With all the available choices of altcoins in circulation today, choosing the right balance between risk and reward isn’t always as easy as it seems. What makes matters even more challenging is the fact that there are hundreds of projects which have already been labeled as “dead coins” by researchers who track the lifecycle of cryptocurrency beyond their initial coin offering (ICO).
Although there are many investors that are content with sticking to the top 10 altcoins regarding their investment portfolio, there are still plenty of others that are looking for the next “diamond in the rough” to bring them in the type of ROI beyond their wildest dreams.
In order to find these potentially lucrative altcoins, we have to look beyond the top 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap. It’s difficult to say if the points mentioned below will generate an ROI of 100X that would mirror the rapid rise in value like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Neo, Litecoin, but they have proven to be rock solid companies with utility technologies that far surpass your average cryptocurrency.
With that being said, the five altcoins we list below show an incredible investment opportunity as their project specifications suggest solid fundamentals.
Currently valued at less than a dollar per coin, Deepbrain Chain is considered a bargain regarding his role it plays in artificial intelligence in order to lower computing costs. DBC is included in one of the fastest-growing market (AI) to date. This explains it’s undervalued status as the company explains within their white paper that 5000 AI startups came into existence within a four year (2012-2016).
Also worth noting, they collectively raised over $22 billion and unlike other crypto companies DBC has already established a partnership with NEO. The company is also considered to be one of the leading artificial intelligence projects within the blockchain space.
You can currently purchase this coin on the Kucoin exchange.
This token is located just inside the top 100 (90 at the time of this release) in relation to its market cap, however the platforms value proposition is as valuable as they come.
Power Ledger platform allows users to trade electricity to one another in exchange for real time payments recorded on the blockchain. The company labels itself as “P2P marketplace for renewable energy” due to the fact that it allows consumers to select clean energy sources and receive payment for the excess power using a technology called “low-cost settlement”.
Much like other altcoins, PWR experienced explosive growth during the fourth quarter bull market of 2017. Tokens are currently at a bargain around $0.28 per coin at the time of this release.
You can purchase this coin on the Binance exchange.
The next cryptocurrency on the list will catch your attention with its outstanding development team, transparency, and ASIC resistance standard, making it one of the most decentralized cryptocurrencies on the market.
Heavy proponents of decentralization will find plenty of agreeable aspects to this token. Interestingly enough, Verticoin is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies on the market. It was founded back in 2014 as an alternative to Bitcoin and Litecoin. The project was even mention it Litecoin’s white paper is a candidate for atomic swaps and is on the forefront of Lightening Network development.
The long-term prospect of this cryptocurrency is about as solid as they come. You can purchase the coin on the Bittrex exchange.
This project emerged out of Disney back in 26th. It has since been developed as an open source business platform that allows for the creation of secure and scalable blockchain.
DragonChain is part marketplace, part incubator, and provides a smart contract infrastructure with a heavy focus on development, security, and scalability.
Given its potential to transform small business adoption of blockchain, DragonChain is considered to be extremely undervalued due to the limited number of listings on current cryptocurrency exchanges.
The coin can be found on such platforms like Kucoin and EtherDelta. Look for its value to explode once it reaches some of the more mainstream exchanges like Bittrex and Binance.
The token is currently ranked at #134 with a market cap of $55 million.
The Ark platform is a smaller Alternative to ICON, that carries huge potential in connecting networks. This token connects all cryptocurrencies through a virtual spiderweb of endless use cases.
The company employs a Delegated Proof Of Stake (DPOS) protocol which includes a universally accessible programming language as well as decentralization. Ark can be categorized as a platform coin, which means it’s a great currency to hold for a buy and hold strategy.
Ark token can be found on Bittrex, Binance, and Upbit. It’s currently ranked at #84 at the time of this release and has a total market cap of $104 million.
The development of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency in general have everything to do with the inadequacies of the current financial system. Consumers are sick and tired of the long wait times associated with transactions or payment validations along with sky-high transaction fees. Blockchain and cryptocurrency have been able to overcome these issues within a rather short timeframe.
For example, blockchain transactions are able to be validated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They often process within seconds or a few hours at most. When you compare this to the waiting periods of 3 to 5 business days for most cross-border transactions, blockchain technology is leaps and bounds better than what more traditional financial systems currently use.
Also consider the fact that a “financial middleman” is no longer needed. This lowers the transaction costs considerably. The inherent decentralization of cryptocurrency means that there is no central hub where the transactional information is stored. This ensures that there is no single company or group that controls cryptocurrency. Due to this fact, cyber criminals can never bring a digital currency to its knees.
Regardless of how efficient or cost effective blockchain technology is when compared with our current financial systems, if it doesn’t have the ability to exceed current network transaction speeds, then blockchain could struggle to break new ground.
I’ve taken data from various reliable 3rd party data sets (conducted by HowMuch and CoinAnalysis) in order to compare the transaction speeds of some of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap in relation to other well-known payment providers like Visa and PayPal. Each cryptocurrency (or payment network) is ranked from largest to smallest based on the number of transactions are processed per second.
| NOTE – This study was completed by 3rd party providers and in no way reflect the smaller market cap cryptocurrencies which release newer and faster tps everyday (some substantiated and others are not). We will continue to list the latest currencies below under “worth mentioning” as they gain more momentum and acceptance among the crypto community. |
The info graphic below represents these transactions in relation to the size of the balloons. This will allow you to clearly view how some of the most popular cryptocurrencies compare to more traditional payment methods.
Although Visa has the fastest transactions over any payment network at 24,000 transactions per second (tps), it’s surprising to see that Ripple actually comes in 2nd, above PayPal by 1307 tps. This shows the viability of Ripple in having the capacity to be a payment solution provider on a much larger scale.
