Altcoins

Altcoin is a term that describes any cryptocurrency that isn’t Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin’s inception, countless cryptos have been launched.

Many of these have met varying levels of success, though few have risen to rival Bitcoin itself.

Ether, XRP, Stellar, Monero, Ada, and Dash are a few examples of the more popular altcoins.

There are currently over 5,000 altcoins and this number seems to grow constantly. The leading altcoins as of May 2020 are Ethereum and Ripple.

In terms of structure, altcoins can differ from the Bitcoin network in many ways. This is often the primary reason why they exist.

Why Do So Many Altcoins Exist?

While Bitcoin is both innovative and massively influential, it does present some problems that developers are trying to fix with their own products.

Over time altcoins have been developed that make faster transactions, as well as less volatile altcoins, altcoins that are more private, etc.

Altcoins can also have different economic models and methods of distribution.

Moreover, their programming languages can vary, and they can support the development of different kinds of applications.

While many altcoins have been built with amazing technology and have incredible potential to change the world, many have been created as methods of grabbing quick cash, or even as jokes.

However, some of the joke altcoins have still managed to gather a significant number of users and followers.

The most prominent example of this trend is DogeCoin, a cryptocurrency inspired by the Doge meme.

Other joke altcoins have also experienced large market caps, such as JesusCoin.