Digital coins are revolutionizing the way we trade today. Since Satoshi Nakamoto unveiled his cryptocurrency in 2008, we have witnessed the creation of different companies that have created digital coins. Using its public accounts book, dozens of promising digital coins have emerged. However, only a select group of these have proven to be worthy contenders for bitcoin.
The digital coins, bitcoin and altcoins that have been created, have brought a new panorama to the global economy. They allow us to carry out one-to-one transactions, without the need for third parties conditioning. Bitcoin introduced the blockchain, but other developers have already proposed and applied improvements on the Nakamoto concept. Some currencies have focused on instant transactions, such as Ripple and Litecoin. Others have done the same for privacy. Even currencies like Zcash have even managed to have private and untraceable transactions. Each altcoin has its strengths and weaknesses. Probably the future brings us more features or better currencies, but for now, these coins are among the top 10 of the digital coins. Things could change just by tossing a coin.
As of today, the following list is top 10 altcoins in CoinMarketCap.
Ethereum
J.P Morgan Chase, Microsoft and Intel partnered to create the biggest rival in circulation for bitcoin today: Ethereum. The main purpose of this initiative was to schedule binding agreements within the network of block chains as such. This became the popular feature of smart contracts.
It should be noted that Ethereum is not just a coin. It is a platform of block chains which is driven by the Ether cryptocurrency. The New York Times described the technology as "a shared computer which is managed by the network of users and in which resources are distributed and paid for with Ether."
Ripple
Ripple attracted a lot of venture capital during its creation. The Google-backed altcoin company managed to collect beyond USD 50 million of banking institutions, even raising USD 90 million in total. Ripple is unique because it allows you to process any unit with value, from conventional currencies to travel miles.
"Ripple provides solutions for payment settlements and financial services globally to enable the world to trade and redeem value units as if it were exchanging information, which creates an Internet of Value (IoV). Ripple's solutions lower the total costs of terminating deals by allowing banks to directly and instantly process any deal, "says the company's mission on its official website.
Although at first, it was only a medium contender, recently it has gained much presence in the market of the cryptocurrencies. In fact, Ripple experienced a 100% increase in price from overnight to late March.
Litecoin
Charles Lee, a former engineer at Google, created this altcoin as a way to create something better than Bitcoin. In particular, the speed to generate new blocks was dramatically improved. Transactions are much easier. By its very quality, this speed makes Litecoin's blockchain larger and more prone to produce orphaned blocks.
Dash
Dash, whose name is a combination of the words "digital" and "cash", is the cash of the internet. Dash is fast. Your transactions are instantaneous. "Your time is valuable. Payments made with InstantSend are confirmed in less than a second, "says Dash. By comparison, bitcoin payments can take up to an hour to process.
Mineral with GPU / CPU is no longer profitable. To be able to mine it, you need specific hardware, computers known as ASIC to complete Dash algorithms.
NEM
NEM is written in Java; developed from a code separate and completely different from that of Bitcoin. It also has other differences in how it works compared to bitcoin. With NEM, "harvesting" is not mined. In principle, it is the same as mining in bitcoin, only that instead of benefiting a person from a block, they benefit several, albeit in smaller quantities.
NEM introduced the "proof-of-importance" algorithm to the account book. Which places the money information and the number of transactions performed by a user.
NEM has had sustained and rapid growth in value since the beginning of 2017.
Ethereum Classic
A parallel platform of Ethereum, which contains a significant number of users and a market capitalization of over USD 600 million.
Why are there two versions of the same platform?
The Ethereum community was divided by disagreement over how a technically legal theft should be handled. Most users wanted to change the code to get the funds back. A minority believed that the Ethereum code should not be altered by third parties. Even in cases where users misused the feature of intelligent contracts to deceive others, the chain of blocks had to remain "immutable." For this reason, this minority created the "classical" version of Ethereum, which is still standing today in day.
Monero
Monero is aimed at those who wish to have more anonymity in networks. The Cryptocurrency allows you to "send and receive funds without your transactions being visible in the blockchain." Transactions are impossible to track due to the ring signatures characteristics of Monero. Unfortunately, because of this, Monero is widely used in darknets and criminal organizations.
Zcash
Just like Monero, Zcash offers more privacy to its users. However, unlike Monero, transactions in Zcash are not completely private but protected. Which means that the details of the transaction, such as the users and the amount exchanged, are hidden. Zcash accomplishes this by using a concept called "zero-knowledge" that allows the parties to trade and exchange their funds without revealing the identity of each other.
Decred
Decred's main objective is "community input, transparent management and financing and sustainable development." The coin combines proof-of-work and proof-of-stake mining algorithms to ensure that a minority of users do not take majority ownership of the funds and that decisions are made by community agreements rather than by a small group of developers or investors.
PIVX
PIVX stands for "Private Instant Verified Transactions". Another open-source and decentralized blockchain currency. Like Zcash and Monero, PIVX boasts more security and privacy.
"We believe that you have the right to trade privately and securely, without interference and pressure from the governmental influences, spies and individuals or wicked movements," says PIVX.
PIVX is very volatile, the past month of March experienced great peaks in a volume of commerce and in its quotation. As well as money, its emphasis on privacy makes it very valuable for criminal organizations.