Major fortunes, millions of dollars in some cases, have been made and lost with alt-coins. So, it might be in your interest to keep reading and then continue with your research of the alt-coins and application coins.
Bitcoin was the category creator of crypto-currency and got everyone excited with huge movements in the Bitcoin price. That is what happens when it goes from $0.05 to $1,200 in four years. Millionaires get minted!
With the initial innovation has come an explosion of 'alt-coins'. Bitcoin is considered a SHA-256 coin because it uses that algorithm for the proof of workcomponent.
Other alt-coins use different algorithms such as scrypt, X11, X13, X15, NIST5 and 100% proof of stake. Often the developers of alt-coins are seeking to develop some new innovation that makes it more useful to market participants.
Alt-coins have traditionally been extremely volatile in price which seems to draw speculators. So far we have only included a few of the 600+ alt-coins so we hope you find the resource pages useful!
Alt-coins
Bytecoin is the private untraceable cryptocurrency launched in 2012 and is the first enterprise-ready solution.
Dash calls itself an "open sourced, privacy-centric digital currency with instant transactions." It is currently a top five cryptocurrency by market cap.
Devcoin is an ethically inspired cryptocurrency created in 2011 to support open source programmers and writers worldwide.
Dogecoin was created as a joke in December 2013. It is based on the Doge internet meme. Today, it is one of the most popular altcoins.
The Hayek is an exciting new cryptographic gold receipt issued by Anthem Vault, a leading online retailer of vaulted and insured silver and gold bullion.
Litecoin is the most widely used altcoin. It was created in 2011 by Coinbase engineer Charlie Lee while he worked at Google. It is currently a top five altcoin in terms of market cap.
Namecoin is a decentralized open source information registration and transfer system based on the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
Peercoin seeks to be the most secure cryptocoin at the lowest cost, by rewarding all users for strengthening the network.
PIVX is the private instant verified transactions cryptocurrency built on Bitcoin Core with DASH masternodes and proof of stake.
Reddcoin is the social currency that enriches people’s social lives and makes digital currency easy for the general public.
Ripple is an internet protocol developed by Ripple Labs to connect all the world's disparate financial systems to enable secure transfer of funds in any currency in real time.
Shadowcash was one of the first altcoins that marketed itself as being more private than Bitcoin.
zCash calls itself an "open sourced, privacy-centric digital currency with instant transactions." It is currently a top five cryptocurrency by market cap.
Application coins
Augur is a decentralised prediction market to exchange value when forecasting event outcomes based on the 'wisdom of the crowd' principle.
Counterparty is a protocol built on top of Bitcoin. It enables anyone to create custom tokens and decentralized financial applications using the Bitcoin network.
Ethereum is a decentralized platform that allows developers to create decentralized applications and smart contracts.
Factom is the first usable blockchain technology to solve real-world business problems by providing an unalterable record-keeping system.
Mastercoin is a digital currency and communications protocol built on the Bitcoin block chain. It is one of several efforts to enable complex financial functions in a cryptocurrency.
Nxt is an open source cryptocurrency and payment network launched in November 2013 by anonymous software developer BCNext.
Safecoin is the token used on the Maidsafe Network, which is a decentralized data storage network.
Steem is a blockchain database that supports community building and social interaction with cryptocurrency rewards.
