And the current year 2018 is designated as a turning point. Many significant events have already taken place this year, directly or indirectly affecting the bitcoin rate, the results of online trading on exchanges, and the profitability of mining. Cryptocurrency market overview for today given by experts based on a variety of information, including insider information, which can be accessed. In general, the analysis does not carry a negative message, which already proves the prospects of the cryptocurrency sphere. However, it cannot be called exceptionally rosy.

Why you need an overview of the cryptocurrency market

It should be noted that the analysis and review of the cryptocurrency market is carried out for a practical purpose: the data obtained helps to reduce the risks of investors. Making mindlessly large investments in one type of digital asset is extremely short-sighted.

general review

Turning to a general overview of the cryptocurrency market, it should be said that in 2018 it still borders little on the global financial sector. There are certainly points of intersection, but digital money is still extremely limited in terms of use, especially in comparison with fiat.

• On the one hand, this is good: virtual assets do not carry systemic risks, which means that their behavior does not threaten the economy in any way.
• On the other hand, it’s bad: cryptocurrencies exist on their own, remaining an abstract object that contains little objective value.
• Within the cryptocurrency sphere itself, in 2018 there were various perturbations, which caused it to periodically “fever”, and the quotes of the main assets fell sharply.

For example, several hacker attacks on major exchanges were recorded, and a number of court cases related to fraud in the digital money segment were covered in the media. Such incidents negatively affected the image of coins on the world stage. A positive factor can be considered reports from different countries that they officially allowed the circulation of virtual assets - in Japan, India, South Korea, etc.

In order to clearly understand, in order to obtain the greatest benefit, it is necessary to know about the general situation in the market: about the sales leaders, the aggregate level of capitalization, the latest trend trends, etc.

As an illustrative example, it is worth giving a digest review of the cryptocurrency market for a week. The main news of the November seven-day week pleases with a variety of - both negative and positive - coloring. First, it is worth noting that the total market capitalization of digital coins for this period reached 219.5 billion USD. Secondly, Bitcoin once again tried to reach the autumn maximum of 7 thousand USD, set for it by experts, but failed, stopping at the level of 6.5 thousand USD. Ether added to 218 USD, Ripple rose to 0.53 USD. In general, there were no global changes in quotes in the Big Three, we need to wait for December. Thirdly, at the beginning of November, they announced the list of the most anticipated ICOs this month, which included Vidion, Winnest, eMusic, Borser projects.

Market news for the week

As for the loudest news of the week, it is worth highlighting a few of them. From the management of the popular Polonex exchange, a statement was received about the support of the new fork of Bitcoin Cash. It will be traded on this site along with the prototype.

There was a scandal with the Tether cryptocurrency: a banking partner was suspected of money laundering through the blockchain system.

One of the users accused the largest KuCoin exchange of malicious manipulation in the process of trading, which is associated with the inability of the resource to cope with an ever-increasing number of orders. But another platform - OKEx - became the owner of the title "Cryptocurrency Exchange of the Year".

Video: Trading volume

BTC/USD

Bitcoin fell $100 from its value on November 8, losing all gains from the previous two days and closing the day at $6,474. The $6,600 level was too much for the bulls. BTC/USD fell to the next support $6400.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken strong action against the EtherDelta exchange due to the lack of registration as a national securities exchange, despite offering to buy and sell assets in the secondary market. Zachary Coburn, who is the founder of the platform, did not confirm or reject the claims, but agreed to pay the fine. This news is significant as it marks the first enforcement action by the SEC against a cryptocurrency exchange.

In addition, the Commission is reportedly planning to publish "simple" recommendations for developers. SEC director William Hinman explained that "the idea is to create a simple tool that people can look at and understand." There is already an ICO section in an official government agency that entrepreneurs can use: https://www.sec.gov/ICO.

