Which cryptocurrency is the most promising? Mint. The most promising cryptocurrencies for investment New cryptocurrencies continue to emerge

Good afternoon, today we continue our discussion about cryptocurrency.

I think each of you knows firsthand that cryptocurrency is becoming more and more popular every day. However, I am also sure that not everyone knows that new cryptocurrencies appear almost daily, okay, maybe not daily, but definitely monthly.

Some of them are becoming quite popular, especially in European countries where they are loyal to crypto. For example, in Iceland there is a known case where employees of a large enterprise were paid in Bitcoin. Other cryptocurrencies become ordinary garbage, having no practical value.

It can be quite difficult for an inexperienced person to distinguish one type of cryptocurrency from another and understand what is worth investing in and which investments will bring nothing but disappointment.

Many today have chosen cryptocurrency as without much hassle, but those who have not yet gained sufficient experience in this matter are often interested in which cryptocurrency is the most profitable.

I’ll say right away that there can be no definite answer to this question, since everything depends on dozens of factors. If you do not have sufficient experience in this, of course, you should not rely on chance; it is better to read the relevant forums or talk to those who have been trading for a long time.

How to Succeed in Cryptocurrency Trading

Anyone who decides to make money on cryptocurrency should pay special attention to cryptocurrency news.

Knowing all the nuances of cryptocurrency rates and other news will help you navigate in time and make the right decision regarding which cryptocurrency to sell and which to keep for now.

You can always follow the news of cryptocurrencies on the relevant sites, fortunately, today information relating to cryptocurrencies is available everywhere.

For example, on the website bitcoin.com you can track online not only the rate of Bitcoin itself, but also the rate of many other cybercurrencies, as well as follow their news and the latest emerging user solutions to facilitate the trading process.

List of promising cryptocurrencies 2017

I wrote this article back in 2016. A full year has passed since that day, and I decided to slightly update my approach to the information under this heading. After all, the lists of popular cryptocurrencies will constantly change, and I would not want to update them every few months.

Therefore, I will share with you another way that will help you identify promising cryptocurrencies not only in a period of 365 days, but also more accurately. You can find out even the most promising currency of the day.

How can this be done?

It's simple. You need to go to any exchange, for example, Bitrex and look at the trading volume (1), the growth rate of value (2) in a certain period of time and the date of addition to the bridge (3). Which cryptocurrencies will have the most these indicators are the most promising.

The date of addition, of course, does not have such a strong influence, but with the help of this filter you can find the most recent ones added to the exchange. You can also click on currencies to see more detailed charts.

Here, of course, one can argue, because “prospects” are influenced not only by the current price, but also by technology and investor interest. But at least this way you can immediately understand which cryptocurrencies are worth paying attention to and which ones are worth studying in more detail. Agree, “all sorts of rubbish” will never rise in price as much as

Conclusion and conclusions

So I talked about how to conduct a quick analysis of cryptocurrencies for prospects. It is important to understand that the popularity of a cryptocurrency does not always mean that it is better than others.

Some users can make serious money by paying attention to fairly new types of cryptocurrencies. Which were previously undeservedly forgotten or noticed.

Every day more and more people learn about cryptocurrencies and the cryptocurrency market, and many of them try to make money by investing in various coins, but often lose money. In cryptocurrency, one can observe a pattern that unknown and cheap coins, with promising technology, can grow tenfold and bring good profits.

In this selection, we have collected the most promising cheap cryptocurrencies of 2018, which you can buy on exchanges right now. You don’t have to buy a lot of coins, a small amount is enough, and when the coin makes a jump, you will remain in the black. But please note that I am not giving any financial advice and there is no guarantee that any of the coins on this list will rise. Therefore, before investing in anything, analyze and think for yourself.

The most promising cheap cryptocurrencies 2018

All coins in this list are sorted by capitalization, because the more money has already been invested in a coin, the less likely it is that it is of low quality.

1. Ripple

Ripple is one of the cheapest and most promising cryptocurrencies. Despite the fact that it violates all the basic principles and ideas of cryptocurrencies, it is very popular among banks and organizations. This coin is centralized and managed by one company, but this did not stop it from growing in 2017 from 6 cents to three dollars. The coin is a system of instant transactions that allows you to transfer any currency anywhere in the world. Now developers are actively establishing cooperation with banks. And despite the fact that now the rate of all cryptocurrencies is falling, this coin has great prospects.

  • Year of creation: 2014;
  • Designation: XRP;
  • Growth for 2017: x500;
  • Mining algorithm: No;
  • Number of coins: 99 992 725 510;
  • Coins mined: 39 009 215 838;
  • Exchanges: Poloniex, Binance, Bittrex, HitBTC, Bitfinex and others.

