Hi! I just learnt how to trade crypto last year and it's still a learning process for me even now so your post was pretty relevant to me! I just wanted to add that I find there is a good balance between studying/reading up on technical analysis and also actual hands on experience - I read up a lot with Investopedia and 101 articles on Cointelegraph, and I find Trading View's chart features and its forum section really, really helpful. There's nothing quite like seeing a group of seasoned traders going onto Trading View and providing their analysis with elaborated charts and graphs for free on the platform, and some of these traders really provide a well-substantiated reading on the week's trends etc. Aside from reading through what tools like RSI and Bollinger bands can do for your trading, I found that what really helps is actually diving right into trading. I started off with Coinbase, then moved onto Crypto.com and Binance after.

It can be pretty daunting to just sink your funds blindly into an exchange though, which was what I did, and I couldn't really practice as well as I was scared of losing the funds I had? Recently I've been practicing instead on a new mock trading app called Roostoo, and from what I read it's an incubator start-up done by a bunch of students from the University of Southern California to help other students or beginners not familiar with crypto to start trading without any fear of losing their capital? How it works is that you create an account (for free!) and you're allocated 50K virtual USD to begin your trades. They pull their prices real-time from several exchanges, but for the purposes of practicing trading, this app works well because you can freely test out your analysis or predictions.

They also host mock/paper trading competitions? The most recent competition they're hosting is in collaboration with an online crypto news publication SuperCryptoNews - it starts this Friday 7 March 2020, and the top 10 traders of the competition (trading based on virtual USD on Roostoo) will win a fixed BTC prize reward + part of the reward pool? There's a minimal registration fee, but if you're also looking to test your trading skills and earn some prize reward BTC then you can also check this out?

Their main users seem to be university students, but I honestly do think this is as good a platform to begin as any. Hope this helps!

Hi everyone! So I just went on FoundICO and looked at their ratings (I had a previous thread asking if ICO projects were still worth investing in and if you guys had any to recommend, and some of you asked me to look at ratings as well) - And on Jun 14 via Twitter these projects were highlighted:

⭐️Pre-ICO
@kozjintoken

17 Jun
ICO score: 7.8

⭐️Pre-ICO
@HoxToken

20 Jun
ICO score: 7.8

⭐️IEO
@Bitacium
 
17 Jun
ICO score: 7.2

⭐️IEO
@Blockium_io

20 Jun
ICO score: 6.9

⭐️STO
@blockstate_com

18 Jun
ICO score: 5.8

Any thoughts on any of the above projects? Which ones would you guys recommend if any? Have you guys bought any of the above?

Thanks will check it out - anything to do with Binance seems like a good idea for now!

I think as with all crypto projects it's important to do DD and research, especially communicating with the projects' team members or moderators if any on their social media platforms or telegram groups etc. The problem is when you join too many bounty campaigns and have a bunch of coins that you are unable to follow up with - so make sure you're really confident in the project before trying the bounty out. Usually there's an accompanying official telegram group as well before you join the bounty, so you could find out more in that chat first before joining the bounty! But one of the cons of bounty is that you don't get the tokens immediately and must wait for it to be distributed after the campaign ends, and some people like to get the tokens immediately.

Hey! Thanks for the reco. How do you see which are better ICOs from ICOdrop? Is it via rankings or reviews or the rating?

Having social media accounts and boosting posts might work, and also using Airdrop/Bounty to build your community on Telegram are pretty much a must-do. Ensuring that your project creates an ecosystem that requires users to buy/use your token would be good as well, to ensure that your community sees a tangible product that incentivises them to continually use it?

Hi, just wanted to know what interesting blockchain projects you guys have seen, am looking to invest in some promising ICOs, but I'm worried because there are so many scams around with ICO projects these days. I've gotten some suggestions to look at IEOs instead, but I believe that some ICOs projects really have interesting concepts and developments that have the potential to be successful and don't want to miss out on ICOs completely. Any ideas? Is this a smart thing to do?

It is true that there are plenty of ICO projects in the market right now and unfortunately, it isn't always easy to tell which ICO projects are trustworthy. However, I do believe that we should discern good, creative ICOs that truly have a viable, unorthodox solution to problems that do exist in traditional systems/processes. We should look at the sustainability of an ICO project, whether it is on track to creating an MVP, if they have a consistent presence on their social media accounts and on the Telegram, if there is open communication with those interested in their projects. Another option to look at is also to look at the platforms pushing an ICO project out - if the platform has a good reputation, if they've done other successful ICO projects, because these indicate the potential of the next ICO project that comes up. One of the interesting projects I'm looking at recently is BlockCart (BCART) - as an avid online shopper their proposed solution and ICO project seems promising. Their product is due to launch in within this year? Their ANN post is here and I think their bounty/airdrop campaigns are ongoing for anyone interested. What other promising ICO projects have you guys seen/and would recommend?

hey! i've actually never heard of Unification and Datum, but i just checked them out at your mention. I was actually looking at BlockCart (BCART) - and no, not another shilly ico project afraid to do their ico because of the bear market. Are there a lot of these?

