Five Types of Cryptocurrencies Other Than Bitcoin

Only ten years ago, little was known about cryptocurrencies. However, in the last couple of years, the market knowledge and the acceptance of the ideas of cryptocurrencies have dramatically increased. This sudden change is attributed to the popularity of the digital currency known as Bitcoin.

Essentially, Bitcoin was first mined in 2009. Since then, it has continued to evolve and is now known as the most popular cryptocurrency globally. In terms of market capitalization, Bitcoin has the highest-valued asset amongst all cryptocurrencies. Having a high market capitalization shows reduced risks for users. Thus, Bitcoin is thought by many to be the best choice for cryptocurrency investments.

Due to Bitcoin’s extreme popularity, a lot of other cryptocurrencies, known as “altcoins”, emerged. Below are just some of the most popular cryptocurrencies at present, to which some experts believe have the potential to dethrone Bitcoin in the long run. 

Ethereum

Ethereum was launched in 2015 as a software platform that allows Smart Contracts and Distributed Applications (DApps) to work without numerous interferences from different parties. Just like Bitcoin, Ethereum’s Ether is probably one of the most popular cryptocurrencies to date. Ether is also being managed by the principles of distributed ledgers and cryptography. However, the two are different in terms of their use–Bitcoin is a payment alternative while Ethereum is more on the enabling of peer-to-peer contracts and applications. 

Litecoin

 Launched in 2011, Litecoin is based on an open-source payment network that is not being managed by any central authority. As compared with Bitcoin, transactions in Litecoin are way faster (Litecoin transaction processes only take 2.5 minutes). Another advantage is that Litecoin’s algorithms are faster and a lot easier to decode and solve. 

Ripple

The next cryptocurrency, Ripple prides itself in processing transactions in as fast as four seconds (Ripple’s digital coins are known as XRP). For comparison, Bitcoin takes about 10 minutes to an hour while Ethereum takes about two minutes to do them. NOTE: old currencies normally take a few days to process. Ripple does this by creating platforms for banks to easily send money and convert them in different currencies. Aside from this, Ripple’s XRP is very cost-effective as it can allow users to send money without high transaction fees. 

Dash (DASH)

 Formerly called as Darkcoin (in 2014), Dash (2015) is an altcoin that was based from the protocol of Bitcoin. What’s interesting about this cryptocurrency is that its transactions are almost anonymous as they are worked on a decentralized master code network that does it so.  

Zcash

 Zcash is an open-source and decentralized cryptocurrency that is focused on privacy and selective transparency. In this case, while the transaction details are recorded on a blockchain, information about the sender and recipient, and the amount of money is not disclosed. Nevertheless, Zcash can still allow its users to open specific transaction data so that the cryptocurrency can be used in legal transactions. 

At present, there are already more than 1,600 cryptocurrencies in the market (and in fact, the number is still growing). And with such an enormous number to choose from, it would entail extensive research to know which one is the best for you. But then again, choosing which cryptocurrency to invest in is just the first step. If you want to consider investing in these cryptocurrencies, it would be helpful to think of them as the business they deserve to be.