2. Cardano

The developers say that Cardano is a new decentralized platform created to create a decentralized economy and democratize finance in emerging markets. Cryptocurrency does not have serious advantages over competitors; it supports smart contracts, privacy and security. But the developers promise many innovations in the future, for example, separate layers for operations with tokens and processing smart contracts.

  • Year of creation: autumn 2017;
  • Designation: ADA;
  • Growth for 2017: x100;
  • Mining algorithm: PoS;
  • Number of coins: 31 112 483 745;
  • Coins mined: 25 927 070 5388;
  • Exchanges: Bittrex, Binance, Upbit;

3.EOS

EOS is the most stable currency on the list of promising low-cost cryptocurrencies. This is a decentralized operating system based on its own blockchain architecture, which was created to solve problems with the scalability of smart contracts. The platform has its own databases, authentication and account management services, as well as management of the execution of decentralized applications and their distribution. Thanks to this, the architecture can scale to billions of transactions per second. Another advantage of EOS is that it did not fall very much even with the recent fall of the entire market, when Bitcoin dropped to $7 thousand. At the moment, EOS is just an Ethereum token, but this is only while developers are making their own platform.

  • Year of creation: spring 2017;
  • Designation: EOS;
  • Growth for 2017: x10;
  • Mining algorithm: PoS;
  • Number of coins: 900 000 000;
  • Coins mined: 649 449 582;
  • Exchanges: Binance, Bitfinex, Kraken, HitBTC.

Presentation of the EOS cryptocurrency in Russian:

4. Stellar Lumens

This is one of the mandatory participants in our list of the cheapest and most promising cryptocurrencies. Stellar is actually an open source analogue of Ripple, the developers set themselves almost the same goals as the Ripple developers, but unlike that coin, Stellar is open source, decentralized and community-oriented. Many predict Ripple's success because banks will use it, but if Ripple grows, so will its free alternative.

  • Year of creation: Spring 2014;
  • Designation: XLM;
  • Growth for 2017: x400;
  • Mining algorithm: PoS;
  • Block time: 3.5 seconds;
  • Number of coins: 103 649 583 897;
  • Coins mined: 18 436 222 998;
  • Exchanges: Binance, Poloniex, Bittrex, Kraken, CEX.IO.

5. NEM

NEM is another cryptocurrency designed for banking, written in Java and JavaScript. In addition to money transfers, the NEM cryptocurrency has a built-in chat for transmitting encrypted messages, as well as an Eigentrust++ reputation system. Confirmation of transactions is carried out using our own PoI algorithm, this is the same as PoS, only here the user’s activity is also taken into account. The main advantage of the algorithm is that the more transactions you perform, the greater the reward you will receive for confirming blocks. NEM already has several agreements with Japanese banks.

  • Year of creation: early 2015;
  • Designation: XEM;
  • A country: Japan;
  • Growth for 2017: x250;
  • Mining algorithm: PoI;
  • Number of coins: not limited;
  • Coins mined: 8 999 999 999;
  • Exchanges: Poloniex, Bittrex, HitBTC.

6.IOTA

Iota is a cryptocurrency for the Internet of things. A very interesting project, considering that there is no mining here, just like there are no miners. Anyone who wants to send a transaction must confirm two existing ones using PoW. Thus, there are no transaction fees. Instead of a blockchain (chain), IoTA uses confusion, in which the blocks are not in one chain, but are mixed in a certain order. In the future, it is planned that this coin will be used on more than 50 billion devices.

  • Year of creation: summer 2017;
  • Designation: IOTA;
  • Growth for 2017: x12;
  • Mining algorithm: PoW;
  • Number of coins: 2 779 530 283;
  • Coins mined: 2 779 530 283;
  • Exchanges: Bitfinex, Binance, Coinone.

7. Tron

Tron is a platform for distributing digital content, applications and other information over the Internet while respecting copyright. All this content, including games and applications, will be sold for the internal currency - Tron, but other popular cryptocurrencies will also be available. All platform source code is open source and the platform will be decentralized. Currently, the cryptocurrency operates on the Ethereum network, but in the future it is planned to switch to its own platform.

  • Year of creation: autumn 2017;
  • Designation: TRX;
  • A country: Singapore;
  • Growth for 2017: x200;
  • Mining algorithm: No;
  • Number of coins: 100 000 000 000;
  • Coins mined: 65 748 192 476;
  • Exchanges: Binance, Bitfinex.

8. OmiseGo

OmiseGo is a financial transfer and asset trading platform based on the Ethereum network. The development council includes key Ethereum developers, including Vitalik Buterin. Internal transfers are carried out using the OMG token; the advantages of the platform include instant transfers, low commissions, mobile banking and support for working with fiat money.

  • Year of creation: 2017;
  • Designation: OMG;
  • A country: Eastern Europe;
  • Growth for 2017: x36;
  • Mining algorithm: PoS;
  • Number of coins: 140 245 398;
  • Coins mined: 102 042 552;
  • Exchanges: Bitfinex, Binance, Poloniex.

