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2017 has been a great year for the cryptocurrency market and the cryptos. The market capitalization rose from around $18 billion in January 2017 to $800 billion in January 2018. Unfortunately, following this, we have seen a bearish market as the prices of the top cryptocurrencies dropped immensely. At the beginning of April 2018, the market cap had reached a low point of $254 billion. However, now is the time to think about investments in crypto for parents.
Crypto For Parents: What Cryptocurrencies Should They Invest In?
The Covid-19 pandemic was successful in affecting every financial product, be it the stock market or any other sector. But amidst that, the pandemic has had a positive efficiency on the cryptocurrency markets. It has been seen that the trade of crypto assets has accelerated. This led to a twentyfold increase in the crypto market. Thus, it is great if your parents are thinking of investing their money in the crypto market.
The following are the top 10 cryptocurrencies to invest in this year:
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin (BTC) was the first-ever successful cryptocurrency. Several attempts at digital coins had been made prior to this. The cryptocurrency was created in 2008 and the truth is that no one knows who created it. However, the creator or the group goes by the name “Satoshi Nakamoto”. It is a digital currency that is based on a distributed ledger technology commonly known as the blockchain. The cryptocurrency also eliminates the requirement for any centralized intermediaries such as credit card companies and banks for aiding in electronic payments. Bitcoin is the best crypto to invest today.
Pros
- Bitcoin is the oldest cryptocurrency and possesses the biggest community of developers and investors that backs it for further growth.
- Bitcoin can be purchased very easily and it is beginner-friendly.
- The digital coin has been adopted in the mainstream economy. Several reputed companies have started to accept payments in BTC such as Microsoft, Bloomberg, Expedia, Overstock and more.
Cons
- The transaction speed of the cryptocurrency is very slow. It consumes around 10 minutes and its network can process solely around 7 transactions per second.
- Bitcoin mining is highly energy-intensive and is now possible with highly expensive and super powerful hardware that consumes a lot of electricity.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Bitcoin Cash or BCH is a forked product. Back in 2016, it was forked from Bitcoin (BTC). It was that time when the Bitcoin developers were unable to come to an agreement regarding the changes that were required in the code of Bitcoin. As a result, Bitcoin’s code was forked to BCH. BCH was created and aimed at solving some of the existing problems of Bitcoin, especially in terms of scalability and transaction fees.
Pros
- The transactions via Bitcoin Cash (BCH) are relatively faster than Bitcoin owing to the increase in the block size to 8MB in comparison to 1MB of Bitcoin.
- Currently, the average BTC transaction fees are approximately $1.8 and for BCH it is $0.067, which is much lesser.
Cons
- It is expected to be completely decentralized.
- BCH mining is also expensive similar to Bitcoin. However, the former gives lesser returns and is unfavorable for the miners.
- BCH is not as easily available on the crypto exchanges as the other reputed cryptocurrencies.
Cardano (ADA)
This cryptocurrency was created by the co-founder of Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson in September 2017. Similar to Ethereum, Cardano has also been developed as a platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications or DApps. The difference between Ethereum and Cardano lies in several technological improvements that it has made over the technology of Ethereum. Cardano or ADA is also being considered the most advanced and 3rd generation of blockchain technology.
Pros
- The crypto coin is supported by an academic community of global scientists and researchers contributing to its blockchain development.
- ADA is much more scalable as compared to Ethereum having a recent capability of 257 transactions per second.
- Cardano intends to incorporate interoperability. This means that it can interact with the various cryptocurrencies and their infrastructure in a pretty seamless manner.
Cons
- Cardano has proposed a lot of ideas that are yet to be developed into the final product. It is just a matter of time to see if the proposals are transferred to any successful product.
- There exists a huge competition in the crypto space from Ethereum, EOS, to NEO and Fusion.
EOS
In June 2017, the EOS token was launched via an ICO or Initial Coin Offering. EOS’s platform was thought to be a direct competitor to NEO and Ethereum. The platform was launched in June 2018. The digital currency has been created by the founder of cryptocurrency exchange Bitshares and blockchain-based blogging site Steemit, Dan Larimer. EOS is considered to be the building platform for the developers helping them to build smart contracts and DApps with immense improved technology.
Pros
- EOS is supposed to be more scalable than Ethereum as it uses an advanced mechanism to verify transactions such as Byzantine Fault Tolerance and Delegated Proof-of-Stake. It is capable of achieving 10,000 to 100,000 transactions per second.
- The currency supports a variety of programming languages including C++.
- EOS possesses a highly experienced team with a proven track record.
Cons
- The election of block producers does not support governance participation.
- The price of RAM changes without altering the demand or supply of RAM.
- The high inflation capital model is not being utilized properly.
Ethereum (ETH)
This specific cryptocurrency has been the second most valuable cryptocurrency following Bitcoin (BTC). Vitalik Buterin had created the crypto back in 2015 and it is much more than just a digital currency. So basically, Ethereum is a blockchain-based platform used for developing smart contracts and decentralized apps. The native cryptocurrency is Ether, which is used for all the transactions on the blockchain of Ethereum. This means that you will not have to develop a different blockchain if you have an idea for a project or application that uses blockchain technology.
Pros
- The most sought platform for building dApps and smart contracts.
- It offers a great platform for launching the ICOs for the other blockchain projects. The highest number of $5.6 billion worth of ICOs in2017 had been launched on Ethereum.
- The crypto has a transaction speed of a few seconds and not as long as 10 minutes in comparison to Bitcoin.
