The best bitcoin alternatives

In a ever more crowded cryptocurrency market, which are the best alt-coins?

Bitcoin might still be considered the flagship cryptocurrency, upon which many of the other alternative currencies sail in the wake of, but that’s not to say it’s the only viable one. With more than 1,300 different cryptocurrencies out there now though, knowing which ones to put your money into isn’t easy.
Do you opt for one with a low price so you can buy a lot of them in the hopes of making a fortune? Do you buy the ones with low transaction fees or confirmation times to speed up transfers? This guide isn’t about giving you investment advice, but we’ll give you the best bitcoin alternatives based on features and current values. Whether you’re looking to use your cryptocurrency to pay for items online or simply want to put some aside to create a crypto-nest egg, these are the best bitcoin alternatives.

There’s no sure thing

Before we get into actually recommending alternative cryptocurrencies to bitcoin, it must be stated that investing in any cryptocurrencies, be they new or established is more akin to gambling than traditional investing. Prices can be extremely volatile and though we don’t think regulation is going to cause any real problems for the scene, it could and nobody knows for sure.
If you look around online though, you will find plenty of people looking to advise people to invest in ‘sure things.’ It might be something as niche as Dentacoin, or a new initial coin offering looking for funding. That’s not what we’re be doing here.
While the ceiling for profit is certainly higher on new cryptocurrencies which you can pick up at a fraction of a dollar, in this guide we’ll be recommending tried and tested coins which are less likely to bottom out and ruin your investment. We’ll be looking for established coins that have proved themselves over time as viable stores of value and transactional mediums.

Ethereum (ETH)

As much as bitcoin had a great 2017, Ethereum’s year was just as impressive. It went from a currency worth single digits at the start of the year to being worth more than $1,200 in the early days of the next. It also proved itself to have a greater ceiling (at least for now) than bitcoin in terms of handling transactions. In early 2018 more than four times the number of Ethereum transactions take place every day and they still happen far faster than bitcoin. Transaction costs are much lower too.

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Although some experts we spoke to still believe that bitcoin will remain the defacto posterchild of cryptocurrencies, rising in value and usefulness in the years to come, there’s no denying it faces some difficulties. Ethereum and newer alt-coins have fixed some of those potential problems, at least in the short term. Ethereum hasn’t yet hit the scaling issues that bitcoin has encountered, sending fees skyrocketing. It also incorporates additional features like smart-contracts, which could make Ethereum and its currency, Ether, the preferred cryptocurrency for a variety of industries in the future.

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Litecoin (LTC)Like many other the alt-coins on this list, there are many cryptocurrency investors who wished they’d bought a lot of Litecoin at the start of 2017. In January, you could buy individual litecoins for $4 a pop, but they would grow to more than $350 each at their peak at the end of the year. Although there is no guarantee (as with any cryptocurrency) that Litecoin will one day reach or even exceed that height, its relatively low-price at the time of writing could make a decent investment opportunity.

When compared with the likes of bitcoin, Litecoin is preferable for regular transactions, featuring a block time a quarter-that of bitcoin and transaction fees at a fraction of a dollar. More and more developers and merchants are beginning to accept Litecoin too.
Although Litecoin doesn’t have the same potential as Ethereum in terms of building new transaction platforms, as one of the longest-running cryptocurrencies (created in 2011) it’s an established alt-coin with great name-recognition. It’s one of the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap and has a larger trading volume than all but bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.

Ripple (XRP)

Although Ripple certainly has its detractors for being a rather centralized cryptocurrency in a famously decentralized space, there’s no denying that Ripple has some real potential thanks to its rising value and industry support.
Ripple’s value spiked at the end of 2017, moving from around $0.20 at the end of October, to more than $2.50 at the close of the year. It often stands out from some of the other large market-value cryptocurrencies, in that it tends to rise when they fall and vice versa.
As much as Ripple and its transactional protocol, XRP, show a lot of potential for those looking to make money from their investment, Ripple has a unique place at the near-top of the cryptocurrency pile, for its support from major banking organizations. Backed by the likes of Santander, RBC, American Express, and other financial institutions, Ripple technology is already being leveraged by some groups for international wealth transfers. Money Gram recently announced a partnership with Ripple Labs to use XRP for some of its “payment flows.”

