There has been much frenzy regarding cryptocurrencies in the last few months, and it shows no signs of slowing. A high number of people are looking to invest in these currencies, either for the long term or making some short-term gains.
Whatever way you look at it some positives can be made as long as you do your homework and realize any investment is a risk. The question though is which currency or currencies to become involved with?
With so many coins available trying to find a winner can be a bit of a task, yet if you follow the steps below it can help you to decide.
How to Pick a Winner
Research the team behind the coin – are they new to the game or are have they been involved with crypto is in the past? Any Crypto that has done well will have a proven team behind it and has a significant market capital.
Look at the why – some cryptos are being developed for specific uses, do they solve a problem or are they aiming to give a solution to something that doesn’t need addressing?
Assess their valuation – many coins are used to make gains. They are bought and sold fast, and many coins are priced too high.
With this in mind here are the top 5 Cryptocurrencies that are worth watching in 2018.
Bitcoin
Although the price has gone through the roof, Bitcoin is still number the number 1 choice to follow. The price did crash recently yet this makes it all the better time to buy. There is still plenty of life left in Bitcoin as it has not yet reached the full market capital it is capable of.
Although many of the other altcoins are going to encroach onto Bitcoins, lead it will be a while before any of them can pass the current leader. There are still plenty of coins to come into circulation, so there is always plenty of scope for the next few years.
The one advantage BTC has against its rivals is you purchase many altcoins using BTC, so the more altcoins that are obtained, the more demand for BTC.
NEO
This has the potential to explode onto the market. At present China has taken a stance against Bitcoin yet NEO was developed by Chinese and has been named “The Ethereum of China.” If China as a country embraces cryptocurrencies and relaxes its stance the market potential is vast.
It is at present way behind Ethereum, yet it has the potential to be up there in the coming year. The number of coins in circulation is around 65 million out of 100 million that will be released.
This has roughly the same amount of coins to be mined as the market leader so over 2018 and beyond the chance for it to grow quite substantial.
Cardano (ADA)
This is one of the newer crypto is on the market and was developed in Hong Kong and is touted to be a real competitor toward Ethereum. Although it was only introduced a few months ago, it has made a significant splash already and broke into the top 10 by market capital by November time.
Ada which is the currency behind Cardano is still in its infancy stage, and the developers are looking to introduce it into the mainstream in the later part of 2018. This could make it ideal for a longer term investment as its actual impact has not yet been made.
LiteCoin
If Bitcoin is classed as cryptocurrency gold, this is termed the cryptocurrency silver and was created by a former Google employee. His vision was to use this as a day to day currency everyone can use to purchase things quickly without waiting for transactions to be confirmed to the extent he or she is with bitcoin.
The initial mining process of bitcoin is where the delay is, and it was this that was tweaked to give a much quicker response and allow everyone to be able to take advantage of it.
As of yet, the real value of Litecoin has not been realized as it is all based on user adoption. When it is adopted more and the flaws it has fixed compared to Bitcoin, its value can be fully seen.
SkyCoin
This is the outsider of the bunch and was created to fix the flaws that are in Bitcoin. Billed as a third generation, it had yet to make an impact on the market and was developed at roughly the same time as Litecoin. The full vision is to be the real successor to Bitcoin and return the cryptocurrency to the original concept of its founder.
The real vision if Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies were to be decentralized and was the property of everyone. Bitcoin has become a failure of its success and has lost much of its decentralization due to pool mining. With Skycoin there is no mining, so this scenario will not be reached yet users can earn coins in return for powering the network. The next cryptocurrency to invest in could well be Skycoin.
The aim here is to compete with credit cards and other instant online payment systems, so the potential is huge. When it hits the mainstream, the possibility for human greed (pool mining) is eliminated, and the true vision of what a cryptocurrency is intended for can be realized.
Out of the bunch, this is one to give your focus as it has been developed differently to other coins yet it has met all the expectations of industry experts and users.
The above cryptocurrency list is a handful out of the hundreds that are available yet these show signs of being the most promising of giving high returns. As the year goes on all of these will make their way to the top of the charts with the market cap increasing.
Once they gain exposure that is the time they will grab the attention of all the investors who are looking for the next big coin to follow.
Much of the leader’s value has come from popularity rather than a value of what they offer. Keep your eyes on all of these but make sure you make your jump before it is too late.