Cons
- Ethereum possesses a serious issue with its scalability. Currently, it also engages with the obsolete Proof-of-Work or PoW mechanism in order to verify the transactions which leads to network congestion.
- Ethereum demands a lot of electricity consumption for its mining process. However, with Ethereum’s 2.0 version, this issue could be solved.
- It supports only a single coding language which is Solidity. As the developers are required to learn a new language, this acts as a barrier for them.
- Currently, Ethereum is facing tough competition from Cardano and NEO as they are offering similar platforms with improved technology.
IOTA
IOTA was founded in 2015 and is the most unique cryptocurrency amongst the other similar cryptos. The use of a new protocol named “Tangle” is seen only in this cryptocurrency where it does not uses the most popular blockchain technology. IOTA is aimed at making Internet-of-Things or IoT technology even more secure, scalable and seamless.
Pros
- There are no transaction fees.
- The technology of IOTA offers infinite scalability.
Cons
- IOTA depends on the success of the Internet-of-Things or IoT. This makes the future of the coin even more unpredictable.
- Tangle is currently undergoing a security issue, as recently discovered by MIT Media Lab.
- IOTA may face stiff competition if the big players of IoT develop their own cryptocurrency.
Litecoin (LTC)
Back in 2011, Litecoin (LTC) was created by Charlie Lee, an ex-employee of Google. It was built on the Bitcoin blockchain and was aimed at improving it. Thus, similar to Bitcoin, Litecoin is just a digital currency and does not offer any platform for the development of smart contracts. With the passing of time, LTC has been one of the most popular cryptocurrencies.
Pros
- Litecoin transactions are much faster than Bitcoin. Where BTC takes 10 minutes to complete a transaction, LTC just takes 2.5 minutes. This is the reason behind its name “Lite” coin.
- The average transaction fee of Litecoin is also lesser than Bitcoin. While Bitcoin charges $1.8, the LTC transaction fees are around $0.179.
Cons
- Apart from the transaction speed, there are no other special offerings that Litecoin provides. It is facing rigid competition from the coins that offer smart contracts, privacy and international payments and more.
- Similar to Bitcoin mining, Litecoin mining or LTC mining is also expensive and is restricted to those possessing powerful specialized hardware.
NEO
NEO is a Chinese cryptocurrency that was created by Da Hongfei back in 2014. Originally, it was called AntShares. It was in June 2017, that the cryptocurrency got rebranded to NEO. The cryptocurrency is often referred to as the “Chinese Ethereum” owing to its similarities to its competitors and Ethereum. The crypto also offers a blockchain-based platform for launching ICOs and the development of smart contracts. Thus, it is the best coin to buy today.
Pros
- The transaction speed of NEO is much faster than Ethereum (ETH). While NEO is capable of completing 10,000 transactions per second, Ethereum can complete 15 transactions per second.
- Ethereum supports only one programming language. In contrast to this, NEO supports multiple languages such as C++, Go, C# and Java making it the favorite coin for programmers.
- The digital currency seems to enjoy the support of the Chinese government, offering it a clear advantage in the massive Chinese and Asian markets.
Cons
- Since NEO is dependent on government support, it can experience the worst hit if the Chinese government announces some unfavorable policies.
- NEO is targeting the most competitive segment in which there exists severe competition from the other cryptocurrencies such as Cardano, Ethereum and EOS.
Ripple (XRP)
Ripple or XRP is considered to be a pretty unique cryptocurrency focusing on the issues solely related to International Payment Transfers. The cryptocurrency was founded back in 2012 aiming to make international transactions both cheap and fast. In total, 100 billion XRP will ever exist. Of this, Ripple Labs (the company behind Ripple) owns 50 billion XRP. It is the cheapest cryptocurrency to buy at this moment.
Pros
- Usually, an international money transfer takes around a week. On the contrary, Ripple can make it work in just a couple of seconds. Ripple’s fees are also lower than the other financial institution and cryptocurrencies.
- The use case of Ripple is quite clear with the international payments.
- One of a kind platform that is tested out in the real world is Ripple. It has strategic ties with several major financial institutions and is also used by Santander and American Express.
Cons
- The digital coin is often criticized for being centralized as the company itself owns half of the coins. The fact is decentralization is the aim behind cryptocurrencies.
- The biggest users of Ripple such as financial institutions and banks have started to develop their own cryptocurrencies for international payments.
Stellar (XLM)
Jed McCaleb, the founder of Ripple has founded the Stellar (XLM) cryptocurrency back in 2014. It is a fact that Ripple was hard forked into Stellar and thus the Stellar Development Foundation, a non-profit organization, came into being. Just like Ripple, Stellar too is focused on making cross-border payments more efficiently.
Pros
- The digital currency is more decentralized in comparison to its closest competitor, Ripple. Being a non-profit, it gains a lot of trust than the others.
- Stellar has successfully secured strategic partnerships with more than 30 banks and with various organizations such as IBM and Deloitte.
Cons
- Competition is rising amongst the cryptocurrencies that are targeting international payments.
Final Words
If you have been thinking about what your parents can invest in and even if crypto for parents is important, you have a clear idea now. You can explain what they are from Google if you have been searching for how to explain cryptocurrency to parents. Here is all you would like to know before proceeding to purchase at least one of them. These cryptocurrencies form over 75% of the total crypto market by the market cap. This list of the most popular cryptocurrencies can help you in picking up the right crypto or be a helpful crypto buying guide for your parents.
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