Bytecoin was the first coin mined in the cryptonight algorithm. I would have thought that would mean it is higher in value than other cryptonight coins such as Monero. I did not get too deep into the past for BCN but there seems to be some scams and corruption at the time where BCN could have been a success but instead gave that crown to Monero. Presently my understanding is the core developers and supporters have gotten rid of the bad guys and am trying to make BCN a more viable crypto.
Still BCN is ranked ~30th in total market cap and has, hold on to your seats, 184.5 billion coins with a emissions rate of 65,000 new coins every 2 minutes. Talk about fighting inflation. At 16 satoshi this coin is pretty much in my opinion worthless yet to some who have amassed a ton of BCNs may beg to differ. I just do not know if one could even off load a ton of BCNs at once on any exchange to make any sizable profit.
However with all the drawbacks BCN has been some first coins own by beginner miners including myself. I started mining first with minergate and was mining BCN. I had 10H/s and in a day it got me about 1 BCN. I do not remember the exact numbers but is was small and insignificant. I am still holding my BCNs as I have not opened an exchange to trade it. Although I intend to because I favor many other cryptonight coins instead of this one.
The coin started in 2012 and is an open source. Recently a new wallet was introduced and the coin logo has been revised with updated webpage. I personally prefer the old logo. The fundametals of cryptonight exists in BCN such as untraceable transactions. Due to its age the coin had been around many exchange platforms and has established itself as a favorable coin to use in transactions.