PayPal is still the most popular and well-known digital peer-to-peer platform, however Ripples transaction speed could be the key to its rise as the next generation peer-to-peer payment platform provider. It’s not only faster, but much cheaper and secure as well.
Bitcoin Cash is the second fastest cryptocurrency according to tests. It can handle up to 61 transactions per second (on average). However, it does have a blockchain size issue. For more on this issue I highly recommend you check out this article.
Coming in at a close third, is Litecoin at 56 transactions per second. I don’t think too many of you are surprised that this would rank in the top five. This coin has always been known as one of the faster and lightweight cryptocurrencies (hence the name). Litecoin has an average speed of 30 minutes and a maximum capacity of 56 transactions per second. Not only is it fast, but the cost of each transaction are some of the lowest in the crypto sphere.
Dash comes in at 4th place with 48 transactions per second. The average transaction speed for this cryptocurrency is at around 15 minutes. As the name suggests, this cryptocurrency has been created for the primary purpose of speeding up transactions that have been lagging, like Bitcoin. They are also have very low transaction fees.
In 5th place, we have the ever popular Ethereum. The second most well regarded cryptocurrency has an average transaction speed of six minutes and their maximum capacity is at 20 transactions per second. This cryptocurrency is not only known for its speed but also having the additional smart contracts feature, which has been used for multiple purposes within the crypto sphere. As an open source platform, Ethereum has been a fundamental staple of the crypto ecosystem, which has become the foundation for 100s of other altcoins.
In sixth place, it’s not a shock to see that Bitcoin is bringing up the rear. Cryptocurrency traders are consistently hit with transaction delays when transferring Bitcoin as their expanding popularity seems to outpace their networks processing capabilities. However, the lightening network hopes to change this fundamental flaw.
Payments within this network will no longer have to worry about block confirmation times. It’s enforced by blockchain smart contracts which will no longer have to create an on-blockchain transaction for payments. Payment speed for this network is measured in milliseconds to seconds.
The Lightening Network has not yet been fully adopted by all exchanges and crypto wallets as it’s still in its beta version at the time of this release. I will update changes to this article regarding Bitcoin’s speed, as the network gains more acceptance and is thoroughly tested through various trials.
EOS – has recently blown transaction times out the water with it’s almost near instant processing time and has broken records as it nears 3,000 transactions per second. So far, it’s at an all time high of 2822 TPS.
The network has surpassed many other popular crypto coins like BTC, ETH, XRP at the time of this release. It will be interesting to see how it fairs against the amount of traffic that these more popular and widely used coins get on a daily basis.
*The latest speed was confirmed via Monitor.io, a data-speed checking website.
NEO – reported average transactions of 15 seconds and comes with a more streamlined PoS protocol which is able to offer one 1,000 transactions per second.
Stellar – average transaction speeds are at around 5 seconds. The transaction cost is extremely low at 0.00001 lumens per transaction. The Stellar development team claims the network can easily handle 1,000 transactions per second.
Steem – the reported average transaction speed is three seconds and doesn’t require you to pay transaction fees due to the technology that the platform uses, called Graphene.
Cardano – has an average transaction speed of approximately five minutes. All nodes within its network can accept transactions and verify them.
IOTA – reported average transaction speeds are at three minutes as IOTA currently has no daily limitations as well as transaction fees. It reportedly gets faster as you throw more at it.
I’m sure the first thing you’ll notice about the test results is how far ahead Visa is from the rest of the competition. Keep in mind that Visa has had many decades to adapt and upgrade their payment system infrastructure which leaves it to its final transaction rate of 24,000 transactions per second. I highly doubt that rate will be challenged anytime soon. However I’m fairly certain that cryptocurrency will far surpass this number in the near future.
What also might have come as a shock to you is the speed that Ripple was tested at in relation to PayPal, as well as the rest of its peers. Ripple’s more than 6X the speed of PayPal at 1,500 transactions per second. That’s saying a lot considering how new Ripple is to the market and how much older and developed PayPal is. What’s even more astonishing is that Ripple’s transaction fees come in at just a fraction of a cent, which makes it significantly more cost-effective than PayPal.
On the other side of the spectrum, Bitcoin and Ethereum seem to perform rather poorly at a mere 20 transactions per second. However you have to keep in mind that they are the most popular blockchain (and cryptocurrency) in the world. They are being used and scaled considerably more than Ripple or Dash. While it doesn’t necessarily excuse slow transaction times, the popularity between these two coins help explain the gap between its competitors.
One of the biggest concerns regarding the emergence of blockchain technology is how well they perform once their traffic is fully ramped. Bitcoin and Ethereum are much slower than PayPal and Visa as a result of being an extremely popular destination for cryptocurrency users.
Although Ripple may be substantially faster now, the future speeds of this cryptocurrency remains unclear as we’ve yet to see what happens when it really gets put to the test with numerous banking clients and other real world applications.
Blockchain has yet to be fully tested with more large-scale, real-world scenarios, so it would be foolish, at this time to assume that it could keep up with more traditional payment networks. Very few would argue that blockchain technology has real-world, game changing potential.
Until recently, we’ve seen many billion dollar corporations and banks patent and utilize the technology for small-scale operations. Only the future will tell if blockchain can handle larger, industrial sized traffic.
Potential solutions like the Lightening Network promise to enhance transaction speeds for Bitcoin, Litecoin, and a handful of other massive cryptocurrencies to breakthrough numbers. The teams behind the coins listed above are constantly developing new solutions to scale transactions per second at an exponential rate.
These solutions are still being rolled out and tested. Many scaling solutions are “second layer” and offer the use of fewer validator nodes to complete transactions, which arguably pushes crypto closer to centralization.
