In general, 2018 is a bad time for making such calculations. However, XRP showed good result. I have noticed that Ripple is not very subjected to the behavior of bitcoin. It can grow while other cryptocurrencies fall, but unfortunately, it can act controversy during the bullish market. Anyway, in November I got pretty good returns when XRP pumped and sold it for bitcoin on CEX. Maybe it's not the wisest choice, but bitcoin is number one for me, and I believe in its potential in the future. Apart from successful stories, it is a good time for investment due to the extremely low price which we may never see again.

I think the mix of negative occurrences became the reason of bitcoin’s collapse. The mix consists from BCH war, regulatory actions of the SEC towards ICOs, and bad condition of the global markets that dropped during the last months. And behind the scene, the crypto whales contributed and dumped bitcoin to its lowest price since the last year.

Hardware wallets are the most secure, but not everybody can afford them. I store my crypto, including Litecoin, on a cold storage provided by CEX (https://cex.io/). It’s very convenient to keep funds on the exchange because I am an active trader.

How could governments or central banks stop Bitcoin? There is no way to do that. And for what? Crypto is not a trap, it was designed to help overcome the control and manipulations from authorities we suffer from.

I agree that the tendency of using bitcoin as a mean of exchange has changed towards considering it as a store of value. Blockchain is a breakthrough technology, but it also has some disadvantages. It has problems with transaction capacity, blockchain infrastructure is not extensive enough, and low speed of transaction confirmation must be resolved. The limited amount of bitcoins and those left in lost wallets that will passively stay in blockchain reduce the number of circulating coins. Zero inflation encourages people to store bitcoin. Maybe, if more trading companies accept bitcoin, more people will use it as a payment method.

There were many bullish predictions for the fall, but they didn’t come true, and currently, we observe a standstill of the market. The correction of prices has already passed. Recently, the prices don’t fall below a certain point and cryptos show low volatility. The crypto market is now passing a bearish phase. There are still positive predictions for a bullish run for the end of 2018, but nobody can know it for sure. I think the next two months will be exciting.

Ripple and Bitcoin are two different things. Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency, while XRP is controlled and distributed by the company. XRP is not a pure currency, it is a fuel for platform operation. Ripple provides instant transaction which almost free, that’s the biggest advantage. Many banks use it, but it doesn’t reflect on the coin’s price. Bitcoin is a self-sufficient and independent coin with high potentials in terms of price and technology.

Bad news spreads faster and has a greater influence on prices. It will take time to see the positive impact of educating the community. But it's true that a full understanding of power bitcoin and blockchain have prevents from panic and selling crypto. It's not logical to sell something that will benefit and triple in price in the future. I think we must not only spread good news but also inform about the real practical value of bitcoin and how it can improve the whole financial industry.

Binance is most popular exchange, but it is crypto-to-crypto. If you need to deal with both fiat and crypto, go to CEX. It is also quite popular and easy to use. You can trade either crypto for crypto there, or fiat for crypto (https://cex.io/eth-btc). Also, Coinbase is a large cryptoto-fiat exchange. You should also take into account your location because some exchanges have geographical restrictions.

If you are worried about being scammed, don’t buy crypto directly from people but use an exchange. Choose the largest and the most popular one. You will have to pay fees and give your private information but these measures are reasonable for the security. Don’t trust sites or companies that offer high profits for a low price. You need to have enough knowledge about the crypto world and be very attentive about everything concerning investments.   

Wow! My congratulations to you Very glad to hear that.
I think coins that you've mentioned are enough for holding. Especially if you managed to make profits out of many coins, I think it would be easy for you to benefit from holding. Frankly speaking, I even envy you a bit I trade ETH on CEX (https://cex.io/eth-usd) but it brings me a small profit. Maybe it's because I'm not very experienced in trading...

Since bitcoin is a decentralized system that successfully maintain its performance without control, the government sees the danger in it and tries by all means to stop the further development. Pushing their negative attitude, countries may influence the price of Bitcoin but they are not capable to destroy it. Blockchain technology is too good for a bunch of bureaucrats to crush it.

The question is rather controversial. One thing can't satisfy everybody 'cause all people are unique and have their preferences, goals, visions, strategies, etc. Before selecting the exchange, I look at its security measures and verify wether it supports buying crypto for USD or other fiat money. CEX has this option: https://cex.io/btc-usd. I think you could follow mjglqw's advice in case you're looking for similar things.

I don't consider Bitcoin as the innovation for fiat money because it’s innovation for the entire sector of finances. Cryptocurrencies and fiats co-exist competing with each other. But Bitcoin is going to do more, for instance, replace traditional money transfers and processing systems to become the only global currency.

Well, I know only a little about stocks trading, as I'm interested mostly in crypto. The procedure of trading on a stock exchange and a crypto one is practically the same. The difference lies in what you trade.
On stocks, you could practice with small portions like it's usually done at crypto exchanges such as CEX (https://cex.io/) or Bittrex.

Unfortunately, in pursuit of profit people ignore risks. Investing money is a risky business in any market. The most often mistake such people to do is to invest all their money in a certain project because they had heard someone got a big profit without puzzling out how it works. If you want to be successful in the crypto industry, you should invest money affordable to lose, especially in such ICO projects with 50/50 chance of winning.

Imho, gambling is activity that is better fits for relaxing, than for making money. Some people think that it brings us “easy money”, but we all know that nothing comes easy or drops from the sky. Besides, when it comes to gambling there is always a possibility to loose everything. However, I think that mining and trading might be very profitable. At the same time these activities requires high level of skills and good strategy. And hardware mining is quite expensive activity. Personally I can't afford myself buying equipment for mining, so I give my preference to trading. This type requires knowledge of all trading aspects and creating account on the crypto exchange. My favorite trading platform is cex, as they provide strong account security means. And it’s just convenient to trade there.

Thanks a lot! I've been searching for something like that long enough.
Agree, if one has only entered crypto trading, it's better to start with small trades. In this case there is no use in making a rush.

I guess that one of most common mistakes related with the process of keeping coins. There are traders, who store all their coins on exchange wallet, which is very risky and not wise. For the matter of security it'd be better to leave there only small amount, for trading aims. It’s also ok to use exchange that provides a cold storage (I know that cex (https://cex.io/) does, maybe some other exchanges has such feature too). The rest coins should be transferred to a hardware wallet, or a paper one, they are more secure.

Well, I can't enter the website either. Perhaps, it's no longer available... That's a pity. There was a new project under development that didn't gain public acceptance. Maybe, it could grow and make some efforts to become one of the most trusted exchanges, like CEX (https://cex.io/) or Coinbase.