Ask HN: What to look for in a cryptocurrency?
Because the potential for price speculation, what would make a cryptocurrency robust? How would you choose where to spend your time (and GPU time) on right now? What are good criteria?
I think a project that isn't run by a company or DAO, but instead by a group of developers donating their time and effort for a project they believe in instead of for a paycheck is a good criteria.
The developers for Monero discovered a flaw in CryptoNote which is what Monero is based on, and instead of exploiting it and secretly creating coins, they patched it and told developers of other coins affected by it to give them the opportunity to patch their coins before publicly disclosing it. I think that shows they're in it to make a great currency that everyone can benefit from rather than just trying to make a quick buck.
Monero is fairly mined: No premine or instamine to pay for investors of any company.
Those that have interesting methods of creating demand tend to do well. Those that simply combine existing features and don't provide compelling use cases have difficulty sustaining desirable long-term market conditions.
A combination of small, medium, and large market caps may help provide a properly balanced risk and reward.
1. significant development activity
2. near-term upcoming catalysts
3. relatively high "whale distribution" -- in other words, there are holders that are wealthy and heavily invested at prices not too much lower than market price.
Unfortunately in the short term, I am bearish Bitcoin, so I am out of all altcoins and short Bitcoin.
However, if you find any interesting coins that meet those criteria, please let me know!