The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has issued a warning to crypto company Crypto-Capitals regarding its unregulated activities in Germany. According to the institution, Crypto-Capitals endangers the investor's capital by not complying with financial laws. This is not the first time the regulator has warned the public to be more careful when trading crypto products. Last November, he advised consumers on ICO issues.

The price of Bitcoin on Friday, November 9, fell even lower and closed the working week just above the $6,400 mark (at $6,417). Looking at this picture, we see that BTC has been in the $6,200 to $6,800 price range since September 9, with volatility at its lowest level this year.

The most popular cryptocurrency is up 0.2% through Nov 10 and 0.26% higher on Nov 11 to close the week at $6.447 or -0.67% over a 7-day period.

ETH/USD

The price followed the movement of Bitcoin and fell by 3.2% to $212 on November 8th. ETH/USD lost another dollar on November 9th and closed the week at $211, still above the critical levels of $215 and $220.

There haven't been many developments on the ETH front over the past few days. Ethereum co-founder and Consensys founder Joe Lubin shared his thoughts on blockchain development with the German media that Blockchain will take a little longer than the Web because it is “much more difficult.”

“allow people to create more things that will be useful in the future. This is how the network develops. The integration will probably take a little longer because it is much more complicated. Also, as we work on topics like digital money, Blockchain is permeating society more than the Internet. Everything will be connected to the web in Web3,” he added.

The most popular altcoin fell to $213 and remained at the same level on November 11th. It ended the week with a marginal decline of less than half a percent.

ETH/USD began to show signs of an imminent downward correction on November 12 and November 13, dropping to $209, but it was on Wednesday, November 14 that most of the top 100 coins posted double digit losses. Ethereum followed the market and lost about 11% of its value, breaking through the critical support at $200 to reach $187.

On November 15, it is at the level of $183. The last time we saw the price below this level was on September 12, 2018, but ETH has not closed a daily chart candle below this level since July 2017, so everyone is looking at Ethereum.

Hello everyone and good evening!

Let's start with some good news - the market has started to move, and not the cue ball is growing, but the viola. Almost all coins from the top are in the green zone. Who has been in the market for a long time, he probably already has a purchase at a nice price. But, most players, seeing such a movement, are often at a loss: buy or wait until it falls? What if it doesn't fall? And suddenly, growth has already begun, and I'm sitting and stupid? Familiar questions, right?

Every newbie has been in this situation more than once or twice. Remember the funny picture with the thoughts of a trader from the last post? In order not to drain the deposit, first you need to decide for what purpose you are in the market and how often you want to trade.

I’m more than sure that a lot of traders have leaked depots in the last couple of months, take the same pump on October 15 on Bitfinex as an example - stops flew like chips (by the way, I hope you have already made sure that placing stops on this exchange is this evil). That is, for the majority, trading on short-medium timeframes is actually unprofitable. Therefore, today I want to talk about a long-term strategy, that is, buy & hold.

Let's say you have "extra" money, and you don't mind investing it for a year or two to get the maximum profit. Crypto from this point of view is the best option: you do not depend on anyone, you do not need licenses, registrations, pay taxes, you can withdraw money at any time, etc. The risk is the high volatility of cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, bears have been ruling the market for almost a year now, the last few months the cue ball has found support in the region of $6,000-$6,500, altos have returned to historical lows (growth has already begun), the activity of traders has decreased, trading volumes on previously unknown exchanges have recently breaking records, and bitcoin's share of market dominance is 51%. This is an approximate description of the current state of affairs in the market.

Buy? In the long run, then definitely yes. Of course, no one will give you a guarantee that the price will not drop even lower, because today crypto exchanges have turned into a kind of “legal online casino”. To be honest, I myself am still waiting for a short-term dump.

In buy&hold, you need to build on something else - how much you can earn on this in the long run, not paying attention to dumps and market sentiment. Do you believe in crypto? It is better, of course, to buy alta from the top, and not shieldcoins with a low market capitalization - then the risks increase by a multiple. In my opinion, first of all, technology and a team should stand behind the coin. Secondly, you need to pay attention to the drawdown of the rate to the absolute maximum. Thirdly, what were the trading volumes for the coin, and how often it was pumped (sometimes, you can ignore P1).

