Top 5 Crypto Projects With Promising Prospects and Real Potential

Being nearly a decade on from the launch of the ‘original' cryptocurrency that we all know: Bitcoin, there has been a veritable explosion in the number of cryptocurrencies across the world, both big and small. And while there is a staggering number of them, each of them has a very unique set of capabilities, directed to a specific function. Now, while this is impressive, are there any out there with the quality to change the world that matches its quantity?

One of the things that we can attribute to Bitcoin is that it set the groundwork upon which, the majority of cryptocurrencies we know of, now operates. Bitcoin itself was developers in an attempt to provide a workable digital and decentralized alternative to fiat and mainstream financial institutions.

Within the now famous white paper, Bitcoin: A peer to peer electronic cash system,' was published back in October 2008, which meant that it was published just weeks after the dramatic collapse of the Lehman Brothers, the institution that was then the fourth largest investment bank in the United States.

The collapse of the Lehman Brothers represented what was to be the start of the worldwide financial crash that we all know and lament. The eventual concerns which sparked and raged regarding questions of trust, privacy, autonomy and liberty compelled people to look and try to apply alternatives to a multinational, interdependent financial system which had supposedly failed them. So what did this mean? It meant that the timing was right for Bitcoin to hit, especially at that time when the iron was hot.

Within the white paper, Bitcoin proposed a purely peer to peer version of electronic cash that would allow for online payments to be sent directly from one party to another, without going through any kind of financial institution.

While Bitcoin and other, more advanced cryptos have since emerged and addressed numerous problems that were outlined in the white paper, experts are under the impression that this form of digital currency is the first iterations of future money.

Accompanied by an inbuilt safeguard against fraud and false identity, thanks in large part to the blockchain technology which underpins bitcoin and a vast number of other cryptocurrencies, a greater transparency, including lower fees for cross-border payments, along with being free from government intervention, cryptocurrencies have begun a campaign of irrevocable transformation for payment systems all across the world.

While there are a number of cryptocurrencies which may prove unstable when it comes to the universal test of time, there are going to be those next to Bitcoin which prove more successful than the rest of their ilk.

Within this list, are five particular cryptocurrency projects with some real-life potential to them.

These include the likes of:

Ethereum Dash Stellar IOTA EOS

And all of them are readily available to buy and trade on a number of leading social trading and investment platforms, particularly eToro.

Ethereum / Ether (ETH)

Since the establishment of the Ethereum network, which was launched upon the world in July 2015, it's associated currency, referred to as Ethereum, Ether, or ETH, has proven a remarkably popular cryptocurrency for investors. This is due in large part to its impressive transaction speed relative to its slower rival, Bitcoin.

In order to fully appreciate the benefits of the Ethereum cryptocurrency, you first need to understand it as a blockchain. It operates as a decentralized, open-source, publically-distributed computing platform which runs smart contracts: which are applications that run exactly as programmed without any prospect of being slowed by downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference.

It's thanks to the Ethereum network, that more than hundreds of Decentralized Apps, or dApps, have since been built, developed and launched by their respective developers. This programmable blockchain technology has many applications, with the digital currency being just one of its many uses.

Within the Ethereum protocol, and blockchain, there is a price for each operation. Ether is simply the unit of currency associated with the blockchain, and is also used to pay for the varying levels of computational time and transaction fees accrued.

It didn't take long for the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum platform, which was co-founded by the Russian-Canadian programmer, Vitalik Buterin, to suddenly find itself established as the second largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization alone.

Buterin published his Ethereum white paper, which set out the fundamental goal of creating a platform on which dApps could be built back in 2013.

The Ethereum project was able to raise more than $20 million for its pre-launch funding back in July and August 2014. And as a platform, Ethereum has managed to gain a significant amount of momentum. Some of its supporters included the United Nations, Toyota, Deloitte, and many others adjoined within the powerful global infrastructure. Along with these backers, major financial institutions such as JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, and technology giants like Microsoft, have since become heavily invested in its continued successes.

Ok, so what's so special about the Ethereum platform? Well, until recently, the developers were seeking to build blockchain applications and have needed a background in coding, cryptography and mathematics, along with a great deal in the way of technological and financial resources. Since Ethereum was established, it has removed these barriers to entry. Previously unimaginable applications such as electronic voting and on-chain registrations have all been made possible and faster than ever before, and have been made possible by providing the tools with which developers can build dApps.

Experts are under the impression that the Ethereum platform will scale and become a ubiquitous feature of the post-blockchain internet and corporate landscape. The potential for both Ethereum and Ether is enormous.

Cryptocurrencies can and will fluctuate widely in terms of prices and, as a result, are not appropriate for all investors. And it's no real surprise, at the moment, they are not supervised by any EU regulatory framework.

Dash

DASH, in its name, originates from a mixture of Digital, and Cash, and operates as an open source peer to peer cryptocurrency which offers the same features as Bitcoin, but also boasts a number of advanced capabilities. These include the attributes such as instant transactions, private transactions, and ‘Decentralized Governance Blockchain Budget' (DGBB).

It also has one of the world's most popular cryptocurrencies for investors, and that has been the case since its creation back in early 2014. This is primarily due to its impressive transaction speed, which continually performs well against Bitcoin and other cryptos out there.

The designer of Dash, Evan Duffield, initially named the project XCoin, changing it briefly to Darkcoin as well. Its current name fortunately stuck back in March 2014, thanks to its pace and anonymity. Specifically, it was thanks to Dash's processing time that made it an instant hit for the crypto community to capitalize on.

In its attributes, Dash had been compared to PayPal, and its tokens are very much established as one of the top-10 cryptos. Dash manages to stand out as a pretty unique cryptocurrency, and is a reason for why many tech enthusiasts invest in this coin, as it allows them to diversify their portfolios and may also be viewed as a strong hedging tool against Bitcoin.

