Comparison of cryptocurrencies
At this writing there are 735 cryptocurrencies on the market. This article aims to list only the most relevant cryptocurrencies.
To be listed here, a currency must have one of the following qualities:
- At one point had significant notoriety.
- A market cap of 1 billion US dollars.
- Highly decentralized (anonymous).
- First to introduce an innovative protocol.
- Been an infamous fraud.
| Coin | Symbol | Launched | Consensus tool | Distribution | Market cap | Unit cap | Status | Anonymity | Significant notoriety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bitcoin
|
BTC | 3 Jan 2009 | SHA256d | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | $36 billion | 20,999,999.9769 | Active | Low | First blockchain |
| Bitcoin Testnet 1
|
TNBTC | 21 Oct 2010 | SHA256d | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | None | 20,999,999.9769 | Abandoned | Low | First altcoin[1] |
| Bitcoin Testnet 3
|
TNBTC | 12 Apr 2012 | SHA256d | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | None | 20,999,999.9769 | Active | Low | Current Bitcoin testnet |
 Bytecoin
|
BCN | 4 Jul 2012 | CryptoNight | Proof-of-work (random, smooth) | $414 million | 184.46 billion | Active | Low | Introduced CryptoNote. |
 Dash
|
DASH | 18 Jan 2014 under Darkcoin | X11 | Proof-of-work (fixed, curve) | $914 million | 19 million (estimate) | Active | Medium | |
 Dogecoin
|
DOGE | 6 Dec 2013 | scrypt | Proof-of-work (random) | $278 million | Unlimited | Active | Low | Was joke, became huge |
 Ethereum
|
ETH | 7 Aug 2015 | ? | ? | $21 billion | ? | Active | Low | |
| Ethereum Classic
|
ETC | 24 Jul 2016 | ? | ? | $1.6 billion | ? | Active | Low | |
 Komodo
|
KMD | 5 Feb 2017 | Zerocash | ? | $54 million | ? | Active | High | |
 Litecoin
|
LTC | 7 Oct 2011 | scrypt | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | $1.2 billion | 83,999,949.9076 | Active | Low | |
 MaidSafeCoin
|
MAID | 22 Apr 2014 | Bitcoin | Central | $166 million | 452,552,412 | Active | Low | |
 Monero
|
XMR | 18 Apr 2014 | CryptoNight | Proof-of-work (random, smooth) | $584 million | ~18,400,000 then <1% inflation | Active | Medium | |
 Namecoin
|
NMC | 18 Apr 2011 | SHA256d - merged mined with Bitcoin | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | $23 million | 20,999,999.9769 (like Bitcoin) | Active | Low | First alternative chain, bitDNS |
 NEM
|
XEM | 31 Mar 2015 | Proof-of-importance | Peer-to-peer | $1.7 billion | 9 billion | Active | Medium | Introduced the proof-of-importance (POI) algorithm. |
 Nxt
|
NXT | 29 Sep 2013 | Consensus through obscurity[2] | Proof-of-stake | $51.6 million | 999,997,096 | Active | Low | |
 Peercoin
|
PPC | 19 Aug 2012 | Central authoriy[3] | Proof-of-work/stake | $35.6 million | Unlimited | Active | Low | |
 PIVX
|
PIVX | 1 Feb 2016 under Darknet | Quark | proof-of-stake 3.0 | $83.9 million | ? | Active | Medium | |
| Primecoin | XPM | 7 Jul 2013 | Cunningham | Proof-of-work | $7.2 million | Unlimited | Active | Low | Implements a unique scientific computing proof-of-work system. |
| Ripple | XRP | 1 Mar 2011 | Ripple | Central | $8.2 billion | 28,989,252,282 | Active | Low | XRP is the native currency of the Ripple network that only exists within the Ripple system |
| Tonal Bitcoin
|
TBC | 2 Jan 2011 | See Bitcoin | See Bitcoin | See Bitcoin | 7,750,54.00 | Active | Low | First on-chain alternative |
 Zcash
|
ZEC | 28 Oct 2016 | Zerocash | Zero-knowledge proofs, Proof-of-work (Equihash), with a portion of each block subsidy distributed to founders for the first four years. | $338 million | 21,000,000 (like Bitcoin) | Active | High | First cryptocurrency that implemented the zerocash protocol. |
 Zclassic
|
ZCL | 10 Nov 2016 | Zerocash | See Zcash | $5 million | See Zcash | Active | High | First Zcash-based currency without the 20% fee for miners made by Zcash. |
 Zcoin
|
XZC | 28 Sep 2016 | Zerocoin (Zero-knowledge proofs), Merkle Tree Proof of Work ( Proof-of-work) | $16.9 million | 21,000,000 (like Bitcoin) | Active | High | First cryptocurrency that implemented the zerocoin protocol which also makes it the first useful Zero-knowledge proof based anonymous cryptocurrency. First that implements Merkle Tree Proof of Work (MTP). |