I'm still pretty new in the crypto space, and a lot of this is edited from a Facebook post aimed largely at people who know nothing about it, so it might sound a little naive to some of the elders here, but maybe offers another perspective that doesn't seem to be getting discussed enough.

From the research I've done so far, I'm really quite convinced that we are on the verge of a total overhaul of the global financial, and legal, and all kinds of other systems due to this block-chain technology of Bitcoin fame. No less than the internet of money, and legal contracts, and a dazzling array of things most people haven't even thought of. And the vast majority of people have no idea.

The experience will probably be similar to the introduction of the internet, and there will be a similar dot-com style bubble, but it will level out and become as integral to daily life as the internet is, but making the financial system vastly more accessible and 'democratised', so everyday people will be able to join in and use the system to grow their money and improve their lives.

Whoever can figure this out now is going to be well placed in the future economy. At the moment the whole thing is so complicated that few but uber geeks know how to work it. But that's changing fast, and there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that blockchain based technologies are the backbone of the 21st century world, and the implications will be big.

I personally don't know if Bitcoin will stay the main platform for daily purchases as it currently is among the early adopters, but there may be another year or two (if that) while it's still dominant in that space, then all the phone based wallets will work in exactly the same way that Apple & Android Pay does and you'll just pay with your phone and not even have to think about it, but you will also be able to buy a selection of crypto-currencies and choose which one to pay with according to which one is worth the most at the time you want to buy something, and literally be able to grow your money 'on the fly' by directly interacting with the markets in a simple way that everyone will be able to understand. Then maybe Bitcoin will be more of a longer term investment, like gold.

But for now Bitcoin is the one people hear of first, so just like with the dot com bubble people will scramble in with no prior knowledge, just an instinct that they should join in, and Bitcoin is the only one they've heard of. Maybe Etherium as well. So the markets will be volatile, and it will grow too much too soon, then there will be a crash that will scare some off (although the recent China crash demonstrated staggering resilience, if you consider that a 40% drop in the US dollar would probably lead to a global depression that would last for years, and within a couple of days it was back up again, possibly just due to people moving it out of mainland China). But then all the dominant currencies will start to find their groove and become more stable. But until then it's still the wild west for some time to come. And possibly one of the biggest opportunities of a lifetime if you can somehow figure out how to position yourself in the right place.

Personally my feeling at the moment is that I'm buying up as much Ripple/XRP as I can, while it's at .26c AUD (coinspot.com.au is the easiest in Australia), so you can buy 100 for about $26. It's currently the biggest one with institutional backing, including banks, and it's centralised and controlled, which actually seems to be making it the most stable and usable so far for day to day trading, which is an absolutely crucial precondition for this new economy to become mainstream. They are also limiting supply by the end of 2017 by locking up billions in Escrow, so I think there will be a spike soon.

The true believer idealists in this space seem to be rejecting it for ideological reasons, and I very much respect that, and agree in principle on many points, but I bet most of them also have some XRP in their portfolio. ;-) I don't think any of these cryptos are going anywhere for trading, including Bitcoin, but the most usable for day to day transactions will win the day, and so far my bet is on XRP. And I just can't see how the price it's at won't grow over time. They are bound to get more scarce over time, especially "in the wild".

They'd have to shut off the whole internet to stop this revolution, and they don't need to, they'll just do what JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon just did and create a load of sound bites saying "Bitcoin is a fraud, for drug dealers and murderers" so that it sticks in most people's heads if they don't know anything about it, and most people will just use the one that authority types like him recommend ...yeah, ironically the same bailout JP Morgan, but it will work.

In any case, I am personally trying to have at least something in most of the ones with the biggest cap, and trying to buy up penny ones when I can find enough hours in the day to research them. I'm finding that making sure I have enough Bitcoin and Etherium can be challenging because in a lot of cases they are the ones needed to trade. Tether could be good for trading in theory, but everything is always seems to be so far up in the green against it I'm not sure there would ever be a good time to use it. I see it more as maybe a hedging account, but even there you're probably better off just finding a strong crypto that's in the red. You're better off getting into the crypto-sphere and then trading first off the bat, because even when Bitcoin is high, there could be another that is strong against it, but that's never going to be Tether. By using Tether you're missing out on the potential for buying Bitcoin when it's high, by using another crypto that's high against it. So far I've been finding XRP to work well for that.

So for the moment XRP is my drug of choice for buying in from fiat and moving around between accounts and wallets etc, which really also means it is at present most likely best for day to day transactions. And moving money around is actually its designed purpose.

I definitely don't think it will stay that way. Ultimately I think Apple and Google will either come up with their own coins, or bite the bullet and properly allow others in, which will probably happen due to consumer demand. It will be virtually unstoppable on Android, and Apple won't be able to stay out of the game. And when that happens it won't make much difference which coins you use, you'll be able to just choose them according to your personal preference and effectively access the markets and grow your account on the fly by choosing the strongest coins at the time you decide to buy something, and literally profit from buying.

Interesting, exciting times.