Here is a small selection of interesting coins (I will write the price for the high as a percentage of today's value in dollars, not taking into account the cost of the coin when entering one or another exchange). So let's go, Bitfinex course! High-current price-price in % of the high:

- BTC $19891 - $6489 - 32%

- ZEC $799 - $128 - 16%

- ETH $1424 - $216 - 15.6%

- ETC $46.98 - $9.68 - 20.6%

- OMG $28.5 - $3.49 - 12.2%

- IOTA $5.8 - $0.5 - 8.6%

- NEO $198 - $16.89 - 8.5%

- SAN $8.17 - $0.5 - 6.11%

- XRP $3.3 - $0.53 - 16%

- DSH $1568 - $171 - 10.9%

- AVT $6.95 - $0.389 - 5.59%

— LTC $370 — $54.6 — 14.7%

- EOS $23 - $5.66 - 24.6%

Look, compare, draw conclusions. Of course, these are not all interesting coins, but, you see, there is something to think about. That's all for me!

If there is more interesting ideas- write in the comments, I will be happy to discuss)

Almost 9 years have passed since the appearance of the first digital coin, and during this period the light was seen different types cryptocurrencies. People have realized that it is really profitable, new and unusual - to have a currency that the authorities cannot manage by influencing its rate. And after political sanctions affected the dollar, the presence of coins began to reassure.

Perhaps they are not a salvation from the economic crisis, but as an alternative to ordinary money they look more than attractive. In particular, the difference between cryptocurrencies and fiat money is in their decentralization. At least, the most popular cryptocoins have this property. But the list of existing cryptocurrencies is constantly expanding. Hundreds of new coins appear on the market every year. True, most of them are not competitive and quickly burst, but there are coins that become hits and only grow in price every year.

Today, if we consider the list of all cryptocurrencies, we can count about one and a half thousand, 900 of which are in stable, albeit not always high, demand. Do not be surprised, but in addition to bitcoin, developers have released a lot of coins for settlements on the Internet. At first, in real life, new money has practically no weight, but with the growth of interest in it, the currency can be exchanged in special exchangers, receiving benefits.

Considering what cryptocurrencies exist, there are several general rules:

• Decentralized, that is, not managed by anyone;
• Centralized, which, as a rule, quickly burn out;
• Game, used for calculation in Internet games and not only.

You can list for a long time, since each virtual coin that has just appeared has its own peculiarity. Of course, almost complete clones of popular coins sometimes appear on the market, but these do not last long. And users quite warmly accepted the changes in the financial world, which contributed to the need for a more thorough review of virtual money.

Overview of the cryptocurrency market

New types of cryptocurrencies appear almost every day. The total number of cryptocurrencies in the world is more than 1300 and is constantly growing, so it is quite difficult to calculate how many cryptocurrencies there are. But, as already mentioned, they are classified. Classifications may vary. Given the economic situation of these coins, the following types of cryptocurrencies can be distinguished:

Their popularity also depends on the characteristics of cryptocurrencies. For example, there are groups where the number of coins is:

• Limited;
• Not limited.

The first is bitcoin. Its monetization is limited, although the principles of such distribution of resources depend on many factors, in particular, on the desire of the developer. But when doing reviews of cryptocurrencies, bitcoins are not singled out in a separate category. The fact is that this is the first digital currency, and thanks to a high-quality system for increasing demand, it will most likely not be replaced by any other financial unit. Even considering the high speed of generating new products.

A review of cryptocurrencies today, at the end of 2017, shows that this market can no longer be closed. Coins appear at a catastrophic rate. Some occupy a place next to the leader for a long time, while others disappear after a couple of months, or even days. But in any case, we will discuss the list of leaders today, because we need to sum up the results of 2017 in the world of digital money.

