Other currencies equivalent to Bitcoins

From around $1000 in the beginning of this year, Blockchain based cryptocurrency bitcoin is today nearing $20,000 mark. The boom in Bitcoin value has also helped its rivals surge. Cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple too have soared to records in the past few weeks. Here are some closest rivals of Bitcoins.

Ethereum – It is one of the hottest rivals of Bitcoins. Launched in the year 2014, it is currently the second most valuable cryptocurrency. Like Bitcoin, it is also a type of Blockchain network. Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts. Applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference.

The Bitcoin and Ethereum Blockchains differ primarily in purpose and capability. While the Bitcoin Blockchain is used to track ownership of the digital currency bitcoin, the Ethereum Blockchain can be used to build decentralized applications. The virtual currency associated with Ethereum is called Ether.

Ripple – It is reportedly considered as logical successor to Bitcoin. It was launched in the year 2012 by former Bitcoin developers and is a startup using Blockchain technology that as per its website connects Banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges and corporates. It also operates as a payment network called RippleNet. XRP is Ripple cryptocurrency. It has been soaring to record high since Bitcoin jumped. Currently, Ripple XRP is up more than 7,000% from its 0.65% at the beginning of last year.

Litecoin – The digital currency Litecoin too has emerged as a strong rival to Bitcoin, giving tough competition to other cryptocurrency rivals like IOTA and Ripple. Litecoin has surged over 5,700% last year till December 12, whereas Bitcoin had gained 1,550% during the same period. It is a peer to peer cryptocurrency, launched in 2011. Litecoin is very similar to Bitcoin in its technical implementation. The biggest advantages of Litecoin are claimed to be speed and low fees. Litecoin uses Scrypt Algorithm; it reportedly demands memory instead of processor resources. Generating new Litecoin is possible through mining as well.

Zcash – It claims to be the first open, permission-less cryptocurrency that can fully protects the privacy of transactions using zero knowledge cryptography. Like Bitcoin, Zcash is a Blockchain based currency. Launched in October 2016, as per Zcash website, its monetary base too is the same as Bitcoin’s – 21 Million Zcash currency units and is mined over time.

It is a scarce token just like Bitcoin which can be transferred globally and exchanged to/from other Cryptocurrencies or flat currencies via online exchanges, in-person transactions etc. Recently, Zcash became the third digital currency to receive the backing of the Bitcoin Investment Trust and the Ethereum Classic Investment Trust.

Dash – Is an open source peer to peer cryptocurrency. Dash can be used to make instant private payments online or in-store using our secure open source platform hosted by thousands of users around the world. Bitcoins shortcomings led to the development of cryptocurrency Dash. Its three biggest benefits, as per its website, are said to be Instant, Private and Security. It claims to send payment confirmations in less than a second. Two protect user’s financial information by safeguarding their activity history and keeping balances private. Three transactions are claimed to be confirmed by 200 TerraHash of X11 ASIC Computer power and over 4,500 servers hosted around the world.

Monero – It is claimed to be a secure, private and untraceable cryptocurrency. The open source cryptocurrency created in April 2014 has been soaring for the past five weeks with prices more than tripling since early November. Monero Research Labs is also said to be working hard to bring down the network’s transaction fees by as much as 80%. Monero developers are said to be implementation Bulletproofs to bring down transaction sizes on the network.

IOTA – It is another emerging bitcoin rival. It has marked capitalization of Rs 0.75 Lakh crore. IOTA represents a third generation of Blockchain after the development of Bitcoin.