I would like to start an intelligent conversation here on the strengths and weaknesses of the existing coins, and what I would like to see in my ideal coin. My aim right now is to get smarter on this field and to hopefully identify the next big thing before it multiplies in price into what I feel are the silly prices the big coins are trading at right now. Here are the traits of my ideal imaginary coin: 1. Unhackable (It seems that all current and upcoming coins are good here) 2. Near instant completion of transactions(ripple, nem, dash, eos) 3. Somewhat stable price(nope) 4. Decentralized(most, some have huge premining or large rewards going to creators) And maybe... 5. Completely anonymous/untraceable (monero, dash, zcash) I believe if a coin is to be universally accepted for actual use by normal people, it needs all of these traits. Anonymity is needed for criminals/terrorist organizations and people trying to live under a nasty regime(one mans terrorists is another mans freedom fighter anyways), but outside those situations I think something traceable is preferred to minimize crime and funding of criminal organizations etc... So I think there is room for at least two coins long term. Some coins have most of these traits, but none have all. Looking forward, I am researching radix pretty hard. Is anyone else looking in to the this, or have anything on their radar that could potentially meet all of these criteria?
You want to have anonymous coins, but the govts impose strict regulations on exchanges. The same as with anonymous cash transactions but highly regulated banks. What would happen to anonymity then?
I made the point there is a need for both in my post. I personally, living in the USA, don't mind my transactions being traceable. My biggest concern is being scammed so I would rather have some chance of recourse. Now if I lived in North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, etc things would be different. You are correct that entry into and out of the crypto ecosystem would be challenging, but it would be doable for those with the true need for it. It might involve travel, gold, cash, oil etc, but it would be doable and worth it in some cases.
The Elite Trader Coin, or ETic. It's value is derived from how much vitriol is generated with each thread, divided by how much gain is measured via likes on each vitriolic thread. Hell, why not?
A cryptocurrency pegged to the gold price would be good...that would solve the volatility problem and also give ordinary folks confidence in the long term future of the coin.
Could you explain why a cryptocurrency layer would add anything to the usefulness of gold when there already exists companies such as GoldMoney?
In my search for the next big thing, I am settling on decentralized exchanges(DEX) for now. I'm sure this is old news to many but I'm behind the curve I guess. One of the main reason I haven't put anything more than play money into crypto so far is the lack of trust I have for the exchanges. The DEX will let you trade any asset for any asset, with central order matching but decentralized clearing, fixing that problem. Of course there are already several of these, so I'm going to pick a few to put money in to. Here is my short list so far: Waves. This is my top choice right now. It looks like it could be getting support from the Russian gov and could get huge, quickly. I tried the chrome lite application and it is really really easy to use. You can rent your waves to a node operator for your share of the transaction fees Bitshares. Equally easy to use, more impressive interface. Lacks liquidity right now. I'm not sure if there is an income potential like with waves. So far these are the two that seem legit and innovative. If anyone has better knowledge or knows of another potential exchange feel free to share.
Disclaimer: I invested in the NVO crowdsale. Waves uses a "gateway" model so trusted setup and not fully decentralized (from little I know of it). Bitshares is peer-to-peer and when I had coins in it, the problem was liquidity. Counterparty (XCP) has a decentralized exchange but is buggy and slow and has issues. Introducing NVO, a true DEX by design from the ground up. It utilizes cryptography and the private keys are never stored on a 3rd party server, etc... Read the whitepaper. Nope, it won't be too easy. Easy is a centralized service like Ameritrade, but NVO will attempt to make it simpler by using technology and good software design. Join the slack channel to learn more. You can purchase NVO tokens using Counterparty DEX at a lower price than the ICO as some of the "investors" are impatient and cannot wait for the launch of the wallet in 2-4 months time. https://nvo.io/index.html