What are the altcoins to watch in 2018?

I recently sat down with Rhian Lewis, co-founder of Count My Crypto and Sara Walker from IG to discuss which cryptocurrencies could come close to bitcoin. Take a look at some of the points we covered below, or head over to IG to watch the full interview.

Bitcoin forks

Rhian Lewis: I think they’re a distraction. Obviously it’s nice for people who hold bitcoin to have had all this airdropped free cash, but really bitcoin’s forks are less interesting than other cryptocurrencies with different properties and different use cases.

Colin Platt: If any of them still exist in 12 months’ time I’d be surprised. If one is going to make it, though, it’s probably going to be bitcoin cash – I don’t really understand what the value proposition of bitcoin gold is (other than free money).

Litecoin

RL: I’m a huge fan of litecoin. I think it’s got utility for moving cash around and making payments in a situation where bitcoin fees are high. I don’t think it’s ever going to approach what bitcoin is worth, but it has a certain amount of brand loyalty.

CP: I agree with that, but the original use case for litecoin – other than being cheaper than bitcoin – was to effectively arbitrage cryptocurrency exchanges. I could sell a bitcoin for a litecoin in one place, move that litecoin someplace else and then sell it. I think for that use, ether replaced litecoin in 2015.

Litecoin does have a strong brand following though. I often say that cryptos are currencies, they’re religions: that could help see litecoin through.

Ripple and stellar lumens

CP: Ripple is meant to be of use to banks, and as a former banker I don’t understand its value proposition and why it’s worth anything.

RL: The token has no use at all…

CP: Other than funding the company.

RL: Plus, it isn’t decentralised in any meaningful sense.

CP: Stellar was at one point very close to XRP, it was set up by the same person that originally built ripple. It’s trying to make some of these enterprise corporate partnerships which is not in the ethos of most cryptocurrencies. That said, it could follow ripple and spike, because companies like IBM have announced that they are looking at it.

Head over to IG to watch the full video.