Bitcoin is the first publicly used cryptocurrency as a mean of exchange that combines decentralized control and anonymity of users. With this, no one can monitor its transaction path. It was created by a programmer by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym he invented for himself to remain anonymous. In actual sense, no one knows his real name or his country and he remains unknown. Bitcoin is mined from an incorruptible virtual ledger referred to as blockchain using mathematical algorithms. This blockchain is distributed across a network of computers worldwide and individual miners run computational analysis to mine it. The miners are rewarded for their work by earning bitcoins. The value of bitcoin varies daily due to many factors. Currently in existence is over two billion dollars worth of bitcoin and the mining of the coin is estimated to stop when the available bitcoin itself reaches 21 billion coins. Bitcoin is the leading cryptocurrency, its path is being followed by the majority of other cryptocurrencies, now widely accepted as a medium of exchange. It has only been around for a few years and has proven beyond reasonable doubt to be the future of money.

Bitcoin Cash is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that is built on the world's most robust blockchain technology. It is easy to use, hassle-free and you can send cash globally with very little transaction costs charged. This cryptocurrency has fast transaction times that is confirmed in minutes, and it runs on a reliable network that operates without congestion. Bitcoin Cash fulfils the original promise of bitcoin as a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and it offers unrestricted growth, permission-less transactions, decentralized development and global adoption. Bitcoin Cash offer features such as on-chain scalability, transaction signatures that provide protection, improved wallet security as well as responsive Proof-of-Work difficulty adjustment that allows miners to migrate from the legacy Bitcoin blockchain as desired.Because it shares a common root with bitcoin, anyone that had bitcoin at the time Bitcoin Cash was created automatically became owners of bitcoin cash. It should be noted that there was a ledger split on 1st August 2017 and any transactions after the ledger split completely separated Bitcoin from Bitcoin Cash. Due to the split, Bitcoin Cash now has its own market price, transaction history and mining network.Bitcoin bought after the split, therefore does not have bitcoin cash included in it. Bitcoin Cash is among the leading cryptocurrencies based on cryptocurrency market capitalization and it still remains one of those making waves in the market.

Formerly referred to as Darkcoin and Xcoin, Dash is another open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency designed on the blockchain technology just like Bitcoin. It was developed by Evan Duffield and it was released on the 14th January 2014. It aims to be the most user-friendly and most-scalable cryptocurrency in the world. Within the first two days of its release, about 1.9 million coins were minedDash offers an instant transaction, is faster than Bitcoin and operates on a self-funding and self-governing model. This allows it to pay individuals and businesses in its network after tasks that add value to the network have been performed. These individuals are miners and they are rewarded for validating, storing, serving and securing the blockchain which is the core from which the cryptocurrency is mined.Dash’s blockchain works as a layer of network servers that work in highly secure clusters called quorums to provide a variety of decentralized services, like instant transactions, privacy and governance, while eliminating the threat of low-cost network attacks. Its blockchain has a layer where jobs, such as the creating of new blocks, are performed by miners while the second layer referred to as Masternode is responsible for instant transaction confirmations and government functions. Dash is among the top performing cryptocurrencies based on market capitalization and it has become the most active altcoin community on crypto platforms like BitcoinTalk.

Although blockchain is commonly associated with Bitcoin, there are lots of other cryptocurrencies based on the same technology, the leading among them being Ethereum.Although there are some significant technical differences between the two, the most important distinction to note is that Bitcoin and Ethereum differ substantially in purpose and capability. Bitcoin offers one particular application of blockchain technology, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that enables online Bitcoin payments, whereas Ethereum emerged to correct some of the main criticisms that were made towards Bitcoin – especially in terms of security. What it accomplished was to ensure and provide safer transactions, more flexible contracts that are compatible with any wallet, as well as short block times to ensure easier confirmation of transactions.Ethereum is more available than bitcoin. More than two-thirds of bitcoins have already been mined, whereas access to ethereum is still widely available. Ethereum is a more secure, flexible, easy to use, and transact altcoin. It has brought innovation in terms of investment and entrepreneurship. Unlike Bitcoin blockchain that is used to mine and transact bitcoin, the Ethereum blockchain focuses on running the programming code of any decentralized application.

Ethereum Classic is a decentralized, open-source, public, immutable and unstoppable cryptocurrency that is blockchain-based, distributed on a computing platform featuring smart contract functionality. It runs exactly as programmed without any possibility of censorship, downtime, third party interference or fraudEthereum Classic is not a new cryptocurrency but rather a split from an existing cryptocurrency, Ethereum. Just like Bitcoin Cash is a continuation of the original Bitcoin blockchain, Ethereum Classic is a combination of the original Ethereum blockchain with an untampered history that is free from external interference and subjective tampering of transactions.Ethereum platform split or forked into two versions: Ethereum Classic and Ethereum. Prior to the division, the cryptocurrency had been referred to as Ethereum, and after the fork, the two cryptocurrencies were called Ethereum and Ethereum Classic respectively. The old one being Ethereum Classic and the new version, Ethereum. The two cryptocurrencies have different blockchains and are independent of one another. However, they have the very similar features.Ethereum Classic is among the cryptocurrencies that have performed extremely well in the markets in 2017 based on market capitalization. Businesses in the cryptocurrency world seem to be warming towards Ethereum Classic as some cryptocurrency exchange platforms announced late in 2016 that they will integrate Ethereum Classic on their exchange.

