The main cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is credited as the original and most well-known cryptocurrency. Satoshi Nakamoto, a person or group of people under the name, created it in 2009. Arguably, its characteristics more closely resemble commodities rather than conventional currencies. This is reflected in that fact that it is now used more as a form of investment than a method of payment. As of June 2018, there were around 17 million bitcoins in circulation (there may be a finite number of 21 million available). Traders can either purchase bitcoin through an exchange, or speculate on its prices movements via CFDs and spread betting. Find out more on how to trade bitcoin here.
Ethereum
Ethereum is relatively new in the cryptocurrency world, having launched in 2015. It operates in a similar way to the bitcoin network, allowing people to send and receive tokens representing value via an open network. The tokens are called ether, and this is what is used as payment on the network. Ethereum’s primary use, however, is to operate as smart contracts rather than as a form of payment. Smart contracts are scripts of code which can be deployed in the ethereum blockchain. The limit on ether also works slightly differently to bitcoin. Issuance is capped at 18 million ether per year which equals 25% of the initial supply. So, while the absolute issuance is fixed, relative inflation decreases every year. Learn more about ethereum
Bitcoin cash
Bitcoin cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency and payment network created as a result of a hard fork with Bitcoin in December 2017. A hard fork occurs when members of the cryptocurrency community have a disagreement, usually regarding improvements to the software used within the network. In this case it was a disagreement around a proposal to increase the block size. After a fork, the blockchain splits in two and it is left to the miners and the wider community to decide which cryptocurrency to align themselves with. When the bitcoin hard fork took place, one bitcoin cash token was typically awarded for every bitcoin held (although some exchanges chose not to recognise bitcoin cash). Learn more about bitcoin cash
Litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that was set up by Charlie Lee (a former Google employee) in 2011. It was an early bitcoin spinoff, or ‘altcoin’ and initially intended for smaller value transactions than those made using bitcoin. Technically speaking it was created to be almost identical to bitcoin, but it has some notable differences and improvements. For example, litecoin can process blocks up to four times quicker than bitcoin. It also requires more sophisticated technology to mine, but the total number of coins available has a much larger cap – it is currently set to 84 million, which is four times greater than bitcoin. Learn more about litecoin
Ripple
Ripple (XRP) is a network that allows the transfer of any currency (including both fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies) around the world. It aims to ensure secure, fast and low cost transfers across the network, with no risk of fraud or chargeback. The network is considerably faster than bitcoin – it is able to settle transactions in just a few seconds. The minimum transaction cost is also much lower, which is one of the reasons that ripple has been increasingly adopted by banks for settlement. Ripple is also the name given to the native cryptocurrency (XRP) used on the ripple network. Learn more about ripple
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