How to spot a suckercoin

We live in the magical era of digital revolution. The rise of cryptocurrencies has been astronomical. I consider it to be a financial rebellion of our times, us being in control of our own money despite government's effort to control it.

If you are looking to invest in a cryptocurrency despite the fierce warnings of it's volatility and lack of central authority and market prices based on pure speculation, I present to you some insights that will hopefully help make informed crypto-investment decisions.

As Matt Damon aka Mike in Rounders puts it, "If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker." A suckercoin is a useless coin. You don't want to be near it. You would want to avoid it at all costs. Here are a few ways to do just that:

1. Look for volume
   Cryptocurrencies are listed in exchanges for trading. The amount of coin bought and sold usually within 24 hours is the trading volume. The amount of trading volume is a good indicator of coin's worthiness. Look for a coin with increasingly large trading volume, it will not be your typical suckercoin.

2. Don't get sucked into hiked up prices
   Unlike fiat currency, supply and demand, the cryptocurrency prices are purely speculative, affected by the events surrounding it. If a coin values rises too high, it is likely to fall just as fast. A slow growth is a healthy growth. Look for charts and make observations. Look for a trend, a pattern to determine whether it is a suckercoin.

   The sell and buy orders listed in the exchanges give the amount of orders. If a coin has too many sell orders and few buy orders, it is a coin you don't want to buy. A suckercoin sell orders usually also have large price variations with no buyers. A look at the market's previous trades also provides buying and selling trends.

3. Read the white paper
   A white paper is a description of the project from project member(s) point of view. It lets you infer their intentions on the purpose of the project, how it will be executed and what is in the roadmap and the future. After you have read the white paper, ask yourself, are you convinced? Does what is presented seem plausible and attainable within proposed timeframe? Does it present new ideas that serves a purpose to the humanity? If you have hesitations, read a few times more and ask again. If just by reading the white paper, you get excited by the prospects, the sound technical and financial details of the coin and how it will be used, if you have a gut feeling that this could be it, then this could be the coin that has a potential for growth.

4. Know the eco-system
   With open source code and plethora of tools available publicly, it is now easy for every joe and his grandmother to create a new coin. Ethereum tokens can be created with a few clicks and copy-pastes. It is your money after all. Don't give in too easy. Look for the creators' and their team's twitter and social media, their github accounts, their linkedin profiles, and everything else that you can dig about them, that matters, and helps you form a decision about the future value of the coin.

   Other metrics include the code update frequency in github, response time in slack channel, and what they post in their twitter and other social media platforms.

5. Use your instinct
   Since the cryptocurrency market is fueled by human greed and a desire for change, no one can be trusted but yourself and your instincts, when it comes to identifying a suckercoin. A suckercoin doesn't bring anything new to the table, there is no innovation, no solving real world problems. It over-promises and could be trying too hard to sucker you in to buy it. Pay attention to the quality of the website content. Pay attention to details. Little tell-tale signs include low resolution images, images with mismatched aspect ratio, incorrect grammar, long interval since last post, etc. A coin can be validated by it's purpose. If it doesn't serve a purpose it is a suckercoin.

6. Google for mass opinion
   A mass is more likely to be right than a single person. If you are not being able to form a decision whether or not to put your faith in the coin, google it. Read what people are saying about the coin, with a sole purpose of getting their opinion. Everyone is selling an agenda, so take it with a grain of salt, if you will. Twitter, youtube, blogs, social media, the internet is full of it. Be informed. Read reviews and keep looking for anything that gives you a better idea about the coin investment, because a suckercoin is the last thing you want to buy.

7. Pre-mining
   Human greed knows no bounds. Out there are scam coins and shit coins and pyramid scheme coins, they are there waiting for you to be their victim. A suckercoin and pre-mined coins are close brothers. In a pre-mined coin, certain number of coins have already been taken by the creators for whatever purpose they see fit. The amount of premines is a strong factor in spotting a suckercoin. Some coins like ripple have managed to stay afloat despite having being pre-mined, however, only future will tell where they are headed.

8. Be paranoid, be informed
   Investing in a cryptocurrency is taking risks where there is no security or guarantee of the value of so called asset you acquire. It is not an easy game to play, it requires patience, luck and careful observations. Look for anything that doesn't feel right about the coin. If history is any indication, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Be prepared for a catastrophe, if it comes down to it. To say it in better terms, never put more money than you can afford to lose.