Continued from Part 1: I made 60K USD in 1 year with cryptocurrency (BTC, XMR, ETH)
After starting by spending $5.5K (USD) 12 months ago on cryptocurrency and making $60K (USD) in gains, I've decided to re-invest in alt coins to go for greater growth. Here is a current summary (May 17) of my Crypto holdings all in alt coins after spending the last three weeks researching and buying as appropriate:
| Coin | Amount | Value (May 17) |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | 0 | $0 |
| Ethereum (ETH) | 300 | $28500 |
| Monero(XMR) | 1000 | $28000 |
| DECRED (DCR) | 133 | $2500 |
| NEM | 1800 | $3000 |
| WAVES | 1500 | $2055 |
| Golem (GNT) | 2000 | $435 |
| ICONOMI (ICN) | 2000 | $1600 |
| MelonToken (MLN) | 50 | $1800 |
| Augur(REP) | 20 | $300 |
| STEEM | 2 ETH | $180 |
| Total Value (May 17) | $68,370 (USD) |
Keep in mind, these purchases were made over the last three weeks, so I can't really remember the exact price I bought them for. The prices and figures are rounded off to even numbers for ease of reading and privacy.
Bitcoin
I've decided to drop my holdings in BTC... Big call I know! As stated earlier I'm going for stellar growth. I know that it's the most stable, original and biggest coin but I just can't see myself getting rich from holding the 1 BTC I had. I'm also concerned about the scaleability issues, the energy costs involved with Proof of Work mining.
Ethereum
Ether is my old faithful. I can't believe the luck I've had with ETH, after buying DAO tokens and somehow getting all my ETH back.... The team behind Ethereum and the dapps being made on this platform indicate to me that this is the future of Crypto. I almost sort of believe that it might take over Bitcoin one day even as a store of value. With that in mind, I'm extremely hesitant to spend my Ether, especially with the recent stellar growth it's had. I do like however, that I can spend a few ETH in return for a large number of ECR20 tokens that are all stored on the same wallet.
Monero
I believe that Monero is greatly under-valued and is poised to grow in the coming years. It has a great team, unique features and privacy features that stand it apart from the other alt coins. Perhaps its greatest asset is its adoption by Alpha Bay and other Dark net markets for now. It's fungible due to its privacy and design, and easy to transact (especially with the new GUI). If I had a spare $10K lying around, and I wasn't limiting myself to speculation money, then this is the coin that I would buy into right now confidently. In my opinion, you could buy this coin and hold it for a few years and continue to do well.
DECRED
I stumbled upon DECRED recently and was fascinated by the governance model built into this coin. The coin is made up of a combination of both Proof of Work and Proof of Stake, which allows people like me with no mining hardware to earn a sort of "interest" on their coins. The only problem is, you need to be online to buy a "ticket" with your coin (which locks your coins up for a few months) which has a chance of winning more DECRED. Even though I have joined a pool miner, I don't like that I have to keep logging into my account to buy these "tickets". As a buy and hold investor, I'd rather just leave it and forget about it... I'm considering doing that anyway due to the cost of the "tickets" being too expensive these days.
NEM
NEM also uses a Proof of Stake governance model in its coin and is big in Japan (apparently). With NEM, I'm able to delegate my "harvesting" to the pool which means I don't need to login or check my account balance. I like this feature as it acts like a compounding interest account. The NEM "harvesting" requires 10000 coins to be "Vested" (there is a formula, but you just need to wait for the coins to become important enough) before it can work. NEM also works of Proof of Importance, where users who actively use the coin are rewarded over others.
WAVES
Waves is a little confusing to be honest, but people were talking about it so I bought some. I think there is an exchange feature built into it and also a feature that allows you to launch your own coins... Happy with the amount I bought and will continue to monitor as I hold them.
Golem
Golem project is a fascinating project to provide a low cost super computer. I bought into this as it is a working product at the moment with future planned updates. Each milestone should see the value of the Golem Token (GNT) increase. Increased usage and exposure of the platform over time should also help with the value of GNT.
ICONOMI
From what I can understand, ICONOMI (ICN) is an index funds tracker (slash managed funds) that invests everyone's money for them in upcoming Cryptocurrency Initian Coin Offerings and existing platforms. With my interest in investing, I liked the idea of owning an index fund where I gained exposure to all asset classes.
Melon Port
Melon Port (MLN) is a decentralised version of ICONOMI from what I can understand. It is also run by Mona el Isa, a former vice president with Goldman Sachs who brings a legitimacy to the project. It was an expensive buy at $35 per token, but I am pretty sure it launched at $30 a token so I'm ok with that. I also like that it is decentralised as opposed to ICN.
Augur (REP)
Augur is a cool decentralised "prediction market" platform built on Ethereum. It's essentially gambling for everyone, which cannot be shut down or regulated (except by the market). Given the money in gambling at the moment, I'm excited for this platform when it launches and becomes more polished. The easier it becomes to use over time combined with the fact that more people are beginning to adopt blockchain technology, I believe that this project will do exceptionally well.
STEEM
So I stumbled upon Steemit recently... I read all over the internet that this was a pyramid scheme, and was tempted to stay away from it completely. The more I interacted with it however, and the more I learn about it I am starting to see that this platform could become something huge. This is essentially Reddit with a more active user base, which will attract quality posters from those sites with financial reward. Over time, this platform could become THE actual front page of the internet, but Reddit users are an extremely stubborn bunch sometimes...
I've only transferred 2 ETH into my account at the moment to figure out what STEEM power and SBD do... But I may transfer some more in the as I learn may way around here.
Conclusion
I'm pretty happy with my spread of alt coins at the moment. I'll sit on these for years, waiting for the capital growth to take me forward. As ICO's launch, I'll research and may continue to spend ETH or Moneroj to re-invest and continue to diversify the porfolio. Please post below if you believe I'm not buying into another alt coin, I'm always keen to learn and speculate.
As always, I'll continue to post here on Steemit, so stay tuned for updates!