I would say that the best way to identify if an ICO is a scam or not is to read and research everything about them.  First, read their whitepaper in its entirety.  One thing that you will notice with almost all of the ICOs is that their whitepapers are littered with grammatical errors and appear as if it was put together like a scrapbook, some appear to have been written by a high-schooler.  Look for fluffs and words such as the mention of the phrase "price appreciation", "guarantee", "put flag on the moon", "the first, the only" etc..  Whitepaper will tell you all kind of tell-tale of an ICO.  It should be written for an average reader, not filled with marketing gimmick mumbo jumbos or words you do not understand as if they're trying to impress you.  

Once you're finish reading the whitepaper the first time, read it again.  Then move on to their team, see who they are and what they've done.  Look at their Linked In.  Then look at the website and everything else.  If you've completely satisfied, then you should consider if the project is truly disruptive, revolutionary, or technologically advanced.  Avoid ICOs that mention Amazon, UBer, Netflix etc..  If an ICO is a good ICO, there is no need to psychologically try to manipulate people, all they need is just to present an idea.  That's my take.

Your post is a well-written and well-thought of analysis based on Keynesian economics.  But I'm sure there is more to it than just money supply inflation/deflation or demand-pull inflation.  It would be interesting for you to talk about the price of bitcoin in terms of random walk theory for example and or behavioral finance.  I would say that the pricing is based more on herd mentality than any other factors.

There's a lot of postings about merits that I've been reading about but I think this is one of the better ones that's worth your reading time if you really really want to earn merits.  I think it's a cool system, and it looks like its here to stay.  Even Reddit has its own version of merit which is called karma.  Merit is still new, in its infancy, and I would say that we should give it a fair chance to manifest itself into this forum.  Instead of whining, we newbies (including me) should figure out what it takes to earn the merits rather than complaining or debating whether its fair or not.

Case in point, I am a newbie, barely a day old, one of my posts was awarded a merit even though I didn't expect it, or with intention to earn it.  I only wrote what came out of my mind and from my heart.  

We humans tend not to embrace something that's new because we're comfortable with the old.  Embrace the change I would say, for in life, the only thing that is certain and inevitable is "change".

Airdrops right now are practically worthless because you get a few tokens here and there.  Once the ICOs are listed they're probably worth between $1-$20, maybe a little more, but it might cost you a lot more to be able to be deposited onto an exchange i.e. etherdelta.  So I wouldn't waste too much time tracking the airdrops.  If you get it you get it if not it's fine its water under the bridge.

In order to maximize your payout you should try to rank up to at least Jr. Member to be able to wear Avatar and join Signature campaign.  Payouts there are much bigger.  But you can join Telegram, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter bounty etc.. 

Here's the latest today:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3221278.0

I think the technology behind blockchain and smart contract would eliminate some of the corruptions and inefficiencies in developing countries.  Although I'm not saying that the symptoms are only prevalent in those countries.  Developed countries are also corrupt in many ways but they legalized it using some fancy names such as political contributions, PAC,  etc..

Have you ever tried gig woks like translation or even bounty programs such as writing articles, making videos, and or even promoting ICOs on Facebook, Twitter, Linked etc.

If you are 5 years old, the way I would explain it is that Bitcoin is like lego pieces, they're fun and easy to play with, you could part with them or trade them in pieces or as a set, could be frustrated at times, they could be cheap or expensive depending on brands or if they're counterfeit, and some could be worth a fortune, for example some of Harry Potter's legos are in the thousands of dollars now even though they were less than $100 a few years ago.

Looks like the merit topic is dominating this forum, everywhere I go there's posts about Merit.  I guess Merits are the new currencies in BCT.

I sincerely hope you already found your buyer (s), Bitcoin price has been plummeting, you should've sold them last month.

I'm sure the bounties will be paid once the ICO is completed.

I'm not sure how to properly comment on this.  It appears that most of the unfair comments came from Newbies and Jr. Member whereas the higher rank members think otherwise.  

Bounty campaigns or airdrops are not trash.  They're designed to spread the words around, like advertising for products and offering free samples.  10-15 years Bitcoin didn't really have any values either but people were still mining, buying and owning them.  Look at Bitcoin's price today.  The point is, those coins with no value in your wallet could some day make you money.  Let say you have 20 of them, all it takes is just one to go up and you should be all set.

For $5 I wouldn't go through the  hassle of KYC and passport.

I'm not sure the rank in this forum has any bearings in real life.  A Legendary here could be a 20 year old unemployed who didn't finish college and a newbie could be a college professor.  Although it doesn't mean a 20-year college dropout is not wealthy or successful, just saying.... 

Potential buyers should read, read and read before they get themselves involved in buying into ICOs.   Some are really good projects with great potential while a majority of them are outright scams.

Lol...very catchy title, but not what I expected.  Good job coming out with the title that encourage people to click it.  You could be a good marketer.