I'm right with you, Qtum looks VERY interesting.
From the whitepaper;
"One of the primary goals of Qtum is to build the first UTXO-based smartcontract
system with a proof-of-stake consensus model."
"Furthermore, Qtum integrates
the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) together with the Bitcoin unspent transaction
output protocol. Note that the Qtum EVM constantly remains backwards
compatible. Additionally, the Qtum-framework recognizes that smart-contract
lifecycle management is important for supporting proper security vetting of collaborating
parties. To support Qtum lifecycle management, the current lingua
franca Solidity lacks suitability. Consequently, the emerging Qtum-framework
requires a novel smart-contract language with enhanced utility."
If they can pull this off, sounds very interesting indeed.