Bitcoin — the first and most well-known cryptocurrency — has been around for over a decade as we speak. However, since its inception, many other digital currencies have also emerged in its wake. Often being referred to as altcoins, these Bitcoin alternatives have different features and use cases, making them attractive to different types of investors and users.
Now, whether you’re a seasoned cryptocurrency investor or merely starting to explore the world of digital currencies, it’s essential to be aware of the many available Bitcoin alternatives. In this article, we’ll look at 15 of the most promising altcoins you should know about. From payment protocols to decentralized platforms, these cryptocurrencies could very well be (or will potentially be) shaping the future of the digital economy and may be worth considering for your investment portfolio or daily use.
1. Ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) — unlike Bitcoin (that’s just a currency) — is a decentralized, blockchain app platform that features Smart Contracts, DAOs, DApps, etc. Ether is the crypto-fuel for Ethereum, i.e., the token needed to use this platform.
In short, you can understand it as the world’s first blockchain supercomputer, which can run apps and services built on blockchain.
Maximum supply: 18 million/year.
More:
- 7 Secure Ethereum Wallets to Start With
- Top 10 Ethereum Exchanges
2. Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is the first hard-forked cryptocurrency of Bitcoin, and you can also say it’s the brother coin of Bitcoin. Launched on the 1st August 2017, this currency was born as a result of a civil war among the Bitcoin community.
The reason of the conflict was the proposition of two solutions for the common problem of improving the efficiency of the Bitcoin network.
Maximum supply: 21 million, same as Bitcoin.
3. Ripple
Ripple (XRP) is a cross-border payment platform for financial institutions, including banks, payment providers, and digital asset exchanges. Unlike most of the other cryptocurrencies that run away from centralized institutions like banks, Ripple has a different motive to help banks and similar organizations to send money quickly, cheaply, and certainly.
Maximum supply: 100 billion in total.
4. Litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) is a digital currency that was born out of Bitcoin’s own shortcomings. Its network generates 4x more coins than the Bitcoin network, claims to confirm transactions faster, and utilizes scrypt as a proof-of-work algorithm. Using the script, Litecoin tries to discourage mining using GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs.
Maximum supply: 84 million (4x Bitcoin’s)
5. Dash
Dash (DASH) an open-source P2P cryptocurrency, brands itself as the “Digital Cash”. It’s maintained by a self-funded, autonomous organization. It’s built with various additional features to that of Bitcoin, Litecoin and alikes including InstantSend (instant transactions), PrivateSend (private transactions), and DGBB (decentralized governance).
Maximum supply: 18.9 million, a little lesser than Bitcoin.
6. Ethereum Classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) was born out of Ethereum as Bitcoin Cash was born out of Bitcoin — due to a civil war among its initial community. Being a hard fork of Ethereum, it’s also a decentralized software platform featuring Smart Contracts, DApps, DAOs, etc. And similarly, a crypto-fuel, i.e., a token named ‘Classic Ether,’ is required to use the platform.
Maximum supply: 210 million, hard cap, unlike Ethereum.
Learn more about Ethereum Classic.
7. BitConnect
BitConnect (BCC) is just a currency like Bitcoin and Litecoin with some differences from Bitcoin, including scrypt proof-of-work algorithm and support for proof-of-stake that gives incentive to stakeholders. Additionally, I’m quite amazed that BCC can be exchanged directly between its community members without a central crypto asset exchange.
Maximum supply: 28 million, 33% more than Bitcoin.
8. Zcash
Zcash (ZEC) is built to secure your payment history which is exposed by other cryptocurrencies — even the first known. Zcash somewhat extends Bitcoin, and that being said, it has two types of addresses — transparent (work just like Bitcoin’s) and private (the new addition). It also features shielded transaction which hides sender, receiver and amount.
Maximum supply: 21 million, same as Bitcoin.
9. Monero
Monero (XMR) advertises itself as the ‘Private Digital Currency’ that doesn’t trade off privacy for the sake of security. It’s just a blockchain-based currency like Bitcoin, but packs in extra privacy features as offered by secure currencies like Dash and Zcash. Being a privacy-centric technology, Monero transactions aren’t traceable via the blockchain unlike Bitcoin.
Maximum supply: Around 18.4 million in total.
Related: How to Mine Monero (XMR) On Your PC
10. NEO
NEO (NEO), formerly Antshares, is a smart-economy software platform like Ethereum which even supports Smart Contracts. Unlike Ethereum, which only supports Solidity for writing programs on its platform, NEO, also known as ‘Chinese Ethereum’, supports popular languages. Also, NEO supports an identity protocol, unlike other smart contract-based coins.
Maximum supply: 100 million, about 5x lesser than Bitcoin.
11. BitShares
BitShares (BTS) is an Ethereum-like cryptocurrency that features Smart Contracts, unlike Bitcoin. However, it offers much more features than just smart contracts, e.g., BitAssets, DEX (Decentralized Exchange) like BitConnect, etc. BitAssets are smart currencies, e.g., BitUSD is backed by a value of 1 USD, i.e., it’s a digital coin for the value of a real commodity.
Maximum supply: 3.7 billion, around 176x more than Bitcoin.
12. Namecoin
Namecoin (NMC) is a decentralized, blockchain-based domain registrar (like GoDaddy) that assigns you names under the uncensored ‘.bit’ top-level domain. For example, if you register a domain name aksinghnet with Namecoin, then you’ll receive a domain aksinghnet.bit, which can be looked up and browsed using its own wallet software only.
Maximum supply: 21 million in total.
13. Siacoin
Sia (SC) is a decentralized cloud storage platform unlike centralized cloud storage platforms such as Google Drive and Dropbox. It’s built upon the blockchain technology and is not just a currency unlike Bitcoin and Litecoin. And yes, you do need a token or coin named Siacoin to use its cloud storage in the same way as you need Ether to use Ethereum platform.
Maximum supply: Unlimited.
14. Komodo
Komodo (KMD) is a brand-new cryptocurrency packed with best features of other coins. It offers smart contracts, decentralized exchange, etc. It’s built with Zcash’s features, thus, Komodo supports transparent as well as private addresses and anonymous transactions. Also, it uses delayed proof-of-work (dPoW) and not PoW or PoS to secure the network.
Maximum supply: 200 million in total.
15. Steem
Steem (STEEM), unlike others in this list, is a social media platform that encourages people to share interesting content and gets rewarded. That means you earn this cryptocurrency by just posting or curating content and commenting on others’ posts. As you must have guessed by now, Steem is a totally different cryptocurrency than Bitcoin, Ethereum and alikes.
Maximum supply: Unlimited.
