Five Cryptocurrencies with

Better Technology Than Bitcoin

Plus, Five Cryptos to Avoid
by Juan M. Villaverde

Introduction by Founder Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.

My company, Weiss Ratings, created the world’s first and only
ratings of cryptocurrencies.
When we first released our ratings, we told investors not to buy
Bitcoin.
Bitcoin owners wanted my head on a spike. They even mounted
a cyber-attack on our servers. But we were right. Bitcoin crashed, and those
who heeded our warnings avoided big losses.
What’s more important is that the Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings guided
investors to three of the most technologically advanced cryptocurrencies
primed for massive growth. And they soared.
The first cryptocurrency we recommended rose 89%. The second rose
166%. The third surged by 255%. All in just one month.
In 2017, these same three super cryptos made investors even more money.
The first surged by 3,353% in three months. If you had invested $10,000 in
this cryptocurrency, you could have made a profit of as much as $334,300.
Not bad for three months’ work.
The second did even better. It skyrocketed in value, rising 5,849% in two
months. If you invested $10,000 in this super crypto, your profit could have
been as much as $584,900.
The third did the best of all but took a bit more time to do so. It surged
12,391% in six months. If you had invested $10,000, in this super crypto,
you could have made up to $1,249,100.
In sum, these three technologically advanced cryptocurrencies could have
made you $2.1 million in gains.
It’s little wonder why Money Magazine, Forbes, Fox Business, CNBC, The Hill
newspaper and many others have recognized how important our
cryptocurrency ratings are.
Our cryptocurrency ratings are popular because they are the only objective
tool investors have to cut through the bias, sidestep the garbage, and go for
the tremendous profit opportunities that advanced cryptocurrencies can
offer.
But before you get too carried away with the tremendous profit potential,
remember that you also have to pay close attention to risk. In any
investment, eliminating risk is impossible, and that’s especially true for
cryptocurrencies.
That’s why our ratings are designed to zero in on the few cryptocurrencies
that we believe are the least vulnerable to sharp declines and the most likely
to enjoy the biggest rises.
Our overall grade for each cryptocurrency is based on four major factors:
1. Investment risk
2. Investment reward
3. Adoption, and
4. Technology
The first three factors change daily as we receive new data on the
cryptocurrencies market price, usage, and many other metrics.
In this report, we focus primarily on the fourth factor, technology. And we do
so for two reasons:
• Because the technology changes only when the computer code of the
cryptocurrency is upgraded, which happens less frequently.
• Because the technology can play a large role in driving the long-term
success or failure of the project.
Please bear in mind, however, that technology is only one of the four major
factors that go into our overall Weiss Cryptocurrency Rating. So when
selecting the cryptos to include in this report, we have eliminated from our
list any that demonstrate significant weaknesses in the three other factors.
In this report, Juan Villaverde, the architect of our cryptocurrency ratings
model, will name 5 examples of the cryptocurrencies with stronger
technology than Bitcoin and give you some of the highlights on each. Plus,
he also names 5 cryptocurrencies to avoid.
Important: Please note that these are not the only ones! There are quite a
few other cryptocurrencies on our list with stronger technology than Bitcoin
… plus many others to avoid.
With this report, you will learn about their unusual features and the potential
they offer. But also pay attention to the challenges that many of them
continue to face.

