What are the Best Altcoins in 2019?

 

With over 2000 cryptocurrencies available it’s hard to know which have a future and which are destined for the dustbin of history. In this article, I try to find a balance and outline 2 altcoins that have the greatest potential for growth and the lowest potential for loss in 2019.

 

What are the best altcoins in 2019?

 

1. Best Altcoins 2019: Ethereum

The list of the best altcoins must begin with Ethereum, which is the second most valuable cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. It has a current market capitalization of $64.35 billion! Ethereum was launched in July 2015 by the now-famous prodigy of the cryptocurrency world — Vitalik Buterin.

 

Historical Investment Trends

As you can see in the snapshot below, the price of Ethereum grew from $9 in January 2017 to $1,389 in January 2018 giving a return of over 17000%. Its price almost doubled in price last month, from $396 at the beginning of April (2018) to $648 today.

How is Ethereum unique and different from Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is just a digital currency, but Ethereum has more to offer in addition to that. Ethereum provides a platform to the developer on which they can build blockchain-based smart contracts and decentralized apps.

Ethereum was the first cryptocurrency to introduce smart contracts, which are now considered as the next big thing.

Note: Smart contracts are agreements coded on the blockchain that execute themselves on when certain pre-set conditions are met.

Ethereum is also the most preferred platform for launching Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). 

So, these are some of the key things that set Ethereum apart from Bitcoin and make it attractive to both developers and investors.

 

Upcoming Events

One of the biggest challenges being faced by Ethereum has been scalability. Ethereum’s network currently supports roughly 15 transactions per second. This isn’t that great when compared to VISA’s 56,000 transaction messages per second.

Ethereum is expected to upgrade its technology from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake in 2019. This will increase its scalability to a large extent.

 

Where to buy Ethereum

Being one of the most widely available cryptocurrencies, you can purchase Ethereum from any popular exchange. Many of these exchanges support credit/debit cards in addition to bank transfer. You can purchase Ethereum from Coinbase, Coinmama, Bitcoin Exchange, Trading BTC USD, BTC EUR – CEX.IO or Gemini.

You can also read: How to Learn the Basics of Currency Trading?

 

2. Best Altcoins 2019: Litecoin

Litecoin, one of the oldest altcoins, was created in 2011 by an ex-Google employee, Charlie Lee. Like Bitcoin, Litecoin is also just digital currency but with improvements. In fact, the reason for launching Litecoin was to overcome some of the shortcomings of Bitcoin, especially its slow transaction speed.

 

Historical Investment Trends

In the unpredictable cryptocurrency market where coins go in and out of the market very quickly, Litecoin has been in the market for over 7 years. It has grown to become one of the best altcoins with a market capitalization of $8.2 billion.

It has given a tremendous return in 2017 when it grew from $4 in January 2017 to $350 in December 2017. That’s a return of 8000%!

As you can see in the snapshot below, Litecoin has regained growth momentum since April 2018 when it was around $121 and is currently trading at $145.

 

How is Litecoin unique and different from Bitcoin?

Litecoin has made considerable improvements in Bitcoin’s technology to increase the speed of transactions. The reason that it is called Litecoin is that it is 4 times faster than Bitcoin.

A Bitcoin transaction takes about 10 minutes to complete but a Litecoin transaction is completed in 2.5 minutes. This makes Litecoin more scalable than Bitcoin as it can complete more transactions per second.

Litecoin has been built on Bitcoin’s technology itself and is considered as the closest rival of Bitcoin. More so because both of them serve the same purpose: offering an alternative to fiat currencies like USD, EUR, CAD, etc.

 

Upcoming Events

Litepal, which is the first payment processor for Litecoin, got launched in February 2018. It is still a work in progress and was expected to be released in Q2 or Q3 of 2018.

Buying, sending and receiving Litecoin (or any cryptocurrency) is a very complex process. LitePal is expected to make transacting in Litecoin much simpler. LitePal also provides services and support for merchants with easy integration to most existing eCommerce platforms.

As you can see in the picture below, this service has the potential to make Litecoin more mainstream and one of the most promising altcoins.

 

Where to buy Litecoin

Like Ethereum, it is quite easy to purchase Litecoin as it is offered by most of the top cryptocurrency exchanges. You can buy Litecoin from Kraken, Coinbase, Coinmama or Bitsquare.

So, after reading our guide, you are interested in investing in litecoin, I recommend you pitch your tenth on Investmentsbay, you get to make an interest of up to 200% in your first week of investing plus a day-to-day guide on the cryptocurrency market.