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2018 was a transitional year for the cryptocurrency and it seems that the goal is the transition from "HODL" to "BUIDL. "While prices are taking their sweet moment of correction, blockchain development is in full force, preparing the next race of bulls that many of us hope for.
In this article, we'll take a look at what the top 10 cryptocurrencies are doing with their capital. For clarification, there are some discrepancies among which the scrambles are among the top 10 based on who you listen to them. Because these differences exist, we will save for another article.
For this, we will refer to the Yahoo! Cryptocurrency screener.
It is also worth noting which of these projects are still without a functioning product: EOS, TRON and Cardano. Of course, there are arguments against it, but the line had to be drawn somewhere, and sometimes it is useful to set the bar at the top. For more details on this evaluation, check our article on cryptocurrency with working products.
Tether aside, here's what's in store for the top 10 cryptocurrencies of 2019.
Top 10 Cryptocurrencies: Developments that I look forward to in 2019
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is preparing for an interesting 2019, and there are 2 main reasons why: increase in speed and scalability of transactions and closure of institutional investors.
This combination has the potential to launch the entire market in another upward rush, although it will take time to gain traction.
Lightning network
The 7-second transaction time that plagues Bitcoin usability has led to increase in transaction fees and a stronger advantage for the competition. The Bitcoin developers are responding by opening the Lightning network, which allows transactions to occur separately from the main Bitcoin blockchain.
You can learn more about how Lightning network works of by clicking herebut in a nutshell, the resolution of current downsizing problems would make Bitcoin feasible for mass adoption. Due to the incoming institutional interest, the times could not be better.
Institutional involvement
Massive financial institutions are heating up with cryptocurrencies and releasing products to meet demand.
Fidelity has launched its own Digital resources platform in the fourth quarter of 2018 and plans to launch the Fidelity Digital Asset Services (FDAS) platform in the first quarter of 2019 to meet growing demand. The launch of the FDAS would give its customers access to most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies, instead of limiting access to Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Then there is the launch of Bakkt, late until Q1 2019, which will provide regulatory compliance for cryptocurrencies and will also offer Bitcoin futures contracts.
2. Ripple (XRP)
Like many of the altcoins, there is no detailed roadmap publicly available for Ripple. To understand what the 2019 XRP will bring, we need to look at what the Ripple team has done and what they are aiming for.
Fast and scalable
While Bitcoin hopes to address scalability issues next year, Ripple software is already able to consistently manage 1,500 transactions per second (Tx / s), which is essentially identical to The Visa average of 1,700 Tx / s.
To put these numbers in perspective, consider the image below, which shows the transaction times of the 3 most important cryptocurrencies compared to traditional systems. The speed blockchain technology leads to the table is impressive, and Ripple is leading the pack.
Global banking partnerships
Ripple can not only handle transactions thousands of times faster than any other major payment gateway, but also do it internationally. Ripple is focusing on acquiring partnerships with RippleNet, which is a global payments network aimed at increasing liquidity and lowering transaction fees.
There are currently over 100 RippleNet partner, some of the most remarkable beings American Express, MoneyGram, is SWIFT. While these partnerships do not automatically equate to an increase in the price of XRP, it seems that the plan was to create a digital asset that can manage global volume, establish meaningful partnerships, and then incentivize partners with value and savings.
Ripple has essentially accomplished a scalable ecosystem and powerful partnerships, and in 2019 we could very well see the incentive Ripple partners.
3. Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum It is an important piece of the industry, and entered in 2014 as the first cryptocurrency to allow the creation of new and intelligent contracts.
This led to 94 of the first 100 coins be built on Ethereum. However, the sharp increase in activity on the blockchain also involved growing pains, in the form of scalability problems.
Scalability solutions
Founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin he seems confident in his solution to the current lack of scalability of the Blockchain. The first update, called Constantinople, would require a fork hard of Ethereum and could take place as soon as January 2019.
The second update would introduce the Casper Protocol as well as sharding, which would happen in the second half of 2019.
The next scheduled update is called Serenity, which requires the creation of a completely new blockchain, and is a multi-upgrade plan to move Ethereum from a job test consent algorithm Punch proof.
Ethereum has a strong and proactive response to the scalability problems that have come to an end in 2017 and 2018. With more cryptocurrencies fighting for the top platform currency spot, Ethereum will have to make the most of next year if it wants to maintain its first mover advantage.
4. Bitcoin cash (BCH)
Despite the hash wars 2018, Bitcoin money remains ranked at number 4 and their recently updated website is complete with a schedule for 2019, which was divided into 3 sections: downsizing, usability and extensibility.
The team admits that although they believe that the design of their product is valid, it is not perfect and requires carefully implemented updates if it wants to achieve its goal of becoming "usable by everyone in the world".
Their 3 main objectives are:
- Brings 100-tx / s Bitcoin Cash capabilities to over 5,000,000 Tx / s.
- Reduce the average transaction time to 3 seconds.
- Create an extensible protocol that facilitates the implementation of future updates.
This roadmap aims to provide a high level technical direction and allow different technical teams to work together towards a common goal for the advancement of Bitcoin Cash.
-Bitcoincash.org
Aside from the scheduled maintenance scheduled for May 2019, there is another development update that will be launched next year Coin Shuffle. The protocol will add an additional level of privacy, obfuscating transactional data at no additional cost.
5. Stellar (XLM)
Cryptocurrencies that are able to make improvements in development, as well as partnerships, during bear markets are those that have the best chance of survival.
Although we have not yet been blessed with a roadmap for 2019, we can begin to bring together the image based on what Stellar achieved in 2018.
