Lisk is an early delegated proof-of-stake coin that was bested by competitors. Can it regain its strength?
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Approximate Market Cap: <$1 billion
Year Established: 2016
Cost Per Transaction: Nominal
2020 Return: 104%
Score: ★★★
Lisk was launched in 2016 to a great deal of optimism. The delegated proof-of-stake coin initially priced at $8 as excited ICO investors saw LSK as an alternative to Bitcoin and Ethereum’s issues. Built on JavaScript, one of the most common programming languages, Lisk promised to open application developments to a far wider range of developers.
The optimism, however, didn’t last. As Lisk’s programming issues began to emerge, the coin’s price began to sink — certain quirks in its programming language made it relatively inefficient and prone to non-deterministic behavior. By 2017, LSK had shed almost all its value to settle at just 10 cents. And despite a second massive run-up in the 2018 cryptocurrency bubble, the coin has since settled back, dropping off the top-100 coin charts by market cap.
Interest in the coin, however, has refused to completely disappear. Earlier this year, Robinhood added Lisk to its list of tracked cryptocurrencies, sending prices up over 250%. That means, while Lisk might have significant technological issues, renewed interest in the coin could incentivize developers back to the drawing board to improve the coin. If that happens (and that’s a big “if”), Lisk could quickly regain strength and challenge the larger coins once again.