5 Cryptocurrencies Other Than Bitcoin to Keep Track of In 2018

Many newcomers to the cryptocurrency world came on board due to Bitcoin, the near-$20,000 cryptocurrency that has made thousands of lucky people into multi-millionaires. But the Bitcoin ship may be long gone at this point, and there isn’t any reason to believe that it will increase by another 24,000% as it did in 2017, let alone 1000%, due to its already several thousand-dollar value.

However, the great thing about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies is that there are many other opportunities for successful investing. All it takes is knowing which cryptocurrencies can experience the same gains as Bitcoin. Here are five cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin to keep track of in 2018.

1) Ripple (XRP)

Ripple is very different from all other big cryptocurrencies on the market, simply because of the fact that it isn’t as decentralized as its peers. Whereas Bitcoin and its successors market their decentralization as a key benefit of their currency, Ripple is actually a currency that was created and held by a company. Specifically, Ripple is the name of the company and its global settlement network, which allows banks and individuals incredibly low-cost worldwide payments, potentially saving hundreds of millions of dollars per year in conversion and transaction fees.

To operate this system, Ripple makes use of its currency, XRP. Ripple believes that XRP can reach a much higher value than others expect, since the market that it is targeting is worth billions of dollars.

2) Zcash (ZEC)

Zcash was released in 2016, but is already one of the biggest coins on the market. Zcash sells itself by comparing Bitcoin to http and Zcash to https, claiming that Zcash is the evolved state of Bitcoin. Similar to https, Zcash focuses on securing its users’ privacy—while each transaction with Zcash can be found on the private ledger (similar to Bitcoin), it keeps the more detailed records such as the amount, the recipient, and the sender private.

This creates “shielded” transactions, in which users can opt for advanced encryption for each transaction they process with Zcash. Users who believe in the value of privacy should take a look into Zcash, as it solves several privacy problems related to Bitcoin.

3) Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin is widely advertised as the “silver” to Bitcoin’s “gold”. Began by former Google engineer Charlie Lee, Lee believes that Litecoin can act as the transaction currency to Bitcoin’s store of value. Bitcoin can be difficult to use a transactional currency, since it has high fees and sluggish transaction times. Litecoin overcomes these issues, allowing users the same benefits as Bitcoin but with faster transaction times and cheaper fees.

4) Dash

Dash was initially launched as Darkcoin, and it first marketed itself as the anonymous Bitcoin. All transactions on the Dash mastercode network are virtually untraceable, making it impossible to find out where money has been sent or received around the world. To gain further adoption, Darkcoin rebranded itself as Dash or “Digital Cash” in 2015, and many of its initial users continue to believe in its anonymous benefits.

5) Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum is not a cryptocurrency but a software platform upon which developers can build distributed applications, or DApps. DApps are believed to be the next step in software, as they are safe from downtime or fraud; this is because they do not have a centralized location, and stay online by working on the network of computers connected to the Ethereum network.

ETH, or Ether, is the currency that Ethereum uses to allow DApps to stay independent of the world beyond its platform. With more services being offered on Ethereum, ETH is expected to continue to grow and perhaps surpass Bitcoin.