9.Icon

Icon is a Korean platform that aims to provide a tool for interoperability between blockchains and supports the execution of decentralized applications. The platform is designed to be used by various companies for financial transfers; agreements have already been concluded with several banks, universities and hospitals. In addition, this cryptocurrency is officially supported by the Korean government and was created with its support.

  • Year of creation: 2017;
  • Designation: ICX;
  • A country: Korea;
  • Growth for 2017: x44;
  • Mining algorithm: PoS;
  • Number of coins: 381 495 014;
  • Coins mined: 400 230 000;
  • Exchanges: Binance, HitBTC.

10. Stratis

Stratis is a British platform that allows companies to create their blockchains in the C# and .NET programming languages, which allows for high speed in the development of new blockchains. In fact, the platform can be called an analogue of Ethereum, with such advantages as PoS mining, smart contracts in the C# programming language and support for smart contracts for child blockchains (tokens). Another plus for Stratis is its active cooperation with Microsoft.

  • Year of creation: 2016;
  • Designation: STRAT;
  • A country: Great Britain;
  • Growth for 2017: x260;
  • Mining algorithm: PoS;
  • Number of coins: not limited;
  • Coins mined: 98 729 632;
  • Exchanges: Bittrex, Binance, HitBTC, LiveCoin.

11. Waves

Waves is another platform similar to Ethereum that is being developed in Russia. Its founder is Sasha Ivanov, a fairly well-known personality; he is constantly promoting the platform and participating in various conferences. Waves has several advantages over Ethereum - PoS mining, leasing (renting out your coins for mining), its own decentralized exchange, high scalability and transaction speed, low commission.

  • Year of creation: 2016;
  • Designation: WAVES;
  • A country: Russia;
  • Growth for 2017: x80;
  • Mining algorithm: PoS;
  • Number of coins: not limited;
  • Coins mined: 100 000 000;
  • Exchanges: Yobit, Exmo, Binance, Waves DEX.

12. Augur

I have a negative attitude towards gambling and do not believe that you can make money by trying to guess the outcome of events, but many people believe in it and use it. Augur cryptocurrency is an Ethereum-based platform with which each participant can bet on the outcome of a particular event. The idea is that the commission is much lower than in bookmakers, and it is impossible to deceive the network in any way due to decentralization.

  • Year of creation: 2015;
  • Designation: REP;
  • A country: USA;
  • Growth for 2017: x180;
  • Mining algorithm: PoS;
  • Number of coins: 998 999 495;
  • Coins mined: 998 999 495;
  • Exchanges: Kraken, Poloniex, Bittrex.

13.DogeCoin

Doge is a fairly well-known and at the same time still very cheap cryptocurrency. It was created back in 2013 based on Litecoin with the goal of making a cheap and accessible coin for everyone. Since then, the coin has been used many times for charity and to support sports teams from obscure countries.

  • Year of creation: 2013;
  • Designation: DOGE;
  • A country: USA;
  • Growth for 2017: x90;
  • Mining algorithm: PoW;
  • Mining algorithm: Scrypt;
  • Number of coins: not limited;
  • Coins mined: 113 077 183 783;
  • Exchanges: Poloneix, Bittrex, HitBTC, Kraken, YoBit.

14. Civic

Civic is a Blockchain-based user authentication platform. It will provide secure and inexpensive access for organizations that need to verify the identities of their users. Moreover, now there will be no need to send and confirm documents. Nowadays, identity verification is a headache for many users of cryptocurrency exchanges; if the project is successful, it will dramatically improve the whole situation.

  • Year of creation: 2013;
  • Designation: CVC;
  • A country: South Africa;
  • Growth for 2017: x7;
  • Mining algorithm: PoS;
  • Number of coins: 1 000 000 000;
  • Coins mined: 342 699 966;
  • Exchanges: Bittrex, Poloniex, Kucoin.

15. Ardor

Many have heard about the promising cryptocurrency NXT, which was before and is still quite popular. The cryptocurrency solved many of Bitcoin's problems in the field of storing data in blockchains by providing the ability to create child blockchains. But then the developers stopped developing NXT and switched to its new version - Ardor. This coin has all the same advantages as NXT, but in addition, it provides other improvements - transactions are processed within 60 seconds, a high degree of security.

  • Year of creation: 2017;
  • Designation: ARDR;
  • Growth for 2017: x6;
  • Mining algorithm: PoS;
  • Number of coins: 998 999 495;
  • Coins mined: 998 999 495;
  • Exchanges: Bittrex, HitBTC.

Rating of promising inexpensive cryptocurrencies

To finish, let's make a small rating of cheap cryptocurrencies based on how much they grew in 2018.

