It’s very hard to get in-biased media at the moment let alone dealing with the fake news. We need a way of self regulations instead of news just speculating which fuels the fake news.

Bollocks, and sorry for coming off strong. I think the countries trying to utilise cryptocurrency are doing so to get around the crippling sanctions placed on them by the west. How is it an ok thing to punish citizens of a country for the actions of their leaders? The only people effected by sanctions are the poor. Seems pretty counterintuitive to me

I think now are the times I love. Its in down times that progress is really made. Away from the speculation and distractions.

I don't think all alts are scams. A really interesting thought experiment on the necessity of alts was this. It centred around the creation of incentives. One argument is that all these alts could be done on either Eth or Btc in future so why create your own projects. Its because of the incentive structure. If you are successful launching on a parent coin you will probably register a tiny blip in terms of value increase. Launching your own coin incentivises a team to drive new innovation because of the potential for the price to appreciate. Driving innovation that otherwise wouldnt exist. Money talks

100% YES

Blockbusters were comfortable until the internet come along and now where are they
Taxis were comfortable until UBER came along
Argos catalogues were sitting fine and dandy and then eBay/amazon took over

The list goes on, in my lifetime and probably more specifically in the last 10 years im seeing institution after institution getting blindsided and taken over.

When was the last time you purchased a newspaper!!!

I cant say im shocked but I am. After all trump said in the run up to his election regarding his opposition to the funding of terrorism, he does this. Once of the biggest beneficiaries of this deal will be Saudi Arabia!

If you didn't know already, Saudi Arabia is the incubator for Wahabi Salafism, the radical form of Islam that was reserved for isolated bedwin tribes up until the turn of the 19th century. Now with the protection of Isreal and the USA Saudi has been allowed to propagate this very dangerous doctrine. It absolutely flabbergasts me that trump and general Mattis knowing what they know would take such a step to further destabilising the Middle East taking sides with the saudis.

It also baffles me that Isreal would be more opposed to Iran than Saudi considering the type of ultra conservation loons that the country is producing. I guess the term the enemy of my enemy is my friends is very true in this situation.

I think its important to provide equality of opportunity first and foremost. Even though your outlook does seem quite doom and gloom, on a whole living standards are increasing massively and have done for the last 200 years so I'm quite optimistic that we are heading in the right direction.

I think institutional charity is one of the biggest things holding back economically poor countries. I think its a tactic used to control these countries by the superpowers of the world. We are keeping them on life support instead of letting natural growth and innovation. This may seem contradictory because 'charity' has so many positive connotations but I don't think it is doing anything for these poor societies you are referring to.

Also the introduction of crypto will hopefully go along way to solving some of these issues by decentralising big corporations. The wealth will be much more evenly distributed which is all we can hope for. Financial inclusion is the name of the game for me, especially over the next century!

I think this is the kind of infrastructure desperately need to see the space grow. At the moment crypto is in the equivalent of a car in 1890 limited in speed by the lack of roads. We need to build metaphorical roads! The infrastructure projects are what I get most excited about. With this project specifically I think if they are quick enough they could be successful all I worry about is the introduction of LITEPAY. However you would think there would be space for more than one so I keep and eye out to see if they gain any traction

Its almost comical isn't it. They didn't even die. You would think if it was really the KGB they would have gotten the job done considering their reputation. In my opinion this is all a geo strategical ploy to discredit Russia. You see it will all of the athletic doping allegations that they are receiving which yes their athletes probably did dope but so did every other country.

Its all because of Russias interventions in Ukraine and Syria which I don't think the west was expecting. Placing Nato troops in Ukraine would have been check mate on Russia and made it impossible to ward of any attacks from the west so it is not a surprise that the Russians intervened when they did. Imagine Russia putting troops in Cuba...again, what would the wests response be?

