GETTY Alternative cryptocurrencies people can invest in during 2018

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As numerous financial experts say bitcoin is a bubble on the verge of popping, it leaves the crowd of crypto investors and interested bystanders wondering what’s next amid a cryptocurrency frenzy. Bitcoin, the world's most popular cryptocurrency, fell more than 10 per cent on Wednesday December 20 to a one-week low of $15,800. Bitcoin,more commonly known as the blockchain or distributed ledger technology, has risen some 1,700 per cent this year and nearly 80 per cent this month alone. So what other cryptocurrencies are showing promise for 2018.

Litecoin Litecoin is a bitcoin fork showing plenty of promise. Nolan Bauerle, the director of research at CoinDesk, said: “So to think of these blockchains in a very simple way we can see them as cryptographic keys that move memory. The rules by which the memory is moved are set by the miners themselves. “So, you've got miners that understand the rules and when you want to change those rules you need to fork it. All the miners need to agree about the new rules about what is a valid block in the chain.” Essentially a fork is when the people involved in mining cryptocurrencies believe there is a new effective aspect that could be added to Bitcoin. They then break off and create a new cryptocurrency that holds similarities to bitcoin. The litecoin fork happened back in 2011. Litecoin currently stands at £349 which is a long way off Bitcoin’s value, however, it has risen by more than 8,000 per cent in the past year, far more than Bitcoin's price. It started this year out at $4. The largest cryptocurrencies are bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash and litecoin.

Coinbase, a site where you can buy and sell bitcoin and ethereum added litecoin it to its list of cryptocurrencies this year. Litecoin is seen as a faster and more lightweight version of bitcoin because it takes two and a half minutes to complete a transaction where as bitcoin takes 10 minutes. Charlie Lee, founder of litecoin has also quadrupled the amount of litecoin that can be in circulation. The cryptocurrency can have a total of 84 million where as bitcoin can only hold 21 million. Mr Lee said: “The vision is always I wanted Litecoin to complement Bitcoin — not compete. “Bitcoin can be used for like moving millions of dollars between banks, buying houses, buying cars. It’s really secure. Litecoin can be used for cheaper things.”

GETTY With bitcoin forks and other cryptocurrencies there are plenty of alternatives

Dragon Coins Dragon coins is the cryptocurrency answer to gambling. The business Dragon Corporation has pushed through with its idea to start an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) which will raise over $400 million. This capital will in turn fund a floating cryptocurrency casino. This casino will only accept dragon coins and will be set up in Macau, which is connected to China but only by land. Under Dragon Corporation’s ICO, investors will basically become a shareholder and get revenues from utilising blockchain technology, which they can reinvest back into the online gambling currency. Blockchain technology stores data across a network of personal computers. This means there is no central governance controlling the value of the currency. Blocks in this case store information in a chronological order and are safe guarded by a high level security system. The aim is that this crypto casino based in Macau will be the size of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

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Chris Ahmad, CEO of Dragon Corporation has said as of December 8, $265 million or 53 per cent had already been raised through different shareholders. The casino should be up and ready by 2020. However, as early as January 2018 Dragon Global Chips will hit South Korea as it will be fully operational in the country. Dragon Global Chips are a digital utility token, and is a form of internal gaming currency. The money raised from the token sale will also help fund the construction of Dragon Corporations 1,600-square-meter floating Dragon Pearl Casino Hotel. Mr Ahmad said: “We're truly building a business to enhance and improve the way that people engage with Casinos. Transparency and Integrity play a huge role in achieving this, and the Blockchain facilitates that solution perfectly.” Most countries except the United States, mainland China and Singapore are free to invest in dragon coins.

Hubii Norwegian-developed hubii has attracted the attention of boxer Floyd Mayweather. To the extent he has dubbed himself Floyd “Crypto” Mayweather on Twitter. Hubii completed an ICO of $50 million on September 7. Hubii is designed so writers, musicians, and filmmakers can cut out Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube and somehow still get paid. The ICO was not open to US investors. Hubii offers a decentralised content marketplace powered by smart contracts where content creators get paid directly for their work and users get to choose which content to consume, as well as help in the content verification process. The company behind Mayweather advertising hubii is Crypto Media Group. Logan Schauer, CEO of Crypto Media Group said: "Our goal is to take [the ICO market] from this very small industry of cryptocurrency-focused investors and take it to the masses. “We want to help the market transition from where it is now—word-of-mouth spreading through the crypto community—and we want to bridge that gap to the mainstream world." Former Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger is listed on Hubii's advisory board.