Why These Five Cryptocurrencies

Have a Better Technology Than Bitcoin

When it comes to the digital money revolution, Bitcoin was

the one that started it all. And at the time of its release, it
was state-of-the-art technology.
Now, nine years into the era of cryptocurrencies, a lot of
newer projects have hit the market with technology
solutions that give Bitcoin a run for its money.
The technology is called “blockchain,” or more broadly
speaking, “Distributed Ledger Technology” (DLT).
But what is that really? In essence, it’s just a list of records. They are
secured using advanced cryptography. The lists are organized in the form of
a “ledger.” And that ledger is distributed among many computers around the
world.
Like any computer technology, scientists and programmers (developers)
continually seek to make improvements with upgrades and by starting new
projects. And in the cryptocurrency space, those improvements are
happening an especially maddening pace.
Almost all of the computer programs are open-source. Meaning, anyone can
view the code and copy it, making it easy for thousands of developers to
jump into the fray from all over the world.
Cryptocurrency technology offers the potential for major advances the
speed, immutability and security of transactions and data storage.
It is so revolutionary, it can help create an entire new kind of internet,
change the way we live, and transform the world as we know it.
And it is generating a lot of new wealth.
Result: The most rapid evolution of technology ever witnessed in the modern
era.
Bitcoin was the pioneer. But it has run into serious snags: It’s too slow. The
mechanism for creating blocks, called “Proof of Work,” consumes huge
amounts of electricity. The decision-making process (governance) is limited
almost entirely to making minor fixes. So critical upgrades are almost
impossible. It is not ready for the massive needs of a global financial system
and economy.
In this report, I not only name the five cryptocurrencies with better
technology than Bitcoin, I also tell you the story of that technological
evolution. I start with the cryptocurrencies that are the least advanced
technologically and move on, coin by coin, to those that are the most
advanced.
Provided they gain good adoption, I believe it’s these most advanced
cryptocurrencies that have the best chances of leading investors to the
biggest profits in the long haul.

ETHEREUM
If Bitcoin can be called a “first-generation” cryptocurrency, then Ethereum is
the second generation.
It has not yet achieved the same the household-name status as Bitcoin, but
its actual adoption in the marketplace is getting close.
More cryptocurrency exchanges are creating marketplaces revolving largely
around Ethereum. It’s rapidly catching up to Bitcoin in terms of total market
cap. Its network is far faster and cheaper. And it’s close to surpassing
Bitcoin as a source of liquidity for trading in crypto markets.
Overall, while Bitcoin retains the title “king of cryptos” when it comes to
adoption and popularity, our cryptocurrency ratings model reflects the fact
that Bitcoin currently faces strong competition from Ethereum.
Here’s the idea that made Ethereum
revolutionary from day one …
Bitcoin introduced the idea of digital money — cryptocurrency.
Using the same basic technology, Ethereum then came along and introduced
the idea of smart contracts.
What’s a smart contract? It’s a computer program that not only defines an
agreement between two or more parties … but also executes the agreement
automatically.
Moreover, smart contracts are not based on ordinary computer programs.
They’re based on computer programs that use the same Distributed Ledger
Technology of cryptocurrencies.
Here’s the big pay-off: Smart contracts are then used to create all kinds of
Web-based applications and businesses.
What’s the difference between a smart contract and a traditional contract? It
benefits from all the same advantages that cryptocurrencies have:
Guaranteed security. Guaranteed immutability. Highly predictable execution.
And speed!
Thus, Ethereum is the second step in the cryptocurrency revolution: It took
the concept of open distributed ledgers and applied it to virtually every
industry and social construct known to man.
In fact, it’s safe to say that
Ethereum and its smart contracts blew the entire field of crypto wide
open.
It opened the doors to every sector under the sun — social media, law,
finance, healthcare, insurance, supply management, government, the
electric grid, the military, national security, and more.
In every social, political and economic sector imaginable, smart contracts
will be the foundation for a new kind of organizational structure. I’m talking
about organizations that open to everyone with a Web connection, that are
decentralized, that are self-governed by users and other participants.
A dream of the future? Yes!
Already in the process of revolutionizing the entire fabric of the Internet?
Also, yes!
Problem: Ethereum is currently too slow.
In fact, it’s barely able to run a few major applications before slowing down
to near uselessness.
Thus, Ethereum faces some of the same scalability challenges as Bitcoin.
As worrisome as Bitcoin’s? No, thanks to two factors: (1) Ethereum’s historic
ability to adapt with upgrades, and (2) a credible roadmap for the future,
including plans to scale up and perhaps catch up to the more advanced
cryptocurrencies I will cover in a moment.

NEM
NEM is essentially an upgrade of Ethereum, with several improvements:
Improvement #1. Not only does NEM support smart contracts like
Ethereum, it also has developed the concept of building a “token economy”
— a reward system that reinforces and encourages constructive activities.
Improvement #2. NEM does away with expensive, energy-inefficient Proof
of Work mining, replacing it with what’s called “Proof of Importance.” In this
system, the block producers are automatically selected by the network
based on two things: (1) The amount of NEM native tokens (called “XEM”)
that they hold plus (2) how useful they are to the network as a whole.
Improvement #3. With Bitcoin and Ethereum, everyone in the network has
to have a copy of every single transaction that has taken place since the
beginning of time. This causes data storage to get bloated. And it can clog
up the network like molasses. NEM and other projects with similar design
have overcome this issue.
This is a big deal because of one critical element: Speed! NEM is much faster
than Ethereum, helping to overcome its scalability issues.