Cryptocurrency Designation Height
Ripple XRP 500
Stellar Lumens XLM 400
Stratis STRAT 260
NEM XEM 250
Tron TRX 200
Augur REP 180
Cardano ADA 100
DogeCoin DOGE 90
Waves WAVES 80
Icon ICX 44
OmiseGo OMG 36
IOTA IOTA 12
EOS EOS 10
Civic C.V.C. 7
Ardor ARDR 6

conclusions

In this article, we looked at the most promising cheap cryptocurrencies of 2018, which you can buy right now on most exchanges. No one can guarantee that they will grow. But they have already shown excellent growth this year and at the moment the market has fallen very much, we can count on these cryptocurrencies to at least regain their positions. What cheap cryptocurrencies do you think are the best? Write in the comments!

Investor interest in alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) grew significantly in the first half of 2017, as did digital asset prices. This is usually associated with the Japanese government act on the legal regulation of cryptocurrencies, which actually legalized this market and greatly contributed to its development.

The simple accumulation of a certain critical mass by altcoins in terms of popularity and the number of people involved in the market also played a role. After the May rush, the total capitalization of alternative cryptocurrencies exceeded the capitalization of Bitcoin for the first time.

As of September, the capitalization of Bitcoin was about $65 billion, and the total indicator of altcoins was about $70 billion. At the same time, the most popular of the alternative cryptocurrencies, Ethereum, accounted for approximately $30 billion.

Nowadays it is quite rare to meet people who know something about Bitcoin, but are not at all familiar with altcoins. However, few people understand how different cryptocurrencies differ, why they were created and what their advantages and disadvantages are. In this review, we will compare Bitcoin and the five most popular altcoins, presenting them in the form of a rating by approximate capitalization, which, however, is constantly changing.

Bitcoin (bitcoin)

    Year founded: 2009

    Symbol: BTC

    Capitalization: $65 billion

    Exchange rate growth over the year: 6.5 times

This is the first and so far the most popular cryptocurrency in the world. It gained its fame after its price increased 10,000 times from 2010 to 2013 - from 10 cents to $1,000. This was partly a bubble: by the end of 2014, BTC had fallen to $200. There was a running joke back then that after the crisis, only one currency suffered more than the ruble - Bitcoin. However, in 2017, Bitcoin surpassed its previous record and is now trading around $4,000.

Despite its leadership, BTC was and remains a trial balloon, a cryptographic experiment. Both technically and ideologically it is far from perfect.

Its transactions are slow, and the size of the blockchain with the history of operations has reached 100 gigabytes and continues to grow. The owner of a full-fledged Bitcoin wallet (node) must download this data from the Internet. If the wallet has been turned off for some time, then after restarting it you have to wait a lot of time until the information about new transactions is fully loaded.

To avoid these difficulties, more and more users prefer to store bitcoins not in a wallet node, but on special servers (client-server system) or directly on cryptocurrency exchanges. Thus, the idea that each network user would be able to keep the entire transaction history turned out to be utopian.

Another often criticized feature of Bitcoin is its POW (proof of work) issuance. Some network users (so-called miners) provide their computing power to ensure its operation. For this they receive a reward and the right to vote in collective decisions.

The more miners, the more reliably the network is protected from attacks, but the electricity consumption in this case is quite high, and the efficiency of payments does not change. Thus, for security reasons alone, the network consumes much more electricity than is needed for transactions.

Another controversial aspect of Bitcoin is the public availability of transaction data. Of course, they do not indicate the names of counterparties and the purpose of payments, but if there is a strong desire, the commercial secrets of users can be disclosed. This is what was shown, for example, by an independent investigation into thefts from the first Bitcoin exchange Mtgox, published by the Wizsec team.

Despite its shortcomings, Bitcoin remains the number one cryptocurrency today, “digital gold.” The main reasons for this are its worldwide fame, reputation as a long-term growing asset and rich experience in practical use. Bitcoin is accepted and converted on many online services, and the software for it is well-developed. This cannot yet be said about most altcoins.

Ethereum (ether)

    Year founded: 2014

    Symbol: ETH

    Capitalization: $28 billion

    Exchange rate growth over the year: 22 times

Ether was far from the first altcoin, but it was the one that managed to become the main competitor of Bitcoin. Already in September 2016, it was the first of the alternative cryptocurrencies to reach the billion-dollar capitalization level.

One of the main innovative properties of ETH, which attracted the attention of not only individuals, but also corporations, is its ability to be used both as a means of payment and as a means of registering transactions with other assets without traditional legal procedures. The authors themselves called ether “crypto fuel” for the execution of smart contracts.

Another difference between ETH and Bitcoin is the prospect of switching to a qualitatively different energy-efficient method of emission - POS (proof of stake). The network will consume only the energy needed to support transactions, and the weight of votes and rewards will be determined not by computing power, but by the amount of funds of network participants. In some ways, it will be like a bank deposit with interest: the more money you have, the more income you get.

