Guess I need to do some research on Lightning, as this post above is pretty damn interesting.

I've seen a lot of hate on Lightning as of lately, but this seems like a cool implementation idea. Thanks for posting.

Hype means a lot, but hype without anything to show for it, is meaningless more or less. Gone are the days of easy gains, for now, at least.

A project like Stakenet would likely sit at top 50 Coinmarketcap with the right marketing. First project to develop a Lighting Network supported DEX, and Multi Currency Wallet, which means instant trading.
They'll be able to beat ANY DEX in terms of speed, and ease of use.

Here's a pic of it... Coming soon

This is just the beginning man. We'll see WAY more regulation in the future, which is why a LOT of people is starting to speculate on DEX's and their longevity for the future. The volume on most DEX's is pretty bad, but the idea is promising. I've been playing around with a ton of DEX's, but am most excited about Blocknet's DEX, which is by far the most advanced and decentralized one I could find out there.

Stop using centralized exchanges, protect your identity.  

Here's a comparison chart of the most known DEX's:

1) Constant proven development
2) Working product (which 99% of crypto projects doesn't have).
3) Great community.

These are the most important things, IMHO.

Blocknet was founded in 2014, and has everything above, more over they work on true decentralization through their DEX, and their decentralized oracle network.

A coin/token with an actual utility is a good thing, as it adds value to the overall network. There need to be a "demand" for a given project, in Blocknet's case it's service nodes (5000 BLOCK required), which makes it possible to earn passively through DEX fee's and other things.

This is just a guideline, there are TONS of great promising projects out there. Just do your own research!

Stakenet is by far one of the most promising projects I've seen as of lately. You'd have to have followed the project to truly understand it's potential, but I'll try to explain it briefly here.

1) They helped the Litecoin team with Lightning Network integration on the LTC chain.
2) Stakenet is the industry leader in terms of Lightning Network developments, building and improving the technology in a way that benefits everyone. Their new Lightning DEX, which is an integrated part of a multi currency wallet they've been working on for the past year is bound to be a huge success for the following reasons:

Speed
Ease Of Use
Option To Hold And Trade Multiple Coins

The whole eco-system is ran by masternodes, who will do the dirty work (routing transactions back and forth over the Lightning Network), this means that Lightning node operators already have an incentive to keep them running, since the masternodes is profitable to run from the get-go already.

USDT, Ethereum (and it's tokens) will be integrated as well.

This is just a small, yet important part of Stakenet.

Stakenet invented cold staking, which means that you can stake XSN through their "Trustless Proof Of Stake" protocol.

Please do yourself a favor, and watch this small presentation video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXj3_qKSUBk&t=3s

Importing private keys? Huh?

I'm pretty sure we're talking about Ethereum based DEX's here, because if you trade on the Blocknet DEX you don't need to import anything. Sync your wallet, open the DEX, and trade. It's as simple as that.

More info can be found here: https://blockdx.com/

Never heard of those projects. Wont touch any project that hasn't yet proved anything. It's way too risky in a bear market like this one.

Generally, I invest in projects with an actual product, such as Blocknet, and their DEX. https://blockdx.com/

It's a project launched way back in 2014, been a good performer as of lately actually.

There are tons of good alts out there, with WAY less risk vs reward than the ones OP posted here.

This makes me extremely bullish on DEX's moving forward, and to be honest, feel a bit of FOMO as I really want to buy a Blocknet Node before it gets too expensive.

A Blocknet node can profit from:

Block Rewards
DEX Trading Fees
XRouter Fees (Decentralized Oracle Network, basically).

I believe owning a node could potentially make you a living if DEX's take off eventually, as millions of dollars will flow through these nodes, taking fees as profit. Thoughts?

This is a world's first, and a huge marketing plan is planned for the release of this, which has taken more than a year to develop. I don't think you understand how low the marketcap on XSN currently is, considering what they have achieved thus far.

I don't disagree completely with you here, but overall you don't get a better entry point to this project, than right now.

Interesting. So basically you can collect XRouter AND DEX fee's along with the traditional block rewards from holding a node?
Might need a deeper look into it. Wasn't aware of all these passive ways of income through the network, just parts of them.

I'm sure it will take a while before we see any major adoption of these services on the larger scale though, long term perhaps.

Blocknet and their XRouter services has so many use cases, yet is ignored by most people who hasn't done any research on the project. Chainlink seems to get the most attention mainly because of their way of marketing. Doesn't mean however that Blocknet wont be of great competition in the future, even with such a low marketcap, afterall they've been in the blockchain business since 2014, and have been working on their project non stop since then.

