2nd gen Cryptos with the most promise.

[ciscokid]

Discuss. 

[publicjud]

I like a PoS system combined with Scrypt or Better yet, Quark.

If SecureCoin was PoS, I'd be all over it.  Waiting for the perfect Coin.  I'm talking one that can last more than 10 years.

[imrehg]

To me it feels that the outcome of competiton of the altcoins will come down less to technical differences but to social acceptance. Bitcoin broke the floodgates and considering that it's much more advanced than any cryptocurrency before, it's definitely feels "good enough" compared to all the ones that came afterwards. Plenty of clever minds are working on improving it, and it looks like lot of the initial kinks will be solved within bitcoin instead of proposing something completely different. Bitcoin might not end up being the "best" in the technical sense but can still be the most widely used.

That said, it's good to diversify in case some truly unexpected cryptographic problem brings down bitcoin (this complete and irreversible break seems unlikely after this much testing). But the alternative then probably has to be something very different from what exists now not to fall for similar issues.

[StewartJ]

Discuss. 

If you consider 1st gen cryptos to be Bitcoin, Litecoin, PPC, NMC, XPM...

The next generation with potential IMHO are the ones using new protocols, financing mechanisms, trust gateways, custom exchanges:

- MSC Mastercoin, using "Exodus" protocol on top of Bitcoin to create a virtual trading exchange, has lots of BTC funding
- Ripple, XRP as a script IOU to trade between currency on trusted gateways, has big venture capital funding
- NXT, different distribution model, custom exchange, has some growing pains
- Counter Party, "burning" Bitcoin for XCP in peer to peer trading
- Colored Coins, not sure of status

A few others with promise in the weed of Alt Coins that I see:

- Digital Coin, DGC, one of the few from earlier days with little or no premine, a steady, safe reliable coin, worthy of investment
- AnonCoin, ANC coin has stealth innovations, untraceable from blockchain, mining, exchanges to your wallet
- Philosopher Stones, PHS pays out 50% annual interest, does not require huge hardware to mine/maintain, just turn on laptop