Bitcoin - BTC

Considering the main cryptocurrencies, one cannot ignore the most famous of the known cryptocurrencies. Surely it is easy to guess that we are talking about bitcoin (btc). So, let's look at the features of this coin, because it is not only the first digital financial unit, but also the only coin that managed to achieve such a tremendous success.

In general, it is not surprising that the popularity of bitcoin as a cryptocurrency in the world is only growing. Today, the exchange rate fluctuates around 17 thousand dollars, and this is an almost unattainable mark for most other currencies. In addition, it should be replaced that bitcoin is constantly updated. The outgoing 2017 was a real breakthrough for the coin.

1. The course has grown. If the year began with a rate barely up to a thousand dollars, today it is 17 thousand. This is a huge leap.
2. The latest version of Bitcoin 0.15.1 has been released. This happened in November of this year, when a sharp increase in the coin rate began.
3. In August of this year, the developers changed the structure of bitcoin, thanks to which a fork of bitcoin, called Bitcoin Cash, appeared. That is, this coin developed together with bitcoins until August, but after the fork it became a separate unit with an incompatible structure.

Ethereum-ETH

Russia has its own type of cryptocurrency called Ethereum. This financial unit was proposed by Vitalik Buterin in 2013, but the currency finally entered the market in 2015. Ethereum is not only a cryptocurrency, but also a platform created to implement decentralized online services based on the blockchain.

Peculiarities:

• The basis of the current principle of the implementation of cryptocurrency works on the basis of smart contracts. This is its main difference from the Bitcoin blockchain base. Moreover, it is much more profitable, as it allows you to speed up data transfer, with which there are problems in the bitcoin network;
• Ethereum has its own fractional parts. They are called: 1/1000 - finney, 1/106 - szabo and 1/1018 - wei;
• The author did not limit the cryptocurrency solely to payments. Rather, they are something like nice bonus, while the main task of the ethereum is to act as a means of exchanging resources;
• The current distribution of the cryptocurrency itself is quite positive. In particular, today the rate is 650 dollars and continues to grow;
• According to the description of the founder of this cryptocurrency, mining is not so important for this coin. It's easier to buy;
• In terms of capitalization, Ethereum is in second place after Bitcoin;

• The Ethereum rate changes much more actively than the rate of other cryptocurrencies, which makes this financial unit an excellent option for working on stock exchanges, making it possible to earn on fluctuations in this rate;
• October 2017 was a significant month for Ethereum, as Sberbank entered into a non-commercial alliance with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) that month, significantly increasing the stability of the currency. And interest in it from users has increased;
• The peculiarity of Ethereum is in large numbers applications and platforms that significantly expand the functionality of the system. In particular, there is a decentralized and investment fund, FreeMyVunk (a platform that is used to monetize rating in games).

Ethereum is included in the list of the main types of cryptocurrencies that are in stable demand. It occupies the second or third position in the list of the most popular virtual coins, which is a very good indicator, given the short
the history of the coin. This points to its excellent prospects.

Of course, the system has vulnerabilities, which provoked the emergence of a new separate cryptocurrency. It appeared as a way to solve the problems that arose and now leads a completely successful separate existence.

Ethereum Classic - ETC

Ethereum Classic is one of the most scandalous cryptocurrencies in the world. Its history began with the discovery of an error in the code of The DAO of regular Ethereum in 2016. The developers chose the way to solve it and changed the block chain. A lot of people didn't like Hardfork. But the stolen funds in the amount of $50 million at the then exchange rate were returned to their rightful place. After such a decision, the first offshoot of Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, was formed.

Description distinguishing features this type of cryptocurrency is as follows:

Ethereum Classic is not only a coin that is included in the list of the most famous cryptocurrencies. In fact, this is the same classic Ethereum as it was developed at the very beginning, and not a fork. It’s just that, as already mentioned, changes in regular Ethereum were made without the opinion of all users. They decided to follow the standard scheme of the coin, and the ethereum went on its new course. That is why this coin is called the classic Ethereum.

