There is no doubt that crypto currency and blockchain style technologies are making a name for themselves. For years Bitcoin was an underground project, only bought into by true believers. Many of these are now very rich because of this, and they deserve it. The original investors bought into a project when no one else was interested. If the world can see the value, the opportunity is gone.
The world certainly saw the opportunity of bitcoin in December 2017. At the time bitcoin went to an all-time high of nearly $20K per coin. This was a huge life changing leap for those that were holding a significant quantity. In recent years bitcoins could be bought for single dollars, and increased by 20,000 times . Word of these gains got out, and the Market crashed in splendid style. Almost 14k was wiped from the price of a bitcoin.
The question many asked was, "will it go back up 20K soon?"
Those that believed bought some and waited. The market rallied and fell in the coming months, as the world tried to discover exactly what the real value of bitcoin was.
Bitcoin is a pioneer. The first example to the world that blockchain had a real value and use. That will mean that it holds its value for quite some time. However it works more of a proof of concept, and test of the technology. The simple truth is, bitcoin does not offer the world what it needs from a digital currency.
With almost 2000 ‘Altcoins’ on the market, there is no shortage of competition for bitcoin. Within this ever growing pool of ideas and concepts, there is a huge opportunity. This is where the skill of ‘seeing the value when others don’t’ comes into play.
This is my guide to the coins that could topple bitcoin. These represent my own investments at the time of writing.
1/NEO
Bitcoin has a large number of failings. Transaction speeds, and costs are the biggest. But any true competition needs popularity too. NEO brings this in spades. Its considered the ‘Chinese ethereum’. It offers huge scalability and smart contracts that can be written in standard code, as opposed to ethereum’s proprietary ‘Solidity’ language. It also brings in a passive income, in the form of ‘gas’. This can be sold on exchanges to those wanting to use NEO. This has the chance to be the Swiss army knife of blockchains, and a great proposition.
2/Cardano
NEO is a great, but Cardano is better. The problem however is that it is still someway from actually being useful. The team involved are among the best in the business, including an ex CEO of ethereum. Because of this, it is very cheap at the moment. The coin supply is massive, so you need a large amount. But it is said that, if institutional money floods into cryptocurrency, this is likely to be a major beneficiary.
3/Vechain
This may be one of the best uses of ‘Blockchain’ technology. It is designed to track real world goods in a supply chain. This can be anything from wine and luxury handbags to electronics. The real advantage of Vechain is that it integrates its own ‘RFID’ technologies, so that objects can be authenticated. This is potentially a game changer in combating the count-fit market. It should also be noted that ‘Vechain’ has partnered with virtually everyone in order to make them the market leader in this new industry.
4/Cryptotickets
This is an exciting use for the blockchain. The events ticketing market has a huge problem. Popular events sell with touts selling tickets for huge sums on the secondary market. The artists don’t benefit from this , and it is bad for those wanting to attend. In addition counterfeiting is a serious issue. Crypto tickets uses the blockchain to combat this. This is not the only solution, nor is it the biggest. It is however a fully working company with a proven track record in using its product in the real world. In my opinion it does things better, and has some great partners and represents a real opportunity.
5/Enjin
This is another great use of blockchain technology. Each year hundreds of millions are spent on virtual objects in games. Many of these are cosmetic, and can be extremely rare. With such large investments, one thing is missing. True ownership. Enjin aims to change this by keeping record on the blockchain. Market places allow objects to be traded and sold. This could be the most compelling reason for the general public to buy into blockchain technology. While there are other companies aiming to corner this market, Enjin has some of the best partners, and easy integration into the UNITY games engine. This alone give it compatibility with lots of games.
6/STEEM
Social networks have taken over the internet. But there is growing mistrust of the big players. The centralised nature of the likes of facebook mean that a blockchain based decentralised platform has some real value. This is where steemit, is making serious inroads. Steemit encourages encourages users to write quality articles by allowing viewers to allocate STEEM tokens as rewards. Its taken off in ‘Crypto’ circles, but has mainstream appeal. STEEM also has a decentralised youtube competitor in the for of DTUBE. With many you tubers complaining of demonetisation and censorship this offers a viable and profitable alternative.
7/POWERLEDGER
The power industry has been in need of a shake up for years. The sheer number of tariffs, and varying rates mean that customers rarely get the best deal. In the future, we may be buying our electricity in advance, with the amount stored, traded and sold on the blockchain. If we had too much, we may want to sell it back to others for a profit. It could offer a way for people to buy power like any other commodity, and shop around. It could be a revolution, and power ledger is in my opinion the market leader.
8/PO.et
Copyright is a huge issue in a digital world. Digital assets can be ‘Hashed’. This uses cryptology to create digital fingerprints and stores them on the blockchain. This provides proof of creation a timestamped unchangeable ledger. Poet also aims to offer a market place for licensing of digital music/video and txt. It is highly regarded as a project and every chance of succeeding in this new market.
This represents a few projects that I personally believe will take off soon. The blockchain is new, and these projects will take time to gain traction. When they do, the opportunities will be gone. However, new projects are being announced all the time, and they may improve on these. Its for this reason that keeping on top of the news is vital.