A Sea of Red: The Volatility Inherent in Cryptos

Didn't you hear? Bitcoin is dead.

That's been the rhetoric for nearly a decade. Ever since Bitcoin, the first Blockchain technology started trading for cold hard cash, every bump in the road was followed by doomsday warnings. The majority of us who are now jaded by such sensationalism just go on our merry way during these events. However, with the current rise in global Blockchain value, the influx of new users are bringing back the sandwich boards and telltale signals of doom.

After playing twenty questions with a few of my coworkers today about the "sudden" crash of most of the Cryptos, I found it interesting to look at the charts of the top 10 performing Cryptos to see if we can find any relevant patterns.

10 )

Stellar reaches consensus via SCP (Stellar Consensus Protocol) algorithm instead of mining. Because of this, it's able to confirm transactions in seconds.

The chart looks ugly but it's not too bad. There are giant cliffs and a long stretch of stagnation but for all the true-believers, it eventually paid off and reached an all-time high only very recently.

9 )

The Bytecoin founders must be a cheeky bunch to name this coin in such a way. It claims to be the first enterprise-ready solution. However, judging by it's flat line for almost three years, only to be woken up during the recent Altcoin craze, it looks legit. And by legit I mean it looks like a the apex of pumps.

8 )

Monero, AlphaBay's favourite coin. The graph looks like it's had a few defibrillator moments and lived to tell the tale. I'm a fan of Monero and I think what Fluffypony did this week to pumpers was funny. But that's because I don't have a stake in Monero. I'd probably be pissed otherwise.

7 )

Dash is interesting in its approach to confirming transactions in less than a second. Less than a second! But it's only gotten success fairly recently during the Altcoin craze as well so dark days are most likely ahead. At least the name is fun. What comes after C?

6 )

Ahhh Litecoin. Nostalgia. Bitcoin Junior. The original Altcoin. Whatever you want to call it, this one's been around and is still here as proof that there's nothing to fear but fear itself. However, as the other coins are trending up, Litecoin looks like it's trending down. And that's with its successful activation of the elusive beast known as SegWit. I expect better days ahead.

5 )

After the original Ethereum's debacle with the DAO hardfork, some members were so angry they decided to fork off and create Ethereum Classic. If Coca-Cola Classic is any indication of success after the debacle known as New Coke, good things lie ahead for ETC.

4 )

NEM is a strange creature. The protocol itself is full of promises and after playing around with the notary service, it seems like that could be a very useful feature for a lot of organizations.

But then they also do stuff like this:

No, that's not an adolescent boy's obsession with Gundam and Microsoft Paint materialized, it's a real promotion poster aimed at bankers. At least the Altcoin craze looks like it erased the memory of this.

3 )

I remember Ripple from my early days with Bitcoin. I remember the witch hunt around /r/Bitcoin proclaiming that Ripple was a scam. It may not be a traditional Blockchain technology, but it's not a scam. Speculating on XRP is another story as it lost $6B market cap in the past few days alone.

2 )

Ethereum was the star at Consensus 2017. Big announcements were made and it's looking more and more like it may become top dog in this decentralized applications race. It's obviously still too early to make that call but they're making a lot of great moves. The chart also looks fairly steady with no real sharp inclines aside from this weekend.

1 )

The king of the coins and the only one that's immune to the "Altcoin" label. Yes, it's "died" many times as documented by the Bitcoin Obituary. However, each time, it manages to rise from the ash and drop kick its nay-sayers in the dome. It's flying high and scaling-debate aside, it looks like it'll be around for a long time. Is it odd that the chart looks kinda similar to Ethereum?

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So what does this all mean? Nothing too revolutionary. I just found the charts interesting with their similarities in spiking heavily this month. I also wanted to show that good things come to those who wait and to calm some of the anxieties that new people in this space may have.

When in doubt, remember Dogecoin.

What started off as a joke is still going strong many years later with a market cap of $340MM! Patience, my friends.