Good question isn't it. Those that have just recently been getting into crypto currencies wish they could go back to 2013 when BTC was $200.00 or less and buy, buy, buy. So, what can we do if we do not have a crystal ball? We can use our brain. Common sense can go a long way. As of today, there are over 952 crypto currencies (coins/tokens) available to the public to participate in. Which one of these can have the potential to turn a $3000.00 investment into $1 Million Dollars? They are out there. Some are already available on the crypto exchanges right now. Some have not yet been designed and offered to the public.
So how can you pick the right crypto coin? First do research and read, read and read. You can also listen to the chatter on the internet with groups who eat, drink and sleep crypto. YouTube channels have lots of crypto geeks that have great content (examples, Cryptoverse, Cryptocurrency Market and Crypt0 (zero)). A coin needs to offer an effective use case. In otherwords, a feature that others do not have or does the best. An example would be Monero (XMR) and Pivx. These two coins offer great privacy. They are designed to give ultimate privacy to the user. Corporations may love to use this coin so that they could purchase land or materials and not let their competition know about it. Litecoin (LTC) offers the same features as Bitcoin (BTC) but is faster and cheaper in transactions. Some tokens are used to access a blockchain platform like Waves, Ethereum and Antshares. If these platforms are popular and offer needs and services that are in high demand now or will be in the future, than owning such tokens will only gain in value over time.
Do I have my favorites? Yes. I like BTC, LTC, ETH, XMR, PIVX, ETC, ZEC, Waves, ANS and several more (Dimcoin, Pillar as examples). I have researched each one of these coins extensively. I have spread my investment in a diverse manner. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. Unfortunately , the more ICO's that come out, the more scams there are. The latest trend is for fake sites to pop up claiming to be the address for a new ICO but they are fraudulent. Officials at 20 30 (or Pillar) a Swiss corporation, have just put out such a warning. Hackers are claiming to be the "official" ICO site and giving out false addresses. In this example, the ICO has not officially even started. All of us need to be extremely cautious in this FinTech industry. Keep all of your coins/tokens in a safe storage hard wallet and always verify the legitimate addresses of the coins you want to participate in. Happy investing and be safe!