Ethereum has generated hundreds of projects and ICOs. You give the ICOs your Ether and in return they give you a portion of their shitcoins that don't do anything yet. They are dubbed shitcoins because they are a promise that one day the project will deliver on what they set out to do, but there are no guarantees. A less bearish way of putting it would be "promise-coin", but that's no fun.

2018 is the year that many of these projects need to put up or shut up. Of these hundreds of ICOs, none of them have delivered their promise. This makes investors and the public in general very skeptical. Regardless, people are willing to throw money at these projects, because if any of them deliver, their market cap is sure to skyrocket. The goals for these coins has been set very high so it wouldn't be foolish to think that some of them could achieve a market cap higher than Ethereum itself or even Bitcoin. Wouldn't that be something.

Golem (GNT)

I've written about Golem quite a few times.
https://steemit.com/golem/@edicted/golem-and-friends-will-change-crypto-mining-forever
https://steemit.com/open-source/@edicted/open-source-decentralized-capitalism
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@edicted/golem-coin-gnt-graded-b
https://steemit.com/golem/@edicted/proud-owner-of-31-golem-coins

Golem is my favorite shitcoin, and it has been doing quite well lately. I was used to seeing it around the #60 mark on https://coinmarketcap.com, but now it's value has climbed the ladder up to #38 at this moment. It's practically nipping at the heels of Steem, which I find quite impressive.

Golem seeks to create a worldwide super computer API. I call it Proof-of-work 2.0, because instead of your computer hashing out wasteful lottery tickets, mining Golem actually accomplishes a valuable task. You can use Golem coins to buy time on the super computer or you can get paid coins by renting out your computer to the network.

The thing that makes Golem a shitcoin is that it just only very recently went live, and the API for programming super computer applications isn't even available yet. They are simply testing the network by using it for rendering graphics with open source applications like Blender. Obviously, the market for this type of computation is pretty small.

The Golem project has amazing potential. Once the API is available, some bad ass hacker is going to program a Golem app that will mine other proof-of-work coins. This will peg the value of Golem to an absolute minimum value that it can't go below, because as soon as it goes below that value someone will buy the network to mine other coins.

Obviously, this would be against the spirit of POW 2.0 but there will be many other applications on the Golem network. Any application that can be broken into pieces and processed on a decentralized distributed network can theoretically be programmed for Golem. In other words, if the application can be spread out equally across multiple threads, Golem is a great target platform. Decentralization is the main theme of blockchain technology, so don't be surprised if the Golem project ends up being the cornerstone foundation of many different future blockchain projects.

At the same time don't be surprised if another multi-threaded platform (EOS) beats them to the punch. Although I don't see that happening because competition is scarce and it's easy to pivot to avoid stepping on the toes of other projects.

Dent

Dent is a total longshot but I love what the project stands for. Dent is trying to allow people to buy and sell excess mobile data. This really begs the question: won't mobile carriers simply ban this activity? (Yes, I know what begging the question actually means. Don't care.) Still, I like the project for multiple reasons.

1. People can try to exploit unlimited data plans. The Dent project will put mobile carriers on the backfoot by attacking them and forcing them to respond.

2. The Dent project is in line with the need to decentralize the Internet and mesh networks.

3. If this project somehow manages to deliver it will go x1000, meaning only a very small initial investment is required. Huge risk, bigger reward.

4. Ideally, the project would allow users to save money or even make money. It's a win win for buyers and sellers at the cost of exploiting corporations. Win-win-win.

#4 is why the project will fail. Corporations won't allow that kind of exploitation. The only way I see this project taking off is with the advent of a decentralized Internet. We need to cut out the middle man and undercut the establishment. This is no easy task.

However, there may be very innovative ways to make this technology work. What if thousands of people in your town were opted in to a smart contract network? You could drive down the streets of your town and connect to available WIFI networks on the fly. You'd leech data off the WIFI and you'd pay the owner of the router a small micro-charge through smart contracts. Maybe one day... but this is all very ahead of it's time. The Ethereum network can't even handle that kind of activity at the moment. I'll hold out hope if the Dent team doesn't give up in a few years.

Basic Attention Token (BAT)

This token is all about giving the power of advertising back to the people. It creates a symbiotic relationship between users, advertisers, and publishers. Everybody wins. You can earn money by looking at ads of the things you wanted to buy and get deals on in the first place. You can earn more money by providing details about yourself that help advertisers sell more products. Your identity is shielded so that no one has incentive to go outside the system.

SALT

This token is a home run in my opinion. It lets you take out a loan using your crypto assets as collateral. This might sound like a bad idea to you, but it's an even worse idea to take out a loan on reputation alone (credit cards). I've even thought of using SALT to make the ultimate gambit play: Take out a loan using crypto to buy more crypto. If I did this at the bottom of the market I'd make bank. If the market crashed I'd be totally screwed lol... I'm not gonna do it, it's just too stupid. :)

However, I will crunch those numbers when the time comes just to see what it would be like, because you know it's going to happen.