However, coins like Zilliqa and Nano, along with off-chain scaling solutions like the Raiden Network proclaim that they will completely change the game. With their almost instant, low fee, scalable payment system, that’s complementary to the Ethereum blockchain, this will soon enhance new protocols for future cryptocurrency transaction speeds.
If you’ve been wandering around the crypto sphere for some time, it’s highly likely you’ve heard about these free and “potentially lucrative” airdrops. If not, we’ll you’re in for a treat.
Airdrops are essentially free cryptocurrency tokens which are given to those who hold a base cryptocurrency for an extended timeframe.
If you’re like me, you’re skeptical of anything labeled “free”. There has to be a catch right? Well, not entirely. There’s always a catch to anything that claims to be free, which usually costs you in the way of time or information.
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In order to qualify for airdrops you’ll need to acquire and hold a particular cryptocurrency. Let’s call this your “base currency”. You’ll hold onto this base currency for an extended timeframe in order to acquire the new airdropped cryptocurrency (aka – tokens). |
Think of it as a buy one get one free sale, except you’re not really buying anything, just holding onto a currency for an extended timeframe.
Some coins require you to hold a minimum amount of tokens in order to be eligible for their airdrop. Other cryptocurrencies will allow a 1 to 1 exchange without any minimum hold requirement. Airdrops are the ideal “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” type of scenario.
Let’s break this down even further and examine 3 reasons why these airdrops really work…
As you can imagine, this causes an “ebb and flow” type of situation, where the base cryptocurrency value dramatically dips just as soon as the airdrop has complete. This is why I highly recommend you sell as soon as this time period expires.
PRO TIP: This would also be a great time to short if you margin trade.
Airdrops can literally “drop” free cryptocurrency into your digital wallet. The real question is, will these new tokens increase in value over time? No one really knows at the time of their release, however one things for sure, free is free so you have no room to complain, right?
First of all, you need a wallet that can accommodate several different types of cryptocurrency. Most wallets will handle various ERC20 tokens which are suitable for these airdrops. Many of them are based upon the Ethereum blockchain.
Most cryptocurrency companies will require you to register on their website in order to qualify for the airdrop. Some will outline more specific conditions like…
Once you follow the outlined protocol, you’ll be required to hold a certain amount of cryptocurrency in your wallet. The requirements for wallet storage can vary from an online soft wallet like MyEtherWallet or one that resides on a cryptocurrency exchange like Binance.
Either way, the details are always announced from the originating cryptocurrency via email, forum, or twitter account.
A manual airdrop is one where you’ll follow the developers on social media. You’ll be requested to share a post, take a survey, or even fill out some forms. Don’t worry; these small tasks won’t take up too much of your time. It’s worth it in the end.
Automatic airdrops do not require you to do anything other than have an active wallet with the initial cryptocurrency coins on it. As mentioned earlier, your wallet should be able to hold ERC20 tokens which is based on the Ethereum blockchain.
Most crypto enthusiasts tend to hold these coins on their cryptocurrency exchange of choice. If you choose to go this route, make sure that you’re on a well-known, reputable exchange like Binance, Bittrex, or Coinbase.
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Airdrops allow you to receive new cryptocurrency that you would have otherwise gone without. In the worst-case scenario, you receive a free coin that’s worthless and collects virtual dust inside your wallet. Either way, it cost you nothing. Best case scenario, the value of the base currency and airdropped coin you hold increases. Inadvertently, you walk away with a “brag worthy” profit on both currencies without having to invest anything but a small amount of your time. |
Be very careful though, as these airdrops are a beacon for the unscrupulous types. For instance, many fake twitter accounts have been created to resemble the official cryptocurrency company’s account. The scammer poses as a developer for the team and requests your wallets private key in order to send you the airdropped coins.
This is never the case for legit airdropped tokens. Private keys are never required. If this happens to you, immediately report the account to Twitter.
Another likely scenario are fake twitter accounts that post instructions for you to send cryptocurrency to a wallet address owned by the scammer in order to receive your free tokens. The official developers will never request tokens from you, so if this happens, again, report it to Twitter.
Apart from these rather easy to spot scams, airdrops can be very beneficial.
Take note that it may take some time in order for these coins to be released. A one or two month time frame is typical.
Airdrops are great way to acquire unknown cryptocurrencies without having to invest your own money. Not only do they serve the purpose of being an effective marketing tool for developers, but they’re a great way to broaden your cryptocurrency portfolio with little to no risk.
For the latest airdrop announcements visit AirDropAlert.com. The site releases upcoming and active airdrops on a weekly basis.
Hundreds of new cryptocurrencies enter the market every single month. Not all of them will survive the ultra-competitive cryptocurrency niche. Most altcoins will never see the light of day or inherit anything close to resembling mass adoption. From countless amounts of coins that have come out this year, there are only a few altcoins that will see a 100x increase in their valuation.
Before we move forward, always remember to do your own due diligence above anything you read online or hear on YouTube. The list below does not represent financial advice nor are we financial advisors.
As a rule of thumb, projects that solve real-world problems get more attention and have higher chances of success. These are simply the top 10 altcoins we have personally investigated which represent a high chance of 100Xing profit in the years to come and solve real-world problems.
Don’t take our 100X prediction as gospel or fact. As always, DYOR!
With that said, let’s move on…
The crypto marketplace underwent a huge correction after bitcoin’s value shot up to $20k USD back in 2017. By early 2018, many coins regained some of their valuations and the market experienced a small bull run. However, the list below has the best chance of multiplying your returns when the next bull run starts.
| NOTE: Not all of these coins will hit the 100x mark. Some of them may go as far as 10x or 20x and stagnate. Some may fail to cross 2x while a few others may even lose their current value. Be aware of the volatile nature within the cryptocurrency market before investing any amount of your hard earned income. |
Without further ado, here are our Top 10 Altcoin Candidates who have the potential to 100X their current price within the years to follow.
