An Altcoin is any other coin that is not a bitcoin - it's short for ALTERNATIVE COIN.
Many consider Bitcoin the mother of all coins, it was the one that provided proof of concept for crypto-currency.
In Satoshi's white paper, it outlines how these various concepts can work in theory, for a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that is decentralized, meaning no dependency on a third party aka trustless.
In Satoshi's own words, "We have proposed a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust."
Bitcoin proved that it can work in practice.
When I wrote my article, "18 Ways to Faill at Crypto" (about 2 months ago) there were just over 1000 altcoins listed on coinmarketcap.com, as of today, there are 1476 cryptocurrencies listed on that same list.
These alt coins are being created with hopes to solve real-world problems.
The areas include payments, lending, healthcare, gaming, emergency services, content licensing, affiliate marketing platforms, data centers, identity protocols, mobile games for match making, customer loyalty programs, vehicle data, exchanges, rent payments and so much more.
The list goes on and on - and to think, we are just getting started.
With Crypto, would you buy this or that?
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