The cryptocurrency market is explosive which currently serves 735 currencies. Most of them are obvious scams—including many which purport to have a large market cap. This article aims to list only the most relevant cryptocurrencies in terms of novel technological advancements or strong engineering teams, or due to widespread awareness thereof. Direct, low-level scams should not be listed here.
| Cryptocurrency
|
Exchange symbol
|
Launched
|
Anonymity
|
Notes
|
Website
|
 Bitcoin
|
BTC
|
2009-01-03
|
Low
|
First blockchain.
|
bitcoin.org
|
 Dash
|
DASH
|
2014-01-18
|
Low
|
Introduced the X11 algorithm, which is just a composite function of multiple hashing algorithms. Had a significant failure mode in the beginning which equated to a majority premine by a small number of Amazon EC2 customers. This technically compromises their Master Node algorithm, especially over time.
|
dash.org
|
 Ethereum
|
ETH
|
2015-08-07
|
Low
|
Massive
|
ethereum.org
|
 Ethereum Classic
|
ETC
|
2016-07-24
|
Low
|
|
ethereumclassic.org
|
 Litecoin
|
LTC
|
2011-10-07
|
Low
|
|
litecoin.org
|
 Monero
|
XMR
|
2014-04-18
|
Medium
|
Introduced Ring Confidential Transactions.
|
getmonero.org
|
 Zcash
|
ZEC
|
2016-10-28
|
Medium
|
First cryptocurrency that implemented the zerocash protocol.
|
z.cash
|
 Namecoin
|
NMC
|
2011-04-18
|
Low
|
First cryptocurrency that implemented Satoshi's BitDNS idea
|
namecoin.info
|
 Zcoin
|
XZC
|
2016-09-28
|
Medium
|
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).
|
zcoin.io
|
| Cryptocurrency
|
Max supply
|
Algorithm
|
Proof Type
|
| Bitcoin
|
~21,000,000
|
SHA256
|
PoW
|
| Dash
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
| Ethereum
|
Infinite
|
Ethash
|
PoW
|
| Ethereum Classic
|
Infinite
|
Ethash
|
PoW
|
| Litecoin
|
~84,000,000
|
Scrypt
|
PoW
|
| Monero
|
Not Applicable
|
CryptoNight
|
PoW
|
| Namecoin
|
~21,000,000
|
SHA2 Merged-Mined
|
PoW
|
| Zcash
|
~21,000,000
|
Equihash
|
PoW
|
| Zcoin
|
~21,000,000
|
Lyra2RE
|
PoW
|