At first, alt coins were all clones of Bitcoins.
Here are the alt-coins in existence so far and their derivatives. Forks and clones of Bitcoins, you can click the dates on the left side of the website window and watch how many clones and alt coins grew from one branch to the next.
One of the well known of these alts is Litecoin, dubbed as the silver of crypto, with Bitcoin being the "gold" standard.
Litecoin touched its highest price at $48.48. Therefore, it has been very popular and is now enjoying good distribution. This is the reason why, while the dollar per Litecoin rate declined, Litecoin managed to stay ahead in terms of daily Bitcoin trading volume, compared to most of alts that are now in existence.
Bitcoin and its clones, were using POW (Proof-Of-Work), next step into the progression are the cryptos that innovate upon this and used the newer POS (Proof-Of-Stake), like Peercoin which came into the crypto-scene about Nov. 2012.
Time flows on, clones of Bitcoins are further cloned and innovated, until such a time that inter-blockchain operability became the fad. Where various cryptocurrencies, or assets can be exchanged in a given platform called Decentralized exchange. Like NXT, then NXT is cloned by Horizon. So forth and so on. As you can see from the website given above. There are myriads of cryptos, up to the present time.
They are all interesting, built to address different issues as they rise, like being ASIC resistant, some are made for privacy, security, while some are made for speed. Others with special applications such as game tokens and assets like the, Bitshares, Spells of Genesis' Bitcrystals and Storj for cloud storage tokens. And of course our Guild membership token CTGTOKEN based on Counterparty platform too.
We have seen the rise of Ethereum, putting emphasis on the innovation of the ability to create and execute "smart-contracts", which can be programmed within the platform to do certain things when the pre-configured requirements are met, such as the TIME, QUANTITY or other software detectable conditions. This platform boasts of making possible the HIGHEST GROSSING CROWDFUNDING in crypto history, with slock.it's THE DAO raising about $150 Millions. If only, it did not fail miserably on real life implementations. Affecting the reputation of not only "the DAO", but also all other tokens based on Ethereum.
Finally, we come here, for another stride forward in crypto space,and alts, Steemit is designed to reward Social network activities like posting, up-voting, commenting and even the mere act of joining the platform. Steem. Of course various projects similar to Steemit are also being undertaken by other developers, so far, Steemit/Steem is winning the race, and as you may be aware of. Is constantly under cyber attack. Whether the reason of the attack is greed, jealousy or boredom. Only the hacker knows. And in case you wonder if the platform really pays. I can attest to that, because I have already withdrawn about $800. Yes, it does.
Big corporations are slowly realizing the potentials of crypto currency, electronic product innovations are being designed to make use of IoT(Internet Of Things). Soon, crypto currencies, will be adopted by nations too, to fill the need of a One World Government for digital currency and financial control, maybe slowly at first, but we will eventually get there.
For the meantime, we take part in this exciting field of altcoins.
With this simplified introduction of alt-coins, I am hoping that you will somehow appreciate the span and magnitude of crypto-trading space. No one will be able to track all going-ons, that may affect the market movement. It is therefore, advantageous to join our guild, where everyone will lend a hand in providing timely information, that will enable each guild member to trade with knowledge. Along with all the guild perks included while having fun, just for a measly 0.0625 Bitcoins(in this period) to join. And this low price won't ever happen again.
Onward and upward. -east
GUILD POST #2