Vertcoin has been running up lately, but I see a broader future for this coin. Sure, there are plenty of discussions on the both steem and in particular the reddit channel for this coin, and many people are excited about it. But let me take a neutral position and analyze this coin's potential, without looking at technical analysis per se. Particularly from the all important topic of ASIC resistance.
First of all, Vertcoin does indeed have a tremendous community, and this is not to be understated. However, this is only a fraction of the value position of this coin. Let me look at these other points.
First, the one click miner and the "ASIC resistance." As an electrical engineer who has actually designed ASIC's, what I can tell you is that this is a little bit misleading. In theory, any algorithm can be turned into an ASIC. An ASIC or Application Integrated Circuit is a digital or analog or mixed analog digital circuit that has been cast into Sea of Gates, Semi-Custom, or Full Custom ASIC technology. The cheapest route is Sea of Gates. If one didn't want to do a Sea of Gates ASIC, they could implement an algorithm in a FPGA, or Field Programmable Gate Array. Altera and Xilinx are the dominant players here. In the early days of Bitcoin, there were many FPGA miners, this was a very common way to mine Bitcoin.
Overall, It takes somewhere between USD $50,000 to $1,000,000 to make an ASIC. It's an expensive process. There is a tremendous amount of engineering, where the circuit is designed in System Verilog, Verilog or VHDL, and very extensive testbenches to make sure that the when the chip is made it works the first time. Then the design goes to a foundry where the chip is made, and that will be expensive. So there has to be motivation to make an ASIC, such as high volume chip sales. A rule of thumb is that there is typically a break even point when a company sells 1,000 to 2,000 chips a year that has been made into an ASIC.
The ASIC Resistance of Vertcoin is not technology related, i.e. the algorithm that is currently being used could be made into an ASIC. What makes Virtcoin ASIC resistance is the commitment of the team to change the algorithm if someone does make an ASIC to mine Vertcoin. This is what gives Vertcoin it's value position.
How wants to deal with this Bitcoin forking situation anymore? I don't. This is pure baloney. It is not necessary. I see Bitcoin as a storage of value layer, and other coins such as VTC and LTC as transaction layer coins. C'mon man.
The new Tor wallet is awesome, and the upcoming stealth addresses.
The you add that it has very low fees, fast transactions, and atomic swaps with LTC.
There are my reasons why I see it as a $200 coin or more in terms of valuation. Vertcoin is a solid currency. I can see it to pay the lawnmower man, buy a coffee, purchase appliances, and not have everyone know what I am doing when I do these simple transactions.
Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser, and this is not financial advice. Do not make any decisions without doing hours upon hours nearing infinity of your own research into this topic. Make your own decisions. This is not a recommendation or an endorsement of Vertcoin or Cryptocurrency in general.