Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is a digital currency, a protocol, and a software that enables instant peer-to-peer transactions, worldwide payments, low or zero processing fees, and much more!
Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority; managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the network. Through many of its unique properties, Bitcoin allows exciting uses that could not be covered by any previous payment systems.
Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant payments to anyone in the world. It is based on the Bitcoin protocol but differs from Bitcoin in that it can be efficiently mined with consumer-grade hardware. Litecoin provides faster transaction confirmations (2.5 minutes on average) and uses memory-hard, scrypt-based mining proof-of-work algorithm to target the regular computers and GPUs most people already have. The Litecoin network is scheduled to produce 84 million currency units.
Litecoin Website
Litecoin Wikipedia
PPCoin (PPC)
PPCoin also known as Peer to Peer coin, Peercoin, PPC and P2PCoin is the first known crypto-currency based on an implementation of a combined Proof of Stake/Proof-of-work system.
PPCoin’s major distinguishing feature is that it uses proof-of-stake/proof-of-work hybrid system. The proof-of-stake system was designed to address vulnerabilities that could occur in a pure proof-of-work system.[3] With Bitcoin, for example, there is a risk of attacks resulting from a monopoly on mining share. This is because rewards from mining are programmed to decline exponentially, which may decrease the incentive to mine. As miners decline, the likelihood of a monopoly increases, which leaves the network vulnerable to a 51% attack (i.e., where the monopolist can double-spend coins).
With a proof-of-stake system, new coins are generated based on the holdings of individuals. In other words, someone holding 1% of the currency will generate 1% of all proof-of-stake coin blocks. This has the effect of making a monopoly more costly, and separates the risk of a monopoly from proof-of-work mining shares.
PPCoin Website
PPCoin Wikipedia
TerraCoin (TRC)
Terracoin (abbreviated TRC) is a peer to peer decentralized currency based on Bitcoin. Terracoin has no central issuer; instead, the peer-to-peer network regulates Terracoin balances, transactions and issuance according to consensus in network software. Terracoins are issued to enduser nodes that verify transactions through computing power; it is established that there will be a limited and scheduled release of no more than 42 million coins.
NovaCoin (NVC)
Novacoin is a hybrid scrypt Proof-of-Work + Proof-of-Stake based cryptocurrency operating with no central authority via peer-to-peer open source network. Novacoin has no hard cap except for the 2 billion coin max that has been entered for coding purposes; this can be lifted in the future if needed.
NameCoin (NMC)
Namecoin is an alternative distributed Domain Name System (DNS) on the basis of Bitcoin software. It expands the software so that transactions for registering, updating, and transferring domains to serve.
Like Bitcoin, Namecoin is a peer-to-peer system, which, assuming an honest majority of participants can not be controlled by a single state or a company. Changes to the namespace of the rightful owner of a domain with a public key signature method and distributed to all peer-to-peer users. The inclusion in the block chain , as the eternal logfile is used, the transactions are authentic. The block chain grows whenever new transactions, if any of the participants through a fairly intense proof-of-work process, a matching result of a cryptographic hash function has found what may be verified by all other participants. The falsification of a longer chain block is, due to the computational effort, impractical.
FeatherCoin (FTC)
Feathercoin is built on Bitcoin’s open source software. One of Feathercoins’s biggest advantages is the Scrypt based hashing algorithm. This offers a different solution to Bitcoin which uses a SHA-256 based hashing algorithm.
Scrypt is the only viable solution for GPU miners as Bitcoin mining is now dominated by professional ASIC mining hardware. ASIC mining hardware is expensive, but outperforms GPU hardware for mining Bitcoin greatly. Scrypt based Feathercoin is safe guarded from the effects of current ASIC mining hardware.
