Alt-Coin HODLing for people beginning their investment journey in cryptocurrency

How this post came to be

Recently I posted on a passive income Facebook group about alt-coins (alternatives to Bitcoin) that have potential to make people money without having to day trade. I've decided to repost the content here, elaborating on my decisions. I'm by no means any kind of expert, having only invested in cryptocurrencies for a few months myself.

NOTE:

This isn't financial advice. Cryptocurrency investing comes with risk. Only invest with what you're comfortable loosing. Do your due diligence. Do your research. Links posted are as-at the time of posting; it's a highly volatile space and news changes daily. Consider these as just the beginning of your reading. Ensure you monitor charts, observe current changes and news in your cryptocurrencies of choice and try to find some trends. This is only a selection of the vast array of coins out there, and your opinions or those of others may/will differ wildly from mine. Changes in the marketplace may very well render my opinions changed, as they will probably yours.

Where can I buy them?

NOTE: A number of these links are affiliate links, signing up via these links helps support our site and keeps our site ad-free.

This website takes a bias towards Australians, being that we are from Australia. As such, all of these coins are available on coinspot.com.au  , which I've begun covering in the following guides:

Ray takes a look at Coinspot (A sign up guide)
Trading on Coinspot (Coinspots very simple (and perhaps immature) trading system)

For Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and potentially soon according to rumours, Ripple, you can use coinbase.com. Using this link, you will get an additional $10 if you buy $100 worth of coins.

Want to use something else?
Want to day trade?
From USA/UK or elsewhere?
Other places to review for buying coins:

1. 1. CEX.IO
   2. Bittrex
   3. cryptomate.co.uk
   4. coinfloor.co.uk
   5. Plus500

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Where should I store them?

For long term storage, you should always store any cryptocurrency in a wallet in which you control the private keys. If you leave it on the Exchange, there is an inherent risk you could loose your coins. After-all, it's still an IOU until you withdraw. In future articles we will go over wallets such as Exodus, Electrum, Ledger Nano S and Trezor.

Why buy them?

These coins are ones that I myself have bought, under the premise that I will just hold them to see what happens in the medium to long term. Some of these are selling in the fractions of cents, so you can get into the market without much risk and for a small amount of investment capital. Personally, I've spent between $10 and $100 on most of these. As I would also say, you need to conduct your own research. I've written a quick blurb about each one, but the responsibility is really on the individual to conduct their own diligence and be comfortable with their levels of investment and assumed risk.

If I reflect internally, I've made the mistake a few times of making decisions on coins based on my political / ideological thoughts. For example, I missed the boat on NEO because I felt that the Chinese Government being involved detracts from the entire purpose of Cryptocurrency. It could be well argued that this is absolutely true, but in the interests of making returns and obtaining financial freedom I've decided to let those thoughts take a back seat. By thinking this way, I missed the boat on NEO and could have made a tonne of money. So I guess the lesson for me at least, is to not invest with any emotions, or let your internal dialogue about 'how it ought to be' get in the way.

The Coins

XRP - Ripple.

Huge potential, currently being tested by a wide variety of banks, Microsoft, The Gates Foundation, Google, etc. There is rumor it will be added to Coinbase so they will get pumped hard if that happens as they will be more easily accessible. Ripple is a long term HODL - 2 years+.  Most recently tested by banks to do SWIFT Transfers in seconds instead of days. It's key to understand that Ripple Connect is not reliant on XRP; but in the words of the developers on Reddit - XRP doing well is a benefit for all, including Ripple Connect.

Additional Reading:

1. Ripple SubReddit
2. Hodor's XRP Blog XRP Price Speculation 
3. Ripple XRP Charts
4. Swell
5. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Releases Open-Source Software to Support Efforts that Expand Access to Financial Services in Developing Countries
6. Ripple to Place 55 Billion XRP in Escrow to Ensure Certainty of Total XRP Supply
7. @Cuallix becomes the first financial institution to use a digital asset to reduce liquidity costs: https://ripple.com/insights/ripplenet-grows-to-over-100-financial-institutions/ … #XRPthestandard
8. Ripple opens office in Singapore
9. Ripple Opens A New Office In Mumbai India
10. Federal Reserve Task Force: Ripple Improves Speed and Transparency of Global Payments
11. Interoperability Boost: Ripple Sends Blockchain Transaction Across 7 Ledgers
12. XRP Multi-Sign Wallet General Availability
13. Ripple Talks With People’s Bank of China Key to Chinese Blockchain Market
14. Palm Beach Confidential (mentions Ripple)
15. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ripple/

ETH - Ethereum.

In my humble opinion Ethereum is still under valued. Not cheap but not as expensive as Bitcoin. Bitcoin = Gold, Eth = Silver (taking over from LTC). It has the potential to get into the 1000's within 1-2 years according to experts. Like I wrote about earlier, Ethereum is another coin that I got emotionally involved with (In that I didn't like it for reasons such as being pre-mined) and missed the boat getting in early to make 1000%'s of returns. Had I bought in early and just took a HODL position, I would probably have retired by now.

