Hello.
With the thousands of existing cryptocurrencies, it's hard to tell which ones are worth taking a look into.
The so called market capitalization isn't a perfect indicator. It shows Bitcoin as the king, as it should, several cryptocurrencies in stages of being made obsolete, some premined scams (Darkcoin) and some which are just clones with marketing (Dogecoin, Paycoin) rank high as well.
In
another thread I asked about which cryptocurrencies have been innovative. Now I'm asking you about which ones (and why, in the case of the last point):
- Have a main implementation which is free as in freedom.
- Introduced new technologies, or combined existing technologies in a new useful, in other words, it's not just a clone.
- Have not been premined or IPOed.
- Are actively developed or in maintenance mode (instead of abandoned).
- Have a chance of being used in the future for payment of good and services, rather than just speculation.
To start the thread, here are some cryptocurrencies that I think meet these characteristics:
Peercoin was one of the first innovative coins. It was the one to introduce PoS, therefore, it has the advantage that it's the PoS cryptocurrency that has been in existence for the longest time. The reference client seems to be in maintenance mode, but a fork (Peerunity) is more actively developed and is recommended by the official page. I like how it has a non-hardcoded scale-dependent supply (but it may be too slot to react to change). What I don't like about PPC is that the aforesaid slowness to react to money supply size change, and that it relies on the gradual PoW difficulty increase in order to phase it out in favor of PoS. It may well disappear before phasing out PoW.
I think that
Nu (
NuBits, NuShares) has potential, it was the first cryptocurrency system to feature a currency kept at parity with a fiat currency. Nu uses Peercoin.
BitShares looks promising too. I see that apart from its main currency, it features several currencies kept at parity with fiat currencies, gold, silver, and Bitcoin (using a different method than Nu) and allows users to emit their own assets, features a distributed exchange/market. Has BitShares been premined?.
Share your thoughts.
Please don't suggest clones (cryptocurrencies that bring no technical advantages over previously existing ones). Thanks in advance.