Unfortunately, when non-Bitcoiners (as in the common people) hear about Bitcoin, the image of cryptocurrency and blockchain is still associated most viscerally with scams and fraud - and governments have imposed strict regulations on crypto projects and highlighting that crypto projects/currencies help fund illegal, criminal activities etc. As cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin are more widely used in every day lives - from online shopping to buying houses, to green energy etc. - people will come around to the idea eventually! Imagine if non-Bitcoiners were directed to a large blockchain-based platform that uses tokens to facilitate online shopping for clothes, or to use tokens to directly pay for products offline in stores for example and that the benefits of doing so are attractive enough - it would entice people to use tokens in their daily lives, introduce them to the concept of using cryptocurrency, and perhaps only then it's possible to engage them in conversation about BTC and crypto in general.

As a political science student with some knowledge of blockchain developments/projects - this was a pretty interesting thing to think about. Knowing politicians and the way governments work, it's unthinkable for them to put classified information/data and more confidential details on blockchain or use Bitcoin to facilitate systems/processes. Maybe they could use Bitcoin in their reserves but it'll mess up current fiat currencies and systems as well. Although China seems to have begun thinking about turning RMB into a cryptocurrency, but the Chinese government also has extremely strict regulations against virtual currencies. However, it seems to be that the nature of any government and the underlying principles of blockchain e.g. immutability, transparency etc. are incompatible to a larger extent. I can't imagine any government willing to do that!

It's true that there is unlikely to be any other coin that will overtake BTC in terms of price and also how well-known it is, but there are plenty of good/leading altcoins in the market that are performing well. As a trader it may be wise not to put all your eggs in a basket - diversifying your portfolio is still important and it would not hurt to follow top altcoins in the market as well. This week as Bitcoin grew to $8,900, we also saw coins like BSV and BNB performing well against BTC - good to do proper research and invest in other coins as well. On the other hand, while smaller coins may not reach the level of BTC, it's also important to look at the project behind those coins and how they're being incorporated into a bigger ecosystem of processes/frameworks e.g. in data processing, payment processes, or industries such as retail, banking and even real estate. While the prices of these coins may never reach the level of BTC's, the potential for the usage/mass adoption of smaller coins is also something to look at.

just came across this topic while i was looking through bitcoin topics earlier and thought i'd add to this thread from a blockchain/crypto perspective! i saw this bounty campaign thread earlier on a blockchain project that focuses on improving current online shopping customer service - when the project is fully developed, it intends to actually come up with a single global shopping cart that you can use across multiple shopping websites (very useful i think if you're like me, shopping for different items across five open tabs), and even provide international size comparisons in case the online shops you're looking at originate from different countries e.g. uk to us size conversions, and also cross promotions from one online store to another! currently online shopping for items is usually a hit or miss and it's hard to shop especially if i'm looking at products from say an online store based in the US or Korea and i may not be familiar with the buying process - i end up missing on deals or getting items in the wrong size and colour, or i can't understand how the cart works (if it's in another language). if any of you are interested in shopping + blockchain, you could check out the announcement post here!

Never say never - I think it's definitely a possibility, but there are a few factors to think about when speculating BTC prices. Like all currencies virtual or otherwise, it's still subject to the market cycle. Even with BTC's current bullish run, from now till 2020 we're going to see quite a lot of highs and lows throughout and I personally think that with the time period and market cycle - it'll take sharp growths in order for the price to grow exponentially to 100k. BTC is still pretty volatile and while we are seeing great growth these few weeks, it only takes a whale to do a single big BTC transaction for the price to dip/crash, like it happened on May 17. It'll take something drastic for the price to rise that high I think which also includes other factors like worsening global political tensions, a huge global recession etc.

Hi! Currently blockchain technology is disrupting many traditional processes and systems in the world, presenting the possibility of removing intermediaries in areas such as the one you have raised - data. This means data production, data sharing, data dissemination and more. One sector that comes to mind is the retail/e-commerce industry where customers/shoppers like me enter my details (email, name, address, payment details etc.) every time I make a purchase. Or even social media accounts like FB, Instagram etc. especially as the system remembers your preferences e.g. what kind of videos/photos you like, how long you watch it for etc.

