What are the differences in the big cap Cryptocurrencies

Hello, welcome back to the blog, if you’ve been reading the blog regularly, you may notice that more of my posts are centered around blockchain, cryptocurrency and virtual currency. There is a very good reason for this and I will explain this at a later date, but let’s just say...it’s something that is prominent within our company and a keen interest of many of our employees.

This post is designed to give you a brief overview of the ‘big caps’ or ‘large caps’ if you are not aware this term refers to a company with a market capitalisation value of more than $10 billion. I have not included Bitcoin as I have already done a blog post on this Cryptocurrency. These companies are alternatives to Bitcoin and below I will explain why they are different and how that could benefit you as an investor.  

Ethereum

Platform for smart contracts

No max supply

Ethereum, created in 2015, is the name of a blockchain company that has created the digital token ether. However, Ethereum and ether are now used interchangeably to refer to the cryptocurrency. Ether is backed by a blockchain, but the technology is slightly different from Bitcoin and aimed at a specific use case of smart contracts.

Take a trade finance deal, for example. This relies on each party in the deal having a paper or digital copy of the contract and needing to update it individually. It's arduous and prone to error.

But a smart contract is one that is written in code into a blockchain. Once the terms of the contract are met by each party, a deal will be executed.

It relies on deals being made and exchanges, the data is then uploaded to the blockchain, and then when the contract needs verification the nodes provide that verification and then the contract is irreversible.

Ripple

Currency exchange

Max supply: 99,991,874,018 XRP

Originally released in 2012 as a subsequent iteration of Ripplepay, Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), currency exchange and remittance network.

It uses a common ledger that is managed by a network of independently validating servers that constantly compare transaction records, Ripple doesn't rely on the energy and computing intensive proof-of-work used by Bitcoin.

The company that built the Ripple protocol, OpenCoin, was co-founded by CEO Chris Larsen and CTO Jed McCaleb. McCaleb is well-grounded in digital currency, coming from Mt. Gox, which currently handles the majority of the world's bitcoin trades, around 70%. Larsen previously co-founded and led the online financial company E-LOAN.

Ripple's XRP unit is a digital form of currency based on mathematical formulae and has a limited number of units that can ultimately be mined. Both forms of currency can be transferred from account to account (peer-to-peer, or P2P) without the need for any intervening third party. And both provide digital security to guard against the possibility of counterfeit coins.

The main difference is that Ripple is not a blockchain. Ripple uses a HashTree to summarise the data into a single value that is compared across its servers.

Bitcoin cash

Currency exchange

Max supply: 21,000,000 BCH

Bitcoin cash was founded by Roger Ver in 2017 who was a large investor in Bitcoin.

Bitcoin cash was developed because some developers were concerned about the high transaction times on the bitcoin network. As a result, they proposed a solution that would increase the size of each transaction and therefore boost the speed. But not all in the community agreed with the proposal, resulting in the split.

On their website, they make promises that according to Ver, Bitcoin couldn’t keep, such as empowering ‘low fees’ and ‘reliable confirmations’. They promise unrestricted growth, global adoption, permissionless innovation and decentralised development to their investors.

Eos

Smart contracts and storage

Max supply: 1,006,245,120 EOS

Created: January 2018

Based on a white paper published in 2017, the EOSIO platform was developed by the private company block.one and released as open-source software on June 1, 2018.

The aim of the platform is to provide decentralized application hosting, smart contract capability and decentralized storage of enterprise solutions

Litecoin

Currency exchange

Maximum supply: 84,000,000 LTC

In 2011, Charlie Lee created Litecoin, a decentralised Cryptocurrency used to buy goods or services. A benefit of this is that there are no charges or fees for transferring Litecoins, it is safe, secure and there is no need for banks. Charlie Lee is now also employed by Coinbase.

Zcash

Currency exchange

Maximum supply: 4,623,606 ZEC

The Zerocoin protocol was improved and transformed into the Zerocash system, which was then developed into the Zcash cryptocurrency in 2016. In March 2017, the Zcash Foundation was launched to support the evolution of Zcash.

The founder and CEO of Zcash Company is Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn. In addition, some of the founding team includes cryptographer Matthew D. Green. Roger Ver (of Bitcoin cash) was also one of Zcash Company's initial investors.

Zcash payments are published on a public blockchain, but users are able to use an optional privacy feature to conceal the sender, recipient, and amount being transacted, giving the whole process extra anonymity.

“In an open and programmable financial system, privacy is the only way to ensure fungibility and guarantee that cryptocurrency can be interchangeable as a fluid medium of exchange for users. Companies need the protection of privacy along with their supply chain in order to conduct their business, especially in the context of public blockchains. In addition, we believe that personal privacy is necessary for core human values like dignity, intimacy, and morality.”

Zcash offers extra security through the optional privacy feature which enables you to conceal the sender, recipient and amount.

Stellar

Currency exchange

Max supply: 104,224,393,646 XLM

“Stellar is a platform that connects banks, payments systems, and people. Integrate to move money quickly, reliably, and at almost no cost.”

In 2014, Jed McCaleb, founder of Mt. Gox and co-founder of Ripple, launched the network system Stellar with former lawyer Joyce Kim.

Monero

Currency exchange

Maximum supply: Once the total number of monero will reach 18.3 million then the money supply will stop decreasing and stay at a constant rate of 0.3 Monero per minute. 

Monero was created in April 2014 by an unknown source.

Some of its features include the fact it is secure, decentralised, untraceable and fungible - what is fungible?

Well, fungible means the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are essentially interchangeable.  

Tether

Currency exchange - ‘blockchain bank’

Max supply: 3,080,109,502 USDT

Currency backed by real money 1=1

Every tether is always backed 1-to-1, by traditional currency held in our reserves. So 1 USD₮ is always equivalent to 1 USD.

It is the most stable cryptocurrency as it is able to transfer 1USD = 1USDT

USDT provides an alternative to Proof of Solvency methods by introducing a Proof of Reserves Process.

There are no transaction fees and buying and selling Tether for Bitcoin can be done through a variety of exchanges like the ones mentioned previously or through the Tether.to platform, which also allows the conversion between USD to and from your bank account.

Have you invested in Cryptocurrency yet? what is your preference? 

Let us know!