You are sitting in a coffee cafe in 2020. The barista serves you a cup of coffee that appears to be of high quality and asks if you wish to pay with Bitcoin. You pause, realizing that the price of Bitcoin has risen so high that it can no longer be used to buy anything. Instead, you remove your smartphone from your pocket and select Ethereum from your digital wallet software list of cryptocurrencies. After confirming that it is not a counterfeit coin, you transfer dollars to pay for your beverage to visit at: https://www.bestforexbrokeraustralia.com/
This scenario is highly improbable but may become a reality within the next five years because hundreds of different cryptocurrencies are vying for attention. They aim to unseat Bitcoin as the world’s leading cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin’s dominance is threatened.
This article will discuss four promising new altcoins such as Litecoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and stellar.
- Litecoin
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency that offers a peer-to-peer system for transactions and the software is also open-sourced. It is distributed under the MIT/X11 license. It is built on an open-source system established by Bitcoin but with extra features such as speedier block production, a different hashing algorithm (scrypt), and a slightly updated graphical user interface (GUI) for its client.
Charlie Lee created Litecoin as the silver counterpart of Bitcoin. Since its separation from the bitcoin core at block 958888, Litecoin has added additional features:
- Support for Segregated Witness with a 1MB block size limit
- Lightning Network implementation
- Atomic swaps on Binance DEX with LTC/BTC as the base pairing.
- RSK sidechain implementation of smart contracts (available only when Segwit2x hard fork happens.)
- Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized system. Its underlying crypto is ether. The Ethereum system is based on the technology of Blockchain that allows smart contracts to run on it, which are computer programs that function exactly as intended without censorship, fraud, interruption, or third-party influence.
- It resembles the internet but is decentralized.
- Ether is the currency used to purchase network computing power.
To put it in perspective, the Bitcoin blockchain network has thousands of users, while the Ethereum blockchain has millions.
Accounts belonging to third parties and contract accounts are the two types of accounts, and contracts are equipped with their internal code and can exchange messages with one another. Consider it an operating system for your money, where everything functions as intended since no one is dependent on anyone else.
Miners are rewarded in Ethers for the efforts they put. When they verify blocks containing transactions made by users sending them funds for processing, those transactions on the network in exchange for fees are paid out. When the block is mined, as long as there are enough funds available and enough gas remaining after paying out each transaction fee based on how much work had been completed.
- Ripple
Ripple is a currency exchange and money transfer network. The ripple network is used for cross-border transactions with the process of real-time gross settlement (RTGS). Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) and Ripple protocol are alternative names. Ripple, introduced in 2012, claims to provide “secure, quick, and nearly cost-free international transactions.”
The company responsible for the cryptocurrency is Ripple Labs of San Francisco. Its principal objective is to develop a payment network for banks, enabling them to make international payments in real-time across many ledgers.
- Stellar
Stellar is a network that connects banks, payment networks, and individuals. Stellar’s purpose is to connect individuals to low-cost financial services.
Using its consensus architecture, the Stellar network can manage a large volume of transactions while delivering orders of magnitude more throughput than the Bitcoin blockchain. The Stellar network supports new currencies (lumens being Stellar’s original asset) and multi-signature transactions for enhanced security and usefulness.
While bitcoin aims to be a “digital cash” or alternative store of value, stellar aims to provide affordable cross-border payments by leveraging partnerships with existing banking system players. Like, IBM is looking for ways to offer cheaper solutions for businesses that require cross-border payment solutions through blockchain technology.
In 2014, one hundred billion lumens were released as part of a free-distribution campaign. At the time of writing, there were more than 19 billion stellars in circulation, each worth 0.002217 US dollars.
Conclusion
The popularity of these cryptocurrencies is growing. Ethereum, Ripple, and Stellar are among the most prominent cryptocurrencies gaining popularity. These coins will not soon disappear! If you are someone who would want to do safe experiments with trading, BitIQ is the right platform to start.
