Cryptocurrencies are one of the most exciting technologies in the world today. They are a new and disruptive type of currency, which is not controlled by any central bank or people such as governments or banks. There are different types of cryptocurrencies, some of which you can buy with real money, others which have value only within their own ecosystem. Some are easy to understand and even easier to invest in, while others may require more knowledge and understanding. Here we will take a look at the top 5 digital currencies to invest in today.
Ethereum – Ethereum was launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin, a Russian-Canadian programmer. It is designed as a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference. These apps run on a custom distributed blockchain, an incorruptible digital ledger which is used for recording transactions and it’s estimated that over 150k new ICOs have been created since Ethereum has been launched.
The cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) was built on top of Ethereum and it’s the second biggest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin with its market cap valued at around $45 billion. Though its price has dropped off for some time now, the price has started recovering lately with the current price
This cryptocurrency list is based on many factors and it’s important to understand that this is not a financial advice. This is only a guide to help in choosing the best digital currency today.
Top 5: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple and Dash (Bitcoin).
Why are these top 5 cryptocurrencies?
The main reason is because there are many digital currencies that have been created recently. So if you are looking for a guide on which one to invest, you can start with the ones that have existed for some time and have been well tested.
Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency, meaning it works without any central authority. Since the inception of Bitcoin in 2009, there have been over 1,100 other cryptocurrencies to follow.
The demand for cryptocurrencies is growing rapidly. The big difference between Bitcoin and most of the other cryptocurrencies is that Bitcoin has a fixed supply (21 million Bitcoins will ever be created). The vast majority of the other cryptocurrencies are built on top of the bitcoin technology.
Many people are using bitcoins to buy illegal things such as drugs or arms. However, there are many legitimate things you can do with bitcoins, such as trading them on a cryptocurrency exchange or accepting them as payment for goods and services. Many countries around the world have recognised Bitcoin and other related currencies as legal payment methods.
Bitcoin is the leading cryptocurrency, but we are seeing a lot of new rivals. Some of these are better than bitcoin, and some are worse. In this article, I will tell you what they all have in common, and which ones you should be paying attention to.
Cryptocurrencies:
Bitcoin – Bitcoin is a peer to peer electronic cash system which uses a distributed database where all the transactions are recorded.
It allows online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.
It has a finite amount of 21 million bitcoins. The number of bitcoins that will ever exist is expected to be halved every 210,000 blocks which will occur approximately every 10 years.
Ripple – XRP is a secure, global settlement network for banks and payment providers built on the Ripple Consensus Ledger.
It enables instant, certain and low-cost international payments anytime anywhere.
Ethereum – Ethereum is an open blockchain platform that lets anyone build and use decentralized applications that run on blockchain technology.
It uses a token called ether which can be transferred between accounts and used to compensate participant nodes for computations performed.
Litecoin – A peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant payments to anyone in the world. It is based on an open source global payment network similar to Ripple’s consensus ledger but differs in terms of how its mining and issuance process functions.
Monero – A secure, private and untraceable currency launched in April 2014. It uses ring signatures (similar to Zcash’s zero-
Bitcoin is the first and most famous cryptocurrency, but others have followed. There are now hundreds of digital currencies, including Ethereum, Monero and Ripple. They have become an investment opportunity for speculators and professional traders.
Cryptocurrencies are not regulated by a central body like the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England. Instead they are based on a technology that enables them to be transferred electronically between people. Their value comes from their usefulness as a payment system, rather than from any intrinsic value – although it is possible that some will become more useful than others in future.
Like other forms of money, cryptocurrencies are vulnerable to market forces. If all the world’s governments suddenly agreed to issue their own digital currencies, there would be almost no point in having them at all: everyone would just hold dollars instead. But if one currency gains in popularity over another, and people start trusting it more than dollars, then its value will rise until it becomes impractical to hold anything else; then people will switch back to dollars.
The problem with cryptocurrencies is that you can’t get them if you aren’t in the virtual world. That’s a big disadvantage for us sitting in the real world, because it seems like we shouldn’t be able to get any money at all. But think about it: real money doesn’t move around the internet. It’s a physical thing, held in our hands and in bank accounts. And as soon as we write code to move money around, we bring it into the virtual world.
Cryptocurrencies are very young, but they have already created a new kind of economy, where regular people have a chance to participate. You can buy or sell things without having to trust anyone else. The prices are not fixed by anyone except the people who set them. You don’t need any central authority to keep track of everything that’s happening; instead, people running computers make up a rule book on their own, and run a computer program that enforces those rules on everyone else.
Cryptocurrencies are not just a new way of moving money around. They’re also new ways of organizing society.