Short Introduction to The Most Famous Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies rose to the forefront of the investing world years ago when Bitcoin was introduced. Since then, there have been thousands of altcoins developed, many of which enjoyed no success at all. However, there are some coins that still manage to be immensely popular — here’s the list of the most formidable titles in the crypto niche.
Bitcoin (BTC)
After all, Bitcoin was the father of cryptocurrency. What’s more, the trading price for Bitcoin still leaves all competition in the dust even after all these years. If you ask a friend who’s not invested in crypto, Bitcoin might very well be the only name they know about.
Bitcoin is said to be the new gold — there will only be 21 million of them in existence so their value won’t suffer from inflation like fiat. However, Bitcoin is a victim of heavy volatility, which makes many potential investors reluctant. In addition, there has been many criticisms of Bitcoin mining, which consumes a gigantic amount of energy and damages the environment.
Ethereum (ETH)
Many people don’t know this: it is Ether that is the currency. Ethereum is actually an open-source network powered by Ether. Anyone can program and develop their own creation on Ethereum, whether it be a decentralized app or an NFT.
Many blockchain games like Emer Sword or Axie Infinity are built on top of the Ethereum blockchain and Ethereum also enables smart contracts, which becomes a big part of decentralized finance (DeFi).
Ethereum is transitioning into Ethereum 2.0, implementing the proof-of-stake system to decrease the amount of energy needed to make new blocks.
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Dogecoin was introduced as a joke in 2013 to, in some ways, make fun of cryptocurrencies themselves. Initially, the value of Dogecoin was pretty unimpressive but in April 2021, after Elon Musk endorsed the coin on his Twitter, Dogecoin experienced a 800% rise in 24 hours, capping it at $0.07.
But it didn’t stop there, just a month later Dogecoin reached $0.5, achieving a 20,000% rise in one year. Every year, there are 5 new billion coins put into circulation with no theoretical supply limit, which makes Dogecoin susceptible to inflation.
Crazy numbers aside, Dogecoin remains a very controversial cryptocurrency since many claim it’s an impractical coin and a joke.
Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin is a hard fork of Bitcoin. The team behind Litecoin wanted to improve the speed of transactions while still keeping a technical structure identical to Bitcoin. Litecoin has a maximum supply of 84 million and its market cap is one of the highest in the world.
Besides, Litecoin uses scrypt in its proof-of-work algorithm. This causes the mining of Litecoin to be more complicated, which can make the case for it being a safer crypto than Bitcoin.
Tether (USDT)
Welcome to the world of ‘stablecoins’. This term refers to cryptocurrencies that are backed by other kinds of assets, whether it be crypto, fiat or commodities like gold. The point of stablecoins is to have the decentralization, security and other advantageous characteristics of crypto yet do away with its volatile nature.
In the case of Tether specifically, each USDt is pegged to 1 US dollar so that’s the anchor of Tether’s nonvolatile value. Tether also publishes daily records of their bank balances and their reserve pool.
Polkadot (DOT)
Polkadot is founded by one of Ethereum’s founders, Gavin Wood. Polkadot enables customized side blockchains to connect with the main Polkadot blockchain, meaning they can benefit from the security of Polkadot. In contrast, blockchains created on Ethereum have to only depend on itself, which can be more vulnerable to attacks.
Some notable projects developed on the Polkadot network are Kusama, Acala, ChainX, Edgeware, Chainlink…