The popularity of Ether as a digital asset continues to grow. Services that work with ETH along with BTC are gradually appearing on the market. At the same time, the technical capabilities of ETH are objectively higher than those of BTC, which makes ether an attractive investment.

Bitcoin Cash (bitcoin cash)

    Year founded: 2017

    Symbol: BCH

    Approximate capitalization: $7.5 billion

    Exchange rate growth per month: 2.1 times

Bitcoin Cash arose from the recent split (hard fork) of BTC into two new currencies with minimal technical differences.

In 2017, during periods of stock market frenzy, many BTC users were faced with the problem of a significant slowdown in transactions. Sometimes their passage took several days. This has called into question the future of BTC.

To correct this problem, it was decided to make changes to the cryptocurrency blockchain format. However, the opinions of network participants differed regarding the degree of radicality of these changes. The majority voted for the SegWit2x compromise model, which implies a change in the data structure of the blockchain, and in the future, a doubling of the size of its blocks.

But some participants considered this only a temporary “crutch” and spoke in favor of an eightfold increase in blocks while completely preserving the rest of the data structure. What is today called plain Bitcoin (BTC) is a compromise of 2x, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is 8x.

BCH in the future faces the threat of very rapid growth in the size of the blockchain, which is already large. So far, Bitcoin Cash is much less popular than the compromise new BTC. Its exchange rate is also growing less confidently. At the same time, it cannot be ruled out that BTC will soon again encounter speed problems, while BCH is much more reliably protected from them.

In the future, it, and not Bitcoin, may turn out to be more convenient and popular as a means of payment. But so far, the velocity (ratio of transaction volume to money supply) of BCH is an order of magnitude lower than that of classic Bitcoin.

Ripple

    Year founded: 2012

    Symbol: XRP

    Capitalization: $7 billion

    Exchange rate growth over the year: 23 times

This is one of the "old" cryptosystems, but like ETH, it claims to be more than just a currency. This is a whole settlement system that can even be used to conduct transactions in national currencies.

Actually, Ripple itself is only a part of this system (in a sense, its shares). In terms of price, security and a number of other aspects, Ripple turned out to be more suitable for banks than classic cryptocurrencies such as BTC. Already today it is used for experiments by such financial giants as UniCredit, UBS, Santander, etc.

The ideological content of this system differs significantly from the ideology of Bitcoin. While Bitcoin is perceived by many as an anarchic challenge to states and their payment systems, Ripple, on the contrary, seeks to build bridges between the old economy and new technologies.

For this reason, XRP occupies a special market niche and is not a direct competitor to Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies. And although after China’s recent initiatives against digital assets and ICOs, this currency sank along with other altcoins, the support of large Western banks creates a good cushion for Ripple - unlike many other cryptocurrencies, the rate of which is based more on speculative expectations.

Litecoin (lightcoin)

    Year founded: 2011

    Symbol: LTC

    Approximate capitalization: $3 billion

    Exchange rate growth per year: 16 times

This is one of the oldest altcoins - it appeared at a time when only a few knew about Bitcoin. Like Bitcoin Cash, this currency was created as a “clone” (fork) of BTC, with the same main goal - to increase the speed of payments. Old BTC (pre-2017), new BTC, BCH and LTC differ mainly in the way data is recorded on the blockchain.

LTC uses roughly the same SegWit system as the new BTC, while BCH and old BTC run on the classic Bitcoin blockchain, with different block sizes.

The higher transaction speed brought LTC to the attention of investors, and for a while the currency seemed to be a serious challenge to Bitcoin. In the second half of 2013, the LTC rate increased from $1-2 to $50. But this dynamic turned out to be a bubble: in 2014, the cryptocurrency rate rolled back almost to its previous positions and remained there for a long time.

It was not until June 2017 that LTC was able to break its 2013 price record.

Against the backdrop of recently emerging innovative cryptocurrencies, LTC cannot boast of fundamental technical advantages. He was among the pioneers of the successful modification of BTC, but today his popularity, like the popularity of Bitcoin, rests mainly on wide popularity and experience of many years of stable operation. Like other well-known digital assets, it is often included in multi-currency portfolios.

The future of crypto assets

As we see, cryptocurrency developers do not waste time and offer new solutions to old problems. Technologies that seemed breakthrough in 2013 (for example, accelerating transactions in LTC), in 2017 were already applied to many crypto-assets.

In this light, not only Bitcoin, but also other modern cryptocurrencies seem to be “trial balloons”, which are destined over time to take pride of place in museums, losing their positions to more advanced analogues.

