{"id":1577,"date":"2018-02-20T04:01:11","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T04:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atozcrypto.org\/?page_id=1577"},"modified":"2020-07-20T12:20:09","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T12:20:09","slug":"altcoins","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/atozcrypto.org\/altcoins\/","title":{"rendered":"Altcoins"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In many ways, the title \u201ccryptocurrency\u201d can be misleading and does not capture the differences in technology, incentive alignment, and structure between various coins.\u00a0While the term \u201ccryptocurrency\u201d conveys attributes that define some coins, like a means of storing value and exchanging wealth, it fails to capture the nuances and capabilities of other coins.<\/strong><\/p>\n In reality, there are a few different \u201ctypes\u201d of cryptocurrencies<\/strong>\u00a0(these categories can be broken up further but are a helpful rough categorization):<\/p>\n Bitcoin was the original cryptocurrency in this category but new coins have sprouted up to address some of the limitations Bitcoin has faced, like scalability and privacy.<\/p>\n Scalability:\u00a0<\/strong>Bitcoin\u2019s transaction scalability is limited by the one megabyte block size (transaction records) and average block creation time of 10 minutes which combine to\u00a0limit the network\u2019s throughput capability to roughly 3.3 to 7 transactions per second<\/a>. Transaction scalability is necessary for a cryptocurrency to be capable of serving as a means of exchange, though is arguably not a necessity to serve as a store of value. Various forks, which are changes to the underlying protocol, have been proposed to address the scalability of the Bitcoin network. Alternative cryptocurrencies have also been created to address Bitcoin\u2019s scalability problem:<\/p>\n Privacy:\u00a0<\/strong>A big push in this space is in \u201cprivacy coins\u201d that serve the same economic functions as Bitcoin (store of value, means of exchange, unit of account) but also provide an additional privacy layer that Bitcoin does not. While Bitcoin addresses are anonymous in the sense that a wallet is not linked to a person in a database, the holdings and transactions of a given wallet are publicly viewable on a ledger. From a regulatory context it is not clear that additional perfect privacy is needed or even desired and some worry that privacy coins serve to enable black market transactions (there is debate here whether what is gained in privacy is lost in enabling bad actors).<\/p>\n Well known cryptocurrencies of this type include Ethereum and Filecoin.<\/p>\n There are many interesting projects being built on top of utilities like Ethereum and two promising ones are Augur and 0x. Many more are expected to be built in the coming years as the utility infrastructure continues to be built and consumer adoption of \u201ccurrency\u201d cryptocurrencies allows for new business models.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to put a new cryptocurrency in the proper context when evaluating it. There will certainly be new developments in cryptocurrency and it will be exciting to see how coins address issues like scalability, decentralized consensus, and privacy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: hackernoon.com<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Different Categories of Cryptocurrencies In many ways, the title \u201ccryptocurrency\u201d can be misleading and does not capture the differences in technology, incentive alignment, and structure between various coins.\u00a0While the term \u201ccryptocurrency\u201d conveys attributes that define some coins, like a means of storing value and exchanging wealth, it fails to capture the nuances and capabilities …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"aioseo_notices":[],"pgc_meta":"","yoast_head":"\n\n
\u201cCurrency\u201d Cryptocurrencies<\/h3>\n
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\u201cUtility\u201d Cryptocurrencies<\/h3>\n
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\u201cApp\/Platform\u201d Cryptocurrencies<\/h3>\n
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Conclusion<\/h3>\n