I agree with your thought process. But I think that 50 is way generous.

My grandmother always said "Why is a crooked letter."
I think that was her way of saying "Either shut up or rephrase this question in a way that interests me and shows me that you've tried to understand"

It seems like that sometimes.

But some authors like Charles Dickens dragged out their books because they sold it in multiple installments (not exactly paid by the word, as some claim - see https://dickens.ucsc.edu/resources/faq/by-the-word.html).

Everyone wants to level up - especially those who have not yet reached member status.

Add to that: most comments will not be seen by a merit faucet. Even if there's a particularly good post, most people will just move on and not even think of assigning merit points.

So it's understandable that people will ask for merit. Buying/trading definitely goes against the spirit. But asking someone to recognize that they made a good comment? That sounds reasonable.

Glad to see this one's been beaten to death already. But still baffled: some people think it's the answer to any problem.

ETH and other altcoins are much more useful than bitcoin. Let Bitcoin be. Consider buying an altcoin that has value and has dropped in price just because all crypto is down.

Price has always been about speculation and crowd expectations. That's how it went from $9K --> $19K so quickly.

Make sure you day job is secure, and in the future only invest what you can afford to lose.

I disagree with your premise. Unless you have a good steady income (which it seems like you don't) or you have a pile of fiat, you might want to cash out at least some. I believe in crypto, but I also realize that parts of it could come crashing down. Going all in can lead to great profits, but there's something to be said for diversifying and keeping some reserves.

A self-appointed moderator. Good for you.

There's got to be a better way, though, right? I mean, helping people get 10 points is one thing. But when people want to go from 10 to 100? It seems like it'll become a beg-a-thon instead of a gradual appreciation of quality posts.

I'm concerned about the merit-based system. Sure, in the first few days everyone's throwing around merit points (I have). But pretty soon people won't use very many merit points at all - because it's not really worth checking to see if you have any sMerits left.

Maybe a better way to do it would be to have a FB "like" button so everyone can see which comments are worthwhile (even though some will be spammers). And if you have sMerit available they'll be credited.

That way, people will be in the habit of clicking "like" to designate good posts, instead of the current system which will quickly get ignored... until someone is ready to level up.

Many ICO investors were early bitcoin/ether adopters. So they have crypto to spare. If they take a part of each pie, they could end up with even more profits.

I"m not saying it's smart or right. Just trying to get into their heads.

This is one problem with crypto in general. You have people new to investing combined with somewhat unrealistic expectations. If all investments rose 10x within a year we'd all be rich (but then there'd be crazy inflation, but that's a different discussion).

If you can get a return over 10% you're doing OK. Could you have made more money elsewhere? Sure. But there's a difference between losing money and not making as much as you could have.

A safe investor won't keep all of their money in one crypto. In fact, they won't invest all their money in crypto. Sure, some people had overnight success because they did. But good portfolios are diversified so you have good performances to offset losses. Imagine that someone finds a better cheaper way of handing these ledgers and transactions that doesn't involve blockchain at all. Overnight, all crypto could crash. It could literally be worthless.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

It's been suggested, like here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2158676.0

But even using blockchain, you'd still have to deal with ownership and usage issues just like YouTube.

First everyone runs to ICO useless blockchain spinoffs, and now there's a spoof of bicointalk - down to the color scheme? Pretty sketchy.

Are you aiming for an ICO on ethereum or waves? Perhaps you should post in altcoins projects?

It's been done a few times on ethereum using smart contracts as escrow.

How/why are you better?
What cryptocurrencies can you accept?

Do you know English plus one of: Russian/Chinese/Japanese?
If so, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2547899.msg26081151#msg26081151

What a waste. This is just gambling.

Is this Bitcoin or altcoin? Some details would be appreciated.