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Developed by software developer Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin was the first digital currency to hit the market. This electronic payment system is based around a mathematical proof, making money independent from governments, banks, and other central authorities. In the beginning, internet users were skeptical about using it, and it was often seen as money for geeks and criminals. Nonetheless, Bitcoins success over the years has led to the launch of thousands of other cryptocurrencies on the market.

Here are the top four blockchain-based currencies that evolved after Bitcoin. These digital currencies are commonly known as altcoins.

Ethereum (ETH)

From a technological point of view, Ethereum is the second most significant cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. Technically, the coins are known as Ether (ETH), and Ethereum is the platform that supports the currencies. However, well just stick with the colloquial word, Ethereum to refer to both for simplicity sake.

Ethereum was developed to aid in smart contracts creation, execution, and implementation. This feature attracts many blockchain-based software developers and companies using ICOs to raise capital. Ethereum is among the hottest cryptocurrency trends in 2020, and experts predict that it will overtake Bitcoin soon.

Litecoin (LTC)

Unlike Ethereum, Litecoin is a Bitcoin-based cryptocurrency that was created with several improvements over BTC, making it faster and more robust. Similar to Bitcoin, the currency is designed for peer-to-peer payments and not as a token in a certain application.

Litecoin has been around since 2011, and it has been skyrocketing in both value and usage. However, Litecoin is more volatile than Bitcoin and isnt as widely accepted for making payments.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

Like Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash is yet another successor for BTC. This digital currency was created to address the scalability issues in Bitcoin, but inheriting the ledger of all BTC transactions before August 2017. Additionally, it uses bigger blocks of transactions that have ever occurred since then.

Though many industry experts supported the launch of BCH as Bitcoins successor, some still oppose it vehemently. As such, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are still operating separately and simultaneously. Both cryptocurrencies use the PoW (Proof of Work) consensus mechanism when creating new coins, though Bitcoin Cash doesnt incorporate Segregated Witness to accommodate more transactions in each block.

Ripple (XRP)

Ripple is a digital currency native to the Ripple Network, providing real-time transfer, currency exchange, and money transfer services for financial institutions. Unlike other blockchain applications, Ripple was specifically designed for financial institutions and not businesses or consumers. It also uses a consensus process to validate ledger transactions.

Unlike Bitcoin which is completely decentralized, Ripple is managed and maintained by a specific company, which also validates the system. Fortunately, the Ripple network is a lot faster than Bitcoin. More importantly, XRP price skyrocketed in 2017, and the company that manages Ripple is now worth billions of dollars.

Bottom Line

While there are hundreds if not thousands of blockchain-based digital currencies out there, these four crypto coins are the major players that rose due to Bitcoins success. Most of them have been trying to overtake Bitcoin for years, though none of them have successfully done that. Nonetheless, these cryptocurrencies will change the way people and organizations process transactions.

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Blockchain Currencies That Evolved Post Bitcoin - MENAFN.COM