Whether we like it or not? We are on an accelerated trajectory towards a more decentralized world. Blockchain technology and Distributed Ledger Protocols (DLPs) will be adopted by a vast majority of businesses, people, and eventually, many governments and legacy systems. Blockchain technology will challenge traditional protocols like TCP/IP as the technology has created a fundamentally new way to gain consensus which is the main characteristic of trust amongst nodes. A distributed ledger is a database that is maintained and updated by a large network of independently operating Nodes (or computers). Each node in the network always has the updated ledger available to them, and no node has the authority to alter the ledger after it has been written.
Bitcoin: The “Granddaddy” of them all. I am not saying that Bitcoin will always be the #1 coin, but hard to see any other coin disrupting it before 2020 (at time of this article, Bitcoin dominance close to 45%). The key drivers of Bitcoin’s value are the massive amounts of international money that makeup Bitcoins $125 Billion Dollar Market Cap, its position as the global crypto reserve currency and the threat of a looming global financial crisis increased global adoption driven by the lightning network. BTC Value at time of writing this article: $6,100
NEO: Neo is sometimes referred to as the "Chinese Ethereum" (largely because of it's popularity in Asian markets, it is a completely revolutionary technology (even by Blockchain standards). NEO is a next generation smart economy platform (formerly known as, Antshares), NEO comes from the Greek work meaning new and young. One thing that sets NEO apart is its algorithm for Mining, NEO uses a Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (DBFT) algorithm, instead of traditional proof of work or proof of stake. They also introduce the concept of NeoX, enabling the ability to execute and operate across various Blockchains. Developers also like that the Neo platform doesn't restrict you to one programming language like Ethereum does with Solidity. The platform will continue to grow in value for years to come making it an obvious crypto-investment trend this year. NEO Value at time of writing this article: $14.83
EOS: with its main net launch under its belt and an updated Constitution seems poised to assume the Top Spot as the #1 operating system for enterprise-level applications. EOS is a blockchain technology, most similar to that of Ethereum. EOS was created by Crypto Icon Dan Larrimer, who assumes the role of CTO for the company. Larimer is also the creator of Steem and BitShares. In addition to its Constitution, another feature that separates EOS from others (like the slower Ethereum network) is Parallel Processing. Parallel Processing is the ability to do things in parallel, which leads to faster transaction speeds and more scalability (a major hurdle for the Ethereum network). EOS wants to be the platform you use to create dApps (decentralized applications are the biggest growth market within the crypto space), and Larimer is a dApp creator himself. He has been quoted to say that he is creating EOS not only for community use but, also to have a great platform for himself to create new dApps. EOS Value at time of writing this article: $4.37
Stellar - XLM: Stellar is a platform that connects multiple banks, payments systems, and people. It uses a completely decentralized consensus platform and is designed to support any type of currency. In this space, Stellar (XLM), competes with the Ripple (XRP) network. Some advantages of Stellar XLM are very fast transactions (generally 3-5 second), the platform is built to support thousands of transactions per second, can be used to send or trade any currency, asset, or token (allows for ease of use to have all assets in one platform). XLM Value at time of writing this article: $0.21