Comparison of cryptocurrencies
The cryptocurrency market is explosive which currently serves 735 currencies.
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.
| Launched | Coin | Symbol | Consensus tool | Distribution | Market cap, rounded | Unit cap | Status | Anonymity | Significant notoriety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-01-03 |  Bitcoin
|
BTC | SHA256d | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | $36 billion | 20,999,999.9769 | Active | Low | First blockchain |
| 2010-10-21 | Bitcoin Testnet 1
|
TNBTC | SHA256d | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | None | 20,999,999.9769 | Abandoned | Low | First altcoin[1] |
| 2011-01-02 | Tonal Bitcoin
|
TBC | See Bitcoin | See Bitcoin | See Bitcoin | 7,750,54.00 | Active | Low | First on-chain alternative |
| 2011-03-01 |  Ripple
|
XRP | 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 |
| 2011-04-18 |  Namecoin
|
NMC | SHA256d - merged mined with Bitcoin | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | $23 million | 20,999,999.9769 (like Bitcoin) | Active | Low | First alternative chain, bitDNS |
| 2011-10-07 |  Litecoin
|
LTC | scrypt | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | $1.2 billion | 83,999,949.9076 | Active | Low | |
| 2012-04-12 | Bitcoin Testnet 3
|
TNBTC | SHA256d | Proof-of-work (fixed, halving) | None | 20,999,999.9769 | Active | Low | Current Bitcoin testnet |
| 2012-07-04 |  Bytecoin
|
BCN | CryptoNight | Proof-of-work (random, smooth) | $414 million | 184.46 billion | Active | Low | Introduced CryptoNote. |
| 2012-08-19 |  Peercoin
|
PPC | Central authoriy[2] | Proof-of-work/stake | $36 million | Unlimited | Active | Low | |
| 2013-07-07 |  Primecoin
|
XPM | Cunningham | Proof-of-work | $7 million | Unlimited | Active | Low | Implements a unique scientific computing proof-of-work system. |
| 2013-12-06 |  Dogecoin
|
DOGE | scrypt | Proof-of-work (random) | $278 million | Unlimited | Active | Low | Was joke, became huge |
| 2013-09-29 |  Nxt
|
NXT | Consensus through obscurity[3] | Proof-of-stake | $52 million | 999,997,096 | Active | Low | |
| 2014-01-18 under Darkcoin |  Dash
|
DASH | X11 | Proof-of-work (fixed, curve) | $914 million | 19 million (estimate) | Active | Medium | Introduced the X11 algorithm. |
| 2014-04-18 |  Monero
|
XMR | CryptoNight | Proof-of-work (random, smooth) | $584 million | ~18,400,000 then <1% inflation | Active | Medium | |
| 2015-03-31 |  NEM
|
XEM | Proof-of-importance | Peer-to-peer | $1.7 billion | 9 billion | Active | Medium | Introduced the proof-of-importance (POI) algorithm. |
| 2015-08-07 |  Ethereum
|
ETH | Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) | ? | $21 billion | ? | Active | Low | |
| 2016-02-01 under Darknet |  PIVX
|
PIVX | Quark | proof-of-stake 3.0 | $84 million | Unlimited | Active | Medium | Introduced the Quark algorithm. |
| 2016-07-24 |  Ethereum Classic
|
ETC | Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) | ? | $1.6 billion | ? | Active | Low | |
| 2016-09-28 |  Zcoin
|
XZC | Zerocoin (Zero-knowledge proofs), Merkle Tree Proof of Work ( Proof-of-work) | $17 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). | |
| 2016-10-28 |  Zcash
|
ZEC | 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. |
| 2016-11-10 |  Zclassic
|
ZCL | Zerocash | See Zcash | $5 million | See Zcash | Active | High | First Zcash-based currency without the 20% fee for miners made by Zcash. |
| 2017-02-05 |  Komodo
|
KMD | Zerocash | ? | $54 million | ? | Active | High |