Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency (Everything you need to know)

What is cryptocurrency?

A cryptocurrency (or crypto currency) is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure the transactions and to control the creation of additional units of the currency.

History

In 1998, Wei Dai published a description of "b-money", an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system.  Shortly thereafter, Nick Szabo created "bit gold". Like bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that would follow it, Bit Gold was an electronic currency system which required users to complete a proof of work function with solutions being cryptographically put together and published. A currency system based on a reusable proof of work was later created by Hal Finney who followed the work of Dai and Szabo. 

The first decentralized cryptocurrency, bitcoin, was created in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It used SHA-256, a cryptographic hash function, as its proof-of-work scheme. In April 2011, Namecoin was created as an attempt at forming a decentralized DNS, which would make internet censorship very difficult. Soon after, in October 2011, Litecoin was released. It was the first successful cryptocurrency to use scrypt as its hash function instead of SHA-256. Another notable cryptocurrency, Peercoin was the first to use a proof-of-work/proof-of-stake hybrid.  IOTA was the first cryptocurrency not based on a blockchain, and instead uses the Tangle. Many other cryptocurrencies have been created though few have been successful, as they have brought little in the way of technical innovation.[23] On 6 August 2014, the UK announced its Treasury had been commissioned to do a study of cryptocurrencies, and what role, if any, they can play in the UK economy. The study was also to report on whether regulation should be considered.

Digital Tokens

The fusion of derivatives and cryptocurrencies was probably inevitable in a market that appears to be spinning out of control. Thanks largely to Ethereum, a three-year-old open-source software project inspired by bitcoin’s technology; anyone can create a digital token.

That’s spurred startups worldwide to fund their development by minting tokens and selling them to investors via initial coin offerings, or ICOs. The bet is that once an issuer prospers, the value of its company scrip will soar. At the beginning of 2013, there were only seven digital coins worth $1.6 billion. Today there are 1,228 coins with a market value of $136 billion, according to CoinMarketCap, a firm that tracks digital tokens for 48 percent of the total.

 “What we are seeing is pure unlicensed capitalism,” said Jon Matonis, a founding director of the Bitcoin Foundation and chairman of Globitex, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Riga, Latvia. “And you just can’t keep up with the market anymore.”

Cryptocurrency Crackdown

Regulators are scrambling to catch up. On Sept. 4, China outlawed ICOs and moved to shut down exchanges as well. In July, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission required companies to register ICOs like IPOs. Russia and Japan are also eyeing new rules.

To many finance pros, cryptocurrencies look too ephemeral to become a real asset class. This month, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon likened them to the 17th century Dutch tulip bulb mania and called bitcoin a fraud.

Yet Wall Street’s embrace of BLOCKCHAIN is one reason bitcoin’s price has soared. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Banco Santander SA and JPMorgan are some of the institutions investing millions of dollars in related startups and joining industry research groups.

Some Cryptocurrencies recent details

  

