Cryptocurrency and Digital Currencies.

A cryptocurrency (or crypto currency) is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure the transactions and to control the creation of additional units of the currency. Cryptocurrencies are a subset of alternative currencies, or specifically of digital currencies.

There were more than 710 cryptocurrencies available for trade in online markets as of 11 July 2016 and more than 740 in total but only a few dozen had reached a market capitalization above $10 million above as of early 2017.

CRYPTOCURRENCIES

A cryptocurrency is a fully decentralized, secure, digital currency whose creation is controlled by cryptography. Cryptocurrencies are not issued by central banks and their value does not depend on bank policies. Unlike regular currencies where new money can be introduced in the money supply through quantitative easing, cryptocurrency prices are purely based on supply and demand. Bitcoin, created in 2009, was the first cryptocurrency. There currently are over 700 alternative cryptocurrencies, called Altcoins, such as Ethereum, Litecoin and Steem.

Cryptocurrencies are somewhat similar to precious metals, in that their creation is controlled and most have a cap on the amount of units, just like precious metals, which have limited minable amounts. One of our most popular chats is the public Cryptocurrencies chat where traders talk in real-time about where the Cryptocurrency market is going.

BITCOIN

Bitcoin (BTC) is the first decentralized digital currency, created in 2009. It was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto based upon open source software and allows users to make peer-to-peer transactions via the Internet that are recorded in a decentralized, public ledger. Bitcoin has the largest market capitalization by far of all cryptocurrencies, 19 times larger than the runner up Ethereum. The number of units is capped at 21 million, 16 million of which are available. The cap ensures that inflation won't decrease their value.

When users allocate computer processing power towards the mining of Bitcoins, they are rewarded with transaction fees and newly created coins. Units can be bought or sold against other cryptocurrencies or against fiat currencies like the USD or the EUR at many exchanges, which operate like physical currency exchanges. Units can also be saved or obtained in exchange for goods or services.

LITECOIN

Litecoin (LTC), released in October 2011, is a global decentralized digital currency, based on blockchain technology. It is often referred to as a lightweight Bitcoin, because it's technically nearly identical, but substantially cheaper. All transactions are recorded on a public ledger called The Blockchain. It allows faster processing and faster transaction confirmation. It has the fourth largest market capitalization of all the cryptocurrencies and is carried by many exchanges.

The number of units is capped at 84 million and almost 49 million are in supply. Because of this cap, inflation won't decrease their value. Litecoin miners use their computers resources to support the cryptocurrency that's based on an open source protocol and get rewarded with Litecoins if they have done a certain amount of cryptographic work. Units can be bought or sold against bitcoin or against a fiat currency like the USD or the EUR. You can also purchase goods and services with them.

ETHEREUM

Ethereum (ETH) is a relatively new cryptocurrency that was released in 2015. It has the second largest market capitalization of all the cryptocurrencies, though it's a distant second to Bitcoin which is 19 times larger. Ethereum was designed on a different technology than Bitcoin called blockchain. While Bitcoin was developed as a currency, to be used like regular money, Ethereum is also a platform and programming language that can be used to build and run applications on. As such, Ethereum has different intentions.

Miners, who contribute computing power either towards the creation of new blocks or towards the processing of transactions, are rewarded with new crypto-tokens called ether. Ether can be traded and used to run applications. As a tradable instrument Ethereum has done well and has grown into the biggest altcoin on the market. Ethereum units can be bought or sold against other cryptocurrencies or against fiat currencies like the USD or the EUR.

STEEM

Steem is a cryptocurrency that was released in 2016. It can be traded on the open market through cryptocurrency exchanges and obtained in exchange for goods or services. The price is very volatile due to the limited amount that's available on the markets. It's not very liquid and relatively small trades can move the price. Steemit does allows for mining, even though it’s not the primary way to earn money. Units can be bought or sold against other cryptocurrencies.

Steem has 3 distinct units:

• Steem, which can be bought and sold in the market
• Steem Power, which cannot be sold for 2 years
• Steem Dollar, which can be converted into Steem or Steem Power

Steemit is a social platform which attracts people that learn to use Steem naturally. The cryptocurrency has no cap on the number of units, as opposed to Bitcoin and Litecoin.

RIPPLE

Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), currency exchange and remittance network by Ripple. Also called the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) or Ripple protocol,  it is built upon a distributed open source Internet protocol, consensus ledger and native currency called XRP (ripples).

Released in 2012, Ripple purports to enable "secure, instant and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no charge-backs." It supports tokens representing fiat currency, cryptocurrency, commodity or any other unit of value such as frequent flier miles or mobile minutes. At its core, Ripple is based around a shared, public database or ledger, which uses a consensus process that allows for payments, exchanges and remittance in a distributed process.

As of 2017, Ripple is the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization bitcoin, ethereum, and Dash.

Used by companies such as UniCredit, UBS or Santander, the Ripple protocol has been increasingly adopted by banks and payment networks as settlement infrastructure technology, with American Banker explaining that "from banks' perspective, distributed ledgers like the Ripple system have a number of advantages over cryptocurrencies like bitcoin," including price and security.

DASH

Dash (formerly known as Darkcoin and XCoin) is an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that offers instant transactions, private transactions and token. Dash operates a decentralized governance and budgeting system, making it the first decentralized autonomous organization.

Dash uses a chained hashing algorithm called X11 for the proof-of-work. Instead of using the SHA-256 (from well-known Secure Hash Algorithm family) or scrypt it uses 11 rounds of different hashing functions. As of 2017, Dash is the 3rd most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization

DOGECOIN

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency Dogecoin has quickly developed its own online community and reached a capitalization of US$60 million in January 2014; as of March 2016, it had a capitalization of US$22.2 million.

Compared with other cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin has a fast-initial coin production schedule: 100 billion coins have been in circulation by mid-2015 with an additional 5.256 billion coins every year thereafter. As of 30 June 2015, the 100 billionth Dogecoin has been mined. While there are few mainstream commercial applications, the currency has gained traction as an Internet tipping system, in which social media users grant Dogecoin tips to other users for providing interesting or noteworthy content.