It’s probably not a secret that I’ve gotten quite into crypto in 2021, after sitting on the sidelines for a number of years. I don’t have a ton of money in the crypto market (just a few hundred dollars) but it is something I actively follow and am slowly but consistently investing in. It can be a lot to take in and know where to even start researching so I’d love to do a little overview post. The cryptocurrency space, as you’ll learn is quite fond of acronyms. One you may encounter is “DYOR”, which stands for do your own research. Crypto is still a very young space and things can change very quickly. If you go back and look at the top crypto coins from 5 years ago it’s likely a very different list than it is now. So, this is definitely not financial advice but as I’m into crypto and figure you might be too, we could chat about it! Let’s explore some of the top cryptocurrencies out there that are making news for the unique problems they are attempting to solve!

First, no conversation about crypto currency would be complete without mentioning bitcoin. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, and it still holds an important place in today’s crypto markets. Since its introduction, Bitcoin has also inspired a huge number of spinoff cryptocurrencies built on similar decentralized peer-to-peer networks. Though there’s no denying Bitcoin’s ongoing importance in modern crypto markets, it’s worth taking a look at the other promising ‘altcoins’ (as they are called). Read on to find out about the cryptocurrencies that experts believe might be the next ones to change the world.

1. Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum, often the 2nd most popular cryptocurrency, uses a decentralized platform designed to enable smart contracts and apps that can be built and run without downtime or centralized control. Its goal is to create financial products that can be accessed from anywhere in the world without the risk of fraud or interference from third parties. As a result, it has been gaining popularity among people in countries that lack state infrastructure or identifications to allow access to traditional financial products. Think of smart contracts as contracts that don’t require a 3rd party intermediary. They are quite common in loans right now. Let’s say you lend 1 bitcoin and want to be paid 1.05 back. The borrower will put up collateral (let’s say 10 ETH) and those 10 ETH will be locked in the smart contract until the 1.05 bitcoin is paid back. No third party is required to manage this loan, simple and easy! There are more use cases that are being explored like real estate, other contracts and NFTs, which you can think of them as digital art.

The Ethereum platform uses ether as a cryptographic token, which can now be purchased and used by not just developers but also investors who want to purchase other digital currencies. In theory the more valuable the ethereum network is, the more valuable the ether token is. Though Ether was only launched in 2015, it has already grown into the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, following Bitcoin. Investors can learn more about Ethereum and ether at Coinbrary.

2. Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin was one of the first altcoins to be established after Bitcoin’s entry into the market. If Bitcoin is the gold of the crypto world, Litecoin is known as its silver. The primary benefit of Litecoin over Bitcoin is that the open-source global payment network uses “skrypt” as proof of work, allowing for faster block generation and transaction confirmations. One common criticism of bitcoin is that it’s expensive (relatively speaking) to send to someone else and that it takes 10 minutes or so. Litcoin aims to solve that by being faster and cheaper.

Litecoin’s increased speed isn’t the only thing that has industry experts paying attention. A growing number of merchants have been adopting Litecoin in recent years. As of January 2021, the altcoin had a market capitalization of $10.1 billion and was the sixth-largest cryptocurrency.

3. Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is a proof-of-stake cryptocurrency developed by engineers, mathematicians, and cryptographers. Proof-of-stake is meant to be a more fair and more environmentally way to mine the cryptocurrency vs proof-of-work which in theory is more secure and more fair. Cardano has a similar use case to ethereum although it’s not as advanced as ethereum is, it’s making big promises! The creative team behind Cardano developed its blockchain technology using peer-reviewed research and extensive experimentation. They have since published over 90 papers on blockchain technology.

Because Cardano was established using research-based methodologies, it stands out among proof-of-stake altcoins. Though Cardano is still in its early stages, its creators managed to beat Ethereum to the proof-of-stake, consensus-based blockchain model. Their plan is to grow Cardano into the world’s first financial operating system.

4. Polkadot (DOT)

If there’s one thing that sets Polkadot apart from its proof-of-stake competitors, it’s the creators’ focus on using the platform to promote interoperability among other blockchains. Polkadot allows users to connect blockchains and allow disparate systems to work together. Its core interoperability components are “parachains,” or parallel blockchains, which come with native tokens for specific-use cases. If that seemed like a lot to take in, I hear you. The idea is that in the future, blockchains (which record the information about the transactions of the cryptocurrency it’s supporting) will need to talk to each other or interact in some way. Blockchains on blockchains, or blockchains to connect blockchains if you will.

Unlike Ethereum and Cardano, Polkadot allows developers to create their own blockchains with the same level of security as the existing Polkadot chain. There’s no need to implement independent security measures, which means even new and smaller projects can be easily protected from attack.

Summary

There are a lot of altcoins and blockchain platforms out there. While none of them have managed thus far to eclipse Bitcoin in terms of popularity or market capitalization, many of them show great promise in terms of improved technology, security, and accessibility. It’s worth learning more about other projects out there to keep up with the up-and-coming altcoins.

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