Table of Contents

1. The Altcoin Hierarchy

• • The Penny Stocks of Crypto
  • Average Coins
  • Good Coins
  • Very Good Coins
  • Top Tier Cryptocurrencies

2. Promising Projects Going Into the New Year

• • Kinesis
  • VeChain
  • IOTA
  • ICON ICX
  • Enjin
  • EOS
  • Nebulas
  • Sky

3. Crypto Investment Predictions for 2019

• • More Pullbacks
  • A Flood of Institutional Investors
  • Mass adoption of crypto by consumers

4. Gold Is Still The Standard

5. The Near Future

 

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Looking back on recent years, it seems as if major investors and financial institutions were shifting their views toward bitcoin and altcoins. Worldwide media attention highlighted the massive returns in the strongest markets for cryptocurrencies, with many coins rising more than 100 times since their creation. This has undoubtedly drawn the interest of both existing investors and newcomers. All are currently waiting to see if cryptocurrencies will succeed on their journey to new all-time highs. 

2017 turned out to be a tumultuous year, with most cryptocurrencies soaring to new all-time highs by the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. Cryptocurrency media reporting was nonstop, with nearly regular news stories on financial programs. Additionally, several movies and TV shows have discussed cryptocurrency, including, “Silicon Valley,” a technology-oriented series. So far, 2018 has seen a major pullback in the cryptocurrency markets. With bitcoin, which is considered by many to be the best cryptocurrency to invest in, many of the smaller altcoins are down over 90%, and down over 60% from their all-time peaks. 

Even with the overall pullback on the market, several investors are heading into 2019 still feeling very confident in cryptocurrencies. Many big-name companies are jumping headlong into investing in cryptocurrencies, with NYSE announcing a new crypto-exchange, BAAKT. Fidelity has also revealed a crypto-support program to its clients. The iconic Ivy League University, Yale, has revealed a new investment fund of $400M targeted toward cryptocurrencies. 

With so much bullish news quickly piling up, virtually everyone seems to predict a very lucrative year for cryptocurrency heading into 2019. Although bitcoin is still the market leader, there are some big-name altcoins that are planning a huge year in 2019.

 

1. The Altcoin Hierarchy

Let’s go through the basic groups of cryptocurrencies that exist in the market before we get into cryptocurrency investment. Although each class has the potential to have amazing returns, some coins have more professional and supported development teams and more amazing use cases and concepts than others do. Quite obviously, not all altcoins have been produced the same.

The Penny Stocks of Cryptocurrency

These are the bottom-tier altcoins that could soon become worthless. They work just like penny stocks, advertising big “guaranteed-income” claims. Many ultimately fail to produce a fraction of their expected returns. One way to classify these cryptos is to look at their team members, their previous experiences, the project priorities, the probability of mass acceptance, the real use of the coins, and much more. 

The reasons for their failure are generally due to the inability to work for the dream they once claimed in the first place, weak asset management, the involvement of scammers in their team, unrealistic project goals, and even pumping-and-dumping schemes. Trumpcoin, Russia Coin, and Verge are some of those coins.

Average Coins

Currently, there are more than 2K cryptocurrencies listed on the „coinmarketcap“ website. There are about 500 that can be considered „ordinary“. 

These are the coins that have a purpose/objective to work on but do not have a strong development team to manage them. Their coins have no place whatsoever on the cryptocurrency market and fail to finalize any kind of legitimate deals or partnerships with good investors. This makes their output very low, compared to other altcoins on the market. Some of those are Deep Brain Row, Funfair, Decred, Navcoin, Cryptonex, and Populous.

Good Coins

There are about 500 good coins on the market that have a good project target, a strong team with good experience in executing these tasks, a good marketing plan to reach out to the masses to share their ideas, and quality connections to create some successful collaborations on the market. 

The only reason they’re only known as „good coins“ is because of the lack of individuality provided by the other „really good coins.“ They really do not have a USPs (Unique Selling Points) in their project/product, which distinguishes them from their counterparts. Some of these are NEM, Monero, Stratis, and BAT.

Very Good Coins

About 100 of these „very good coins“ are on the market. With a strong team, their priorities are well established to fulfil their tasks perfectly. Their marketing departments are often well qualified to get their innovations to reach the public. Thanks to this combination, they can establish better and deeper relationships with a variety of successful commercial partners. 

