The Marketwatch site selected 7 of the most notable Bitcoin competitors in 2018, based on their "heat", their use and their value.
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1. Litecoin (LTC)
Market cap as of December 25: $ 15.11 billion
Volatility in 2017 (as of December 25): 7.004%
Litecoin was created by former Google engineer Charlie Lee in 2011 as an alternative to Bitcoin. With Litecoin, Lee aims to reduce new transaction confirmation times and refine Bitcoin's mining methods so anyone can participate.
"My goal is for people to use Litecoin for everyday transactions. It will be a payment option," Lee once said.
Litecoin has a limited amount of 84 million units, while the maximum number of Bitcoin is 21 million. In circulation there are currently 54 million Litecoins and 16.7 million Bitcoins.
2. Monero (XMR)
Capitalization: 5.3 billion USD
Volatility in 2017: 2,697%
Like Bitcoin, the identity of Monero's "father" is still a mystery. One of Monero's charms is its anonymity.
With this coin, the details of every transaction - including sender, receiver, value, are stored on a public ledger but in a "opaque" form so no one can track.
In theory, when using Monero, there is no way for one person to connect the sender, receiver and transaction value.
However, this factor also makes Monero attractive to criminals. Hackers behind last year's attack on 230,000 computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems worldwide WannaCry demanded a ransom payment in Monero.
There are currently about 15.5 million Monero coins in circulation. But unlike Bitcoin or Litecoin, this virtual currency is not limited in number.
3. Anchor
Capitalization: $ 3.92 billion
Volatility in 2017: 54,021%
Neo was created by Da Hongfei - the CEO (CEO) of Onchain, a blockchain expert in China, along with Erik Zhang.
Also known as the "Ethereum of China", the Neo is reported to explode if China takes a softer stance on fundraising by issuing virtual currency (ICO) and Bitcoin. Currently on the market there are about 65 million Neo, out of a total limit of 100 million units.
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4. Cardano (Ada)
Capitalization: 10.17 billion USD
Volatility in 2017 (since the transaction started October 2017): 1,528%
Cardano blockchain was developed by Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK). Despite having only been trading since October last year, Cardano exploded into the top 10 largest market cap coins in November and is currently ranked 5th.
According to CEO Charles Hoskinson, Cardano addresses the problems of "sustainability, compatibility, and scalability" that can be used by billions of people and connected to financial systems.
There are 26 billion Ada coins in circulation, out of a maximum of 45 billion units.
5. Ripple (XRP)
Market Cap: $ 40.5 billion
Volatility in 2017: 16,988%
Ripple software company was founded by web programmer Ryan Fugger, businessman Chris Larsen and software programmer Jed McCaleb in 2012. This is considered the "successor currency" of Bitcoin.
The New York Times once described Ripple as "a mix of Western Union and a virtual currency exchange, without hefty fees". Ripple is not only a virtual currency, but also a system on which any currency, including Bitcoin, can be traded.
"Ripple connects banks, payment service providers, digital asset exchanges and businesses through RippleNet to trade money globally," explained the Ripple founders.
Ripple has also licensed its blockchain technology to more than 100 banks.
Currently in circulation there are about 38.7 billion Ripple coins out of a total limit of 100 billion units.
6. Iota (MIOTA)
Market Cap: $ 9.7 billion
Volatility in 2017: 446%
The Iota coin was created by a team of businessman, mathematician and programmer David Sønstebø, Sergey Ivancheglo, Dominik Schiener, and Serguei Popov. The best part about Iota is that it has absolutely no transaction fees. Every Iota owner is also a "miner".
Iota focuses on being the backbone of secure payments between devices in the Internet of Things economy.
This is also the first virtual currency that does not use blockchain technology. Instead, Iota is based on a distributed ledger structure called "The Tangle" - an initiative that allows the coin to hit three important milestones: free transactions, offline transactions, and scalability. unlimited.
The news of the partnership with Microsoft is a big push to put Iota in the ranks of the most valuable cryptocurrencies. The maximum amount of this coin is 2.8 billion USD and all of this amount is circulating in the market.