Over 1400 alternatives to Bitcoin

Coinmarketcap lists over 1400 alternatives to Bitcoin. There are 42 cryptocurrencies with market capitalization over $1 billion as of Jan 13, 2018.

Bitcoin’s block size is 1 Megabyte. This limits the number of transactions each block can hold. Bitcoin has a maximum of 7 transactions per second.

Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Classic, and Bitcoin XT were each split from Bitcoin. They each increased the block size.

Ethereum is written in a Turing-complete language. Ehtereum can be programmed for smart contracts and other purposes. For example, the United Nations has adopted it to transfer vouchers for food aid to refugees, keep track of carbon outputs, etc.

Ripple facilitates bank transfers. Bank transfers currently depend on systems like SWIFT, which is expensive and time-consuming. Ripple’s blockchain can perform the same functions far more efficiently. Over 100 major banking institutions are signed up to implement it.

Litecoin reduced the block generation time from 10 minutes to 2.5. It uses a more efficient hashing algorithm.

Monero has solved Bitcoin’s privacy issue. It uses ring signatures.

Dash has split the network into two tiers. The first handles block generation done by miners, much like Bitcoin, but the second tier contains masternodes.

IOTA does not use blocks. It stands for the Internet of Things Application and depends on users to validate transactions instead of relying on miners and their souped-up computers.


Rank Coin Marketcap Price

1 Bitcoin $243,491,038,945 $14,492.90
2 Ethereum $133,039,204,511 $1372
3 Ripple $77,614,647,405 $2.00
4 Bitcoin Cash $46,709,360,644 $2,762.28
5 Cardano $22,649,085,088 $0.873569
6 Litecoin $13,640,660,888 $249.20
7 NEM $13,549,769,999 $1.51
8 Stellar $11,973,781,475 $0.669286
9 IOTA $11,187,998,523 $4.03
10 EOS $9,543,051,971 $15.88
11 NEO $8,903,180,000 $136.97
12 Dash $8,629,292,032 $1,104.08
13 TRON $6,908,557,073 $0.105076
14 Monero $6,522,301,826 $418.15
15 Bitcoin Gold $5,436,282,176 $324.32
16 Qtum $3,967,333,816 $53.75
17 Ethereum Classic $3,961,140,045 $39.98
18 ICON $3,668,112,455 $9.69
19 Lisk $3,398,205,887 $29.05
20 RaiBlocks $3,288,687,701 $24.68
21 OmiseGO $2,487,797,412 $24.38
22 Verge $2,253,571,696 $0.155043
23 Binance Coin $2,229,409,125 $22.52
24 Zcash $2,150,759,586 $705.48
25 Bytecoin $2,067,072,119 $0.011255
26 Siacoin $2,049,019,246 $0.065263
27 BitConnect $1,989,318,103 $320.34
28 Stratis $1,888,085,574 $19.13
29 Ardor $1,886,700,456 $1.89
30 Populous $1,867,574,735 $50.47
31 BitShares $1,642,403,700 $0.630000
32 SmartCash $1,634,886,645 $2.81
33 Status $1,619,584,551 $0.466674
34 KuCoin Shares $1,608,066,538 $17.66
35 VeChain $1,539,264,259 $5.55
36 Tether $1,473,257,513 $1.00
37 Dogecoin $1,465,190,585 $0.012995
38 Steem 1,463,019,545 $5.93
39 Dentacoin $1,299,356,040 $0.003996
40 Waves $1,184,900,000 $11.85
41 0x $1,166,524,274 $2.37
42 Augur $1,166,209,000 $106.02
43 DigiByte $999,997,039 $0.103184