Bitcoin has always been the de facto standard of the crypto space ever since it was introduced to the world more than a decade ago, it has been the leader in terms of the user base, market cap, and it’s popularity, however, there are plenty of other well-known cryptocurrencies that are referred to as Altcoins (alternative coins) that have also dramatically growing and gaining popularity, let’s review some of them in this post:

First, what is a Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a sort of virtual money that utilizes cryptography to perform transactions that are carefully recorded on a distributed ledger, in other words, it’s a system that allows secure payments online without the need for a third party such as banks.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital currency that is built on its blockchain with the same name, which was first introduced as a research paper back in 2008 by the person or a group of people calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto, describing blockchain and bitcoin technologies. The two names then became two separate concepts since thousands of blockchains have been created and thus more and more cryptocurrencies have also been built on top. Thus the name AltCoin came into existence.

What is an Altcoin?

As mentioned, the name altcoin came into existence when lots of cryptocurrencies have been gaining popularity other than the leader coin Bitcoin. To learn more about Altcoins please refer to Altcoin Investing: What Investors Need to Know (investopedia.com)

9 altcoins to watch for other than Bitcoin

1. Ethereum (ETH)

The first Altcoin in this list, according to Ethereum.org “Ethereum is the community-run technology powering the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of decentralized applications.” In other words, a reason to buy ether is because of the blockchain it lives on, it’s also the blockchain where tons of other tokens have been built on.

2. Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is a blockchain that enables transaction validation with low energy costs thanks to its Proof-Of-Stake algorithm called Ouroboros, according to its developers, Cardano has great potential again thanks to its algorithm for decentralization, and the ability to scale to global requirements, all of that without compromising its security.

3. Polkadot (DOT)

DOT is the token that runs over the Polkadot network, it’s designed for three main purposes, enabling governance, operating the network, and bonding the DOT tokens to create parachains.

4. EOS (EOS)

EOS is seen as a competitor to Ethereum as it is a developer to facilitate large transactions rapidly and safely, also it’s extremely fast and scalable, developer-friendly, focused on security and compliance.

5. Stellar (XLM)

Stellar is a network for all sorts of payments. That means it’s designed to make it possible to send and trade all forms of money including Bitcoin, US Dollar, pesos, and pretty much anything.

6. Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin is originally launched as a joke, but the crypto market has been realizing slowing it’s getting real when it started skyrocketing and reached its all-time high at $0.68, but it’s currently trading at a cheap price of around $0.25 per coin.

7. Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance Coin is a payment method for the fees needed on trading operations on the Binance exchange, it’s the third cryptocurrency in terms of the market cap thanks to the Binance exchange that is one of the tops and widely used crypto exchanges in the world.

8. Tether (USDT)

USDT is another stablecoin that is –as the name suggests—tethered to the US dollar, for 1$, it’s unlikely to move anywhere far from that price just like the USDC is.

9. Monero (XMR)

Monero is a currency that came into existence in 2014 and ever since has been gaining popularity in the crypto space, it aims to enable privacy, security, and scalability thanks to its special algorithm called “ring captures”.