Stellar It is similar to Ripple in some ways, but one of the most important similarities in 2019 is building success partnership with huge companies and what their plans are for next year.
IBM and Blockchain World Wire
IBM It has been an industry leader in the computer field, so it is not surprising that they are examining the blockchain technology before the curve. A partnership with IBM is almost a short cut in the financial sector.
Second IBM website90% of credit card transactions are processed using IBM mainframes and 97% of global banks are IBM customers.
IBM is about to launch Wirechain World Wire (BWW), which they describe as "the new financial railway that simultaneously cancels and regulates cross-border payments almost in real time" and chose Stellar as the platform behind everything.
2019 should be the first year in which the BWW sees significant traction, which should considerably increase Stellar on the cryptographic radar.
6. Litecoin (LTC)
litecoin It is commonly referred to as Bitcoin's silver for gold, given the propensity of users to store their Bitcoins rather than using them for daily transactions. It's a slow analogy, but the goal of Litecoin as "silver" is to come in a smaller denomination than BTC, and therefore be more practical to use for everyday transactions.
It is worth noting that, in general, since Litecoin is a fork of Bitcoin, Litecoin updates occur after those of Bitcoin. That said, Litecoin has some technological updates that will be released throughout 2019.
Mainnet update
Litecoin transaction costs are destined to make a significant immersion with the release of Litecoin Core 0.17, which was announced in October 2017. The post announcement began by stating that the upgrade would reduce commissions by a factor of 10, bringing the average cost of transactions from $ 0.05 to $ 0.005.
Lightning network and private transactions
While Bitcoin developers build and release the Lightning network, Litecoin developers will be right behind them, trying to further reduce transaction time and costs. The founder of Litecoin, Charlie Lee, also hinted at the development of private transactions in a recent interview.
7. EOS (EOS)
The current EOS roadmap it is not very detailed in terms of dates, but we can assume that an important objective in 2019 will be the financing and development of all the internal EOS ecosystem.
We can also assume that they will implement updates on the mainchain to make it an interesting option for blockchain developers.
It is difficult to know for sure what will happen next year. The official EOS roadmap vaguely indicates that their fifth and final phase, entitled Implementation Cluster, will occur in the future.
Apart from this, the most convincing information publicly available is active StackExchange by EOS.ioand provides details on what the EOS developers will be focusing on later.
The EOS response to the scalability question implies the use of sidechains and sisterchains, which would require the finishing of them Inter-Block Communication (IBC) protocol.
It is also likely that EOS works to improve the irreversibility times by working on the asynchronous Byzantine error tolerance protocol (aBFT). For a technical and in-depth overview of a BFT, take a look this video by Dan Larimer, the founder of EOS.
8. TRON (TRX)
TRON has grown immensely since its launch on the mainnet in June 2018, reaching an impressive score of # 8 in terms of market cap. They also managed to do it exceeding the use of Ethereum in this short period of time, making it a serious competitor of the platform.
Furthermore, TRON has a list of ambitious targets set for 2019.
User privacy
The CEO of TRON, Justin Sun, recently has explained that TRON will implement ZK-snarks technology, giving users the ability to hide transaction information. The update is planned for the first quarter of 2019.
Phase 2: Odyssey
TRON is currently operating on a 6-stage plan, and Stage 2 should start at the beginning of 2019.
The main objective of 2018 was the implementation of Phase 1, which can be summarized as if Tron's main network were up and running. Phase 2 focuses on solidifying the general use case of their ecosystem.
titled OdysseyPhase 2 will focus on the creation and distribution of the above, as well as on compensation for this content via TRX. They recently acquisition of BitTorrent it will undoubtedly be used to demonstrate Tron's abilities.
9. Binance Coin (BNB)
On a Christmas night blog post, CEO of Binance Changpeng "CZ" Zhao examined the developments of Binance in 2018 and went on to describe what 2019 has in store. The post mainly concerned the Binance exchange itself, but there was some mention of the BNB token in particular.
That said, BNB is tightly woven into the Binance ecosystem, with users incentivized to use the token in exchange for reduced rates.
Binance in 2019
Taken directly from the year-end review, here's what Binance's CEO will see for Binance next year.
- Other features on Binance.com.
- Main Binance Chain livenet, with a high performance native DEX, as well as a 1 second transaction confirmation time, which allows real instant transactions.
- Up to 10 fiat exchanges worldwide.
- More partnerships with industry leaders.
- Other cases of use and adoption of BNB.
- More interesting projects invested or acquired by Binance.
- True transparent charitable works.
Binance works not only to consolidate its position as one of the best cryptographic exchanges in the world, but is looking into further use cases for its native token, BNB.
10. Cardano (ADA)
Among all the projects in this article, Cardano has the most detailed schedule publicly available and even have a countdown available for their next roadmap update.
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, maintains a high level of communication with the community and releases constantly video updates on the project.
The academic approach of Cardano is slow and steady, and they have a lot on their plate. Here are some of the most important elements on that list.
Shelley and Staking
Shelley is the next step for Cardano and aims to create a completely decentralized ecosystem. The update is scheduled for release at the start of 2019, starting with the implementation of the test networks for the vote and the stake pool.
Cardano's experiments have revealed their ecosystem can handle 1,000 points of interest, so now they focus on creating an easy way to present so many options to their users.
Ledger wallet and Light Client support
At the time of writing, the ADA wallet options are mostly limited to the Daedalus desktop portfolio (which requires the user to download the entire blockchain) or to the lightweight wallet Yoroi. In 2019, we will probably see Support for Ledger wallet, as well as a light option when using the Daedalus wallet.
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