DECRED
This blockchain project has always been relatively high in our rankings in
terms of our Technology Index.
A key reason: The advanced work being done by the development team to
address the governance side of the blockchain.
Decred uses a combination of Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake mining that
requires users to vote on changes and upgrades to the protocol.
Take things like block size/time, for example, which are so controversial for
Bitcoin. Upgrades are put to a vote. If 75% of token holders decide a change
must go through, the protocol is immediately updated.
Decred is also fully compatible with the Lightning Network and ready to take
full advantage of the scaling advantages Lightning offers.
Decred is breaking into new ground in terms of on-chain governance. Users
have final say in every feature that is implemented on the protocol and the
developers are big believers in the concept that the future of open and
decentralized distributed ledgers requires this type of feature in order to
make them sustainable in the long term.
The issue with Decred is its reliance on Proof of Work mining. Despite its
other features, this reliance still slows down the network quite dramatically.
 For that reason, even though Decred is
strong in all areas related to governance,
it lags in terms of scalability.
Adoption metrics are solid, but not
spectacular. The good news is it does
have solid usage compared to other
lesser known cryptos.

IOTA
This project is extremely controversial
because it is not a blockchain. Instead,
its technology is a big departure from the
core architecture that made cryptos like
Bitcoin possible.
“If not a blockchain, then what the heck is it?” you ask.
Answer: Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG).
“How different is that from a blockchain?” Very, very different indeed:
• There are no blocks.
• Transactions are not validated with mining.
• No fees are paid.
• Each node is responsible for relaying its own transactions as well as
validating others.
• In the decision-making (consensus mechanism), called Tangle, there is no
distinction between the miners and users.
The goal: Scalability that theoretically could reach millions (if not billions) of
transactions per second plus a completely feeless structure.
A bold claim? Absolutely!
Possible? Maybe, maybe not, especially given some of the criticisms:
First criticism: Experts question critical design choices that the IOTA team
has made, and the biggest centers around their decision to create their own
cryptographic code.
Second criticism: The team has been overly focused on developing their
IOTA/Tangle technologies. They seem to care little about investors and
speculators who want to buy their token to make money. This led the IOTA
team to overlook some key safety features that would allow investors to hold
these tokens in a more secure way.
Third criticism: In order to reach consensus, IOTA relies on something
called the “Coordinator” — essentially a central authority that decides on the
current state of the IOTA network.
This raises a serious question: If the network is unable to reach consensus
on its own, and has to rely on a Coordinator to decide on the “right” path at
any given time, then what’s the point of the technology to begin with?
Founding member David Sønstebø has been quite outspoken about this
topic. He stresses that IOTA is still in development stage, and IS NOT
intended as a vehicle for speculation.
While most cryptocurrencies can make similar claims, IOTA has even refused
(until recently) to develop a properly working wallet. So to buy or store
IOTA, users and investors have to rely on third party applications that have
sometimes resulted in disastrous consequences.
Still, IOTA is a very intriguing project, with a lot of potential, provided its
founders can properly address the criticisms, especially regarding the
centralized Coordinator. We understand the need for some training wheels
when a project is in development. But to our knowledge, there is yet no
clear plan to phase out this aspect.

