There are more than a thousand cryptocurrencies in existence but today we’ll be looking at the top 5 cryptocurrency list worth looking at aside from bitcoin.
- Ethereum
In 2013, 19-year old programmer Vitalik Buterin issued a white paper about Ethereum, which was released two years later in 2015. Ethereum is different from Bitcoin in that it is more than a type of virtual currency. Ethereum is a platform that lets others utilize it in the creation of their own decentralized applications. Of all the items in this cryptocurrency list, Ethereum might be best one to check out. It’s underlying technology is sure to be in the forefront of innovation and it is second only to Bitcoin in terms of overall market capitalization.
- Ripple
Next on this cryptocurrency list is Ripple. Released in 2012, Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system that enables instant money transfers between two entities. Ripple, unlike Bitcoin, does not use blockchain technology. Instead its transactions are verified by multiple servers (owned by individuals or even banks) that are always comparing their records.
- Litecoin
Litecoin was the product of Charlie Lee, a former Google employee. Released in 2011, Lee aimed at solving some of the problems that bitcoin had such as its fees, transaction times and more. Litecoin is almost the same as bitcoin aside from certain things such as its proof-of-work algorithm. Bitcoin uses SHA-256 while Litecoin uses script.
- Dash
Originally known as Darkcoin, Dash was launched in 2014 with improved privacy compared to Bitcoin. Dash achieves this anonymity through the help of Masternodes which make transactions almost untraceable.
- IOTA
This final item on this cryptocurrency list is IOTA. IOTA uses a platform called tangle instead of the blockchain technology cryptocurrencies are paired with most of the time. With Tangle, in order for network participants to place a transaction, they must first validate two earlier transactions beforehand. In place of transaction fees, you only have to give up some of your device’s computing power into the network.