What are the types of cryptocurrencies: an overview of the cryptocurrency market. What are the types of cryptocurrencies: an overview of the cryptocurrency market Real-world analogy - McDonalds

In 2009, when the first Bitcoin cryptocurrency had just appeared, ordinary people could not even imagine that nine years later the whole world would follow its growth and decline with such close attention, and having a cryptocurrency in your wallet would become everyone's dream. Electronic currency at first, few people took it seriously and, moreover, they did not see it as a substitute for fiat money. The increase in the number of bitcoins and varieties of cryptocurrencies, the growth in the volume of transactions using digital money proved to the whole world that cryptocurrency is the currency of the future.

How many cryptocurrencies exist?

Before you know the answer to this question, you need to understand what a cryptocurrency is. It is fundamentally the new kind money that does not depend on international relations or the economic situation in a particular country and does not require the launch of a printing press. New cryptocurrency coins are generated using certain mathematical calculation algorithms. A crypto unit is a chain of blocks, and a block is a complex mathematical formula. It is the complexity of mining (the so-called process when digital money is created using the computing capabilities of computers) that affects the rate of electronic money.

The term “cryptocurrency” was first used with the advent of bitcoin (as you already know) in 2009. But only two years later they began to conduct financial operations with him when electronic wallets for storing bitcoin appeared. For nine years, the world of electronic money has grown so much that it is simply unrealistic to keep track of the actions in it. New opportunities, features and benefits, new types of cryptocurrencies. How many are there now? It is simply impossible to give an exact number. And all because every day there are new types of digital money. According to CoinMarketCap data as of February 6, 2018, there are 1514 varieties of cryptocoins in the world with different numbers of coins and different exchange rates. The total value of the cryptocurrency market at the end of 2017 exceeded $500 billion. Impressive, right?

Overview of cryptocurrencies

The main view and the most expensive now, of course, is. Created by Satoshi Nakamoto. The identity of this character has not yet been revealed. Some say it was one person. Someone claims that the whole group smartest people. The cost of bitcoin does not stand still: it reaches a record $20,000, then drops sharply to $6,000. We are sure that you know a lot about this cryptocurrency, if not everything, then a lot. But there are other cryptocurrencies in a variety of types besides bitcoin. And we will talk about them in our review of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world.

Ethereum - second generation currency and smart contracts

A new cryptocurrency, which today is considered the main competitor of Bitcoin, Ethereum appeared on July 30, 2015. It was on this day that the first active release of the platform was presented, the blockchain of the distributed Ethereum base was launched. But Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian programmer with Russian roots, began working on the creation of a second-generation virtual currency back in 2013, when he presented to the public white paper(White Paper) of a new kind of cryptocurrency in the world.

Why Vitalik chose this particular name is unknown. Some suggest that a reference to an unlimited number of coins. Others talk about the connection with the technology of "smart contracts" and that the currency will be able to take the form of any object.

If bitcoin was designed specifically to transfer money, then the creators of ethereum saw their currency as a kind of analogue of fuel for “smart contracts”. How do they work, and what is it all about? Smart contracts are special programs that allow you to exchange money, shares, assets without intermediaries. For example, you and a friend are very fond of football and want to place a bet, but support different teams in the upcoming match. You support Manchester City, a friend bets on Manchester United. Using a smart contract and prescribing bet conditions in it, the "smart contract" removes the amount of your bets and keeps it until the match ends. This approach allows you to get rid of the participation of a third person in your bet. In general, such contracts can be registered in any blockchain, but today the most popular is Ethereum.

During its short history, the currency has experienced both ups and downs. After launching the blockchain project in the summer of 2015 and actively promoting his project, Vitalik Buterin managed to get major partners, including Microsoft. The price of Ethereum has been rising. And by March 2016, the value of all coins was one billion dollars. In June 2016, attackers used a bug in The DAO to steal $50 million. The authors insisted on a hard fork and a refund. But the team refused, explaining their decision by the fact that the main law of cryptocurrencies is the immutability of the blockchain. The creators insisted on their own and adjusted the base, returning the stolen funds. Such events could not but affect the course. So, the cost of Ethereum on the second day of the theft of funds collapsed by a third. And in early December of the same year, some managed to buy 1 ETH for $7. It was the bottom. But the ethereum pushed off from him and rushed up.

Ripple is the fastest digital currency

The creators of Ripple did not initially set out to invent a new type of digital money. Everything worked out by itself. Jed McCaleb worked on the exchange interface for depositing, withdrawing and exchanging different currencies, buying and selling services and goods. And already in the course of development, the author had an interest in creating his own XRP cryptocurrency. Ripple was born in 2012.

