We all like money, or, at least, we all need some to be able to comfortably navigate this life.
Obviously block chain and crypto currencies offer tremendous upside and also risk - just look at the last 6 months. Many of us, did not catch the block-fever until November/December and have bought at peak prices, only to see a huge retracement.
Despite of this, I am a very bullish blockchain investor, but I am also value oriented. With a family, I have to give some fucks, so the last several months, I have been researching some alternative ways to invest in crypto and make some passive income, in the form of "dividends".
Below is a short review of the projects that I like the most. I know there are many more out there, and feel free to comment on the ones that you like the most, or, that you think offers the most promise.
As a side note, there are several exchange-tokens out there that offer you discounts when trading. While they certainly have a place, I feel they are more valuable to people who trade a lot. I tend to buy and hodl.
Lets get to the meat.
NEO - Basically China's answer to Ether. It is a platform on which to build your blockchain. Holding Neo in a compatible wallet, will net you GAS. GAS is used to power transactions in the NEO ecosystem and you can either buy GAS, or simply earn it by POS (Proof of Stake).
VEN - VeChain works much like NEO, and you get "dividends" in the form of THOR. VEN has been around for a while and work with various industries in authenticating the products that they sell. They work with luxury goods/pharma and other industries, where you need to be able to vouch for the authenticity.
ARK - Ambitious project that essentially has developed its own blockchain and will also build Dapps on top. Furthermore they want to be able to bridge the different blockchains out there, which will need to be addressed in the future, as companies building on one blockchain, may not easily be able to interact with companies on another. ARK seeks to solve this.
You earn money by voting for a witness via DPOS (Delegated Proof of Stake). The top witnesses get to decide in what direction to take ARK.
DigixDao - Here is a fun one for you! DAO holds gold! Yes - they actually have a vault with lots and lots of gold in Singapore. When gold is traded, part of the commission is distributed to the holders of DAO. You are basically investing in a crypto company and gold at the same time.
OMG - OmiseGo is a decentralized exchange. It will pay you back based on POS. Not only will OMG pay back part of the transaction fees on the exchange to its token holders, they will also pay you back a part of the transaction fees that happens on the blockchain, meaning there are two ways to get paid. Ambitious and exciting project.
TaaS - Token as a Service is basically a fund. They invest in crypto currencies and ICO's, and they pay out 50% of their profit on a quarterly basis. It allows for an easy entry point into the daunting world of crypto, and their trading platform is topnotch and allows for members to trade and use advanced analysis. They also keep a portion of BTC as a back up, and it is where they have the highest leverage.
Steem - Most of us are here because of it. Great and innovative way to enable users to earn money. You can literally just sell your vote and watch the income flow.
Except Steem, I do not own any of the above companies. I have researched these and they all offer something that I find interesting, and I plan to eventually get some exposure to them.