READ THIS FIRST: https://hodlitbro.com.au/2017/11/08/news-review-8-november-2017/

Additional Reading:

1. EtherMining SubReddit
2. Ethereum SubReddit
3. Ethereum Price
4. Ethereum Project
5. What is ethereum? A beginners guide
6. An Ethereum Price Prediction of $1,000 Tops Near-Term Forecasts
7. Ethereum Price Important Price Levels To Watch In November 2017
8. Top 3 Ethereum Project Price Predictions for 2018
9. 7 Cryptocurrency Predictions From the Experts
10. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/

NEO - Neo/Antshares.

Originally I was very against this coin due to Chinese Government involvement. Someone I know had said to watch this coin, but I argued about its development team and red flags. Again I missed the early boat. Forget the politics of it, this coin also has the potentially to get into high values as the Chinese are making legislation to include Neo in all future ICO's. If Ali-express supports NEO..... you can work out what happens.

Additional Reading:

1. Neo Project
2. Neo on Github
3. Neo Subreddit
4. Trade Recommendation: Neo
5. NEO Price Takes a Beating in Both USD and BTC Terms
6. NEO Price Gains 11% Against Bitcoin but Remains Volatile
7. NEO Touches $30 Again as Ecosystem Grows
8. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/neo/

XLM - Stellar Lumens.

A competitor to XRP in a way, it's got the backing IBM now and could end up going places. I've been buying it since the fractions of cents and now it's at 5c. Depending on adoption and where IBM goes with it, even if it gets to $1-$2 and then dies to XRP you will make a heap if you buy at 5c and sell at the right time.

Additional Reading:

1. IBM and Stellar in Cross Border Payments
2. A Deep Dive Into Stellar Lumens
3. Stellar Subreddit
4. Stellar Lumens Project
5. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/stellar/

SIA - Siacoin.

Extremely cheap, used for smart contracts similar to NEO and directed at companies like Dropbox for outsourced long term storage. I follow the developers on Reddit and while it's super early they seem to be very transparent and $10 will buy a lot of them. Again you are waiting for it to get to $1-2 which when you buy at half a cent it's big returns.

Additional Reading:

1. Crypto Review — Siacoin (SC)
2. Sia Project
3. Siacoin SubReddit
4. Blockchain Tech Company Sia (Siacoin) Could Disrupt Dropbox and Amazon
5. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/siacoin/

XVG - Verge.

A competitor to Monero, super cheap right now and has the potential to take over for black market transactions. Has a bias to anonymity and secrecy. As Monero gets popular and more exploits are potentially discovered XVG can get in there and take over. So cheap it's worth throwing a few bob at it and see what happens. 

READ THIS FIRST: https://hodlitbro.com.au/2017/11/08/news-review-8-november-2017/

Additional Reading:

1. Verge Black Paper
2. What is the wraith protocol
3. Vergecurrency SubReddit
4. Wraith Protocol Completed
5. Verge Project
6. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/verge/

 

XMR - Monero.

I've always liked XMR. I was mining it at $30 and now it's well over $100. Imagine buying tens of thousands when it was worthless a few years ago and selling for $110? It is built to support CPU Mining and has potential to take over traditional ads on websites as Java miners such as Coinhive can mine while you visit websites. At the moment it's "not worth it" but that could change. Still popular with dark web transactions due to its security/anonymity.

Additional Reading:

1. Monero Project
2. Pirate Bay Resumes Mining Monero Using Visitor CPU Power
3. Monero-Only Darknet Marketplace Libertas Introduces Auto Withdraw Option
4. Monero Mining SubReddit
5. Monero SubReddit
6. Is Amazon Going Crypto? The Mystery of Monero
7. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/monero/

New Potential on the Horizon

Red Belly Blockchain.

Made in Australia at a Sydney based University, it has the potential to topple Ripple but it's not yet publicly available. Like Ripple it's stupid fast for SWIFT international transfers, but it's also able to due huge concurrent transactions (more than VISA).

Additional Reading:

1. Australian scientists have built the fastest blockchain technology in the world
2. Read the teams paper about Balance Attacks
3. Read the teams paper about From Blockchain Consensus Back to Byzantine Consensus
4. Read the teams other publications
5. Our look recently Red Belly BlockChain – The fastest Blockchain in the World

Naturally there are many other Alt-Coins out there, and you may very well find ones that you prefer, either because you believe in the project, or you've identified that they are lucrative. Even since starting to write this, I've started to get interested in Stratis and Iota. I'll reserve commentary until I've research them more.

Let me reiterate that you just be aware that alt-coins are highly volatile (even more than the majors like Bitcoin) and if you watch it daily you will likely experience some level of stress, coupled with euphoria. While volatility is great for day trading, it can be difficult to deal with if you're hodling medium to long term and are susceptible to stress. That said, do keep an eye on your news, monitor the subreddits, keep an eye on coinmarketcap and act if you feel the need you need to exit the investment.

Again, do your diligence. Only invest what you're prepared to loose.

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Should we cover a particular topic? Should we investigate a particular coin or ICO? Let us know in the comments below!

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://hodlitbro.com.au/2017/11/04/alt-coin-hodling-for-people-beginning/

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