The current cryptocurrency world has been an exciting one lately going by the activities of various centrifugal and centripetal forces within and around cryptocurrencies.
With most of the major open-source currencies showing growth and with some expected to see significant expansion in the near future.
The dynamism of these cryptocurrencies brings about their strengths and or weaknesses in comparison to the other. Some feature amazing underlying blockchain technology behind its creation. Some were created just because, or as a joke. Some were part of an elaborate pyramid scheme. Some are pretty useless to keep as they are perceived as worthless, any cryptocurrency is only as valuable as the value assigned to it by a mass audience.
Bitcoin has not just been a trendsetter, ushering in a wave of cryptocurrencies built on decentralized peer-to-peer network, it’s become the de facto standard for cryptocurrencies. The currencies inspired by Bitcoin are collectively called altcoins and have tried to present themselves as modified or improved versions of Bitcoin. While some of these currencies are easier to mine than Bitcoin is, there are tradeoffs, including greater risk brought on by lesser liquidity, acceptance and value retention.
Like any other assets (think of stocks, or property), its price can rise and fall quickly, making them highly volatile and risky investments.
As a minnows in the cryptocurrency trading, it’s important to keep an eye on these other most powerful cryptocurrencies. Here are five (in no particular order) I think you should know about.
Ether
Ether is the cryptocurrency for Ethereum, a decentralised platform that can execute peer-to-peer ‘smart contacts’. Ethereum consists of two cryptocurrencies: Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC).
Created by Vitalik Buterin and launched in mid-2015 after a successful crowdsale, this platform was dubbed as the “next generation cryptocurrency and decentralised application platform” and has a market cap of over $1.5 billion. Peer-to-peer smart contracts are what Ethereum is known for, aside from the cryptocurrency. It enables people to code and enact contracts without third parties. For example, you can set up a smart contract for a conference, where organisers can sell tickets, set a maximum number of attendees, and provide refunds automatically.
Known for: smart contract, first alternative to Bitcoin.
Litecoin
Litecoin was released in October 2011 by former Google employee Charles Lee as an alternative to Bitcoin. Overall, Litecoin is similar (and familiar) to bitcoin, it can be mined, used as currency and transacted for goods and services. It has a market cap of roughly $200 million. Litecoin is based on an open source global payment network that is not controlled by any central authority and uses "scrypt" as a proof of work, which can be decoded with the help of CPUs of consumer grade. Although Litecoin is like Bitcoin in many ways, it has a faster block generation rate and hence offers a faster transaction confirmation. Other than developers, there are a growing number of merchants who accept Litecoin.
Steem
This is perhaps the most powerful cryptocurrency for investment.
While steem is one of the largest digital currency as measured by market capitalization,steem through Steemit.com aims to provide a place for individuals to create content, promote the content they believe is good and comment on stories all while earning money.
For those new to the digital currency, users can obtain steem by posting content on social media platform named Steemit. When users publish popular content, as measured by upvotes, they receive steem tokens, the underlying philosophy of Steem, which is that content producers and curators on social media platforms should be compensated for the value that they create. By developing such a platform, Steemit’s creators have stated that they want to allow users to receive a reward for the content they create.
The question now is not whether steem will succeed as a digital currency but for how long will other social media like Facebook, Twitter be recognized as the ideal social media platform, this will be more a reflection of Steemit’s success as a platform as opposed to the economics of the coin itself. This is a good example of a digital currency whose value will be closely affiliated to its utilitarian value as a social networking and sharing platform.
Ripple
The next on the list, Ripple, is actually a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange and remittance network. The cryptocurrency is called ripples. Released in 2012, the Ripple system has been integrated into a few banks and payment networks to reduce costs.
Monero
Monero is a secure, private and untraceable currency. This open source cryptocurrency was launched in April 2014 and since remained a great interest among the cryptography community and enthusiasts. The development of this cryptocurrency is completely donation-based and community-driven. Monero has been launched with a strong focus on decentralization and scalability, and enables complete privacy by using a special technique called ‘ring signatures.’ With this technique, there appears a group of cryptographic signatures including at least one real participant – but since they all appear valid, the real one cannot be isolated.
The Princess of all cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin) has continue to lead the pack of cryptocurrencies, in terms of market capitalization, user base and popularity. Nevertheless, virtual currencies such as those mentioned above are being used more for enterprise solutions are becoming popular, while some altcoins are being endorsed for superior or advanced features vis-à-vis Bitcoins. The search for the most powerful cryptocurrency for crypto investors could be overshadowed by such investor's personal idiosyncrasies and her/his level of knowledge about other virtual currencies. Going by the current trend, cryptocurrencies are here to stay but how many of them will emerge leaders amid the growing competition within the space will only be revealed with time and man.
