I have been running my merit giveaway thread for some time, but have unfortunately run out of sMerit, and have not earned enough merit to keep up with being able to process all the "applications" to receive merit. As such, I would like to apply to become a merit source.

I do have concerns about the merit system, primarily that I believe it will cause groupthink, and if made a merit source, I promise to do my best to stop that by awarding merit for objectively high quality posts of others, that a lot of effort was put into, is the 1st (or one of the 1st) correct answer to an inquiry (especially when there are multiple incorrect answers/nonsense posts preceding it, and/or demonstrate interest and/or knowledge in topics I believe those who are interested in Bitcoin are often interested in. I will do my best to make bitcointalk great again by awarding merit to those who put effort into posts, and who wish to contribute to the forum ecosystem, or are otherwise helpful. I have always put in a lot of effort into my work here, and although mistakes have been made, I have always done my best to provide good work product.

As of now, I believe I have sent merit to 130 profiles, and on average have given ~3 merit to each profile. Despite not being in a position of power, I have received the 98th most merit out of every forum profile.

Each of the below posts has at most 1 merit as of ~10 minutes before creating this thread (note that I may have sent merit on my thread in response to people submitting these posts to me in order to demonstrate their knowledge of one of various topics). Some quotes have been shortened.

Quote from: wwzsocki on March 26, 2019, 09:47:09 AM

Over the Counter (OTC) cryptocurrency trading is becoming increasingly popular across the globe. Heres how it works, who the major players are, and its general pros and cons.

What is an Over-The-Counter Market
A decentralized market, without a central physical location, where market participants trade with one another through various communication modes such as the telephone, email and proprietary electronic trading systems. An over-the-counter (OTC) market and an exchange market are the two basic ways of organizing financial markets. In an OTC market, dealers act as market-makers by quoting prices at which they will buy and sell a security, currency, or other financial products. A trade can be executed between two participants in an OTC market without others being aware of the price at which the transaction was completed. In general, OTC markets are typically less transparent than exchanges and are also subject to fewer regulations.

BREAKING DOWN Over-The-Counter Market
[...]

OTC market size
In April 2018, Bloomberg reported that the daily OTC market was anywhere between $250 million and $30 billion per day. This is compared to around $15 billion per day on crypto exchanges.

[...]

Why use an OTC broker (and not a crypto exchange)?
Lack of liquidity - Crypto exchanges have low liquidity in their order books. OTC desks are good for pushing through large trade orders searching for market liquidity.
Price protection, Anonymity - OTC is good for moving large orders which avoids impacting the price, e.g. 1,000 BTC. Order depth will not show up like it does on an exchange.
No fiat onramp - few crypto exchanges have a fiat onramp (though Binance is working on it and already have some solutions in place in Asia).
Avoid price slippage - price slippage occurs on exchanges when the executed price is different to the expected price.
Avoid prohibitive crypto exchange limits - The majority of crypto exchanges have prohibitive trading limits. For example, Coinbase limits purchases to $25,000 per day. Kraken only lets you withdraw $2,500 per day and $20,000 per month. Circle imposes a withdrawal limit of $3,000 per week.

Who are the main buyers and sellers?
[...]

The main participants trading crypto OTC are:
[...]

Which geographies are driving the majority of OTC trading?
[...]

OTC trading types explained
[...]

How are the buyers and sellers finding each other?
[...]

How is the off-exchange market executing?
[...]

What are the problems with OTC?
[...]

KYC regulations can be a deal breaker
[...]
Is emerging software solving these problems?
[...]

Case study: Enigma Securities
[...]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5124817
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-counter_(finance)
https://www.finextra.com/blogposting/16628/otc-crypto-market---at-a-glance
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/over-the-countermarket.asp

Quote from: AdoboCandies on July 17, 2018, 07:52:35 PM

While reading and scrolling through some topics and some replies here I just notice that there are so many Jr. Members or the ones who enter the Third Circle of Hell (well that's just a site that I read "The Nine Circles of Hell" that I think is made by satanslave that I saw from a thread of Fittotalk) going back I also see the struggle of the Jr. Members to get the 10 merits required to get out and to be promoted to a new rank I know that you already read some guides on how to have some merits this is the same just the same but this shit topic of mine is more like a psychology guide and tips and tricks something like that so lets go to the first one

1. STOP THE BOUNTY HUNT AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE FORUM
-Well, one that I notice that some of the Jr. Members that have 0 merits and 200+ activities is that they are only doing bounty reports basically you cannot get merits from that 13 pages of posting of facebook and twitter shits just go out to the Bounties(Altcoins) thread and explore the forum more there are some people that need your help or maybe some information that you might know just help the others.

2. STOP PUTTING YOUR CAT OVER THE KEYBOARD
-I also notice that some of us cannot construct a good English sentence or paragraph properly[...] if you don't know the difference between your/you're, there/their, these/this fuck you need to go to school.

3. DON'T BEG FOR MERITS EARN THEM
[...]

That's all well I experienced all of that but it will help you though I think I will update it if I think of another reason don't be mad at me just sayin'.

