Like it or not, if you want to be freer tomorrow, you will need some form of money. The newest forms of money to appear on the scene are cryptocurrencies (cryptos for short). An all-digital alternative to cash, they have been all over the news recently. You've probably heard of Bitcoin, the first, most popular and best known cryptocurrency. But the crypto world is now much more than just Bitcoin.
Bitcoin, the king of cryptos.
Bitcoin (BTC) is the first, largest, and most popular of all cryptos.
There are hundreds of cryptos in use, with more appearing every week. And to understand any of them involves some heavy-duty math, along with the ability to sift through massive amounts of hype and marketing BS. It is tempting to just say the heck with it and avoid the whole crypto thing altogether. But that could be a mistake.
Many brilliant and serious people (from academics to managers of multi-billion dollar funds think this is more than just a fad. Whether as a form of digital money outside the control of gavernments, or as a speculation, they think cryptocurrencies are here to stay.
Getting Your Head Around Cryptos
You don't have hundreds of hours to spend studying how cryptos work. And you don't have the PhD in math needed to really understand how it all works anyway (god knows I don't). So how do you deal with this?
As of today (September 2017) there are five really important cryptocurrencies. These five:
- Bitcoin (and its recent derivative, Bitcoin Cash)
- Litecoin
- Ripple
- Ethereum (and Ethereum Classic)
- Dash
are the most important cryptos in terms of market share and name recognition. If you can get your head around the basics of these, you will be in good shape. You will be able to think intelligently about what's going on and whether you want to be part of it. You will also have a basis for interpreting all the crypto "news" you'll be seeing in the media and hearing from your co-workers around the water cooler.
Of course, for us Steemians, STEEM is very important. But in terms of market share and so on, our favorite crypto just isn't there yet. I guess that means we need to keep posting and keep promoting Steemit.com whenever we can!
To help you get your head around the important cryptos, Jeff Desjardins of VisualCapitalist.com has created an incredible infographic. It presents the key facts about each of the top cryptos in a visual, easy-to-understand format.
NOTE: Jeff breaks these out into six cryptos by treating Ethereum and Ethereum Classic separately. But however you count them, these are the most important cryptocurrencies (aside from STEEM) to learn about today.
Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist
View the high resolution version of this image at the Visual Capitalist website.