Ripple today is a platform for making currency exchanges with a minimum commission, making online payments and transfers to anywhere in the world where thousands of financial transactions are carried out per second. All money that passes through the Ripple Protocol is automatically converted to XRP, and then converted back to the currency the client needs. And all this without losing track.

Ripple is one of the currencies that cannot be directly mined. There are two ways to get money: by participating in calculations or by exchange. The calculations here are not mathematical, you can get paid for renting out capacities for processing huge data sets of socially significant projects.

The main difference between XRP and other coins is that it functions thanks to its own technology. Simply put, there are no analogues of this cryptocurrency. At least in terms of speed.

Today, Ripple is the most legal digital currency in the world. And every day it is being introduced deeper into the banking systems of many countries. Another plus is the price.

Dash - completely anonymous money

This currency appeared in 2014. True, it was originally called differently. Immediately XCoin, later DarkCoin. Well, in the end, the creator Evand Duffield and his team decided to call their currency Dash. On the one hand, the name means "jump up", on the other hand, it is an abbreviation for "Digital cash".

Evan Duffield always saw anonymity as the main point in creating digital money. He even suggested at one time to make changes to the bitcoin protocol, but they did not listen to him. This was the catalyst for the creation of their own cryptocurrency, which is very similar to bitcoin, but fundamentally different from it:

Two-tier architecture;
Complete anonymity;
Absolute security, because the system cannot be hacked.

Thanks to the function of instant transactions, Dash is very convenient to use for making payments. Especially after signing an agreement with one well-known online banking platform, which provides for the introduction of Dash into the banking system. This means that dasha holders can pay in the usual way using a VISA card.

Litecoin - electronic money for instant transactions

The Litecoin system is very similar to the well-known torrent: computers are connected to each other by an installed Litecoin wallet. This is a kind of network that allows you to exchange cryptocurrency without problems.

The system and its own cryptocurrency of the same name were invented in 2011 by the former engineer of the famous Google company Charles Lee. He conceived Litecoin not as a replacement for Bitcoin, but as an improved version of it. And in many ways this currency is really better:

Each piece of information is created faster: it happens every 2.5 minutes;
Mining Litecoin is much easier;
The limit of the allowed number of coins is 4 times higher - 84 million.

NEO - "Chinese" Ethereum

This currency is called "Chinese" Ethereum for a reason. Both Neo and Ethereum play the same role in the crypto community: the companies see it as their goal to create platforms for the “new” Internet: smart contracts, decentralized applications and ICOs. And they get it!

The main difference of the Chinese project is that it allows you to use a variety of programming languages. While Ethereum only uses its own Solidity.

The Chinese startup was launched in June 2014, followed by an ICO the following year. In 2016, the project launched its own currency, and in 2017 it rebranded and went global. Neo is actively developing and collaborating with large blockchain projects (Coindash, Agrello, Bancor).

IOTA - electronic money for the Internet of things

No commissions;
The system has every chance to revolutionize the world of the Internet of things.

Today one MIOTA costs $1.38. The total number of coins is about 3 billion. The total cost is about 4 billion dollars.

Appeared in 2015. The authors are Sergey Ivancheglo, David Sonstebo, Sergey Popov and Dominik Scheiner. The main goal of the creators is to develop a currency (MIOTA) that would help make financial transactions from devices from the world of the Internet of things.

At the heart of IOTA is a “registry of things”. This allows users to conduct financial transactions for IoT without commission. The main advantage of this system is the ease of microtransactions. Usually, due to commissions, with relatively small money transfers, transactions turn out to be too expensive. IOTA solves these problems. Experts believe that in the future, more than billions of devices from the world of the Internet of things will be connected to this network.

They are betting on this currency, calling it “a grandiose project that will revolutionize the Internet of things.” The project is still at the beginning of its journey, and you can invest in cryptocurrency until the price has grown significantly.

The cryptocurrency market is growing. For nine years, more than one and a half thousand varieties of digital money have appeared in the world. Most of them represent a variant of bitcoin in an attempt to attract investors and capitalize on the current popularity of this topic. But there are several hundred really worthwhile projects with great potential. For example, all of the above major cryptocurrencies. If you plan to replenish your wallet with electronic coins, take your choice seriously: carefully read the description of cryptocurrencies, study their history and take a look at the forecasts.

