1) Former NEO-founder along with developers from Google, IBM and Alibaba.
2) One of the most detailed and promising whitepapers I have come accross. Look it up!
3) No competitors in the market yet (search engine for blockchain).
4) They want to build a platform for WEB 3.0 applications
5) Their software is planned to be fully compatible with ETH-applications. So not just an alternative to Ethereum-platform, also reverse compatible.
6) They are ahead of their roadmap and seemingly might overtake other tokens how fast they can roll out software. Seems they perform first and talk later, very different to a lot of other applications out there.
7) Just the phrase "Google for blockchain" og "Former NEO-people" should be enough to get people excited. And getting average people excited is exactly what you need to get to top-20. (Just see how quite a few more or less useless tokens are in top20, just because they are hyped)
Mainnet launch later in Q1.
9) For now only available on e.g. OKEX and Huobi. Will definitely explode if it gets on other exchanges.

I definitely think this one is going to be in top-20 market cap by end of 2018.

So the recent article about best altcoins to invest in on Cryptopia mentions both XSPEC and ZER.
I do have a minor amount of each. Is there someone kind that can elaborate on the core differences on these two coins in layman's terms? And what this might mean for the potential usage.

Obviously there is a difference in costs of transaction, market cap etc.
And XSPEC utilizes TOR in a different way than ZER? What are the pros and cons of each?

I seriously dont understand why people put so much trust into coins that can do nothing but be used for trade (and that currently aren't even being used for that). In my opinion they are at a great risk as they will be sold quickly off when market corrects. 
In my opinion you should invest in a real world project that is more than just a trading coin, with the few exceptions of ETH and BTC which are the main ones all people use to buy into the crypto world.

I am convinced that blockchain technology to transfer money is the way to go, but I am sure the big banks (or even other large existing corporations) will easily come up with cryptocurrencies that will be the new norm and much more useable and easier deployed through their existing networks than any of the projects we see today. Could be Facebook if rumours are true that they will start their own, who knows. But imagine a large bank, dont you think they could easily copy XRP or any other currency, or even do it better? Of course there will always be demand for a "dark" privacy coin such as Monero or similar ones being developed. But do you want to put your energy in something that might be illegal? (If it interests you, look at XSPEC)

Rather look at projects that can actually have a revenue. There are many good ideas out there, most of them are already in top-100. These are projects where many people will HODL even during market corrections because they believe in the projects. People HODL'ing means less panic sale = less market drop.

I could be wrong. But if I were you, dont invest more than 1/3 in coins. Better put them into projects. Personally I have stakes in e.g. OAX, NEBL, SUB, AMM and so on. But there are quite a few of them. I believe picking the ones with lower market cap but still with a finished product reduces the risk of buying them at over price which might cause a loss when market corrects, which I am sure it will do one day. (Perhaps what we are seeing now?)

Great job on the website and easy-to-read roadmap, FAQ etc.