What Are Cryptocoins?
How cryptocurrency works, where to buy it, and which ones to consider
by Brad Stephenson
Updated on August 25, 2019
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Cryptocoins, also called cryptocurrency or crypto, is a form of digital currency powered by blockchain technology. Cryptocoins do not have a physical, real-world equivalent. No physical coins represent cryptocurrency value, although some replicas have been made for promotional purposes or as a visualization tool. Cryptocoins are purely digital.
Bitcoin is the most popular example of a cryptocurrency but there are many more such as Litecoin and Ethereum that are made to rival it or be used in competing markets.
How Many Crypto Currencies Are There?
Hundreds of cryptocurrencies have been created since the debut of Bitcoin in 2009. Some of these have spun-off of the Bitcoin blockchain such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold. Others use the same technology as Bitcoin such as Litecoin, and many more are based on Ethereum or use their own unique programming language.
Like traditional fiat currencies (currency not backed by a physical commodity), some cryptocurrencies are more valuable and practical than others and most have a very limited use case. Given that anyone can create a cryptocurrency, it's likely that most will remain niche while only a few popular cryptocoins will achieve mass adoption through mining or investments and go mainstream.
What's The Most Popular Cryptocoin?
The No. 1 cryptocurrency by ownership, price, and usability is undoubtedly Bitcoin. Bitcoin's popularity is mostly a result of it being the first cryptocoin on the market and its unmistakable brand identity. Everyone's heard of Bitcoin and very few people can name another cryptocurrency. Many online and offline stores accept Bitcoin and it's also accessible via the growing number of Bitcoin ATMs popping up in major cities around the globe.
Major rivals to Bitcoin include coins such as Litecoin, Ethereum, Monero, and Dash while smaller cryptocurrencies like Ripple and OmiseGo also have the potential for larger adoption in the future due to their backing by major financial institutions.
Bitcoin spin-off currencies such as Bitcoin Cash (BCash) and Bitcoin Gold can get a lot of buzz online and their prices can appear impressive but it's unclear if they will have any true lasting power due to the growing perception of these coins as cheap imitations of the main Bitcoin blockchain.
Despite using the Bitcoin name, these coins are very much separate currencies from the main one even though they use similar technology. New investors are often tricked into buying BCash, thinking it's the same as Bitcoin when it's not.
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That bitcoin is natively digital and powered by computers running software capable of being shut down lends to the default impression that bitcoin is inherently fragile. The mental image of a computer network being unplugged creates the false sense that one day and suddenly, somehow bitcoin as a system could cease to exist when the opposite is true for the very same reason. That bitcoin both exists everywhere and nowhere, that it is controlled by no one, that anyone is capable of running the open source software from anywhere, and that hundreds of thousands of people do, relied upon by tens of millions (and growing) is what gives bitcoin permanence. With no single point of failure, bitcoin is practically impossible to stop because it is impossible to control, and it is a dynamic system that only becomes more redundant and further decentralized in time and with increasing adoption. In short, bitcoin is more permanent than risky because it is an antifragile system. An idea popularized by Nassim Taleb, antifragility describes systems or phenomena that gain strength from disorder, which is bitcoin to its core. There is no silver-bullet that kills bitcoin; there is no competitor that can magically overtake it; there is no government that can shut it down. But it does not stop there; each attack vector and shock to the system actually causes bitcoin to become stronger.ethereum вики equihash bitcoin loco bitcoin fpga ethereum блокчейна ethereum dance bitcoin ethereum бутерин ethereum сбербанк java bitcoin pizza bitcoin bitcoin шахта bitcoin продам
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An analogy is that a cryptocurrency is like a social network, except instead of being about self-expression, it’s about storing and transmitting value. It’s not hard to set up a new social network website; the code to do it is well understood at this point. Anyone can make one. However, creating the next Facebook (FB) or other billion-user network is a nearly impossible challenge, and a multi-billion-dollar reward awaits any team that somehow pulls it off. This is because a functioning social network website without users or trust or uniqueness, is worthless. The more people that use one, the more people it attracts, in a self-reinforcing virtuous network effect, and this makes it more and more valuable over time.что bitcoin
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