Digital Cash (DASH)

Dash had a similarly positive 2017 to the rest of the major alt-coins out there, rising from $10 per token to a peak of more than $1,200 towards the end of the year. It’s settled down to around $800 since then, but that still represents a huge rise over the past 12 months and brings it squarely into the top 20 cryptocurrencies in terms of market-cap.

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Originally called Xcoin and then Darkcoin, Dash has been around longer than most, having been officially launched in 2014. It quickly gained popularity early in its lifecycle and has maintained much of it since, for its advocacy of owner privacy, through its “PrivateSend” function. Effectively acting like an official tumbler, it makes it possible for Dash transactions to be further obfuscated and thereby provides an additional layer of anonymizing privacy for owners.

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When compared with bitcoin, Dash is also much quicker and cheaper to transact with. Fees at the time of writing are at their highest yet and are still barely $0.40. Thanks to its “InstantSend” feature, transaction times can be near instantaneous too.

Monero (XMR)

A single Monero token is worth around $315 at the time of writing — a significant increase over its roughly $9 value at the start of 2017. Although considered an alternative coin, Monero is based on a different hash algorithm to bitcoin. That ultimately means that it has greater privacy for owners as a core component of its technology.
Enhanced privacy with Monero is achieved through hiding certain elements of a transaction like the receiving address and the amount being transmitted. That’s rather different from bitcoin, which has an entirely public ledger which makes tracing bitcoin across the network rather easy, although time-consuming.
For those who like the privatizing elements of Monero, it can be used to make direct purchases from fellow evangelists and on some websites, though the range of mainstream purchase solutions is limited for the time being.

ZCash (ZEC)

Much like Monero, ZCash is a cryptocurrency with privacy and owner security as its core tenet. It allows for the obfuscation of transaction details such as sender, recipient, and the amount being transacted. That privacy focus and the general upswing of interest in cryptocurrencies in 2017 saw ZEC rise in value from around $50 at the start of the year, to near-$900 at its peak. It has since settled to around half of that, but has still demonstrated real financial growth over the past few months.
Founded in October 2016, ZCash is the youngest cryptocurrency on this list but has shown impressive growth of adoption in that short time. It is backed by the ZCash Company, which gives it some similarities to Ripple, but its nodes are not privately owned in the same way. 10 percent of the total potential 21 million ZEC that will be mined throughout the currency’s lifetime will be given to the original founders and investors, though.
As a transactional medium ZCash is far faster and cheaper than bitcoin, with a blocktime a quarter that of the more well-known cryptocurrency. Fees are substantially less too, currently costing a fraction of a penny.
CREDIT TO: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-bitcoin-alternatives/

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The 19-year-old who made his fortune in bitcoin says if you don't become a millionaire in the next 10 years, it's your own fault

Erik Finman dropped out of school at age 15 to pursue a career as an entrepreneur. Now, he's worth over $1.5 million in bitcoin holdings.

• Nineteen-year-old Erik Finman bet his parents that if he was a millionaire before age 18, he wouldn't have to go to college — and won by investing in bitcoin.
• He explained to Business Insider Germany that there's still a lot of opportunity in cryptocurrencies.
• He's found that crypocurrencies peak and value, and there's no need to panic over lows or bubbles.

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German teenager Erik Finman has an unusual success story.

When was 12 years old, he realized school wasn't his future. Of course, the majority of his classmates felt the same, but Finman took action: He made a bet with his parents.

If he became a millionaire before his 18th birthday, his parents promised that wouldn't have to go to college.

So, teenage Finman took the 1,000 euros from his grandmother meant for his studies, and bought bitcoin at a rate of about 10 euros each. He won that bet with his parents by becoming a bitcoin millionaire before his eighteenth birthday.

Finman is now 19 years old and has been trading in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for seven years.

Our colleagues from Business Insider Germany spoke exclusively with Finman, who explained why you can still become a millionaire with cryptocurrencies over the next ten years and discussed the crash earlier this month.

Business Insider Germany: Erik, we speak to each other at a time when the prices of cryptocurrencies have plummeted across the board. Was this the start of a crash and perhaps the bursting of a bubble, or just a late correction after the quick gain of recent months?

Finman: I still believe in cryptocurrencies. There are always ups and downs on the way up. Many people have anticipated this decline: It was almost a self- fulfilling prophecy, after many experts spoke of a bubble.

