I'm going on a 2nd gen altcoin buying spree... Any suggestions?

[Bizmark13]

To me, the most obvious 2nd gen coin to invest in was Nxt, followed by Qora and NEM. Nxt is the one most people are familiar with as it pretty much invented the genre. So recently I decided to explore the Nxt client and buy some coins. I did the same too with Qora except I haven't touched the wallet yet.

Next one I'm thinking of adding to my collection is NEM but I haven't gotten around to buying that one yet.

Are there any others you would recommend?

NAS? NXTL? Kora? Not to mention all the CryptoNote coins.

Why are there so many? It's making my head hurt.

Anyway, you might be wondering why I am doing this? Well, I believe that in the future, Bitcoin's market cap will reach $40+ billion so that is where most of my investment lies. I also believe that altcoins will benefit from the crypto explosion too. So we might see coins like Litecoin, Darkcoin, Monero, and Nxt with $1-5 billion market caps. Kind of how like there is Google for search engines and Facebook for social networking and Microsoft for operating systems and a multitude of smaller competing companies. Altcoins would have their niche uses - e.g. Nxt would be an ecosystem where you list and trade assets with Nxt being the currency for doing these transactions, Darkcoin and Monero would be used for anonymity, etc.

Bitcoin could implement these features too (e.g. Zerocoin, Colored Coins, etc.) but it might suffer from the "Jack of all trades, master of none" problem as well as a reluctance by the core devs and community to make drastic changes to the underlying protocol. Therefore, the real innovation might only be found in altcoins and so I believe that there will always be demand for them.

[Nxtblg]

NFD is a plain Nxt clone, with aught but a bare-bones ecosystem at the moment, but it's incredibly cheap. 5 billion supply, 1/2 that of Nas, and you can pick up all that you want at 3 satoshis:

https://bter.com/trade/nfd_btc

If you're patient, you might scoop some up at 2 satoshis.

Right now, it's considered blah and forgettable, but it works. Not unlike Reddcoin back in tha day...

If you buy NFD, you're essentially buying Nxt without the ecosystem.

Official NFD thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=603932.0

[boxuser]

Invest in Credits CRD https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=634403.0 this is your best bett, everything else is crap , here video to their upcoming wallet 2.0 http://vimeo.com/100148381

[devphp]

Well, 90-95% NXT obviously.
5-10% split between NEM, Qora, BitsharesX as backup should NXT fail for some reason.
Others are not worth considering yet.

CryptoNote is not Generation 2.0, it's more like generation 1.5.

[vuduchyld]

Here's how to end up with $1 million dollars!

Start with $10 million and invest heavily in altcoins.

[brekyrself]

Safe route:  BitShares BTSX and ProtoShares PTS.  This dev team is heavily funded, completely transparent, and has launched successful chains.


Why BitShares?

DPOS algorithm
http://wiki.bitshares.org/index.php/DPOS

Titan
http://wiki.bitshares.org/index.php/TITAN

Last but not least the market based trading, think bitUSD, bitGold, bitSilver etc...
http://wiki.bitshares.org/index.php/Bitshares_X

Let's talk Bitcoin! episode 129.  Starts around 12 minute mark with the lead dev Dan.  Great listen.
http://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/lets-talk-bitcoin-129-dogeparty-and-delegated-proof-of-stake


Why ProtoShares?

By holding Protoshares in your wallet they will grant you shares in future DAC's.  Two were just announced where a snapshot will take place on 8/21.  Three alts have honored the PTS route including BTSX, memory coin, and LottoShares.  Look at the price history when new DAC's were announced!


Upcoming snapshots:

https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=6509
https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=6508


Further reading:

BitSharestalk.org

[TaunSew]

NODE is also just came out and/or will be coming out in days, so I will get some while it is still cheap.  NODE is very revolutionary coin.  First javascript coin with revolutionary features.

ORA I don't know if it's a pure fork of Qora but it's currently going for $60 a stake and I would snap at least one up.

You mentioned NEM but I guess no reason for me or anyone else to mention it.  Java isn't new but NEM's POI could replace POS as we know it and that's a  very powerful concept, imho. 

[poornamelessme]

Crypti may be worth looking at (presale on Bter right now). And Ora is probably undervalued, as TaunSew just mentioned.

Of course there are things like MaidSafe and Ethereum, and that ICO running for Syscoin, but they may not exactly be moneymakers.

I sort of have a similar view as the OP regarding niche coins. The only real way for them to gain appreciable value is if btc skyrockets, and the leading niche coins get dragged along for the ride. I think the key will be for any such coins to at least survive long enough to see btc rise. And of course, that may just be wishful thinking... btc may never go crazy, or even if it does, there is no guarantee other coins will follow.