An Introduction to Altcoins

The time has come to talk about Altcoins. These are alternative
cryptocurrencies launched after the success of Bitcoin. In general, they project
themselves as better substitutes to Bitcoin.

The success of Bitcoin as the first peer-to-peer digital currency paved the way
for many to follow. Many altcoins are trying to target any perceived limitations that Bitcoin has and come up with advanced versions that address them.

Let’s have an in depth look at few of the altcoins in the market

1-Ethereum

Like Bitcoin, Ethereum operates on the blockchain technology. Unlike
Bitcoin, it is more than just a digital currency. Ethereum is a
decentralised blockchain platform that runs ‘smart contracts’. They are generally computer codes that can facilitate the exchange of money, content, property and shares to name a few.
Ethereum lets developers create any operations they want which, since
they run on the blockchain, run exactly as programmed without any
possibility of censorship, downtime, fraud, or third-party interference.
Ethereum is essentially the world’s first blockchain supercomputer
which is fuelled by a currency token called Ether. Besides being a
tradeable cryptocurrency, it is also used by app developers to pay for
services and transaction fees on the Ethereum network. The potential of
this technology has garnered much attention and with corporations and
individuals rushing to the platform, the value of Ether has skyrocketed.

2-Litecoin

Created by a former google engineer named Charlie Lee, Litecoin (LTC)
was launched in 2011 as an alternative to Bitcoin, which had by then
become extremely difficult to mine. Referred to as the ‘silver to Bitcoin’s
gold’, it was among the first cryptocurrencies to follow Bitcoin.
Based on a decentralised open source payment network, it uses ‘scrypt’
as a proof-of-work algorithm which can be decoded by consumer-grade
CPU’s.

The Litecoin network generates four times as many coins as its Bitcoin
counterpart and has a faster block generation rate which translates to
faster transaction confirmations.

3-Ripple

While all other cryptocurrencies primarily cater to individuals, Ripple is
geared mainly towards banks, payment providers and digital asset
exchanges. But there’s more that sets Ripple apart from other
cryptocurrencies.

The native Ripple cryptocurrency (XRP) doesn’t have an intrinsic value of
its own. Instead, it serves as a token to protect the network, called
RippleNet against spam. Ripple is essentially a real-time global
settlement network that offers instant, fail-safe, cross-border payments
with maximum transparency and minimum costs.

Ripple uses a consensus ledger as its method of confirmation which is a
structure that doesn’t require mining for tokens. This translates to
reduced usage of computing power and minimum network latency. The
downside is that XRP tokens are created and distributed at will by Ripple
themselves.

4-DASH

Dash is an open-source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that operates on a
decentralised master code network. Maintained by an autonomous self-
funded organisation, Dash has enjoyed immense popularity in the
cryptocurrency market since its launch in 2014.

Its success is attributed to its incorporation of certain improved features
vis-a-vis Bitcoin such as Instant Send (instant transactions), Private Send
(private activity history and balances) and decentralised governance.

5-Monero

Monero (XMR) is an open-source cryptocurrency that is secure, private,
and untraceable. While it operates on the blockchain technology, it
utilises extra privacy features that make their transactions completely
untraceable via the blockchain, unlike Bitcoin.

Monero makes use of a cryptographic technique called ‘ring signatures’
to mandatorily conceal all transaction amounts, origins, and
destinations. This means that transactions on the Monero blockchain
can never be associated with the real-world identity of a user, a major
boon in today’s world which is rife with cyber threats.

With the earth shattering success of Bitcoin, hundreds of alternative
cryptocurrencies came up. This generally helps in avoiding a monopoly for any one cryptocurrency and ultimately benefits the consumer.

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