The new merit system was meant to teach the newbie how to make good and meaningful posts. It was not intended to harm nor bring sadness or discriminate newbies. I am one of those who been hit with the new system. To be honest I have the same feeling as well at first but it should change for the better.
Know these:
>Good post creates better opportunities for better ICO promotion as people will become hooked up to the topic and thereby allows the advertisement to be seen.
>Good post increases volume of ICOs and therefore allows more opportunities for earning alot.
>Good posts brings the name of the site bitcointalk.org to the pedestal and becomes well-known even more to every investors and the general public.

There are so many other reasons that would really count but because it would be so lengthy, just think of this very simple analogy. Good posts = Money. Who ever would not want these? Everybody of course so why make it so heavy on our hearts to accept the system? It is time to change for the better and lets do it now... Please encourage others by giving more reasons aside from what was mentioned here.
       

This is a very good information for the would be investors. But I would like to sum this up to a very simple analysis because it would be quite lengthy and maybe forgotten. The most important thought that you should bear in mind would be, "Why do they get in return if you were to invest your money in them?" or "Why is it that they are trying so hard to please you so that you could pay them the investment" or better still "Why are they encouraging you to invest and become rich when they can do it for themselves?" Any these questions will lead you to ask yourself about why should you invest and it would be a great help when you are almost failing to realize that the person encouraging you to get rich is a scammer.

Stupidity is a human behavior not really connected to your social status and it is the way we are. Rich or poor anybody can be just stupid. There are people whom others thought are stupid and yet have lived a good and happy life  so if that it the case I think it is even better to be stupid. Happiness is more important than riches. Think about that? Do you agree!

Nice FUD, you have just created a mess.  You said to claim that ethereum is officially dead, are you the right person to announce it officially? Do you have proofs that it was announced officially? Well maybe you can post a link here. That post could help the forum members and fellow investors know what is really happening with Ethereum.

Precisely nothing is eternal. But to predict and proceed with a claim that bitcoin ends is something that needs to be analyzed carefully. You just don't say everything ends without evidence of your claim. The dip to the bottom maybe a good sign to stand as evidence. But the current price has to be the price that was set when it started and volume of the coin must be zeroed otherwise it is still alive and kicking. When this happens as predicted I think it is the time when you may be technically correct.

You are right, paying taxes is good for the entire community as they provide all those things you have mentioned. If we do care we should at least pay some instead of avoiding or evading it. We won't be making ourselves poor if we lost a part of our salary to help the government. It is also a way of helping oneself. Who would care to help you pass safely on a road that has been concreted well if you and others didn't pay taxes? Who would have paid teachers of the government to teach your child for free if you and others did not pay taxes? And so many other things worth mentioning. We should help one another on this. Pay taxes not because it is required but because you really care for everybody.

I personally do not consider banks going extinct because of cryptocurrency. Mostly in my locality people didn't even care much about cryptocurrency and if they do it would only account to a few people because more are investing to get real money everyday on businesses that involves marketing of products which cryptocurrency might not be used for selling and buying due to possible loses out of volatility.

I agree with the idea that we are not to do investments if we don't know anything about it. It is not good to receive any amount of money when you don't even know how everything works. These are a common event when scammers would be promising you to invest in return you will receive double or triple the amount you have invested in. If you do understand how things work then maybe you won't fall against any scam. I don't mean to say cryptocurrency as scams but there are a lot of people who are into it. We should not fall on their tricks. Choose any cryptocurrency to invest in wisely and do a lot of research.

Yes it is trending all over the world, yet as I do noticed also there are only a few of the many who are really into cryptocurrency. This might be because of the FUD they have read on new and on some other sources. No wonder its popularity had gotten low. There are still many believers though like me but If everybody will be into it, I think there will be a potential rise of the values of any coin in the market.

If it's money that you want I would suggest taking the two. The reason for this is because two options or choice is always better than just one. And besides this two are not too far from each other in terms of investing. They are almost the same. I have learned that there are a few who become good at stocks exchange by joining the cryptocurrency first.

This might be possible but it can never replaced the US dollar. The reason is that the fiat currency is monitored and is controlled by the government to avoid loses which could lead to a bigger economic crisis. While cryptocurrency doesn't have so much of this regulation and is uncontrolled, it would be hard for the government to oversee how their money is moving because due to anymomity of cryptocurrency.

You might be correct as I saw others almost close to gaining the top spot but more often the failed. Ethereum had always been tailing bitcoin but never succeeded in doing so. Maybe because bitcoin is really popular and secured so their is no way any altcoin will just surpass it while bitcoin is active.

The only disadvantage I saw with altcoins over bitcoin is that it is utility specific. Say altcoin specific for gambling. They have coin specific for that matter only. Say an altcoin is product based, you would use such a coin to buy the specific product that only their coin will be used to buy it. So the earning goes straight to the altcoin.

This question could have sonmaby answers like just for curiosity, because of being influenced by friends and others. But the most important and plausible answer is that people do seek for fortune. It is money that brings people to cryptocurrencies. Because people wanted money so much out of either need or just greed. Especially us who are poor, we often think that cryptocurrency may just be the answer to our problems.

Well that could be nice. But I think it is that fast because it doesn't have much load yet. But when investors would be going for it I think it will be just like bitcoins. The complexity of the calculations depends on how much coins are used. The greater the coin's volume used the longer it takes to process transactions. With respect to popularity I think bitcoin got the upper hand and thus will still be preferred. But will just wait and see if waves can be on top.

Certainly agreeable. Airdrops are not even not so profitable and why should they be so strict about asking information when they are giving an amount that are sometimes almost equal to the transaction fee. It is so hard to earn it this way when your identity hangs in the balance when anybody could steal it by having access to their database like the hackers or someone who have bad motives in mind.

Ethereum is always so close to bitcoin but it had never surpassed it. So I think with the time remaining for this year, ethereum will never even get to beat bitcoin for the top spot. I could agree that ethereum is good but the popularity of bitcoin among users or investors had so much to do with its position right now and maybe for the coming years. Still it will be bitcoin because it stands for the beginning or origin of cryptocurrency.

Too many cryptocurrencies without a clear product or purpose to use for would just appear and disappear like illusions. How can such a coin survive without getting used? The only coin that will ever survive are those that have already been trusted and tested by its users. Popularity always matters. But if such coin no matter how unknown will be very useful as time goes by, certainly it will be among of those who will survive. So if we are to invest better look for it.

Sometimes listening to news like this is good as they create a lot of encouragement, yet we must be realistic as we are talking about money. If a person loses so much because of a belief that was never correct, such action will be a real discouragement. While it is good to hear some overstatement and extreme predictions, I think it is better to hear forecast that are very much possible. So personally not to offend anyone here, I don't believe much in exaggerated forecasts. I think it will only destroy ones interests in cryptocurrencies should he fail and lose so much because of wrong predictions.

I am not an expert to tell about this but I do have some observations about what could happen to cryptocurrencies. The virtual currency like bitcoin for me could survive and be the most sought method as a payment system. Almost anywhere you can always see how many people got so interested about bitcoin and altcoin. ICO offering are growing in number and the people are making investments on it. So despite all the negative impression and FUDs that are being pushed to cryptocurrencies, it manages to survive there is a greater possibility that in the future the cryptocurrencies will be the most sought method of payment system aside from doing it really in a direct manner.