ICON wants to build the world biggest decentralized network. They are doing this by enabling blockchains to interact with each other via smart contracts. The project held their ICO at the end of 2017 and the team released a desktop wallet, ICONex. The wallet supports their native coin ICON, ETH and other ERC20 tokens. There are plans to expand the wallet support to Android and iOS in the near future.
The project has deployed ERC20 tokens for now. These will be converted to ICX tokens once their Mainnet becomes active. ICON has already put most of their technological pieces in order and is now focusing on the business aspect of their company.
Armed with an excellent real-world application, ICON is bound to improve its valuation in the coming months.
You can purchase ICX at Binance
Kyber is a fantastic cryptocurrency project that is undervalued in its pricing.
Based on Ethereum protocol, Kyber Network (KNC) facilitates the immediate exchange of digital assets like tokens and coins with the fiat currency like USD or EUR. It is a decentralized exchange with a real-world connection. Kyber is one project that went public with the support from of Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum.
Most cryptocurrency exchanges suffer from a liquidity problem. Centralized exchanges are often prime targets for hack attacks. There are few exchanges that can convert your cash into coins or vice versa but the cost of the conversion is usually very high.
Decentralized Exchanges (DE) also suffer from liquidity problems because a majority of their transactions are of low value.
Kyber’s model ensures Decentralized Exchanges have liquidity at all times. And since the transactions do not happen on the blockchain, the processing is almost instantaneous.
Kyber’s coin KNC is deflationary in nature because, after each transaction, a certain number of coins are taken out of supply. Over time, the supply of coins will reduce and its value will appreciate. Since the network serves a real-world need, its value will go up as their adoption increases.
Compared to other exchanges, Kyber is currently undervalued and its proposition makes it attractive, especially as the number of cryptocurrencies increases over time.
You can purchase KNC on Binance
Vibe jumped 400% in value within 24 hours a few months ago and we believe this may happen once again in the future. It is the native currency of a blockchain platform called the Vibehub. Vibehub started as a music-centric application but now it has become a major virtual reality application. The platform provides virtual space to people enabling them to take part in events around the world. Using the power of Augmented Reality, you can now participate in meetings, live events like sports, concerts and even meet new people, without any geographic restrictions.
The platform is based on the Ethereum blockchain and Vibe coins are used to pay for services rendered. Vibehub allows artists and teachers to use virtual reality to reach people across the globe. It plans to generate revenue from the augmented and virtual reality content.
Based on its usefulness and real-world application, as well as the roadmap the team has announced, this coin will most likely climb up the charts again and create another record for itself.
You can purchase VIBE on Binance
VeChain is a blockchain based platform that provides tamper proof information around products to specific merchants. It brings a new level of transparency to supply chain management, business operations, etc. Based on a decentralized architecture, the platform aims to become a one-point reference for all stakeholders in the supply chain system.
The VeChain Foundation started off as a supply chain company that produced RFID tags. They later decided to take advantage of the immutable nature of blockchain platform and combine it with the in-house knowledge of RFIDs to create an Ethereum like Enterprise DApp specifically to secure the supply chains systems.
VeChain’s in-house smart chip helps track the movement of goods throughout the product lifecycle and makes it easy for the management to protect their supply chain against tampering and counterfeit goods.
By building a more trusting blockchain tracking system, VeChain has helped businesses…
VeChain platform uses two native coins, VeChain Tokens [VET] and THOR power to maintain the platform. The priority of processing will be decided based on the amount of VET a business holds.
VeChain boasts of solid B2B tools and is an excellent cryptocurrency candidate for increasingly steady price movement.
You can purchase VEN at Binance
While there are hundreds of bitcoin alternatives whose primary function is that of a currency, Ethereum became the first platform that fully leveraged the power of blockchain technology.
It became the platform to emulate, and a place to develop your own projects using DApps. As a result, there are hundreds of new projects and their native tokens in circulation today.
QuantStamp is the security auditing protocol running on the Etherum platform. Its primary focus is security checks on the Ethereum based smart contracts before projects hit the market.
The attacks on DAO and Parity wallet bugs are the type of incidents that can be avoided by using a service like QuantStamp. With a massive increase in the number of smart contracts being written, this service will be in great demand for the foreseeable future.
Purchase QSP on Binance
Based on the Walimai technology, WaBi is a cryptocurrency that is used as an anti-counterfeit system.
Walimai technology makes it possible to create a digital representation of each physical item produced by the manufacturer. The consumers can verify the authenticity of these products and purchase them by using Wabi coins. The Wabi blockchain is being used to protect daily consumables like food items, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, etc. Although the scope of this project is limited, the growth potential for this cryptocurrency is enormous as its first target market was China. After succeeding in countering fake goods within the country, WaBi is planning to move to other Asian countries in the future.
Purchase WABI on Binance
Simple Token allows any business to create their own digital currency by using Ethereum’s public sidechain solution. Businesses can use the OpenST protocol to create branded tokens without investing in the development of its own blockchain.
The key idea behind the project is to take away all the expensive development issues and provide the advantages of blockchain technology in a more hassle-free manner.
Their OpenST protocol makes it easy for Ethereum’s sidechain solutions to scale.
The relationship between ETH and OST is touted to be just like NXT and ARDR. This coin is expected to skyrocket within the foreseeable future.
