Every serious cryptocurrency enthusiast will come across the word “Altcoin” at some point in their research.
Essentially, the technical term “Altcoin” refers to any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin. We are going to discuss the reason behind this, as well as different interpretations that people frequently use.
Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the white paper on Bitcoin in November 2008. He/they published their blockchain in January 2009, marking the beginning of the era of cryptocurrencies.
Thus, Bitcoin was the world’s first cryptocurrency.
Following its inception, the concept of an alternative digital currency based on Bitcoin has inspired thousands of imitators, giving rise to the term “Altcoin”. Alternatives to Bitcoin include the words “alternative” or “alternate”.
There may be advocates of the theory that altcoins also entail a certain disdain for Bitcoin competition. Luckily, they are in the minority.
On the other hand, it is more common to refer to the different blockchains with the term “Altcoins”.
Then, above all, we should mention Ethereum (ETH) alongside BTC. All other coins that are created from hard forks or are based on an existing blockchain from the start are called Altcoins.
We can continue this explanatory approach by using the word “Altcoins” when it comes to the type of protocol used on the blockchain.
Accordingly, Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake or Delegated Proof-of-Stake would currently be the reference points for the term Altcoins.
Best Bitcoin Alternatives
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum pioneered the conceptualisation of a blockchain platform for smart contracts. A smart contract writes a term of agreement as code that follows a logic of if-then statements.
If the parties meet certain requirements, a certain contractual clause automatically comes into force.
Usually, third parties, like lawyers, make sure that a contract is followed. With smart contracts, however, the blockchain takes over this role, so there is no need for a third party to build trust between the parties.
Smart contracts allow trusted transactions and agreements to be made between parties who don’t know each other and don’t need a central authority, a legal system, or an outside way to enforce the agreement.
They are meant to cut down on the need for trusted third parties between contractors. This will cut down on transaction costs while increasing the reliability of the transactions.
Ethereum’s main innovation was the development of a platform that allows running smart contracts using the blockchain. This enhances the already existing benefits of smart contract technology.
At the same time, Ether (ETH), the native token of the blockchain, is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Ethereum is not based on the traditional client-server model. Instead, it is based on a distributed and therefore decentralised concept.
Ethereum’s decentralised blockchain networks are now the leading platform for decentralised apps (dApps for short). Ethereum is the infrastructural basis for many projects in the field of blockchain technology.
There are hundreds of blockchain projects built on the Ethereum Standard/Ether code that have developed various applications. Projects such as games, decentralised exchanges, DeFi applications, and many more.
The Ethereum Foundation calls its crypto project “a new era of the Internet”.
However, it has some drawbacks. We’ll go over those in more detail in the Polygon section further down.
Smart Contracts
Ethereum’s core technology is based on smart contracts. They are to be interpreted as executable programmes written in the Solidity programming language.
They operate similarly to traditional contracts in the real world. The smart contract stores an agreement between the two parties in the form of programmatic logic.
It is considered done when the contract’s goal is met and a certain amount of Ether is exchanged.
The use cases include insurance, access control, and, of course, decentralised exchange transactions (DEX).
Decentralised stock exchanges, or “Dex,” are places where digital coins can be traded. Their trading volume has skyrocketed in the last year.
Uniswap, Sushiswap, and Curve Finance are the most well-known.
There are a lot of big crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Gemini, but a Dex differs greatly from them.
Anyone who wants to use Coinbase and other services needs an account. Furthermore, they have to submit identification documents and put their assets in the hands of the providers.
They facilitate trading between their clients through the use of a traditional order book. That is why they are also referred to as “Cex,” an abbreviation for “centralised exchanges.”
Uniswap, on the other hand, employs a different strategy.
They built the exchange on the Ethereum blockchain, which is the technology behind the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether. They set the marketplace up in a decentralised way.
No individual or corporation owns the exchange. Instead, a group of people run Uniswap who make suggestions and vote for them.
The main idea is that Dex allows users to trade assets directly with each other without having to use intermediaries.
Thus, the exchanges exemplify the crypto community’s dream of true decentralisation. A market that works without the help of a government, regulators, banks, or other intermediaries.
Solana (SOL)
Solana serves as Ethereum’s primary competitor, offering similar functionalities, such as smart contracts and NFTs. Antoly Yakovenko, a developer, came up with the concept in 2017.
When it comes to transaction costs, Solana can do better than Ethereum because these costs aren’t high at all.
The underlying blockchain proceeds through tens of thousands of transactions every second, but with Ethereum, that number is only 100 per second.
Decentralised financial applications and other smart contracts are the primary functions of Solana, which serves as a platform for them. On the platform, users can borrow, trade, lend, and use assets, among other things.
Solana is a victim of his own success. A system failure in September revealed the system’s limitations.
The cryptocurrency is still haunted by a system failure that occurred in September and lasted for an entire 17-hour period. Because of blockchain overcrowding, Solana was essentially a victim of its own success.
