If your concerned about the direction ETH or ETC will go after this hardfork, its wise to look at alternatives.
I feel there are very few crypto projects out there that have the technical ability and more importantly integrity to achieve their goal. Today i will touch on one that has been flying under the radar for mroe than 2 years now.
Introducing NEM
NEM launched in 2014 and as of writing has about a $61 marketcap.
Many people have been asking what is so special about NEM, so ill start off with saying that its not simply just a cryptocurrency, but a whole blockchain platform that has unlimited potential.
In fact, NEM can achieve the same results without the need for smart contracts, due to its powerful API's.
Since these are written in Java, programmers don't need to learn anything new like the case is with ETH.
For a more technical rundown in a nutshell, read this first,
http://blog.nem.io/whats-the-difference-between-xem-btc-and-eth/
I then encourage you to read the whitepaper carefully if you want to know the technical side more deeper.
http://nem.io/NEM_techRef.pdf
Secondly NEM has licensed a private version of its blockchain known as Mijin, this has already been tested at many transactions per second and allows larger corporations to handle sensitive data privately.
Both the public chain (NEM) and the private chain (Mijin) will be working hand in hand using the same set of API's, this means that its possible to switch over to either chain, but also demonstrates the power of NEM technology.
Partnerships have already been made with major corporations and a large Japanese bank has already successfully tested Mijin.
There is more news to follow, but for more info read here:
http://mijin.io/en/633.html
I honestly feel this project should not be underestimated and remember that some of the brightest minds come out of Japan. Makoto Takemiya, has not only became a major dev of the project, but he has put alot of time and effort into marketing NEM in Japan, so this guy deserves a real pat on the back for getting everyone involved this far.
I really believe in this project, but don't take my word for it, I encourage you to do your own research and you too will find its not something to be sneezed at.
This is an extremley brief overview on NEM, and there are simply too many pages to write here, I could go on and on, so I invite you to join up on the forum on forum.nem.io and ask any questions you may have, its truly a wonderful community. :)