2019 Coin Radar Part 1/2
Last year I spent most of my time reading up on blockchain technology and the crypto-space. I’ve gone deep into crypto twitter, discord, telegram and found great materials on medium, theblockcrypto, coindesk. While my portfolio was loosing money all through 2018, my brain gained in knowledge all through that same year. I feel much better prepared to invest in legit projects this year, and I also think the space itself has developed in a positive and solid direction. Just like Altcoin Trader Nik did last month here, I wanna publicize the coins I have on my radar for 2019. I hope I can look at this list with a satisfactory smile again in Jan 2020.
TL,DR: I’d like to buy BTC / ETH / DASH / XCZ / GIN / XEL / MARC / BLOCK / SWM / SPANK
Bitcoin (BTC) Price: ~3.500 USD MCap: 62 Billion USD Rank: #1
Obviously, Bitcoin is King (52% Market Dominance) and will remain king. The way bitcoin was conceived 10 years ago, sets it up for success against its crypto competitiors. The way central banks and politicians undermine economic fundamentals by printing FIAT money, its set up for success against central bank issued paper. The way its uncensorable digital gold sets it up for success with everyone else.
Ethereum (ETH) 0.03 BTC MCap: 12 Billion USD Rank: #2-3
An update in form of a hard fork to the ethereum blockchain is coming on Jan 16th. There are a ton of changes coming up with reduced blockrewards leading pack. Other changes include reduced gas fees, more effective state channels, all of which should bode well, for one of the most used and most innovative blockchains out there.
Dash (DASH) 0.02 BTC MCap: 600 Million USD Rank: #15
I was not a big fan of Dash until I recently got more and more into the Masternode space and found beauty in the economics of MN-networks like Dash. More importantly though, Dash has found great success as medium of exchange in Venezuela. With the surging inflation, the local governments grip on bank accounts and the bolivars uncertain future being pegged to a centrally controlled e-currency, people in Venezuela are flocking towards decentralized cryptocurrencies in droves. Dash has seen massive growth with due to low fees and instant transactions. It’s a beautiful example and give Dash all the credit they deserve for enabling this monetary revolt. Plus, being the first Masternode innovator and having a market dominance in the MN space similiar to BTC in the whole crypto space, Dash is here to stay.
Zcoin (XCZ) 0.0015 BTC MCap: 30 Million USD Rank: #92
Zcoin was the first cryptocurrency to implement the zerocoin protocol, a privacy protocol proposed by Johns Hopkins University professor Matthew D. Green in 2013. It was an improvement proposal to the Bitcoin protocol, adding anonymity to Bitcoin transactions, which was eventually not implemented due to fears of undetectable malicious coin inflation. Zcoin has since addressed these concerns and just recently supported the elections of the Thai Democratic Party with blockchain technology. Zcoin looks to me like an idealistically run project by its Founder Poramin Insom, which huge upside potential.
Gin (GIN) 0.00025 BTC MCap: 4 Million USD Rank: #385
Read my article on GIN from a few days back. In just 16 days the node count on GIN has gone up by 13%, with the GIN platform now hosting 6750 Masternodes. All these hosting fees are paid in GIN, which should put supply and demand at an equilibrium latest when the emission halvening hits in March. With licensed shared Masternode hosting on the horizon I expect the node count to rise even faster, which will push demand for GIN even more.
XEL (XEL) 0.000009 BTC MCap: 2 Million USD Rank: #485
XEL is another of those idealistic blockchain projects I love. While there are plenty of decentralized computing projects that have raised millions in funding during the last bull run, XEL is basically community run since its initial founder backed off from the project. In contrast to other projects XEL is itself a programming language that enables the avid user to code and verify the tasks run on a decentralized network by themselves. XEL has brought many new ideas, such as lower lock-rate with higher search space available to computation nodes, or individual work verification, that can bring loads of demand for computer resoureces, and therefore XEL, to the platform.
MarketArbitrageCoin (MARC) 0.0001 BTC MCap:7 Million USD Rank: n/a
Read my posts on MARC here and here. This is my gem going into 2019. The arbitraging platform is about two weeks away from going online. Locked coins in MNs increasing to 67%, with price doubling over last two weeks. While the idea of arbitraging and automated trading is not unique idea, the execution with a freely exchangeable masternode coin certainly is. The coin promises a handful with passive income from trading on top of masternode block rewards. The only competitor worth mentioning (ARB), which is centralized and possibly a scam coin has a full supply valuation of USD 30 Million. There are only 800.000 coins in circulation today. A great masternode coin with potential upside from rewards and automated trading.
Blocknet (BLOCK) 0.0004 BTC MCap: 7 Million USD Rank: #254
Similar to the much-hyped and ultra-well financed Polkadot protocol, which does not have a working product, Blocknet is a community governed project with a MVP for cross-chain interaction. While I admittedly don’t understand much of the tech, I can see an active community gathering around Blocknet that is eager to vote on the issues of the team lying ahead. I’m staying away from the project for now, as I haven’t been able to go through the tech as much as I wished, and want to wait for the impact the recent elections on budget and coin emission have. That being said, the interaction between devs and community as well as the progress that has been made in development are stunning and worth a close watch from my side.
Swarm Fund (SWM) 0.0004 BTC MCap: 10 Million USD Rank #225
I read the Swarm whitepaper after their ICO in 2017 and there was so much to like about it. I’m also convinced that tokenized securities or asset backed securities (ABS) are a big use case for blockchains and cryptocurrencies. I thought Swarm made great progress when I heard about the platform tokenizing exchange traded stocks of the Robin Hood investment platform. Recently, Swarm begun to have Masternodes running on their platform in beta mode. Disappointingly though, with the platform being 1+ year old, there are still only 6 investable funds listed on Swarm. I would have expected hundreds of options being offered by now. I do understand that Swarm wants to sail safe waters in terms of compliance and SEC approval, and hope that 2019 is the year Swarm can bring about new financial opportunities in a decentralized fashion.
SpankChain (SPANK) 0.000003 BTC MCap: 7 Million USD Rank: #267
It’s gonna be a make or brake year for SpankChain, a project set out to help adult content performers receive money in an censorship-resistant way. The platform has recently laid of 30% of its staff, after their raised funds are already running thin. Spank has also had a major setback, with their SpankBank being hacked in October and 30,000 USD being compromised. The whole hack had a fairly happy ending with the funds being recovered in return for a juicy bug bounty, but it did shake investors confidence in the technical abilities of the team. On the plus side, famous SpankChainer @brennasparksxxx, was voted a TOP10 influencer in blockchain-land by reputable news-outlet coindesk in 2018. SpankChain is now hard at work to monetize their payments tool to businesses in and outside of the cryptosphere, and shifting its focus from adult entertainment to business adoption of its tech. The looming question for SPANK remains why it needs to exists, and whether Bitcoin+Lightning can’t offer the same utility?
Click here for 2019 Coin Radar Part 2/2