Our blogging platform uses Bitcoin Cash as the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin Cash is a modification of Bitcoin, which is the first cryptocurrency in the world. Now there are so many cryptocurrencies. Since cryptocurrency is technology-driven money, many new cryptocurrencies are announced almost every day. As a tech researcher, I am curious about the latest tech innovation around the crypto domain.
How many cryptocurrencies do exist in the world?
There are currently more than 13,506 cryptocurrencies, and tokens exist in the world. We see new crypto tokens popping up almost every alternate day. Each token proposes a different use case to solve existing real-life problems.
There are innumerable cryptocurrencies and use cases on this planet.
The numbers of cryptocurrencies are too many. The market changes frequently. The market cap and prices vary very fast. I consider it worth listing the top ten cryptocurrencies as per their market cap. We will also describe a very brief tech specification wherever possible.
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10. Dogecoin Market Cap: US$30.17 Billion Price: US$0.22
Dogecoin is a meme coin that supports a vast community of developers. Dogecoin was created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. Funnily, they decided to develop a payment system as fun of speculation around cryptocurrencies. Dogecoin uses a proof-of-work consensus algorithm.
09. USD Coin Market Cap: US$35.28 Billion Price: US$1
USD Coin is a stable coin created by Coinbase, the company running the crypto exchange. The value of USD Coin is one US dollar. If you pay US$1, you will get 1 USD Coin and vice versa. USD Coin runs on the Ethereum, Stellar, Algorand, Solana, Tron, and Hedera Hashgraph systems. Its consensus algorithm is proof-of-work.
08. Polkadot Market Cap: US$42.35 Billion Price: US$40.96
Polkadot is a layer-zero blockchain developed to connect all other blockchain variations. It makes the highway for communication between the blockchains. Thus, Polkadot can create an interconnected internet of blockchains. It uses an environmentally-friendly proof-of-stake consensus algorithm.
07. XRP Market Cap: US$60.70 Billion Price: US$1.05
XRP is a cryptocurrency based on a distributed ledger called XRP ledger created by Ripple Labs Inc. XRP offers many solutions for a wide range of customers. Its primary solution is cross-border payments. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considers XRP "unregistered security" and filed a lawsuit against Ripple, its owner company. XRP runs neither on proof-of-work nor on proof-of-stake. Its transactions rely on an open-source consensus protocol to validate the account balances and transactions on the system.
06. Cardano Market Cap: US$61.88 Billion Price: US$1.83
Cardano is based on a blockchain that an ex-engineer of Ethereum has developed. They claim it a better performer than Ethereum. The team of Cardano published over 90 research papers on blockchain technology, which remains the backbone for their development. The consensus algorithm of Cardano is based on "Ouroboros" proof-of-stake. "Ouroboros" is the first peer-reviewed, verifiably secure, environmentally sustainable blockchain protocol. Their rigorous research seems to help them stand out among their proof-of-stake peers and other cryptocurrencies.
05. Solana Market Cap: US$70.81 Billion Price: US$232.64
Solana is a competitor of Ethereum that has many unique features. It makes innovation to develop one of the fastest and scalable blockchain protocols. Solana's scalability guarantees transactions cost remain less than US$0.01 for both developers and users. Solana's blockchain protocol is also one of the fastest yielding 400 millisecond block times.
04. Tether Market Cap: US$73.21 Billion Price: US$1
Tether is a crypto token based on Ethereum that is supposed to give US$1. Tether is one of the first among the so-called stable coins. Tether opens the possibility of having an unlimited digital currency by integrating the business of fiat currencies with it. But there is a rumor that its market cap declared is ambiguous. Tether functions on a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm that permits it to scale.
03. Binance Coin Market Cap: US$98.56 Billion Price: US$578.70
Binance Coin or BNB has been created by the cryptocurrency exchange Binance based on a blockchain developed by them. It is a utility token for discounted trading fees Binance exchange. Initially developed on the Ethereum network, Binance Coin now functions on its native blockchain called Binance Chain. People can use it for booking travel accommodations and making payments for select entertainment (such as virtual gifts, lotteries) and online services (such as Canva, Strom).
02. Ethereum Market Cap: US$512.71 Billion Price: US$4237.50
Ethereum is called programmable money. Ethereum also has a dedicated programming language called solidity that can develop decentralized applications on the Ethereum blockchain. The applications include loans, smart contracts, digital certificates, digital payments, etc. Etherium supports NFTs. There are so many other cryptos developed over Ethereum's blockchain.
01. Bitcoin Market Cap: US$1117.30 Billion Price: US$58289.24
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency based on decentralized distributed ledger technology called a blockchain. Bitcoin opened up a way to transfer funds between two persons (peer-to-peer) without the help of any centralized banking facility. It is like two individuals have their payment account numbers, i.e., addresses. They can securely transfer cryptocurrency called Bitcoins between them. The total number of Bitcoin is preserved, thereby avoiding any inflation. Bitcoin is open-source, based on a public design, and decentralized, i.e., no centralized authority controls it. Since Bitcoin functions on a proof-of-work consensus algorithm, it is not scalable, i.e., it takes a long time to settle transactions and associates relatively high transaction fees.
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Bringing it altogether
Bitcoin is the first peer-to-peer payment system and cryptocurrency. Currently, more than 13,506 cryptocurrencies and tokens exist in the world. I have tried to enlist the top ten cryptocurrencies as per their market cap. I also write brief technical specifications of cryptocurrencies. I hope the read-dot-cash writer community may like to share their theoretical and practical experience with these cryptocurrencies.
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References
Market cap, price as per information available on crypto.com (Nov 22, 2021).
Cryptocurrency pages of Investopedia.
Websites of respective cryptocurrency and elsewhere (hyperlinked in the texts).
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Cheers! Debesh Choudhury
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Nov 22, 2021