And the current year 2018 is designated as a turning point. Many significant events have already taken place this year, directly or indirectly affecting the bitcoin rate, the results of online trading on exchanges, and the profitability of mining. Overview of the cryptocurrency market for today given by experts based on a variety of information, including insider information, which can be accessed. In general, the analysis does not carry a negative message, which already proves the prospects of the cryptocurrency sphere. However, it cannot be called exceptionally rosy.

Why you need an overview of the cryptocurrency market

It should be noted that the analysis and review of the cryptocurrency market is carried out for a practical purpose: the data obtained helps to reduce the risks of investors. Making mindlessly large investments in one type of digital asset is extremely short-sighted.

general review

Turning to a general overview of the cryptocurrency market, it should be said that in 2018 it still borders little on the global financial sector. There are certainly points of intersection, but digital money is still extremely limited in terms of use, especially in comparison with fiat.

On the one hand, this is good: virtual assets do not carry systemic risks, which means that their behavior does not threaten the economy in any way.
On the other hand, it’s bad: cryptocurrencies exist on their own, remaining an abstract object that contains little objective value.
Within the cryptocurrency sphere itself, in 2018 there were various perturbations, which caused it to periodically “fever”, and the quotes of the main assets fell sharply.

For example, several hacker attacks on major exchanges were recorded, and a number of court cases related to fraud in the digital money segment were covered in the media. Such incidents negatively affected the image of coins on the world stage. A positive factor can be considered reports from different countries that they officially allowed the circulation of virtual assets - in Japan, India, South Korea, etc.

In order to clearly understand, in order to obtain the greatest benefit, it is necessary to know about the general situation in the market: about the sales leaders, the aggregate level of capitalization, the latest trend trends, etc.

As good example it is worth giving a digest review of the cryptocurrency market for a week. The main news of the November seven-day week pleases with a variety of - both negative and positive - coloring. First, it is worth noting that the total market capitalization of digital coins for this period reached 219.5 billion USD. Secondly, Bitcoin once again tried to reach the autumn maximum of 7 thousand USD, set for it by experts, but failed, stopping at the level of 6.5 thousand USD. Ether added to 218 USD, Ripple rose to 0.53 USD. In general, there were no global changes in quotes in the Big Three, we need to wait for December. Thirdly, at the beginning of November, they announced the list of the most anticipated ICOs this month, which included Vidion, Winnest, eMusic, Borser projects.

Market news for the week

As for the loudest news of the week, it is worth highlighting a few of them. From the management of the popular Polonex exchange, a statement was received about the support of the new fork of Bitcoin Cash. It will be traded on this site along with the prototype.

There was a scandal with the Tether cryptocurrency: a banking partner was suspected of money laundering through the blockchain system.

One of the users accused the largest KuCoin exchange of malicious manipulation in the process of trading, which is associated with the inability of the resource to cope with an ever-increasing number of orders. But another platform - OKEx - became the owner of the title "Cryptocurrency Exchange of the Year".

Video: Trading volume

BTC/USD

Bitcoin fell $100 from its value on November 8, losing all gains from the previous two days and closing the day at $6,474. The $6,600 level was too much for the bulls. BTC/USD fell to the next support $6400.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken strong action against the EtherDelta exchange due to the lack of registration as a national securities exchange, despite offering to buy and sell assets in the secondary market. Zachary Coburn, who is the founder of the platform, did not confirm or reject the claims, but agreed to pay the fine. This news is important because it marks the first enforcement action SEC against cryptocurrency exchange.

In addition, the Commission is reportedly planning to publish "simple" recommendations for developers. SEC director William Hinman explained that "the idea is to create a simple tool that people can look at and understand." There is already an ICO section in an official government agency that entrepreneurs can use: https://www.sec.gov/ICO.

The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has issued a warning to crypto company Crypto-Capitals regarding its unregulated activities in Germany. According to the institution, Crypto-Capitals endangers the investor's capital by not complying with financial laws. This is not the first time the regulator has warned the public to be more careful when trading crypto products. Last November, he advised consumers on ICO issues.

The price of Bitcoin on Friday, November 9, fell even lower and closed the working week just above the $6,400 mark (at $6,417). Looking at this picture, we see that BTC has been in the $6,200 to $6,800 price range since September 9, with volatility at its lowest level this year.

The most popular cryptocurrency is up 0.2% through Nov 10 and 0.26% higher on Nov 11 to close the week at $6.447 or -0.67% over a 7-day period.

