Bitcoin might not be the only option to make money in the world of cryptocurrency in 2018. Keep reading to find out how 2017’s biggest players profited in this very volatile digital economy.
Bitcoin’s Not So Big-Coin Anymore!
While I feel that Bitcoin will be among the Top 3 cryptocurrencies for quite some time, it might not succeed as well as many have predicted. You see, Bitcoin has limitations being the first major digital coin. Creator Satoshi Nakamoto had a very accurate view of the future demands of cryptocurrency, but he did not necessarily factor in how Bitcoin would be used in that future. He did not factor in the sheer volume nor number of small trades. If he had done so, he would have coded a larger block size per mined block.
To put it simply, there are only 1,024 kilobytes of transactions processed per fresh block. This is a hard limit; if your transaction was not verified in the most recent block, you’ll have to wait until it’s picked up next. This could take 10 minutes or more! This results in transferrers increasing the “tip” they give the miners. It’s the equivalent of slipping the bouncer a 20-Dollar Bill for him to let you in the club before everyone else waiting in a horrendously long line.
Comparing Crypto to Credit: Transfers Per Second
The sum of that is that Bitcoin has long transfer times as well as costly transfer fees. Newer cryptocurrencies solve these integral problems and contribute so much more to the world of cryptocurrency! Newer coins are able to process nearly as fast as, for example, major credit card companies are able to approve transactions.
To provide another example, consider that VISA credit card approves an estimated 1,667 transactions per second. Bitcoin only approves 7 per second. This is simply unacceptable if we expect cryptocurrency to be a future expression of money transfer!
Newer coins boast many thousands of transactions per second. Some even take it a step further and claim to process tens of thousands per second. This is called scaling. A scale-able coin will meet the demands of future users, perhaps future generations. And these demands won’t necessitate a hard fork.
Welcome to the World of AltCoins in 2018
An AltCoin is simply any coin that is not Bitcoin. These newer coins play by a different set of rules. They also pose different restrictions. Absolutely no coin in existence is perfect. Even attention and investor interest is considered an imperfection if the coin does not have either of those!
2017 saw a surplus of altcoins hitting the market in the form of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). 2018 will see an even greater amount of ICOs. One trend I’ve been personally paying attention to is the industries that these coins are facilitating. For example, DentaCoin targets dental health care. SunContracts and SolarCoin target power creation. Steem rewards content publishers. I could go on for awhile!
2018 Will See Way More Niche Coins
Another coin that has caught my eye is TRON (TRX). Its creator Justin Sun envisions a future in which the apps a majority of people use every day are decentralized and reward its users equally. Websites such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and more do not reward their users for contributing content on their platforms. This is called decentralization; the biggest winners are those who created those services. TRON seeks to create a platform that rewards all users who publish content on it. This content can be music, articles, game guides, graphics, photographs, apps, and far more. As of 2017, creativity is not rewarded; the coins of 2018 will seek to reward those with creative skills! I use TRON as an example here, but this is just one of many.
Another coin in the pipeline is Telegram Open Network (TON) which boasts a freaking massive, dynamic, scaling blockchain that is (supposedly) prepared for a majority of the planet’s population to use. Its ICO is coming very soon and it’s expected to be the highest grossing ICO in cryptocurrency history.
Pay Attention to ICOs
ICOs won’t be around forever. I predict that there will be greater regulation in the world of offering coins to early investors. That would make 2018 the Wild Wild West. Don’t just pump money into any ICO, however, because you must absolutely do your research. Don’t be fooled by those stories documenting the tremendous successes of overnight millionaires. To be blunt, most of these newfound richie-rich’s had a very shaky faith that met a string of abundant luck.
However, it’s still very possible that there are yet to be millionaires in the making. The only piece of advice I can give is: invest in cryptocurrency in 2018 not for flashy fortunes but for favorable futures. Invest based on the future vision of a digital currency and not because you think it will get you rich.
My #1 Recommended Investment Strategy for 2018
Take a look at the Top 50, or Top 100 cryptocurrencies. Choose a division of those. For example, from Top 20 to Top 50. Or from Top 50 to Top 100. Or from Top 1 to Top 25. It’s up to you. Anyway, put an equal amount of investments in each of them. I wrote an expansive guide on this exact topic that you should read. As someone experienced in 2017, this sort of investment diversification was tremendously rewarding…. 50X+ rewarding to be exact! While 2018 might not be as prosperous, I think it’s safe to say you’ll experience some success following this type of diversified investment strategy. Just document every single trade you make and check back often to see if there’s a surprising top performing coin that you could invest more in.
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