I think waves has not very good future because ethereum is the beast in this area and the only real opponent is NEO.
Ethereum "the beast"?
Ethereum is a great project but even Vitalik Buterin acknowledges that ETH has grown too big for what it can handle.
Waves isn't developed to compete with Ethereum, it's developed to create a complete token platform with almost every thinkable service available on it.
Think of Waves as an blockchain / token eco-system.
On what points is Waves better than Ethereum?
- Waves is close to the launch of Waves-NG, this will enable hundreds of transactoins per second, compared to the 13TX/s that Ethereum can handle. Waves-NG is already on testnet. Ethereum is working on "Plasma" but that can take another 1 or 2 years before it's released
- Waves-NG will make Waves in the top of high performance blockchains existing right now
- Waves-NG will make Waves the best platform for ICO's / coin distribution, where Ethereum struggles during ICO's and people needing to add a lot of gass to get their transactions through
- Waves has a better UX/UI for the wallet, compare it to Mist and you'll see what I mean
- transactions on the Waves Platform are cheap, 0.001 Waves, no "gass" needed. Ethereum contracts are very expensive to maintain in the future
- There are 100 Million Waves, it's a set amount, it's not growing like ETH
- Waves is LPoS and takes far less energy to run all the nodes than ETH
- Earning network fees is 2 clicks for Waves holders, you can lease to a node (pool), coins don't leave your wallet, unleasing is another 2 clicks
- creating a new token for your ICO or project is cheap, quick and very easy (3 clicks)
- Waves has a working, built-in DEX (DEcentralized eXchange) in the Lite Wallet, with a growing amount of gateways to trade other coins like ETH (!), LTC, Zcash, BTC, etc and the new upcoming release looks even better and has more features.
- Waves will have Sigma, a non-Turing complete script language that will be easier to audit, so we won't see a second "DAO" or "multisig" fail like we saw on Ethereum with their Solidity, that's too complex
I don't think you can compare Waves to Ethereum, Waves is meant to be a token platform with built in exchange and working on (self-)regulation, private equity, etc. It's not only the tech, it's the whole eco system around it.
And when comparing Waves to Ethereum and NEO, I think we should also mention Lisk, a great project, JavaScript, etc. Max Kordek is a very serious guy, secure in what he does.