ETH/USD

The price followed the movement of Bitcoin and fell by 3.2% to $212 on November 8th. ETH/USD lost another dollar on November 9th and closed the week at $211, still above the critical levels of $215 and $220.

There haven't been many developments on the ETH front over the past few days. Ethereum co-founder and Consensys founder Joe Lubin shared his thoughts on blockchain development with the German media that Blockchain will take a little longer than the Web because it is “much more difficult.”

“allow people to create more things that will be useful in the future. This is how the network develops. The integration will probably take a little longer because it is much more complicated. Also, as we work on topics like digital money, Blockchain is permeating society more than the Internet. Everything will be connected to the web in Web3,” he added.

The most popular altcoin fell to $213 and remained at the same level on November 11th. It ended the week with a marginal decline of less than half a percent.

ETH/USD began to show signs of an imminent downward correction on November 12 and November 13, dropping to $209, but it was on Wednesday, November 14 that most of the top 100 coins posted double digit losses. Ethereum followed the market and lost about 11% of its value, breaking through the critical support at $200 to reach $187.

On November 15, it is at the level of $183. The last time we saw the price below this level was on September 12, 2018, but ETH has not closed a daily chart candle below this level since July 2017, so everyone is looking at Ethereum.

Remember the Nash equilibrium, Gresham's law, the Stasi rules? So the banking system is similar to the Stasi. But first about something else. Why did cryptocurrency become a currency at all?

A Nobel laureate in economics would answer you something like this: “At some point in time, the market fell into a Nash equilibrium, where everyone suddenly agreed that it was normal to consider it a currency.”

Why do men wear trousers and women wear skirts? Although in Scotland it was once not so. Just at some point, everyone agreed that it should be so. Nash equilibrium.

In general... What is a currency?

Currency is a medium of indirect exchange. Once upon a time, pheasant feathers were a medium of exchange, which before that were worth nothing. But then there was a demand for feathers and people said: "The feather will be a currency, a means of indirect exchange." Gradually formed General requirements to the currency: it should be easy to divide it into parts, while its value does not change; it is easy to carry; and it should have a long shelf life.

Well, and most importantly, people should be ready to use the currency as a medium of exchange. The same thing happened with cryptocurrency: people became READY to use it.

Here I am right now ready to exchange my phone for cue ball. It is clear that the cryptocurrency meets all other criteria, perhaps even better than any other fiat currency (it is much easier to store, transfer, share, and it is eternal).

Why did cryptocurrency appear?

One of the main reasons, in my opinion, is the huge anger of people at the banking system with all its rules, which are promoted under the auspices of the mythical fight against scammers and other villains. So, the current banking system is like the Stasi, to which I have to explain why I walk this way and not another, and why I go to work this route and not another. And then, will two-meter fences stop real criminals? When criminals need to break into the banking system, they simply buy a bank.

All these security rules are essentially useless. Therefore, there is a global irritation of people with the banking system. This can be seen everywhere - and in businesses of any size, too, from small to large.

Annoyance created a request for some kind of analogue to the current system. Cryptocurrency has arrived. And the process can no longer be stopped - cryptocurrency will take its place in the global economy. What is the question.

The problem is that in fact, cryptocurrency today is not exactly used as a medium of exchange. The phenomenon is called Gresham's law: when no one wants to pay with a currency that constantly and strongly rises in price. Everyone knows the story of two pizzas that were bought for 10,000 BTC in 2010.

Who wants a $15 million pizza? Or would you want to drive in a Toyota car you bought today for 30 BTC, only to find out a year later that you paid $3 million for it? Therefore, cryptocurrency is used as a means of accumulation and speculation.

At the same time, the process of continuous growth leads to the fact that the base cryptocurrencies lose their properties as a means of payment - stability. They turn into a kind of shares of a rapidly growing company. And who wants to sell or exchange for goods and services rising in price stocks today, if tomorrow they will cost more. This is problem.

stablecoins

The volatility of cryptocurrencies is the subject of long-standing discussions, in which one can often hear the words “bubble” and “speculative tool”. The problem is solved, among other things, by launching special settlement cryptocurrencies, the so-called stablecoins, “stablecoins”. This is a cryptocurrency whose value is determined not only by the demand for it, but also by more established methods.

There have been several attempts in the world to create such stablecoins. As a rule, they were tied either to the value of fiat currencies - the dollar, the euro - or to raw materials (commodities) - oil, gold, and so on. But for various reasons, they are not widely used.

