Is there Anything Besides BitCoin?

What other types of cryptocurrencies are there?

In common language, cryptocurrency and Bitcoin have turned into synonyms. But those who are more versed in the crypto world know that Bitcoin is only the most famous of a large and rising bunch of cryptocoins.

A cryptocurrency can be created by anyone with a computer and enough technical knowledge to do it, therefore there are hundreds of options in the market.

Alternative cryptocurrencies are a great way to start investing in the crypto world, as Bitcoins are quite expensive and there are too many wolves in the pack to try to get in easily. Alternative cryptocurrencies are cheaper, some may even cost cents; so, if you know how to place your bets, you can win a lot of money. That’s why we bring you this article explaining some of the best-known alternative cryptocurrencies in the market

Bitcoin Cash (BCC)

Bitcoin’s twin was created by a group of members of the Bitcoin community that disagreed with the coin’s scalability and the way to handle its growth.

Bitcoin uses a PoW (Proof of Work) method to confirm a transaction on the network and add them to the blockchain. After this, miners use their computers to solve algorithms and pass the data into a block until it’s solved. After this, the block is inserted into the blockchain.

The max size of a Bitcoin blockchain block is 1MB, the quantity of transactions is limited. Therefore, people who submitted transactions started waiting longer for the confirmation.

The solution seems simple: increase the block size. But there are many technical pros and cons we won’t discuss that created a split in the Bitcoin community and led to the creation of Bitcoin cash.

What’s the key difference? Simple: BCC block size limit is 8 MB, opposed to Bitcoin’s 1 MB limit which leads to faster confirmation time. It can be stored in digital and physical hardware wallets protected by private keys as other cryptocurrencies.

Litecoin

If BCC is Bitcoin’s twin, Litecoin is its little brother. It is a P2P cryptocurrency created in 2011 that uses the blockchain in the same way that Bitcoin does, to keep a public record of transactions.

But Litecoin has three main differences: Speed, amount of coins and mining.

First, let’s talk about speed. Litecoin uses the same open-source coding of Bitcoin, but adds some modifications, mainly, it creates block four times faster than bitcoin, allowing Litecoin to process and confirm transactions faster than Bitcoin and to process a higher amount of transactions at the same time.

Also, the number of coins available is different. Bitcoin has a limit of 21 million coins, and Litecoin limit is 84 million. Mining is a significant difference. Without getting in too many technical details, Litecoin and Bitcoin us  different hashing algorithms, which means you need different hardware to produce Litecoin.

Peercoin

One of the issues of the cryptocurrency network is the incredible amount of power needed to support it. Peercoin was created in 2013 to alleviate this problem through a hybrid mining approach.

Mining bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies is a really lucrative activity, but it also affects the electrical consumption greatly. As for the past year, the estimated global bitcoin mining costs were over a billion dollars a year and their electrical consumption could power around two million homes.

Peercoin main difference is that it does not use the Proof-Of-Work mechanism that other cryptocurrencies use. It uses Proof-Of-Stake, which allows transactions to be authenticated without needing so much electrical power in a process called minting, rather than mining.

Other differences between Peercoin and Bitcoins are:

– Peercoin does not have a coin cap, offset by 1 % inflation per year and amplified minting difficulty.

– The average time between block generation is around 7 minutes, in comparison to the 10 minutes needed to generate a new block from the bitcoin network.

Ethereum

Ethereum is quite similar to Bitcoin, is a blockchain with its own cryptocoin, Ether and is a P2P network. But its purpose is quite different as it is intended to be a global computer.

No, that’s not science fiction. Let’s explain it in a plain way. Bitcoin is designed to store a ledger of transactions, a record book. Ethereum blockchain is created to store many different types of data that can be logged on and used by computers through dapps, or decentralized apps to improve the personal info storage and financial security.

So, Ethereum and Bitcoin share common uses and bases but differ in the purpose. Ethereum is like a reloaded Bitcoin. Rather than just being a storage system, it includes smart contract features to process payments and such. This application automates contracts, so they execute when both parties agree. Therefore, block generation is faster, as transactions are usually set in seconds.

Also, Ethereum goes further. Its network allows the creation of cryptocurrencies distributed in different blockchains that may be public or private. This allows organizations and businesses to represent shares or as a way to prove authorization credential.

There are many types of cryptocurrencies, and you can invest in any of them or use them instead of cash, but do your homework before you start.