Cryptocurrencies – Overview
Bitcoin (BTC )
Digital gold, Sound Money
- Hard cash, digital gold
- Largest network, highest security
- Longest history without incidents
Ethereum (ETH )
Smart contracts and DeFi
- Largest Smart Contract Platform
- Technology for decentralized finance and NFTs
- Almost all tokens are based on Ethereum (ERC-20, NFTs)
BNB (BNB )
Save trading fees on Binance
- Discount system on Binance trading platform
- Quarterly coin burn from Binance acts like dividend
- Cashback on Binance credit card
Solana (SOL )
Potential Ethereum killer
- Very high transaction speed also for smart contracts
- Energy efficiency
- Possibly better trade-off between scaling, security and decentralization
USDC (USDC )
stark regulierter Dollar Stablecoin
- Strictly regulated in America
- Support from major stock exchanges
- ERC-20 tokens in the EVM ecosystem: also available as Algorand ASA, Avalanche ERC-20, Flow FT, Hedera SDK, Solana SPL, Stellar asset and TRON TRC-20.
Lido Staked Ether (STETH )
Tokenized ETH 2.0
- 1:1 tokenization from ETH to stETH
- stETH are freely tradable while they generate staking rewards
- Leverage of Lido stETH in DeFi possible
XRP (XRP )
Universal currency for banks
- "Bitcoin for banks" (bank to bank transfers)
- High number of transactions possible (1,500 per second)
- Transactions take only a few seconds (3.5 - 4 seconds)
Dogecoin (DOGE )
Much crypto wow, Memecoin
- Meme Coin (1 Doge = 1 Doge)
- Very low transaction fees
- Positive community
Cardano (ADA )
Third-generation blockchain
- Fast and inexpensive transactions (in seconds)
- Interoperability between different blockchains
- Platform for blockchain applications and smart contracts
Shiba Inu (SHIB )
Internet Phenomenon & Memetoken
- Meme token on Ethereum, pushed by Elon Musk & Vitalik Buterin.
- Featured in WoofPaper, created by Ryoshi
- Buterin donated a large portion to the COVID India Relief Fund
Avalanche (AVAX )
Customizable PoS blockchain platform
- Scalable & low fees
- Network consists of Exchange (X), Platform (P) & Contract (C) Chain
- EVM support and smart contract migration
TRON (TRX )
Blockchain platform, scalable?
- DApp platform with high scalability
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC )
Bridge to Ethereum via ERC-20 token
- De facto interoperability between Bitcoin and Ethereum
- KYC required for mining WBTC
- Regular audits
Bitcoin Cash (BCH )
Digital cash
- Bitcoin without high transaction fees
- Scaling should process directly "on-chain”
- Digital cash
Polkadot (DOT )
The bridge between blockchains
- Multichain model
- Interoperability between chains, private and public
- Next-Generation blockchain
Chainlink (LINK )
Decentralized oracle network
- Connecting real world data with blockchains (oracle).
- Actually used by many DeFi applications
- Reliable data provider
NEAR Protocol (NEAR )
Cloud collective with improved contribution and incentivization via EVM
- Interoperability to many blockchains
- Climate neutral blockchain
- Developers receive 30% of fees from smart contracts
Polygon (MATIC )
Layer 2 Scaling for Ethereum
- Scaling for Ethereum via side chain
- Low transaction costs
- Fast transactions
Litecoin (LTC )
Digital Cash
- Code fork of Bitcoin with faster transactions
- Basically a test network
- Long standing in the market
Internet Computer (ICP )
potential of the cloud, but decentralized
- Fast transactions
- Low storage costs
- Users do not need a wallet for dApps
Uniswap (UNI )
Governance Token of the Uniswap Exchange
- Token of the largest decentralized exchange
- Governance via Uniswap
- Potentially also revenue sharing
- Discounts and benefits for holders
- LEO are repurchased piecemeal (token burn) to achieve value appreciation
- Tokens available for investment on Bitfinex's IEO platform, Tokinex.
