Hello Steemians!

I'm on a mission to find the best cryptoassets. I've thus come up with a criteria for assessing different projects within the space and will complete 1-2 reviews each week. My thinking is that crypto projects are very much like startups, 90% will fail. 9% will be useful, helpful and profitable. 1% will be exceptional.

This is my journey to find the Top 1%.

I read every whitepaper in its entirety, research every team member, check every Github, every Reddit, join every Telegram and more. I put about 10 hours of dedicated research into each project. 

My criteria is far from finished but I've decided to get started right away. You can expect it to improve as time goes along. Would definitely appreciate comments and suggestions to make my reviews better! Enjoy!

General Information

Asset

Monero 

Symbol

XMR 

Date reviewed

Saturday 20th Jan 2017

Current price $US

$370.92

Current supply

15.62M via CoinLib

Market cap

5.80B via CoinLib

Top exchanges available

Poloniex, HitBTC, Bitfinex, Binance, Bittrex, Kraken, Cryptopia

Asset Description

What is it?

A secure, private, untraceable cryptocurrency.

When was it created?

April 2014

Type of blockchain?

Public

Premined?

Originally forked from ByteCoin (which was premined) and called Bitmonero championed by user thankful_for_today. Subsequently the current developers forked from Bitmonero to create Monero due to unresponsiveness and unwillingness to co-operate by thankful_for_today. Monero (XMR) is NOT a premined coin.

Does it solve a real problem?

Yes, Monero provides a high level of privacy and security for persons who’d like to remain completely anonymous.

Has anything been built?

Yes, the Monero Development Team has built a stable cryptocurrency in open-source fashion called Monero. Many contributors from all over the World have built wallets, miners, GUIs and more.

Asset Ratings

Does it have a whitepaper or other papers?

Yes, 8/10 (CryptoNote)

Clear and consistent message?

Yes, 9/10

Knowledgeable and capable team?

Yes, 9/10

Does it have a sustainable long term business model?

Yes, 9/10

Does it add real value (usefulness) to a specific user?

Yes, 9/10

Asset Future

Is this project likely to be around in the next 2-5 years?

Yes

Do I believe enough in the project that I can publicly support or back the project?

Yes

Can I identify any immediate, or major risks with the project before they can achieve their objectives?

Yes, when governments begin to understand cryptoassets, I believe Monero and other privacy coins will be the first targets to attempt a crackdown on. I don’t believe attacks mounted against the coin itself will work, rather I’m concerned as to the safety of the coin’s development team.

Is this project geared towards short term trading (flipping) or long term growth (holding)?

Holding

Useful Links

Coinlib Link - https://coinlib.io/coin/XMR/Monero
Website - https://getmonero.org/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/monerocurrency
Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/
GitHub - https://github.com/monero-project/monero
Telegram - https://telegram.me/bitmonero

I'm looking for the Top 1% of all cryptoassets. If you'd like me to do a review on a cryptoasset you like, leave me a comment! Be sure to include an explanation of why you like a particular asset. I'm very open to improving my criteria over time so if you have any suggestions I'd appreciate it!

Jarryon