Bitcoin is not the only trendsetter leading in the wave of cryptocurrencies that are built as decentralized network and allow peer-to-peer transactions. But bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency that has set a standard for cryptocurrencies and is continuing to inspire the growing crypto space. For some people, the bitcoin currency means the entire crypto space, but in reality, there are thousands of cryptocurrencies that exist in the crypto market. So before we move to learn about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, let us first know what cryptocurrencies are.
A cryptocurrency is a digital form of money that is in the form of virtual tokens or coins. A large number of cryptocurrencies remain intangible, whereas there are only a few cryptocurrencies that have endeavoured in the physical world. The term cryptocurrency isn’t complicated to understand as the word “crypto” in cryptocurrencies indicates the cryptography techniques that allow the creation and processing of crypto coins and their transactions on a decentralized network. The most important feature of cryptocurrencies or cryptography is that it is committed to decentralization. Cryptocurrencies are computer code developed by developers in teams with a built-in mechanism for their processing and issuance. bitcoin payment helps you know the computer code of cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin is the first and largest cryptocurrency developed in the crypto space by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. It is created as a decentralized currency that follows a peer-to-peer network and allows easy, fast and low-cost transactions. Here, in this article, we will examine cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin in the forthcoming paragraphs.
Ethereum
The cryptocurrency that was developed after bitcoin was Ethereum. It is the first alternative to bitcoin, which is a decentralized platform that facilitates the features of decentralized applications and smart contracts. These features are built to run on a decentralized network to run without any fraud or control of a third party. The main motive of Ethereum is to develop a decentralized suite of all the financial products which anyone across the world can use despite their faith or nationality.
Ethereum applications run on their own platform known as Ether. Unlike bitcoin, Ethereum has its own platform-specific token. In terms of market capitalization, Ether is the second-largest cryptocurrency.
Cardano
Cardano is another famous cryptocurrency that engineers developed, cryptography experts and mathematicians based on their research. The entire project of Cardano was founded by Charles Hoskinson, an initial member of Ethereum. Due to few disagreements in the group at the time of developing Ethereum, he left and started creating Cardano with other members. The entire team worked hard on making the blockchain by doing extensive research based on reviews of developers and experiments. It is said that Cardano is the result of extensive research.
Litecoin
Litecoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies that was released in 2011. This cryptocurrency has followed the footsteps of the world’s largest cryptocurrency, bitcoin and even recognized as “silver to bitcoin’s gold.” Litecoin was developed by Charlie Lee as an open-source payment network that is decentralized and allow peer-to-peer transactions. This payment network isn’t controlled or governed by the government or banks, and it uses “script” to define the proof of work.
Although this cryptocurrency has followed the footsteps of bitcoin, the developer has tried to reduce the negative factors by enabling the fast block generation rate, which will increase the transaction confirmation time. According to its market capitalization, Litecoin is the sixth-largest digital currency across the world.
Polkadot
Polkadot is a unique cryptocurrency based on proof of stake, which focuses on delivering interoperability amid all other existing blockchains. The protocol of Polkadot is designed in a way to connect both permissionless and permissioned oracles and blockchains to facilitate all the systems to work collectively. In Polkadot, the developers worked on creating their blockchain by using the security of the already existing Polkadot’s chain.
This cryptocurrency was developed by Gavin Wood, who was once the core founder of Ethereum but switched to this cryptocurrency. As of 2021, the market capitalization of Polkadot is $11.2 billion.
To put it in a nutshell, all cryptocurrencies are developed with different motives and features. The above-mentioned cryptocurrencies are great alternatives to Bitcoin, but still, Bitcoin remains the most prominent cryptocurrency.
