Comparison of cryptocurrencies
Revision as of 05:01, 1 June 2017 by Davidhedlund (talk | contribs) (There are over 700 cryptocurrencies on the market, there is no chance we can compare most of them here. Changed * The currency must have a market cap of 1 million US dollars. to * The currency must have a market cap of 10 million US dollars.)
At this writing there are 735 cryptocurrencies on the market. This article aims to list only the most relevant cryptocurrencies.
To be listed here, a currency must have one of the following qualities:
- The currency must have a market cap of 10 million US dollars.
- The currency must be the first to introduce an innovative protocol.
- The currency must have at one point had significant notoriety.
- The currency must have been an infamous fraud.
- The currency must be decentralized (anonymous).
Coin | Symbol | Launched | Consensus tool | Distribution | Market cap | Unit cap | Status | Anonymous | Notable comments |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anoncoin | ANC | 2 Jun 2013 | Zerocoin | Zero-knowledge proofs | $0.8 million | 4,200,000 | Developed | Yes | Introduced support of I2P and Tor. |
Bitcoin | BTC | 3 Jan 2009 | SHA256d | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | $36 billion | 20,999,999.9769 | Active | No | First blockchain |
BitcoinDark | BTCD | 16 Jul 2014 | SHA256d | ? | $30 million | ? | Abandoned for Komodo | Yes | |
Bitcoin Testnet 1 | TNBTC | 21 Oct 2010 | SHA256d | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | None | 20,999,999.9769 | Abandoned | No | First altcoin[1] |
Bitcoin Testnet 3 | TNBTC | 12 Apr 2012 | SHA256d | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | None | 20,999,999.9769 | Active | No | Current Bitcoin testnet |
BitShares | BTS | 21 Jul 2014 | ? | ? | $158.9 million | ? | Active | No | |
Bytecoin | BCN | 4 Jul 2012 | CryptoNight | Proof-of-work (random, smooth) | $414 million | 184.46 billion | Active | Yes | Introduced CryptoNote. |
Cloakcoin | CLOAK | 7 Jun 2014 | ENIGMA | Peer-to-peer | $4.7 million | ? | Active | Yes | |
Dash | DASH | 18 Jan 2014 | X11 | Proof-of-work (fixed, curve) | $914 million | 19 million (estimate) | Active | Yes | |
Dogecoin | DOGE | 6 Dec 2013 | scrypt | Proof-of-work (random) | $278 million | Unlimited | Active | No | Was joke, became huge |
Freicoin | FRC | 21 Dec 2012 | SHA256d | Proof-of-work | $0.084 million | ? | Active | No | First demurrage cryptocurrency |
HunterCoin | HUC | 1 Feb 2014 | SHA256d and/or scrypt | Game rewards, Proof-of-work | $2 million | 42,000,000 | Active | No | First blockchain-based game |
Komodo | KMD | 5 Feb 2017 | ? | ? | $54 million | ? | Active | Yes | |
Litecoin | LTC | 7 Oct 2011 | scrypt | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | $1.2 billion | 83,999,949.9076 | Active | No | TBX clone |
MaidSafeCoin | MAID | 22 Apr 2014 | Bitcoin | Central | $166 million | 452,552,412 | Active | No | |
Monero | XMR | 18 Apr 2014 | CryptoNight | Proof-of-work (random, smooth) | $584 million | ~18,400,000 then <1% inflation | Active | Yes | |
Namecoin | NMC | 18 Apr 2011 | SHA256d - merged mined with Bitcoin | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | $23 million | 20,999,999.9769 (like Bitcoin) | Active | No | First alternative chain, bitDNS |
NEM | XEM | 31 Mar 2015 | Proof-of-importance | Peer-to-peer | $1.7 billion | 9 billion | Active | Yes | Introduced the proof-of-importance (POI) algorithm. |
Nxt | NXT | 29 Sep 2013 | Consensus through obscurity[2] | Central | $51.6 million | 999,997,096 | Active | No | |
Peercoin | PPC | 19 Aug 2012 | Central authoriy[3] | Proof-of-work/stake | $35.6 million | Unlimited | Active | No | |
PIVX | PIVX | 1 Feb 2016 | Quark | proof-of-stake 3.0 | $83.9 million | ? | Active | Yes | It was first launched under the name of Darknet (DNET) on February 1st 2016. |
Primecoin | XPM | 7 Jul 2013 | Cunningham | Proof-of-work | $7.2 million | Unlimited | Active | No | First "useful proof-of-work" altcoin |
Ripple | XRP | 1 Mar 2011 | Ripple | Central | $8.2 billion | 28,989,252,282 | Active | No | |
Tonal Bitcoin | TBC | 2 Jan 2011 | See Bitcoin | See Bitcoin | See Bitcoin | 7,750,54.00 | Active | No | First on-chain alternative |
Zcash | ZEC | 28 Oct 2016 | Zerocash | Zero-knowledge proofs, Proof-of-work (Equihash), with a portion of each block subsidy distributed to founders for the first four years. | $338 million | 21,000,000 (like Bitcoin) | Active | Yes | First cryptocurrency that implemented the zerocash protocol. |
Zclassic | ZCL | 10 Nov 2016 | See Zcash | See Zcash | $5 million | See Zcash | Active | Yes | First Zcash-based currency without the 20% fee for miners made by Zcash. |
Zcoin | XZC | 28 Sep 2016 | Zerocoin (Zero-knowledge proofs), Merkle Tree Proof of Work ( Proof-of-work) | $16.9 million | 21,000,000 (like Bitcoin) | Active | Yes | First cryptocurrency that implemented the zerocoin protocol which also makes it the first useful Zero-knowledge proof based anonymous cryptocurrency. First that implements Merkle Tree Proof of Work (MTP). |