last year. And we really can't blame people who does, because the truth is, many are indeed in for the money and money alone.

Sad, but true.

Taking a bit of your side on the point of Bitcoin could lose value without utilization. In that aspect, Hodlers must hold a morale on length of hodling, a well self valuated period of time to determine whether Hodling is causing a pinch of pain to the market already.

Everyone is indeed entitled to do as they please with the bitcoin they hold, be it for spending, paying out or simply hodling. Yet again, i side with you that there must be more activity to utilize the value of bitcoin for it to continue to grow.

Though, i think calling Hodlers parasites are uncalled for.  Your point is well in place even without the parasite branding.

Thank you for the reminder. And this goes out to all of us. Right up to now, there is no full proof contingency plan for this.

A physical copy can always be lost, hardware wallets can always malfunction (and be lost too), keeping a digital copy on the cloud has its risk as well. Yet, one has to make a decision to entrust them somewhere somehow to someone in some ways. Hoping everyone figures out the most comfortable and reliable means to ensure that a trusted person can access our wallets should we cease to exist.

An informed bitcoin enthusiasts will always know the amount of risk there is to take once we engaged on it. Truly, it is heart breaking to see the dips bitcoin has been making, yet, as you said, no one knows what will happen in the future. So take that same sadness and add it to your reasons why you are in this market. Because one fine day, prices will peak again at an erratic phase that will bring a lot of smiles to many who held on.

It is not really a matter of solely relying on the predictions, for me it is more of considering them as part of my decision making.

Truly, none can predict what tomorrow holds, but experts predictions that are based on statistics and those that are informed guesses do matter (in my very own opinion). For without which, it might be easier to get lost in this cryptic world of crypto.

Trends, market signals and the likes are important factors to consider when investing on crypto, and these experts took enough time (and perhaps even more) to study them. But as i said, never rely on them solely, self study will always help.

As for me, popularity is among the thing i check against an ICO. We live in the time where popularity influence most of our decision and ICOs knows this part.

So an ICO actively pursuing a good backing by popular or known personalities is always a plus for me. If those people who have a reputation to protect is able to endorse an ICO then that ICO must be on to something really good (and probably profitable).

Though it does not end there of course. Checking how well the project was laid out on their whitepaper is just as important. If i could not juice out the whole idea of the project, then there's a good chance that others would not be able to follow suit too.

Lastly, among the most important factor that could convince me to invest is the transparency of the ICO against its fund collection. Allowing people to transparently see their wallet address in use for the collection is another big plus. It signals sincerity and honesty.


The team members will usually be the last thing i would check as a lot of scam ICOs are able to sneak up with fraudulent backgrounds that looks legit.

First and foremost, i'm sure they were not aware that the ICO was fraudulent.

A lot of people usually fails to check on the legitimacy of an ICO, basing their decisions on mere support they are seeing for an ICO. But as we all know, there are those who employ sneaky means of promoting their ICOs. Shilling has always been a popular method of choice for many, creating an effective band wagon if not irresistable.

So be very wary, scam ICOs had been tainting the world of tokenized crowd funding in a bad light. Scrutinize more and be safer.

Would i trust a celebrity endorsing cryptocurrenies? I'd say it will really depend on the celebrity.

Some may discount celebrities and point out how they can easily be paid to act out a part of a very convincing investor to pull off a good sales. Yet, there are lots of celebrities out there that can be taken with dignity and have enough reputation to protect. Thus, if a celebrity is of a good educational background (esp if technological inclined), he/she might just be of good influence nonetheless.

Its really a sad thing seeing people use good technology for such dubious and scammish activities. When cryptocurrency gifted us the transactional attribute of pseudonymity, the goal was to bring back to the users the power of privacy against entities that intends to collect and take advantage of our information and financial activities.

It was not to conceal our identities to be able to perform such shady and illegal activities. I do hope those people change for the better and help shape up the crypto community in to a better form.

Whichever coin you invest at, at $100, don't expect much gain. It will indeed feel as if the progress is real slow.

A $100 can indeed get you started, but not enough for you to feel you're gaining good profit as the return will also be small.

So either you trade with ETH or any other altcoin, you will remain to feel the same. Though i'd rather you stay with ETH, still the most dependable when it comes to value among altcoins.

News as such are really a pleasure to read. I really find the blockchain technology as an innovative tool that will help reshape information as we know it and in a more secured and immutable manner.

To have records that can not be altered and free from human tampering is a great advantage towards good governance in any targeted industry. A common problem in data management is the integrity of data, even the most advanced robust database management systems are prone to hacking by exploiting vulnerabilities causing large scale data loss/damage.

And with blockchain peers keeping a record that is present to all other peers, backup is not an issue anymore. It's like having the data with nearly no downtime as a copy of the record will always be available at any given point of time (unless of course in the event of world wide electricity/internet outage which is very unlikely to happen).

Hoping to see more and more blockchain project as such to take place.

This is very sad news circulating around. The fake volume in exchanges is a new height of deception that could very well bring down the cryptocurrency confidence vote.

I hope this be address soon should proven to be true. It corrupts the whole system of transparency and security. Exchanges allowing this to happen or perpetrating the same should be denounced by the whole community in bid to fight against such unacceptable activity.

I believe, as a community, together we can make such fake volume in exchanges go away by staying away from those exchanges and altcoins.