It is their USPs (Unique Selling Points) that distinguish them from the „good coins“ group. What they are doing is special, and that makes all the difference. Some of these are NEO, Stellar, Cardano, and Ripple.

Top-Tier Cryptocurrencies

These are the top-tier coins, which offer the best features. They have real-world use, priorities to solve real-world problems, powerful fundamental teams to carry out the project’s mission, and marketing teams to spread the idea and work with a variety of media outlets. 

Furthermore, they have a really close relationship with a lot of Fortune 500 companies, thanks to a successful PR department, which gives them an additional advantage over the majority of other projects in the industry. These include VeChain, Ethereum, Bitcoin, IOTA, Icon, EOS, and Kinesis.

 

2. Promising Projects in the New Year

With more than 2K cryptocurrencies on the crypto-market, only a few hundred of them qualify as a top-tier investment. Finding a worthwhile idea amongst thousands of options can be quite a challenge. A knowledgeable and prudent investor should always look into the details before investing in any company or project. Some ventures that show a lot of potential going into 2019 are listed below. 

Kinesis

This is one of the most exciting future blockchain and cryptocurrency projects. The coin’s broad outline is to provide an alternative to the present-day basic monetary and banking structure. 

Kinesis stablecoins are cryptocurrencies backed by precious metals, such as gold and silver. According to the company’s CEO, Thomas Coughlin, „The Kinesis coin is essentially divisible units of allocated gold and silver, which you can use as currency.“ 

There will be two gold- and silver-backed Kinesis stablecoins on the market: those backed by gold are tagged as „KAU“, while those backed by silver are tagged as „KAG.“ 

Stablecoins backed by precious metals are true game-changers because these two precious metals are proven stores of value for true world economies to use for trade and investment. 

The Kinesis stablecoins run on a bespoke blockchain, a blockchain network that has been forked off from the Stellar Blockchain Technology to fulfil their requirements. 

Thomas Coughlin heads the cryptocurrency project. He has 15 years of finance, fund management, and capital markets expertise. He also held similar roles with Bullion Capital and TRAC Financial Group before becoming the CEO of Kinesis. 

In addition to Thomas Coughlin, the team has many fantastic leaders. Some of them are:

• Michael Coughlin, Chief Financial Officer, who has 41 years‘ experience as a CPA in the fields of accountancy and financial services. 
• Eric Maine, Chief Strategy Officer, with more than 30 years of senior exchange and financial-market management experience. 
• Ryan Case, Head of Sales & Trading, has vast experience as the Head of Securities Trading & Alliance, and relevant expertise in commodities, bitcoin, forex, and financial markets, as well. 
• Jai Bifulco, Chief Marketing Officer, has a full 12 years of experience in finance as an award-winning, full-stack marketer. He previously held management positions in various industries, such as brokerages, consultancy, and fintech. 

Additionally, within this project, there are more than 30 different team members. Their positions span from the Executive Committee to the Operations and Development team and the Advisory Board. 

In order to raise startup funds, Kinesis are selling their Kinesis Velocity Tokens. Compared to other cryptocurrencies, these coins - which are not the gold- and silver-backed Kinesis stablecoins - are very small in number. The soft cap is limited to only 15K KVTs, while the hard cap is limited to 300K KVTs. The minimum token one can buy is set to 1 KVT, at the price of $1K. 

Over 57K KVT tokens have been sold so far, which is approximately equivalent to a whopping $57M, which is more than enough as a financial basis to launch and let the project growth. 

Beyond the investments raised, Kinesis’ stablecoins leverage also on collaborations with cryptocurrency industry’s top companies. These include ABX (Allocated Bullion Exchange), MLG (Blockchain Consulting), Sigma Prime, Etherlabs, and Fine Metal Asia Limited, among others. Kinesis is definitely a project to consider when deciding which cryptocurrency to invest in.

VeChain

In layman’s terms, Vechain is a supply-chain protocol for monitoring logistics inventories. It has successfully deployed blockchain technology in different sectors, such as agriculture, luxury goods, and liquor. They basically aim to solve real-life problems by offering solutions in various fields, such as: 

1. Logistics: VeChain utilizes the blockchain technology in this sector to enhance the flow of information from one department to another by breaking silos while preserving the privacy of each department’s data. 
2. Governance: More than 111 VeChain nodes are distributed around the world. The local administrations operate as nodes in the VeChain blockchain network. The VeChain blockchain network provides decentralization and protection against data theft, thereby allowing an open exchange of information. This increases the local government‘s performance. 