Purchase Simple Token on Binance
DragonChain was originally created by Disney as a private blockchain. In 2016, it was released as an open source software used to secure business databases and execute smart contracts without any technical expertise. This platform makes it easy for businesses to incorporate blockchain into their applications and enjoy the benefits of this innovative technology. Their business model is ‘blockchain-as-a-service’ so that anyone can implement the technology without the technical know-how.
DragonChain can be considered as an incubator for blockchain based projects. Businesses can even run their ICOs on the platform. With a single KYC, US investors can take part in any of the ICOs within the DragonChain network.
The project incentivizes people to hold their DRGN coins in a private wallet and not use them in order to obtain a higher slumber score. A high slumber score gives them early access to exciting ICOs in the DragonChain marketplace. The reduced number of coins in the system is bound exponentially excel the price upward.
This coin is best to treated as a long-term hold since it houses over 200 active projects/businesses that can explode at any moment. With a solid management and development team, don’t be surprised if it quickly becomes the next 100x multiplier. This cryptocurrency probably one of the best long-term hold from our top 10 picks.
Purchase DRGN on Kucoin
Oyster Pearl is a second generation blockchain working towards empowering conventional applications with blockchain technology. Advertising on the internet has gotten a little out of control. Flashing banners and predatory, malicious, adware ads are making it hard for people to pay attention to the content they chose to read. Some readers switched to ad-blockers, however to counter this, the content providers started to deploy ad-block detectors to ensure they can still show a few ads in order to pay the bills.
Oyster Pearl wants to clean up the intrusive ads and still ensure content creators have a viable revenue model. PRL was built upon the IOTA Tangle, that allows the website visitor’s computer to contribute a small amount of hashing power instead of showing them an ad. This hash power is used to confirm the network transactions and gives the web host/ content creator some income.
As the internet usage and web economy grow, PRL will grow along with them which is why they are a good buy at this time.
You can purchase PRL on Kucoin
Among all the coins in our list, Deep Brain Chain (DBC) has the highest chance for a massive moon-shot. In fact, if you are reading this article a few months later, it has probably crossed the 100x mark. DBC is a NEO based smart contract token and is traded on the Kucoin exchange. It is also expected to be on Houbi shortly. DBC provides a low cost, decentralized, private AI computing platform. It pools computing resources from people around the world to create a massive platform required to meet the AI’s computational needs.
There has been a big growth in AI related start-ups in the last five years. The value of this market is over 100 Billion USD. Hardware requirements typically eat up 70% of any AI business and this is where DBC comes into play by reducing the cost of these inflated hardware requirements.
The project has funding from NEO and has the first mover advantage within the domain. It is filled with top AI scientists and has an incredible chance and increasing its market coin valuation well over 100X.
You can purchase this coin on Kucoin
Even though we’ve done our research, that still doesn’t mean you get out of doing yours. We’ll continue to update these coins as they evolve.
Make sure to check them out on our Live Coin Watch located here to view their previous and current valuations, latest twitter notifications, latest developments, announcements, and much more.
Cryptocurrency has always been an extremely volatile marketplace to trade in. Price swings of 10 to 50% within a 24 hour period can occur a few times a week and almost daily for lower volume coins.
Although these fluctuations may be great for both traders and investors (depending if your long or short), the volatility makes it very difficult to use in the real world. It not only hinders its adoption, but its fundamental ability to be utilized as a reliable currency.
Volatility plays a very important role in mass adoption as consumers want to be able to make transactions without having to worry about the value fluctuating overnight. Who wants to worry about getting paid for a product or service to only have that currency lose its value by over 30% next week?
From a business standpoint, merchants don’t want to accept transactions in a currency that includes a ton of risk. A great example of this would be employee payments. No one wants to work for a wage where you perform the same task every week but your paycheck is constantly fluctuating?
You’ll be happy to know that there is one emerging class of cryptocurrencies that are designed to tackle this exact issue. These are known as stablecoins.
Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that presents itself as a price stable asset in an ever-fluctuating marketplace. It offers a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account.
Stable coins are universal and are not tied down to a central monetary authority. Its supply cannot be controlled and dictated under future influence.
There are different versions of the stablecoin however there are only 2 popular versions that are utilized the most. They are the IOU issuance model and cryptocurrency-collateralized model.
Let’s take a closer look at these two stablecoin models.
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With this model, stablecoin holds a 1-to-1 ratio to an asset that resides within a bank account. As an example, a corporation could hold a physical asset like gold or silver in their bank, which could be tied to a particular stablecoin. Each stablecoin, under this model, derives its stability from the fact that its value can be exchanged for a physical asset. A countries fiat currency or a particular metal like gold are generally the type of physical items that are tied to these types of coins. |
One of the most popular stablecoins in existence today is Tether (USDT). The actual value of Tether is tied to the equivalent of one US dollar. To ensure the value of the Tether coin, it must be backed against a corresponding US dollar inside Tethers bank account.
This brings us to one limitation within the issuance model. It’s centralized, which means individuals must trust that the entity that holds the physical asset being represented by the stablecoin is held within the company’s account. As you can imagine, this requires a lot trust by owners of the coin.
With this model, stablecoins are not backed by centralized assets; they are backed by digital assets, for example Bitcoin. The main advantage to this asset is that it doesn’t require blind trust from participants in order for it to work.
For example: the asset that backs the stablecoin can be held in a smart contract. This way the amount of assets held are transparent and independently verified within the smart contract.
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The problem with this model is that it’s tied to a cryptocurrency which is volatile in nature and runs contrary to stablecoins entire purpose. As a result the method may involve “over collateralization” so that price fluctuations can be absorbed As an example of this, a smart contract can be created in order to hold $400 worth of Bitcoin. This would serve as collateral for say $200 worth of stablecoins. Now if an unexpected event were to occur (massive swing in price- “Black Swan event”) this would negatively impact the stablecoins value. This will result in the destabilization of the issued coin. |
All major cryptocurrency enthusiasts are looking towards a catalyst that will result in mass adoption. There are a ton of factors that can contribute to such an event. We can all agree that overcoming market volatility is imperative to facilitating mass adoption.