#	Name	Market Cap	Price	Circulating Supply	Volume (24h)	% Change (24h)
1	Bitcoin	$68,750,722,366	$4143.56	16,592,187 BTC	$1,909,900,000	1.62%
2	Ethereum	$28,296,286,407	$298.30	94,860,076 ETH	$609,333,000	0.59%
3	Bitcoin Cash	$7,605,661,266	$457.51	16,623,888 BCH	$322,403,000	1.69%
4	Ripple	$7,506,458,894	$0.195767	38,343,841,883 XRP *	$135,338,000	-3.90%
5	Litecoin	$2,880,044,344	$54.20	53,136,957 LTC	$249,534,000	0.87%
6	Dash	$2,570,313,691	$338.88	7,584,798 DASH	$62,439,000	-0.94%
7	NEM	$2,134,287,000	$0.237143	8,999,999,999 XEM *	$3,696,270	-0.15%
8	IOTA	$1,637,549,148	$0.589146	2,779,530,283 MIOTA *	$18,877,200	9.75%
9	Monero	$1,459,596,830	$96.37	15,145,807 XMR	$56,347,100	-0.12%
10	NEO	$1,399,190,000	$27.98	50,000,000 NEO *	$129,159,000	-15.16%
11	Ethereum Classic	$1,222,189,954	$12.74	95,951,353 ETC	$213,984,000	3.62%
12	OmiseGO	$1,013,960,722	$10.31	98,312,024 OMG *	$68,532,400	2.28%
13	BitConnect	$869,741,097	$127.39	6,827,389 BCC	$11,787,700	3.39%
14	Lisk	$696,759,021	$6.17	112,838,210 LSK *	$10,858,600	1.20%
15	Zcash	$680,684,597	$298.20	2,282,606 ZEC	$273,171,000	4.95%
16	Qtum	$546,764,210	$9.27	59,000,000 QTUM *	$77,753,400	-3.97%
17	Waves	$477,949,000	$4.78	100,000,000 WAVES *	$9,205,250	-4.97%
18	Stratis	$473,395,220	$4.80	98,560,966 STRAT *	$8,296,620	3.85%
19	Tether	$428,321,504	$1.00	427,061,672 USDT *	$261,061,000	0.45%
20	Steem	$341,355,491	$1.41	242,582,979 STEEM	$5,658,420	19.23%
21	Ark	$285,219,565	$2.91	97,850,512 ARK *	$6,671,320	-0.29%
22	TenX	$274,146,696	$2.62	104,661,310 PAY *	$9,101,500	-8.63%
23	EOS	$266,239,217	$0.714147	372,807,304 EOS *	$18,773,600	14.16%
24	Bytecoin	$260,412,435	$0.001421	183,253,534,612 BCN	$1,918,760	0.44%
25	Basic Attenti...	$248,969,000	$0.248969	1,000,000,000 BAT *	$4,623,770	13.61%
26	Kyber Network	$238,595,772	$1.73	137,995,600 KNC *	$7,980,330	12.07%
27	Augur	$233,935,900	$21.27	11,000,000 REP *	$1,848,920	2.21%
28	Stellar Lumens	$233,142,139	$0.014055	16,587,371,316 XLM *	$4,926,300	1.49%
29	Hshare	$231,075,600	$6.88	33,600,000 HSR *	$10,605,100	14.03%
30	Golem	$228,186,625	$0.273923	833,032,000 GNT *	$1,928,130	1.65%
31	BitShares	$225,416,703	$0.086702	2,599,890,000 BTS *	$10,644,600	5.89%
32	MaidSafeCoin	$224,474,142	$0.496018	452,552,412 MAID *	$1,208,420	-2.59%
33	Decred	$198,059,903	$33.88	5,846,010 DCR	$1,238,090	-5.66%
34	Komodo	$197,648,280	$1.96	100,945,510 KMD	$1,622,590	-4.27%
35	Gas	$191,395,114	$22.55	8,489,132 GAS *	$2,137,180	-15.24%
36	Metal	$174,198,805	$9.03	19,300,994 MTL *	$1,107,490	-4.94%
37	Ardor	$171,706,035	$0.171878	998,999,495 ARDR *	$5,442,470	17.37%
38	PIVX	$171,109,347	$3.15	54,379,295 PIVX *	$488,816	1.99%
39	Factom	$169,138,143	$19.34	8,745,102 FCT *	$1,973,460	-1.96%
40	Walton	$168,128,931	$6.75	24,898,178 WTC *	$34,529,900	98.50%
41	Veritaseum	$163,603,574	$81.35	2,011,134 VERI *	$309,402	7.04%
42	GameCredits	$157,715,726	$2.45	64,317,324 GAME	$3,163,250	-0.75%
43	DigixDAO	$154,606,200	$77.30	2,000,000 DGD *	$290,360	1.02%
44	Iconomi	$151,967,413	$1.52	99,900,350 ICN *	$1,089,530	0.69%
45	Siacoin	$151,271,777	$0.005096	29,685,987,455 SC	$2,813,630	-1.81%
46	Civic	$142,483,925	$0.418824	340,200,000 CVC *	$3,044,870	-2.59%
47	Byteball Bytes	$141,063,554	$241.59	583,896 GBYTE *	$273,589	-0.40%
48	Gnosis	$137,745,687	$124.70	1,104,590 GNO *	$4,257,380	10.71%
49	DigiByte	$131,032,395	$0.014988	8,742,253,657 DGB	$3,482,430	-0.50%
