Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies. All over the world, many companies accept cryptocurrencies in payments. Just like physical money, such as the real or dollar, they can be used to carry out transfers and business transactions.

The difference is that negotiations take place online only, through a device connected to the internet. Coins are created from digital systems. As they are not linked to a specific country, they do not follow regulations from a Central Bank.

1. Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the best-known virtual currency. It was the first decentralized global payment system. This means that he is not directly linked to any country. Thus, the quotation is not subject to the laws of any specific government.

Developed in 2008, bitcoin was the first major cryptocurrency released. It was aimed at replacing paper money and ending the need for the influence of banks to broker financial transactions.

Bitcoin is mined and traded through technology. Currency transactions are recorded in a complex computer system called a blockchain. This system depends on several computers around the world to function.

Mining (obtaining new currencies) and bitcoin transfers are recorded in the blockchain, which works like a ledger. It also ensures more security to operations, as it makes attacks by malicious people more difficult.

Although bitcoin is an unbacked currency, it is increasingly accepted as a form of payment by companies and institutions around the world. For this reason, it remains one of the main cryptocurrencies on the market.

2. Ethereum

There are some similarities and also differences between bitcoin and ethereum – which was originally called ether. However, in 2016, a hacker found a flaw in the cryptocurrency system.

With that, he managed to steal the equivalent of $50 million worth of ether. This action caused several doubts about the future of the currency, so the community that maintained it decided to create another network.

Thus, the original ether, which was the target of the robbery, came to be called ethereum classic. And the virtual currency that started to circulate in the new network was called ethereum. With the support of its community, it came to be worth more than the first version.

Unlike bitcoin, ether was not created to be a digital currency. The goal was for it to become an asset to reward developers for their contributions to the Ehereum platform and their projects.

Ethereum development is among the most traded virtual currencies in the world. The platform is decentralized and used to carry out smart contracts. That is, they are operations performed automatically when certain conditions are met.

The blockchain is also the basis used for validating transactions with ethereum, ensuring security, and preventing fraud. As with bitcoin, the process of creating new cryptocurrencies is based on mining.

3. XRP

Ripple was created in 2011 and is a distributed payment protocol. It has a currency native to its system, the XRP. The platform has the differential of supporting other tokens in its network, which can represent traditional currencies and other goods.

The system seeks to allow secure and instant payments. In a way, Ripple is similar to banking institutions, as it accepts different assets and facilitates the execution of transactions. Thus, he moves away from the ideals of other cryptocurrencies.

The speech aims to end the dependence on the traditional financial system to carry out transactions. Thus, the XRP virtual currency was conceived in 2012 by developer Ryan Fugger, programmer Jed McCaleb, and entrepreneur Chris Larsen. Most of the coins remain in their possession.

Unlike other digital currencies such as bitcoin and ethereum, there is no mining process in Ripple. The system connects payment providers, banks, businesses, and digital asset exchanges to provide a frictionless experience and send money globally.

4. Litecoin

Litecoin is a cryptocurrency created in 2011 by Charlie Lee – a former Google employee. The coin has many similar characteristics to bitcoin, but the main difference is in the mining process.

The purpose of litecoin is to reduce the time it takes to confirm transactions made with the currency. The idea is to make it easier and simpler for anyone to participate in the process of developing new litecoins.

Another intention of litecoin is to be a virtual currency accessible to the general population. To do this, Charlie Lee sold all his shares. Thus, he could not interfere with cryptocurrency prices.

Due to the faster processing, litecoin is considered a more efficient alternative for carrying out day-to-day transactions. On the other hand, bitcoin is seen as a better source of the store of value.

Also, litecoin was developed to produce more units. While bitcoin has a limit of 21 million coins, the limit for litecoin is 84 million.

5. EOS

The EOS platform was developed in 2018 by Brendan Blumer and Dan Larimer. The goal was to be a system for creating decentralized applications known as dApps. Also, the environment tries to solve several problems with ethereum.

For this reason, many people consider EOS to be an enhanced version of the ethereum blockchain. This is mainly because of the transaction processing speed, which is even faster.

This increased speed occurs through the protocol's parallel processing system. This means that the system is capable of performing multiple actions at the same time, which increases transaction rate and scalability.

While card operators, for example, perform a few thousand transactions per second, EOS claims to be able to make millions of transactions per second. The initial cryptocurrency (ICO) offer raised $4 billion. Currently, there are nearly a billion tokens in circulation.