Quote from: AdoboCandies on July 15, 2018, 10:22:58 AM

WHAT IS TRADING INDICATORS?

An indicator simply manipulates price data using a mathematical formula. The indicator shows a visual representation of the mathematical formula and price inputs. To a skilled chart reader or trader an indicator often won't reveal more than what is visible just by analyzing the price chart (or volume) without any indicators.
That said since there is so much to be analyzed on a price chart an indicator helps simplify it. This is why indicators are so alluring to new traders. Instead of learning to how to identify a trend on the price chart, they try to find an indicator that will identify the trend and trend reversals for them.
Indicator based trading is relying on indicators to analyze the price and provide trade signals. Many indicators provide a specific trade signal which alerts the trade that now is the time to take a trade.

TYPES OF TECHNICAL INDICATORS

TREND

Moving Averages
MACD
Parabolic SAR

MOMENTUM

CCI
Stochastics
Relative Strength Index

VOLATILITY

Bollinger Bands
Average True Range
Standard Deviation

VOLUME

Chaikin Oscillator
OBV
Rate of Change(ROCV)

TREND INDICATORS

MOVING AVERAGES

A moving average (MA) is a widely used indicator in technical analysis that helps smooth out price action by filtering out the noise from random price fluctuations. It is a trend-following or lagging, indicator because it is based on past prices.
Moving averages lag current price action because they are based on past prices; the longer the time period for the moving average, the greater the lag. Thus, a 200-day MA will have a much greater degree of lag than a 20-day MA because it contains prices for the past 200 days. The length of the moving average to use depends on the trading objectives, with shorter moving averages used for short-term trading and longer-term moving averages more suited for long-term investors. The 50-day and 200-day MAs are widely followed by investors and traders, with breaks above and below this moving average considered to be important trading signals.
Moving averages also impart important trading signals on their own, or when two averages cross over. A rising moving average indicates that the security is in an uptrend, while a declining moving average indicates that it is in a downtrend. Similarly, upward momentum is confirmed with a bullish crossover, which occurs when a short-term moving average crosses above a longer-term moving average. Downward momentum is confirmed with a bearish crossover, which occurs when a short-term moving average crosses below a longer-term moving average.

[...lots of information...]

SOURCES:
[...]

Quote from: TeQuiero on September 24, 2018, 06:57:35 AM

Quote from: iasenko on September 21, 2018, 10:51:19 PM

First:I want you to come with ideas what a newbie can do to help and popularize bitcoin.Use your imagination and don't copy the suggestions before your post.

Not sure why do you use "Newbie" in this question. Do you mean that those ideas only applicable within this forum?
For me, in my hometown, bitcoin are widely known but under a form of multi level scam. There's fact that a lot of people were scammed to poverty here. When I hear people talking about bitcoin, I usually drop by for a couple of minutes and join their talk. There were a lot of amateur talks of amateur people and I'm so glad I enlightened them by my knowledge range: explaining that bitcoin was not borned a scam, it's just people use it to take advantages of others; telling them what's the real revolution behind bitcoin and how can it be mass adopted. Not all of the talks that I've joined are lack of knowledge, some of them included real experts. I learned a lot from them.

Quote from: iasenko on September 21, 2018, 10:51:19 PM

Second: In addition I want to know what is your mission here in the forum. Just a few words, but let them be honest.
That's all. Good luck.

I am not sure if I can call it "mission" but I remember saying it somewhere:

Quote from: TeQuiero on August 08, 2018, 04:57:00 PM

There were some times, I was against the merit system like you are right now. But now I see things differently: merit is the measure of how other people pay respect to you.

I'll try to earn merit in order to win people's respect.

Quote from: nakamura12 on November 20, 2018, 08:25:11 AM

Hello, I'd like to share what I know and I think this might help to lessen the chance of you from phishing, virus or even malware in telegram app. This is not proven but I think it might help and there will be no more groups that you didn't joined in once you open your telegram app. Best choice is to leave the channel/group as soon as possible if you don't know what it is or you don't know if it is safe or not.

How to change or how to block? Just refer to the instruction below:

1.) Go to settings.

[img width=400 height=500 ]https://i.imgur.com/slNffnM.jpg[/img]

2.) Press Privacy and Security.

[img width=400 height=500 ]https://i.imgur.com/Nteee82.jpg[/img]

3.) Look for group in the Privacy Tab.

[img width=400 height=500 ]https://i.imgur.com/GAVcRnx.jpg[/img]

4.) Change the settings from "Everybody" to "My Contacts".

[img width=400 height=500 ]https://i.imgur.com/3AVvywn.jpg[/img]

In that way it will lessen the chance of you getting virus, phishing or malware in telegram from other users.

Quote from: TalkStar on March 31, 2019, 07:24:14 PM

Exchange name: crex24
Website link: https://crex24.com
Bitcointalk ANN thread link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2101721.0
Profile link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1113444

Today I am going share some information about a crypto currency exchange which name is crex24. I can't take my decision what to call them "Scammer" or "Shelter house of scammer". This exchange have listed lots of scam ICO projects and their listing process still going on. They don't care about fake team, plagiarized whitepaper or other scam evidence of any projects. Just for letting everyone know i am going to share information about 2 ICO projects which are proven scam but get listed on this exchange.