50	Binance Coin	$126,148,000	$1.26	100,000,000 BNB *	$12,825,800	10.91%
51	Dogecoin	$123,380,283	$0.001109	111,269,689,550 DOGE	$4,686,410	-3.16%
52	BitcoinDark	$120,628,478	$93.59	1,288,862 BTCD	$107,941	-4.24%
53	0x	$109,045,500	$0.218091	500,000,000 ZRX *	$2,029,240	-3.26%
54	MCAP	$105,656,525	$2.76	38,295,641 MCAP *	$2,326,260	0.90%
55	SingularDTV	$100,416,000	$0.167360	600,000,000 SNGLS *	$674,981	-4.52%
56	Nexus	$99,252,754	$1.88	52,723,626 NXS	$1,319,710	-10.80%
57	Status	$99,250,631	$0.028598	3,470,483,788 SNT *	$2,866,980	-3.27%
58	Blocknet	$97,878,308	$20.31	4,818,103 BLOCK *	$464,185	-1.13%
59	Populous	$97,514,122	$2.36	41,252,246 PPT *	$473,748	-4.31%
60	FunFair	$97,407,567	$0.025370	3,839,463,249 FUN *	$989,718	7.24%
61	Bytom	$95,080,079	$0.096332	987,000,000 BTM *	$146,420	-2.97%
62	Bancor	$94,190,224	$2.31	40,772,871 BNT *	$879,264	2.44%
63	GXShares	$93,326,533	$2.30	40,510,000 GXS *	$14,784	-1.87%
64	Monaco	$90,656,273	$9.24	9,814,875 MCO *	$7,574,440	-1.72%
65	FirstCoin	$90,461,263	$9.58	9,441,922 FRST	$3,340,490	7.60%
66	Lykke	$89,892,517	$0.335066	268,283,016 LKK *	$313,803	0.46%
67	ChainLink	$88,634,700	$0.253242	350,000,000 LINK *	$6,727,570	24.50%
68	Syscoin	$88,346,015	$0.167382	527,810,728 SYS	$1,349,920	-2.15%
69	Aeternity	$87,263,138	$0.374487	233,020,472 AE *	$382,625	4.15%
70	Verge	$86,540,711	$0.006454	13,409,472,280 XVG	$1,936,420	2.73%
71	Centra	$84,685,160	$1.25	68,000,000 CTR *	$1,001,530	5.54%
72	Edgeless	$72,482,234	$0.883431	82,046,288 EDG *	$6,162,020	-10.45%
73	Nxt	$71,984,539	$0.072057	998,999,942 NXT *	$5,848,720	1.05%
74	Kin	$71,199,817	$0.000094	756,097,560,976 KIN *	$426,668	?
75	Ubiq	$66,073,837	$1.73	38,098,054 UBQ	$1,295,440	5.35%
76	Bitdeal	$63,116,706	$0.526514	119,876,595 BDL	$285,135	-1.27%
77	Dentacoin	$63,078,366	$0.000208	303,095,254,787 DCN *	$86,272	8.08%
78	Aragon	$62,315,721	$1.89	32,941,128 ANT *	$318,865	2.51%
79	MobileGo	$61,691,833	$0.629323	98,028,887 MGO *	$263,629	11.58%
80	Particl	$58,874,734	$7.63	7,719,070 PART *	$458,960	-2.87%
81	NAV Coin	$57,509,362	$0.930169	61,826,788 NAV *	$3,434,150	-11.12%
82	Wings	$54,062,189	$0.602644	89,708,333 WINGS *	$355,998	-0.21%
83	I/O Coin	$53,996,956	$3.30	16,369,014 IOC *	$927,980	-10.59%
84	Storj	$50,154,813	$0.509183	98,500,565 STORJ *	$498,616	-2.95%
85	AdEx	$48,724,063	$0.914941	53,253,776 ADX *	$26,231,100	18.09%
86	Bitquence	$47,597,500	$0.667660	71,290,027 BQX *	$656,006	-8.54%
87	Rise	$46,772,990	$0.413411	113,139,200 RISE *	$2,083,530	-4.98%
88	Cofound.it	$45,612,450	$0.140346	325,000,000 CFI *	$360,059	-8.69%
89	iExec RLC	$41,873,994	$0.529576	79,070,793 RLC *	$183,672	-6.30%
90	Elastic	$41,552,318	$0.479040	86,740,810 XEL *	$919,648	-5.71%
91	Gulden	$41,500,369	$0.117403	353,486,445 NLG	$89,026	-0.01%
92	FairCoin	$40,917,812	$0.769221	53,193,831 FAIR *	$22,234	-1.34%
93	ZCoin	$40,901,489	$13.23	3,090,730 XZC	$4,488,030	4.30%
94	Aidos Kuneen	$40,778,580	$4.00	10,200,000 ADK *	$43,660	-0.15%
95	Melon	$39,534,985	$65.96	599,400 MLN *	$181,096	4.87%
96	TokenCard	$39,066,837	$1.65	23,644,056 TKN *	$767,063	-7.08%
97	Vertcoin	$38,197,179	$0.958637	39,845,300 VTC	$900,062	-4.00%
98	ReddCoin	$38,151,687	$0.001333	28,629,941,182 RDD *	$6,758,740	-4.36%
99	NoLimitCoin	$37,810,824	$0.185584	203,739,674 NLC2 *	$94,786	-4.65%
100	Tierion	$37,572,788	$0.088927	422,513,667 TNT *	$442,866	-8.12%