However, cryptocurrencies should not be compared with individual industrial designs, which sooner or later become obsolete. Rather, they are analogues of entire product lines of specific enterprises or design bureaus. As we saw with the example of Bitcoin and Ethereum, cryptocurrencies are refined and reformed as they are used.

And perhaps even in 70 years, humanity will still be using digital assets abbreviated BTC or ETH. Only they will have no more in common with modern analogues than new Intel processors with processors from the same company from 1980.

The question of the survival of specific cryptocurrencies depends not only on the optimality of their modern protocols, but also on the ingenuity of the authors, their willingness to respond to the challenges of the time by developing brands. The economic situation in the world, which is very changeable, also plays a big role.

At the beginning of 2014, the British newspaper The Guardian called Bitcoin the worst investment of the year, but already in 2016, after another devaluation of the yuan, Brexit and the US elections, cryptoeconomists recognized it as one of the best means of storing capital and making a profit.

Today, no one knows for sure whether in the future Bitcoin will be supplanted by new “forks” or whether it will retain its authority and position. But already now, professional investors are seeking to diversify their portfolio and are paying attention to the other half of the cryptocurrency market, which is occupied by altcoins.

These digital assets are suitable for both speculative transactions and investments for the medium term. Thus, the XAI altcoin index, which reflects the dynamics of 30% of the cryptocurrency market, increased more than 40 times from the beginning of 2017 to mid-August.

In the future, as the technological infrastructure of alternative cryptocurrencies develops and their legal status in different countries becomes clearer, investments in them will become more and more reliable.

2017 can absolutely be called the year of Bitcoin. If back in 2016, information about the world’s most popular cryptocurrency could only be gleaned from specialized sources, now not a single daily news report is complete without reports of another record value for the digital coin.

And this is not surprising. Take a look at the chart below. It shows the growth dynamics of Bitcoin from January to December 2017. During this time, bitcoin has risen in price almost 17 times! At the moment, the price for one cue ball fluctuates around 15-16 thousand dollars, and, apparently, this upward movement will not stop soon. Moreover, many experts predict that in a year the cost of cryptocurrency will be about 100 thousand dollars per unit.

Naturally, against the backdrop of such growth, many people are trying to join the world of virtual money. Some people buy video cards and set up a farm on their balcony to mine the coveted Bitcoin, while others are intensively learning all the tricks of trading on cryptocurrency exchanges. However, as practice shows, there are those who are keenly interested in digital money, but are very confused in the terminology and understanding of what it is – cryptocurrency.

Therefore, in our article we will explain in detail what the essence of cryptocurrency is, define the basic concepts and consider the most promising alternatives to Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency. Basic terms

Before getting involved in earning cryptocurrencies or trading on various exchanges, it is important to clearly know all the basic terms in the field of digital money.

Let's look at the basic concepts:

  • Bitcoin
  • Satoshi
  • Transactions and keys
  • Violas

This is an electronic, virtual currency that is protected using complex encryption. The term appeared in 2008, when Forbes magazine published an article about a decentralized electronic cash system. The key principle of the functioning of cryptocurrency is the complete absence of any administration on the part of government agencies, banks, tax authorities, individuals or legal entities.

That is, a person who owns at least one unit of digital currency cannot have it taken away, arrested, or processed through the tax base. With the help of cryptocurrencies, you can buy and sell goods and services, and “cryptocurrency” can be played on exchanges, like any other official currency.

Bitcoin. The first and most important global cryptocurrency. The Bitcoin protocol with a description of all algorithms and operating principles was published by Satoshi Nakamoto, a programmer and cryptographer from Japan. Although, according to the official version, this is just a pseudonym for a person or group of people, and for 9 years no one has been able to reliably find out who is hiding behind this name.

It is worth remembering that Bitcoin is not an infinite unit. A total of 21 million coins can be created.

Satoshi. This is one 10 millionth of a Bitcoin. That is, if you divide the entire available volume of Bitcoin into satoshis, you get almost 100 trillion units. Considering that now the GDP of all states on Earth is approximately 80 trillion, Bitcoin can replace all the money in the world.

Transactions. Since cryptocurrency has no physical expression and no central server of origin, all payments using virtual money are made through transactions. Essentially, these are designations for the transfer of value. Let's look at the transaction using a simple example.

User A wants to transfer 1 bitcoin to user B. He creates a transaction where he specifies two parameters: the number of bitcoins and the recipient. If we were talking about regular currency, each party would have a specific name, email address, or other identification. But one of the main principles of cryptocurrencies is the complete anonymity of all participants in the process. Therefore, user A needs:

  1. Identify yourself and the payee.
  2. Prevent possible interference in the transaction from a third party, as well as further operations on your behalf.

Both of these problems are solved using two types of keys: public and private. The first key identifies the sender and recipient and can be published in open sources. The second key works in conjunction with the first to generate a unique signature for the message about the operation being carried out. Given that a private key can contain an infinite number of characters, it is impossible to forge it. It is the private key that confirms the correctness of the transaction.

