What are the different types of cryptocurrencies available besides Bitcoin?
There are many different types of cryptocurrencies available besides Bitcoin.
These include Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Dash, Monero, Zcash, Dogecoin, and many more. Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference. It was created by Vitalik Buterin in 2015 and has since become the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency created by Charlie Lee in 2011. It is based on the Bitcoin protocol but with some key differences such as faster block times and increased total supply. Litecoin also uses a different hashing algorithm than Bitcoin which makes it more resistant to ASIC mining.
Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), currency exchange and remittance network created by Ripple Labs Inc., a US-based technology company. It is built upon a distributed open source internet protocol and supports tokens representing fiat currency, cryptocurrency, commodities or other units of value such as frequent flier miles or mobile minutes.
Dash (formerly known as Darkcoin) is an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that offers instant transactions (InstantSend), private transactions (PrivateSend) and token fungibility. It was created in 2014 by Evan Duffield and can be mined using a CPU or GPU. Monero is an open source cryptocurrency created in April 2014 that focuses on privacy and decentralization that runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and FreeBSD.
Monero uses ring signatures and stealth addresses to obfuscate the origins of transactions as well as RingCT to hide transaction amounts. Zcash is an open source cryptocurrency launched in 2016 that offers privacy and selective transparency of transactions using zero-knowledge cryptography called zk-SNARKs developed by the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company (ZECC). Zcash payments are published on a public blockchain but the sender, recipient and amount of a transaction remain private.
Dogecoin is an open source peer-to-peer digital currency based on the popular "doge" meme featuring Shiba Inus from Japan. It was created by Billy Markus from Portland Oregon in 2013 who wanted to create a fun cryptocurrency that could reach a broader demographic than Bitcoin did at the time. Dogecoin quickly developed its own online community with users tipping each other for content creation or services rendered online using Dogecoins instead of traditional currencies like US dollars or Euros
