With all the ICO flipping and short term speculation going on in the crypto space - I thought it might be time to gear down a notch and take a look at some potential winners based on merit rather than hype.
After all, 'long term' in the crypto community is not really a long time by common definition - I would say that by mid/end next year we will see which projects deliver on their roadmaps and take market share. These are the ones we want to identify and get in before price takes off too far - the rest will fail more or less, just like in any emerging market. The below list is by no means exhaustive (e.g. BTC should have a place in everyones portfolio) and is only a selection based what I personally find especially interesting projects that are likely to emerge as the big ones.
So here goes, a short listing of some of which I believe will come out on top next year, and a short motivation why. I am investing in some of these project, but not all (I wish I was). All comments, amendments and discussions are very welcome.
Ethereum - ETH is already a winner with its current adaptation so an easy pick, but there is all reasons to believe that it will go much further as the ongoing transaction efficiency improvements, EVM work and POS takes effect. I have been holding ETH since it was under 10 USD and will never let go of it unless I have to. ETH will likely be a nice dividend payer for anyone staking them in the upcoming POS.
NEO - most likely will be selected as Chinas choice of blockchain infrastructure (or China's Ethereum if you want), when the ICO regulation fog clears. Anyone familiar with Chinese mindset know that they don't import their technology solutions - they make their own. The NEO team is well connected with the Chinese government and has implemented domestic blockchains before - there have been several strong indications of that NEO is China's choice. NEO has nice POS model with GAS dividends, although this will decrease with time (only a limited amount of GAS will ever be produced). Price level will likely be on par with Ethereum - remember folks, they only need to buy one each.
0x - a transaction protocol of smart contract implementations running on the ETH chain. In a nutshell it brings more efficiency to the transaction infrastructure. 0x is currently mostly used to build crypto exchanges (as these are the low hanging fruits) - but will be widely adopted for trading of e.g. equity and securities going forward. The 'relayers' serving the 0x network with liquidity will be utilizing the 0x token and charging for transactions. The impact on the Ethereum echosystem will be massive - and even if the token by itself doesn't pay dividend, the price appreciation will be huge. Massively under valued currently, mainly due to its abstract nature and focus on tech development rather than marketing - but likely to take off early next year, once Ethfinex by Bitfinex and other projects go live on 0x.
OmiseGo - closely tied to the Ethereum and Kyber projects through Vitalik Buterin's participation. Financial transaction network that will highly profit on the mother company's (Omise) current partnerships with major stake holders in this this space. There are already more than 50.000 merchants using Omise solutions - these will be the obvious first target group for OmiseGo. Once cash in/cash out solutions are added, no one will need a bank account anymore to transfer between crypto currency and fiat. A huge step, especially in SEA, where more than 70% of the population is un-banked, but where smart phone adaptation is growing rapidly.
OMG caused excessive hype over the first months after the ICO which has faded quite a bit since then - but the impression from their Slack channel and social media is that the team is working hard on delivering on the roadmap, rather than spending large resources on marketing at this point. OMG will soon announce their POS model for earning dividends from staking tokens in own validation nodes or shared pools.
Kyber.network - a decentralized trust less token exchange with high liquidity that will eventually be able to process cross chain transactions. Order book and settlements will be done on the blockchain and is therefore highly dependent on the efficiency improvements of the ETH project. By reading the OMG white paper, it is obvious that Kyber is the DEX envisioned in this echosystem and thus forms the third component in the vision set out by Vitalik Buterin for his payment/exchange echosystem.
Roadmap is currently outlining three milestones. The first one is early 2018, with operational exchange for ETH to ETC20 token pairs. The second is mid-2018 with direct exchange between arbitrary ETC20 pairs. The third one is cross chain exchange, e.g. NEO to OMG planned early 2019.
Kyber solves some current problems such as liquidity, speed and trustless exchange between arbitrary tokens. POS will be implemented by participating in community 'reserve pools' (or running own reserve manager nodes for market makers).
If you decide to invest in any of the above projects - don't take my word for it, do your own research and grow a strong conviction of which ones you see as winners. Study the white papers until you understand them, speak to the teams if possible (Slack is usually good for that) and then make up your mind. This will bring you through the tribulations of holding on to coins that are under pressure price wise - until they come out on top.
2018 will be beautiful for the crypto community - and the time when crypto starts gaining traction in a larger population, as people will start seeing it in their daily life. This is when the really big rewards will start coming.