Therefore, if two people conduct 5 transactions between themselves, ONE private key is created that decrypts FIVE signatures.

All transactions carried out form blocks, which are built into blockchains. With their help, you can trace transactions with bitcoins, but not identify senders and recipients. Each subsequent block contains information about the previous one. Simply put, a blockchain is a complex mathematical equation into which, with each transaction, a new variable is added, which means the final value of the “crypto” increases.


Bitcoin exists by adding new blocks to the chain. And the calculation of these blocks is designated by the term...

This is Bitcoin mining through finding transaction blocks. Since chains now contain a huge number of blocks, their calculations require considerable power. If earlier it was possible to do mining on a regular home computer, now calculations require bulky farms of video cards and processors.

Due to the complexity of operations, miners are combined into pools. Thanks to this, it is possible to combine various hardware and software tools for mining. Finding a new block is rewarded with a certain number of coins, which are divided among the pool participants. Currently the reward is 12.5 bitcoins per decrypted unit.


Recently, cloud mining has become increasingly popular. With its help, the user rents servers from their owners to mine Bitcoin. Therefore, there is no need to invest huge amounts of money in a material farm, but simply pay for the possibility of using servers at a certain time.

Moreover, you can connect to the cloud farm even from a smartphone. To do this, you need to install a special application. In the article How to mine on a smartphone, we described in detail the most popular utilities for mining cryptocurrencies, which we tested on popular models of the British company Fly: Cirrus 12 and Cirrus 13.

In this video we gave an example of mining through the MinerGate application:

Fork. This is a branch of the main software base. In our case, from the Bitcoin system. The term used to refer to specific forks...

Alto. This is any digital coin alternative to Bitcoin. Currently, about 800 different alts have been created in the world, with varying costs and production prospects. Alts were created not so much as a counterweight to Bitcoin, but as a safety net - after all, at any moment the rate of the main cryptocurrency could fall sharply. In this case, the invested funds can be withdrawn through alts.

ICO. A type of collective financing that is inextricably linked with cryptocurrencies. The team of a particular project issues its own coupons or tokens, which in the future can be exchanged for both real money and bitcoins. For purchased tokens, their new owners receive certain services from the project. It should be remembered that the ICO transaction is based solely on trust. There are no tools to insure and ensure the reliability of token transfers. Simply put, if the project does not justify itself and is closed, the owner of the tokens does not receive the invested funds back.

This is an analogue of a foreign currency account or a real wallet. The only difference is that the crypto wallet contains a private key, with the help of which transactions with digital currency are carried out.

The wallet can be installed as an application on a smartphone. Such applets often include additional convenient tools, such as cryptocurrency courses and user dictionaries, which provide detailed descriptions of cryptocurrencies.

In the article “Best Bitcoin Wallet” you will learn about the types of wallets, and also find information about the most popular and convenient applications for storing private keys.


Cryptocurrency: where to start

Once you have understood the basic terms of the world of cryptocurrencies, you can begin to operate with them. First you need to decide what type of wallet you will store your digital keys in:

  • Wallet on PC. A special program for a computer that stores the entire chain of blocks. Please note that for the program you will have to allocate several tens of gigabytes on your hard drive, as well as install a powerful processor and video card.
  • Online wallet. Stored on a special server, accessed through a browser.
  • Mobile wallet. An analogue of an online wallet, but you can use it through a smartphone.

We have outlined the main advantages and disadvantages of each type of wallet in this table:

  • Trading on exchanges
  • Exchange
  • Cranes
  • Bitcoin games

Perhaps the most complex tool can be called trading on exchanges. The same laws apply here as in standard currency trading. It is necessary to carefully monitor cryptocurrency exchange rate fluctuations, predict when the dynamics will go up or down, and carefully distribute funds for investment.

The easiest way to get crypto is through exchangers. The most popular are Bestchange.ru, Okchanger.com and Localbitcoins.net. Here you can transfer the required amount from your personal account and in exchange receive Bitcoin, alt and their components.


For smartphone owners, a faucet can be called a fairly convenient method. This is an Internet site with advertising banners, links and flyers. By clicking on a link or banner, the user goes to the advertiser’s page and receives cryptocurrency as a reward. Bitcoin games are also quite popular among users, which reward gaming achievements with a certain amount of cryptocurrency.

Main risks associated with cryptocurrency

It is important to remember that cryptocurrencies have their own pitfalls that must be taken into account when various transactions with virtual money:

  • Cryptocurrency is not legalized in Russia. There is no insurance or legal support from the state if a person loses his funds invested in crypto.
  • You need to strictly monitor your crypto wallets. The slightest vulnerability and all the data will fall into the wrong hands.
  • Carefully read the information about commissions in various exchangers. Some operations add 10 to 20% to the original amount.
  • Do not transfer bitcoins until you confirm that you have been transferred currency for them. Digital coin transactions cannot be reversed. Therefore, always wait for final confirmation about the transferred funds.
  • Don't invest all your funds in Bitcoin and alts.
  • On the stock exchange, start trading with a minimum amount that you don’t mind losing.

