ARK to the MOON! - My Top Crypto Picks for 2018 #2!

Hey everyone! ARK is the second crypto I'll talk about as we proceed into 2018! Yesterday we talked about STEEM, if you missed that post, click here for the post about STEEM. If you're looking for the post that shows the entire portfolio, click here to see the entire portfolio.

What is ARK?

Ark is a delegated proof of stake cryptocurrency that aims to create an ecosystem that bridges blockchains and allows consumers ease of use for any bridged blockchain within the ARK wallet.

Ark's Website has a beautiful new layout and does a really good job showcasing what Ark is about and how it aims to bridge the gap (pun intended) between consumers and blockchain technology.

I don't want to get too much into the basics of what ARK is, I feel like it's pretty self-explanatory from their website and whitepaper. The gist is that ARK aims to create an easy-to-use interface that can interact with virtually any blockchain. This consumer-centric approach is what could take ARK to the moon, in my opinion.

Why invest in ARK?

1. DPOS Dividends
2. Utility
3. Consumer-Centric
4. Ambition and Wide-Spread Impact (Roadmap)
5. Already a Functional Use Case (ACES)

1. DPOS Dividends:

Put simply, Delegated Proof of Stake (or DPOS) means that "mining" is done by the delegates who have the majority of the votes in the network. Each wallet is able to vote for a delegate and the weight and power of that vote is determined by the stake (or the amount) of ARK held in a given wallet. For example, someone who has 100 ARK has a larger influence than someone who has 10 ARK.

Voting for a delegate is very easy to do and there are plenty of guides out there on reddit that you can take a look at. I'm planning on making a guide using the Ledger Nano S in the near future. I'll link that article here when it becomes available.

Once a wallet has voted for a delegate, that wallet is paid out dividends in ARK tokens every payout period (payout periods are determined by each delegate). I've staked the delegate Jarunik for a variety of reasons that I won't get into in this article. He pays out ARK dividends to my wallet once every week.

The dividends come out to be roughly 9-10% per year which may not sound like much to the average crypto investor, but if you look at any dividend paying company on the stock market, 9-10% initial yield is very high. Don't forget that as the price of ARK goes up, so do the value of your ARK holdings and any dividends you've previously earned in ARK tokens. Currently I'm averaging about 5 ARK per week in dividends. That means that if the price of ARK goes to $100 (currently $7.5), I've effectively been earning $500 per week on a relatively small investment. Think: staking = mining in a different way.

2. Utility

Utility of any cryptocurrency has become one of the most debated issues. There are many "shitcoins" out there that carry no real-world utility and no real-world value. The value of the token is completely reliant on greedy investors. ARK is not one of these coins, it has real-world utility and practical use cases.

Provided that Ark's technology and team continue to bridge new blockchains and build out their technological roadmap, ARK tokens are going to be used frequently for a wide-varitey of different use cases. Such use cases are described in the whitepaper on Ark's website.

3. Consumer-Centric

As we continue to see people enter the crypto space, it's ever more apparant that there is a huge learning curve for just about everything. Wallet security, blockchains, forks, etc. are terms and ideas that the average consumer knows nothing about and would prefer to learn nothing about in the future.

ARK aims to teach consumers to use their easy interface and interact with any crypto/blockchain of their choosing. If ARK is successful in building a clean and intuitive interface, it could bridge the gap between consumers and blockchain, in my opinion.

4. Ambition and Wide-Spread Impact (Roadmap)

Ark's project is very ambitious and if successful, could make major waves in just about any industry. I recommend you learn more about what the Ark team is up to and how they're progressing on their roadmap. Unlike many other cryptos, Ark's roadmap is pretty simple and easy to follow.

5. Already a Functional Use Case (ACES)

ACES stands for Ark Contract Execution Services and is a way to deploy smart contracts or send ETH on the Ethereum network using ARK tokens.

ACES is a very interesting project and shows the potential for Ark's smartbridge technology. Integration into other blockchains is going to be very interesting to see in the future and could bring massive value to the ARK token via increased usage of ARK.

I recommend checking out the ACES project and you should even try using the testnet to send a few transactions of your own!

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So there you have it, yet another crypto I'll be hodling till death do us part 🤩🚀. I hope that you learned a few things about ARK that you didn't know previously and consider checking it out in more depth on your own time! ARK is one of those projects that ignites excitement and truly is a moonshot!

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice and is for entertainment purposes only. Thank you!

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Thanks for reading! Here's the Question of The Day, don't forget to post your answers in the comments!

QOTD: Do you think Ark's consumer-centric approach to bring ease of use to crypto is a good one? Why or why not?

Thanks for reading!

-Khaleel