The tools used to control logistics are: 

1. • Assigning digital identities to physical products that can be stored on the VeChain blockchain network 
   • Use of RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) 
   • NFC (Near-Field Communication) 
   • Proof-of-Authority Consensus 
   • In-House Temperature-Controlled Tracking 
   • Quick Response Codes (QR Codes) 

Some of VeChain’s partners are PricewaterhouseCoopers, DNV GL, Renault Group, KUEHNE + NAGEL, D.I.G., China Unicom, and China’s State Monopoly Tobacco Administration. Every single organization that VeChain is collaborating with has millions of customers who are integrated into their network using the VeChain technology. This helps the VeChain coin address real-life problems and gain mass acceptance. 

In the logistics industry, VeChain does make a significant difference. Nevertheless, given the kind of chaos that the entire crypto market is facing, in which VeChain’s overall market cap has dropped from $800T to just about $200T, no one can provide any kind of guarantee about the returns on your cryptocurrency asset investment. However, stablecoins, such as Kinesis, have a scheme of reward yields that allow its investors to still make a profit — even if the market crashes for a short period of time.

IOTA

IOTA has the power to streamline transactions. It does not use the conventional blockchain technology for its design and development. In reality, IOTA is using a new platform called „Tangle Technology.“ Tangle Technology deploys a mathematical framework called Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG) that addresses the issues of scalability and transaction fees that cryptocurrencies based on the blockchain face. With IOTA, each node present in DAG Tangle must accept the previous two transactions that occurred on the other node for a transaction to be legitimate. Additionally, this method eliminates the mining risks and provides maximum decentralization to the system. 

With the impressive outcome of IOTA in mind, there is promising potential for it in different applications and networks in the very near future. In the future world, where cryptocurrencies could be vulnerable to quantum computers, IOTA will stand tall and distinct. IOTA deals with several enterprises. Some include Bosch, Volkswagen, Fujitsu, Accenture, Poyry, etc. So far, when viewed from a macro-perspective, IOTA appears to be free, scalable, and fast, thereby making it next to perfect. However, if you own IOTA, you’ll have very low chances of liquidating it into fiat currency, e.g. with a „debit card“ and thus purchasing something from a grocery store. To fill this void of allowing in-store purchases and thus becoming a global currency, Kinesis is going to launch its Kinesis Debit Card, which allows Kinesis token-holders to trade their tokens against local fiat currencies while buying goods from a grocery store — something that IOTA does not do.

ICON ICX

ICON is a company based in South Korea that develops blockchain technology and supports the cryptocurrency ICX. ICON is a network architecture designed to allow the interaction of independent blockchains with one another. This allows linked blockchain networks to engage in a dynamically converging, open structure. 

The ICX token was created on the Ethereum blockchain network. ICON created a loop-chain network that links various blockchain societies through the ICON Republic, thereby serving as the governing head of other autonomous blockchain bodies in the Federation. All the communities are linked to the Republic through C-Reps (Community Representatives), who then connect to Nexus. C-Reps function to create a link with Nexus as portals to the communities. 

ICON is believed to have plans to provide financial, security, insurance, healthcare, and educational industries platforms helping them carry out transactions over a single network. ICON (ICX) has a bright future ahead. It also succeeded in signing a collaboration contract with tech-giant Samsung, in which the latter will use ICON’s own Chain ID for a new Samsung project named „Samsung Pass.“ Besides Samsung, ICON signed deals with the Portal Network and the W Foundation as well.

However, it is noteworthy that ICON is installed on the Ethereum network and is a token of the ERC20. Therefore, the transaction speed will depend heavily on the Ethereum network. Ethereum can perform 15 transactions per second, which is fairly small, in terms of what ICON (ICX) is aiming for. However, to fill the void, Kinesis bespoken blockchain will offer a whopping speed of 3K transactions per second.

Enjin

The Enjin Network‘s native cryptocurrency, the Enjin Coin (popularly known as simply „ENJ“), joins the ERC20 token format and is used within a smart contract-based framework. Its usual users include gaming community content creators, game developers, and other participants who need to use virtual tokens to handle and exchange virtual products in the gaming world. 

The ENJ acts as an ERC20-compliant token in compliance with the guidelines enforced by the Ethereum contract. It is used on a dedicated platform, designed to promote the development of open-source software kits (SDKs), applications, plug-ins, and payment gateways. As for its users, they can participate easily on the Enjin Network to produce, launch, manage, and exchange content and game-related goods, without having to deal with the technological complexities. 

