Things we've learned about BTC/ETH/LTC and others in the last month

So this massive bull run with bitcoin and other's this month has a few takeaways at least for me. It's good to pull back and look at what's happening and how we can improve.

Things about BTC:

• Scaling needs a lot of work. The sudden and massive influx of new buyers and traders has pushed the backlog to an extreme level. Optimistic about lightning network, but that's months away.

• Coinbase has so many users, many just joining and they have seemingly not even started working on implementation of segwit transactions. I mean, if you check their twitter posts it's all about being sorry for slow transactions and blah blah blah yet they haven't been willing to update their wallets to segwit?

• The government still doesn't understand what cryptocurrency is nor how it works. They have been trying to figure this out for a while, and haven't been making much progress other than prosecuting low level ICO scammers.

• Be wary of the IRS. They are chomping at the bit to nail those who don't claim capital gains on their taxes this year. Not sure how they will go about it, but expect the media to be quick to condemn and instill fear to those wanting to buy or sell crypto.

A thing about ETH:

• All it took is one application to slow the entire network down 500% or more. I'm not going to lie..I hated cats before, this really doesn't help get them on my good side. Imagine 5, 10, 20 , or even 100 applications like cryptokitties trying to run on the ethereum network..I'd dare say the transaction times would be almost worst than bitcoin.

A thing about LTC:

• Seems to be surviving quite well from what i've seen. I like the stability, transaction fees aren't bad, and speed isn't either. Good work being done there. I really feel like BTC is a savings account, and LTC the checking where you spend from. Match made in heaven.

Few things to remember:

• Vet your sources for information carefully.
• Don't use just one single source.
• Ask questions.
• Be skeptical.
• Trust your instincts.
• Don't panic.
• Gradually take profits.
• Don't over invest.
• Diversify portfolio.
• Contribute to community.
• Help newcomers.
• And as always....steem on :p