As the year comes to an end, it’s already time to look into the future and try and pick out the coins that will be the most influential in 2018. While currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum will always be major players, the following coins will also make serious moves over the next 12 months. 
         =Substratum (SUB)
         =OmiseGO (OMG)
         =Aion (AION)
         =Icon (ICX)
         =Dragonchain (DRGN)

the incidence of one individual successfully spending a Bitcoin balance more than once – is a major concern for all digital transactions. The block chain itself does not prevent double-spending; instead, all transactions posted to the block chain are verified and protected through a confirmation process. Once a transaction has been confirmed, it becomes irreversible and posted publicly.

Understanding the Block Chain
In Bitcoin terms, a "block" is a file of permanently recorded data. All recent transactions are written into blocks, much like a stock transaction ledger on an exchange.

The term "block chain" refers to a virtual ledger that is publicly (yet anonymously) shared to all members of the Bitcoin network. Any economic transaction involving the Blockchain.info allows users to navigate the Bitcoin block chain and review transactions in quantity only; information about the buyer and seller are protected. Bitcoin uses a high-level AES encryption to prevent outside sources from accessing or changing the ledger.

All Bitcoin wallets are instantly updated through the block chain. "The integrity and the chronological order of the block chain are enforced with cryptography," the Bitcoin website indicates.

Like other public blockchains, ethereum intends to support as many users as it can.

The problem is that, today, we don't really know the limits of the platform.

Because of a hard-coded limit on computation per block, the ethereum blockchain currently supports roughly 15 transactions per second compared to, say, the 45,000 processed by Visa.

This limitation of ethereum and other blockchain systems has long been the subject of discussion by developers and academics.

While ethereum developers might like to highlight how the flexible smart contract platform differs from bitcoin, for example, it isn't unique in regards to scalability.

As disappointing as that might sound, there's hope in proposed solutions that haven't made it into the official software yet.

Ethereum is fast emerging as a major cryptocurrency. In the last few days, it has scaled new heights quite consistently. Also, in the calendar year 2017, it is risen by about 3600%. This is one of the main reasons why most of the investors are also looking at Ethereum as a long-term investment bet.

This brings us to the important question what can be the Ethereum price in the future. You need to understand that you have to look into the usability as well as the application of the cryptocurrency. When you are able to look at the usability and application of cryptocurrency, thereafter only it would become easier for you to understand how its value can appreciate. When you’re looking at Ethereum, you would realize that it is underlying capability that is it provides decentralized processing power as well as bandwidth. Owing to this very reason, Ethereum is much different as compared to the other tokens which are just a token for investment. This also means that the value of Ethereum would increase in the future.

Each particular action on the ethereum network or in a decentralized app requires a different amount of computational power and time. The greater the power and time required, the higher the ether fee for the action to be completed. In this way, ether is different from a digital currency like bitcoin. (See more: Bitcoin Vs Ethereum: Driven by Different Purposes.)

There are other ways that it differs. For instance, many digital currencies have hard caps, or maximum numbers of tokens or coins that can be mined. Ether does not have a limit of this type. 18 million ether can be mined per year. 60 million ether was bought by users in a 2014 crowdfunding campaign, while another 12 million went to the Ethereum Foundation.

For companies such as AMD and Nvidia, which have dominant positions in the gaming chip market, a focus away from their core business may not be a prudent course of action.

As seen, these companies may have to bring out new GPUs designed exclusively for this purpose to pose a real threat to the ASIC chips, which are predominantly manufactured by the Chinese, who are notorious for their low-cost market positioning. How viable is the spend on such exclusive chips is a moot point.

Let's focus on mining 'scrypt' coins, namely Litecoins, Dogecoins, or Feathercoins. The whole focus of mining is to accomplish three things:

Provide bookkeeping services to the coin network. Mining is essentially 24/7 computer accounting called 'verifying transactions'.
Get paid a small reward for your accounting services by receiving fractions of coins every couple of days.
Keep your personal costs down, including electricity and hardware.

There are many ways you can plug into the eth network, one of tge easiest ways is to use its native mist browser.
  Mist provides a user friendly interface and digital wallet for users to trade and store ether as well as write, manage, deploy and use smart contracts.