I thought about investing in Lisk but passed, got like 1300 via bounties and dumped inmediately, it was more than half btc! I'm also watching, the price seems to have found its bottom at 40k, the problem is that there's not much to show for and I don't really think their team and devs are on par with Ethereum. However, I'm sure it will pump eventually, at the very least x2, x3 from here...
There are some things I like about Lisk (they are serious and they do it professional as far as I can see and are very hard workers, even if M. Kordek is very young) but I also have some concerns. I'm not sure about the whole idea in general. At one hand I like the sidechain-concept, on the other hand I'm not so sure that there will be much App-Development and until now I don't fully understand if that is really decentralized concept for App's or not and not even why App's necessarily should be. Some certainly, others maybe not. I really don't know if it's a idea that will be big or is already doomed - but that's maybe more because of my own lack of knowledge.
Safe is in my opinion: They won't give up any time soon. They will do their best and that's a reason why I think Lisk is something worth to watch.
I got some Antshares for the exact same reasons you mentioned. I think it does have some long term potential too since anything attached to China could be huge for obvious reasons. This and their team and connections is what sold me. Don't really know much else.
I was looking since months for a good decentralized - exchange - concept and ANS was the first one that convinced me because of the skilled team and it's obvious that they didn't start with it just 2 weeks before the ICO but years before. I believe it's a good concept and I also like their eco-design (ANS as shares and fixed supply plus ANC as a coin like Gas which will be paid out to ANS-holders) and I know that they are taken seriously in China. What I'm unsure about is the blockchain itself. I believe to see the risk that it could be pretty much centralized or centralize over time since it's about voting the servers in and I believe that could be corrupted with voting-power.
Since I found Lykke I really prefer this concept, because it does make sense to keep it semi-decentralized or semi-centralized built on the Bitcoin-blockchain. It's more effective with the matching engine and the Bitcoin-Blockchain is more secure at the same time. At least Bitcoin is not easy to corrupt.
What do you think about Iconomi, I personally feel they should take a look at Lykke if they really want to make some good investments for their upcoming funds
I have no clue about Iconomi. I looked into it but I'm really unsure. One thing is: It's an Ethereum-coin and I have a lot of doubts about Ethereum in general. TheDAO was very revealing about many aspects, from rushed out tech combined with weaknesses of Ethereum itself to an idealistic concept on one side, which was funded and hyped up by Ethereum-guys itself on the other, with the goal to fund other Ethereum-projects ...and right after the hack they bailed it out and so on. Of course, Iconomi is not theDAO but just the way they praise it with "high profits" and so on is a style I don't like.
It is something I will watch, but I won't buy into their ICO.