Okay, you may have noticed recently a lot of hype and press coverage around Bitcoin. It has been pretty phenomenal, last weekend even my Mum asked me – “what is this Bitcoin malarkey?” Also, last week that Deutsche Bank released a paper titled: Cryptocurrencies and blockchains – their importance in the future. It’s a good read, and for my own understanding i started to read around and make notes of the main cryptocurrencies and the key differences between them. Following is a summary of my analysis:
Summary: Bitcoin, Etheruem, Ripple & Litecoin:
Bitcoin – A decentralised cryptocurrency:
- Founder: Satoshi Nakamoto
- Description: Decentralised cryptocurrency used in a peer to peer network
- Founded: January 2009
- Market cap: 56% *
- Maximum amount: 21 million Bitcoins
- Transactions made via: Blockchain / mining
- Transaction time: 10 minutes
- Hashing Algorithm: SHA-256
- Mining: Processor intensive
- Price per USD: BTC/USD: 17,571 **
Ethereum – A Decentralised Platform Running Smart Contracts:
- Founder: Vitalik Buterin
- Description: Ethereum – decentralised platform that runs smart contracts
- Founded: January 2014
- Market cap: 13% *
- Maximum amount: 18 million per year
- Transactions made via: Decentralized programs or smart contracts
- Transaction time: 12-14 seconds
- Hashing Algorithm: Ethash
- Mining: Memory intensive
- Price per USD: ETH/USD: 610 **
Ripple – A Digital Currency and Real Time Gross Settlement Payments System:
- Cryptocurrency: Ripple
- Founder: Chris Larsen & Jed McCaled
- Description: Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange and remittance network by Ripple
- Founded: 2012
- Market cap: 4%*
- Maximum amount: 100 billion Ripple units
- Transactions made via: Ripple Labs issued currency
- Transaction time: 4 seconds
- Hashing Algorithm: Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm (RPCA)
- Mining: Not mined
- Price per USD: XRP/USD: 0.32 **
Litecoin – A Peer to Peer Cryptocurrency
- Cryptocurrency: Litecoin
- Founder: Charles Lee
- Description: Similar to Bitcoin – Litecoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open source software project released under the MIT/X11 license
- Founded: October 2011
- Market cap: 3% *
- Maximum amount: 84 million units
- Transactions made via: Mining based on uncomplex algorithm
- Transaction time: 2.5 minutes
- Hashing Algorithm: Scrypt
- Mining: Memory Intensive
- Price per USD: LTC/USD: 332 **
* As at 13-December-2017: ref – https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/
** As at 12-December-2017
References:
- DB – Cryptocurrencies and blockchains – their importance to the future
- CNBC – Another bitcoin rival leaps to a record high, surpassing litecoin’s market value
- Cryptocoin Mastery – Bitcoin’s Market Cap Surpasses 61% Of Total Crypto Market Cap
- CoinCentral – What is Litecoin? | A Beginner’s Guide
- CoinCentral – How long do Bitcoin transactions take?
- Etheruem – History of Ethereum
- Ripple – 10 Things You Need to Know About XRP