Hello from London fellow steemians!
Well, this is my first post on steemit.com - I've never been one to blog or vlog, but it's fair to say I've been really inspired by what's happening in the crypto world at the moment, and I felt it was time to join the Steemit party. What a great site and community it has become in such a short space of time!
I have been hovering around in the background on this fantastic website, enjoying the content and discussion with some amazing posters contributing some great articles.
Rather than do the traditional "Introduce Yourself" article as my debut post (I may do something along those lines at the weekend), I figured I'd get right down to it with one simple question:
Which cryptocurrencies excite you and why?
I'm really keen to hear what you all think are the ones to watch, what you like about them, their pros and cons, and what it is that drew you to them in the first place...
For me, the word 'blockchain' first came to my attention last year. I was working in a software house and a couple of the guys there were trying to get their heads around it, making some rather bold statements about it being the future. I was vaguely aware of Bitcoin, though I thought nothing of either at the time. It wasn't until April onwards that I became curious about Bitcoin, and when I saw the price rise from around the $700 mark to $1,500, I really took notice.
The researching led me to this great site, and if it wasn't for the great posts from great guys like 
Bitshares for me offers quite frankly untold opportunity and potential. When you consider that Bitcoin is processing around 6-12 transactions a second and Ethereum roughly 30 transactions a second, Bitshares for the past two years has been operating on a graphene blockchain with the scope to process 100,000 transactions a second at a fraction of the cost, with a view to it being upgraded the EOS platform next year having unlimited tps, I feel this particular crypto offers potentially explosive returns at many multiples of it's current price of £0.11. I felt like I had missed the boat with Bitcoin, having seen it's price surge the way it did, and I wanted to find something that hadn't recognised its true value yet. Not only do I feel that Bitshares is that currency, but I feel with the Hero and the potential "United Bitcoin" (BTCX), we could be about to see something spectacular. Another angle to this that I think is definitely worth mentioning is its decentralised exchange - Openledger.
Openledger is an incredibly advanced cryptocurrency trading platform. You can trade not just with other cryptocurrencies, but with assets pegged to commodities such as Oil and Gold.
One of the criticisms I've seen of Bitshares is that it's Marketing isn't where it needs to be. This has been addressed by hiring a dedicated and passionate Marketing firm Digital Launch to bring the thunder in the form of the Billion Hero Campaign. Digital Launch have worked with some huge companies and household names in the past such - Coca-Cola, Paris Hilton and Beyonce being some examples.
A problem I think we can all see with cryptocurrency is how do you take it out there to the masses that perhaps aren't as tech-savvy as some of us are, or are wary? People are not going to risk investing in something they can't understand or get their head around. On a side note, I'm surprised that even in crypto circles, Bitshares does not seem to be that well known or as on the radar as I think it should be, given how cutting edge it's technology is and I'm looking to see how that is addressed over the coming months.
Bitshares is currently the crypto that excites me the most that I feel offers the most potentially explosive value, and would strongly urge those of you who are not too familiar with what they're doing to do a little digging and see if you like what you find. Hopefully I've given you a little taster.
So - back to the original question:
Which cryptocurrencies excite you and why?
Let me know what you think and thanks for reading!
Stuart