None of this is financial advice. Do your own research and never invest money you cannot afford to lose.
I was having a conversation earlier today with someone who asked me what my favorite projects were outside of Steem. I tend to focus my writing on Steem since it is at the top of my list.
When looking at the top 50 projects, here is what I see (in no particular order).
Bitcoin (BTC)
This is one that cannot be overlooked.
Personally, I do not buy that it will be the "Internet money" or that we will have a single currency. This is something that never occurred in the history of the world and I do not see it starting now.
That said, Bitcoin has a huge lead in terms of name recognition. In the cryptocurrency world, it is akin to Coke (soda) and Kleenex (tissue), where a particular brand became the name for the entire sector. Few will say cryptocurrency but they know the word "Bitcoin".
I do see BTC having a market cap close to gold. It makes sense that, at least for the next decade, it will chip into that area. Whether you want to call it store of value or whatever, I think it is something that many people will end up holding as a hedge in addition to the speculators.
The finite amount of BTC works to its advantage.
Litecoin
I was always a Charlie Lee fan. The fact that he turned marketer instead of developer set this back. Originally trying to be the silver to Bitcoin as gold might be passe though. There are a number of other ways to transmit value that work as well as Litecoin.
All is not lost with this token though. Lee stated he is going back to programming which bodes well for LTC. The interesting characteristics are the "vault" that he mentioned and implementing privacy on the chain.
Outside of this, Litecoin might be cooked in the long run.
Ethereum
I would say this has a chance with the decision to switch from POW to POS. The slow transaction time is killing this blockchain.
This one is a magnet for developers which will serve it well. They have enough people creating applications that some will end up being used (at some point). Right now there is a lot of development but little usage. That might change with the switch to POS.
They do have a chance to be the "world's computer". The per transaction cost could hold it back some yet that is something that can be addressed.
EOS
This is one that appears targeting Ethereum and could really make waves.
To start, this is a great project simply because of the technology. There is nothing faster on the planet. The cost of RAM can be a hindrance since it can drive up costs for developers. This means that you might see only "the big boys" developing on EOS. That is fine since there are a lot of companies out there with big bucks.
Of course, in the blockchain world, none is any bigger than Block One and the $4 billion they raised. This one has a good shot simply because of all the money there is.
Cordano
Some of you might have notice me mention this a few times.
I do not own any of this but it is an interesting project. This could become the "web browser" of the blockchain world.
This team is designing three different languages with the intention of bringing together many different blockchains, thus providing interoperability.
At this point, it is all speculative since they are creating everything. If they do pull it off, it could cause a radical shift in the industry.
Tron
This one is another chain that has a chance because of its ties to money.
As long as Justin Sun doesn't get himself in trouble with the Chinese government, we could see a nice future for Tron. There are centralization problems to work out but that is not uncommon, especially in the early stages.
Thus far, the application development is lagging a few of the other chains and I think there is a lot of hype surrounding this. That said, it has potential since it does attract developers.
To disclose, I do own some BTC, LTC, and ETH from this list.
The top 50 is littered with many different types of tokens.
There are the stablecoins which are "whatever" in my book. I think they will be edged out at some point as volatility levels out as the entire industry grows. We also see tokens tied to exchanges which could explode, or implode, depending upon what happens with other DEX that form on chains.
I do not like the Bitcoin forks since I do not think they do much to solve the problem that initially existed (scaling). In my opinion, they were little more than money grabs leading a situation providing little progress technologically.
I think others are seeing that since there appears to be a pullback in development on those chains also.
Many will take exception to this but I am not one that is real impressed with a lot of what is ranked in the Top 50. Many are built on Ethereum meaning they are hampered by what takes place on there. The switch could help a lot of those projects yet there is a great deal of uncertainty with it.
A chain like Stellar is hard to bet against since it is being promoted by IBM on some of its enterprise applications. This is a powerhouse adding to the network, so I can't go against that. Once again you get centralization questions but it appears to have activity that will pan out for it.
Obviously, I didn't cover everything on the list. I just wanted to highlight some of the major projects that get mentioned a lot which I think have potential. Those who follow me know I am an advocate for development being a major barometer. Thus, it is no mistake that most of what I mentioned has a significant amount of development taking place (Litecoin aside).
Once again, this is not financial advice; just my thinking in response to a question I was asked.
One final point: I am focusing upon the projects and not the token pricing as much. Markets are their own animal and there could be hundreds of tokens going on a run if the Alt-Coin Winter" ends.
Pricing action is its own animal.
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