Quark - 6 encryption methods vs 1 for BTC, LTC, Doge, all popular coins
It only needs 800 NEW $/day to maintain its value vs 3 million NEW $/day for BTC and 1 million NEW $/day for Doge
It is one of the fastest coins with transactions confirmed in 30 seconds vs. 10 minutes for BTC, 6 minutes for LTC
It has a community, not at Doge, BTC, or LTC levels but its growing -
http://www.reddit.com/r/QuarkCoinIts undervalued relative to infrastructure.
Peercoin - Love the developer and this means a lot with cryptos! Things could change and PPC will adapt.
Amazing new marketing push coming around (500,000$ put down).
Resistant to 51% attacks because of the checkpoint system.
Infinitecoin - IFC is a great investment for a similar reason to Quark, it needs very little $ a day to maintain its value.
Has a good community and lots of development going on.
Litecoin - A pretty stable crypto and somewhat less risky investment than many coins.
It has a huge community and many projects going on, like a mini-bitcoin in terms of marketing.
Great developer.
Definitely a better option than BTC, and while I believe that QRK and PPC are much better coins, this could win out if consumers choose it.
Pennies - CENT is not a solid investment. It's extremely risky, but I put money into it because I like the idea.
It is a complimentary currency that goes along with others and isn't competing to be #1 or #2.
It was made so people wouldn't have to .00001 BTC for a sandwhich, they can just use their CENTs.
This is my least researched coin, but it looks like it has potential.
I really appreciated your thoughtful post. I don't really have five altcoins yet and analysis like this helps, I had dismissed quark as an instamine scam, your comments suggest maybe I was wrong.
Doge - Yes it is currently overpriced but it has a great community, doge-dice alone made sure this coin had some early legs, if it can continue to get support it will be a survivor.
Litecoin - I like what they are trying to do but am worried it is too close to bitcoin. Doge developed almost as much infrastructure of support as LTC with much less time.