And as for syria, if you watch Genral Wesley Clarks video regarding the USA's planned wars in the Middle East with 7 countries in 5 years starting with Iraq and ending in Iran with invasions of Libya and syria in the middle it becomes clear why the west are so frankly pee'd off with Russia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw

PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO IT IS EYE OPENING

Russia have thrown a huge spanner in the works. All we have done (the west) over the last two decades is destabilise arab countries that are secular and empower the countries pumping out radical wahabis, the form of islam that is to blame for every single muslim terrorist attack.

Ive actually read that over 4million bitcoins have been lost. There is an industry developing of people going into scrap yards and collecting hard drives and checking if they contain any bitcoin which I find interesting. I think this will only increase as the price increases as well considering there are potentially 4 million out there

Ive recently been mulling over what the best types of consensus protocols will be as this industry expands and scales up. One of the major factors in having a successful scale up whilst maintaining the integrity (decentralisation, distributed, immutable) will be the type of consensus protocols a project chooses.

Bitcoin uses the Proof of work (POW)
Ethereum are in transition from POW to Proof of steak (POS) via casper
EOS,LISK,STEEM and a few others use delegated proof of steak (DPOS)
NEO use delegated byzantine fault tolerance (DBFT)

I know of a few others such as: Proof of Activity
                                              Proof of Burn
                                              Proof of Capacity
                                              Proof of Elapsed Time
                                              Proof of Attention

Now my deliberation comes with this, apart from proof of work there are no other consensus protocols that I know of that forces people to put "skin in the game". To a point where you pretty much need to expand resources just to have a say and I feel like this is the only one that achieves true security. Is it even possible to have long term success and scaling without 100% security?

I do think some of these alternative protocols have some really cool innovative ideas but can they scale and achieve the required levels of security needed to stave of constant attacks? Or am I overestimating the need for skin in the game for security?

haha I take it you have been listening to Tim Drapers recent 250,000 prediction, or painter capitals 40trillion market cap prediction. Of the legend himself, mr no penis John mcafee. I agree with you though as wild as these estimates are the possibilities for crypto are still unimaginable. Thats what is so exciting for me!

A government can and will eventually produce their own crypto. This is the cashless society we have been heading towards for years. However this will have the same fate as private intranets in the early 90s where companies tried creating their own private internets. It is an inferior protocol and the network effects for decentralised cryptos will always outpace that of a centralised one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv8zJU8sBcU

This guy seems to agree. his name is Alessio Ristani. A traditional trader that predicted the 2008 crash. This video was only released today as well which makes it relevant to your point. Food for thought

Venture capital firms take investing in crypto and turn it into a professional industry. They dedicate untold resources into the study of coins and they don't make too many silly mistakes so it always pays to take notice of who they invest in. I've compiled a list of some of the biggest VC's to look out for and follow.

FBG CAPITAL
FENBUSHI
BLOCKCHAIN CAPITAL
INBLOCKCHAIN
KINETIC CAPITAL
BITMAIN
PANTERA CAPITAL
COINSILIUM GROUP
SEQUOIA CAPITAL (SOON)

are there any other big players I have missed that would be worth paying attention too?

This is the third time in a few years they have tried to sell us this lie. And the majority of people falls for it again and again. Its really disheartening for me to be honest and makes it hard for me to stay engaged in politics because I sometimes feel the general population beyond repair. One of the first things criminal investigators look for in a crime is a motive. Where is the motive for assad to gas his citizens, to what end? Especially after so many lines have been drawn in the sand. Is it a coincidence that Syrias central bank isn't controlled by the big world central banks? I think not. The same goes for Libya and soon Iran. We are currently allied with the wahabi Salafi Saudi regime that is the main reason for radical islam spreading. And we are actively fighting all governments actually trying to combat this narrow minded (polite description) way of thinking

This is this discovery of a totally new asset class which I feel privileged to have been able to witness

I would keep 100k in the coins you mentioned at the percentages you mentioned and buy a house or any other asset that will not drain the rest of your money. Big opportunity this is!

Well yes I think so, I doubt these bans will go on forever. You have to have some understanding given how aggressive the SEC crack down on people selling fake securities! They probably fear being made liable for investors who hear of icos thought their platform

Local Bitcoins is great! allot quicker than exchanges although you may get a few percentages less