You can quite easily backup your store/wallet with OpenBazaar, you can export your wallet seed as well.
All in all OB seems good enough, but it really needs some support from the crypto community to gain notable traction. If all the HODLers used OB instead of ebay/amazon for their purchases, I'd bet it would have gotten big enough already. I did that and never regretted btw. 

Price was not exciting 10 years ago in the whitepaper,  finally it's getting back to the point where more users understand that the main value of BTC lies far beyond its price.

The very first merit experience on bitcointalk could be considered the online analogue for loosing one's virginity in real life. At least that's what it was for me  I've actually checked my profile page 10x more often than usual that day, just to see that +merit message and it made my thing hard every time, lol  That's even more interesting considering I've been lurking this forum for years without participating prior to registering an account, and when the merit was first introduced all I had was a brand new account with 0 posts&merits despite the fact that I've been a part of cryptoworld for a while. That time this whole new merit system seemed too flawed and quite unfair to me, almost to the point where I've thought it's stupid to enter bitcointalk as a poster at this time. But that first merit point feeling was well worth all the struggle. Even though the system is not flawless, now I can definitely say this feeling of accomplishment can stimulate you on personal level, which does good for forum as a whole. So you're not alone on this, OP, getting merit is hot&sexy in 2018! 

For a guaranteed week ban the spammer would need to get >100 accounts to make it happen. Due to the fact that moderators would get much more free time after such change, they can spend this time on genuine users appealing such cases of abuse. 100+ users downvoting a decent post could be either a botnet/multiaccounting or a well organized spammers group violating the rules\ideas of this forum. It's good for the forum and  its users to detect and get rid of such things, so if anybody tries to do this to you, you simply appeal to the moderators. Moderators can always investigate the case. Punishment for premeditated abuse of such feature and the number of accounts at risk in a collusion case should prevent any attempt of abuse. If the user or group is risking a ban on 100+ accounts just to ban you for  1 week - it's heavily unfavorable to even try.
Other option is  doing it a "+/-" kind of stat, where decent users can upvote your posts in this type of scenario, but that would be much more abusable actually.
I, personally, don't think it has been thought over, since shitposts everywhere are still a major problem. The reputation system of some kind is used in most decent boards nowadays, it is proven to be more efficient for huge boards.

Agree with this! If we're to try fighting against shitposting and spammers - there must be a REAL punishment for villains action. Merit is good and everything, but the fact is it doesn't help in this particular case due to no mechanism of lowering it as punishment. It serves its role in highlighting quality posts most of the time, but does no good in preventing or eliminating the shittiest ones.
IMO, there should be a 'bad' bMerit either as a separate stat, or interchangeable with merit. Interchangeable is the hard thing though, the control at the beginning would be in high merit accounts hands, which, unfortunately, seems as a bad option given the merit abuse going on since its inception, as well as the fact that nothing prevents them in using it in a self-serving scenarios. Separate stat, for example red 'Shit Post" button near every post , appears to be much more reliable and decentralized in concept as well. Provide all the bitcointalk users with button charges depending on rank(i.e. 1 daily charge for newbies, 3 for Jr.Member, 10 for Member, then 50, 200, etc...), limit the amount of charges available for use by single user on a single post by 1(this could be rank dependent as well, but not necessary, as the more flat it is among users, the more decentralized the whole concept is) and  all you have to do is add "Shit Post" counter rules automatically applied for users. Rules could be something like 20 charges on a single post - user gets warned and asked to modify/delete the post, while at 30 post is auto deleted and user gets 2-3 days ban from that particular subboard, 120 total charges on  all your posts across the forum in last 7 days - you get banned for 1 week. 300 in a month...?  Month ban is provided for free! This way the more important/popular/high-level the discussion is, the higher the risks are for the shitposting villain, while newbies can still post trashy comments/questions in their own boards, where the daily charges limit would make it very unlikely to be banned for minor stupidity(1 daily charge among most participants would lead to users awarding only the most retarded posts with their precious charge).
This change would lead to a more self-regulated forum, freeing existing moderators time for more relevant issues, giving individual users a non-abusable moderating role and cleanse the forums of most filth.  