In conjunction to Dash's feature set, it also offers instant transactions, referred to as InstantSend, and private transactions, called PrivateSend. Along with these, it operates a self funding and self governing model which allows the Dash network to pay individuals and businesses to perform work that adds value to the network. This system makes it a truly Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).

Stellar (XLM)

The Stellar network is an open-source blockchain that allows for cross-border transactions with equal access for all users involved. Started back in 2014, Stellar was the brainchild of ex-Ripple Labs co-founder, Jed McCaleb, when he and the remainder of the board faced conflicts in ideas for the underlying vision of the project.

The overall concept that stands behind the Stellar Network is to punch currencies to the background, both Fiat and digital, allowing people to have access to a cheaper, more efficient way to make cross-border transactions.

Stellar makes use of Lumens (XLM) as its network's currency. There were initially only 100 billion Lumens created, but since then, the supply was made infinite as Lumens carry an annual growth rate of 1 per cent. Currently, the transaction time when sending Lumens is relatively minuscule, taking anywhere from two to five seconds in order to complete one.

Not only does Stellar provide an otherwise rapid system of payments and transactions, but the cost of each transaction is only roughly 0.0001 XLM.

Partner organizations associated with the Stellar Network are dubbed ‘Anchors', and are trusted entities such as banks or companies which also provide an effective line of credit for people to use the platform with assets such as pounds, euros and so on.

Stellar has an otherwise impressive in-built feature, which is a decentralized exchange, which matches buy and sell offers from anchors that hold currencies, in an attempt to find the best exchange rates. The Stellar network can be used to exchange any form of cryptocurrency that their various anchors hold. This can include other cryptocurrencies at times.

Some of its more significant partnerships also include the likes of Deloitte and IBM, and the fast and cheap transactions mean that the future is written in the stars for Stellar.

IOTA

The IOTA project itself, aims to become the number one distributed ledger for the Internet of Things (IoT). And it has an ever growing legion of supporters, which believe that, as a cryptocurrency, IOTA, which makes use of its unique Tangle architecture, has a number of distinct advantages over other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. Namely the fact that is infinitely scalable, fully decentralized, modular, and carries zero transaction fees.

During 2018 alone, there are over 31 Billion devices which rely upon the Internet of Things all across the world, according to the London-based analysts, IHS Markit. And while this number is staggering in its own right, it's one that is growing at an exceptional rate, with millions more new sensors being added every single week, as the planet becomes an ever more connected one.

Davide Sønstebø, the founder of IOTA, believes that it represents a solution that will serve as the backbone of an ever emerging IoT world. He states, in 2018, that IOTA, an open source distributed ledger protocol that goes ‘Beyond Blockchain' and is an acronym of Internet of Things application, and was developed to enable the upcoming ‘paradigm shift' towards IoT by establishing a “de facto standardized ledger of everything.”

The logic behind it is that this cryptocurrency will allow for greater data exchange between sensor equipped devices that populate IoT. The IOTA cryptocurrency is one aspect of the overarching IOTA platform, and is designed with the purpose of serving as the universal method of payment for the future of machine-to-machine transactions that take place on the IOTA network.

Along with this, unlike most cryptocurrencies, the IOTA platform doesn't use a blockchain. Instead, it is underpinned by a form of blockless technology which its creator refers to as ‘Tangle.'

This Tangle is a quantum-proof solution spawned from another mathematical concept referred to as ‘Direct Acyclic graphs.' The developers believe that this design is what marks IOTA as different, especially when compared to other cryptos.

Within this design, there is the removal of crypto miners, all without sacrificing the underlining Decentralization. And by removing any need for miners, there's no real need for fees, as a result, IOTA is free to use.

The idea itself is that everyone places an equal role within the complete network. With every transaction that's made, the issuer needs to help authenticate two previous and randomized transactions. This process uses a series of cryptographic algorithms, as well as a number of more sophisticated techniques, to complete this behind the scenes work.

Transactions on the IOTA platform can be processed on any device in real time, and the unique architecture means that the crypto boasts two important features: the first being that it allows for microtransactions, or those purchases that are worth fractions of cents, or pennies of fiat (what would be quantified as well below the threshold required for Visa payments, for example.).

The world will become an ever more connected one thanks to IoT technology, and as more people continue to flock to the IOTA platform, its transactions per second will become all the more impressive than it is already.

EOS

Long regarded as the ‘Ethereum Killer‘, but does it really have the potential to kill off and replace the King of Smart contracts? The signs are pointing to that as a distinct possibility. The white paper on the Hong Kong-based project has only just seen its ink dry compared to its older counterparts, having only been published in 2017, and it hasn't really taken it long for it to break into and sit firmly amongst the top 10 cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization.

The EOSIO Platform was launched in late January 2018 by Block.One, which operates as a startup and pioneer within the blockchain space, working towards the wider promotion and application of dApps and smart contracts, in particular.

Interestingly enough, block.one has raised over $4 billion in its ongoing Initial Coin Offering (ICO), which is a remarkable record. That huge amount of financial backing over its year long capital fundraising means that research and development can continue on a large scale, in earnest for decades, theoretically.

Much like Ethereum, whose Ether makes up the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap at the moment, the Chinese project NEO, and also Ripple Labs, EOSIO is sniping at becoming the most significant player in the blockchain arena.

It has set out to do this by creating a benchmark platform for utilizing the nascent and potentially revolutionary world-changing technology, which could change the worlds of finance, healthcare and many others, irrevocably.

Written in the coding language, C++, it's the hope of EOSIO, that it will be able to catalyze the dawn of mass blockchain adoption.