The problem with this is that I don't own my data - most people probably aren't conscious of the digital trail they leave behind when they surf the internet - and huge companies like FB are vulnerable to data breaches/hacking, where such personal data can be stolen and this has been proven true. Blockchain developments in this case is great for businesses and individuals like you and I to secure and actually own personal data - if via a smart contract the terms are set for me to share my data as a user, and businesses are required through the smart contract to pay me for the data I provide directly, this would possibly eliminate the need for data brokers/intermediaries that sometimes charge exorbitantly high fees on their data (and we don't even know if the owner of the data willingly allowed it to be shared/sold)

Last week I came across an interesting project that is intending to solve this problem of data ownership! What do you think about this?

There are a lot of blockchain projects this year with great potential in terms of concept and development direction/plan. It's always good to do your due diligence first when finding out the details of any blockchain project, and there's no harm in joining airdrop and bounty campaigns to find out what the project is about and how interactive the admins/project's team is are on their social media channels if any. I've been looking at BCART (BlockCart) tokens and joined their airdrop/bounty campaigns recently - and it's always a good sign to see the admins clearing spam and bots on the chat and also being responsive. They're still in the midst of developing the product, but blockchain in e-commerce, customer service and online shopping as well is interesting. What other factors do you guys look at when it comes to determining if alt. blockchain projects are safe?

There are plenty of safe and secure digital wallets from various blockchain/crypto projects that also pair debit cards with their corresponding wallets - these cards instantly convert your coins to fiat at little to no transaction/exchange fees so you can use them to pay for purchases at physical stores, for example. This is probably one way to 'extract' and use cash from exchanges and also bypassing the bank.

Blockchain is, like all systems in the world, far from foolproof and perfect to answer all existent problems in the world today. However, in terms of bridging gaps in terms of data sharing and production, payment processes, high intermediary fees, hidden transaction fees etc., I believe that blockchain has quite effectively provided great solutions. For example, some crypto/blockchain projects delve into securing international payments for products and services without having to deal with processing fees or long waiting times, or even rewarding and incentivising content creators to create and share quality content to earn tokens, or making trading more accessible and convenient for first-time crypto traders etc, and even ensuring that private/individual data is more secure and minimising the chances of data manipulation, which is very often heard about, considering all the news about data leaks from major companies recently. If there is a current problem in a traditional system e.g. payment processes and transactions, blockchain is currently the best solution to deal with it. What do you think about, for example, integrating blockchain as a solution in online shopping and e-commerce?

I came across a project recently on Medium called BlockCart - It looks like they are helping online shopping customers to regain control over the data they enter into shopping carts when they checkout, and also incentivising them for sharing their data with businesses that may use such data for marketing campaigns and also to better provide customer service to these consumers. Imagine not having to worry about the security of your credit card details when you make purchases! Apparently, they are working on a global shopping cart across multiple e-commerce websites so customers like you and I don't have to open multiple carts and checkout multiple times. And if businesses have access to the data these customers willingly share, they'll also be able to better recommend products and promotions to consumers - blockchain sure is an exemplary solution in this case!

As people move towards adopting the use of BTC and other cryptocurrencies especially in their everyday lives and routines (especially also if merchants begin to use blockchain projects and Altcoins in their payment processes), they'd be less resistant towards paying for simple purchases like coffee with BTC. Many projects are also have digital wallets that are linked to a debit card so that you can convert your cryptocurrencies and make purchases instantly on fiat terms at physical stores at little to no transaction costs and foreign exchange fees even, so buying a coffee using BTC or any other cryptocurrency may become more convenient than using fiat eventually!

I think Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency especially the many Altcoins in the market right now are available on a wide range of exchanges and it's pretty easy to get on those exchanges to trade - you can get a digital wallet to store your coins on many sites, including on exchanges and more importantly, there have been a lot of upcoming blockchain projects that offer their own digital wallets as well. Additionally, there are new crypto projects and their corresponding tokens appearing every day - and these projects offer to solve a problem seen in for example, traditional payment processes, or for users like us to bypass intermediaries and gain access to a product or service directly without paying extra fees. In general I think once you get past the initial stage of trying to figure out how to trade with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, and also gain more insight into the many projects and their tokens, it becomes much easier! The only downside to it is depositing and withdrawing fiat from the cryptocurrency you have - but I've also seen great projects that provide debit cards along with their wallets so you can actually directly convert and use the crypto you have at physical stores to pay for items, so if you're talking about user friendly in this sense, that it's definitely becoming more user friendly!