Reported alt accounts here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2544574.msg31603513#msg31603513
Thank you.

Accounts Connected:1713155 1755822 407213

Devawnm367, Rabbai89, adroitful_one.

Proof: Ok, the last account - adroitful_one sent 10 merits to two accounts Devawnm367 and  Rabbai89 for one-line meaningless posts, obviously making alt accounts. Both merit giveaways are even in the same thread. Here are the links for the posts
Proof 1
Proof 2

This is a great example of how older accounts are making member alt accounts. They just send 10 merits to a new account with one-line posts and voila, they have a member alt account.  Easy as a pie for older accounts to have member alts, while new-comers like us who only have one account are struggling to reach member status with the new merit system.

Hi, I reported a spammer(scammer as well) here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2832305.msg31541006#msg31541006

This guy (Whale_Club)is a spammer and scammer:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1865858
His posts:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1865858;sa=showPosts

I would like to participate, thank you.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1835217;sa=showPosts
Unfortunately, this is the best way to earn merit right now - participate in someone's "I give away merit" thread. This really is not what merit giveaways are supposed to be about. Many quality content posts just get ignored, because nobody who can give away merit can review them. So thank you for giving us at least this opportunity to get some merit and hope that one day some of the jr members can reach full member status.

I have read a lot about the guidelines for posting, however it seems to me that the "quality" issue is rather subjective, than objective.  It is still a matter of a personal opinion of those who give out merit, rather than the principal of "fair for all". I mean, I have seen TMAN refuse someone merit just for the way someone called him "Sir". It is not what merit is supposed to be about, in my opinion. I believe discrimination is a world-wide problem nowadays, it is sad to see it here as well. I do hope that something will be done to achieve the "fair for all" status in this forum.

Most people who mine Ethereum use Windows and MSI Afterburner to make the best of their GPU power.

Interesting website. The weakest security link is always that of human nature. People will use low entropy and get their funds stolen, then complain.
If you are planning to use this tool, please make sure to include uppercase, lowercase letters and symbols in unexpected places. Something like
"The First pr3$id3nt Of The U.nited S.tates is Washington." 

2018 is a good year for ICO. Many people are being educated about crypto-currencies and more potential investors are entering the market. Talented groups are creating good projects this year.

Very good question. What I always look in the ICOs:
1)The idea. Is it new or is it old? Coins that only promise a standard - blockchain, masternodes, wallets, plastic cards, etc., but nothing new, I try to avoid.
2) Always read the whitepaper. It has more details about the project and you can see how well the team is working with documentation. If it's only 2 pages long, I try to avoid it.
3) The roadmap is very important. It has to be reasonable. If it promises too much in very short terms, I try to avoid it.
4) The ways to contact the team. The more means to reach out to the developers, the better the coin will be.
5) Budget. Some coins actually list their budgets - how much % goes to what needs. If there is no marketing budget in that, I avoid it. No marketing - no coin.
6) If the team provides information on how many funds they have raised so far, it is also a good sign. The more investors they have, the more likely to succeed they are.

There is always intuition, listen to your subconscious side. If you don't feel like it is a good idea or have some doubts about an ICO, don't invest. If you have a good feeling about the ICO, the idea sounds good, the roadmap is reasonable, the team is friendly, you will probably be happy with your investment.

Wow, thank you for my first merit. It's hard work trying to find good posts in the "beginners" section, since well...everyone in there are just beginners. So yes, I think "why I give merit" threads from more experienced forum members is an important task and such threads should be pinned and read by all beginners. I was just replying to the thread "Good posts not rewarded with merits" and saying I got 0 merits, I'm happy to find it untrue now

I don't mind this system as a rule to fight against spammers, "bad posting" or alt accounts. My opinion is that the problem is really not enough people who can give merit. I mean this is a very active forum, there are lots of new posts in each subsection every hour. There is just not enough people to read them all, judge and give merit. One way to deal with this issue is to assign special "merit" administrators to each subsection and develop a guideline for them to give merit to everyone who deserves it. In general, it should not be "extremely difficult or next to impossible" to get merit. You should be able to gain merit from good post writing, but it does not mean that your post should be "close to genius" or "Pulitzer prize-winning" for you to gain 10 merit and up your rank. Personally, this is what I feel right now as a new-comer to this forum. 40+ "average to good" posts have not yielded me a single merit. It's not my goal of course, I enjoy writing, helping people and educating them about the crypto-world. It's just very sad that I realize someone like me can write 500 + posts and not get a single merit because...well because nobody who can give merit looked.

I think you should make a separate thread for your merit awards and explanations. You could give the merit awards without explanation, of course, however, I understand your need to justify your position. Not everyone is aware (especially on the beginners board) of why some posts get merit and others don't. Your thread would serve as a good example for others, who have not yet achieved any merit awards, as to what your expectations are. I understand that everyone who has the ability to give merit can do so using their subjective point of view. Your thread can be used as a sort of "guide to good posting", so it would be useful to have it all in one place.

