Six Cryptocurrencies to Watch in 2019

Following last year’s very well publicized crisis moment for Bitcoin, it’s very tempting to believe that the moment for cryptocurrency has passed. The market of cryptocurrencies is unstable and this has rocked the confidence in it significantly.

However, Bitcoin has performed quite well in the past several weeks and all of the crypto world has as well. While digital currencies are not as stable as fiat currencies, the technology will only develop and improve.

The first boom in rise of cryptocurrencies has passed but there will be more growth in the future. Here are some cryptocurrencies to watch this year.

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency that also works as a platform for building your own currency. Users take the building blocks provided by Ethereum’s blockchain and create their own application so that it can be used to manage things like supply chain.

Ethereum grew in value nearing the end of 2018 but at it saw the second largest growth to Bitcoin and it reached 3000% growth.

“During the course of this year,” says Jay Stokes, author at Ukwritings and Stateofwriting. “ Ethereum is going to develop further and it will rise in value because of it.”

Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

Bitcoin Cash rose during 2017 as Bitcoin ABC, developed by former Facebook engineer Amaury Séchet. Abandoning an established protocol, they took the unprecedented move of increasing the block size limit from 1MB to 8MB. Splitting from the original network, they essentially created a new Blockchain with different rules.

At the end of its first day of trading, Bitcoin Cash had become the third cryptocurrency to capitalize on the market.

It is more functional than Bitcoin, as it’s increased block size limit allows for creating scalability and more transactions. It has shown a great deal of durability through an otherwise volatile 2018.

Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance coin has shown itself to be a serious contender in recent months. It enjoys a useful position as a tool to convert and purchase other digital currencies across the world. This has enabled it to remain fairly steady during the glut of crypto-currency sell-offs during 2018, roughly tripling its value.

As it develops, its provider, the website Binance, is building a decentralized exchange, and through careful currency management, intends to scale the value up by destroying half of all BNB.

Dash (DASH)

Dash was created in 2014 as a decentralized organization and a cryptocurrency which worked as an open source platform. This coin had some bad reputation because it was used a lot on the dark web. It was originally known as Xcoin.

But the coin was rebranded as Dash which means Digital cash. Any transfers through Dash are quick and the community is dedicated to improving it.

ZCash (ZEC)

ZCash was developed in 2016 with a focus on security. It has two protocols that are focused on transparent or shielded pools.

Because of transparency, some private transactions can be shown as a way to prove payments for tax obligations and regulations. In this way, Zcash has been at the forefront of creating a sustainable future for cryptocurrency.

“The developers of ZCash have been very public in meeting with law enforcement agencies,” says Carina Rodriguez, contributor to Revieweal and Academized, “This, finally, is a bid to show a united front against illegal cryptocurrency activity.”

Monero (XMR)

Monero has had a somewhat controversial year. Some studies during the year showed that around 4.3% of the total supply of XMR had been mined illegally.

This worries many people. However, as the industry as a whole move towards a more legitimate, less shady mode of practice, it is interesting to note that during the time these studies were published, XMR’s value seemed to have fluctuated very little. Monero is based on an algorithm that drives miners to look for legitimate data.

Monero is great because it allows your transfers to be hidden and this gives you privacy. ZCash, for instance, doesn’t do this. It’s still debated how good of a replacement it is to the Bitcoin but it’s widely used.