Neo has become China’s largest cryptocurrency, with its feature of writing “smart contracts” much like a software program that could allow transaction of money in a much faster and easier way.

“We want to be the place people go to when they want to do serious and reliable transactions” its founder said. It is much like Ethereum coin and sees a threat from its large market capital of $102 million.

However, the company has great vision in their mind and wants to introduce new technologies like saving of digital assets on blockchain itself.

My first pick is Ripple . Ripple's sudden rise of about 7000% in a year surely caught eye of many investors. Its unique platform of not eliminating Banks and other central authority and also giving more power over money and has already been adopted by more than 100 banks.

At the time of writing this, the following are its stats

•   Market capital : $19,281,300,288   
•   1 XRP= $0.57
•   Maximum supply of coins: 100,000,000,000 XRP.

With a lot of buzz around the rise of bitcoin in 2017, from $0.01 to $16,000 many investors started to look around at other altcoins and cryptocurrencies hoping for such a rise. A thorough understanding, research and wise decision is what you require before you make this important investment decision.
Monero and Ripple are top 2 most promising cryptocurrencies to look for in 2018.      

It is not a shitcoin and you can invest some money in Ripple. Little FAQ that will be helpful:

Is the transfer/payment of ripples reversible?
No. Once the ripples have been purchased or transferred, the operation is irreversible. So be careful and make sure you are dealing with a trusted person or store.

How to pay via your computer?
There are two possibilities to do that: through software installed on your computer, or through a website.

Do you have to pay taxes on ripple earnings?
Yes, as is the case for any currency or stock exchange.
Everyone is free to declare his earnings or to keep them for himself, according to his morals.

I will go with Ripple and have not invested any money in IOTA. You can invest some money and expect 5x returns this year with Ripple.  One thing is certain: never buy ripples with money on which your life depends. In case of a crash or sudden stopping of ripple, your lost investment must have no impact on your standard of living or that of those around you. Ripple is a speculative and volatile currency.

There are number of coins with potential under $0.5 like Ripple , Dogecoin, and Drgaonchain. As for all current cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, etc.), these small coins are also very volatile, you must be careful with your purchases and only invest money that you're ready to lose.

Like stocks, which are subject to speculation, no one can predict whether the price of these coins will continue to rise, will reach a cap or even fall apart.

Bitcoin is not performing good but it will always be profitable in long run. It is unstoppable because:

1) A lot of people had invested in bitcoins for long term only. They are not going to cash it for small returns.  These people will always be supporting bitcoins and thus there will always be some demand.

2) Every new investors starts with bitcoins only. When you see news related to crypto covered in media, it is only about bitcoins.

I have also not invested in ICOs because:

1) My friends suggested me that most of these are scams. I do not want to loose my money with these risky options. I am content with 2x or 3x returns given by bitcoins or other safe coins.

2) It will also take a lot of time to research about a good project. There are so many ICOs being launched frequently, that it becomes very confusing. I really do not have much time left after job.

I am trading with Ripple as it has got a number of real life applications. American Express is also looking at this blockchain- based technology to deliver payments through RippleNet (Ripple's real-time payment network), eliminating the need for middlemen. Even Western Union says that it’s evaluating blockchain technology and is testing transactions with Ripple.

The purchase of Ripple is done, as for other cryptocurrencies, via online exchange services.

Thank for all the infomation regarding bounty. I am also thinking to invest in steem but have some doubts:

1) Are those allegations made here regarding steemit being a pyramid scheme true ? If yes, why is that so many people are still investing in it .

2) I also do not see much ads on steemit.com. What is the source of their revenue ?

Among these, I am holding bitcoin and Ethereum only. I think both these coins complement each other and is an ideal combination for an investor.

Some people say that only ethereum will be able to survive even if bitcoins die. I see logic to this because of the benefits offered by ethereum and also because of the growth it has shown in last few years.

I also like the concept of Steemit as it has got a real website which any user can register and participate on. However, there had been accusations against the website recently here in the forum. Someone mentioned that they are running pyramid scheme and the owner are banking $ 2 million per week.

You are right. Ethereum is one of the leading cryptocurrency for investors and programmable cash. To that point, Ethereum is related to the ether, crypto fuel, has boundless acceptance potential in the reformation and optimizing business, governance, law, fine tech. Hence, if ethereum virtual machine and ether really do stop revolutionizing the world from the grown up, they undeniably could root out the dominance of Bitcoin. It will take several years, but it is achievable.

I love crypto because of following reasons:

1) It offers returns like 100-10005 in an year which is impossible with other options.

2) Some people from middle class became millionaires by investing in bitcoins.

3) It is becoming popular at rapid pace and everyone will need it in future.

Many other reasons like no additional taxes involved, no third party like bank is there.

You are right, this is certainly bad time for the market. All the coins including bitcoins is in red. One of the coins that I though will remain unaffected with bitcoin price fall is also decreasing. It was Bitcoin cash and a lot of people suggested me that coin. Some of my friends had also invested good money in Ripple when it was about $1.5. It is currently only 0.5 and they are also in huge loss. We can just hope for the best.

There are some genuine ones also but seriously do not have the time to spend time searching among all options. We should not ignore the time involved in researching about these ICOs as well. There are very less genuine website offering comparison between currently running ICOs. Now there are many restrictions related to advertising ICOs and this will further reduce the possibility of one becoming successful. Overall, I do not think that this is worth my time.

Let other have a laugh(or shock ) as well. You have already got the joke so these should not make the difference to you.

After seeing these stats, I realized that this is April fools joke as I am getting lot  of these from morning on different forums and websites. I am waiting for a day when I also own a leading blog or forum and do this to the users,

Nice to see that you have yourself followed the advice you are giving. As per your merit history https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=1476876, you had already given merit to a member for his post.

I had given most of my merits to new members only as they need it the most. I was running a merit giveaway and exhausted most of my merits. A lot of members are doing the same and are giving merits to members making quality contributions here.

You can do both in my opinion. I guess that very less Airdrops are genuine here. It is important to do proper research before participating in these otherwise all your time invested will go in waste. Signature campaigns are a good option to earn bitcoins or alt coins. But always choose the campaigns that are being managed by an experienced manager. Also make sure that the funds for the campaign are properly Escrowed.

$50 is a very small amount and thus there is no point in investing it bitcoins as they are quite costly. One of the exchanges I am using requires you to make a minimum deposit of of about $150. In such a case, you will not be able to buy anything if you have only $50 to invest.

Some exchanges allow small deposits and I think Ripple can be a good option with this amount. You will get about 100 ripples in this price. It can become $10000 in 10 years when Ripple reaches $100 mark.