For those of you who like or observe technological developments, the term Bitcoin may already sound familiar. Bitcoin is one of the most famous cryptocurrency types in the world. Cryptocurrency itself is a digital currency that uses encryption techniques to regulate each new currency unit and verify every fund transfer that occurs. This digital currency operates independently without central bank intervention.
Although Bitcoin is the most widely discussed cryptocurrency, there are actually many cryptocurrency types in the world. This time, Tech in Asia summarizes ten of them, which is also a cryptocurrency with the largest market capitalization based on Coin Market Cap analysis.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) is the first cryptocurrency and is touted as the best. BTC was created by Satoshi Nakamoto and launched publicly in open source in 2009. Total circulation of Bitcoin amounts has now reached 14 million BTC. The prize for miner bits stops when the Bitcoin circulation reaches 21 million to be achieved by 2140.
Market capitalization: USD3.3 billion (Rp42 trillion)
Ripple
Ripple also known as XPR is a digital currency originally developed in private by Ripple Network to create a secure, easy, and fast payment system. However, in 2013, Ripple Network decided to make this project open source under the ISC license. Ripple uses the Consensus algorithm that allows distributed payment, exchange, and remittance processing.
Market capitalization: USD253 million (Rp3 trillion)
Litecoin
Litecoin or LTC was officially released to the public in 2011. Cryptocurrency was created by a former Google employee, Charles Lee, with the aim of making Bitcoin better. The advantages offered by LTC is the duration to produce blocks that only takes 2.5 minutes, faster than BTC which takes up to 10 minutes. This can happen because LTC uses a Scrypt algorithm that is known to be simpler and faster than the SHA-256 algorithm used by BTC.
Market capitalization: USD54 million (Rp704 billion)
DASH or Darkcoin
DASH is an extension of Digital Cash originally named Darkcoin and must be replaced for marketing purposes. In contrast to BTC and lTC, DASH uses the X11 algorithm that uses 11 different hash rotation functions. This algorithm is touted more quickly and uses a more efficient computer performance.
Market capitalization: USD15 million (Rp195 billion)
Stellar
Stellar is a cryptocurrency established in early 2014 by Jeb Mccaleb and Joyce Kim. The striking difference between Stellar and other cryptocurrencies is that 95 percent of these digital currencies are provided free of charge. This new digital currency coin is not obtained through mining because Stellar uses the Consensus algorithm that automatically generates new coins and verifies each transaction.
Market capitalization: USD13 million (Rp169 billion)
MaidSafeCoin
MaidSafe stands for Massive Array of Internet Disks - Secure Access For Everyone. A cryptocurrency developed by David Irvine in 2006, before it was officially released to the public in April 2014. MaidSafe's mining method differs from Bitcoin's verification method. To get the coins, the miners - called for cryptocurrency coin seekers - must provide a storage medium for storing MaidSafe.
Market capitalization: USD9.7 million (Rp126 billion)
NXT
NXT is a cryptocurrency launched in 2013 by anonymous software developer named BCNext. This digital currency uses a proof-of-stakes (PoS) system to handle transactions and the number of NXT coins. Similar to Stellar, NXT also does not allow for mining.
Market capitalization: USD9 million (Rp117 billion)
Dogecoin
Yes! You may also feel that the name of this digital currency reminds you of dogs. Because this digital currency is inspired by Shiba Inu, one of the most popular breeds of Japanese dog breeds through a meme on the internet. Dogecoin was originally created as a joke currency, but managed to attract the attention of internet users until finally developed more seriously and officially launched to the public in 2013. Dogecoin also uses a Scrypt algorithm like Litecoin, allowing users to do mining.
Market capitalization: USD8.7 million (Rp113 billion)
BitShares
BitShares begins with a thesis entitled "A Peer-to-Peer Polymorphic Digital Asset Exchange" by Daniel Larimer, Charles Hoskinson, and Stan Larimer. After completing the thesis and getting funding from a Chinese VC, Daniel Larimer decided to create a new digital currency called BitShares.
BitShares was first launched to the public in 2013. This digital currency uses the Consensus algorithm that allows all users to automatically approve, making it impossible for coin mining.
Market capitalization: USD8.4 million (Rp109 billion)
BanxShares
BanxShares is a cryptocurrency developed by Mark Lyford an entrepreneur who has been active since the 90s. Basically, BanxShares is the bank for storing cryptocurrency. However, if you want to save, users need to convert their digital currency to BankShares.
Market capitalization: USD7.3 million (Rp95 billion)