6. Cardano

The gimbal was created in 2015 by ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson. The platform has a very ambitious project. Its objective is to unite the best functionalities and characteristics of all existing cryptocurrencies in the world.

With this, the development of Cardano would be able to solve problems and offer new solutions for virtual currencies. The project is defined as the third generation of cryptocurrencies, so bitcoin would be the first and ethereum the second.

Cardano is also a smart contracts platform formed by a decentralized public blockchain and a token. The crypto active is facing the future with a view that already has long been a more work algorithm sustainable, such as the Proof of Stake.

The goal is to serve as an alternative form of payment in countries that have difficulty accessing banks. For that, one of its goals is to improve the speed with which operations are carried out.

Another outstanding feature of the Cardano is that it was the first digital coin based on a scientific methodology. This brings more robustness to your code, which is evaluated and reviewed by a large team of scientists, researchers, developers, and engineers.

7. Binance coin

The binance coin is an alternative in the list of cryptocurrencies for use within an exchange. These companies are responsible for mediating the relationship between buyers and sellers of virtual currencies.

The currency was launched in August 2017 by one of the largest exchanges in the world, Binance. It was created as a utility token for trading fee discounts. Over time, the cryptocurrency became the native token of the blockchain binance chain.

Virtual currency can also be used to buy virtual gifts, pay for travel expenses (such as hotel and flight reservations), make purchases using a credit card, among other services. Binance has constantly released new features that allow the use of the token.

The company's business strategy and strong asset performance received high praise from those working in the financial market. This made the currency one of the most traded in the world.

8. Stellar Lumens

Stellar Lumens was created in 2013 by one of Ripple's developers, Jed McCaleb. It is much faster and has a much cheaper transaction cost than bitcoin. In addition, cryptocurrency can perform up to a thousand transactions per second.

The initial intention of the project was to be the link between the virtual and traditional monetary worlds. Thus, the stellar project unites cryptocurrencies and physical money. The proposal is to be a multi-transactional platform for traditional currencies, such as reais, dollar, euro, etc.

This allows people to send and receive money quickly, with reduced costs and a decentralized exchange. The stellar lumens system is based on open source, as is bitcoin.

That way, anyone can work on their code to try to bring improvements to the project. Despite being launched with a good foundation at Ripple, Stellar has many differences from XRP.

The first distinction is that most stellar lumen coins were given away for free at their inception. Furthermore, cryptocurrency operates on its consensus protocol. In other words, it has a network of internal professionals capable of running this system independently.

This makes the process less decentralized than more traditional ones. However, the feature allows for a high degree of efficiency.

9. Chainlink

Chainlink is a blockchain platform that aims to simplify the use of smart contracts across different platforms. Created in 2017 by Sergey Nazarov, the system consists of a protocol to facilitate access to the best of these contracts for real-world applications.

There are two main points in the chainlink architecture. The first is the on-chain infrastructure, that is, inside the blockchain. The second is out-of-chain infrastructure, which is where real-world data is used with smart contracts.

All platforms join a chainlink's decentralized Oracle network. It uses multiple nodes to independently collect data and offer it to smart contracts. This makes it possible to avoid single points of failure.

Thus, the network helps to prevent conflicts in data transmission between different systems. The chainlink network can avoid the manipulation of information entering or leaving databases. It also acts as a link for interoperability between systems.

10. NEO

NEO is another open-source cryptocurrency project that uses blockchain technology and smart contracts. The goal is to automate the management of digital assets. So he can create the so-called smart economy.

The project started in February 2014 and was created by the company OnChain, based in China. Da HongFei, the company's CEO, aimed to develop a blockchain platform that would have the same features as ethereum and still perform other functions.

The concept integrates operations with smart contracts, digital identities, and digital assets into the blockchain. With this, the system can form a transparent and decentralized database, allowing companies to manage their operations and take advantage of new technological aspects.

In this way, it is possible to improve the efficiency of processes and reduce costs at the same time. The Chinese company is a leader in blockchain technology. In addition to being the developer of NEO, OnChain acts as the main link between the project and partner entities.

Now that you've checked out the list of top cryptocurrencies, you can research more about this market. Remember that investing or speculating in virtual currencies involves high risk. They are more exposed to market variations and tend to have high volatility.