Ethereum Classic (ETC )
Code is law
- A principled community that adheres to the original values
Hedera (HBAR )
Trust layer for the Internet
- High number of transactions per second
- Very low fees
- Smart contracts
Cronos (CRO )
DeFi competition for Ethereum
- Lower fees
- More environmentally friendly according to the platform, due to the use of Proof of Authority
- Higher number of transactions than on the Ethereum Chain
Stellar (XLM )
Decentralized Ripple
- Cross-border payment (replace Swift)
- No miners
- Minimal transaction time and cost (3 - 5 seconds; 0.00001 XLM)
Cosmos Hub (ATOM )
Internet of blockchains
- Scalable blockchains
- Consensus layer (tendermint) separate from application layer
- Modularity
Filecoin (FIL )
decentralized P2P cloud storage
- Low storage costs, about $24 per tebibyte per year.
- Focus on long-term incentivization to keep storage available
- Storage Providers: show that data is stored securely and correctly and compute create cryptographic proofs
VeChain (VET )
Supply chain blockchain
- Comprehensive management solution, for instance through co-determination via voting rights
- Private individuals cannot set up nodes
- Proof of authority: authority masternodes append blocks to the blockchain
Maker (MKR )
Evidence-free loans against security deposit
- DAI Stablecoin Issuer
- Loan for ETH
- Largest Decentralized Finance application
Theta Network (THETA )
Decentralized streaming network
- Decentralized streaming platform with incentive system
- Experienced team
- Renowned partners
Monero (XMR )
Anonymous digital cash
- Coin with the highest level of privacy
- Sender, receiver, transaction amount and address are all anonymous
- Flexible block size (the more transactions, the larger the block)
Fantom (FTM )
fast Ethereum 2.0 with useful additions
- Fast, low-cost transactions
- Integration of oracles like Chainlink
- 4% - 13% interest on staked capital
THORChain (RUNE )
Decentralized Cross Chain Exchange
- Crypto exchange cross blockchain
- Trust-minimized
- Without KYC or middlemen
Algorand (ALGO )
PoS smart contract platform
- Low transaction fees
- Fast transaction processing within 5 seconds
- Exclusively Proof-of-Stake
Aave (AAVE )
The DeFi protocol with flash loans
- Staking based on the Safety Module (SM), Staker earn Safety Incentives (SI) in the form of AAVE along with a share of the protocol fees.
- Staking consists of AAVE and an AAVE/ETH duo
- Ecosystem Incentives (EI) for lending and borrowing.
Bitcoin SV (BSV )
Satoshi's „vision“
- Extremely large blocks, theoretical scalability
- Claim to enforce Satoshi Nakamoto's actual vision
- But Craig Wright is a Fraud
BitTorrent (BTT )
Decentralized peer-to-peer network
- World's largest P2P file sharing platform
- More than 100 million monthly active users
- Use of unused upload capacities of users
NEO (NEO )
Chinese Ethereum
- Platform for decentralized applications (dApps)
- Smart economy (smart contracts, digital assets and digital identity)
- ICOs possible
MultiversX (EGLD )
via sharding to scalability
- Secure Proof of Stake: randomization of a wide variety of processes in the consensus mechanism
- Metachain that authenticates block headers from shards
- Roles: Validators, Observers, Fishermen
Axie Infinity (AXS )
Popular play-to-earn game on Ethereum
- Axie creatures are tradable NFTs
- Axies can be multiplied with Small Love Motion (SLP)
- Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) are used as governance tokens, for payment and for staking
The Sandbox (SAND )
metaverse with focus on art and games
- Several ways to earn
- Focus on voxel art
- Cooperation with well-known artists like Snoop Dogg and deadmau5
Tezos (XTZ )
Democratic blockchain platform
- Scalability through Proof of Stake
- "Self-amendment" to avoid hard forks
EOS (EOS )
Scalable smart contracts
- Very low transaction fees
- Highly scalable, several thousand transactions per second
- Smart contracts /DApps with the goal: decentralization of everything.
Synthetix Network (SNX )
Synthetic assets with sophisticated staking mechanism
- No counterpart necessary when exchanging synths
- Distributed pool of collateral
- Mintr app for minting synths