Hey, guys, it's Niko here (also known as Omni Finn in the construction business).
You might have known me mostly from my travel blog, which I just recently picked up again after many years of "being too busy to write." But most likely you don't know me at all, and I want to change that!
Traveling is my true passion, but this time around I would like to try to write about something different.
Disclaimer:
I am not a professional investor or a cryptocurrency expert and this is not investment advice. It is merely my humble opinion and (over)simplified view of how things are in the cryptoverse so take of it what you will and most importantly do your own research!
I have been interested in Bitcoin for many years (since the infamous Mt. Gox times in 2014) but I just bought into my first investments earlier this year (2017).
Since I'm a beginner myself, I will try and include informative links in my posts to help others who want to explore this magnificent field of investment opportunities.
I'm doing this for fun and I hope it can help others. If you think my information is not accurate or you would like to add something, please let me know in the comments. I am always hungry to learn more!
At the moment, my investing capability is limited, to say the least, so I will be focusing mostly on the cheaper, more easily attainable altcoins, while recognizing Bitcoin as the ultimate store of value (for this day and age).
My favorite exchanges for the time being are Bitstamp for EUR -> BTC and Bittrex for everything else (not advertising, just a happy user).
I think that's enough with the disclaimer. Let's get on with the topic!
(A quick guide to getting in crypto investing)
My investment plan in short:
- I research interesting altcoins.
- I pick my favorites and buy maybe 5-10 different ones.
- I keep buying steadily and never sell at a loss using a technique commonly referred to as Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA).
- I put profits in Bitcoin and HODL for dear life.
My basic criteria for any coin I buy (PPS):
- Purpose (Is the coin solving or at least trying to solve a problem? What would people use it for that doesn't have a better alternative?)
- Proven (How does the past of the coin look like? Is it a pump & dump or a long term investment?)
- Sustainable (Does the coin have a contingency plan? Would it be easily made obsolete or would it thrive in competition?)
I recognize that ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) are potentially a great investment opportunity but I personally prefer the proven coins (at least one year track record) for more secure returns. Doing ICOs will require a lot more research and possibly connections so I won't be getting into those at this moment.
I also know any coin, even the shittier ones, have the potential to make a lot of profit in the short term. This is commonly referred to as timing the market. I'm not interested in day trading, but if it sounds like fun to you, I imagine it is a very good way to make a lot of money fast but it won't be easy money.
I favor coins that are decentralized and open source.
These are my favorite cryptocurrencies to date (12th AUG 2017). Some of them I hold, some of them I simply keep an eye on. I have included links to the coins' official web pages, white papers and their respective coinmarketcap and GitHub pages where applicable. I use Coinmarketcap to quickly get an idea which of the currencies are moving up or down.
I have also written up a short TL;DR'ish explanation for each coin from my own perspective as to why I like them.
0. Bitcoin (BTC)
| white paper | coinmarketcap | GitHub |
I am just going to mention Bitcoin here as a "prequel" for all the other cryptocurrencies due to the fact that you still need to own some Bitcoin to buy a lot of the altcoins.
Also, I feel like it should be mentioned here, that due to Bitcoin's inbuilt scarcity, I strongly feel it is the superior store of value right now (yes, better than gold).
That's why I think it's a good idea to invest in altcoins but store profits in Bitcoin. If you take a look at the long term development of Bitcoin price, you will understand, that despite its often cited volatility risk, Bitcoin has been consistently developing its value despite the naysayers.
This picture depicts the inevitable paradigm shift: Bitcoin simply can't be ignored anymore.
- Purpose | Store of value (savings accounts, retirement funds, piggy banks)
- Proven | Have you seen the chart?
- Sustainable | Can possibly die to competition later but not very likely as the development of Bitcoin is very active and new updates such as Segwit2x and Bitcoin Lightning network proposal are been worked on and released constantly.
The Bad: It's not user-friendly, yet. But then again none of the cryptocurrencies are.
10. Voxels (VOX)
| About Voxelus | coinmarketcap | GitHub |
Voxelus is an interesting project and as altcoins, Voxels are very different from the others. You should understand that this coin is meant to be used as in-game money, a concept that might be familoar to you from free-to-play and freemium games.
Basically, how it works is you buy some Voxels with your "regular" money and then use Voxels in the in-game store to buy virtual reality building blocks or 3D-models others have made. You can then use the 3D-models you bought (and some are free) to build your own virtual reality world, much like Minecraft. This also gives freelance artists a way to monetize their work that they might do for free anyhow.
I certainly believe that Virtual Reality is the future of gaming and we already have the success story of Minecraft to convince me people want to build virtual worlds.
From my understanding, Voxelus has been struggling with accusations of being a scam coin due to it's pre-mined and centralized nature. However, it would appear there is a very real and professional developer team behind it and it has even been chosen to feature in Google's virtual store so there might be something here. After all, it is designed to work more like a fiat money with the exception that the maximum supply of Voxels is already set at 210 million.
- Purpose | In-game money for a promising VR-gaming platform
- Proven | [Has already experienced one boom and crash; depending on the platform implementation, price could soon start climbing.
- Sustainable | Depends entirely on the success of the Voxelus VR-gaming platform.
The Bad: Fully pre-mined and centralized, which means the success of the coin depends entirely on the Voxelus team.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post!
If you liked my post, would you leave a comment so I can add you to my network? If you don't like it, would you please tell me to spend my free time on something else down in the comments? Thank you!
Photo credit of the first photo goes to my good friend Photographer Veli-Matti Kantonen.
NEXT POST (Top 9-6 Cryptocurrencies)