Bitcoin Isn’t the Only Cryptocurrency Out There: 7 Alternatives You Should Know About
Friday, November 24, 2017, 6:00 AM | Leave Comment
Upon hearing the word “cryptocurrency” people instantly think of Bitcoin, and who can blame them?
Bitcoin was the currency that ushered in the entire wave of digital currencies based on a decentralized network.
These so-called altcoins have reached the point of being more cost-efficient, since the price of a Bitcoin unit is at an all-time high.
Currently, there are more than 700 alternative cryptocurrencies out there and we have chosen a couple of the easier to mine and more profitable alternatives you could consider for investment.
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Zcash (ZEC)
Like Bitcoin, Zcash is based on a decentralized blockchain, but it has a few crucial differences. Zcash provides anonymity for the parties involved and transaction amounts.
For security reasons, all transactions are recorded and published, but some details like the amount, the sender and the recipient remain private.
There is also a choice of shielded transactions where the content is encrypted with advanced techniques. The current price of a Zcash unit is $245.51, which makes it much cheaper than a Bitcoin unit.
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Litecoin (LTC)
Unlinke Zcash, which was launched a year ago, Litecoin was launched in 2011, and it was one of the first cryptocurrencies that followed Bitcoin.
It is based on the model of Bitcoin, but it has a faster block generation rate and it uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme.
The coin limit is 84 million, whilst with Bitcoin that limit is 21 million. Even though it is often seen as inferior to Bitcoin, Litecoin units are more easily accessible and the transaction confirmation is much faster.
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Dash
Dash, otherwise known as Darkcoin, is similar to Bitecoin, but it is much more secretive.
If you want to buy or sell Dash, you’ll be able to do it with a certain degree of anonymity, which is a feature that definitely attracts a lot of users.
Besides enhanced financial privacy, Dash also solved some of Bitcoin’s other problems, such as the speed of transactions, and the governance and funding system, which is more decentralized with Dash.
Finally, transaction fees are very low, considerably lower than services like PayPal or Western Union.
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Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum is much more than just a decentralized software platform. It is also a programming language running on a blockchain which helps developers with building and publishing distributed applications.
Its applications run on ether, a platform-specific cryptographic token. Besides being traded as digital currency, ether is also used inside Ethereum to monetize work and run applications.
The market capitalization of Ethereum is $4.46 billion, second only to Bitcoin.
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Monero (XMR)
Monero stands out among other cryptocurrencies for its intractability. The development of this digital currency is community driven and donation-based, and it has caused great interest among cryptography enthusiasts.
Monero is highly focused on scalability and decentralization and it enables complete privacy thanks to a special technique called “ring signatures”, which includes showing a group of valid-looking cryptographic signatures to hide the real one. The price of a Monero unit is around $100.
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Ripple (XRP)
The best thing about Ripple is that it enables real-time cross-border payments and at very low costs.
It is a global settlement network which is differs from Bitcoin and other altcoins in its method of confirmation, because it doesn’t need mining. Because of that, it requires less computer power and minimizes network latency.
The market capitalization of Ripple is currently more than $8 million.
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NEO
Formerly known as Antshares, this digital currency was introduced back in 2014 and it represents the first open source blockchain originating in China.
It is based on technologies such as digital certificates, P2P networking, dBFT consensus, cross-chain interoperability and Superconducting Transactions.
With a current unit price of around $26 and the market capitalization of $1,734,901,871.56, NEO is an interesting investment option worth considering.
Although Bitcoin is still at the peak of its popularity, it is obvious that its sky-high price can be a major turnoff for many users who want to get into the cryptocurrency world of investment. Fortunately, these alternatives are not at all bad, and some of them even have a leg up on Bitcoin.
Throw us a like at Facebook.com/doable.financeAuthor BIO
Carolin Petterson is a businesswoman and content marketer with years of experience under her belt. She has had the opportunity to contribute to a number of popular business and marketing websites. Twitter, Facebook
