You have probably heard about Cardano, TRON, Stellar Lumens, Ripple and RaiBlocks by now, these are some of the highest peforming cryptocurrencies in the last few months, this guide will provide a quick summary of each cryptocurrency as well as where to buy them.
Cardano
Cardano is a blockchain based development platform like Ethereum, however Cardano is the first project to be built using scientific philosophy and peer-reviewed academic research, the platforms currency is called ADA.
Cardano's focus includes providing users with privacy as well meeting regulation requirements, Cardano aims to be used for large scale applications and is considered a 3rd generation cryptocurrency.
TRON
TRON was founded by Justin Sun, the protege of billionaire Alibaba founder Jack Ma. TRON's cryptocurrency is called Tronix (TRX) and TRON aims to be a decentralised entertainment content sharing platform that will use Blockchain technology (in the form of a peer-to-peer network and distributed storage) to allow content creators to receive funds directly from consumers with no middle men taking a cut.
If successful TRON could compete with the likes of iTunes, Apple Store, Google Play and Spotify.
Stellar Lumens
Stellar Lumens is an open-source, peer-to-peer payments protocol that was created by the former Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim.
Stellar's currency is called Lumens (XLM) and like Ripple it boasts really fast transaction times and minimal transaction fees.
Lumens is really useful for anyone who plans to send money abroad, for example an international bank transfer will cost you over $20 and take about 1 - 3 working days, by using Lumens you could do this in seconds and for less than a cent.
Stellar Lumens and Ripple are both very similar in terms of vision, transaction costs and transaction times, however the main difference between the two is that Ripple's main target is banks transferring money between each other and across the world whereas Lumens seems to be intended for the everyday consumer, however both cryptocurrencies can be used by individuals for personal money transfers.
Lumens transactions cost less than a cent and take 2 - 5 seconds on average to complete.
Ripple
Ripple is a venture backed company founded by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb and it’s cryptocurrency is called XRP, their aim is to reduce the total cost of cash transfers whilst enabling banks to transact instantly and directly with each other, Ripple uses blockchain technology (the public ledger for example) to provide transparency and reliability.
Ripple’s main target is global, cross border transactions, hence they created XRP to be fast, scalable, affordable and digital to help them achieve their objectives.
Ripple transfers only take 4 seconds to complete and transaction costs are a fraction of a cent.
RaiBlocks
RaiBlocks is a zero fee cryptocurrency founded by Colin LeMahieu and its currency is called XRB.
RaiBlocks is a unique cryptocurrency project, it uses a concept called "block lattice" where each Raiblocks account has it's own blockchain and every block contains just one transaction, this removes the need for miners to verify transactions and since there are no miners, no one needs to be compensated with fees, which means... zero fee transactions!
RaiBlocks transaction times are 10 - 30 seconds on average.
Where to buy Cardano (ADA), TRON (TRX), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Ripple (XRP), RaiBlocks (XRB), plus many more cryptocurrencies:
Binance
Binance is a cryptocurrency-to-cryptocurrency exchange where you can use Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) to purchase the many cryptocurrencies they have on offer.
To buy cryptocurrencies from Binance you simply need to create an account, then transfer some Bitcoin or Ethereum to your Binance account, you can find your Bitcoin or Ethereum wallet by going to "Funds" then "Balances", this will show you how much of each cryptocurrency you own, it will also show you the deposit and withdrawel options, click on "deposit" to see the deposit addresses which you can send BTC or ETH to.
Now you simply go to your exchange or wallet where you hold your BTC or ETH (for this example I am using BitPanda) and then navigate to the "send" section, now you simply copy and paste the address from Binance, lets say you wanted to deposit Ethereum since it is faster, you would copy the Ethereum "deposit" address from Binance and paste into your wallet or exchange when sending. You simply go to "send" and then paste the address into the receiving/payout address.
Once the transfer has completed you simply go back to Binance and click on exchange, then click on "basic", the default trading pair is BTC but if you desposited ETH you should click on the ETH trading pair.
Next you simply search for the cryptocurrency you want by typing its name in the search bar or you can search for it using its ticker symbol, for example if you wanted to buy Cardano, you will search for its ticker symbol which is ADA, on the exchange it will appear as ADA/ETH (or ADA/BTC if you are using Bitcoin to buy it).
Now you simply go to the "Buy ADA" section and input the amount you want to buy (Binance automatically estimates the maximum for you depending on your ETH/BTC balance and your asking price), if you want you can even change the price that you want to pay, for a good reference look at the buy and sell orders on the left.
Once you input the amount you need, you simply click on "buy" and you are done!
If you do not have any Bitcoin or Ethereum, you can use BitPanda (if you live in Europe only for now, you can also buy Ripple directly from there), CEX or Coinmama to buy some (this guide goes into greater detail regarding the purchase of Bitcoin or Ethereum worlwide).
There you have it! That's how you can buy Cardano (ADA), TRON (TRX), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Ripple (XRP), RaiBlocks (XRB) plus hundreds of other cryptocurrencies using Binance, if you do not have an account you can sign up using the link below:
click here to sign up to Binance cryptocurrency exchange
I hope you found this post helpful, feel free to check out these useful resources below:
Keep your cryptocurrencies safe and secure with a Ledger hardware wallet.
Buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash and Dash from BitPanda if you live anywhere in Europe.
Buy Bitcoin and Ethereum from anywhere in the world using CEX or Coinmama.
Get your favourite cryptocurrencies/altcoins from Binance cryptocurrency exchange. (Note: You need BTC or ETH to buy altcoins).