#### The word, **_shitcoin_**_,_ makes me smile every time I hear it.

What’s a shitcoin, anyway?

A quick search returned these fascinating results from a guy named Willy Woo:

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*N4HbN8lHUgYlm5AZhQjN2A.jpeg)

Here’s Willy Woo’s description of a shitcoin:

> “**It’s what I call the ‘Shitcoin Pattern’.**

> Prior to 2015, nearly all alt-coins exhibited this pattern, a peak, followed by a long and gradual decay to shit-dom. Not even the high profile coins like Ripple and Litecoin have been immune.

> But by 2015 this started changing, we saw a few break into new all-time-highs in successive waves, to create charts looking more like Bitcoin’s successively bigger pump and decays.

> In alt-coin land, for the [HODLers](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hodl), I suggest looking for coins that have broken the shitcoin pattern. Always look for at least one cycle that goes bigger than the last, treat that as a buy signal.

> Ethereum was one of the first more notable coins to break the shitcoin cycle. Around the same year we saw a whole wave of others, notably MAID and DASH, break the pattern.” -[Willy Woo](http://woobull.com/the-shitcoin-pattern/)

So, what does Dash’s lifetime chart look like?

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*Nga8eVZXh0jdEswdhrCKcA.jpeg)

Lifetime chart for Dash

#### It looks pretty good to me mainly because it seems to be opposite from the “shitcoin pattern”. But no one knows what the future holds….

But don’t believe me. I’m biased and I’m a part of the Dash community, so my best advice to you is to do your own research. Never depend on someone else to determine your course in life or finances. Get the facts then form your own opinons. You’ll learn more that way. I ignored plenty of “expert advice” and carved out my own path which led me to Dash. I’m happy to be working with the [Dash DAO](https://hackernoon.com/how-to-get-funded-by-a-decentralized-autonomous-organization-4d2430572bcb) because its goals are aligned very closely with my own. The rest is just gravy.

#### Back to the topic of shitcoins…..

Well, there’s no easy answer to this question. The answer depends wholly on the person who’s talking and their blockchain asset portfolio. For the sake of transparency, I’m mostly invested in Dash and Steem, but I also hold Decred, Ripple and Bitcoin (I know ETH is a smart one to hodl, but I sold my ETH for some uneducated reasons). I earned all my digital assets, so when I say “invested”, I am referring to investing my time and creative work into these projects.

The amount of innovation in the blockchain digital currency space is enormous. Right now there are 711 digital coins listed on [Coinmarketcap](https://coinmarketcap.com). That’s insane! But how can you tell which ones are good?

Bitcoin loyalists call all other altcoins shitcoins, but is there any way to really figure out which coins are good and which are shitcoins?

### Yes and no, but I have found some tools to help you figure this out.

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*adjWsvtUXjRJbXpv63W4vQ.jpeg)

If a digital coin has just launched, it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible to tell what will happen to its development in the future. The only clues you have to go on are the people involved with the project. Whenever I’m learning about a new blockchain project, I research the people involved.

#### Here are the questions you need to be asking:

1.  Who is involved?
2.  What is their past history and what other things have they worked on?
3.  Did their past projects work out or did they abandon them?
4.  Is there evidence of previous scammy behavior or abuse of trust? (Look at what [happened to Arcade City](https://cointelegraph.com/news/arcade-city-aka-uber-killer-hard-forks-founder-claims-fraud), which was founded by a person who has a history of unethical behavior.)

Those questions need to be asked when you’re looking into new projects, but if you’re looking into more established projects, there is an amazing tool you can use to determine how much influence a particular digital coin community has in the wider social media sphere. Looking into the social aspect of a digital currency can be critical to understanding more about its overall health. Here’s the tool that convinced me that Dash, Ethereum and some others have a well-established and healthy social community: [https://www.cryptocompare.com](https://www.cryptocompare.com)

The amount of information on different digital currencies on this site is staggering. I’ll show you what I discovered about Dash’s community using this tool. Of course, I’m a bit biased towards Dash……:)

**_This gives an overall view of the Dash community and activity:_**

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*pL433QahOGY9gqqvS6X-jA.jpeg)

overall view

**_This chart shows the combined social media activity for Dash._** See how the Twitter and Facebook colums contain fairly large numbers? Dash has a lot of social media activity which is indicative of more mainstream appeal:

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*hfaYc8cfwfXML84hudUppA.jpeg)

social media points

**_This chart shows the open-source software activity from GitHub:_**

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*h-b-bRyUFk17Q_NPWe3LNg.jpeg)

I would stay away from projects that are not open source. Keep in mind that newer projects don’t have big numbers on here because they haven’t been in existence for a long time. I would say big red flags would be low or absent numbers on the GitHub section and social sections. One more additional way to find out about a digital coin community is to join their Slack channel. You can experience the general feel of a community by speaking directly with community members. Here’s the invite code for the Dash Nation Slack: [https://dash-nation-invite.herokuapp.com](https://dash-nation-invite.herokuapp.com)

Some people hate Dash and call it a shitcoin. It doesn’t really matter what trolls say, though. I’ve done my homework and I like what I see so far. Contributing to the Dash ecosystem feels like a very positive thing for my life. Working with a group of intelligent, compassionate and committed people is a dream come true for me.

#### **_One man’s shitcoin is another man’s treasure._**

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*dCJNPgSb15LoROIcqccOrQ.jpeg)

> “Do you want to trade some shitcoins? It doesn’t have to be with Bitcoins..”:

**About the author:**

_Leah Stephens is the editor of_ [**_Dash For Newbies_**](https://medium.com/dash-for-newbies) _and a full stack artist. She has written one book,_ [_Un-Crap Your Life_](https://www.amazon.com/Crap-Your-Life-Navigating-Situations-ebook/dp/B017PBLZPA) _which is now available on Amazon. She discovered the blockchain in 2016. She runs a zany_ [_YouTube channel_](https://www.youtube.com/user/stellabelle) _and is now working within the_ [_Dash decentralized autonomous organization_](https://www.dash.org/forum/)_. Most days she can be found lurking on_ [_Twitter_](https://twitter.com/stellabelle) _and in the Women of Dash_ [_Slack channel_](http://dash-nation-invite.herokuapp.com/)_. She’s also a top writer in_ [_Steemit_](https://steemit.com/@stellabelle)_. Her favorite quote is by Rimbaud:_

> _“I have researched the magic shapes of the happiness no one escapes.”_

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