Although Bitcoin is the first, the best known and the highest price, there is a whole market of alternative cryptocurrencies with similar or even higher yields. These are some of the decentralized projects to consider if you want to create a diversified portfolio.
6 Bitcoin Alternatives
Ethereum (ETH)
The Ethereum network is a distributed and public processing platform that works on Blockchain technology and allows the creation of intelligent contracts. To pay for transactions and use the services of the network, it is necessary to do so with its own currency, Ether (ETH). It is currently performing well. The ether started in 2017 with a price of US $ 8.20 and it is around US $ 1,809.17 in March 2021, an increase of more than 8000%.
Ripple (XRP)
In the case of Ripple, its network is a decentralized and open source real-time gross settlement platform. It was created by a private company with the same name but is capable of continuing to operate even if it ceases to exist. Basically, it has tokens that can represent fiat money, cryptocurrencies, commodities or any other unit of value as frequent flyer miles and allows for their exchange.
Its currency (XRP) does not have a high unit value, in January 2017 it cost the US $ 0.0006, but it has increased considerably and is currently approaching the dollar, with a value of US $ 0.469 in March 2021.
Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin is one of the first alternative currencies, emerged on October 7, 2011, as a lighter alternative to Bitcoin. It was introduced in early 2009. Among its main differences are a greater offer of tokens has a limit of 84 million (eight times more than the 21 million bitcoins), a faster block generation and the use of a different hashing algorithm uses the script.
Its value was always influenced by the Bitcoin price rises but recently this and other cryptocurrencies took a leap and found a place in the portfolios of more than one investor. December 2017 was a key month for Litecoin, it started at the US $ 88 and in just 15 days it went up to the US $ 300 and its cost was US $ 203.79 in March 2021.
Dash (DAO)
Dash is the abbreviated expression of Digital Cash, digital silver, and was created with the aim of becoming the most user-friendly currency for users and achieving high scalability, a problem that Bitcoin still faces. It is notable for the inclusion of instant payments, private transactions and its decentralized financing model that allows the Dash network to pay individuals and organizations working on developments that add value to the platform.
This makes it a DAO, a decentralized organization. Like several cryptocurrencies, its price also increased considerably in November 2017, going from the US $ 300 to the US $ 900 in a month and its cost was US $ 229.69 in March 2021.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Bitcoin Cash was born as a consequence of a bifurcation in Bitcoin’s blockchain on August 1, 2017. The fork proposal was born in the face of the discussion of adopting or not the improvement proposal number 91 that implements a transaction validation technique called Segregated Witness.
Bitcoin Cash decided that it was better to implement it in conjunction with an increase in the size of the blocks so as not to lose scalability. At first, its value ranged between US $ 300 – US $ 600 and now its cost US $ 535.03 in March 2021.
Monero (XMR)
Monero is a cryptocurrency focused on privacy. Like Bitcoin, it works on a public and permanent record mounted on a blockchain, but its improvements allow greater anonymity by obfuscating participants and the amounts involved in transactions. Its lack of traceability prompted its adoption by black markets of the deep web and people interested in hiding their movements. It started the year below the US $ 10 and today its value exceeds US $ 238.79 in March 2021.