Cryptocurrencies that emerged after BTC are called altcoins. Most altcoins are supposed to eliminate the shortcomings of Bitcoin and come up with competitive advantages in new versions.
The term 'altcoin' originated from a combination of two words: 'alt' and 'coin', where 'alt' means 'alternative', and 'coin' means 'cryptocurrency'. Together, they refer to a category of cryptocurrency that becomes an alternative resource for the digital currency Bitcoin. After Bitcoin's success, many other peer-to-peer digital currencies emerged, attempting to replicate BTC's story.
Many altcoins are built on the underlying structure established in Bitcoin. Therefore, most of these assets are peer-to-peer and use PoW. However, altcoins, even with many matching characteristics, differ significantly from each other.
Let's consider the oldest cryptocurrencies that were launched after Bitcoin.
Litecoin (LTC). Founded by former Google employee Charlie Lee in October 2011, the coin was initially designed to reduce transaction time from 10 to 2.5 minutes. LTC used the Scrypt hashing algorithm instead of SHA-256 like Bitcoin. It is one of the first cryptocurrencies launched after Bitcoin.
Namecoin. Inspired by a discussion on Bitcointalk regarding the BitDNS system, Namecoin was introduced by Vincent Durham in April 2011. It is a fork of Bitcoin. The altcoin was launched to serve as a decentralized name registration service, similar to the Ethereum Name Service (ENS).
SwiftCoin. The cryptocurrency was developed by Daniel Bruno's team in 2011. It includes a proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm and blockchain concept. The altcoin provides dynamic circulation, allowing volatility to be kept under control. It is worth noting that the blockchain of this cryptocurrency is not public.
Bytecoin. Designed to ensure anonymous monetary transactions and privacy, the altcoin uses the Cryptonote algorithm. It allows for instant cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide, and the average client transaction verification takes about two minutes.
Peercoin. The first cryptocurrency that incorporates both PoW and PoS algorithms, it does not have a capped market capitalization but has a constant inflation rate fixed at 1% per year. Peercoin is one of the first ten cryptocurrencies launched after Bitcoin. Inspired by the concept of Bitcoin, its technical documentation was released in August 2012. The project authors are Scott Nadal and Sunny King. The transaction volume self-regulates, as the received transaction fee is automatically destroyed by the system.
Dogecoin. Emerging in December 2013, DOGE, based on the famous internet meme featuring a Shiba Inu dog, unexpectedly gained widespread popularity and reached a market capitalization of $16 million by January 2016. Previously, it was set at $100 billion, but later the founder Jackson Palmer became enthusiastic about unlimited market capitalization. As of fall 2024, according to CoinMarketCap, Dogecoin ranks eighth in the global cryptocurrency rankings.
Gridcoin. This cryptocurrency uses blockchain technology for crowdsourced calculations of scientific projects. The Gridcoin protocol was published on October 16, 2013, and is designed so that issuance applies proof of stake. A key feature of Gridcoin is that issuance is linked to participation in scientific distributed computing, meaning users are rewarded for their 'computational contribution' to science. Gridcoin aims to distinguish itself from BTC by applying 'eco-friendly' approaches to the issuance of new coins and ensuring network security. In particular, Gridcoin implements a new Proof-of-Research (POR) scheme that rewards Gridcoin users for performing useful scientific computations on BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing).
Ripple. This payment protocol was introduced back in 2013. It provides a real-time gross settlement system that is efficiently utilized by some of the largest centralized financial companies worldwide. The XRP token is one of the leading ones launched after Bitcoin. The protocol is essentially designed to address scalability and can confirm 1,500 transactions per second, as well as achieve 50,000 operations per second. According to public information, XRP ranks seventh in the cryptocurrency ranking.
Primecoin. This blockchain-based cryptocurrency uses proof-of-work technology to generate new blocks and manage transactions. The Primecoin system is distinguished by using the computation of yet undiscovered prime numbers as a complex mathematical task that must be solved to create new blocks. Thus, the computational power and energy consumed by the cryptocurrency perform a useful scientific function.
Feathercoin. Peter Bushnell's first blog post about the release of Feathercoin on bitcointalk dates back to April 16, 2013. Feathercoin, as one of the oldest altcoins, has stood the test of time. Moreover, it is still actively developed by its founder and a small but strong community. Feathercoin is an improved and adapted version of BTC. Users have access to two wallets (FeathercoinCore and Electrum), which work exactly like Bitcoin, but with faster processing for each block. Besides these wallets, the altcoin is supported by various mobile wallets and blockchains.
Cryptocurrencies are high-risk assets, so such investments should be approached wisely. Before investing in a project, it is necessary to study what it represents, rather than choosing it solely because of attractive advertising. Many investors, when conducting research, primarily pay attention to the age of the crypto asset. It is believed that the more market cycles an asset has survived, the more reliable it is.
