Cryptocurrency is more than Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies are slowly finding themselves as mainstay news in the business pages. You would probably be most familiar with Bitcoin.

However, there are many other emerging cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin. This includes Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Dash, Golem, Monero and Zcash. These companies can sell new tokens of their cryptocurrency through initial coin offerings.

Here we discuss more about these other cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum

The most valuable cryptocurrency next to Bitcoin is Ethereum or more specifically its bi-product which is a token called Ether to do transactions. Ether appreciates and depreciates while Ethereum’s value is driven primarily by its utility and smart contracts.

Ethereum taps Blockchain technology which allows developers to make software applications that can be activated in the cloud without any interference or manipulation. It uses smart contracts that remove any possibility of censorship, fraud or any third party interference and even downtime. Application developers pay using ether for transaction fees and services used on the Ethereum network.

Zcash

Another cryptocurrency on the rise is Zcash which recently announced its partnership with investment banking giant, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Zcash claims to be the first open, permission-less cryptocurrency that fully protects the privacy of the transactions of its users using its zero-knowledge cryptography called proofs to guarantee the validity of the transactions without the need to reveal additional information about the transactions. This boosts the safety of the transactions.

Ripple

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San Francisco based Ripple is the 4^th world’s most valuable cryptocurrency with a market capitalisation of just under $7 billion. The name of Ripple’s native tokens is XRP, and this is the currency used to pay for settlements done using Ripple’s global settlement network.

One of the strengths of Ripple is that its ledger can handle a larger scale of transactions. It can handle 1,500 transactions compared to Bitcoin’s three to four transactions per second.

To complete a transaction, Bitcoin needs 4 hours while Ripple only needs 3.7 seconds. Ripple recently opened an office in Singapore to boost its presence in Asia, in particular in its quest to connect global banks to allow cheaper remittance and speedy transfer of funds. Ripple uses the Ripple Consensus Ledger for its banks and financial institutions customers. If it becomes the de facto middleman for all global foreign exchange transactions, Ripple could catapult to the top of the cryptocurrency hierarchy.

Litecoin

Litecoin is another cryptocurrency alternative to Bitcoin. It was launched in 2011. What allowed it to get market share was that Litecoin’s algorithm allowed regular people to mine bitcoins. Now, Litecoin is a peer-to-peer currency that allows for instantaneous, zero-cost payments to practically anyone in the world. Compared to math-based currencies, Litecoin is faster by around four times compared to Bitcoin and has more storage efficiency.

Dash

Dash aims to become more consumer friendly than bitcoin by improving on the speed of transactions and anonymity. IT uses a two-tier architecture with miners as well as “master nodes” that allow its network to boost transaction speed and increase privacy. Dash is also the first decentralised autonomous organization because its governance and budgeting system is decentralised.

Monero

Monero is another open-source cryptocurrency with a market capitalisation of almost $1.5 billion. It positions itself as a platform that is secure, private and untraceable. It launched in 2014. To boost its privacy and ensure that transactions anonymous, it uses the following privacy technologies: Ring Signatures, Stealth Addresses, and RingCT. There is also under development the integration of the ‘invisible internet project’ I2P layer into Monero to further boost privacy protections. This will make your payments untraceable as well as people in the network will not even know that you are using Monero.

The future of cryptocurrencies remains uncertain, but it will most certainly continue to exist. The only question is, how it will evolve in this rapidly changing economic and social landscape. It also remains to be seen how supportive or antagonistic a national government will be when it comes to virtual currencies. As more industries, businesses, and people embrace cryptocurrencies, we might see less volatility and more stability in spreads and transaction costs. We could also expect a global regulation model for cryptocurrencies.

(By Argee Abadines)

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