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CryptoCurrencies are digital currencies which seek to decentralize and anonymize transactions using high-end encryption techniques to seamlessly make transactions without the aid of a governing agency like a central bank. The rise of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin over the past years are just a glimpse at the tremendous applicability and functionality over their physical counterpart. 

**Criteria used for evaluating cryptocurrencies**
*Market Capitalization 
*Developer Support 
*Functionalities provided 
*Community Support 

The following list is a compilation of the top cryptocurrencies to look out for in 2017:
1) *Bitcoin* (aka Digital gold) - This is the first cryptocurrency created and released by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. The price of Bitcoin has since grown exponentially to over a $1000 USD. Bitcoin's current market cap occupies close to ~90% of the total market cap of all Cryptocurrencies. Its also extremely easy to buy bitcoins through numerous bitcoin-fiat gateways in the form of exchanges and other private companies. With all this going in favor of bitcoin, it is no surprise that bitcoin will continue to grow in 2017.

2) *Ether* - Ether is the token for the Ethereum blockchain which can execute peer-to-peer smart contracts. It was created by Vitalik Buterin in 2015 and known for its ability to create and execute contracts without the involvement of third parties. Smart Contracts are going to play an integral role in the development and control of potential artificial Intelligence as well as replicating all legal procedures without the need of a central governing authority. The Ether has the second highest market cap at ~$1 Billion USD, behind bitcoin. Furthermore, there are numerous projects currently under work making use of the Ethereum blockchain in the form of AI hedge funds and computational simulations. 

3) *Monero* - Monero was created and released in 2013 as the first truly anonymous cryptocurrency by using a ring signature technology making all transactions in Monero completely traceless and secure. Monero with a current market cap of ~$180,000 USD has the #4 highest market cap. Its gaining prominence in the dark net along with its anonymous tag will surely contribute to the growth of Monero.

4) *DASH* - Also known as Digital Cash, has been attempting to make a truly anonymous cryptocurrency. One of the biggest features of DASH is its transaction time. Its blistering fast compared to the likes of Monero and bitcoin which take anywhere from 15-75 min to confirm a transaction on the block. The high transaction speed was due to the incentivized 2nd-tier of nodes or Masternodes that are more powerful than regular Bitcoin nodes. The setup of Masternodes also creates a democratized governance and budgeting  system for making any governance decision on the future of the blockchain as well as fund the core development of the coin. And all of this can be done directly at the protocol level. The upcoming Evolution update to create a next-generation decentralized e-commerce platform would be highly influential in the future price of DASH, which seems to have nowhere to go but up. 

The future of other Interesting coins would be discussed in the posts to follow. 
Upcoming: SiaCoin, Steem, ShadowCoin, Iconomi. 

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Thanks for Reading. 

Picture Credit: ipswitch.com

References:
*Coin Market Cap
*WorldCoin Index