Decentralization, security, and trustless verifiability. At a time when we are currently witnessing the inherently corrupt and unreliable nature of our current financial system, eyes are on cryptocurrency as many look for an alternative to traditional investments.
Italy has integrated the Bitcoin offering into its biggest national bank, and cryptocurrencies are continuing to hold value against other safe-haven assets and markets. But what makes each of these cryptocurrencies unique besides their decentralized nature?
Many cryptocurrencies aim to revolutionize the blockchain space in several ways. Whether through a consensus method unique to the chain or a protocol that allows for easy business integration, these cryptocurrencies are trailblazers in the industry as they continue to redefine the converging fields of finance and technology.
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The Forefront Of Blockchain
Ethereum
Currently, the most popular and most trusted system for developing DApps, Ethereum, still stands at number one for implementing new blockchains. By offering the Plasma protocol as a workaround to current scaling issues, Ethereum is the go-to choice for developers building blockchain solutions and decentralized applications.
Their smart contract system has laid the groundwork for many existing cryptocurrencies and is the most secure, and Ethereum has continued to hold its spot with the second-largest market cap right behind Bitcoin.
EOS
EOS is a smart contract system that aims to eliminate fees entirely and conduct millions of transactions per second. By offering more flexibility and scalability, EOS aims to overtake Ethereum by implementing an agile DPoS protocol that will appeal to developers in a way that Ethereum has yet to adopt.
With the biggest ICO in history, EOS not only has the capability to surpass Ethereum through scalability solutions but also onboard many businesses and industries hesitant to make the transition to blockchain.
Bitcoin
We are currently at a critical moment in Bitcoin’s history, given the midst of economic turmoil and uncertainty we find ourselves in. Initially created as a financial hedge and safe-haven asset, Bitcoin is the world’s first cryptocurrency and was the first practical use case of the Blockchain. While Bitcoin remains relatively stable compared to Gold, Silver, and other financial markets, many are waiting to see if Bitcoin can fulfill the vision that Satoshi Nakamoto had planned for it.
Whether Bitcoin can solidify its position as a reliable deflationary asset is not intertwined with the future of Blockchain technology. Still, acceptance and proven utility would undoubtedly accelerate the mass adoption of Blockchain and a proper understanding of how it can revolutionize an industry.
Disruptors And Game Changers
Algorand
While Algorand’s goal is to create a seamless blockchain platform, it transcends its core functionality by incentivizing adoption, providing verifiability, and promoting ease of use. Currently, a prevalent issue facing all blockchain developers forces coders to choose between security and transaction speed.
Algorand offers agile functionality and proper verifiability and still maintains the security that other networks provide. Many of their executives co-founded or were solely responsible for probabilistic encryption, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, and other extensive Blockchain protocols.
Algorand has a sharp advantage over other blockchain platforms, given the fact they need not choose between security or speed. With their unique consensus protocol, PPoS or Pure Proof-Of-Stake eliminates the requirement for a central authority and is more decentralized than DPoS.
While Algorand Network offers many familiar benefits of security and decentralization, it is exceptionally particular in its ability to optimize speed while simultaneously maintaining data integrity.
Developers have optimized efficiency by finalizing blocks in a single round of voting. By ensuring each block can be completed at an instant, this will increase how many transactions can be handled by the network to about 1,000 TPS.
Zcash
Notorious for its core functionality of zero-knowledge proofs, Zcash’s value lies in its ability to confirm transactions without revealing information about the sender or receiver. The transaction data is encrypted, providing exceptional security while still giving verifiability.
Many people are looking at Zcash’s application of zk-SNARKs to bring Blockchain technology to many industrial sectors. In healthcare, significantly, proper integration can increase the efficiency and integrity of database systems while still maintaining HIPA regulations.
ChainLink
While there is an extensive demand database that utilizes Blockchain, many organizations have invested a large amount of money and resources dedicated to their current contracted systems. ChainLink circumvents the problem of costly removal and reinstallation and instead acts as an intermediary by connecting current database systems to a decentralized network.
ChainLink currently has the support of Coinbase and has established a partnership with Google and Oracle. Supply chain solutions are continuing to grow as Walmart and IBM utilize Blockchain to track processed food and pinpoint breakouts. Many have high expectations for ChainLink and how we can start to modernize our current supply chain systems.
Innovative Platforms
MANA
Decentraland https://decentraland.org/ had its initial public release a little over a month ago and has continued to see consistent growth and sale volume even through this period of uncertainty. MANA acting as the native token for the platform allows users to purchase, rent, or sell land to users.
These landowners can then create different DApps, advertisements, properties, and alternative forms of entertainment on each parcel of land. Many owners have elected to monetize their land for business purposes, and this has created a completely decentralized ecosystem where landowners, developers, and gamers can make all profits off their capabilities.
MANA and Decentraland represent a monetary incentivized gaming model where people can play to earn. The free-market-based ecosystem offers immense benefits to all participants on the platform, and DApps such as Decentraland will continue to garner more interest as the E-Sports industry continues its exponential rise.
Tezos
Tezos and its staking solutions offer a nice incentive to those venturing into the cryptocurrency space. Its Delegated Proof of Stake system rewards Tezos holders 5% APY on the amount of Tezos consumers hold in their wallets.
In addition to having the second-largest grossing ICO in history, many value Tezos because of its Delegated Proof of Stake protocol or DPoS. DPoS is attractive because it is a similar smart contract-based system that we see in Ethereum, but it elects to reward every participant holding the native coin, disregarding any minimum requirement. Currently, users can buy and stake this token on Coinbase, one of the first coins on the platform to offer staking solutions.
Nexo
NEXO is a token distributed by the crypto loan company Nexo (https://nexo.io/). By utilizing a lucrative business model, crypto owners use their own holdings as collateral and still retain access to their investments. Nexo users then have the choice to withdraw cash in a multitude of fiat currencies such as US dollars, euros, or pounds.
Not only does this mean users have access to liquid cash in throughout common periods of volatility in the cryptocurrency space, but users staking NEXO will receive an enormous discount as well as up to 30% in staking rewards. Although NEXO has a rather straightforward business model, Nexo, and its native token, offer an array of options for cryptocurrency investors and Blockchain enthusiasts.
TRX
Justin Sun, one of Jack Ma’s proteges, started this cryptocurrency as an attempt to reform media and entertainment. In one of its most significant projects, the foundation acquired the popular torrenting tool BitTorrent and wants to change how people seed content.
By rewarding seeders with TRX or BTT, Tron will give content creators a direct incentive to share their content without the risk of demonetization. Also, consumers can stake TRX or BTT to seed content faster, gain streaming priority, and expand their bandwidth.
After the historic rise of Bitcoin in 2017 to early 2018, it fell back down to $3.5K, which was tragic for many cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects. However, this drastic fall also has eliminated many fragile and fraudulent cryptocurrencies that offered no legitimate business model or proven utility.
It is during this period that cryptocurrencies with inherent value shined, and moving forward, many of these cryptocurrencies will undoubtedly contribute towards reformation that prioritizes the users, provides reliable data transfers, and offers security surpassing its centralized counterparts.
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