For the time being, it appears that the trend of the NFT boom will not be reversed. Eventually, Solana must be able to show that it is technologically superior to Ethereum in order to succeed.
The expectation that it will be able to compete with Ethereum is still very high. Dropouts because of technical difficulties, such as the one that occurred in September, should not happen again.
Polygon (MATIC)
Polygon, like most of its competitors, has performed poorly in recent weeks. The native token, MATIC, is trading at around $0.70, as it has been for the past few days. The coin is down about 75% from its all-time high, bringing the total market cap to about $5.5 billion. It is the 17th largest cryptocurrency in the world. (2022/05)
The first version of Polygon came out in 2017 under the name MATIC Network. Three Indian computer programmers, Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun, were responsible for its creation.
At first, the project’s primary goal was to solve the scaling problems of Ethereum. Transactions should get cheaper and faster. In February 2021, they renamed the token Polygon. Polygon’s objectives have since grown.
This will improve Ethereum’s infrastructure, and it will also make it easier to cooperate with other blockchains.
Polygon wants to turn the Ethereum network into a multi-chain ecosystem by adding more technical tools to it. Polygon calls itself the Internet of Blockchains for Ethereum.
THE PROBLEMS OF ETHEREUM
Efficiency is one of Ethereum’s biggest problems. It can only process up to 30 transactions per second right now.
As Ethereum becomes more and more popular, this processing rate is too slow and urgently needs to be sped up if it is to become a mainstream currency in the long run.
The high transaction costs of Ethereum also make it hard to use. The so-called “gas fee” on Ethereum is often higher than the actual volume of trading.
For example, buying an NFT using Ethereum can cost hundreds of dollars in fees. There are also limits to what developers can do with Ethereum.
THE FUTURE POTENTIAL OF POLYGON
If Polygon achieves its self-imposed goals, this development will benefit both users and developers. The system should be able to handle up to 65,000 transactions per second.
Also, it will be easier to make sure that transactions are safe. In general, the ecosystem would be more diverse.
This would probably make the price of MATIC go up as well. You can add Polygon to your portfolio if you are an investor who wants to bet on the company’s ideas for the future.
POLYGON’S APPLICATIONS
Whether non-fungible tokens, decentralised finances or initial coin offerings, the Ethereum platform is being used more and more often for large projects and new trends in the crypto sector.
Due to increasing awareness and the number of users, scaling problems are becoming more and more visible.
This is where Polygon comes in. It is already possible today to carry out much cheaper and faster transactions using Polygon.
So far, over 7000 DApps have used Polygon to scale their performance. Polygon plans to help Web3 applications grow in the future by building the right infrastructure.
Because Ethereum and Polygon are similar, we can easily move tools built on Ethereum to Polygon to use its benefits.
THE TECHNOLOGIES BEHIND POLYGON
Polygon is a layer 2 scaling solution that conceals a number of highly complex technologies. It creates a second network level, which gets around Ethereum’s scaling problems.
Polygon’s key chain is called the Matic POS Chain and is a sidechain of Ethereum. It also uses a technology called “plasma scaling”.
It uses Proof-of-Stake to secure all other Polygon-based blockchains. Polygon is now one step ahead of Ethereum, which is still using the Proof-of-Work consensus process.
Miners contribute computing power to the blockchain in order to confirm blocks. Only Ethereum 2.0 is expected to implement Proof-of-Stake.
Fantom (FTM)
Cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular. The Fantom coin, for example, is also quite fascinating. In a nutshell, the crypto coin is an improved version of Ethereum.
The major difference is that transactions are faster and, more importantly, less expensive. This makes Fantom ideal for handling large amounts of data.
We will demonstrate the potential of this cryptocurrency in the following sections.
The South Korean scientist, Dr. Ahn Byung lk, developed and introduced the Fantom Foundation. Since 2018, the cryptocurrency has been on the market.
The principal goal of Fantom’s creator was to make a better cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin and Ethereum, in particular, have a few problems.
It takes a long time to do a transaction, and they can do only a few per second. (BTC 7; ETH 15). The fees for transactions are pretty high, and these crypto-networks need a lot of energy to operate.
As a result, they are not well suited to processing large amounts of data and transactions. This also implies that these cryptocurrencies do not scale well.
With Fantom, it appears completely different. This network can process up to 25,000 transactions per second.
Also, transactions are quick and cost little. The amount of energy needed is also much less, which is another benefit. In general, both the Fantom network and the coin have many advantages.
As already mentioned, transaction speeds are very high. Therefore, numerous dApps can also operate on this network.
Experts assume dApps will play an increasingly important role in the future. This applies to companies as well as to intelligent households and intelligent cities.
In these areas, the ability to process a lot of data is very important. As a result, the Fantom coin is likely to play a much larger role in the future.
The Fantom network uses the cryptocurrency Fantom coin (FTM) as a means of payment. As the network grows in popularity, so will the demand for this cryptocurrency. This will certainly result in rising prices.