Perfecting the stablecoin in order to bring about mass adoption can be a difficult task, however there is still a number of promising stablecoin projects that aim to overthrow these issues and bring about a non-volatile cryptocurrency within the crypto ecosystem.
Most crypto traders utilize the Tether coin, however there is a blockchain project that goes by the name of Basis, that claims to provide a stable cryptocurrency that is backed by a large number of US venture capital companies. This will likely be the closest competitor to Tether in the near future.
[UPDATE: There is a new stable coin on the market by the name of “Reserve” that has been gaining a lot of support from many major investors. You can read more about the coin along with other stablecoin releases here.]
In this digital age of social media and eCommerce advertising, it seems like we’ve lost all aspects of our personal privacy. Everybody from Facebook, the government or online eCommerce giants like Amazon and eBay are collecting massive amounts of data on what you purchase. Some are collecting even more intricate details like behavioral profiles (interests, favorite places you visit, etc) . I mean you can’t even fart in the wind without technological advancements tracking it.
Realize that you won’t be able to entirely hide all your spending habits as long as you shop online. You do however have a choice of where to shop.
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You can always leave your house and shop at a brick-and-mortar store. To some, depending on how old you are, can almost seem old fashioned. This can you the ability to retain some of your privacy…to an extent. However, it doesn’t really give you the convenience you’re accustomed to with the internet. With convenience comes a lack of privacy. Fortunately for us, privacy coins are here to change all that!
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Ask yourself this simple question. Do you really want just anyone to view how much money you own or the purchases you make online? Of course not.
If you’re familiar with cryptocurrency, you may be asking yourself… well, what about Bitcoin? The truth of the matter is, Bitcoin is fairly easy to track with regards to transaction and wallet amounts, if you know what you’re doing.
So this brings us to the point of privacy coins. Their entire purpose is to hide your data from wandering eyes. Within this guide, I’m going to cover the more popular privacy coins as well as how they secure your privacy.
Monero – most individuals that have spent more than a few weeks studying cryptocurrency have heard of this coin. It’s considered to be the ultimate privacy coin.
It was an original fork from Bytecoin. The coin uses stealth addresses and Ring Confidential Addresses (RingCT) in order to keep your online wallet as well as your transaction data anonymous.
The team behind Monero are constantly adding new features to stay one step ahead of those pesky hackers or financial institutions that want to access your information. The coin has always been completely focused on privacy even though it may sometimes mean that the usability isn’t always there….yet.
Verge – this coin has a very controversial history, which was recently made more controversial regarding their partnership with the infamous Pornhub. You can now purchase all your Pornhub goodies with this currency and stay completely anonymous doing it. You know, in case you weren’t doing that already.
Verge’s privacy tech is derived from TOR and an IP address anonymizer that ensures your connection to the blockchain is anonymous. You can also send your transactions through I2P, which is a secondary IP anonymizer.
The Wrath Protocol, Verges claim to fame, allows users the option to send transactions through private or public blockchain. When sending through the private blockchain, you can use stealth addresses (similar to the ones used by Monero) together with TOR. This combination allows for double layers of anonymity.
Dash – although not quite as devoted to anonymity as some of the other coins on this list, Dash does allocate a great deal of privacy. It’s a fork of Bitcoin, so you can find a good amount of Bitcoin’s technology deep inside Dash’s crypto programming.
What makes Dash so special is their PrivateSend feature. This allows anyone to send your coins anonymously to other recipients. As a part of the PrivateSend feature, Dash masternodes (computers) mix your coins, multiple times, with other Dash coins sent within their network. This effectively makes your coins indistinguishable from other Dash coins.
Pretty cool right? It’s essentially “laundering money” through its pool of other coins, however not to worry, the technology is completely legal.
Bytecoin – one of the oldest privacy coins on this list, created in 2012, many cryptocurrency enthusiast consider Bytecoin to be the original privacy coin.
As stated earlier, Monero is a fork of this coin. Bytecoin uses a protocol by the name of CryptoNote. This is a mixture of ring signatures as well as one time stealth addresses.
The coin utilizes a unique, one time public key that avoids address recycling (just think disposable addresses) and makes sure that you’re not able to track the transaction history.
As of late, the project developers have begun communicating more with its community. They’re currently going through a re-branding phase as there’s been a recent resurgence to the original development team.
Zcash – this coin is one of the newer privacy coins and currently utilizes a technology called zk-SNARKS. This stands for zero-knowledge Succinct Non-interactive Arguments for Knowledge or zk-SNARKs for all you crypto nerds out there.
The technology is a mathematical proof of accurate transactional information without having to reveal the information itself. It also ensures that transnational data is encrypted.
Although this coin is considered a privacy coin, the development team has been clear that they do not encrypt multi-signature data or mask IP addresses.
Bitcoin Private – is being described as a “fork-merge” of Bitcoin and Zclassic. The coins main goal is to maintain the security and branding of Bitcoin while keeping the privacy functionality of Zclassic. The owners of Bitcoin Private can redeem their funds without any traceable history.
Zencash – has more going on with it than just privacy. It includes a messaging and content platform alongside a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
Much like most of the other privacy coins, you can keep any of your transactions that start with addresses “z” and “t” private. Zencash is also planning to start a decentralized exchange, peer-to-peer insurance, as well as banking services. All these services will include inherent privacy features. As you can see, this coin has a lot going for it.