First of all, because the creators of such currencies violated the blockchain principle - distribution and independence. They issued cryptocurrency, sold it, and bought collateral with the proceeds. And the fact that the collateral was stored and controlled by the release organizers did not inspire confidence in the community.

Now there are more advanced projects. In general, there is a hypothesis that the future lies with “stablecoins” tied to commodities.

It is based on the fact that in society in general and in the economy in particular, the so-called fatigue of the classic fiat money material has appeared. At the same time, we see that the same dollar, euro, yuan, Brazilian real and all other classical currencies are also subject to volatility. And all this against the backdrop of a global appreciation of money.

The economy is looking for alternatives. But will the social demand for blockchain commodities be critically higher than for classic money? Not sure. But the fact that it will be more than now is most likely.

There are several interesting stablecoin projects in the world right now:

There is a project Tether, which is consistently in the TOP-50 in terms of capitalization (now - just over $300 million). Tether is a dollar coin, 1 to 1.
A startup has been launched in Israel that is trying to make oil-pegged cryptocurrency. True, they are not very successful yet, because they cannot solve the problem of storing oil - it is difficult to store it.
There are projects that are trying to tie cryptocurrency to computing power, to electricity, such as SONM.

Of course, real estate has great potential. All developers - both in the US and in Russia - are trying to fit into the blockchain world. In Switzerland, Singapore and other countries, it was allowed to keep a real estate registry using the blockchain. I am waiting for the next breakthrough - the binding of cryptocurrency to square meters.

Agree, it would be great if a grandmother from Perm could use blockchain to invest part of her pension in a business center under construction in Saratov, without the risk that her investments will be stolen.

Our fund now leads just one client from the real estate sector. We help him prepare for the ICO. This is a multi-million dollar business. I do not want to go into details because I do not want our client to be taken away by competitors. Currently, a legal scheme is being finalized on how blockchain technologies can be used in terms of debt financing for classic companies (in our case, this is a developer), and for this process to be regulated by the Russian authorities.

You can easily explain to your mom about being tied to gold

But I haven't talked about the main (yet) and most obvious commodity - gold. Gold is a commodity that everyone understands. Gold occupies approximately 5-10% of the global investment market. Gold is a natural limited natural resource. According to open data, the gold reserves of governments are about 30 thousand tons, citizens have the same number of products, coins and ingots. Total about 60 thousand tons. About 3 thousand tons of gold are mined annually in the world.

All this makes gold the ideal equivalent of calculation. In fact, this has been the case throughout the history of human development. Even early money was pegged to gold until governments decided to replace the process of extracting gold with the simpler process of printing paper money.

And most importantly: you can easily explain to your mother about the cryptocurrency pegged to gold. And she will understand you.

Now there are several "golden" crypto projects. There are not many of them, but they all have a different concept:

Impressive project OneGram from Dubai, which plans to raise $500 million in an ICO that began on May 27 and is due to end on September 24. To date, 22% of 12,400,786 tokens have been sold, which are sold at $43.18 each. "Dubai" and "gold" sounds somehow impressive, agree. OneGram is pegged to stored physical gold. They have a rather strange, in my opinion, feature: they position themselves as a project specifically for Muslims. In the blockchain world, any artificial limitation raises questions because it contradicts the very concept of technology. True, according to the founders themselves, now the majority of the project's investors are not Muslims.
There is also project of the British Royal Mint Royal Mint Gold, in which one token is pegged to one gram of gold. The project raises questions in terms of decentralization.
Another ambitious project US-Australian OZCoin. It is backed by 100 thousand ounces (slightly more than 2.8 tons) of 24 carat gold.
For me, the most interesting of the "golden" projects is "Russian" Goldmint. I put "Russian" in quotation marks, because an international team works there, and it is interesting for me for two reasons. First, he is from Russia (which is great). Secondly, we invested in it :) The project plans to hold an ICO in September, and in May it held a pre-ICO and raised $600 thousand in a couple of days. We have a piece of paper hanging in our office, which says that so many Goldmint tokens belong to everyone the DTI team.

Our investment logic is simple. Imagine that there is a bar of gold that can be transported quickly and at no cost to anywhere in the world and has the property of being impossible to steal. How much more expensive is such an ingot than a classic ingot? Obviously much more expensive. Of course, there are a lot of other risks, the project may not take off, but at least we had the opportunity to get to know and study the team.

