In this article, we're going to look at five cryptocurrencies that we believe are going to be big in 2018.
These cryptos all have strong teams, ambitious and exciting roadmaps, and the potential to disrupt industries and/or make positive change in the world.
No. 5 – LALA World
- Current market cap: n/a
- Current price per token: n/a
In at number five is one you likely haven't heard of – LALA World. It hasn't hit the exchanges yet as it's just recently completed its ICO, but it won't be long before we see it on Coin Market Cap.
LALA World seeks to solve major issues that all migrants and their unbanked families face, such as employment issues, health issues, banking issues, payment issues and money transfer issues to name but a few.
In their own words, LALA World is creating, “a whole new peer-to-peer ecosystem... to revolutionize the way individuals, small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs transact, make payments, borrow money and associated products like insurances, domestic and Cross-Border remittances, cards and other general banking products.”
This is one of those projects that we love because it's an admirable thing that LALA World is seeking to do, and it highlights just how much positive change the blockchain and cryptocurrencies can bring to the world.
Led by Sankalp Shangari, advised by Ari Paul and partnered with Ethos and Stellar, this is a cryptocurrency to keep an eye out for.
Click here for more details on LALA World
No. 4 – OmiseGO
- Current market cap: $1,278,215,616
- Current price per token: $12.53
OmiseGO is a public Ethereum-based financial technology for use in mainstream digital wallets. The wallet tech is designed to work with both fiat and cryptocurrencies.
In simple terms, OmiseGO is an SDK (software development kit), that will allow you to build a wallet built on the OmiseGO blockchain
So, in the same way that Ethereum is a platform that businesses can build blockchain products and services on, OmiseGO will be a platform that businesses can build their own wallets on, for a variety of uses.
The wallets can be built for payments (international remittance, bill payment, P2P transfers), loyalty and rewards (managing 'points', converting points to cash, gamification, referrals) and financial services (B2B payments, supply-chain, loans, and deposits).
You'll be able to create your own style of wallet, and embed custom apps, making your wallet unique to your business. And all wallets built on the OmiseGO tech will be able to speak to each other, so compatibility across the network of wallets won't be an issue – amazing.
There are a lot of technical people who believe the platform OmiseGO is building is one of the most robust platforms in the blockchain space. It's also backed by a proven and successful company in Omise – something most blockchain projects don't have.
In addition to the great tech, OmiseGO has a very strong team behind it, and are also being advised by none other than Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, who has, on several occasions declared OmiseGO to be one of his favourite blockchain projects. High praise indeed.
Keep your eye on this potential crypto giant.
Click here to read our more in-depth article on OmiseGO.
No. 3 – NEO
- Current market cap: $7,355,725,000
- Current price per token: $113.17
NEO is perhaps the biggest challenger to Ethereum in the crypto world today.
In their own words, NEO is, “a non-profit community-based blockchain project that utilises blockchain technology and digital identity to digitise assets, to automate the management of digital assets using smart contracts, and to realize a "smart economy" with a distributed network.”
A lot of people are calling it the "Chinese Ethereum" because blockchain projects and cryptocurrencies can be built on the NEO platform, and it was developed in China (in 2014). Like Ethereum, NEO is far more than just a digital currency.
The fact that NEO has been around for such a long time (four years is a lifetime in cryptocurrency), means it certainly feels a much more stable project than many others at this point, even if it is very young compared to Bitcoin.
As we start to see more and more projects built using the NEO platform (and that's beginning to happen now), we'll see if it can really challenge Ethereum to be the top dog in that space and, with the Chinese market behind it, there's a strong case for it to do just that.
If the Chinese government relaxes its view on ICOs and cryptocurrencies in general, we expect NEO to take off in popularity.
Read more about NEO here.
No. 2 – UTRUST
- Current market cap: $77,848,789
- Current price per token: $0.29
UTRUST are challenging PayPal to be the future of online payments, and we think they've got a great chance of taking the crown from the company Elon Musk founded.
A major paint point with cryptocurrency is that it's not very easy to spend on goods or services. There aren't many places that accept cryptocurrency (although that's changing on a monthly basis) and even those that do only accept one or two of the big boys like Bitcoin or Litecoin.
That means a monumental percentage of cryptocurrencies are just speculative investments at the moment, with only a few having strong use cases as utility or staking tokens.
UTRUST seeks to solve this issue by creating a payment mechanism that allows the buyer to pay with any major cryptocurrency and have the seller receive payment in fiat currency. The mechanism immediately converts the cryptocurrency into fiat to protect the seller from market volatility.
UTRUST also claims to be more secure and resistant to fraud than PayPal, as well as easier and more convenient for buyers and sellers to use. UTRUST covers all purchases, including the purchase of services (something PayPal does not!), there are no chargebacks (which are a massive pain), and there is an all-inclusive customer payment protection in place that covers all payments made via UTRUST.
Add low exchange and seller fees to the mix and you've got a platform that has a great shot at taking a sizeable chunk of the market away from those using PayPal.
In addition, the UTRUST token will also be a utility token. If people use the UTRUST token to pay for goods and services on the platform, they'll pay zero exchange fees. Tokens with use cases like this have a more stable foundation upon which to grow, making the future very exciting for UTRUST.
If you'd like to find out more about UTRUST, please visit their website by clicking here.
No. 1 – Ethos
- Current market cap: $308,244,830
- Current price per token: $4.08
In at number one is Ethos, a project we're insanely excited about and one that we think will change the cryptocurrency landscape in a huge way in 2018.
Ethos is a people-powered cryptocurrency platform that will offer a combination of financial services and features, all based around a universal mobile wallet that will allow people to securely invest in and store cryptocurrencies using any fiat currency they want.
More features and a 'social community' element will be added at a later date, something Ethos hopes will differentiate it from other mobile wallet projects.
How will Ethos be so disruptive?
Well, imagine for a moment being able to store all your coins and tokens (fiat and cryptocurrency) on a mobile wallet, securely, and take them wherever you go.
Imagine being able to purchase any cryptocurrency with fiat currency through an app, completely removing the need to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum first.
Imagine being able to easily prepare tax-friendly reports, keeping your compliant with your local tax laws, and eliminating the possibility of paying penalties for incorrect information.
If all of the above happens, it'll be much, much easier for anyone to get involved in cryptocurrency. Buying, storing and using cryptocurrencies will be easy breezy, and the door will be open for mass adoption to occur.
The Universal Wallet is coming out in its first iteration sometime in Q1, with the fiat gateway coming out in Q2. We reckon by the end of 2018, nearly everyone involved in crypto at that time will be using the Ethos wallet.