The ENJ is supposed to address some performance issues by using similar cryptocurrencies that are on the market today, e.g. payment frauds, in which products are not distributed, sluggish transaction processes, the lack of virtual goods ownership, the lack of transaction standards, and centralization problems. The ENJ coin was built on a blockchain and would, according to its developers, create a distributed, trustworthy, and secure system in which transactions can be performed smoothly and quickly with minimal transaction fees. The unified and autonomous mechanism must ensure that all offers and deals are honoured. 

The Enjin Coin is fine, in general. It helps bring the advantages of blockchain to millions of virtual products market participants. Its developers work hard to protect the gaming industry from fraud. It’s still a fairly new project, though. Its future is unpredictable. This means you still have to be extremely vigilant and smart when investing or using it.

EOS

EOS is considered to be one of the best cryptocurrencies to be used by many people who participate in the virtual product’s market. It is backed by a strong decentralized application network. In essence, the EOS blockchain is used for the creation, execution, and hosting of digitally traded decentralized applications (dApps). 

The EOS device consists of two main elements — namely, the EOS.IO, and the EOS token. As for the former, it works in the management and control of the EOS blockchain, like a computer’s operating system, by utilizing an interface that makes horizontal and vertical dApps. As for the latter, tokens are kept (instead of spent) to create, run, and trade devices, as well as to use EOS network resources. Although EOS is still not officially fully formed, it supports all core functionalities to allow individuals and businesses to build blockchain-based apps and trade them. As with Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store, it also runs on a web toolkit for app creation. 

While there are already many related Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies, the EOS program concentrates on the blockchain’s essential and problematic points. Specifically, it aims to address the scalability, speed, and consistency problems that sometimes cause transaction processes to slow down, which is a common problem in blockchain-based systems. According to its developers, EOS.IO may also fix other problems that come with the ever-increasing scale of the dApps ecosystem, such as limited resource availability, restricted networks, spamming, fake transactions, and limited processing capacity. It is said that by using asynchronous communication methodologies and parallel execution across its network, it can accommodate thousands of commercial-scale dApps without reaching performance bottlenecks. 

EOS is a very sophisticated device. It’s built with regular blockchain-based networks to solve common problems. Just like many emerging virtual market cryptocurrency platforms today, it still has some weak points, along with the added uncertainty of vulnerability, as users tend to hold onto the tokens until they are eligible to exchange.

Nebulas

Nebulas (NAS) is a next-generation blockchain and is open to decentralized application (dApps) development for public collaborations. The adaptability and scalability are the two features that could propel NAS to become one of the top cryptocurrencies, thereby giving it the leverage it needs to compete in the sector. 

Nebula technology is the first cryptocurrency operating on a third-generation blockchain, thereby dominating the current platform. That makes Nebulas highly versatile and scalable and gives their code strong leverage in future-proofing. This may help prevent forking if such problems occur during the scaling process. 

Adaptability, scalability, and searchability are three of the biggest opportunities that NAS promises to deliver. It can allow adaptation of other Nebula-based codes with its third-generation blockchain. This means that other cryptos can soon adapt to its platform. It can also serve as a search engine for the blockchain. It will encourage users to search for specific blockchains, based on their effectiveness and strength. Finally, its goal of offering equal opportunities for developers of the Decentralized Applications (dApps) is something that collaborators predict will come true. That means more developers are expected to come on board, thus further strengthening NAS. 

Nebulas (NAS) is a promising cryptocurrency in which to invest — in particular, due to its potential for adaptability, scalability, and searchability. This next-generation network provides cryptocurrency fluidity. However, it still lacks the consistency of value that Kinesis stablecoins carry. Unlike Kinesis, whose stablecoins are backed by real gold, NAS’ coins value is still unpredictable.

Sky

SkyCoin is a full blockchain-development environment program, which seeks to support the practical use of cryptocurrency. 

Sky has its own algorithm, the Obelisk, which uses the trust dynamics platform to disseminate power across the network to make a consensus decision. The decision of consensus depends on each node by valuing its score of control. Every node’s impact score is determined by the number of connected network nodes. This reflects the node’s significance to the network. In addition to the Obelisk, Sky also runs its own cryptocurrency (SkyCoin), its own ICO network (Fiber), a decentralized social-networking site (BBS), and a decentralized messenger (Sky-Messenger). 