Usually verification of the team removes 9/10 of the risk - the probability of a "scam" or some kind of illegal actions is equated to zero. I have always said that the Whitepaper, the business plan in the ICO world is secondary to the team. It doesn't matter what you do, it matters who you are. If Elon Musk raises cows tomorrow, they will believe in his project. The only business risk left is whether the project will take off or fail.

Goldmint is made by the team of the Lot-Gold project, which in a year of existence was able to grow from zero to 5.5 billion rubles. revenue. We made sure that they were able to make a good classic business, now they want to turn the gold market around. It will turn out or not - it is difficult to say in advance. The project is complex, including from the point of view. The company is developing a special proof-of-gold box - a safe with a gold verification system, permanently connected to the Internet. It is understood that such devices can be installed in banks, pawnshops, jewelry stores (it remains only to convince of this).

The safe will evaluate gold items, and special software will make it possible to issue GoldCoin in real time. A person can come to the bank, put a piece of jewelry in this safe, it automatically evaluates the metal, identifies the individual, and then issues GoldCoin. The value of GoldCoin is pegged to the value of gold on the New York, UK or China exchanges. It sounds promising.

Overview of TOP-15 cryptocurrencies

Now about cryptocurrencies in general. On the Internet, you can easily find sites where you can see the capitalization of each cryptocurrency that is traded on a crypto exchange, its current price in dollars, a schedule of price changes, and the amount of currency circulating on the market. Such statistics will help little to understand, but will give at least a general idea of \u200b\u200bwhat is happening.

I will briefly talk about several cryptocurrencies included in the TOP-50 by capitalization: what are their essence, advantages and disadvantages. And despite the fact that I have invested money in many of them, I will not give any specific investment advice here.

1.Bitcoin

A real-world analogy is gold.

I will talk about bitcoin in more detail than about other cryptocurrencies, because in the crypto industry, bitcoin has become the standard by birthright. In other words, this currency appeared first on the market, and therefore occupies (so far) the first place in terms of popularity, capitalization and exchange rate against the dollar. All other currencies that appeared later began to be called altcoins, and bitcoin is still the benchmark from which everyone is repelled.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that can only be sent, received and stored. At the same time, it has many disadvantages inherent in the architecture itself: it is slow, difficult to scale, requires a lot of power for mining, a lot of storage space, transactions are expensive, and cryptography can be hacked if desired.

Here are some more cons:

Bitcoin is slow- means that transactions in bitcoin occur once every 10 minutes. To confirm the transaction, you need to mine, and this is a very energy-intensive process. To increase the number of users (scalability), it is necessary that the computing power of computers grow.
For the operation of the bitcoin network need to store huge amounts of information.
bitcoin turned out to be not so decentralized system as announced at the very beginning. Theoretically, miners can form huge pools and manage the network.
The maximum number of bitcoins that can be issued is 21 million. To date, 16.75 million have already been mined. What will happen when the total volume reaches the limit? Obviously, there will be a so-called hard fork, when the decision is made to create new version bitcoin networks. This means a big vote, if you will, a referendum among bitcoin holders. Chinese holders of the cryptocurrency advocated that such a referendum be held as early as September. After it, perhaps, the "constitution" of bitcoin will change. And we know how constitutions change easily and fairly quickly in different countries….

Most likely, as a result of the hard fork, the cost of the transaction will be reduced several times, because its verification will be simplified. The restriction regarding mining will also change. Perhaps it will be removed altogether. But there are still too many unknowns. And most importantly, there are other currencies that are technically more advanced. For now, bitcoin remains the gold standard of the cryptocurrency world.

Will the situation ever change? I'll ask a counter question: is it possible to write a social network better than Facebook? Definitely. The simplest thing remains - to force 2 billion users to switch to this new social network. Is it possible to write a cryptocurrency better than bitcoin? The fourth position in terms of capitalization - Litecoin - is better in all respects. It appeared almost simultaneously with bitcoin, but still a little later.

Bitcoin in the world of cryptocurrencies is a kind of analogue of the classic store of value, to which everyone is already accustomed.

2. Ethereum

Real world analogy - new Microsoft Or the new Amazon.

Ethereum is starting to crowd out bitcoin in terms of popularity. Perhaps this currency has more prospects. If bitcoin can only act as a means of exchange and storage, then Ethereum has a number of advantages. The main thing is the ability to create. Now this platform is the most popular in the world in building a blockchain economy, and is used in numerous ICOs.

Ethereum inherited almost all the ills of bitcoin. Yes, it's faster - it updates every 10 seconds (that is, 60 times faster), but it has the same problems with scaling (the recent case with SONM is an example of this), power consumption and storage.

