Ten Cryptocurrencies, Platforms and Crypto-Assets To Watch in 2017/2018 PART 1

As I promised in one of my previous posts, I will highlight ten up and coming cryptocurrencies, crypto-assets, and platforms that have some serious potential in the future. View the original (and short) article here: https://steemit.com/steem/@hotsauceislethal/ten-cryptocurrencies-platforms-and-crypto-assets-to-watch-in-2017-2018

In this part 1 of 4 I'm going to talk about Lisk, Antshares, and Stellar Lumens. So lets just get right into it :)

NUMBER TEN) LSK- Initial release May 24 2016.
When Lisk first hit the market in 2016 it was met with a lot of hype and this was for good reason. Lisk allows you to implement decentralized applications written with NodeJS (JavaScript)and very much like Ethereum you can create "side chains" from Lisk and even create your own currency or do an ICO. They claim it only takes 10 seconds for a LSK transaction to send and 1-2 minutes to confirm. The technology is fundamentally different than that of both BTC and ETH and for that reason alone I think it will have a bright future since there are already many people who can code JavaScript.
For a technical comparison of LISK v ETHER check out this picture:

NUMBER NINE) ANS- Initial release October 2016.
Antshares is in the process of re-branding themselves as NEO (see http://neo.org/) They say they are a "smart assets platform"- a hybrid of smart contracts, utilizing blockchain, and digital assets. Again you can use this particular platform to create your own tokens, perform ICOs, and it even allows for support of multiple types of digital assets. The blocks take roughly 15 seconds on this network and its free to send ANS. This is also China's first original and open source public chain project so there is a lot of promise in that alone.

NUMBER EIGHT) STR- Initial release 2014.
Originally based on the Ripple network, Stellar forked off from them back in 2014 and even developed its own code the following year. Stellar, just like Ripple, is a payment network that aims to be an open source protocol for value exchange WITH a focus on micropayments. Most of their business is currently in Africa and aims to help people who don't have access to traditional banks. You cannot mine STR however Bitcoin/Ripple holders were rewarded with bonus Lumens just for holding crypto which you can read more about here: https://www.stellar.org/about/mandate/
Stellar also has mandatory lock up dates for their coins which prevent certain people from selling them within 5 years since it is all pre-mined. Stellar is filling a niche' that Bitcoin cannot fill due to its size and dynamic and for that it deserves a place on my list!

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