Here are the few chosen alternative cryptocurrencies as suggested by many analysts to look out for in 2018 besides Bitcoin ,Ethereum and Litecoin. All cryptocurrencies are subject to high volatility and risk and just like any investment strategy, it's a good idea to do your homework before putting your money into something.
Monero (XMR)
Monero is up over 250% since reaching its most recent low in early November.On the technical side, Monero Research Lab is working on a scaling solution called Bulletproofs. When implemented, Bulletproofs will reduce the transaction size by 80%. And transaction fees will fall by a similar amount.
Steem Power (STEEM)
Steem CEO Ned Scott’s vision for smart media tokens, new plugins for developers, and Sandbox, an incubator program for Steemit content creators. And during this time, you could have picked up Steem Power for less than a $1. It’s now trading for $3.
I see more gains ahead for Steem Power. The number of accounts on the Steem platform is close to 500,000. This time last year, it was around 120,000. Scott recently released the Smart Media Tokens whitepaper. Its significance is that publishers will have a new way to monetize their content and build communities, all using Steem’s blockchain technology.
Lykke (LKK)
Lykke announced that its Lykke Wallet mobile application now supports ERC20 tokens. ERC20 is the set of rules for tokens on the Ethereum ecosystem. For now, you can use your wallet for the storage of ERC20 tokens. In the future, Lykke will enable direct trading. Lykke is still working on regulatory approval in the U.S. We’ll continue to keep you posted.
Peerplays (PPY)
Peerplays continues to progress on its sports betting app, Bookie. Beta testing starts in January. In addition, Peerplays is working on a Bookie website.Speaking of websites, Peerplays launched its revamped website in November. Everything you need to know about Peerplays can be found on the website now.
The biggest news is that Peerplays had its first ever profit share payout. The profits were generated from HelmBet RPS, its rock, paper, scissors betting game.
Remember, Peerplays takes a cut of each bet, called the rake. Peerplays collected 0.76 PPY from rakes and distributed it to its shareholders in proportion to their holdings. As more apps are added to the Peerplays ecosystem, the rake it generates will increase.
Neo (NEO)
Over the late summer, NEO fell all the way to $15 on fears of a China crackdown. Just recently, NEO was as high as $80.Hold on tight because we see more upside ahead.In early December, NEO announced a partnership with Stellar, Elastos, and Ontology to build the foundation for a smart economy. Ontology is an ICO from Onchain, NEO CEO Da Hongfei’s private company.
In the partnership, NEO will be the public blockchain, while Ontology will be the private blockchain. Elastos will be the protocol layer that connects the two. And Stellar will be the payment platform.
This is significant since Elastos chose NEO over Ethereum. And it’s a step forward in achieving NEO’s vision of a smart economy.
Gas (GAS)
Gas is used to run the NEO network. See NEO above for updates on the network.
Factom
Factom spent the last six months consolidating and trending sideways. But it has finally broken out. There have been several opportunities to pick up FCT at low prices.
Factom just expanded its team and hired Jay Smith as its chief marketing officer. Jay has 25 years of experience with previous stints at Virtusa, Wipro, and CGI. Expect to see more of Factom in the news cycle.
There’s also an unconfirmed rumor that Factom will receive another grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Recall from our original issue that Factom had previously received nearly $500,000 from the foundation to secure medical records on the blockchain.
Storj (STORJ)
This month, Storj partnered with Supercomputer Organized by Network Mining (SONM). SONM is a distributed fog-computing service. In the partnership, Storj will provide storage for organizations using the SONM blockchain.
Storj is also advancing its integration with FileZilla, a file transfer protocol. The integration is now in beta testing. And when the integration goes live, Storj will be available to FileZilla’s 15 million monthly users.
Finally, STORJ just announced it would be locking up 245 million coins for the next six months. It’s doing this because it has the cash it needs for the time being. Locking up the coins demonstrates the project is here for the long-term. And it also provides transparency for investors.
Ethereum Classic (ETC)
On December 11, Ethereum Classic successfully implemented the new policy. It immediately reduced the block reward size by 20%. Going forward, the block reward will be reduced by 20% every 5,000,000 blocks.
The ETC price rallied in anticipation of the successful implementation of the policy. Congrats to those who held. We’re now up over 150% in ETC.
Ripple (XRP)
The concern with Ripple was with it’s token distribution. Sixty percent of the 100 billion XRP tokens were distributed to the Ripple foundation. Ripple addressed the issue by agreeing to lock up its XRP tokens.
On December 7, Ripple completed the lockup, securing 55 billion XRP in a cryptographically-secured escrow account. The way it works is that 1 billion XRP will be released each month for 55 months. Unused XRP will be put back into a secure contract and moved to the back of the line.
The lockup means we don’t have to worry about excessive dilution of the XRP currency. Further, as XRP becomes available, the foundation will use it to provide incentives for the Ripple ecosystem.
Dash (DASH)
Dash recently announced it was partnering with Uphold to integrate into Uphold’s platform. Uphold enables users to buy, sell, and send digital currencies using the web or mobile phone. Per Uphold, the integration will allow 94% of the world’s population to use Dash.
In other news, the Dash treasury approved a $550,000 program called KuvaCash. The project seeks to bring Dash to Zimbabwe to help address the country’s currency crisis and growing demand for digital currencies. The partnership is set to commence in the second quarter of 2018.
Dash is up over 100% since November.
OmiseGo (OMG)
OmiseGo is working on two milestones in its roadmap, called Fuseki and Sente. With these milestones, OmiseGo will release its white-label wallet and software developer kit.