It may well challenge the leadership of bitcoin in the near future.

3.Ripple

A real-world analogy is the new VISA.

The project team is trying to make a new payment system so that it would be possible to make payments in all currencies. The advantage of this currency is that banks use it. However, it is not decentralized. Coins are not mined, that is, their number does not increase. Ripple has a huge speed advantage over BTC and ETH, but the transactions are not as transparent. For a classical banking system, this is normal - anonymity was never welcomed there.

4. Litecoin

A real-world analogy is platinum, which is cheaper than gold.

The absolute analogue of the "beat". Faster, cooler in all respects - but it just turned out to be second. It is worth buying in terms of diversifying investments in the same bitcoin. But in terms of innovation, there is nothing there.

5. Ethereum Classic

A real-world analogy is Alibaba (not Amazon).

Alibaba is the largest online retailer with a multi-billion dollar turnover. But still they understand that it is still not as cool as Amazon. Classic may even be more expensive than regular Ethereum, but there are some nuances. ETC appeared after the hard fork of Ethereum, which took place last fall, and still does not inspire confidence in the crypto community. The main focus is still on ETH, and all significant projects are being conducted on this platform.

6. Dash and NEM

An analogy from the real world is “it is not clear who”.

To be honest, I don't come across these currencies very often. NEM mainly circulates in Japan, where it is officially allowed to buy and sell goods with cryptocurrency. The number of coins is always one less than 9 billion, additional emission is not provided, so there is no mining here, but there is a so-called harvesting.

A major jump in the NEM price occurred in May, when the Mijin closed platform was created on the basis of NEM, through which Japanese banks can conduct secure transactions. NEM is built following the example of Bitcoin, but there are no fundamental differences in architecture.

Dash is a cryptocurrency whose transactions are completely anonymized. Many talk about this as an advantage, but consider: why does the average person need complete anonymity in transactions? Also, all decisions about changes in the “constitution” are made by means of a general vote, that is, the Dash network is completely decentralized.

Naturally, both currencies work faster than bitcoin and have a number of software advantages.

7.IOTA

A real-world analogy is the new Google.

A real innovation in the world of cryptocurrency. Offers a fundamentally new paradigm that can change everything. IOTA is also called the “cryptocurrency of the Internet of Things”. It appeared five years ago, but it has just become popular. As soon as I entered the exchange, I immediately broke into the Top 10 cryptocurrencies.

What is innovative about it? The very principle of operation. IOTA is built on the principle of the web and is infinitely scalable.

How does bitcoin work? In order to make a bitcoin transaction, the miner must do some work to confirm the transaction. Spend time, a huge amount of energy and allocate storage space. In the case of IOTA, you can independently confirm the transaction using your device - for example, a regular phone. Your smartphone confirms two other people's transactions. Those transactions confirm two of yours. And so on. The more users, the faster and better the network works.

Now IOTA users have reached a critical mass and the currency has become very popular. There is no scalability limit here, miners are not needed, because transactions are free. You do not need to pay a commission to miners, you do not waste computing power.

In general, this is a real bomb that threatens to make a revolution. IOTA solves in general all the problems inherent in bitcoin (limitedness, high requirements for computing power, pseudo-decentralization, data growth and storage problem, slow speed).

8 Monero

An analogy from the real world - AFK Sistema.

In short, unlike Bitcoin, Monero is not limited in supply, but transactions take up several times more space than Bitcoin. But this is not the most interesting. Russian ears stick out here. Generally inexpensive transactions, good speed translation, good mining. But you have to be careful - some kind of AFK Sistema can happen to them ...

9. EOS

Real world analogy - Empire State Building.

EOS is the evolution of the BitShares and Steemit currency (which, by the way, were seriously criticized, which does not prevent BitShares from being close to the top 10 in terms of capitalization). It is based on a breakthrough technology that can be compared with the advent of blockchain. In theory, they can replace Ethereum or enter into synergy with it.

In terms of technology, the project is better than Ethereum. The developers have created new language, and now on the EOS platform is being created operating system, on which it will already be possible to build separate applications.

The logic is this: all databases, all web programming will be transferred to the blockchain. New technologies will allow different applications to run asynchronously, which will significantly increase the speed of the EOS-based OS.

The team expects that the whole world will eventually work on EOS. In general, to be honest, this is already the world of "Crypt 3.0", which even for me is too much. Too big and incredible. But this may well happen in five years.

