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Thousands of new cryptocurrencies have popped up since Bitcoin (BITCOMP) was created in 2009. Some compete with Bitcoin, while others offer some kind of complementary use alongside the first-to-market coin. Here, we cover four "new" cryptocurrencies launched within the last five years that show a lot of profit potential.

You might be thinking it feels like the dot-com boom all over again with this cryptocurrency stuff. Just look at how many businesses failed in the tech space pre-2000. For many investors, that tech bubble was a graveyard of failed companies. But if you bought Apple Inc. (AAPL) or Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), that graveyard was your playground.

Many cryptocurrency dissenters argue that most cryptocurrencies, too, will end up in a graveyard. They are not wrong. True enough, there are over 4,000 cryptocurrencies trading right now. And new ones are being added every day, as anyone can make their own. One man produced a crypto called "Scamcoin" as a joke, and it reached a $70 million market cap in an hour.

But while most cryptocurrencies will fail, those that remain will be the few that offer a combination of utility, security, and marketability. Thus far, Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH-X) are unbeaten in those departments, with a few "altcoins" – coins other than Bitcoin – battling alongside them.

It's hard to speculate on how this will play out – it's still early days in crypto. So we suggest you look at cryptocurrency investing like you would at startup investing or investing in IPOs. Diversify across a range of investments and look for quality. That gives you the best chance of landing an investment that will go hyperbolic. Here are a few new cryptocurrencies that could do just that.

How Cardano Could Replace Ethereum

Cardano (ADA-X) has been called the "Ethereum Killer" because it has much of the same functionality as Ethereum, but better. This is not hard to believe, because it's founded by five of the initial founding members of Ethereum.

Much of the crypto community looks for quality in the whitepapers released by a cryptocurrency's creators. Cardano has written over 90, showing research matters a great deal to the team. This coin was trading for just a few cents a year ago. But it's rocketed as high as $1.56 since then. From $0.05 to $1.56 is more than a 3,000% return.

That's huge. But the greatest benefit of holding a cryptocurrency will be experienced in the long-term. People want a secure, well-designed cryptocurrency that can hang around for a while. Like Ethereum, the usefulness of Cardano is in its proof-of-stake consensus model.

Staking is an alternative to "mining." For actively validating transactions of the currency, you get more currency as a reward. The more you stake, the higher your rewards.

Unlike Ethereum, Cardano is deflationary; there is a limited supply. That means the value of Cardano becomes increasingly scarce the more is mined, which is a value-add to holding the currency. Cardano's vision is to establish decentralized financial products for the whole world and validate other contractual agreements with its blockchain.

Polkadot Brings Blockchains Together

Polkadot is another proof-of-stake coin with a slightly different purpose. Its goal is to bridge gaps between different blockchains. The best way to look at this is like a building where different blockchains can meet and talk to each other in the same language, even if they spoke different languages outside the building.

Polkadot also connects oracles, which are the trusted sources of online data for settling smart contracts. So, this coin really wants to serve as the prime connector of all things crypto. The coin was also founded by a founder of Ethereum who didn't like the way things were going.

Multiple projects are using Polkadot now, and its popularity is accelerating. Polkadot stands around a $30 billion market cap. This coin is up 1,130% in the last year, from a few cents to $33. Of course, it will soar much higher if adoption increases and it becomes a primary source for connecting blockchains and oracles.

Chainlink Offers an "Oracle" Network

Chainlink (LINK-X) is another "bridge" type cryptocurrency. Specifically, Chainlink is a network of oracles that deliver data to settle smart contracts. While smart contracts are common, getting the trusted data to settle them accurately and efficiently is not easy. Chainlink fixes this by linking to multiple oracles. It also emphasizes having many sources of data to ensure at least one source will be available when needed.

This expands the capability of a smart contract to a wide range of uses. For example, an insurance company can use sensors to track the speed of a vehicle, with information from those sensors transmitted to the smart contract to calculate a more precise insurance premium in real time. This kind of communication between sensors, databases, and smart contracts is what Chainlink makes possible.

Chainlink is up over 800% in the last year as the crypto market hype has exploded. But it's one of the most promising cryptos on the market when you consider its future use. A single LINK is $35 today. The coin still has plenty to grow at $15 billion market cap.

Tezos Could End Coin Splits Forever

Tezos (XTZ-X) is another coin that has been referred to as an "Ethereum Killer." It shares much of the same smart contract functionality. One advantage to Tezos is that forks are virtually impossible. See, a "fork" is when a team of developers disagrees in the way a cryptocurrency operates. So they break off and create their own.

Theoretically, a cryptocurrency can split into hard forks for eternity. That would just give you thousands of competing cryptocurrencies with similar functionality; nobody really "wins." Tezos, however, prevents these splits by building an amendment process into the blockchain. There's an entire interface allowing developers to propose and test changes to the blockchain, with stakers voting to approve or reject those changes.

This is not common across blockchains. In many cases, developers would have to break off and create their own coin if they want to implement significant changes. The best thing is that Tezos trades for just $5 right now, at only $4 billion market cap. This is bound to increase with time. We are yet to see if it will compete or work alongside Cardano as a leading Ethereum alternative.