What are Cryptocurrencies? BTC, ETH, LTC, and others, what makes them unique?

Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is the world’s first cryptocurrency, also known as “Digital Gold”. Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous founder, introduced Bitcoin as ‘Open Source Peer-2-Peer Money’ for secured, verifiable digital transactions without involving intermediaries like banks.

Ethereum is the second-largest blockchain-cryptocurrency platform after Bitcoin, in terms of market capitalisation. It was conceived by Vitalik Buterin—then 19 years old—and formally launched in 2015.

Bitcoin’s popularity sky-rocketed in the next few years, driven primarily by the unprecedented possibilities that it enabled within the finance sector. However, in 2017, the community failed to reach a consensus regarding the network’s state, resulting in a hard fork that formed Bitcoin Cash.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a decentralised, blockchain-based, open-source computing platform, as well as a cryptocurrency. It allows developers to build and deploy smart contracts—autonomous, self-executing code blocks that trigger certain actions based on predefined conditions.

Despite introducing new possibilities for the world of finance and technology, Bitcoin’s core came with significant usability and scalability shortcomings. Commonly known as the first successful altcoin, Litecoin (LTC) was created in 2011 as an alternative solution to these problems.

Lisk (LSK) is a blockchain-based, decentralised computational platform. It was founded in early 2016, by Max Kordek and Oliver Beddows. As a fork of Crypti—a JavaScript-based platform for dApps—Lisk’s primary vision is to broaden the accessibility of blockchain technology.

Launched in Dec 2013, Monacoin is “Japan’s first cryptocurrency” and the outcome of a Litecoin hard fork. MONA was initially created as the native asset for a hash-finding game but has become increasingly popular, to the extent of being used for day-to-day payments & transactions.