Cryptocurrency

Best altcoin to invest in 2018

  • 10.04.2018
  • 742

When choosing the best altcoin to invest in 2018, one must answer a question: “Are we investing with high risks and high profits or with moderate risks, but also moderate profit?”. If you are not very willing to take risks, it makes more sense to opt for the “classic” altcoins. Which are already well established on the market.

Best «classic» altcoin to invest in 2018

“Classic” altcoins are those which have already demonstrated powerful growth on exchanges, having risen in price by hundreds per cent. Repeating such a colossal growth is unlikely, and there will not be a tenfold increase. Nevertheless, adding a few such currencies to the investment portfolio is not a bad idea. They are unlikely to bring super profits, but they can grow several times more expensive. Consider several such altcoins.

Litecoin

Despite the fact that Litecoin (litecoin.org) differs only a little from Bitcoin, the currency itself feels good. And not so long ago it’s rate has increased tenfold, however, it showed a similar drop just prior to that. The Litecoin development team became active not so long ago and was the first to add segwit and lightning network. Litecoin passed the test of time and is something like “Bitcoin little brother”.

Ethereum

Like we said earlier in our article about best cryptocurrency to investment in 2018, Ethereum (ethereum.org) brought a second life into cryptocurrencies, forever changing blockchain technologies. Now about the smart-contracts, a feature which Ethereum has brought, everyone says. Cryptocurrency constantly evolves, new technologies emerge and old ones improve. More than fifty programmers are working on the Ethereum code. And it is they who have the most chances to create something that will change the whole crypto world forever and raise Ethereum on a cryptocurrency pedestal. The other side – this currency is in fact quite centralized. And almost all the changes are carried out through hardforks, but such is the price for progress.

Monero

The currency that solved the problem of anonymity in the blockchain. Transferring money through Monero (monero.org), you do not have to worry that there will be an opportunity to track who and how much was transferred – the transactions are thoroughly mixed. One of the few truly revolutionary technologies. The coin has appeared in 2014 and grows slowly and confidently since then, in many respects thanks to the developers, constantly improving it.

ZCash

Another token that guarantees anonymity. The way this coin does it is encryption of everything. Totally everything. After encryption, it is impossible to see who transferred tokens, where and how many of them. At the start, the coin pleased the miners, paying for the equipment in a few weeks, but now ZCash (z.cash) looks just decent. This is the first entirely anonymous cryptocurrency.

SiaCoin

It is rather strange to see a currency based on the rent of space on the hard drive, which is not even the first of its kind, in this list. But not so long ago, developers announced the addition of public links to stored files. With the proper implementation of this feature, Sia (sia.tech) will become the basis for decentralized Internet of the future. There’s no need to explain what will be happen with this coin price in this scenario.

The best new altcoin to invest in 2018

Unlike popular altcoins, new coins can both bring a fortune and leave with nothing. Reading articles on cryptocurrencies that have grown hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands per cent, it is easy to fall into the trap of a “systematic survivor error” and run to the exchanges, buying up tons of shitcoins. Alas, most cryptocurrencies bring only losses to their investors, but people do not write articles about such coins, they do not discuss them on forums and don’t make videos about them. It may seem that all the new cryptocurrencies grow many times, but it’s easy to see the opposite, by buying a few little-known currencies, just released on the exchange, or simply by watching their fate.

If a few years ago you could predict the exchange rate, simply by studying coin’s technical specifications, now market and speculation drive the price. Absolutely brilliant technology may never appear on the exchange, if the advertising campaign was not sufficiently aggressive and absolutely mediocre coin can “skyrocket” several hundred times, if it was successfully promoted. In this regard, it is hard to predict which currency will bring profit.

Another defining feature of modern cryptocurrencies is the lack of decentralization. Many have tried to solve the problems of scaling in classical cryptocurrencies , but for some reason, with increasing the number of transactions per second, control mechanisms often appear that destroy all decentralization. In addition, almost all modern cryptocurrencies have chosen Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm, which also has a number of unresolved issues. The good news (and, strangely bad at the same time) – it seems the community is not interested in such “trivia” as decentralization in cryptocurrencies, and what was the main idea of Bitcoin became an optional addition to modern coins.

NEM (XEM)

Cryptocurrency, using Proof-of-importance consensus algorithm. PoI, in fact, is a slightly more complicated PoS. A variety of tricks allow the network to process up to three thousand transactions per second (for comparison, Bitcoin’s maximum is 7 per second). The NEM (nem.io) currency positions itself as a substitute for the Ethereum, but it is not known how the network will behave under heavy loading.

IOTA

Created for the Internet of Things and thanks to the replacement of blockchain with a “directed acyclic graph” and an unlimitedly scalable cryptocurrency network. Opportunities of IOTA (iota.org) amaze the imagination, investors are full of optimism, only one feature of the network – the coordinator – somewhat overshadows the picture. Yes, this is a classic central server, through which the complete network control is performed. The coordinator, according to the developers, can be removed at any time, and as soon as the network gets stronger, they will do so, but to date the network is completely managed by the creators. We don’t know when the network will “get stronger” and developers will remove the coordinator. BTW, discover more on IoT ICO in our Atonomi ICO review.

EOS

“The Ethereum killer”, on which some investors have high hopes. Unlimited scalability, “free” transactions and ICO that lasts for a year. Many new entities, algorithms and non-obvious things are involved in the work. Developers often compare their creation with Ethereum, arguing that they have implemented everything better. This led to a heated discussion on Twitter with Buterin (creator of the Ethereum), in which Vitalik pointed out the shortcomings of EOS (eos.io) technology.

NEO

Chinese “Ethereum killer”. At first glance, it’s better in all respects, but 50% of all coins belong to developers, and the consensus algorithm is built on a small number of full-fledged nodes which validate transactions – something similar to Ripple. Although, the total centralization of Ripple did not prevent its rate growth, so that NEO (neo.org) has all the chances.

Summary

So, it’s not easy to choose the best altcoin to invest in 2018. Perhaps, at the time of writing this article, the best coin has not appeared yet. You need to carefully approach investment, carefully study the technology behind each coin, take risks into account and make an investment portfolio of several currencies. And try not to follow emotions – the cryptomarket likes people with a cold head and balls of steel.

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