Sky focuses its attention on being a complete blockchain-technology platform that facilitates the practical use of cryptocurrency. With its unique algorithm — which is affiliated with the Obelisk and some other dApps — Sky is a promising blockchain technology and could be regarded as the most complete as of today. 

Sky, SkyCoin, and the Obelisk are certainly a huge network, which can be regarded as a full cryptocurrency ecosystem, and its related technology. Nevertheless, the SkyCoin’s value relies on its node-influence scores, which may alter from time to time. This still makes Kinesis stablecoins a better option — particularly for investors who want straightforward, hassle-free investments.

 

3. Cryptocurrency Investment Forecasts for 2019

Although 2017 captivated the masses and saw massive sums of money invested in cryptocurrency, 2018 saw price drops and dwindling expectations. Although the 2017 returns surpassed anybody’s expectations, many expected a fast pullback. Whether this bear market persists from here or not is the real question facing many investors today.

The rapid rise and fall of bitcoin revealed several issues, and the creators of the top cryptocurrencies took note of it in 2019. When evaluating the best cryptocurrency to invest in for 2019, we expect the following factors will impact investments. According to Vellum Capital’s CEO, Eric Kovalak, cryptocurrencies’ values will hit new lows before they rise to new heights, which includes the market’s biggest cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin. Kovalak claims it will cost under $3,500 before it makes its way back up. However, there are still conflicting opinions on BTC’s current level, with some claiming the bottom of the crypto-markets has already been seen.

Due to bitcoin-based remittances, instability in global economies like Asia, Turkey, and Venezuela, and internet penetration, demand is rising, and the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies will grow.

A Storm of Institutional Investors

Institutional investors waited on the fence for the bitcoin-ETF. According to Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Capital, “Institutional fomo [Fear of Missing Out] will start entering the market once the ETF arrives.” 

Another factor is Kinesis, the cryptocurrency blockchain that offers a stable and safe alternative for investors. Pegged against precious metals, it provides protection from the uncertainty that may be caused by global turmoil.

Once you buy the digital currency, the Kinesis Monetary System lets you own physical gold or silver. Afterwards, the property is digitized and made available for spending, trading, and transfer. Even better, the monetary system can be used globally, meaning money around the world is safe. This is especially important after gold prices have risen dramatically following central banks QEs.

Widespread Customer Acceptance of Blockchain

Blockchain technology is expected to be 10 years old in January 2019. To date, it remains a risky investment, but 2019 may be the year of digital currency mass adoption.

Nevertheless, certain factors have to be present for this to happen:

1. • Speculation will become genuinely useful.
   • In daily life, people will use blockchain projects, so these can achieve widespread adoption.
   • Decentralized apps (DApps) need to achieve mainstream status to promote the widespread use of cryptocurrencies.
   • There must be increased handling of payments, thereby fixing the current issues revolving around sluggish transaction times and high transaction fees.
   • There must be blockchain technology scalability with little-to-no effect on its efficiency. Slow transaction times to date are due to the growing number of users and transaction sizes. This includes the growth of blockchain, and the potential to compete with Mastercard, PayPal, and Visa.
   • There must be an implementation of off-chain solutions that will allow users to complete a transaction through a peer-to-peer payment channel, rather than inside the blockchain. This will deal with slow transaction times. The parent blockchain will provide the security.

 

4. Gold is Still the Standard

Given the promises and innovative features of many cryptocurrencies, confusion persists in the emerging market. Gold has remained the best form of investment throughout history, and the best store of value — especially in times of political and economic crisis.

Kinesis stablecoins stand to benefit from the stability that gold offers, while at the same time Kinesis will fuse it with the special features of their cutting-edge technology. Investing in gold with the Kinesis Monetary System isn’t the sluggish process that many older investors are used to. The asset is backed by silver and gold, and it facilitates the trade of precious metals. It has three big properties: (1) tokens representing allocated gold and silver owned by investors; (2) an inherited structure - the ABX - in which the work is done; and (3) a cutting-edge blockchain technology which in a fully safe environment allows thousands of transactions to be completed every second.

 

5. The Near Future

Even a decade later, cryptocurrencies are still very much in their infancy. At this time, no one is sure what shape this growing sector will take in the future. Many cryptocurrencies will come and go, but the ones that show the most promise and fulfil their use cases will stick around for the long-term. Like every new technology, we will watch how it progresses, and how it fuses with our everyday lives, thereby changing how we communicate with everything around us.