The Most Popular Bitcoin Alternatives | The College Investor Podcast
Bitcoin is still incredibly popular, and every now and then it will make the national news. The price is still highly volatile, but it's not as crazy as it was years ago. But picking a winner with Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency is near impossible. That's why we need to talk about Bitcoin alternatives.
The bottom line is that Bitcoin has limitations (we talk about some here). And there are other currencies that are working to overcome those limitations.
And over the last few years, Coinbase (the most popular Bitcoin investment platform) has also released other coins that you can invest in. Note: You get $10 free when you deposit $100 on Coinbase the first time.
In this episode, we break down the most popular Bitcoin alternatives, and whether you should invest. Check it out here.
Why Bitcoin DominatesBitcoin (BTC) is by far the most valued cryptocurrency available, according to coinmarketcap.com rankings, where it is ranked #1. Its market cap is $179,802,817,673 and it trades for $10,072.92 per coin. Bitcoin’s market cap makes it nearly eight times more valuable than ETH, the second most valuable cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin dominates the cryptocurrency market because it was the first crypto coin and became well-entrenched by the time other crypto currencies arrived on the scene. BTC showed up in 2008. The next cryptocurrencies weren’t created until 2011. By that time, BTC was already proven as a cryptocurrency.
Below are the most popular Bitcoin alternatives by rank.
Ethereum- $23,307,528,005 market cap
- Currently trading at $217.56
- Symbol is ETH
ETH is a relative newcomer in the cryptocurrency world compared to BTC. It was launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin. Shortly thereafter, ETH reigned as #2 and continues to hold that position with authority.
ETH’s goal was to provide smart contracts and dApps or distributed apps. These are features that BTC lacks. Smart contracts trigger when specific conditions are met. They act as a moderator, overseeing transactions, and making sure parties comply with the terms they originally agreed to.
For example, someone may agree to pay a software developer $500 after a job is completed. Once the developer submits code to GitHub, the submission triggers the contract to release the $500. Whatever the terms are, both sides must first agree, and then the contract is set up to execute on those terms.
Learn more about Ethereum here.
XRP (Ripple)- $0.319937 market cap
- Currently trading at $0.319937
- Symbol is XRP
Ripple was created as a fast method of payment exchange. Ripple is a platform and XRP is the coin used to transact on the platform. Ripple shines in its ability to facilitate international transactions. It is able to find the shortest path between two people wanting to transact.
Transactions can even be performed in other coins. Ripple charges commissions as low as $0.00001, which is needed to prevent DDoS attacks.
If Ripple has its own coin, why would it allow others coins on its network? The answer is to become more valuable. As currency moves from one country to another, it incurs various transaction costs. Banks and other financial institutions can use...