All thanks to media and skyrocketing prices of Bitcoin. Almost everyone has either heard about it or is interested in acquiring it for financial gains. The statistics are telling us that the general public is taking interest in Bitcoin more than ever. Coinbase one of the biggest exchange for buying Bitcoin has gone down several times in past weeks owing to unusual traffic. Interestingly, it has become the most downloaded application on Apple app store beating Facebook, WhatsApp, and other popular applications.
At the time of writing this, Bitcoin is being traded at $15,571. Now if you are thinking that Bitcoin is out of reach or you have lost the train. You can have a look at these alternative coins.
NOTE: This is not an investment advice. Present performance doesn’t necessarily mean future growth as well.
1. Ethereum (ETH)
Currently trading at $697.16
Taking the concept of decentralization forward, Ethereum acts as a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts; smart contracts in Ethereum work as they sound. Multiple users can agree on certain terms and sign them digitally, when the preset conditions of the contract are fulfilled, the contract is automatically executed. This means that users can automatically carry out transactions or perform some specific action on the blockchain. An example of this would be selling shares to someone if the share prices rise or drop to some certain level.
In Ethereum protocol, there is a price for each operation execution which is usually called burning or consuming Gas. The cryptocurrency of Ethereum protocol is called Ether and it is used for transaction fees and computations. Buy Ethereum in Pakistan using credit card.
2. Monero (XMR)
Currently trading at $324.36
Monero is a secure, untraceable, and private cryptocurrency. It is open-sourced. The coin uses CryptoNight algorithm and is based on Proof of Work. Monero is improving on existing cryptocurrencies by concealing the sender, recipient and the amount of each transaction.
3. Litecoin (LTC)
Currently trading at $300.32
Litecoin can be called as the sibling of Bitcoin. It is the closest to Bitcoin and only has small technical differences. Litecoin processes a block every 2.5 mins much quicker than Bitcoin which processes in 10 mins and it uses scrypt in its proof-of-work algorithm.
4. Ripple (XRP)
Currently trading at $0.7608
Ripple is the 3rd most popular coin according to its market standing at the moment. It is not a competitor to Bitcoin but rather considers itself a complement. Ripple allows fast borderless transactions. It is peer to peer. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Ripple can’t be mined. There are 100 billion Ripples out there and as a result of each transaction a small number of Ripples are destroyed which adds a deflationary measure to the system. Learn how you can buy Ripple in Pakistan.
5. IOTA (IOT)
Currently trading at $3.96
IOTA is quite different from other coins mentioned here. The main innovative feature of IOTA is a blockless distributed ledger which is scalable and allows transfer of value without any fees. Irrespective of the size of transactions, IOTA transactions are free, scalable i-e unlimited number of transactions can be handled at any given time and the confirmations are fast.
Image: CoinTelegraph
