Yeah but there is a big problem with development in ethereum. All the best developers are being lured away by ICO. You can't keep good talent in this market. There is less incentive to develop a established coin.

I saw a article on Cointelegraph about how 1 mixer was controlling 65% all ethereum transactions, and how it looked like money laundering.

Can this be explained away easily, and I'm just here wondering because I was getting set to do some investing in ethereum. Thanks for your replies.

Even then, which ICO is going to get more and better developers then ETH?

That's not the point. The point is the devs are heavily incentivized to develop new coins and not work on eth. These other coins likely won't be developed for the same reason but that doesn't fix the problem until the flood of ICO slows way down.

At the same time the overall talent pool is probably increasing pretty fast thanks to all the incentives. When the banks or ICOs are looking for developers with "5+ years of Solidity development experience", they pretty much have to cannibalize Ethereum core devs. At the same time the only way of getting this is developing for Ethereum.

It crossed now. Unless you are day trading you can just buy and HODL. You will see gains over a 1+ year timeframe. Even a %20 gain is massive compared to the real world.

What % chance would you assign to the probability that ETH is trading higher than the current price ($295) on 9/25/18?

it is 9/25...

Correct, I am talking about 9/25/18

Of course it will be higher in 1 year. There is no way crypto is going away.

However we will not see the %500 growth again, but we will see a very healthy growth and a steadier investment. Crypto is booming and anyone who thinks its a scam will be left out in the cold over the course of a few years.

There is too much positive volatility in crypto to ignore. Skeptics have been skeptics since 2010 since Bitcoin could be traded on exchanges. Is it still a scam? A bubble? I dont really care as long as im making money and I think its all in its early stages still.

Can you imagine if/ when more public start using it? Traded on the NYSE and taxed maybe? Its still all very complex for the average Joe. Coinbase has helped with that recently. I think the next year ether will be $500 - $600 if the dev team doesnt screw up.

Is there a way to buy eth or btc with cash irl, like going to the corner store and buying some $50 eth card that I load to my eth wallet?

https://localbitcoins.com/?ch=3yyg&g...SAAEgIaJfD_BwE

FWIW id be very interested in fading this action. Let me know what odds I could get on ETH being under $500 in 1 year. Offer is open to all pending escrow.

Just invest your bet into Ether... You will not lose, maybe it wont go up more than %50 though

^Man these permabulls really make me question some of my investments.

"you will not lose" is bubble sign numero uno.

You think Ether will be down in 1 year? It has already consolidated from $400 high months ago. Ether is a better bet than %2 intrest sitting in a bank account.

Don't know if this should go into the BTC thread or the ETH but will post here anyways.

Do any of you guys have been investing in IOTA?

Heard/read a lot of good things abt it over the last 2 weeks but looking for more opinions.

Also:

forumserver.twoplustwo.com/30/business-finance-investing/virtual-currency-alt-coin-discussion-thread-1394029/

Ratio makes no sense. Finally gained on BTC then sat at 290 while BTC surges from 3600 to 3900 and ETH stays the same. Makes me think of and when ETH and BTC both pass 300 and 4000 maybe that psychological 300 barrier being broken will allow ETH/BTC to rise again.

Yep. There are so many dumb opinions in this space on both sides. Finding it tough to decide whether to fade the crypto zealots or Jamie Dimon.

You seriously need to stop thinking.

Cryptos are going to be an integral part of our technology society in the future.
The only reason I'm not yet ALL IN on them is the struggle I have in deciding whether they will be...

A) Government / Corporate owned ( AmazonCoin or VirtualUSD) i.e. the powers of the world continue to watch closely / invest a little and then when the current cryptos reach near mainstream level they do what they can to ban them and then create their own taking bits and pieces of all the existing coins into their New Coin while hiring up all the developer talent that built the current crop of coins.

or

B) a handful of the existing cryptos reach Mainstream level adaption...surviving ban attempts from governments and getting investment from giant corporations (instead of corporations releasing their own coins).

If it's B...we are still hella early into the life cycle and the prices we're looking at now will be pennies in the future.

Yep. I think this is a good articulation and I definitely wasnt talking about you when I referred to dumb opinions on cryptos.

My current goal is trying to form an educated opinion on which (if any) altcoins to invest in. The low signal/noise ratio is pretty entertaining if at times a bit frustrating.

I understand where your coming from. The thing is, something like Amazon Coin isn't even close to what bitcoin or ethereum is. Why would anyone want amazon coin? What is going to secure the amazon coin network? Is it just going to be completely centralized? If so, then it can be stopped.

What would be the point of VirtualUSD? Is Virtual USD going to be worth $1 USD at all times? If it's Virtual USD I would imagine that's the whole point. So why now would someone want to own a virtual currency of a currency that is inflated at will? VirtualUSD may very well be able to match the transaction capabilities of bitcoin, but it could never compete when it comes to the monetary policy of bitcoin. Then once again, what secures the network of virtualUSD?

When we are living in a virtual world.

Gold = Bitcoin

Ether = Oil

But anyone can copy Bitcoins blockchain code and start thier own coin, its nothing valuable really. But being first is important.