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The word cryptocurrency has a prefix crypto which stands for cryptography, which means a technology that helps to keep the information safe and hidden from the hackers or attackers. Cryptography earlier in history class was defined as the secretive messages which were sent and received by the Allied forces in the World war 2. At present the computer techies put the same cryptography to use in many ways and one such way is Cryptocurrency. It can also be defined as the electronic money created to control the technology and protect the transactions, while hiding the users identity.
The transaction with the cryptocurrencies do not need banks anymore but the transactions are processed on blockchains. Blockchain is a distributed public database. It is called a public database because it runs by a number of people and companies unlike the banks which has single database. No single entity has the power over the cryptocurrencies and their transactions and does not require a single entity to handle them.
Bitcoin:
At present there are around 17 million Bitcoins and 4 million more need to mined. This low limit with Bitcoins is good for its price, which means with a lot of people wanting to buy bitcoin but its quantity being less end up buying them for a high price. This way the price goes up. The bitcoins are more easier to be converted into cash than other cryptocurrencies because, Bitcoin being popular it is easy to exchange for fiat currency like USD or EUR. The bitcoin is available on every crypto exchange in the market, which means its trading volume is high and also the highest among all the other cryptocurrencies. It currently dominates over 40% in the market which is very huge.
Ethereum:
In contrast to Bitcoin is Ethereum which is a platform that allows users to build dApps, smart contracts and tokens. Ether is the currency or Token of Ethereum. Ether is used to pay as the transaction fees on the dApps, as dApps work on Ethereum Blockchain. Ethereum process the transactions in a matter of few seconds, but bitcoin transactions takes up to 10 minutes.
Ripple:
Ripple is actually a blockchain which is designed to be used by the banks to make the payments faster. It is also called as the bankers coins. Huge financial organizations have been partnered with Ripple and many more yet to partner. It is actually an alternative to Fiat currency and the best option within the world of finance.
Litecoin:
Litecoin which is the fork of Bitcoin, Bitcoins blockchain had Litecoins blockchain as a part of it, but Litecoin split when an update was offered. Litecoin was created to improve upon Bitcoin. Lately Litecoin was a lot in the news because it will be the first crypto to use Lightning Network. The Lightning network helps to solve a lot of issues related to cryptocurrencies such as the scalability. Using this network litecoin will also be able make transactions per second.
For more cryptocurrencies, please checkout the following infographic developed by our friends at Mrbtc.org on - 33 Cryptocurrencies Described in Four Words or Less.
https://mrbtc.org/about-33-cryptocurrencies/
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://www.digitalcoinnews.com/intro-to-top-33-cryptocurrencys/