2017 has been a golden year for cryptocurrency and been remembered by the investors.

Prior to the advent of virtual currencies, the share market had been the undisputed king of consistent wealth creation, unless you were lucky enough to defy the odds and win the lottery. The 7% yearly come back from the stock market, comprehensive of profit reinvestment, provided a rough doubling of your invested capital about once a decade.

But since the year began, it has been observed that the aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies rise from a market cap of $17.7 billion to $248 billion as of Nov. 22, 2017. That’s about a 1,300% gain in less than 11 months. The stock market have never seen such drastic changes and it would take years and years to put something equal to cryptocurrency in terms of returns, and it’s rightly put virtual currencies like bitcoin, Ethereum, bitcoin cash, Ripple, AmigoChain, LiteCoin, and Monero — to name a few — on investors’ radars.

bitcoin
bitcoin

Image Source: Yahoo.com

Four reasons 2017 belongs to virtual currencies market

The four tangible and intangible factors according to catalysts behind the rise in virtual currencies.

(1)The future of Blockchain technology seems to be bright opportunity. Blockchain is the digital decentralized ledger that underlies virtual currencies and records transactions without the need for a financial intermediary. Since most Blockchains are open-source systems, it helps in to handle the logged data.This added level of security, along with the ability to settle transactions in real time, could make blockchain an attractive technology for the financial services industry.

(2)The U.S dollar prices have declined throughout the year and this is the main reason why investors played their hand on cryptocurrencies. When the dollar weakens, it devalues the cash that investors may be holding on to. Earlier, investors would seek to deploy some of this cash into gold, as gold has been used as a currency for centuries, and its scarcity makes it a suitable store of value. However, with some digital currencies, like bitcoin , having a cap on the number of coins that can be mined, they are also viewed as scarce and thus perceived to be a store of value.

(3)News-driven events have served as a broad third catalyst person. Announcements like Japan accepting bitcoin as legal tender and 200 companies in the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance testing out a version of Ethereum’s blockchain in small-scale and pilot programs help validate the existence of virtual currencies.

(4) Lastly, momentum has helped carry digital currencies higher. Until recently, virtual currency trading has been dominated by the retail investor, who’s known for being far more emotional than institutional investors. It’s likely that retail investors have seen these large gains and simply not wanted to miss the boat. This buying has probably played a role in pushing cryptocurrencies to record highs in 2017.

The one cryptocurrency I’d consider buying

However, 1,000%+ gains within a year are bound to draw some criticism from skeptics (myself included). Personally, there’s not one cryptocurrency in the market I’d buy right now following their monstrous moves higher. But there is one I’d consider buying should it significantly drop in value — and it isn’t bitcoin!

Bitcoin might be the virtual currency I’d suggest avoiding the most. Its investors seem more enamored with the potential uses of its coin as a means of payment rather than its underlying blockchain, which is where the bulk of the value lies with cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin did wind up enacting a modest upgrade to its blockchain four months ago that wound up pulling some information off of the network in order to boost capacity, shorten settlement times, and lower transaction costs. The move was clearly made to lure in enterprise clients to test out its blockchain, but I’m not convinced that its first-to-market advantage will hold for much longer.

One of the under-the-radar issues with virtual currencies and blockchain technology is that the barrier to entry is exceptionally low. There’s nothing to prevent competitors from developing new blockchain technology, which could perform better than the leading virtual currencies.

To send money to other users easily and immediately: You will also save the big commissions that other traditional methods, transfers, and money orders would charge you.

THIS IS THE BEST OFFER IN THE MARKET WITH A BIG DIFFERENCE.

• Anti-fraud security: They are impossible to counterfeit.

• Payments cannot be returned.

• Immediate, middleman-free transactions: You receive payments immediately.

• Transaction fees, which are paid only by the person who makes the payment, are considerably very low – one of the lowest in the market.

• Growing user number.