Wasn't aware of that article, so thanks for posting OP,  the community seems to grow bigger and bigger, which reflects on the activity I've seen grow on their Discord and Telegram as of lately. Really refreshing for once.

Market cycles is the answer to your question. With a high BTC dominance, BTC moves the market a LOT.

In 2017 when the BTC dominance was lower, alt's could move on their own, which will happen eventually again, once BTC breaks it's previous ATH.

A few altcoins did move despite of BTC as of recently, Blocknet from 7000 satoshi to 20000. Most likely due to their work on decentralized oracles.

Stakenet is a pretty promising one, considering they invented cold staking, helped the LTC team with Lightning integration on their chain. Building the world's first Lightning based DEX, and Multi Currency Wallet, all in one solution.

There's much more to the project. Here's a short video explaining the basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXj3_qKSUBk

The DEX itself is a part of their Multi Currency Wallet with inbuilt Lightning swaps as well (Another world's first).
The DEX itself will combine DEX order books from all the existent DEX's out there, meaning it will benefit the whole DEX eco-system out there. All the fee's associated with trading, will be used to buy-back XSN on the open market, and distribute it to the node owners.

Stakenet is WAY MORE than "Just a DEX", they invented cold staking. Will build their own hardware wallet, oracle network, and much much more. Do some actual research on this one, seriously.

I'm well diversified in a lot of small cap alt's, this one being one of them rarely mentioned here, which is a god damn shame to be honest.

Their DEX is pretty soon ready for a public release, which means that everyone can get to try it out, I expect a massive marketing push, which could catapult the price to 10x it's current value easily, since what they do here, is a world's first.

If you can count in "DEX's", I'm definitely voting on the Stakenet DEX, as being #1 for a couple of reasons.

1) It's a Lightning Network supported DEX, meaning anyone who wants to can trade coins (supported by Lightning) instantly on their DEX, with next to 0 fees involved.
2) It's ran by a network of masternodes, meaning it's 100% decentralized, with no way to take it down, even if the devs behind Stakenet wanted to
3) It's an integrated part of a multi currency wallet, the team has been working on for the past year. Which makes trading, storing, and send/recieving coins very convenient and easy.

It's pretty obvious that a bunch of newbies is around here, not believing we'll see another boom in altcoins, when the market has been like this from the very start.

The BTC dominance moves up and down accordingly with how the market condition is. Back in 2017, any ALT mooned for absolute no reason, and I've got no doubt that the next bull run will be pretty similar, only with real projects (with actual products) will mega moon.

Projects solving a demand people need, such as Stakenet and their Lightning DEX, fixing the current DEX's speed problem for instance. Trading over the lightning network (with masternodes hosting the Lightning nodes) you'll be able to trade instantly, just as with any other CEX. Best part is that it's an integrated part of their multi currency wallet, which makes trading, storing, and sending your coins back and forth extremely convenient.

Do your own research, regardless of which alt you wish to invest in, though.

Too many "buzz words" to keep investors inclined to buy in, that's my opinion anyway.

NRG had a nice pump early on, that made eveyone excited, but it's a masternode coin, so it's expected to see that kind of growth in the very beginning from investors looking to buy nodes.

Another masternode coin, much older though is Blocknet, which is a far better investment based on their tech. I sold my NRG for BLOCK, after discovering that the devs behind Blocknet is working on their own decentralized oracle network, while at the same time developing further on their DEX, which quite frankly was the first DEX to hit the market.

Waves is an interesting one, but their DEX is a hybrid, hence not completely "decentralized". Their community is pretty awesome though.
I believe older projects with the most developments on their back will gain the most value (ROI) during the next bull run. Blocknet is by far my favourite of them all in this aspect, so I might be biased in this regard, since I hold a fair amount.

1) Look for market trends, what's going to be the next big thing? What is people complaining about, what do the market need?
2) Do your own research, based on your research
3) Do more research
4) Be patient, watch the charts, don't buy in too quick, buy in as low as possible.

Personally I believe Decentralization, especially DEX's will be the future. EVERYONE is complaining about centralized exchanges, KYC, account bans, withdrawl limits, etc. etc.
DEX's is released all over, but only a few of them will survive in the end.

Blocknet made the first trustless DEX (early 2018), and works on their own decentralized oracle network as well. Definitely a good project to keep an eye on...

BUT, as always, do your own research