Being wealthy and well-known tends to put a person in a position of stronger influence. It has always been like this, the phenomenon just got a lot stronger as social media gained traction. Sometimes people like this have genuine authority in given topics, other times their expertise is questionable. So I'd say we should always be cautious and not just follow others blindly. In the case of Elon Musk, it is worth looking into his possible motives behind saying certain things, the power he has over people's decisions, and whether or not he is talking about a topic he is knowledgeable in. I personally take a lot of his declarations with a grain of salt.

Like others have noted, if WW III breaks out, we will have more to worry about than the existence of cryptocurrency. With the kind of weapons there are today, the population of the Earth at large could be in danger. If western culture survives, though, I would assume cryptos would survive as well.

It's just the bear market indeed, in my opinion. Not necessarily an indicator that there's something wrong with DeFi specifically. Investor sentiment all over the world is not in favour of high-risk assets nowadays.

Trading is all about the long game, as well. It's not individual wins or losses that matter when we talk about profitability; what matter is the result these wins and losses add up to over a long period of time.

For a long time, cryptocurrencies were considered quite niche. Governments are often not unaware of them, they just don't feel they have a big effect on mainstream finance. Executing regulations is also a tough question with how blockchains are built. The biggest question really is what route regulations will take in the future.

Both? If you held a gun to my head I would say Ethereum, but I think both ETH and XRP have a rightful place in a diversified crypto portfolio.

I see this is kind of a trap, it's true what the op said, using passports for KYC feels so unfair, not all of us have prior plans to travel abroad and have passports, of course not.

It's not only passports, though, is it? All KYC verifications I have gone through accept ID cards (as well as drivers' licenses)

It's an interesting article. I guess it's not surprising that some crypto companies cut the number of workers - on a company level this happens regardless of sector. Overall, though, I do believe the need for crypto experts and blockchain developers is and will be on the rise.