It will last until the progress takes us further and a new payment method and market is invented. I do not believe that it will ever take the primate over fiat currencies but it will be competitive and strong. People are recognizing its potential and benefits of crypto not only as an investment but as an everyday payment option.

It is incomparably easier and cheaper to make any transfer this way. For anyone who makes daily transfers and manipulates with substantial amounts, this is the only way. No fees, no banks, no limitations, no waiting. But as in many sections of crypto market, volatility is causing a lot of potential loses. There is no transaction fast enough to prevent the influence volatility could have. I have used it couple of times so far, haven't had any downsides so I would definitely like to see this payment option implement the economy more.    

I agree with this 100%.
This year will be extremely stressful and the trend of people loosing faith in crypto that started in 2018 will only continue through this year. My greatest fear that overall trust of the community will drop which will cause great negative impact to BTC and the whole market. If the support drops, implementation and penetration of BTC to different sectors will drop and it will all cause overall drop. This will be extremely challenging year, a turning point for us all.

Yup, investigation is the base of it all, you need to be at the top of the game because things are moving and changing over night. And of course, never invest money that you can not afford to lose. When it comes to investing in crypto, I tend to forget about that invested amount completely. My advise is to invest in bitcoin, no matter how good other new projects are, bitcoin is the safest option and it is the right time for it because this bearish period finally shows some kind of stability in price. No further drop is expected.

Since the author of the topic said 'BTC and ETH excluded', I would select XRP. It has a great turn around moment, always the best option for instant orders, its popularity and implementation tends to keep up with BTC's (or at least tries to). Ripple belongs to the great three clubs and its strong and active community will prevail all the turbulence and volatility consequences.

I completely understand desperate and panic sell decisions made by many. People have entered the market with high expectations, they used money that they cannot afford to lose, they haven't thought through it and they are not major investors willing to lose a little in order to gain a lot. And of course, when the first hard drop arrived, panic overtook every reason. We need to look at it as a marathon and arm ourselves with patience. The end game will be positive, but no one knows when will it happen. I don't expect any real bull run in the next 2 months, maybe even longer. From the mid of December we have entered this calmer phase with little oscillations and it is a good progress, it is leading us to the possible bull run.

Why so dramatic? What kind of sorry state are you talking about? If we learned anything from BTC's history is that this situation is normal and expected considering volatile and turbulent movement of BTC. The crypto market's important feature is volatility and this is a result of its volatility. We need to do a proper research and look into the signs around BTC. The coin has a strong and committed community, it has been accepted by certain major companies and even countries, it is being implemented in different sectors and people are welcoming it as a payment method, not only investment. No need to be worried.

Serious investors that decided to hold are highly unlikely to panic. The ones that wanted to leave, left long before we were even close to 3k. I strongly believe that people that hold until now will remain in the market for the next year or even more.

Cardano, XRP, ETH, BTCN. Don't keep all your eggs in one basket! I believe that this is a winning combination.

I would get ETH, XRP, Stellar, TRX, Cardano, BTCN. I strongly believe in these coins and expect great deal from all of them in the 2019.

Of course that it will be fine, it has been in the market for 10 years now, do your research. I am not claiming that BTC will be present in the market for ever and ever but, I don't think that it will cease to exist cause the price will drop to zero. Somewhere along the line, some new technology will be invented and some new super product will replace BTC but it will not happen any time soon.

What are you talking about, mate? Allowed by whom? Central Banks? One of the reasons why BTC was built is to run away from the manipulating system. The point was to find a free and anonymous way to transfer money, data, whatever. Free World, no financial crisis, only the block chain.

This isn't a bull run, not yet. We should be patient and wait for unless a couple of weeks to see an effect of any possible and potential reverse.

If you don't have enough money to start again right now, it's ok, you don't have to despair. The most important thing is for you to know that this is not the end and that the situation will get better and we will have a bull run in the next year.

BTC works as a reserve currency for crypto world. But there is still a distinct and uncoressable border between crypto world and fiat currency world. I don't believe that these two worlds will overlap any time soon unless some compromises are made from both sides.

I don't think that it will happen any time soon, and it definitely will not explode over the night with a bang. The reverse should start in the next 2 months and then we will have slow rise that will hopefully bring some satasfying price before the summer.

News about BTC's death come from different sources and they have different meanings. There are people who entered this world and invested some money that they cannot lose and with the panic, desperate statements come. Then, this is a great way for anyone to draw attention and make saleable publications. It's become a gossip section these days. Will it drop, will it survive, BTC on the edge etc. Sansationalistc way of making money.

BTC will continue to exist until the block chain technology is replaced by some new and better technology. Last 10 years should have tough us some kind of pattern in the BTC's fluctuation and the movement of the price. This market is the newest one we have so far and it is extremely volatile. Anyone who entered this market with long term goals should arm themselves with patient and simply forget about everything. It will be a while until we see some positive and higher growth than the one that we have been witnessing for the last couple of days.

It is evident that there are a lot of us predicting and shouting apocalyptic end of BTC. This panic has an impact on the price, but in really small amount. As someone mentioned, black market is a good stability sign of BTC. One of stability and survival signs, not the only one of course. BTC penetrated the market in more than one way and people will not let it drop easily. Think about major corporations that are supporting and using it, think about banks, states, countries showing their support, think about the money that circulates, think about the black market, small businesses starting to implement it..etc.

Interesting topic. There are so many coins out there now that there is a possibility that every single post will be a different recommendation.
My recommendation is BTCN.
It already has a strong community that is constantly active and is present in several exchanges.