My Cryptocurrency Portfolio

If you want to skip all the introductory stuff (this is my first post, after all) and see my portfolio, just scroll down!

First let me just say that I am a naturally introverted person who is not very active on any social media platforms, so putting myself out there like this is nerve-wracking. After reading many many steemit bloggers, and given the atmosphere in the crypto space right now, I felt a strong urge to somehow contribute to the space in any way possible.

I am 20 years old and I got into cryptocurrency in the summer of 2017, when a coworker of mine mentioned bitcoin to me and its recent growth. At the time, bitcoin was $2000. 2 weeks later, it was $4000. My usual source for information is YouTube, so, naturally, I watched video after video after video on bitcoin and what blockchain was and price predictions (of course) etc. After watching youtubers and reading countless articles, I saw the collective enthusiasm for blockchain technology and felt the fomo that many others probably felt. In September of 2017 I made my first investments, Ethereum and Litecoin, which I bought at $333 and $62 respectively. Yet at the time I still didn't know much and hadn't had much exposure to the crypto space.

As of today, 5/18/18, I cannot say I am an expert on blockchain technology or on investing in crypto. However, I have spent A LOT of my time researching many different projects, what exactly blockchain is, as well as smart contracts, proof-of-work and proof-of-stake, and use cases for these innovations. My portfolio is a result of the research I have done, although if I had more money to play with I would be invested in more projects. Again, I am NOT an expert. In fact, I am fairly new to this, and I am definitely still learning.

Now, let's get started. This is not investment advice.

ETH - 50.8%

LTC - 38.6%

EOS - 8.6%

NEO - 1.8%

Wow. Looking at that written down, I really need to diversify. Anyway.

I initially invested in Ethereum because Coinbase was the first app I downloaded and it seemed like a good and cheaper-than-bitcoin option. Same goes for Litecoin.

Since then, I have invested more into Ethereum. Here are my reasons for doing so:

• I bought during the bear market after seeing the meteoric rise in late 2017. As far as I could see, Ethereum showed its growth potential in a very short amount of time. In hindsight, I know some of that rise can be attributed to new investors who were downloading Coinbase and buying btc eth and ltc because everyone else was, not knowing anything about the underlying technology. Nevertheless, I thought it would be probable that ETH (and the crypto market as a whole) would see another bull run in which new all-time highs were reached. I came to this conclusion by looking at historical bitcoin and market cap charts for the entire market.

• Ethereum's presence is established it's not hard to see that. With an extremely large and supportive community, Ethereum isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Its network is live and has been live for a while, and it will take time for competitors to Ethereum to amass not just the community that Ethereum has but the sheer number of users and DApp builders currently using Ethereum.

-Related to the last point, Ethereum is a pioneering the use of smart contracts on a decentralized network. If ETH is going to fail, it will not happen easily, as the community behind it is doing everything they can to advance the project, and it has done a great job of that so far. In short, I think ETH will be around for a while whether it ends up being extraordinarily successful, failing, or anywhere in between.

Next up:

I also invested more money into Litecoin during the bear market of early 2018, again, after witnessing its surge in price. I'm going to be very honest here:

Litecoin is my most speculative investment. Meaning, I did the least amount of research on litecoin and bought solely because its price went way up, then went way down, and I expected it to reach those highs once again. This investment decision was based mainly on Charlie Lee's goals for LTC in 2018.

Given what I did know about Litecoin, here's why I bought.

• Its market cap. Litecoin has maintained itself as a top 10 cryptocurrency for a while, and just like many other altcoins, it rises when the market rises and crashes when the market crashes. Given its high ranking and its tendency to follow market fluctuations, I thought it would reach the all-time highs it once reached and possibly surpass them.

Yeah, that's about it. I am less bullish on Litecoin now, especially since the failure of Litepay and Litepal, as well as its only use case being a store of value and unit of account. However, one cannot deny Litecoin's established spot as one of the top cryptocurrencies, and one day, it may just be a widely used, spendable currency.

Next up:

When I chose to invest in NEO, I used Bittrex, which was really confusing. This lead me to invest less money into the project because I didn't want a large portion of my portfolio sitting on a website I hardly know how to use, which is why only 2% of my portfolio is in NEO.

Here's why I invested in NEO:

• When I heard NEO being called "the Chinese Ethereum", that really caught my attention. Considering China's other business endeavors, I am aware of the fact that China likes to do everything on their own, with minimal influence coming from anywhere else outside of China. This is seen by China's reluctance to use international social media platforms, as well as not allowing many foreign businesses to operate in their country. Given NEO's compliance with Chinese regulation and its engagement with the Chinese government, it looks like NEO is taking things slow and making sure they are checking every box in a country where cryptocurrencies and exchanges were banned altogether.

• Keeping this last point in mind, I think it is inevitable that China's regulators eventually see the potential of blockchain technology and smart contracts, hence leading them to de-ban either certain cryptocurrencies or all cryptocurrencies. After reading the NEO white paper and thoroughly researching what other people had to say about the project, there is a general consensus that NEO, on a technical level, is more effective and more decentralized than Ethereum.

Next up:

• For the same reasons stated above in regards to NEO, on a technical level, EOS is more decentralized, and has the capacity to handle more transactions per second than its competitor Ethereum. Thus decentralization and scalability, two major focus points that must be addressed by a successful cryptocurrency, are more efficiently addressed by EOS than Ethereum. The fact that EOS can do what Ethereum does but can do it better sounds really good for the future of EOS. Although Ethereum dominates the scene right now, I think there is room for other decentralized platforms that support DApps to blossom.

And that's my portfolio. I am no investing guru; in fact cryptocurrencies have been my first investment, so I am learning as I go, and am always willing to learn more. If anyone has any comments/feedback, negative or positive, I welcome it.