For me, the decline is due to a decrease in momentum — after the development of the last few months it had to happen at some point. It was foreseeable because value continued to rise steadily, while many people were not "convinced" of the rise in prices.

Of course, I didn't know exactly on which day that setback would come. However, the advance of cryptocurrencies is unstoppable. A single crash does not change that. People will continue to invest in it and become increasingly emotionally connected with digital currencies.

Business Insider: That means that you keep your bitcoins?

Finman: That is true. I remain stuck with my bitcoins — and there are a lot of them.

Business Insider: These are the words of someone who has been investing in cryptocurrencies for seven years and has a lot of relevant experience. But somebody who has only recently entered the country is likely to become nervous after the recent losses ...

Finman: I have met many such people. As interest increased and the price rose, they were attracted and invested their money in it. But the biggest mistake they can make is to get out of the market now and sell their bitcoins just because of a setback.

It is important to know, and especially when you invest a lot of money, that the prices fluctuate greatly. In the past, bitcoin has had these setbacks time and time again — and this is unlikely to change in the future. But the bitcoin will probably continue to rise. Maybe it only takes a few weeks, maybe years. Of course, no one knows. For me, however, it would be the wrong strategy to sell after such a fall in prices, because I believe that there is a real chance that value will rise again to the levels we last saw.

Business Insider: If you are so convinced, does this mean that you see a good chance to buy bitcoins when the price is so low?

Finman: Yes, exactly. But not only me. I have many friends and fans who almost begged for a crash. They asked for a correction and a crash because they wanted to buy but thought the price was too high.

This drop in the price of the bitcoin gives them a chance. And now you must have the courage to really get involved. Otherwise, at some point you look back and think: If only I had bought after the reset. So I really guess people are now using the resetter to buy

Business Insider: Not only has the bitcoin collapsed, but most other cryptocurrencies have also fallen. Are you still convinced that the bitcoin is the best digital currency or do you also have other favourites?

Finman: Today, bitcoin is the best cryptocurrency for me. But bitcoin is like Netscape or MySpace.

Bitcoin is sort of a pioneer of a new technology, so it's important that it continues to exist. But the technology is already beginning to obsolete: To buy a coffee for $2, you have to pay a transaction fee of $30.

These issues need to be addressed at the technology level, by giving a new coin or updating a coin. Add to that the electricity costs for the mining: To mine a bitcoin, you need so much energy, with which you could cover the needs of a house over a whole year. 

In addition, most of the miners are located in China, and thus the energy comes from Chinese coal-fired power plants — so bitcoin meanwhile contributes to massive environmental pollution. Also this problem can solve a new technology or an update of an existing technology. Bitcoin has been around for a long time and MySpace or Netscape have been successful for a while. But at some point better products came on the market: Facebook or Google Chrome, as an example. 

Fact is: The bitcoin as we know it today will not last forever. The only question is what comes next — either an update that solves the problem, or another coin will prevail.

Bitcoin millionaire speaks at a TEDx Teen conference back in 2014. Erik Finman

Business Insider: Technology also has its limits, and cryptocurrency today has a completely different status than a few years ago. Do you think you would be just as easy to win that bet today with your parents?

Finman: If you are smart about cryptocurrency over the next ten years, many people can build their fortunes even better than before. The area is still relatively small, the market capitalization is just over half a trillion dollars. I do not want to be misunderstood, this is of course a very high amount, but in comparison to other asset classes it's small. Therefore, I say: If you do not become a millionaire in the next ten years, then it's your own fault.

New business models and innovations are still emerging in this area, and therefore there are many investment opportunities. It's a new kind of gold fever, or a new kind of Silicon Valley — there are really plenty of opportunities.

Business Insider: That sounds very easy. After all, more and more ICOs [introduction of new cryptocurrencies] are springing up — and there is always the risk of a total loss.

Finman: That is true, and it takes a certain amount of effort to analyze. But this situation will also improve with time: There will be better and more credible ICOs. But it's not just about investing in existing things. Everyone is free to start their own business in the field with an idea and earn a lot of money. That's risky, too, but a bit less risky for me than the pure investment. 

But there are already two different ways to get rich in this area: You can start a new business or invest in existing coins or ideas. You can also count on those who have proven for a while that they can be successful, like monero. I like this cryptocurrency because it also has a good field of application. The bottom line is that you should be careful and deal well with the currencies you want to invest in. 

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