1) Ripple / XRP
Ripple is unique among altcoins in the respect that it’s poised to become an international currency exchange system. Using its symbol, XRP, this cryptocurrency allows you to buy XRP with US dollars, then sell the XRP for British pounds (GBP). This allows traders and the general public to trade and exchange currencies for much lower fees than would ordinarily occur, with an exchange rate fixed by the market itself instead of the profit making intermediaries of the banking system.
2) Darkcoin
Darkcoin is a dark horse. In just one month, the bitcoin alternative grew from 75 cents a coin to almost seven dollars. It’s appeal resides in greater anonymity for the investor, mixing up user’s transactions so much, it’s practically impossible to trace the payments to another person. Darkcoin actually does allow the public to see its transactions on an accounting ledger in what is known as a “block chain”, but Darkcoin adds an extra layer of privacy by automatically combining any transaction a user makes with two other users. Its rapid rise may ignite a rapid fall, but so far, its anonymity has kindled a great deal of enthusiasm.
3) Anoncoin
Privacy seems to be the driving force for investors who are transferring their assets to cryptocurrencies. Although not yet as prominent a force as darkcoin, anoncoin, whose motto is, “your business is none of our business.” With the introduction of the “zerocoin”, anoncoin states their services will be unique as it will not require as they will not require the use of a third party, even for the initial set-up. Their goal is to create a long-lived cryptocurrency that is free from the interference of central banks, government and intelligence agencies.
4) Namecoin
Namecoin was the first fork to branch from the tree of bitcoins. It is a decentralized open source and transference system based on the bitcoin cryptocurrency. Namecoin securely records and transfers arbitrary names, attaches a value to the names and
transacts namecoins, the digital currency. Its objective is to protect free speech online by making the web more resistant to censorship. Users can access websites using the .bit domain and store identity information. Namecoin supports Wiki, and encourages help to free information, especially in Wiki editing, marketing and coding.
5) NXT
Money is primarily electronic records. NXT is a next generation cryptocurrency that was designed from the ground up. Its vision was of a digital economy and it created a platform to realize it. NXT was designed to allow a fair and versatile platform for anyone who wishes to use it. NXT can be used for everything from digital cash to property ownership records, smart contracts, and online transfer of stocks and shares. Instead of using one large block, it uses thousands of small ones to allow users complete control over their money.
6) Acoin
Unlike many of the cryptocurrencies that depend on an electronic platform to build value, Acoin was designed to be a rare currency. It starts at one and halves every six months, with limits of just over 1.6 million, which varies due to a random reward system. Acoin purports to buy gold, coins, diamonds, platinum, Rolex watches and designer jewelry at the highest competitor prices and offer them at the lowest rate. Instead of a cyber platform, Acoin has a physical location with international connections.
7) Litecoin
Litecoin made crypto news recently when it began improving the hash pool for their Titan customers after the KNC missed their third quarter deadline without delivering refunds after yielding lower hash rates than marketed. By creating multiple mining pools, Litecoin miners can “jump ship” by switching to a new coin. This is especially helpful when the difficulty is much too high to be profitable, the exchange rate drops significantly or the hash rate network hits the ceiling.
8) Peercoin
Peercoin, or PP Coin, is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency using proof-of-stake and proof-of-work systems. It was inspired by Bitcoin and shares much of the source code and technical implementation of Bitcoin. It is the fourth largest minable cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Peercoin does not have a hard limit on the number of possible coins but it was designed to attain an eventual 1% annual inflation rate. Peercoin’s most distinguishing feature is its proof-of-stake, proof-of-work system that fool proofs against a single entity gaining over a fifty percent monopoly on the mining shares.
9) Bitmonero
Recently changed to Monero, this crypocurrency is an open source, free to use peer-to-peer consensus network that allows the user to send and receive funds without the transactions being easily revealed on the blockchain. Wallet files are encrypted with a pass phrase to ensure they are useless if stolen. Monero is an anonymous coin using Crypto Note protocol and is not a descendent of Bitcoin. Its main features are ring keys that mask sender identities by mixing and unlinkable transactions, which are accomplished by creating one-time keys for individual payments.
10) Primecoin
Related to Peercoin, Primecoin implements a unique scientific computing proof-of-work system. It had a slow start as it was described as the main cause of spot shortages of dedicated servers because at the time of its introduction, it was only possible to mine the currency with CPU’s. It also became the target for malware writers. It wasn’t until March of 2014 that Primecoin was able to resolve its issues and become the first GPU miner to become publicly available. Its advantages are a scarcity governed purely by the nature of prime number distribution, no predetermined ultimate number of coins, more frequent difficulty adjustments and faster transactions confirmations.