Experts say that this currency has a great future, since the problems that were associated with the error have already been eliminated, and all the advantages of the cryptocoin have remained with it. Already, the rate is tending upwards, even if at the moment it is only $28. But there is every reason to believe that in the new year money will rise in value.

Litecoin - LTC

Litecoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world. This coin is a fork of bitcoin, created the second after Namecoin and released into the free float in 2011. Among the world's crypto coins, this coin occupies a leading position. Let's discuss the features and characteristics of this digital currency.

The peculiarity of this type of cryptocurrency is in their variability and versatility. The developer wanted to make them like that, and he succeeded. But the system also has its drawbacks. For example:

• As with almost all cryptocurrencies, if the wallet is lost, it will be impossible to return the money;
• Despite the rapid and rapid growth of the coin over the past month, its rate remains rather unstable, which forces you to be more careful when working with it;
• Despite the fact that this is a fork of bitcoin, compared to the parent coin, the turnover of this digital currency is too low to pose a serious danger to bitcoin;
• Due to the fact that block generation is very fast, double spending often occurs on the network. This is unacceptable for a reliable digital currency.

Zcash - ZEC

Today it is already difficult to calculate how many cryptocurrencies exist in the world, but Zcash definitely stands out among them. It was developed by the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company with an emphasis on open source. This ensures maximum confidentiality and selective transaction transparency.

Let's take a closer look at what this cryptocurrency is:

Naturally, they could not help but be interested in such a coin. In particular, donations can be sent to WikiLeaks in Zcash. As for individuals, Edward Snowden singled out this coin from the thousands of cryptocurrencies that exist today and called it the most promising replacement or, more precisely, an alternative to bitcoin. And this is considering the fact that Zcash appeared only in 2016.

Monero-XMR

The existence of cryptocurrencies is no longer surprising, although few can foresee which existing coins will be popular in the future. But still, there is an expert opinion that Monero will definitely be on this list. This currency is a fork of ByteCoin (it's not Bitcoin, just consonant names).

Initially, the coin was called BitMonero, but the Bit prefix was removed. Interestingly, shortly after its first block was generated in 2014, hackers began to attack the coin. The first major attack occurred in the early fall of 2014, and Monero successfully survived it, even without significant damage to itself. But this attack showed that the hackers knew very well the source code of the coin and how it works, which is different from other types of cryptocurrencies. Therefore, the danger existed. The developers have taken some very effective measures to minimize damage and make the system even more secure.

In principle, it is not surprising that the attackers were interested in the coin, because at the beginning it did not even have a normal interface, wallets, etc. It was confusing, because the actions had to be performed through the command line.

But let's discuss other features of the system:

For some reason, there is an opinion that Monero is used exclusively on the black market. Actually it is not. Monero is often used for settlement in games, online casinos and other online payments.

All cryptocurrencies in one table

The list of cryptocurrencies is already quite large: there are more than 1300 coins. Every year this list of cryptocurrencies will only expand. And in order not to get lost in this diversity, it is advisable to have before your eyes full list cryptocurrencies. Then you can decrypt cryptocurrencies at any time and see which cryptocurrencies are suitable for mining at that moment.

The list of cryptocurrencies, of course, is a very convenient device that helps to understand the types of cryptocurrencies, their details, etc. The following information is usually included in the table of cryptocurrencies:

• And to check where the rate is moving, you can look at the statistics of changes. As a rule, the table shows the changes that have occurred in a day, and the changes that can be traced for a week or longer. To help coin owners find their way - to sell or buy money.

In general, tables as miner and trader tools are very useful. And cryptocurrency producers, thanks to them and knowing the details of their coin, can view the rating of their financial unit in the world of virtual digital money.

The table looks like this. You can see how it works in practice here.