Bitcoin doesn't depend on fiat currency, period. It can be exchanged to fiat and could be used for similar purposes overall, but they are nowhere near interdependent, at least in theory. Bitcoin as a cryptoCURRENCY and fiat are competitors in the financial market for the spot of exchange value measurement tool.

Adoption is important and great for sure, but the more I'm involved, the more I feel Participation is the correct word for what's truly needed. You're talking about inability to buy groceries with crypto? How about you check OpenBazaar decentralized marketplace at openbazaar.org (openbazaar.com for web browsing of the marketplace)? Groceries are already there, domestic products of multiple origins are there, services are already there, p2p cryptocurrency exchange is already there, digital items, illicit goods, life saving generic drugs - all of this and much more is already there with global shipping and direct payments in cryptocurrencies, but how many people at least know this? How many of them have actually used it? What about you?   If it's there - get it there, if it' not - help in bringing it there by offering your service to other users. All of that for free and everybody in the community is a winner here.  And yet it's been there for some time already, decentralized, free, pseudonymous as the bitcoin itself and... and lacking participation by that very same community which is mostly whining about lacking options to spend their cryptos, while too busy bountyhunting, promoting zero real life value ICOs and running back to the corrupt institutions of the pre-crypto economy whenever they got a buck from cryptos, lol  
Not sure about the anonymity, but I definitely don't think Satoshi envisioned BTC with having necessity for fiat gateways implementations... If it can be free/independent - it really should be. That's what I got from the whitepaper at least... Hopefully more people would understand this as the network matures. Hodl and trading might be all right, but increasing usability of the network or participating in transferring of the fiat economy functions to blockchain is the good ol' black here. 

Are you serious, lol? The technology is there for a long time, check the OpenBazaar decentralized marketplace @ openbazaar.org (openbazaar.com for web browsing of the marketplace) for example, it's the amazon/ebay for cryptocurrency shopping at the moment. eCommerce is destined to be where the cryptocurrencies security and swiftness can really outshine fiat, it would also be a major factor in increasing BTC recognition and adoption rate when more people discover the benefits of such decentralized marketplaces. It would also bring back the currency part of the crypto, having huge potential for increasing daily transaction volumes and generating more network fees, providing constant demand and driving the coins prices up as well. Honestky, idk what's stopping people/businesses from accepting cryptos for their services or goods, infrastructure is ready, concept is long proven and tested. This is exactly what's needed for overall development of cryptocurrencies, more real-life usability and direct competition with fiat economy in multiple sectors. That would do much more in terms of network development than endless stream of bounty campaigns/hunters and similar bs. It's beneficial for both, buyers and vendors alike, and we as a community should at least try to discover and support such practices for the betterment of overall crypto experience we are all being a part of.

The gift is still there, it is up to users to accept this gift or prefer less privacy for their own usability preferences.  Even for the fiat/bank gateway one can still use mixers, new private key etc. It was\is always about the freedom of choice for the user and not about mandatory anonymity of the system.

This is good and all, but we have yet to see how it handles floods. A stress test is required.

It definitely will, nobody is telling you when though.

Would buy with skrill, escrow only pm me.

When Bitcoin(or any other technically superior crypto) becomes a globally used currency, the same person will pay for your roads and bins getting fixed  or cleaned, that person is you. The only thing that would change is efficiency of your pennies getting spent, because with bitcoin(read blockchain) we finally stand a real chance that our money(in form of fees/taxes/fares etc.) would not need corrupted officials, multi-billion $ agencies, tons of useless paperwork and the list goes on and on... Bitcoin people won't be donating to your government, the funds would be automatically  deducted from your paycheck wallet, the wallet of thy neighbor who uses the same road everyday and is interested in repairing those very same potholes you are so mad with. And all of this will happen in a fully automatic smart contract environment, transparently and instantly, without delays, corruption, human factor, weather factor or pretty much any factor.