Quote from: crex24 on December 27, 2018, 10:33:53 AM

EJOB/BTC, EJOB/ETH markets added!
#ERC20

https://crex24.com/exchange/EJOB-BTC
https://crex24.com/exchange/EJOB-ETH

https://www.e-job.io
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5028620
https://t.me/Officialejob
https://etherscan.io/address/0x4ca811010053a3d1bc643eadbf5c91c4f896b06b

Quote from: crex24 on March 26, 2019, 11:32:45 AM

ALCUP-BTC market added!

https://crex24.com/exchange/ALCUP-BTC

https://alphacup.io
https://twitter.com/Alphacup_proj
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5122932
https://discord.gg/KAd98Jz
https://t.me/alcup

Those 2 ICO have already proven as scam and got valid proof against them on bitcointalk scam accusation section about their fake team and plagiarized whitepaper. please take a look on below accusation links,

EJOB scam accusation: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5045327.msg46645882#msg46645882
ALCUP scam accusation: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5122859.0

It is to notify all that our forum member made report on their ANN thread about the scam accusation against these scam ICO but they don't feel it necessary to give appropriate answer.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2101721.msg50364300#msg50364300

I can't believe how could a exchange do something like this. Its really concerning that they don't care about investors safety. Those listed scam ICOs volume is so negligible on their exchanges. Its completely a clear example of encouraging scam IMO. I hope our community user will stay far from this exchange and whereas they have ANN on bitcointalk so proper actions should be taken against them.

Quote from: tbct_mt2 on March 28, 2019, 05:54:28 AM

In general, IEOs might be a little bit safer than ICOs.

Especially IEOs come from well-known, reliable exchanges, like those one you listed in the OP.
In contrast, for IEOs come from un-known, young, new-born, small volume exchanges, they are more risky and it is difficult to judge that invest into such IEOs is safer than invest into ICOs.
Exchanges can make scam exits, can get hacked and go into dead/ bankcrupted, so it is obviously risky too.

Additionally, it is hard to say IEO invesment is safer, because even exchanges don't got hack, or scam exit, investors can get losses too.
Buying at highs, selling at lows, and eventually get losses as ICO's invesments.

Quote from: Erickan on February 04, 2019, 03:27:50 AM

Quote from: Jimmycalty on January 28, 2019, 03:13:59 PM

everyone please guide me, how can I understand which will be the legit and profitable project. Leave your comments here to help.

Cryptocurrency is a venture capital area, so no one is sure that you will make a profit from the projects you join and the profits earned from projects that you choose bitterly are also difficult to say, because it depends on many different factors. I have a little experience in evaluating projects and hopes that can help you!

I often evaluate projects based on the following principles:

1. Basic things like: development team, project concept, white paper, long-term development strategy must be clear
2. Evaluate project potential based on ability to apply and solve problems in real life. What does it solve for life, how does it apply blockchain technology?
3. How to build community, organize events, meet, conferences. A good project must have a strong community and a large ecosystem
4. How to protect investors: it is best not to have bounty, airdrop, gleam programs.
5. The most important thing of a project according to me is the technology and the financial potential behind the project.

You can see a lot of good projects like Steemit, NEM are in top 50 CMC projects but they have a lot of difficulties when the market goes down. Therefore, a project that wants to develop in the long term in the bear market conditions must have a lot of funding.

Quote from: Kakmakr on April 02, 2019, 05:41:02 AM

Bakkt just announced a physical delivery bitcoin futures contracts on their platform and investors knows when this goes live, institutional investors will create a huge demand for bitcoins, so they are stocking up on bitcoins now, before the price goes up when the institutional investors jump in. Wink

I do not know if this will be the trigger for a Bull market, but it is a nice change from the boring bear market that we had for months now. Cool

Quote from: Artemis3 on March 15, 2019, 09:40:05 PM

Quote from: Jet Cash on March 15, 2019, 08:38:14 PM

Why do you call him the president interim? I thought his 30 days had expired.

Is there anybody who could run for president? Guaido has said he will sell off everything to Washington, and that can't be good for Venezuela. I would have thought that the assets should be used to rebuild your country, and not to feed the globalist war machine.

Perhaps "someone" hasn't allowed that part of the constitution to go on? Perhaps someone usurping the power? What do you think? This "someone" and the other guy prosecuted abroad for his relation with a drug cartel must go away and this mechanism activates the exact same way. Guaidó is the President of the National Assembly, elected by popular vote, unlike the usurper in the executive who refuses to leave office and keeps an entire country hostage at gunpoint.

But that time will come, sooner than later.

The roadmap is:

Cease usurpation
Transitional government
Free elections

Those points are nonnegotiable, and must be accomplished in that exact order.

PS: Just had another 20 min blackout...

Quote from: Quickseller on April 04, 2019, 05:44:09 AM

edit: I have a long history of finding those who make "objectively high quality posts" that extend well before the merit system as I advertised my own business via a signature campaign that I ran personally, and those that participated generally ended up making objectively good posts during the specific duration the campaign was running.

[/list]