2017 has been an incredible year in Cryptocurrency. One year ago, the total market capitalization in Crypto was $16.5 Billion USD. Today, on the 25th of December, 2017, amid a fairly severe correction, the market cap sits at a lazy $535 Billion USD.

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I do not need a calculator to tell me that is a massive increase. I do need a calculator, however, to tell me that those numbers equate to an increase of 33.4. What does that mean? In the terms of "lambo" and to the moon, it means that at half a million each, that means the crypto market cap was worth over ONE MILLION LAMBORGHNIS.

It means that if you had $1 spread across essentially all crypto currencies, you'd have $33.40 today. That's an over simplification, but is one that's intentional, so that I can make a very clear point.

If the market cap grows in 2018 by a quarter of what it did this year, that is to say, to $4.6 trillion USD (indicating an expansion of 8.25 times) - that $1 you invested in 2017 that became $33.40 turns into $275.55 at the end of 2018.

These are conservative numbers.

Before you run out and re-finance the car, house, and other assets:

Only risk what you are willing to lose, and invest in a smart way.

The most important thing to do is your own research. If you don't want to do your own research, I've put together a simple guide - you could take this as a meme, or a shitpost, but I'm very bullish about EOS, and I'll explain why:

Send ETH tips and ERC20 tokens to 0x6d049223d434239ba8403cf2b43761d04d6b779d

EOS is a distributed proof of stake system, with technological superiority as a platform, token, and concept to its main rivals. As an ethereum token, and with an operating test net, it is proving itself to be a solid platform for distributed apps, while Crypto Kitties and Etheremons clog the Ethereum blockchain.

NEO, a crypto with similar prospects to ETH, EOS, and a few other contenders, is a wonderful success story from 2017. Initially distributed as Antshares, NEO went from being worth less than a dollar, to $50USD.

EOS has followed a similar path, with initial distributions of the coin being as low as 0.59 USD, to the current price at just over $8USD.

You don't need to do technical analysis, or any other voodoo magic 8balls to know that EOS is a winner.

As blockchains increase in popularity, and traffic on them increases, only one thing starts to matter, scalability and transaction speed. I don't give a shit if your token is worth $5000, $15000, or $20000, or half a cent, if I can't transfer it or move it around as I so desire quickly, and securely, then it is worthless to me.

Take a look at the following screenshot from Blocktivity.

Take a closer look

1. STEEM. The busiest blockchain that there is. Designed by our very own Dan Larimer and his talented team.
2. ETH - Crypto Kitties, congested, Etheremon, congested, and countless other dapps and platforms to congest it further in the immediate future.
3. BTS. Another blockchain at the mastermind of Dan Larimer. Lots of transactions, next to no congestion.
4. Everyone knows the story about BTC. Slow, high fees.
5. LTC - A very, very, undervalued coin. Ever since it was under a dollar I said I should buy some. I haven't and feel very stupid for not doing so, even at current pricing.
6. ETC - I don't care.
7. GOLOS. This is forked from Steem. Again, Dan Larimer.
8. DOGE: To the Moon.
9. BCH - Sorry, Roger Ver - you're going to end up just like BTC in a year's time.
10. ZEC - Smart money flew into this crypto months ago.
11. Dash - The wonderchild of 2017 in terms of adoption, scalability and return on investment.

3 of the top 10, busiest Blockchains have Dan Larimer behind them. Dan Larimer is working on EOS. It has a market cap of 4.6 billion currently, and it isn't yet a working platform with stuff for people to do stuff on. Come July next year, when the public EOS network launches - you're going to see a price of at least $20USD, in my opinion.

When people realize the immense scalability and usefulness of the platform, there's opinions on Twitter that it could be worth upwards of $125USD.

EOS isn't the only safe haven.

STEEM is going to travel to new heights in 2018 - and it is impossible for it not to. There's numerous applications being built ontop of the STEEM blockchain, with Steepshot, Zappl, Busy, Dmania, and many others recognizing the value of the chain.

The curious, mainstream money isn't yet into crypto and blockchain. Next year, we'll see IOTA, XRB, and probably a few more competitors attempt to leverage the concept of the Tangle to do things we can't fathom at this very moment.

There's other things to be happy about as well - institutions are curious with their funds, and even if 0.5% - yes, half a percent, of institutional investment money landed in the waters of crypto - there would be an enormous increase in market cap.

My advice to everyone is to hold, accumulate, and start to plan what you're going to do with your financial freedom. My picks for 2018 are EOS, STEEM, ADA, SALT, and I think Monero, Monaco, XLM, and BWK are also going to have stellar (pardon the pun) years.

The only thing I'm disappointed about in the 2018 crypto world is that my FOMO is already starting, and I've already got a pretty solid portfolio, which I'll disclose the value of at the end of this year. At the end of next year, I'll do the same thing.