	Name	Ticker	Price in USD	Market cap.	Volume (24 hours)	Volume (%)	Price in BTC	Change for 7d (%)
1	bitcoin	BTC	16.887,0	$288.71B	$12.61B	55,07%	1	+49,69%
2		ETH	676,58	$45.98B	$1.47B	6,40%	0,0276026	+2,53%
3	bitcoin cash	BCH	1.566,20	$24.01B	$951.42M	4,16%	0,0823458	-7,89%
4	IOTA	MIOTA	4,26770	$12.24B	$456.94M	2,00%	0,00025456	+59,28%
5	Litecoin	LTC	341,020	$10.60B	$2.12B	9,25%	0,0113507	+92,58%
6	Ripple	XRP	0,43870	$9.70B	$178.64M	0,78%	0,00001454	-0,42%
7		DASH	EOS	6,44000	$2.33B	$146.96M	0,64%	0,00025333	+13,60%
15	NEO	NEO	42,760	$2.29B	$78.77M	0,34%	0,00203516	-14,34%
16	BitConnect	BCC	326,30	$1.87B	$40.03M	0,17%	0,0226545	+20,31%
17	Populous	ppt	37,6780	$1.19B	$4.02M	0,02%	0,00167293	+118,28%
18	waves	WAVES	13,6116	$1.12B	$75.37M	0,33%	0,00064589	+70,27%
19	Stratis	STRAT	9,7400	$1.06B	$68.62M	0,30%	0,00062331	+47,89%
20	Qtum	QTUM	14,8169	$985.81M	$217.56M	0,95%	0,00077319	-2,55%

What is the future of crypto money

All cryptocurrencies have a future. For some it's good, for some it's not so good. In particular, it is no secret to anyone that many coins simply disappeared over time, failing to arouse a sufficiently large interest from miners or buyers. But how many crypto-currency coins have managed to achieve success and are now worth several hundred dollars, while their price continues to grow steadily? There is a pattern that the higher the rate, the greater the chance that the coin will stay with us. And the quote depends on the following indicators:

• Frequency of use;
• Generation speed;
• The number of cryptocurrency coins;
• System algorithm;
• The ability to exchange for other coins and;
• The life span of the financial unit.

Different cryptocurrencies were perceived in their own way. For example, bitcoin was not taken seriously for a long time. Again, the story of two pizzas that were bought for 10,000 bitcoins comes to mind. The coins that appeared later were easier in this regard. But the high level of competition in the crypto world forces us to come up with unique coins.

Most digital money was created as a means of speculation. It is they who do not have a limited number of units, like bitcoin. This really poses a threat to the economies of countries that will do nothing. The development of virtual finance cannot be stopped. They are anonymous, complex and decentralized.

Considering what cryptocurrencies exist today, we can already say that at least a thousand coins have a future. Which one depends on the users. But the most optimistic forecasts say that even if bitcoin disappears, the development of cryptofinance cannot be stopped. Everyone will have them sooner or later. True, it is necessary to simplify the system of their storage and expand the scope of the use of money to the real world, providing safe, fast and convenient ways to convert, for example, bitcoins into fiat money.

In 2009, when the first Bitcoin cryptocurrency had just appeared, ordinary people could not even imagine that nine years later the whole world would follow its growth and decline with such close attention, and having a cryptocurrency in your wallet would become everyone's dream. At first, few people took the electronic currency seriously and, moreover, they did not see it as a substitute for fiat money. The increase in the number of bitcoins and varieties of cryptocurrencies, the growth in the volume of transactions using digital money proved to the whole world that cryptocurrency is the currency of the future.

How many cryptocurrencies exist?

Before you know the answer to this question, you need to understand what a cryptocurrency is. This is a fundamentally new type of money that does not depend on international relations or the economic situation in a particular country and does not require the launch of a printing press. New cryptocurrency coins are generated using certain mathematical calculation algorithms. A crypto unit is a chain of blocks, and a block is a complex mathematical formula. It is the complexity of mining (the so-called process when digital money is created using the computing capabilities of computers) that affects the rate of electronic money.