10. BitShares

An analogy from the real world - I didn’t come up with it :)

The bottom line is that here the value of any fiat currency is replicated in the blockchain. A useful tool not to lose on conversion, not to depend on the laws of different countries, taxes, etc. There is also a similar currency, Tether, which is pegged to the dollar 1 to 1.

It is used as a currency for collecting fees on fiat currency transactions. It can be speculated. But if we want to operate with fiat money in the blockchain, then we can do it inside the BitShares system).

And 5 more cryptocurrencies from the top 50

1 Waves

An analogy from the real world is the Russian Tesla.

In fact, this is a platform for crowdfunding. Serious claims, aggressive marketing. But they can turn the wrong way and “chichvarkin” will happen.

2. Dogecoin

Real world analogy - question...

I don't know much about them, but I like them because my Google friends buy them. And that's why I buy them too.

3.Bancor

A real-world analogy is the stock exchange.

At its core, this is an exchange: a platform on Ethereum on which you can exchange different cryptotokens (but all of them must be of the ERC20 standard - this is the most common Ethereum standard on which most projects are developed). Everything is regulated by smart contracts. This is a new economic tool in the blockchain world. In essence, they brought derivatives to the blockchain in a way that no one had done before. It seems to me that this is a niche product, which, however, can grow 5-10 times.

4 Decred

Real world analogy - McDonalds.

A good, fashionable currency, I see prospects in them. Fast, cheap in transactions, profitable in mining. The miners love it - in other words, the market providers love it. And like McDonald's, it doesn't belong to anyone. 99.9% of McDonald's shares are listed on the stock exchange, but the largest shareholder owns only 2% of the shares. That is, the possibility that something bad will be done with Decred, that there will be some kind of collusion, is extremely small. Decred like McDonalds.

5. Aragon

Real world analogy - Netflix.

Fantastic project. And by “fantastic” I don’t mean “cool”, but the original meaning of the word. The business model is incomprehensible, but the team is good. They are trying to work in the event prediction market.

For example, I can say that in 2018 Vladimir Putin will lose the presidential election (ahem). And I am ready to trade this forecast for some amount. Let's say a dollar. No, for the ruble. And you can join me...

While the project is in the alpha stage and no one brings real money there, but the team really knows how to correctly analyze the data. Aragon could become a crypto Netflix. How they do it, I have no idea. But let me just remind you that Netflix has been unprofitable for 7 years.

Market Cap

Since the beginning of the month, the capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has been steadily growing, reaching its first obstacle (a quarter of the height of the ascending channel), after which a small but expected pullback began.
At the moment, the price is being held back by fibonacci 0.38, but a slight downward movement, and the cap will drop to the region of 210 billion. In the end, I still expect growth to the region of 230, fixing above and continuing to increase capitalization.

BTC

The main cryptocurrency of the market again sets the tone for all coins.
During the first days of November, the price gradually rose upwards, but the growth does not happen endlessly, and, having formed a divergence, the price started to correct.
At the moment, we stopped at the trend line, which will decide the further direction.

On the one hand, we have convergence, which will only intensify as it goes down, its recovery will help the price return to the 6500 CME zone, where, by the way, it remained unclosed gap, after the current fall.
On the other hand, don't forget about the open gap at 6100 CME. In my opinion, the opportunity to close it is extremely small, and if this scenario materializes, it should be used as an excellent opportunity to place buy orders.
Targets remain the same 6700-6800 as the beginning of the uptrend.

XLM

I really like stellar in the context of the whole year. If we look at the graph to the cue ball, then the lumens were able to resist the general negative trend, and consolidated throughout the year in a wide flat, slowly narrowing the boundaries.
We, with VIP channel subscribers, have already bought stellar, but I would like to consider more global goals.
The first resistance will be the 4300-4450 zone, where, as it seems to me, a narrow consolidation will continue. Then it will be possible to talk about exiting the flat, where the main targets will be the levels of 5000 and 6000 satoshi. The coin has a very serious fundamental and I advise you to buy it for the long term.

NEO

Another interesting coin is NEO. The project is on the 15th place in terms of capitalization on the coinmarketcap website.
After a slight increase, Neo, together with the entire market, began a correction, in which the indicators managed to go down from the overbought zone, while the MACD and RSI, meanwhile, are talking about convergence. In the near future, I expect a good movement on the coin, you can catch about 10%. The first target is in the region of 2650-2700. In the medium term, you can keep above 3000 satoshi.
Thanks for reading the review. All profit!