What Are Cryptocurrencies?

What are cryptocurrencies?

A cryptocurrency is a type of digital asset that uses cryptography to secure its transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets. Cryptocurrencies are also called cryptoassets.

There are many different types of cryptocurrencies. The most popular are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Monero, Zcash, Dogecoin, Dash, Bytecoin, and NXT.

Bitcoin was first introduced in 2009 as an open source peer-to-peer payment system. It is a decentralized cryptocurrency with no central authority or middlemen. There are currently over 16 million bitcoins in circulation.

Ethereum was developed in 2014 by Vitalik Buterin and others as an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform. The Ethereum network can run smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). It has a maximum supply of 21 million Ether.

Litecoin was developed in 2011 by Charlie Lee and released in October of the same year. It is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that is intended to have faster transaction confirmation times than Bitcoin. It has a maximum supply of 84 million coins.

Ripple was launched in 2012 by Ryan Fugger, Stefan Thomas, and Jed McCaleb. It is a digital asset that uses blockchain technology to provide financial services. It is designed to be scalable and to facilitate real-time gross settlement for banks and other financial institutions. It has a maximum supply limit of 100 billion coins.

Monero was created in 2014 by Riccardo Spagni. It is an open-source, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency with untraceable transactions. It has a maximum supply cap of 18.9 million coins.

Zcash was created in 2016 by Zooko Wilcox and Ian Miers. It is a decentralized, open-source cryptocurrency with zero-knowledge privacy features. It has a maximum supply value of 31 million coins.

Dogecoin was developed in 2013 by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. It is a peer-reviewed cryptocurrency with a maximum supply of 250 million coins.

Bytecoin was developed in 2013 by Satoshi Nakamoto. It is a peer-review cryptocurrency with a maximum supply of 21 million coins.

Nxt was created in 2013 by Justin Newton. It is a peer-peer cryptocurrency with a maximum supply of 1 million coins.

Dash was developed in 2014 by Evan Duffield and others. It is a peer-based cryptocurrency with instant transactions. It has a maximum cap of 144 million coins.

The market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is currently over $300 billion.

What is the difference between cryptocurrencies and digital currencies?

Cryptocurrencies use cryptography to secure their transactions. Digital currencies do not use cryptography to secure their transactions and are not considered to be cryptocurrencies.

Digital currencies such as bitcoin and ether are also referred to as altcoins. These altcoins may have similarities to cryptocurrencies but they are not considered to be cryptocurrencies.

The post What Are Cryptocurrencies? first appeared on Crypto World.

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