Speculation, is that all?

Rant on crypto.

Please Help.

Full disclosure:
I was burned on NBT, but gained in BTC, so I broke even and "cashed out". Still riding a little on the BTC rise, but not in too deep.
...........................
I have been a "lurker" in the crypto-space since 2010. I finally decided to post something in the hopes that someone can point me in the right direction.

The question I have is....Is it all speculation?

I have used/tested multiple cryptocurrencies in the past few years.
I used NXT for a bit and had a few "investments" that did some good returns,,,,after 6 months. The only reason I had a good ROI is because I pulled totally out of NXT before the value tanked. If I waited a few more weeks, I would have lost basically everything(that I put in).
I tested out VRC to see if I could hold and gain...nope.
I put liquidity in NBT to see if I could raise some value for myself, but when someone puts 20k worth of value in something and I only 80, there goes my ROI to nothing. Then I decide to "park" some funds to get some more value out of it. It worked for a bit, but then somehow it lost the peg to the US Dollar. I read some into this, but it ended up being because humans are involved.
I of course use BTC, but have seen when a small group of people can pump and dump something on the news of something "big" happening.
The only true ROI that I have had is from HashNest and Genesis-mining due to the fact I put value into it at the correct time, but that was only by luck.
I have some tokens in The DAO due to having some ETH left over from when it first started out, and I almost forgot about it. Before that I put some into REP tokens for Augur, which in my mind is a crapshoot as well.

Getting to the point now....All of it has been Luck/Speculation on my part. Some good, some bad, just by luck balanced out and didn't loose everything(which isn't much in the first place).

Does anyone know of anything that pays back, meaning consistent returns of value? Not speculation because none of it can be guessed at correctly.

I do want to note that I have put some value into BitUSD, but that is holding on to something that is inflationary in value due to it being tied(not fully pegged) to a fiat currency controlled by men with guns.

Thanks for your time.