My 5 Favorite Altcoins for 2018

1. ETHEREUM

Ethereum is an open source, public and decentralized blockchain, a really powerful shared global infrastructure that runs smart contracts.
Smart contracts are applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of censorship, fraud or third party interference.

Website: https://www.ethereum.org/
Road map: https://medium.com/cobinhood/vitalik-unveils-ethereum-2-0-roadmap-conference-notes-505270a48674
White paper: http://www.the-blockchain.com/docs/Ethereum_white_paper-a_next_generation_smart_contract_and_decentralized_application_platform-vitalik-buterin.pdf
Performance 2017: 13,000%

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2. IOTA

IOTA is a cryptocurrency designed for the Internet of Things. As the Internet of Things keep expanding, the need for interoperability and sharing of resources become a necessity. IOTA enables companies to explore new business to business models by making every technological resource a potential service to be traded on an open market in real time, with no fees.

In this new autonomous Machine Economy IOTA will be the backbone. The Tangle ledger is able to settle transactions with zero fees so devices can trade exact amounts of resources on demand, as well as store data from sensors and dataloggers securely and verified on the ledger.

As you can see IOTA does not use the blockchain technology but is built on the tangle.
The tangle is a revolutionary new blockless distributed ledger which is scalable, lightweight and for the first time ever makes it possible to transfer value without any fees. Contrary to today’s Blockchains, consensus is no longer decoupled but instead an intrinsic part of the system, leading to decentralized and self regulating peer to peer network.

Website: https://iota.org/
Road map: https://blog.iota.org/iota-development-roadmap-74741f37ed01
White paper: https://iota.org/IOTA_Whitepaper.pdf
Performance 2017: 500%

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3. STEEM

Steem is a blockchain based rewards platform for publishers to monetize content and grow community. It's a blockchain designed to tokenize the content web using the Proof of Brain concept. Proof of Brain is a type of tokens rewards algorithm that encourages people to create and curate content.

STEEM is the platform token on Steemit.com. It's distributed to the most valuable contributors by community voting, it is a tradeable token that is easily convertible to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Website: https://steem.io/
Road map: https://steem.io/2017roadmap.pdf
White paper: https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf
Blue Paper: https://steem.io/steem-bluepaper.pdf
Performance 2017: 1,500%

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4. BRIDGECOIN

BridgeCoin is a scrypt mineable coin similar to Litecoin. It was created in July 2017 to fund the development of the full CryptoBridge decentralized exchange. After funding is successful and the platform comes out of beta, 50% of all CryptoBridge DEX profits will be distributed to participating BridgeCoin owners.

CryptoBridge is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that supports trading of most popular altcoins. The main innovation is elimination of a single point of failure when trading cryptocurrencies.

CryptoBridge is trying to solve many problems faced by altcoin traders such as thefts, manipulation, hacking incidents or government takedowns.
These problems are solved by the decentralized blockchain based order book and the multi-signature federated gateway network.
There is no central point of failure. All deposits, withdrawals and all order books are transparently stored on the blockchain.

CryptoBridge runs on top of the BitShares blockchain which is decentralized by itself. In addition, their distributed federated gateway network enables trust reduced depositing and withdrawal of all coins.

Website: https://bridgecoin.org/
Road map: https://crypto-bridge.org/#roadmap
Blog: https://medium.com/@cryptobridge
Performance 2017: 3,600%

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5. SMARTCASH

SmartCash is a community governance, cooperation & growth focused blockchain based currency & a decentralized economy. Key points of SmartCash project are: SmartHive, Renew, SmartRewards and InstantPay.

SmartHive allows the community to control the fate of the coin, the governance, the budget, usage and encourage community development. SmartCash is a privacy coin, Renew will ensure your money is untrackable. SmartRewards are a price stabilization mechanism and a way to encourage long term holding. InstantPay permits instant transactions a feature necessary in order to provide a quality merchant experience.

SmartCash is a community centric cryptocurrency, where community and development comes first. 70% of the block reward has been allocated to fund SmartHive community proposals as well as the Hive Teams. 30% of the remaining block reward has been allocated to Mining (5%), SmartRewards (15%) and SmartNodes (10%).

Website: https://smartcash.cc/
Road map: https://smartcash.cc/roadmap/
SmartNodes: https://smartcash.cc/smartnodes/
SmartRewards: https://smartcash.cc/what-are-smartrewards/
Performance 2017: 2,300%

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                       __DISCLAIMER__

• I do not provide personal investment advice and I am not a qualified licensed investment advisor. I am an amateur investor.
• All information found here, including any ideas, opinions, views, predictions, forecasts, commentaries, suggestions, or coin picks, expressed or implied herein, are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only and should not be construed as personal investment advice. While the information provided is believed to be accurate, it may include errors or inaccuracies.