These Are The Cryptocurrency Innovations To Watch In 2019

By Alexis Axon on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

It seems like it was just yesterday that Bitcoin was first getting off the ground and mainstream news outlets were speculating about whether it would survive until the end of the week. It’s now been more than a decade since it launched and, despite its ups and downs, it continues to garner international attention and lead the increasingly crowded cryptocurrency market.

Credit: descryptive.com/

As of this writing, there are more than 2,600 cryptocurrencies listed on investing.com and that number seems to rise almost daily. In this article, I’m going to discuss six promising cryptocurrency innovations for 2019 (all of which are available on the mobile wallet app TrustlessBank) and breakdown some of the pros and cons of each.

Bitcoin

Quick Facts

• Founded: 2009
• Founder: Individual or group under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto
• Leader: None
• Coin Limit: 21 million
• Block Size: 1 MB
• Estimated Transaction Time: 10 minutes

Pros

• As the first cryptocurrency to be developed, Bitcoin continues to have the greatest name recognition and market capitalization within the sphere
• Its wide variety of usage cases means that Bitcoin is likely to continue to lead the market, should cryptocurrency become mainstream
• Even niche usage cases can be added to Bitcoin functionality via sidechains, thereby capitalizing on the popularity that the currency has already amassed

Cons

• High transaction fees and slow processing speeds have left the door open for alternative currencies
• The large blockchain, mechanism of transaction settlement, and difficulty of PoW-mining have led to concerns about scalability
• Because of the difficulty involved in mining, large mining pools have developed and gained influence, raising concerns about centralization

A Bit of Both

• Without a leader, decisions are made more democratically than with most coins. However, this runs a greater risk of forks down the line, which could cause a significant drop in value

Lightning Network Bitcoin

Quick Facts

• Launched: 2018
• Proposed by: Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja
• Leader: Multiple

Pros

• The lightning protocol aims to increase speed, lower transaction fees, and promote better scalability than Bitcoin’s initial system
• By enabling small payments to be made quickly and cost-efficiently, this could open the door for mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency
• It works by allowing users to open bidirectional payment channels with others and only requiring the net settlement of the relationship to be recorded on the blockchain. Importantly, trust in the other party is desirable, but not necessary for the system to function
• Payments can be routed through multiple users to get to the intended recipient, meaning that it is not necessary to establish a payment channel with every user

Cons

• For a transaction to occur, both parties need to be online, raising questions about the viability of the system in some developing nations
• There are still some bugs in the protocol and it has not yet been tested with large amounts

Ethereum

Quick Facts

• Developed: 2015
• Developer and Leader: Vitalik Buterin
• Coin Limit: 18 million per year
• Block Size: 2 KB
• Estimated Transaction Time: 15 seconds

Pros

• Ethereum was built with smart contracts, Decentralized Applications (dApps), and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) in mind, so it has a wide variety of usage cases
• It has strong support from Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (a group of companies, including JP Morgan and Microsoft, that are working to develop more uses for the blockchain) and notable venture capitalists like Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and AngelList founder Naval Ravikant
• It has lower fees and faster transaction speeds than Bitcoin
• Buterin is a strong leader who has shaped our global vision for blockchain

Cons

• The success of Ethereum is too dependent on Buterin; when rumors of his death circulated in June 2017, $4 billion worth of Ethereum was sold
• Although Ethereum was among the first to emphasize dApps, many competitors have cropped up over the years

Stellar Lumen

Quick Facts

• Founded: 2014
• Founders: Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim
• Leader: Jed McCaleb
• Coin Limit: 100 billion
• Estimated Transaction Time: 2–5 seconds

Pros

• Fast speeds and transaction fees as low as 1/600,000th of a cent make Stellar ideal for small transfers
• It was designed to settle payments and bridge the gap between centralized and decentralized systems
• The protocol is open-source, has smart contract functionality and facilitates the development of Decentralized Applications
• It has partnerships with IBM and Stellar Development Foundation, a nonprofit on a mission to financially empower people in developing nations

Cons

• Lumen doesn’t have the same market capitalization or network size as its top competitors, making it a risky investment
• Its value would increase substantially if it were adopted for international money transfer (as it was designed to do), but because it is highly decentralized, it may be difficult to convince banks to take a chance on them

Libra

Quick Facts

• Launch Proposed: early 2020
• Founder: Facebook
• Leader: Facebook VP David A. Marcus
• Coin Limit: none
• Block Size: 1 transaction
• Estimated Transaction Time: to be determined

Pros

• Its connection to Facebook has given it publicity, capital, and support not seen with other early-stage cryptocurrencies
• The value of Libra is designed to be more stable than Bitcoin because it will be backed by a variety of fiat currencies held within the Libra Reserve
• With only 100 initial validators, consensus will be reached much faster than with other currencies, leading Facebook to promise a 1000 transaction per second capacity

Cons

• Initially, Libra will be only partially decentralized; transactions will be verified by a select group of 100 validators, who users will be forced to trust. There are plans to transition to a more decentralized system over time
• Facebook has also announced the development of Calibra, a custodial wallet designed to be used with Libra. The company argues that by managing your private keys, they will be able to recover your money should you forget your password. However, custodial wallets require trust in the company managing the wallet and have historically been prone to hacking
• Calibra also requires a government ID to open a wallet, leading to decreased anonymity and creating an additional barrier to use in many developing nations
• Its connection to Facebook has proved to be a double-edged sword; on July 2, Democrats in the United States Congress asked the social media giant to halt development of the new currency, while hinting at possible future regulation. Congressional Republicans have scheduled a hearing for July 16 to address concerns about data privacy

TrueUSD

Quick Facts

• Founded: 2017
• Founders: Rafael Cosman, Jai An, and Stephen Kade
• Leader: Jai An
• Coin Limit: determined by assets held by partners

Pros

• The value of TrueUSD is tied directly to the US dollar, giving investors a stable currency to turn to when others are turbulent
• It maintains a 1:1 ratio of TrueUSD to USD held in partnering banks and other fiduciary institutions. When you send real dollars to their partners, TrustToken (the company that developed TrueUSD) will mint an equal number of TrueUSD and send them to you. If you decide to trade back in for regular dollars, the TrueUSD you return will be destroyed in order to maintain the ratio
• Unlike a similar currency, Tether, TrueUSD’s parent company passes bi-monthly independent audits to ensure that this ratio is honestly maintained
• Its stable value may help to encourage the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency, as wild swings in the value of Bitcoin and other coins certainly don’t breed the trust of businesses and average consumers

Cons

• Investors looking to increase the value of their assets should look to other currencies
• Because its market capitalization is lower than others, it does not have high brand recognition

While Bitcoin is still the most popular cryptocurrency by far, each currency has its own strengths and weaknesses. Edward Fricker, the co-founder of TrustlessBank, the world’s first multi-coin lightning network wallet, says,

“True users prefer the liquidity of Bitcoin, but the alternative currencies give them a chance to stabilize their coin value or make faster small transactions when they need to.”

So, what do you think? Comment below and be sure to follow me for more.

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