The term “cryptocurrency” was first used with the advent of bitcoin (as you already know) in 2009. But only two years later they began to conduct financial transactions with him, when electronic wallets for storing bitcoin appeared. For nine years, the world of electronic money has grown so much that it is simply unrealistic to keep track of the actions in it. New opportunities, features and benefits, new types of cryptocurrencies. How many are there now? It is simply impossible to give an exact number. And all because every day there are new types of digital money. According to CoinMarketCap data as of February 6, 2018, there are 1514 varieties of cryptocoins in the world with different numbers of coins and different exchange rates. The total value of the cryptocurrency market at the end of 2017 exceeded $500 billion. Impressive, right?

Overview of cryptocurrencies

The main view and the most expensive now, of course, is. Created by Satoshi Nakamoto. The identity of this character has not yet been revealed. Some say it was one person. Someone claims that a whole group of smart people. The cost of bitcoin does not stand still: it reaches a record $20,000, then drops sharply to $6,000. We are sure that you know a lot about this cryptocurrency, if not everything, then a lot. But there are other cryptocurrencies in a variety of types besides bitcoin. And we will talk about them in our review of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world.

Ethereum - second generation currency and smart contracts

A new cryptocurrency, which today is considered the main competitor of Bitcoin, Ethereum appeared on July 30, 2015. It was on this day that the first active release of the platform was presented, the blockchain of the distributed Ethereum base was launched. But Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian programmer with Russian roots, began working on the creation of a second-generation virtual currency back in 2013, when he presented to the public a white paper (White Paper) of a new type of world cryptocurrency.

Why Vitalik chose this particular name is unknown. Some suggest that a reference to an unlimited number of coins. Others talk about the connection with the technology of "smart contracts" and that the currency will be able to take the form of any object.

If bitcoin was designed specifically to transfer money, then the creators of ethereum saw their currency as a kind of analogue of fuel for “smart contracts”. How do they work, and what is it all about? Smart contracts are special programs that allow you to exchange money, shares, assets without intermediaries. For example, you and a friend are very fond of football and want to place a bet, but support different teams in the upcoming match. You support Manchester City, a friend bets on Manchester United. Using a smart contract and prescribing bet conditions in it, the "smart contract" removes the amount of your bets and keeps it until the match ends. This approach allows you to get rid of the participation of a third person in your bet. In general, such contracts can be registered in any blockchain, but today the most popular is Ethereum.

During its short history, the currency has experienced both ups and downs. After launching the blockchain project in the summer of 2015 and actively promoting his project, Vitalik Buterin managed to get major partners, including Microsoft. The price of Ethereum has been rising. And by March 2016, the value of all coins was one billion dollars. In June 2016, attackers used a bug in The DAO to steal $50 million. The authors insisted on a hard fork and a refund. But the team refused, explaining their decision by the fact that the main law of cryptocurrencies is the immutability of the blockchain. The creators insisted on their own and adjusted the base, returning the stolen funds. Such events could not but affect the course. So, the cost of Ethereum on the second day of the theft of funds collapsed by a third. And in early December of the same year, some managed to buy 1 ETH for $7. It was the bottom. But the ethereum pushed off from him and rushed up.

Ripple is the fastest digital currency

The creators of Ripple did not initially set out to invent a new type of digital money. Everything worked out by itself. Jed McCaleb worked on the exchange interface for depositing, withdrawing and exchanging different currencies, buying and selling services and goods. And already in the course of development, the author had an interest in creating his own XRP cryptocurrency. Ripple was born in 2012.

Ripple today is a platform for making currency exchanges with a minimum commission, making online payments and transfers to anywhere in the world where thousands of financial transactions are carried out per second. All money that passes through the Ripple Protocol is automatically converted to XRP, and then converted back to the currency the client needs. And all this without losing track.

Ripple is one of the currencies that cannot be directly mined. There are two ways to get money: by participating in calculations or by exchange. The calculations here are not mathematical, you can get paid for renting out capacities for processing huge data sets of socially significant projects.

