Which Cryptocurrencies are Hot?
Hey, you heard about Bitcoin right. And you definitely heard about it on the news.
If you haven’t heard about it or want to know more about bitcoin read this article Bitcoin makes Dental Practice 1000x More Profitable.
Now that you are most definitely curious about Cryptocurrencies, you want to know how you can get in on this action. Grab a piece of this delicious apple pie (or sometimes very sour pie like in the beginning of 2018).
Look no further my friend. Here is my list of 9 Crypto Coins that are hot and unique right now! Did you know, there is even a Dental Coin (DentaCoin). Find out if it’s something worth exchanging for your hard-earned dough?
Just a heads up. I break down the 9 coins into three categories:
- Coins that are worth investing in
- Coins that are intriguing and you should watch closely
- Coins you should AVOID because of some Fundamental Flaw in Tech or because it’s just a really DUMB idea.
Coins Worth Buying
DASH
Dentists and dental insurances have a big problem, transaction speeds and cost.
You know when you bill the patient for a dental filling and you have to wait 2 to 4 weeks and sometimes even longer for an insurance cheque. Well Bitcoin has the potential to make transactions such as these faster. However, Bitcoin is still not that fast.
It can sometimes take up to a day or two to clear bigger payments. Moreover, there is huge fee per transaction which exists to incentivize miners (Bitcoin clearinghouses) to add your transactions to the ledger. This fee can average around $9 USD (March, 2018) per transaction.
Dash is a possible solution to both of these problems. Dash transactions are confirmed in four seconds and the average transaction fee is only $0.4 USD (March, 2018). Of course, as Dash becomes popular we will have to see if the fees increase.
Another significant problem with Bitcoin is that big changes to the platform’s code require hard-forks which means that Bitcoin is split into two different branches which are then maintained independently. This is how the new Bitcoin Cash and then Bitcoin Gold were born. Dash is principally different. It has a voting system in place so that important changes can be implemented quickly.
Lastly, Dash development is self-funded. 45 percent of newly created Dash goes to the miners, and 45 percent to masternodes. The rest — 10 percent — goes to a treasury for funding the development team, marketing, customer support centers, and so forth.
ETH
Ethereum is more than just a cryptocurrency. Like an operating system, Ethereum allows developers to build apps that can run on the Ethereum network. This makes it possible to build apps that enable real-estate buying and selling, negotiate contracts between parties without trust and optimize money transfers between dental insurance company, the dentist and patients.
Unlike traditional apps, data on the Ethereum Network is stored on the blockchain so trust doesn’t have to be placed in a centralized institution like a bank or a private company. And theoretically, transactions can be cleared much faster than in traditional systems.
Ethereum, like Bitcoin, is fueled by a crypto token called Ether which can be bought, sold, held or used on the network to power the applications.
Coins To Watch
WAVES
Waves is like Kickstarter for new cryptocurrencies.
Do you have a cool new token idea that you believe will introduce a killer feature that everyone needs. Well, you are going to need to raised funds to develop and market this new currency. To build a community and raise funds, look no further, WAVES has it all.
You can launch ICOs (Initial coin offerings are synonymous to Initial public offerings that companies make when entering the open markets) to fund your projects from around the world in a matter of minutes, without going through intensive cryptocurrency coding. This will make life easier for startups and open up a new era of community-backed projects.
TRX
What is the purpose behind Tron?
This promising coin claims to enable users to freely store, own, and publish data. This aims to create a decentralized content distribution platform. It’s like having an iCloud or Dropbox account on the blockchain. You can imagine how this platform would be great for serving content where censorship and/or strict laws prevent access to certain data and services.
NEO
NEO anticipates that we are all moving towards a smart economy where all assets are digitized.
However, with trading and exchanging assets happening virtually how will governance still occur. Imagine, if you couldn’t tell who owns the house next door to you. How will they be taxed and the roads around your house maintained. What about schools, hospitals, fire and police departments in your neighborhood. Who will be responsible for paying for the maintenance of these vital institutions and services?
NEO places particular emphasis on staying regulatory compliant. By having a Digital Identity, you have verified ownership of assets and a link between a virtual commodity and a real person. This allows us to have a function society where shared services that benefit all can still happen.
Mind you, this is a bit of a touchy subject in the crypto world as anonymity is a huge aspect of owning and buying things with crypto. See Monero.
OMG
OmiseGO describes itself as: “The answer to a fundamental coordination problem amongst payment processors, gateways and financial institutions”.
The goal of the platform is not so much to be a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin or Dogecoin, but rather to offer users an alternative to online exchanges.
The problem with current exchanges is that, in order to buy a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin you have to exchange from a Fiat Currency (USD, CAD) first. There are many exchanges, however a lot of them have recently gone up in smoke or had huge amounts of crypto stolen.
So sticking to a reliable crypto exchanges such as Coinbase or GDAX is probably best. This fundamentally limits you to a selection of popular crypto that are supported on thse exchanges. OMG solves this by becoming an intermediary currency that can be exchanges for any crypto. OMG’s value is primarily in its liquidity as a security.
CHAINLINK
CHAINLINK, as a coder and a dentist, is one of the most exciting cryptos out there.
Most smart contracts that seek to mimic or replace securities, insurance and most other financial agreements, will require access to off-chain resources such as data feeds, APIs and any other sort of resource which exists outside of a blockchain network. Think weather patterns, political outcomes, etc. So for instance, let’s say you and I are betting 1 Bitcoin on the weather for tomorrow in Toronto, Canada. You believe that peak temperature will be more than 20* Celsius tomorrow. If you are right, you get 1 Bitcoin and if I am right I get
Oracles are the necessary middleware that provide this access/functionality to Ethereum smart contracts. With oracles, it is possible to provide programmable contracts that do payouts between two parties once certain criteria have been met, without involving a middleman.
Coins to Avoid
Dentacoin
The opposite of multi-purpose multi-functional currency like Ether or Bitcoin is Dentacoin.
It is not a revolution like the creators say on the website and at best it is a very complex gift voucher or a rewards point card. This loyalty-type card has been around of centuries and there is no need for such a system to exist on the blockchain.
Seriously, Dentacoin token is a security with all the legal risk that comes with it with almost none of the benefits.
XRP
Bitcoin incentivizes people to dedicate computer resources to powering the network by rewarding them with cryptocurrency. To avoid a situation where “Bitcoin miners” have a stake in the network’s operation, Ripple instead issues tokens itself, transforming the company’s role into something more akin to a central bank. Investopedia notes that because the company already created all the 100 billion XRP tokens (holding around 62 percent of those for itself), it doesn’t accumulate value like other deflationary assets where the supply increases.
**Disclaimer: This is all analysis based on my opinions. Consult your financial advisor before investing your hard-earned money on anything you read about on the internet. Obviously! **
Comment about which coins your are your favorite and which do you own?