IOTA is a new cryptocurrency based on a blockless blockchain technology. Unlike other cryptocurrencies that are peer-to-peer focused, IOTA is focused on seamless and feeless machine-to-machine (M2M) transactions. IOTA provides secure, efficient and real-time micro-transactions without any charges. It is a decentralized and open-source cryptocurrency that is specifically engineered for the Internet of Things, its real-time micro-transactions providing an ecosystem that is ready and flexible for scale. IOTA has potential for indefinite scalability, offline transactions and zero transaction costs. It is a cryptocurrency with an extension of the blockchain ecosystem. Rather than blockchain, it works with Tangle.Tangle retains blockchain features of an open and distributed ledger with secure transactions but does not operate with blocks. Instead of blocks, as used in regular blockchain, Tangle utilizes a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) for it transactions. DAG enables various features like zero-cost transactions, infinite scalability and offline transactions that blockchain cannot do and is unlikely to develop. IOTA is among the top 10 cryptocurrencies based on market capitalization and it enables companies to explore new business-to-business or machine-to-machine models by making every technological resource a potential service to be traded on an open market in real time, with no fees.

Litecoin is a cryptocurrency based on blockchain technology that was released via an open- source client on Github in late 2011 by a former Google employee named Charlie Lee, the same technology that is responsible for the deregulation and decentralization of most cryptocurrencies. It has substantial industry support, liquidity and trade volume and went live on 13th October 2011. It is a peer-to-peer digital coin and open-source software cryptocurrency, its design and transaction is based on an open-source cryptographic protocol (blockchain). Although technically identical to the leading cryptocurrency (bitcoin), it has some minor differences, especially in value and adoption. Due to its adoption of a technology referred to as SegWit (Segregated Witness), Litecoin allows for a greater amount of transactions to be carried out by the network within a specific time frame and each transaction is at an almost zero payment cost. Its estimated transaction time is up to four times faster than that of bitcoin. Litecoin became one of the top five competitive cryptocurrencies by market cap in May 2017 and since then it has been making waves in the digital coin world. It is accepted as a proven medium of commerce complementary to Bitcoin.

Unlike many cryptocurrencies that were designed and planned based on the bitcoin template, Monero is an open-source cryptocurrency based on CryptoNote protocol. It is designed on blockchain technology and is decentralized, meaning it is secure and operated by a network of users. It was forked from Bytecoin in April 2014 and focuses on privacy, decentralization and scalability that runs on different operating systems including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and FreeBSD.Monero was originally released with the name BitMonero, the name from ‘Bit’ (as in Bitcoin) and ‘Monero’ (coin in Esperanto). It was then changed to Monero. Monero experienced its first rapid growth in transaction volume and market capitalization in 2016. In early 2017, the privacy of Monero transactions were strengthened by its adoption of Bitcoin Core’s algorithm Confidential Transactions which helped to hide amounts being transactedMonero is a secure and untraceable cryptocurrency. With Monero you are your own bank, you are in charge of your fund and every transaction carried out is protected from the prying eyes of scammers. According to it developers, Monero is fungible, and highly unlikely to be blacklisted by exchanges or vendors.

NEM is a blockchain based on cryptocurrency that offers a streamlined method of maintaining a secure network of transaction ledgers. It was designed and programmed to ensure scalability, speed and security of transactions carried out on its network. NEM’s blockchain is open, public and can continuously grow without compromising on stability and thoroughness. Unlike most other cryptocurrencies, NEM has a stated goal, a wide distribution model with added features to its blockchain technology such as encrypted messages, a proof-of-importance (POI) algorithm, and multi-signature accounts. NEM also operates on a Smart Asset System that focuses on building exactly what users need whether it is an ICO, document notarization, decentralization and more. NEM’s architecture is designed to ensure both flexibility and simplicity of development. The blockchain on which it runs is supported by nodes, running software that implements unique consensus mechanism and NEM’s feature set. You can use the blockchain in any language you prefer without the need to re-implement existing business logic or further development in an unfamiliar environment. The NEM blockchain software is now used in a commercial blockchain referred to as Mijin and is being tested by different financial institutions as well as private companies in Japan and around the rest of the world.

Neo is the first ever Chinese open source cryptocurrency that was released in 2014 to re-invent how commerce is done in the commercial capital of the world, China. It was created to shift our traditional economy into the new era of Smart Economy. It is a blockchain based cryptocurrency designed to create a new ecosystem for smart contracts. NEO rocketed into the top five cryptocurrencies based on coin market capitalization, charging past other cryptocurrencies it met in the market. Formerly known as Antshares, it was designed as a close copy of Ethereum blockchain although uses a unique blockchain algorithm that improves on the Ethereum’s model. Ethereum, however, still remains the foundation on which NEO is built. NEO supports decentralized commerce, identification and digitization of different assets. NEO has strengthened and secured the blockchain from loopholes that left some of Ethereum’s contracts vulnerable to hackers. NEO boasts an expert team of programmers While many new ICOs (initial coin offerings) have teams that advance on the pre-sale of its coin and its potential value, NEO takes another stance, that its team is accessible to the public, to discuss and develop the real-world applications of the cryptocurrency.

Built on a standard blockchain technology that is advanced, secure, scalable, and interoperates a myriad of networks, Ripple provides optional access to the world’s most scalable and one of the fastest cryptocurrencies for transactions and payments. Ripple was created and released in 2012 by a company of the same name, Ripple as an open source protocol in order to ensure a secure payment network with nearly free and instant global transactions with no chargebacks. This cryptocurrency is built on a technology similar to Bitcoin. However, the source code is owned and kept safe by the company. Although it cannot be verified by any external body or individual except the company, the network is decentralized and it can function without the intervention of the company, Ripple. However, it is still regarded as a cryptocurrency. Being an open-source protocol, it serves as a means of digital interbank transactions that allow banks and non-bank financial services bodies to incorporate the Ripple protocol into their own system. Due to this, Ripple has a popular network globally and its principle is now used by many banks as the basis for their settlement infrastructure. Ripple has consistently been among the top 5 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization for several years since its release and is not showing any signs of slowing down which would have it moving down the rankings.