How big is the cryptocurrency ecosystem?

( Updated: 12 Jul 2019 )

It is much bigger than what you may think of, actually...

Below I summaries what are they entailed and I hope this can help to showcase the current cryptocurrency components and its ecosystem. And trust me, it's definitely more than just about Bitcoin and/or Ethereum alone.

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A. The Coins and the Blockchains (ledger) itself

To date, there are more than 3000+ coins exists with varieties of different PoW/dPoW/PoS/Hybrid(dual-chain) algorithms.

Don't forget to combined that with the add-ons features and improvements such as Privacy Layer (zerocoin, zk-SNARKS, zk-STARKS), Smart Contract, DAO, dApps, etc.

B. The Block Explorers (to verify the transactions)

Bitcore/Insight API, ElectrumX, etc.

C. The Wallets (to store the coins)

Electrum, QT, Swing, CoPay, Web Wallet, Paper Wallet, Hardware (Ledger Nano S / Trezor / KeepKey), Multi-Wallets (ZelCore, Exodus, Coinomi, Trust, Crypto.com), etc.

D. Mining Pools / Masternodes (the networks)

Hundreds of them exists for different types of networks such Zelnodes, etc. and algos such as SHA256, Scrypt, Cryptonight, Ethash, Equihash, ZelHash (Equihash 125_4 + some twists), Zhash (Equihash 144_5), Safecoin (Equihash 192_7), ProgPoW, X11, NIST-5, X16R, X16S, CryptoNight, Wild Keccak, CryptoNote-v7, PHI1216, etc. And that should also include the Internet, the Hosting Providers, Also... don't forget the Solo Miners too..

E. Mining Hardwares (the gears)

ASIC Manufacturers - Bitmain's AntMiner, Baikal's Mini/Giant, Kodak's KashMiner (licensing-scheme), Halong's DragonMint, Obelisk DCR1/SCR1, Innosilicon A9, etc.

GPU Chips Manufacturers - nVidia, AMD, etc.

GPU Cards Manufacturers - ASUS, Gigabyte, Samsung, MSI, Zotac, Palit, EVGA, PowerColor, etc.

GPU Cards Distributors, Rig Builders, DIY Component Retailers.

F. Mining Softwares (the tools)

At least more than ten avail for different H/W and algos such as Gminer, MiniZ, LolMiner, DSTM, EWBF, Claymore, Bminer, CCminer, SGminer, Suprminer, CPUminer, XMR-Stak, Nicehash, etc. Also some dedicated OS for mining such as EthOS, SmOS, HiveOS, etc.

G. Cloud Mining - Rent the hash power

H. Exchanges (the marketplace)

Decentralized such as OpenLedger, Waves, BarterDEX, CryptoBridge, Exvo, Kyber, BinanceDEX, Coinswitch, CryptoWolf, ZelEX (coming);

And about less than hundred of centralized exchanges such as: Bittrex, Binance, Huobi, Bitfinex, Kraken, Yobit, HitBTC, KuCoin, Coinbase, Gate.io, IDAX, TradeSatoshi, Stock.Exchanges, TradeOgre, Graviex, AltEx, etc.

I. Market-price Info Provider

Web: CoinLib.io, Crypto Compare, Coin Market Cap (CMC), Coin Gecko, WhatToMine, Coincalculators.io, etc

Mobile App/Widget: TabTrader, Bitcoin Ticker Widget, CoinLib.io, Crypto Tracker, CoinMarket-App, Crypto News

J. Community Platforms

Forums/Collaboration: BitcoinTalk, Reddit, Github, Medium, SteemIt, Trello

Chats: Discord, Slack, Telegram, WeChat (mostly chinese-speaking), IRC

Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Weibo, and recently Linkedin.

K. Communities (the peoples)

Blockchain Devs, Bot Devs, Backend nodes devs, Frontend Programmers/Designers, Community Moderators, Community/Tech Supports & Marketing/Shill Teams, PoolOps, Miners, Traders, Advisors, Investors, General Participants, FOMOers, FUDders, Trolls, Spammers, etc.

Well, all the above is by no-means to be an exhausted list.

I believe there are still so much more that I may missed-out here and if so... feels free to pen your comments on this article and let the list grows ;)