Bitcoin has been around since 2009, and it’s safe to say that the world has changed quite a bit since then. While Bitcoin was once the king of cryptocurrencies, its share of the market has dropped considerably in recent years, with an influx of other cryptocurrencies entering the market and providing consumers with new options. For more information about Crypto and Bitcoin, you may visit bitprime-gold.com.
Today, we’re going to take a look at five cryptocurrencies that have become particularly popular this year, and what sets them apart from Bitcoin. Read on to know further!
1 . Ethereum
If you are into crypto investment, at some point in time, you may probably have heard of Ethereum. This cryptocurrency allows developers to create decentralized applications (known as DApps). These apps are created without any chance of fraud or censorship.
The best part is that they can be trusted because they are transparent and built on smart contracts. An example of a popular DApp would be Golem, which allows users to rent out their computing power and make money by sharing it with others. While there’s no telling what could happen with Ethereum in 2018, it’s certainly something worth paying attention to since it has more than tripled since July 1st.
- Litecoin
Litecoin was created as a fork of Bitcoin, so it uses a very similar blockchain; though there are few fundamental differences. Most notably, Litecoin’s block generation time is 2.5 minutes—about four times faster than Bitcoin’s 10 minutes—and its maximum supply is set at 84 million tokens. This means no more than $84 million worth of Litecoins can ever be in circulation at any given time.
- Dash
Called Darkcoin until March 2015, Dash has since seen a meteoric rise in both price and interest from investors. The cryptocurrency markets are big on names that begin with D — see Dogecoin, for example — and although Dash’s name isn’t nearly as clever, its technology certainly is.
Formerly known as XCoin and Darkcoin, Dash makes use of a two-tier architecture designed to make transactions near-instant and completely anonymous. The second tier consists of so-called Masternodes (the equivalent of decentralized miners) which perform anonymizing functions like mixing funds between users to hide their origin.
- NEM
NEM, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency was first launched on March 31, 2015. NEM was built using its code base. The goal of NEM is to be a faster and more scalable version of Bitcoin.
As of 2017, NEM’s market capitalization was US$1.7 billion, and more than US$2.5 billion worth of XEM has been traded in just one day (Mar 31, 2017). At its peak on January 4, 2018, $550 million worth of XEM was traded in 24 hours. The highest recorded price for one XEM was $1.34 (Feb 18). This is still far from Bitcoin’s record high price of $20,000 per BTC set in December 2017.
- Ripple
Next comes Ripple in the list; this cryptocurrency allows users to do anything with any type of currency or cryptocurrency through their platform. Ripple, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, is one of those currencies which are created using computer algorithms. Since Ripple’s launch, it has been adopted by major banks around the world including Santander and UBS.
Ripple is a cryptocurrency platform that works to convert and transfer different currencies on its network. It also allows users to send money quickly, and in a secure manner. Ripple makes it easier for banks and other financial institutions to be able to work with cryptocurrency, giving them more legitimacy within crypto communities.
Conclusion
Bitcoin started a cryptocurrency revolution that isn’t slowing down anytime soon. However, its share of crypto markets is shrinking at an unprecedented rate. The top five cryptocurrencies are now valued higher than bitcoin’s market cap (and growing), leaving analysts to question if bitcoin is going to sink or swim as new cryptos continue to emerge.
If Bitcoin loses its lead, it won’t be much longer before we see people calling it outdated. For bitcoin to stay ahead of more nimble competitors, they need fresh ideas and improvements in scalability and mining costs – both of which could reshape its business model altogether.
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