Yes, research is absolute KEY! You have to be the 0ne to read, feel and understand! Getting involved to see if there's any flaws and what not! I have always been strictly about bitcoin when first learning of digital currencies so, I always ignored the other coins as if no one can compare. But hey! We the ppl are coming up with ways unimaginable thx to '0pen-Source' Projects.
Burstc0in - https://web.burst-team.us/ 0ut of all the alt-c0ins I heard 0f f0r almost 3yrs now of dealing with Crypto, seems to be the m0st promising! You have to j0in the community and see their line of products and realize potential. I feel stronger about Burstc0in then I do Bitcoin now haha - Along the journey there will be ppl who disagree 0r disapprove 0r are simply n0t understanding the movement. Again, time will have to tell!
Burst makes it easy to obtain m0ney by simply allowing your free hard drive space to run. If someone already has space, it's considered free m0ney and if you do happen to g0 out to purchase a hard drive 0r two, you won't be spending a lot of money on the investment as you would with GPU/CPU mining needs ;)