Excellent idea and a great question. Since bitcoin is part of our world economy now, it would make sense to teach kids at the age when they understand what money and credit card are. My guess is that it would be around 10-12 years old, depending individually on child development. Cryptocurrency in general is a very new technology. Kids will be the ones living "in it", unlike those who remember the times "before" and "after". The more honest you are with your kids, the better they understand what you are explaining to them. Draw pictures, explain in simple words, be open about this issue and I am sure your kids will understand the point. One of the best examples on blockchain technology explanations I have seen is this.
Let's say Bob, Julie and Andrew want to trade services (or goods) and want to write down who owes how much bitcoin to each other. Make a piece of paper for each one of them.
Let's say Bob has 10, Julie has 5, Andrew has 20. Andrew mowed the lawn and now Bob sends him 5 bitcoins for the service. The change happens on Bob's piece of paper, Julie's piece of paper and Andrew's piece of paper. This is how blockchain works - everyone owns a piece of paper with accounting information for everyone. 51 % of those "pieces of paper" decide if a transaction happened or not. I really liked this analogy to explain blockchain to someone not familiar with bitcoin.

Good day Mr. TMAN. I wanted to qualify for this giveaway and this would be my 40th post (just for luck).
I am an experienced cryptocurrency user and I believe my posts have helped this community. I try to share my knowledge of the crypto-world with others, as you can see from my posts.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1835217;sa=showPosts
Even if I do not win, it is a pleasure to participate, thank you.

This is a very good question. Many exchanges closed registration (Bittrex, Cex.io etc.) due to the fact that their servers could not handle the incoming amount of users. Some (Binance for example) have upgraded their networks to be able to accept new traders. The old traders were not too happy to have the network down for more than 48 hours, however most were satisfied with lowered fees as compensation. What does it mean for the market? There is more demand for the services, more demand for the coins. I believe that everyone should be able to have the freedom to enter these markets upon fair conditions. Not everyone is a professional trader, but everyone should have a chance to become one. It's a matter of education, experience and making good decisions. A growing number of traders shows that the cryptocurrency market is evolving. Growth means more demand and market expanse. It's a good sign for the cryptocurrency industry.

In one of my posts I have listed the financial factors that have an effect on the cryptocurrency price.
- the circulating amount
- the historical data
- supply/demand
- chain difficulty
- exchanges willing to work with the coin
- how useful the coin is to the community
- how easily it can be exchanged from and to fiat
- news and media coverage
- large-scale investors
- coin wealth distribution
- coin reputation

Bitcoin price depends on all these factors, just like any other coin. Let's examine how each one of these affect the price.

- The circulating amount of bitcoin is 16,866,500, the marketcap at the moment is $166,125,073,765, according to coinmarketcap.
It is a decent amount if you relate it to the number of active bitcoin wallets (around 200, 000, 000 usually).
- Historical charts (from $10 to around $20 000) show that this coin has the potential to grow fast and earn profit
- The supply/demand scale is working here as well, more people want to own bitcoin, more the price.
- Chain difficulty is very high, making it hard to mine, making the bitcoins more scarce.
- Exchanges - each day more and more exchanges are willing to accept this coin. For many cryptoexchanges it is the main coin all other cryptocurrency coins depend on
- The coin is very useful to the community. Starting from exchanges and ending in coffee-shops, there are many end-users who use this coin for their daily needs.
- Bitcoin is probably the easiest coin to exchange with fiat.
- News and media coverage happens on a daily basis
- Large-scale investors. This one is difficult to determine with bitcoin all of these, but the top players are well-known.
- Coin wealth distribution - the wallets to the number of bitcoin says it all.
- Coin reputation - excellent. This coin has proven to be hacker-resistant, anonymous and fair.

These factors always have an affect on the price. Lately the media coverage of bitcoin had more effect on the coin than other means. Everyone wants to comment bitcoin. Once you see "bitcoin ban news", the coin price goes down, once these news come out to be fake,the coin price goes up. When large-scale investors want to buy a substantial amount, the price also goes up. Read the news, make your analysis and you will see that it is not that difficult to predict price drops/changes.

Yes, blockchain.info sometimes does that as well.
What happens is there is one transaction spending let's say the existing 0.05 bitcoins. That transaction is written to the blockchain, but is not comfirmed yet. Then the wallet owner makes another transaction, spending 0.05 bitcoins to another address. The second transaction confirms and the bitcoins are spent. However, blockchain sees both transactions, the confirmed one and the unconfirmed one, listing the balance of  - 0.05 bitcoins.
Just a glitch in the system, there is actually no negative balance.

Yes, sounds like a scam. There is no need for you to give access to your blockchain account to anyone if you are working with a broker. There are reputable cryptocurrency platforms that will let you trade without a broker, why would you want one? If an address is watch-only, you cannot use its funds, because you do not have access to them. If you met this person in real life, make a contract, list the terms, have them sign it and specify the wallet address they will use for you. Good luck with your trades.

Sorry for your loss. There are many tools that support bitcoin and many services that store it.
Check e-mails for services like blockchain.info,coinbase.com, poloniex, bittrex, etc. Anything with words cryptocurrency and bitcoin in it, he might have invested in different platforms and cryptoexchanges, make sure to search for everything.
If you believe his wallet is on the HDD, check for wallet.dat file on the computer. Also, Electrum is a popular bitcoin storage tool, doesn't label its wallets with a dat extension. You would have to check for that in the directories. If you need any more advice, let us know. Good luck.