The value of Bitcoin rose to more than one gold-ounce this year. There are also new cryptocurrencies that are available on the market. This makes cryptocoins’ value even higher at over one hundred billion. On the other hand, the longer term cryptocurrency-outlook is somewhat of a blur. It is less attractive as a long-term investment or as a payment system because of the squabbles among its core developers. Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that started it all, is still the most popular. It currently has a market capital of $41 billion, and has been around for 8 years. Bitcoin is widely used around the world and there has not been any flaw in its operation. Bitcoin is a payment system that can be used to send and receive bitcoins.
Bitcoin’s foundation
It is the concept of the blockchain. To understand what cryptocurrencies are, it is important to understand the blockchain concept. Blockchain is a distributed database that stores every transaction in a data-chunk known as a “block”. Every user has a copy of blockchain so that everyone on the network can see Alice’s 1 bitcoin sent to Mark. Litecoin, an alternative to Bitcoin, attempts to solve many of the problems that keep Bitcoin down. It is not as resilient as Ethereum, but its value is derived largely from solid users. It is worth noting that Charlie Lee, an ex-Googler, leads Litecoin. He is very active on Twitter and also practices transparency in what he does with Litecoin. Litecoin was Bitcoin’s second fiddle for a while, but things changed in 2017 when he started to use Twitter.
Coinbase adopted Litecoin along with Ethereum, Bitcoin. Next, Litecoin solved the Bitcoin issue by adopting Segregated Witness technology. This allowed it to lower transaction fees and do much more. Charlie Lee’s decision to focus solely on Litecoin was decisive. He even quit Coinbase, where he was the Engineering director, in order to dedicate himself to Litecoin. The price of Litecoin has risen in the past few months due to the fact that it could be a real alternative to Bitcoin.
The Ethereum project
It was created by Vitalik Buterin, a superstar programmer. It can do everything that Bitcoin can do. Its primary purpose is to allow developers to create decentralized applications. The difference between the two is in the blockchains. The blockchain of Bitcoin records a contract type, which states whether funds were moved from one digital address or another. Ethereum is a more advanced language script that allows for more complex and broader applications. However, Ethereum has seen significant growth. When developers started to notice its best qualities, projects began to emerge on top of Ethereum. Some have raised millions of dollars through token crowd sales. This is still a popular trend to this day. It’s almost like the internet, in that you can create amazing things on the Ethereum platform. This led to a dramatic rise in the price.
Ethereum was valued at nearly $3000 if you bought a hundred dollars worth early this year. Monero is a cryptocurrency that aims to address anonymous transactions. Monero is determined to change the perception of Bitcoin as a way to launder money. The difference between Monero & Bitcoin is that Bitcoin has a transparent blockchain, which makes every transaction public and records them. Anyone can see where and how much money was moved with Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin does not provide complete anonymity.
Monero
Monero, however, uses an opaque rather transparent transaction method. Monero is here to stay, even though not everyone is sold on the method. However, some people love privacy for whatever reason. Zcash, like Monero also aims at solving the same problems that Bitcoin faces. Monero, however, is not transparent in its blockchain style. Zcash also seeks to solve anonymous transactions. It’s not like everyone wants to reveal how much they spent on Star Wars memorabilia. This type of cryptocoin has an audience and a need. However, it’s difficult to pinpoint which cryptocurrency that is privacy-focused will ultimately win the race. Bancor, also known as a smart token, is the next generation standard for cryptocurrency.
It can hold multiple tokens in reserve. Bancor aims to make it easier to trade, manage, and create tokens. They do this by increasing their liquidity and allowing them to have an automated market price. Bancor currently has a front-end product that includes a wallet as well as the creation of a smart token. The community also offers stats, profiles, and discussions. The protocol of Bancor allows for the discovery of a price and liquidity for smart contractual tokens via a mechanism called innovative reserve. Smart contract allows you to instantly liquidate or buy any tokens in the Bancor reserve. Bancor makes it easy to create new cryptocoins. Who wouldn’t want this? EOS, another competitor to Ethereum, promises to solve the scaling problem of Ethereum by providing a set of tools that make it easier to create and run apps on the platform.
Tezos
Tezos, an alternative to Ethereum can be easily upgraded by consensus. This new blockchain is decentralized in that it is self-governing through the establishment a digital true commonwealth. It allows formal verification, a mathematical technique that facilitates security, and it has security-enhancing features for the most sensitive smart contracts. It is a great investment for the months ahead. It is impossible to predict which Bitcoin will be the next big thing. But, user adoption has been a key success factor in cryptocurrencies. This is true for both Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, despite the support of early adopters of all cryptocurrency on the list, not all have proven their worth. These are the ones you should invest in and keep an eye on in the coming months.