If in 2017 we witnessed a Bitcoin rise cementing its position as our crypto gold, in the future it’s plain to see that we’ll be worshiping blockchain smart contract platforms like Ethereum.
Here are the top 25:
| Name | Sym. | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | BTC | Digital gold |
| Ethereum | ETH | Programmable contracts and money |
| Bitcoin Cash | BCH | Bitcoin clone |
| Ripple | XRP | Enterprise payment settlement network |
| Litecoin | LTC | Faster Bitcoin |
| Dash | DASH | Privacy-focused Bitcoin clone |
| NEO | NEO | Chinese-market Ethereum |
| NEM | XEM | Batteries-included digital assets |
| Monero | XMR | Private digital cash |
| Ethereum Classic | ETC | Ethereum clone |
| IOTA | MIOTA | Internet-of-things payments |
| Qtum | QTUM | Ethereum contracts on Bitcoin |
| OmiseGO | OMG | Banking, remittance, and exchange |
| Zcash | ZEC | Private digital cash |
| BitConnect | BCC | Madoff-like investment fund |
| Lisk | LSK | Decentralized applications in JavaScript |
| Cardano | ADA | Layered currency and contracts |
| Tether | USDT | Price = 1 USD |
| Stellar Lumens | XLM | Digital IOUs |
Ethereum and NEO are among the most interesting because they represent blockchain platforms where smart contracts with AI can occur, and transaction speeds that can scale across industries. As such, they transcend the genre of crypto, and reach into the soul of blockchain for a new model humans could use to build a more transparent, decentralized and free society.
Ethereum’s market cap is on the way up, and as it scales its transaction frequency it can become something altogether unprecedented.
If altcoins are not always trustworthy, and if ICOs even can sometimes be fraudulent, a blockchain platform is trustworthy in a world that doesn’t trust changing governments and rising and falling corporations, all of which amount to short-term interests.
Even with many firms becoming blockchain as a service providers, Ethereum remains an attractive option for firms seeking secure transactions. Ethereum’s founder recently spoke about a three to four year long-term plan for Ethereum.
When one of the world leaders in blockchain is a 23-year old, there’s a sense that we are in uncharted horizons of what the future might bring. Once the scalability problem is solved, Ethereum has the possibility of becoming one of the key blockchain platforms of the future, or could be overtaken by Chinese equivalent, NEO.
Blockchain can solve our collective epidemic of trust, and as wealth inequality keeps pushing young people down, it’s more badly needed than ever to be solved in the challenging next two decades or rapid technological change and automation.
If Bitcoin has a somewhat shady reputation among GenX, regulators, police authorities and as a means of covert exchange of funds on the dark web, Ethereum has a totally different aura, possibility and probably, another destiny altogether.