PIVX – is another fork of Dash and one of the newest privacy coins. The name stands for (Private Instant Verified Transaction). PIVX utilizes its Zerocoin protocol to completely withstand blockchain analysis which means that both the sender and receiver keep their privacy. This is unlike its predecessor Zcash and Dash.
In order to use the PIVX privacy feature, you first need to convert them to zPIV coins and send them to your recipient who will receive standard PIVX coins. Zerocoin protocol enables the transaction to be verifiable on the blockchain and still preserves both the senders and recipient’s privacy.
Nav Coin – includes both anonymous and public options for transactions. The private side of NAV transactions reside on the NavTech subchain.
Sending the transaction directly to the recipient includes encrypting and sending through the proprietary Navtech subchain. Next, the coin enters a pool of servers and encryption layers where NavTech sends a different set of coins from this pool to your recipient. This is similar to how Dash handles their “laundering of coins” however with added encrypted layers.
There are a ton of other privacy focused coins in the top 100 as ranked by CoinMarketCap, however the ones listed above are some of the more prominent ones.
Others worth mentioning are…
Aeon (Monero fork)
Enigma (private decentralized applications)
Wanchain (private smart contracts)
With the ever pervasive infringement on our individual privacies, the lists of privacy coins, along with the blockchain technology that supports them, will continue to grow.
Check back later as this list will continue to grow and evolve over time. If you know of any other popular privacy coins that should be added to the list, please leave us a comment below.
Over the last few years cryptocurrency has not only gained a lot of attention in the media, but also more trust and curiosity from investors, banks, governments, and corporations. Even though it was initially met with cynicism, more and more investors and companies are moving toward the utilization of cryptocurrency.
This digital currency seems to be much more fitting for those of us living in the digital age as opposed to our antiquated fiat currency. When compared to the longevity of fiat, the 9 years that Bitcoin has been active seems like a blip on the radar. Regardless of what your stance is on the cryptocurrency, the blockchain technology behind it is here to stay.
It’s also much more likely that cryptocurrency has solidified its position as an international currency over any other previous currency in history. It should not be taken lightly as an asset and will surely be around a lot longer than most have predicted.
One of the key characteristics of the cryptocurrency market is its volatility in price. Have you ever wondered why the price of cryptocurrency, whether it Bitcoin or Ethereum, tend to fluctuate so much? We’re here to explore those aspects of volatility and what drives market prices one way or another.
This characteristic of volatility is easy to understand. Each time the government passes a law or publishes statements regarding how to regulate cryptocurrency, the price of the asset is bound to mirror an effect in price. For instance, heavy regulation tends to push people into selling their coins, thereby causing a downward pressure on the price.
Even new regulations that aren’t specific to cryptocurrency, but adhere to a general financial action by the government, may also be translated into fluctuations.
An example of this could be a financial crisis suffered on Wall Street which would inherently affect the crypto world as well. Whether it would positively or negatively impact the crypto market depends on many different variables
There is an inherent anonymity behind cryptocurrency. This has been the primary reason why the currency has garnered so much popularity. With recent popularity, more and more governments are pushing to impose rules to end anonymity and increase transparency as well as regulation. If this occurs, cryptocurrency prices are bound to be affected.
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User trust is an important factor in determining the price of any financial asset. By trust, we mean whether or not individuals believe that the currency will be able to sustain its purchasing power in the future. As an example…. Imagine that you invested in Ethereum, but as the months pass you expect the value of your investment to likely decrease in the nearby future. This could be due to media, government regulations, or a host of other factors. These outside forces will more than likely reduce the trust you have with your particular currency. |
So what do you do?
If you’re a new trader or investor the chances are high that you’ll likely sell. You might make this choice because you don’t trust that your shares of Ethereum will have the same value it currently holds in the future.
If there are a lot more people like you who sell their investment today due to this news, they will also garner a “lack of trust” in Ethereum or even cryptocurrency as a whole. You will inherently drive the price of the currency down, thereby playing an integral part in the currency’s inability to preserve its future purchasing power.
Trust is extremely valuable within the crypto sphere. Always remain calm and headstrong before you make any decision to sell, as more times than not, the market will change and the price of your sold cryptocurrency will rise well above the market price you purchased at. Many of us call this “seller’s remorse”.
Trust was one of the reasons Bitcoin was able to rise to an all-time high back in December 2017 to 20k. Another major reason why cryptocurrency is valued at such a high price is due to the fact that it cannot be hacked due to the blockchain technology in which it operates on. However, be very aware that this still doesn’t mean that hackers won’t be able to hack an exchange and obtain access to your online wallet. Fortunately, most reputable crypto exchanges are insured against these types of scenarios. Most users are compensated for their losses.
Also note that most of the Top 10 cryptocurrencies are expected to exponentially gain value over time. Many newer cryptocurrencies have exponentially increased their value within a year, so keep that in mind before you start to panic sell.
Cryptocurrency once had a humble beginning. While they are valued at a much higher price today than they were several years ago, this was not always the case. What brought this onset of new found value? The rising demand and mass adoption of blockchain technology has made a profound affect on the value of cryptocurrency. The viral exposure on social media, news, TV shows, movies, as well as word of mouth also inherently relay value to the digital coin.
Cryptocurrency has been gaining momentum since its inception. This coupled with the fact that more technologically advanced countries like China, Japan, and South Korea are starting to utilize it within their everyday commerce.
More and more people every year begin to understand why cryptocurrency is such a beneficial investment. They realize how much of a lucrative opportunity it is and as a result, the popularity of cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin, has gone through the roof. The law of supply and demand dictates, when demand increases while the supply stays constant, the price will inevitably rise.