The main difference between XRP and other coins is that it functions thanks to its own technology. Simply put, there are no analogues of this cryptocurrency. At least in terms of speed.

Today, Ripple is the most legal digital currency in the world. And every day it is being introduced deeper into the banking systems of many countries. Another plus is the price.

Dash - completely anonymous money

This currency appeared in 2014. True, it was originally called differently. Immediately XCoin, later DarkCoin. Well, in the end, the creator Evand Duffield and his team decided to call their currency Dash. On the one hand, the name means "jump up", on the other hand, it is an abbreviation for "Digital cash".

Evan Duffield always saw anonymity as the main point in creating digital money. He even suggested at one time to make changes to the bitcoin protocol, but they did not listen to him. This was the catalyst for the creation of their own cryptocurrency, which is very similar to bitcoin, but fundamentally different from it:

• Two-tier architecture;
• Complete anonymity;
• Absolute security, because the system cannot be hacked.

Thanks to the function of instant transactions, Dash is very convenient to use for making payments. Especially after signing an agreement with one well-known online banking platform, which provides for the introduction of Dash into the banking system. This means that dasha holders can pay in the usual way using a VISA card.

Litecoin - electronic money for instant transactions

The Litecoin system is very similar to the well-known torrent: computers are connected to each other by an installed Litecoin wallet. This is a kind of network that allows you to exchange cryptocurrency without problems.

The system and its own cryptocurrency of the same name were invented in 2011 by the former engineer of the famous Google company Charles Lee. He conceived Litecoin not as a replacement for Bitcoin, but as an improved version of it. And in many ways this currency is really better:

• Each piece of information is created faster: it happens every 2.5 minutes;
• Mining Litecoin is much easier;
• The limit of the allowed number of coins is 4 times higher - 84 million.

NEO - "Chinese" Ethereum

This currency is called "Chinese" Ethereum for a reason. Both Neo and Ethereum play the same role in the crypto community: the companies see it as their goal to create platforms for the “new” Internet: smart contracts, decentralized applications and ICOs. And they get it!

The main difference of the Chinese project is that it allows you to use a variety of programming languages. While Ethereum only uses its own Solidity.

The Chinese startup was launched in June 2014, in next year ICO was held. In 2016, the project launched its own currency, and in 2017 it rebranded and went global. Neo is actively developing and collaborating with large blockchain projects (Coindash, Agrello, Bancor).

IOTA - electronic money for the Internet of things

• No commissions;
• The system has every chance to revolutionize the world of the Internet of things.

Today one MIOTA costs $1.38. The total number of coins is about 3 billion. The total cost is about 4 billion dollars.

Appeared in 2015. The authors are Sergey Ivancheglo, David Sonstebo, Sergey Popov and Dominik Scheiner. The main goal of the creators is to develop a currency (MIOTA) that would help make financial transactions from devices from the world of the Internet of things.

At the heart of IOTA is a “registry of things”. This allows users to conduct financial transactions for IoT without commission. The main advantage of this system is the ease of microtransactions. Usually, due to commissions, with relatively small money transfers, transactions turn out to be too expensive. IOTA solves these problems. Experts believe that in the future, more than billions of devices from the world of the Internet of things will be connected to this network.

They are betting on this currency, calling it “a grandiose project that will revolutionize the Internet of things.” The project is still at the beginning of its journey, and you can invest in cryptocurrency until the price has grown significantly.

The cryptocurrency market is growing. For nine years, more than one and a half thousand varieties of digital money have appeared in the world. Most of them represent a variant of bitcoin in an attempt to attract investors and capitalize on the current popularity of this topic. But there are several hundred really worthwhile projects with great potential. For example, all of the above major cryptocurrencies. If you plan to replenish your wallet with electronic coins, take your choice seriously: carefully read the description of cryptocurrencies, study their history and take a look at the forecasts.