With the closure of the ICO mania of 2018, the bar for success in the crypto space has extended beyond mere currencies. The utility of blockchain technology extends past transfer of value, and new, enticing developments are exploring technological frontiers to establish solutions to major pain points across various aspects of the global economy. However, as a byproduct of the early over-involvement of retail investors in this space, there is an avalanche of coins to unearth when considering valuable developments.

The problem remains that the vast portion of coins are worthless in not just intrinsic value, but also in terms of their network effect; this means not only can they ensure no utility in the form of product access, but they also fail as a currency.

The dilemma of over-abundance of coins is a double-edged sword and thus there is an advantage of it as-well: valuable opportunities are being overlooked. This compilation offers a dive into 4 cryptocurrencies that possess immense potential in 2020. There are a few main questions that a good project needs to answer in order to have underlying success metrics: does the roadmap possess strong Is the coin/token behind the project actually useful or needed? Is the team capable of evolving with the market?. We believe the next 4 projects have answered these questions.

Aelf

Aelf is a decentralized cloud computing blockchain network launched in 2017. It intends to solve three of the most notable problems with the current blockchain technology, scalability, reaching consensus and the execution of smart contracts. Aelf is focused on providing cloud-based services to largescale enterprises and companies.

Decentralized applications built on Aelf’s blockchain have the ability to run as their own sidechains which allow developers to fully customize the blockchain however they want. The Mainchain can still interact with sidechains but they have to pay a small fee for indexation to the Mainchain.

Thanks to this multi-chain structure, Aelf is able to achieve resource segregation which means that applications are not directly affected by other applications on the network. Furthermore, sidechains can easily achieve cross-chain communication avoiding congestion.
Aelf uses a Delegated-Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm that gives token holders more power and allows them to vote on important issues like the development direction of the platform.

Although ELF is ranked 92nd by market capitalization, the entire market cap of $36 million is still relatively small compared to the big players which means there is a lot of potential in the future. It’s also worth noting that ELF is already trading on big and popular exchanges and has been able to achieve $100 million daily trading volume before.

Aelf has entered into various partnerships with big crypto names like ChainLink and huge companies like Huawei. Aelf was incorporated on Huawei Cloud’s cross-chain project to allow developers to deploy decentralized applications. The platform has also engaged in a few strategic cooperations, most notably with Orange, one of the largest telecom providers in Europe. Furthermore, Aelf is currently supported by a number of giant platforms like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

Compared to established projects like Ethereum, Aelf seems to offer a better, more scalable and flexible solution with a lot more potential. Scalability has always been a problem for Ethereum and most blockchain-based projects. Aelf is not just another copy, there is real technology behind it and has real-world applications.

2Key Network

The 2key Network is a decentralized blockchain platform and business solution that provides businesses with a simple solution to track the real impact generated from sharing links. The 2key Network tracks shared links by binding smart contracts into normal HTTP links until they lead to a conversion.

2key has created a smart contract infrastructure where each contract has a specific function. The platform eliminates the need for trust as users on the network are sure they are getting paid for sharing links because the smart contracts are open-source and verified by 3 different high-reputation auditing companies.

Once your campaign is up and running, 2key will automatically start tracking the entire chain of referrers. This system allows projects to only pay participants that have generated positive results and not risk their budget.

The 2key Network has just started and has a lot of plans for the near future. Considering how DeFi products’ popularity is increasing every day, 2key potential grows higher at the same time. Smart links are crucial in the development of DeFi and 2key is the only project offering the solution.

Orion Protocol

One of the main problems when it comes to cryptocurrency exchanges is the lack of liquidity. Orion calls itself the first package of DeFi solutions built specifically on its Liquidity Aggregator to provide customers with advanced trading tools and liquidity in a single platform.

The trading and investment platform combines portfolio management, wallet functionality and the liquidity of major centralized and decentralized exchanges in a single solution package.

The protocol allows trading to occur directly from users’ wallets which provides a robust security system because users never lose the ownership of their funds. Orion enables traders to connect to any exchange, even if they don’t have an account there.

The Orion trading terminal unites all exchanges in one, by combining all the order books, Orion intends to solve the issue of liquidity in the crypto industry. The Orion Protocol is the only decentralized and non-custodial protocol to guarantee the best price with the lowest trading fees while being cross-chain.

By pulling liquidity from big and centralized exchanges, Orion aims to unite the crypto industry and solve the liquidity issue while providing seamless trading. Even today, cryptocurrency coins and tokens lack liquidity which can be extremely detrimental to the overall project.

Orion Protocol is the only platform to offer a simple gateway to the cryptocurrency markets for new and established investors. By enabling anyone to participate, Orion ensures projects have access to the largest pool of investors available.

AVA Labs

AVA Labs is a platform that offers advanced blockchain solutions with the aim to improve the current utility of decentralized networks. AVA Labs was founded by the legendary computer scientist, Emin Gün Sirer. Emin is known for his contributions to peer-to-peer systems, and it’s one of the most esteemed cryptocurrency thinkers.

AVA is powered by the Avalanche Consensus Mechanism. In this new consensus, all nodes have equal status without a leader. AVA has been able to demonstrate more than 5000 transactions per second with each transaction taking around 1-2 seconds to process and finalize.

The two main goals and products of AVA are the tokenization of assets and launching customizable chains. Anyone can launch a chain with AVA and can choose between using an existing network or create a brand new one with a wide variety of options to customize the chain.

The potential of AVA is basically limitless as it solves some of the most fundamental problems in the crypto industry. AVA provides more security thanks to the Avalanche consensus, total decentralization thanks to leaderless networks and better scalability.

Allowing anyone to launch a chain in a quick and simple manner is the crucial feature that sets AVA Labs apart from other similar projects. The ability to launch fully customizable chains while retaining all the important features like scalability or speed is what creates an infinite potential for AVA.

Conclusion

The list of coins above is the ones with the best potential for 2020.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the projects and coins are flawless but they do have something in common, a working and useful product or service that has been proven to work. Another crucial factor in the success of these projects is having a team with more than enough dedication that is capable of elevating each project to greatness.