White-label is important, as it means other companies will be able to incorporate OmiseGo and make it look like their own. In the background, however, it will be running on the OmiseGo network.
And the software developer kit is critical because it allows programmers to develop applications with the OmiseGo wallet and network. CEO Jun Hasegawa says the software developer kit will aid in global customer loyalty programs.
OmiseGo up over nearly 200% since November
Iconomi (ICN)
In October, Iconomi added the first 14 crypto fund managers to its platform. Collectively, the platform now has $150 million in assets under management and 38,265 users from 161 countries use the platform.
Iconomi recently added three new managers to the platform and will continue to add more in the future. Further, Iconomi keeps expanding the list of digital assets in which managers can invest. Over the last month, they added 10 new digital assets, including ICN.
NEM (XEM)
On December 9, rumors surfaced that NEM will be launching a mobile wallet on WeChat. WeChat is the popular Chinese social media app with over 1 billion monthly active users. This caused the price of NEM to explode almost 400% higher. Today, NEM is sitting close to $1.
Lisk (LSK)
Lisk is working diligently toward its relaunch in February 2018. Expect a brand-new identity, improved Lisk platform, and revamped website.
Last month, Lisk also released an updated block explorer, an updated wallet, and added six new hires. Plus, it got listed on Binance.
We’re now up over 500% on Lisk. Keep holding; we expect more positive price movement with the upcoming relaunch.
Waves (WAVES)
Waves is in the midst of major upgrades. On December 7, it launched Waves-NG, a new consensus algorithm. With the new algorithm activated on December 15, the platform is capable of supporting 100 transactions per second. Per Waves, this makes it the fastest decentralized blockchain system in the world.
The other major upgrade was the release of Waves Client 1.0 on December 13. The new client is a complete overhaul of the user interface. The redesign makes using Waves comparable to the best online banking applications. And according to Waves, interacting with its decentralized exchange is now like using any of the top-tier crypto exchanges.
Basic Attention Token (BAT)
The Basic Attention Token project completed the first phase of BAT Mercury, step one of its three-step roadmap. This phase added the Brave Payments system and integrated the BAT wallet. Users can now easily add BAT to their wallets and can purchase BAT in both cryptocurrencies and local currency.
After consolidating over the second and third quarters, BAT is on the move again. It’s up 60% since the beginning of November.
Syscoin (SYS)
In November, it upgraded to version 1.1 of Blockmarket. The new iteration added Syscoin identities, masternodes, and minor usability improvements.
Each Syscoin masternode will require 100,000 Syscoins as collateral. Masternodes will get 75% of the block reward, with miners getting the remaining 25%. Masternodes are valuable, as it takes supply off the market.
All the activity is leading up to the release of Blockmarket Web and the Syscoin main net. That is targeted to happen by the end of the first quarter in 2018.
Zcoin (XZC)
Zcoin is another great example of a coin that consolidated before taking off. Any time prior to mid-November, you could have picked up XZC at $15 or lower, well below our buy-up-to price. Now, it’s over $60, a 300% gain.
What happened? First, Zcoin got listed on Binance in late November. And second, Zcoin implemented Znodes on December 13. It’s similar to Syscoin’s masternodes.
Znodes will enable the entire system to process more transactions, improving scalability. And miners no longer have to verify transactions, improving efficiency.
MaidSafeCoin (MAID)
MaidSafe is building a new decentralized internet and providing safe data communications. They call it the SAFE network. This is another example of a coin that spent time consolidating. Since early November, however, it’s up over 60%.
Golem Network (GNT)
GNT is a coin you can still buy now. While it has moved up recently, it’s still under our buy-up-to price.
The team continues to work on Brass Golem. Brass is the first iteration of Golem and will be used for CGI rendering. A release is planned for 2018, but there’s no exact date. To get ready, Golem recently hired Chris Waclawek as its head of business, strategy, and partnerships. Chris will be working with stakeholders of the Golem ecosystem, such as developers and power providers, to accelerate the network effects of the platform. Expect some big news from Golem in 2018.
Aragon Network (ANT)
The Aragon Network is a platform for running DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organizations. One of its most prominent features is digital jurisdiction, which is a decentralized court system. This is important, as it provides a means for establishing governance mechanisms for DAOs.
This month, Aragon partnered with Placeholder Capital to establish a grants program. Called Aragon Nest, the grants will be used for developing solutions around both Aragon and Ethereum. (Aragon runs on Ethereum.)
SALT Lending (SALT)
The SALT platform is the first of its kind, giving blockchain asset holders access to liquidity without having to sell their cryptocurrencies and creating a taxable event.
SALT is launching its platform at the end of December. Use any price weakness to establish your position.
EOS.IO (EOS)
EOS is a great example of the volatility we deal with in cryptocurrencies. The coin launched in July and, at one point, traded over $4. Then it spent months selling off, reaching a low of $0.50, a decline of nearly 90%.
In early December, EOS.IO released Dawn 2.0, the next step before the launch of the platform in summer 2018.
Binance (BNB)
Binance is up over 200% ,since November 29.Binance will continue to gain value. When it launched in July, it was doing around $75 million in daily volume. In November it had grown to $700 million. And as I post this, it’s doing $2.3 billion. It’s now one of the top five crypto exchanges in the world.
Disclaimer :
The above information is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice. Please do your own research before making any investment decisions. Cryptocurrency investments are volatile and high risk in nature. Don’t invest more than what you can afford to lose.