I've recently jumped into investing through Ethereum finally, thanks in no small part to Steemit for giving me a headstart ;)
Since I suspect I'm going to lose track of my trades over time, I thought I'd toss them up here to keep them logged somewhere.
I've been digging through the countless ICOs, looking for buys that seem like they could tap a large enough market, and ideally a large growth market. I've gotten a bit more into it than I originally planned, but I've nailed down at least a few buys I've made/will be making this quarter. I'm sure most won't be as successful as I hope in the end, but I'm hoping its diversified enough that I still make gains by spring/summer next year from them if there's at least one solid winner.
My original 3
The first three that caught my eye were Dether (DTR), HERO(same as the name), and Everex(EVX). All three aim to solve the problem of the last mile for crypto, making it easy to exchange between it and fiat, and in the case of HERO and Everex they aim to tap into the microfinance market in Southeast Asia, a growing market for sure. Dether acts like localbitcoins meets uber for ethereum, allowing users to rate one another, and eventually opening up to merchants to accept payment through the app as well. If any of these 3 companies succeed, their potential markets are enormous enough that I suspect I'll want in.
I've currently bought some EVX and will be doubling up on that in the next couple days (its running for the next 10 days). Dether and HERO have yet to announce their ICO dates, but I'm hoping I have a funded wallet whenever they go live.
The riskier/more impulsive positions
After buying EVX and realizing I had to wait a bit before I could jump in on HERO and DTR, I started to look a bit more for other buys. My next buy was Indorse (IND), a social network that seems like its gunning to be a LinkedIn competitor. Social networks are something I'll likely only occasionally jump into because I've tried and failed on one of my own so I know they're a crapshoot. That said, everyone hates LinkedIn, and I did find other investors who had it in their portfolio so I tossed a small bit down on it.
My next buy was a bit of an impulse buy, and perhaps a dumb one but time will tell. Magos(MAG) is an AI prediction market fund which will start with managing sports bets by analyzing stats, and will expand to include other blockchain betting networks like Augur. The AI being entirely black box, and relying on the profits of the fund make this one seem a bit more like pure gambling, but their roadmap suggests its been in progress since before the ICO hype, and some of their first deliverables are soon enough that I thought I'd sit on it for a quarter and see where its at.
My next buy, and what I'm hoping will be my final for this quarter since I'm otherwise ponying up more in ICO bets than I'd gone in planning to, will be UNIKRN, an esports betting network backed by Mark Cuban. eSports is a crazy growth market, and betting on it is currently way undercapped relative traditional sports betting, so this platform backed by the names its backed by makes me feel like it could be a lucrative service if it gets buy in from the eSports community. It's ICO opens September 22nd.
TL;DR:
I'm tossing some coin behind Everex, HERO, Dether, Indorse, Magos, and Unikrn. Which do you think could succeed? Which do you think are destined to flop? Which should be flipped for a short term profit, and which do you think might be worth sitting on for a longer term?