Original post: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2691713
Hello fellow crypthusiasts,
I wanted to share my view and thoughts regarding what currencies would be most steady to invest in (in 2018 and later) and of course ask that of yours.
To clarify steady: having a project or blockchain running (successfully or not) for more than 3 years and gaining traction ever since. A lot new and interesting projects arise every single day, but that's not the exact purpose of this topic.
As we keep getting more and more projects connected or connecting to blockchain technology and/or cryptocurrencies, it can sometimes be a good idea to take a step back and try to grasp what is effectively happening at this moment. While there are not much coins in the top 100 (according to coinmarketcap) in the last few months that haven't known an All Time High (ATH) (over and over again), one might will this ever stop?
Bitcoin was trading sub 1000$ around new year 2017 and we've seen 20'000$+ at various exchanges worldwide by now.
Ethereum was trading just above 10$ around new year 2017 and we are already high above 1000$ per coin.
I could go on but even these 'current' prices will probably be outdated the moment you read this.
But let's talk about effective usage. Most of you know probably (hopefully) have heard about coinmarketcap and yes, the marketcap is one way of measuring the value of a (blockchain) network, but in my opinion the REAL value of a blockchain is measured in speed, security and well, the persons using it of course! And users don't like to be limited (and even less to spend one dime too much transferring their value around the network) and that's what is happening to Bitcoin at this very time. For those of you who remember (or just know), it is theoretically possible to send (bitcoin) transactions without a fee whatsoever! You just need a miner to mine it... Bitcoin transactions are just too expensive at this time (let's say 'time of writing' (TOW) for a more 'correct' term). You can check the recommended fee here: https://estimatefee.com/ . While I'm pretty confident in the end Bitcoin will get its pants together, I'm also pretty confident that isn't any time close.
Other currencies are taking the lead in exactly the points mentioned above, and here you can see a completely different list for the valuation of a coin: https://www.blocktivity.info/
While investigating or investing in projects, one should always keep in mind WHY blockchain technology is (and will be a lot more) revolutionairy and HOW it does this:
Where crises can happen anytime anywhere for what reason whatsoever, one recurring factor is financial instability or the lack of due diligence by the governments in how and in what amount they print their money. Venezuela, Greece, Zimbabwe, ... are just a few of the examples that point this out perfectly. If they were using a blockchain-based financial infrastructure, one could only see the advantages. (well, there are some disadvantages aswell of course, such as teaching blockchain to people, this will be another intense work point. But thanks to the recent global acquaintance, one could only think of this as the beginning!)
Democracy, should it ever work, can only work if the funds received and spend by them are as transparant as the rulers should be. A 'new' concept, 'decentralisation' was born at the hands of 'Satoshi' and in my opinion this should remain the one true goal all new projects should strive for as hard as possible. And if you read that the way it should, you should even see the benefit of regulation, making classic investors known the next hype of the same proportions as the Internet, without anyone even knowing what blockchain technology is fully capable of (now AND in the future).
So let's take a look at some of the current (top) currencies. The idea is to give you an idea about the project in a few sentences. While this will definitely limit the amount in which we appraise some of these coins or projects, it hopefully gives you enough of an idea to decide whether you find it interesting enough to investigate it further.
Bitcoin: (where else to be put Bitcoin than on top of the list...) While it may not be the most steady investment, just consider that this is THE original blockchain project, and even though they currently lack the ability to scale properly, be sure this will be fixed (in due time). Where most of the current projects that are sold out (some instantly) for a couple of million dollars, one might consider the difference in believe and general acceptance (or at least: a lot more people have heard about Bitcoin now, and more are using it than the original creator could have foreseen (?)) between new projects launched today, and Bitcoin buyers up to (let's say) 1 year ago. A lot of bitcoins are lost due to technical or human errors. This will probably be less likely to happen to the same people buying into the latest ICO... Oh, and how do you buy/trade your altcoins?
Ethereum (ETH): has (had) its issues (in the past), for those who remember the DAO hack, this lead to the separation of the original Ethereum blockchain (now Ethereum Classic) which was hard forked because of this hack. While one may argue the ethics about this decision, the community had a tough time aswell: choose between cutting off the funds of a hacker, or keeping the blockchain immutable... The core team chose the first, going its way further as Ethereum (and to the 900$ moon at TOW) and some other chose to stick to the original blockchain, which would be renamed Ethereum Classic. Ethereum should have been Proof of Stake instead of Proof of Work by now, but this 'upgrade' has been postponed for now. One disadvantage to mention is that your transaction may get stuck due to some breeding cryptokitties... But well, what's the harm in that?!
Litecoin (LTC): actually Bitcoins little brother. Brought into life by Lee Litecoin (puts some clarifying and honest tweets about the [Suspicious link removed]munity from time to time). It actually outperforms Bitcoin on a lot of aspects, and being just 2 years younger, it's one of the earlier blockchains around.
Dash (DASH): first network to implement MasterNodes. Although having had some initial launch issues, the original blockchain was started in 2014 and named XCoin (XCO), a month later they came up with Darkcoin to be rebranded in 2015 to Dash. Dash also offers the instant send and private transactions features with only +-30% of the amount of tokens Bitcoin will ever have.
Monero (XMR): a blockchain network/project that focuses on privacy by combining transactions together which make it practically impossible to know what input corresponds to what output. According to Wikipedia, Monero has a mysterious creater aswell, know only as 'thankful_for_today' on this very forum.
BitShares (BTS): made by Dan Larimer who developed Steem afterwards and is now working on EOS. Wikipedia summary: "BitShares is an open-source, public, blockchain-based real-time financial platform. It provides a built-in decentralized asset exchange, without the need to trust a central authority to handle all the funds, that can execute trading using an international network of computers." It's also the first in its kind regarding being a Decentralized Autonomous Company: meaning it provides in its own funds and can pay developers to work on 'BitShares' in any way possible (voted of course).
More to follow...
...
To conclude these 'steadier' projects, I'd also like to put out a list of coins and tokens that in my opinion also have great potential of ending positive by this years end (this list is only ranked by coinmarketcap at time of writing):
Cardano(ADA)
Stellar (XLM/LUM)
IOTA
NEO
EOS
QTUM
OmiseGO(OMG)
Ardor (ARDR)
STEEM
Stratis (STRAT)
Waves
Komodo (KMD)
Binance Coin (BNB)
SALT
DigiByte (DGB)
Basic Attention Token (BAT)
Civic (CVC)
0x (ZRX)
District Network (DNT)
VertCoin(VTC)
...
Please share your thoughts and don't hesitate to share what other thrilling projects I'm still missing!
Cheers and happy investi(gati)ng !!!