Everyone is talking about cryptocurrencies nowadays. The neoteric currency is rampaging throughout the internet and taking the spotlight as the most discussed topic.
Bitcoin, created by Satoshi Nakamoto, is now an asset to many. Many other cryptocurrencies are surfacing on the blockchain as well. The competition to buy bitcoin is higher than buying other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin reigns supreme as the highest-value cryptocurrency. But other cryptocurrencies are also not falling much behind. Definitely, as an asset, high amount investors crave Bitcoin as one of their precious possessions.
The other cryptocurrencies are also great; some of them come with very significant traits and are worth investing in. In this article, I will tell you about the five most important cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. But first, let us know a little about cryptocurrencies.
What Is Cryptocurrency?
Secured by cryptography within the blockchains, cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies that are decentralized and have no physical form. The most noticeable trait of cryptocurrency is that it is free of any authoritative or governmental influences.
5 Most Important Cryptocurrencies
The world of cryptocurrencies is expanding itself every day. There will be more than 7000 cryptocurrencies in circulation in 2021. But all of them are not as valuable as the selected few. Here are the selected few cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin that are worth investing in.
Ethereum
Ethereum was launched in 2014. It holds the second position after bitcoin, and users often consider it an alternative to bitcoin. Although the initial motive for creating bitcoins was not to use it as a platform that supports a currency, rather to enable its users to create, monetize, publish, and use applications called Dapps. ETH is a native currency that allows payments on the Ethereum platform.
Ethereum is known for enabling smart contracts. In addition, this decentralized platform is free from any fraud, control, or interference from any other third parties. As a result, ether has gained the second spot, next to bitcoin, and stays that way in October 2021.
The creation of the Ethereum cryptocurrency, ETH, involves a proof-of-work system, and there is no limit to how much ETH can be produced. The current market cap of Ethereum is $359 billion.
Litecoin
Litecoin is also among the top cryptocurrencies circulating in the market. An MIT graduate and former Google engineer, Charlie Lee created and launched Litecoin in 2011.
Like many other cryptocurrencies, Litecoin is also decentralized and is based on an open-source global network. As proof of work, the currency uses ‘scrypt,’ which is decodable using consumer-grade CPUs. As a result, Litecoin is faster than Bitcoin in both block generation rate and transaction speed.
Many merchants, as well as developers, accept Litecoin. As of 2021 October, the market cap of Litecoin is $11.9 billion.
Cardano
Unlike bitcoin that uses PoW, Cardano uses Proof-of-Stake. It avoids the complicated calculation and the excessive amount of electricity use that bitcoin uses for its mining. Cardano’s use of Proof-of-Stake makes it a very sustainable and efficient network.
After the name of a 19th-century mathematician, Ada Lovelace, Cardano named its cryptocurrency ADA.
The main applications of Cardano are traceability and identity management. Identity management helps streamline the collection of data from different sources, while traceability helps audit the manufacturing path of a product.
The goal of Cardano is to build the network into a platform for decentralized applications or dApps. The platform is developing itself in five phases to allow variable smart contracts. The current market cap of Cardano in October 2021 is $72 billion.
Polkadot
The co-founder of Ethereum, Gavin Wood, also co-founded Polkadot. Polkadot is an interesting cryptocurrency that aims to deliver interoperability among different blockchains. It is a proof-of-stake cryptocurrency, and the coins of this blockchain are named dots.
Polkadot uses two blockchains, the main “relay network” and the other the “Parachains.” Transactions are permanent in the main relay network. The Parachains have varied sets of customizable options.
The current market cap of Polkadot is $25 million as of October 2021.
Bitcoin Cash
Created from a fork of Bitcoin in August 2017, bitcoin cash is a cryptocurrency with a higher number of transactions and improved scalability. However, the true intention behind the creation of Bitcoin cash was to accommodate larger-sized blocks that allow more transactions into a single block.
The market cap of bitcoin cash will be $12 billion in 2021 October.
Conclusion
The mentioned cryptocurrencies are the most uttered names among cryptocurrency fanatics. However, Ethereum, bitcoin, Polkadot, and other cryptocurrencies have different interesting facets that distinguish them.
Some other cryptocurrencies are worth mentioning. For example, Steller, Chainlink, Binance coin, Tether, and Moreno are other great examples.
Did you find these other cryptocurrencies interesting? Let me know. Also, you can use crypto arbitrage vip to legally double the amount of your bitcoins.
Author bio:
Ani Johnson is a passionate blogger. She loves to share her thoughts, ideas, and experiences with the world through blogging. Ani Johnson is associated with TheCBDMagazine, TheCasinoMagazine, Gossipment, TheParentsmagazine, ThePetsMagazine, TheDatingDiary, TheLegalGuides, TheSportsMag.
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