I'd like to talk about two alt coins that came about fairly recently. Let's start with Linda. While I do not know much about the team behind Linda as information regarding that particular aspect seems to be absent from its website, it appears to have closed at a value of USD $0.000040 on July 15th, 2017. As at January 8th, 2018, it closed at $0.008185. That's just over 200x gains. So, if you had put in $40,000 dollars in July 2017, you'd have around $8 million now. The main exchange you'll find it at the moment is Cryptopia. The coin is summarized on its website as follows (sic):
I'm not particularly impressed by this as I couldn't find the white paper on the website either. All signs of a "shitcoin", as they say. Regardless of idealistic pursuits of the "perfect cryptocurrency" and "changing the world", the gains on some shitcoins cannot be denied; and Linda isn't even among the best in that regard. So did I take a position out on Linda? Yes, I did. Was it large? Fairly but I'm still holding, as this isn't just a one night stand for me. While I'm all for idealism, I'm also into making money as quickly as possible, if only to fund idealistic pursuits perhaps in the future, after I'm well-off.
In any case, Linda, in my view, is just about as worthy of an alt coin (in terms of potential for gains) as any other; even compared to something like Verge. It arguably has a more attractive if less sophisticated name, which is not to be underestimated. To be fair, I've also invested in something called Groestlcoin, which proves I'm not as shallow or superficial with my investments as you might think. Now, enough about Linda. Let's talk about LanaCoin. First, you might want to visit its website and judge for yourself. I wasn't taken in too much by the huge Linux, Mac and Windows logos at the very top. What caught my attention the most was the following (sic):
Ah, yes. A loving father's words. A beautiful daughter he dotes on. Wonderful, but hardly convincing to investors like me. At least we know the "team" behind this one (i.e. "Lana's father" and perhaps little Lana herself) but I could not find any white paper about LanaCoin either. Did I really expect to? But how is LanaCoin's performance compared to Linda? Well, it came on the scene on May 18th, 2016, closing at $0.000023. On January 8th, 2018, it closed at $0.004019. Just under 175x gains. So while it has been around considerably longer than Linda (especially considering how fast things move in the cryptosphere), the gains have not been quite as good. Needless to say, I did not take a position with this coin (which you can find at the same exchange). This is not to say you should or shouldn't as there is probably still some money to be made, at least in the short-term. It's just that between these two "girls", or rather one woman and one girl, I preferred the woman.
You see, after all this time, the little girl coin has a market cap of only about $3.6 million dollars (still quite a birthday gift) compared to Linda's $42 million. In general, anything below $100 million with alt coins is usually considered having considerable room to grow still but it has to be within a reasonable time frame (unless LanaCoin is the next Bitcoin, which I seriously doubt). Also, between the two, Linda kind of has a better-sounding name to me and I know such things can drive up the price even more. I could have diversified by investing in both coins but LanaCoin just didn't feel quite right to me. I believe that by putting more eggs in Linda's basket, I have a better chance of higher returns in less time. This is coming from a man who has positions in around 50 alt coins, by the way. So don't even think to lecture me about diversifying. ;) Perhaps I'll tell you about some of my other investments in future posts. Until next time.