Remember, almost all cryptocurrencies are available in a limited amount. When there is an increase in demand, it’s soon followed by mass adoption. While more investors enter the market, the price further increases. This trend is expected to continue as cryptocurrency is still a hot topic in most countries.
Speculators exist in every facet of the financial market, and cryptocurrency is no different. Speculation regarding the future value of any particular coin can be derived from the news or other venues like social media and online forums.
For instance, if the liquidity of a particular cryptocurrency were to increase, speculators would deduce that more people are likely to buy. This would translate to an increase in prices. This speculation could have some investors purchasing a particular coin today in order to sell it tomorrow at a profit. This single action is what would drive the prices upward, thus creating a “buying frenzy”.
On the other hand, news regarding how much more effective another cryptocurrency is, compared to say Bitcoin, can lead to a decrease in Bitcoin’s price before the newer currency even hits the market.
Why? Speculation my friend, speculation.
Speculators will expect the new cryptocurrency to drive the price down. Traders will begin selling their investment before its release in order to get a jumpstart on the market.
Speculators might be responsible for the initial decrease in prices, however “the herd” (trend followers) would cause it to exacerbate. Not everyone understands what they are doing. If everyone else is selling their investment, “the herd” will follow. This mentality is what governs a further decrease in price. This event can also be referred to as “panic selling”.
It’s hard for any financial asset to avoid price volatility caused by speculators. However, since cryptocurrency is largely unregulated and can inevitably deliver its investors high returns, the effects of speculators are felt much more prominently.
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As long as the stock market has been active, news and other media outlets have always played a major role in price fluctuations. This is also a common occurrence with cryptocurrency, however it can generally be more pronounced. News regarding crypto related bankruptcies, hacks on crypto exchanges, government regulations, delays in service, issues with crypto technologies, can cause an immediate disruption with any particular cryptocurrency. |
Media influence can sometimes reflect a more negative “opinion” on some less reputable media outlets. These FUD syndications may release false information in order to decrease the value of a particular cryptocurrency. Negative news which is found to be primarily false is commonly referred to as FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). Be very careful when falling into this inevitable trap. Always do your own research (DYOR) and check other credible use sources for comparison.
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If you’re not familiar with the term “whales”, you’re obviously very new to any form of trading or investing. That’s okay, you’re here to learn right? The term is commonly referred to as an individual (or group e.g. corporation) who buys or sells large amounts of cryptocurrency, thus greatly influencing the trend of that particular market. These are also referred to as “market makers” and can be found within any trading marketplace (forex and stocks). As you can imagine, these individuals maintain a lot of power within the market. These titans of the industry may sell a large amount of cryptocurrency, only to take advantage of other “panic sellers” who will inevitably liquidate their digital asset. Once the time is right, they’ll buy back that currency at a lower rate. This is standard protocol for these types of traders. |
There’s nothing that you can do to stop this from happening other than recognizing when it’s happening and ride the trend which the whales are currently dictating. Having a fundamental understanding of technical analysis can also help you spot these trends and take advantage of them before they happen.
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There are many factors that determine the price of cryptocurrency. The ones mentioned above are just a few of the main culprits. Remember, not only does each factor play a significant role in determining the price of a cryptocurrency, but two or more can wreak havoc. |
Just be careful that you’re not on the other side of these renegade dips. Stay current with daily crypto news. Make sure to follow your cryptocurrency investment on Twitter in order to help you keep an up to the minute pulse on the latest developments.
Overall, most of the Top 10 cryptocurrencies located here will increase in price over time. This is true even after weekly (or sometimes monthly) volatility in price is experienced. Understanding how these factors work will allow you to be in a much better position to realize when to buy or sell your digital asset. Understanding how this process works, along with personal experience, will give you a fundamental edge over the so called “herd”.
One of the more stable ways you can earn cryptocurrency without stressing over trading charts all day is through a process called cloud mining. This can be done using software that accesses a computer’s processing power in order to decipher transaction-related algorithms.
These days, the amount of electricity required to undertake this task is relatively large and can cost you a great deal of money electricity expenses. For most you want to produce a sizable income from this method, facilitation of big data centers are required. Since not everyone can afford to own a big data center, a new type of cypto mining establishment called “cloud mining” has been created.
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Cloud mining is a method of cryptocurrency mining that allows users to buy or rent mining power with hardware placed in remote data centers. All mining is carried out in the ‘cloud’, eliminating the offline hassle of installation, maintenance, electricity and hosting issues. Besides allowing users to rent specialized equipment, cloud mining also allows them to lease a team of professionals in order to maintain that equipment. |
The process of crypto mining typically includes the verification of transactions that occur on the blockchain. This involves solving complex mathematical equations. Miners typically keep the network in good working order and as a reward are paid in cryptocurrency once they verify and process these transactions.
Some of the more popular cryptocurrency to mine is:
| PRO TIP: To find out which cryptocurrency is most profitable at this moment and how much income you can receive off cloud mining each according to certain hash rates (basic computing speed decryption) click here |
There are many cloud mining companies to choose from. While some of these companies are legit, there’s no denying that there are various others that are not. Here are some helpful tips for choosing a reputable cloud mining service:
Good news for you is, there are some reputable cloud mining providers that have proven that they can be trusted. Three of the more reputable cloud mining companies are:
Never invest more in cloud mining than you can afford to lose. I know you’ve heard this statement over a dozen times, however it does ring true when it comes to the volatile nature of cryptocurrency. Realize that were in the Wild West stages of the market right now. Regulatory control is low and unfortunately crypto scams are somewhat common occurrence these days.
Like with any other venue, cloud mining is a business and losses can occur, however the risk is fairly low if you choose to invest in one of the established cloud mining companies mentioned above.
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