CARDANO
Cardano is a project that all serious investors in this space need to take a
hard look at.
Why? Because of its technology, thanks to the following advanced features:
Advanced feature #1. Academic peer review: Before any significant
change is implemented in Cardano, it must pass an in-depth and broad
academic peer review — a more rigorous process than used by most other
cryptocurrencies.
Advanced feature #2. High-assurance programming language.
Imagine you’re on a 16-hour flight over the South Pacific to Tahiti with no
place for an emergency landing closer than a thousand miles.
A computer glitch disorients the pilots and sets off a chain reaction of events
that downs the airplane. There are no survivors. A likely event? Absolutely
not. Because airlines use a procedure for writing code that ensures the
computer software will run absolutely, according to specs. It’s the key to
flawless operations. This is the same procedure employed by the creators of
Cardano.
Their rationale: Someday, blockchain technology could help run major
companies and governments. It could even be adopted to run the world’s
financial system. Not only must it be immutable and extremely hard to
change, it must also perform absolutely, according to specs. Just like the
software on a commercial airliner.
Advanced feature #3. Ouroboros Proof of Stake Consensus Protocol.
This means that owning tokens, not using electricity, is what’s needed to
create new blocks on the Cardano Blockchain. Proof of Stake protocols are
more energy efficient than first-generation cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as
it’s not necessary to do intense computational work in order to create new
blocks.
Advanced feature # 4. Extremely high throughput. In theory, Cardano
is capable of millions of transactions per second. Compare that to Bitcoin’s
current snail’s pace of four transactions per second and even Ethereum’s 20
or so transactions per second. In the real world, of course, cryptocurrencies
never achieve their theoretical maximum capacity. But even if its real-world
speed is slower than millions per second, Cardano still has the potential to
outpace virtually every other crypto in existence today.
Advanced feature #5. Strong governance. Cardano plans to implement
the most advanced “treasury” model to date. As I explained for Dash, this is
a way for the cryptocurrency to fund its own development through block
rewards, the creation of new currency, or even donations. These funds are
then allocated to the various proposals that get the needed votes for
implementation.
Cardano will also have its own “constitution.” This system not only governs
how the cryptocurrency runs, but it also allows for amendments that could
make it possible to upgrade the technology at its most fundamental layer.
Users are allowed to vote and participate in the decision-making process.
Ultimately, they can help decide on how and when to upgrade the Cardano
blockchain.
These two features (constitution and treasury) make Cardano one of the
most sustainable blockchains in the long term.
Combined with the peer review process and high-assurance code, it’s clear
that Cardano is built from the ground up with scalability and sustainability in
mind. And in an industry dominated by short-term gains and quick profits,
this long-term vision is a big plus.
Cardano isn’t looking at where this space is going to be in the quarter, it’s
looking at where distributed ledgers are headed in the next decade. Thanks
to these and other features, Cardano receives one of the technology scores
among the cryptocurrencies we currently cover.
Bottom line: ALL five of these cryptocurrencies can be seriously considered
by investors today or in the not-too-distant future.
Just bear in mind that they’re not the only ones. We have identified quite a
few more with similar profit potential. To get our updated Weiss
Cryptocurrency Ratings sent straight to your inbox every Thursday
afternoon, click here.

Five Cryptos to Avoid and Some Guidelines to Follow

Our selection of coins to avoid is based on our Weiss Cryptocurrency
Ratings, which consider each coin’s investor risk and reward plus technology
and adoption. Among the coins with a Weiss Cryptocurrency Rating of D+
(weak) or lower, the following five have the largest market cap:

Bitcoin Gold
Bitcoin Private
DigitalNote
Electroneum
ReddCoin
I don’t deny that some investors could make money with these coins in
certain circumstances. But with many better choices available, I think you
should seek to avoid them.
In addition, here are some other basic guidelines to follow when investing in
cryptocurrencies.
First, avoid the buying frenzies. Many newcomers rush into
cryptocurrencies precisely at the wrong time — when speculative buying has
reached a frenzy, crypto exchanges are overwhelmed and prices are on the
brink of the next crash.
That’s a shame for two reasons: They lose a lot of money. Then they lose
interest, bow out and miss out on the truly big opportunities.
To avoid this double disaster (and others), I recommend that both novice
and experienced investors adhere to a few basic guidelines of crypto
investing.
Second, don’t bet the farm. Unless you’re a high roller, limit your stake to
about 5% of your liquid assets.
Third, don’t store your cryptocurrencies on an exchange. It could leave you
vulnerable to possible hacks and possible mishaps. Instead, move your
crypto to a wallet that you control with your own personal key.
Fourth, as we just saw, the most-promising cryptocurrencies aren’t always
the biggest. Some of the most popular, like Bitcoin, can make you good
money. But they are not always the coins offering the best combination of
investment potential and advanced technology.
Best,
Juan
P.S. Technology is just one of the factors we consider when evaluating the
93 cryptocurrencies we currently rate. We also have indexes for Risk,
Reward and Adoption.
This powerful combination offers you a clear perspective about why each
crypto merits its particular Weiss Rating. Plus, it gives you more tools for
using these ratings in practice.
Be among the first to receive our newest list of highest- and lowest-rated
crypto each week — click here to start your subscription to Weiss
Cryptocurrency Ratings today.