The most promising cryptocurrencies

The prospects of cryptocurrencies are determined by the degree of profitability for mining and investment. The more stable a “crypto” behaves in the financial market, the higher the confidence in it on the part of exchange players, experts and ordinary citizens.


Analysts from the authoritative publication Forbes have identified the TOP 5 most reliable and promising currencies, which in the future have every chance of becoming the main payment unit in the world:

  • Bitcoin
  • Ethereum
  • Bitcoin Cash
  • Ripple
  • Litecoin

Ethereum, or ether, is the main competitor of Bitcoin. Appearing in 2014, this altcoin began to gain popularity in 2016 and now its cost is about $700.

Bitcoin Cash is a newcomer to the world of cryptocurrencies. This coin appeared in 2017, and within a few months showed rapid growth in value. Now the cost of BTH is approaching $2,000.

Ripple is one of the oldest alts, appearing back in 2012. On the one hand, its current value is very low, only 58 cents. However, Ripple enjoys great support from Western investors and large banks. Considerable growth is predicted for this viola in the near future.

Litecoin is another “old man” among alts. Founded in 2011. By mid-December 2017, its value was close to $300. Litecoin was created as a clone of Bitcoin with the only difference being that the transaction speed of Litecoin was higher than that of Bitcoin. In fact, its popularity rests on many years of successful transactions.

The technological process is gaining momentum and almost every day we learn about new inventions.

No one doubts that e-commerce will gain more popularity and will be used everywhere. This niche is undergoing its own changes, and the loudest of them was the emergence of crypto money.

New cryptocurrencies in 2016 are being released in huge quantities. They are created for different purposes, from trying to make money to having fun.

You haven’t even heard of most types of new currencies, and their exchange rate is too low, not to mention the extraction methods, sometimes they simply don’t exist.

New cryptocurrency continues to emerge

Now the most famous representative of all crypto money is Bitcoin. We told...

As time goes on, more and more systems are connecting this currency to the methods of depositing and withdrawing funds. Popularity is growing, and at the same time the Bitcoin exchange rate is rising. The rate of analogues rises similarly.

The more systems use crypto money, the more popular they become. In 2016, new cryptocurrencies also appeared, here is a small list:

  • Zonecoin;
  • Ubiquoin;
  • Frankywillcoin;
  • Pokecoin;
  • Artcoin;
  • BitSynq;
  • Unixcoin;
  • PutinCoin;
  • PulsarCoin.

It’s unlikely that these names tell you anything, but no one knows for sure what the future of these currencies is. You can give as many examples as you like; this is not a complete list of new cryptocurrencies of 2016, created just over the summer.

New generation cryptocurrency

If we consider more interesting and popular crypto money, several leaders have appeared here. Despite the fact that they have been working since 2016, they have already gained some fame.

Some due to mass distribution, someone with an interesting idea:

  1. is a new cryptocurrency that users respond positively to. Experts have repeatedly said that she will become a leader in the near future. Its popularity is largely due to marketers and powerful advertising. Clients note the possibility of convenient earnings without investments.
  2. – the newest cryptocurrency that has no analogues. It is collected by foreign users in a very unusual way. You need to walk 1000 steps to earn some money. Each BitWalk is equal to a dollar; due to the original idea, this type of currency is rapidly developing.
  3. – a new cryptocurrency in Russia. Its launch was announced back in February 2016. Now it continues to develop, but in any case it will not disappear. The platform was designed to pay for itself. That is why experts believe that Decred has a great future.
  4. – users liked this crypto money, since its exchange rate is equivalent to the dollar. It is convenient that the receipt of funds is easily tracked. The customer audience is growing rapidly.
  5. Rucoin – from the prefix it becomes clear that it was created in our country. Another new Russian cryptocurrency. It is hard to earn and is not as profitable when mining. Despite this, they are starting to use it more and more often, as it is convenient.
  6. – although this currency appeared much later than Bitcoin, many believe that it will be more popular. It was created using new technologies, precisely due to this, it is gradually catching up with Bitcoin.

Large projects are actively creating new cryptocurrencies, making it more convenient to maintain internal client accounts. This does not require large expenses, which is why there are many developers. There is no point in mining all types of crypto money, most of them will dissolve.

You are doing the right thing by being interested in new types of electronic currency and looking for faucets of new cryptocurrencies. Each of them has a chance to repeat the success of Bitcoin, but then some users earned millions from course jumps.

I recommend visiting the following pages:
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