I can imagine and I do practice getting my paycheck in bitcoin even now, and it's only getting better. Imagine your debt nominated in BTC and the price has gone in half? Sounds too good, but it won't matter, since your paycheck will be nominated in BTC, your taxes might be nominated in BTC and whoever wishes to take your home  will be obligated to nominate it's price in BTC.

Government and taxes is the good old galley, with humans powering it up from the inside, while Blockchain(cryptocurrencies) is a solar powered speedboat, if not a spaceship if used to full potential. Sure you can travel across the sea on both, but it is the small details that really matter.

I believe it should be more in the lines of "Should citizens who don't vote be allowed to not pay their taxes". Makes perfect sense, if the government doesn't deserve my vote even, it is definitely undeserving of my moneyZ.  Liberty lives 

Who cares? It's gonna be fake news by 2020  ;

Why do you ask for a fork when you already can connect through TOR and use\create search engines with no censorship on illicit goods?

There is this great alternative or even future to the darkmarketplaces in p2p decentralized online marketplaces like OpenBazaar (https://openbazaar.org/). Can be used with tor for complete anonymity, is safe and secure(at least for moderated payments), free, fast and easy to use. "A FREE ONLINE MARKETPLACE. NO PLATFORM FEES. NO RESTRICTIONS." - as stated by the dev team, decentralized ebay/amazon p2p alternative at it's core. Such platforms are the much needed evolution for both, online commerce and darkmarkets in particular. I personally think as a community we should support and utilize such kind of projects, instead of dreaming about shopping with crypto in fiat businesses.
The typical darkmarket goods are already there as well as normal stuff. It's also possible to automatically and anonymously exchange cryptos p2p on the platform with cryptocurrency listings in the latest update. 

FAQ from the official page:
 
What is OpenBazaar?
OpenBazaar is a different way to do online commerce. It’s a peer to peer application that doesn’t require middlemen, which means no fees & no restrictions.

How does OpenBazaar work?
OpenBazaar connects people directly via a peer to peer network. Data is distributed across the network instead of storing it in a central database.

How are there no fees and restrictions?
OpenBazaar isn’t a company nor an organization; it’s free open source software. It was built to provide everyone with the ability to buy and sell freely  ✌

Who controls the OpenBazaar network?
Nobody has control over OpenBazaar. Each user contributes to the network equally and is in control of their own store and private data  world emoji

Is Bitcoin the only supported payment method?
Pay with 50+ cryptocurrencies on OpenBazaar: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Zcash, Dash, etc. Seller receives payment in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash or Zcash. Their choice.

It's really about the passion, currently you seem to enjoy being lazy over other available options/activities. Try out new things, find the ones which you're passionate about and invest your time into it. Sooner or later you'll get dividends, materialistic or not. With the amount of entertainment available from home nowadays you just have to find something that lets you grow while being useful/profitable as well. Otherwise it's always gonna be a job/modern day slavery scenario, which you'll never be able to enjoy at the fullest.
Crypto\decentralization\blockchain are the things for me now, good luck!

Bitcoin IS amazing as a currency/payment method. The possibility and emergence of decentralized online marketplaces proved that point for me. Nowadays you can buy or sell everything freely, p2p, anonymously and safe on platform like OpenBazaar (https://openbazaar.org/), which allow global trade of goods and services with no middleman or fees. Personally, I prefer shopping there lately to both amazon&ebay, because of the convenience, ease, security, lack of censorship and simply for the sake of free trade and crypto evolution. This reflects my personal stance on this matter, unlike ebay\amazon\etc user policies and practices.
Those who think of bitcoin only as a mean of investment, are missing the whole picture, IMO.

Love & peace shall be upon the universe.