People are stupid and people want "free money", so a lot of people are going to use this service for sure, and I don't see how the project could fail. It creates a totally free market for issuing loans backed on collateral. Break the custom-made smart contract, lose your crypto. It's as simple as that. This eliminates the need to use credit scores and other means of reputation gathering. Although certainly some of the contracts will involve reputation and not just collateral. That way borrowers will be able to convince loaners to give them better interest rates. This is a very promising project, yet still currently a shitcoin.

Augur (REP)

This is another one of those projects that can't fail, but it's also going to be a total shit show. Auger calls itself:

An open-source, decentralized, peer-to-peer oracle and prediction market
platform built on the Ethereum blockchain.

Which is like the guy from subway calling himself a "sandwich artist". Haha. This is unregulated relatively frictionless decentralized gambling, and you know how people can't stop themselves from gambling.

Some people are going to get so fucked from these technologies. Take out a loan with SALT and then gamble that loan with Auger. The thing about compulsive gamblers is that they hype up their wins and shamefully conceal their losses. This combination is going to create some very intense hype. People are going to make and lose millions. I would suggest investing just a tiny bit before the shit hits the fan, because the power of this fan can be measured in volatility.

Auger is one of the oldest ICOs, and it's just on the verge of launching. There is a lot of hype, and you should know that if a coin gets over-hyped and doesn't deliver it will crash into the dirt until it does.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Augur/comments/68whru/augur_beta_status_roadmap_and_resources_updated/
https://www.coindesk.com/augur-ahead-one-oldest-icos-close-going-live/

Genesis Vision Token (GVT)

I'm super bullish on this shitcoin. I found out about it just recently. Genesis Vision is a coin that aims to allow anyone to be a crypto broker. I realized just how high of a demand this service will have if it delivers. Talking with my friends, I got them super excited to invest in crypto, but they were terrified when they learned the risks and ways you can fuck up and lose all your money.

Thus a service is required that newbies can use to invest in crypto without having to do any of the research. GVT aims to be totally transparent, so unlike traditional brokers they can't use clever tricks to fuck over their clients and steal money. One of the truly interesting things about GVT is that brokers will have their own individual tokens as a measure of success and reputation. It's a complicated project and I won't pretend to know all the ins and outs, but at #185 on the market cap it's a steal if it performs as advertised. Clearly, the much safer play is to wait for results.

I'm willing to bet that nearly half of the Steemit community has the knowledge and drive to use this coin, become a broker, and help crypto become more mainstream while making a profit. Therefore, we don't even need to invest in it. We can simply wait for it to come out and get paid to research blockchain tech... most of the people here were already doing that anyway. If we can sell ourselves and get some clients on the side I bet a lot of us could make a lot more on this service than on Steemit. Using both platforms in tandem could yield some serious synergy.

Dether

Dether seeks to be the Craigslist of fiat to crypto transactions. With Dether, anyone will be able to open their own local crypto exchange, set their own fees, and get cash from people wanting to buy crypto. Sounds risky? Well everyone has the option to set their own risk. At #667 on the market cap this coin is the ultimate longshot. This is another one of those pipe dream x1000 coins.

DragonChain

Formerly a project of Disney, DragonChain is another Ethereum competitor. However, instead of using it's own language like Ethereum does it will use the standard ones like Java and C++. This project is very complicated and I don't really understand it that well. I'm also not really willing to learn more because mainnets like EOS and Tron have just released. I do know that the focus of Dragonchain is on security of valuable information, speed, and scalability.

I also vaguely recall something about sleeping dragon coins. IIRC, people who hold their coins get a reward in the form of inflation.

This isn't a good example of a shitcoin because like EOS and Tron, Dragonchain is only using ERC-20 protocol as a temporary measure until the mainnet launch.

TenX

TenX is trying to make as many coins as possible spendable at vendors just like a debit card. After the LitePay debacle, Litecoin bulls are hopeful that TenX will get the sour taste out of everyone's mouth. However, TenX is likely more concerned with Ethereum, ERC-20, and Bitcoin spend-ability than Litecoin in particular. It's hard to believe that this service will deliver soon, because the establishment seems to actively fight against it. They want to make sure that crypto to fiat and fiat to crypto is bottlenecked at controllable central locations like Coinbase. Still, if it somehow manages to pull through, not only will the value of TenX skyrocket, but the value of the entire market will likely go out of control.

Shitcoin (STC)

If you put $50 into all of these projects and even one delivers you're going to make bank. However, will any deliver, or is investing in shitcoins like sending $50 to a Nigerian Princess? Only time will tell.