Notable Cryptocurrencies and Tokens

There are many cryptocurrencies that either exist as blockchains in themselves or as tokens recorded in smart contracts on other blockchains, usually on Ethereum’s public chain. Onchainfx.com and Coinmarketcap.com do a good job in cataloguing these if they trade over a certain amount of volume per day.

Currency tokens (Primarily used as Money/Store of Value):
• Bitcoin (BTC) - the original cryptocurrency and store of value, created by pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, launched in 2009.
• Ripple (XRP) - a token used to move value across the Ripple network, designed as a currency that was initially described to compete against banks then to be used by banks to improve foreign exchange and international payments. Created in 2012 by OpenCoin (rebranded to Ripple Inc in 2015).
• Litecoin (LTC) - an early Bitcoin clone with faster blocks and a different mining proof-of-work. Called ‘Silver to Bitcoin’s Gold’ by its founder Charlie Lee who announced that he sold all of his Litecoin in Dec 2017.
• Zcash (ZEC) - a privacy focused coin using advanced cryptography called zero knowledge proofs to shield transaction data. Created by Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn in 2016.
• Dash (DASH) - another privacy focused coin, created as XCoin in 2014 by Evan Duffield, renamed Darkcoin, renamed DASH.
• Monero (XMR) - yet another privacy focused coin, uses ring-signatures to obscure payer and recipient addresses. Launched in 2014.

Platform tokens (i.e. those used as gas to power smart contracts):
• Ethereum (ETH) - the original smart contract enabled blockchain platform, created by a Vitalik Buterin and launched in 2015.
• Ethereum Classic (ETC) - fork of Ethereum which didn’t bail out DAO investors. Proponents like immutability. Forked from Ethereum in July 2016.
• New Economy Movement (NEM) - a blockchain with ‘smart assets’.
• EOS (EOS) - a new blockchain structure designed to be more scalable than Ethereum.

Utility tokens (Built for Specific-Use Networks):
• Augur (REP) - a token used for betting on things on a ‘prediction market,’ i.e. a betting platform. Launched in 2015 from San Francisco.
• Siacoin (SC) - a token used for paying for encrypted decentralised file storage. Launched in 2015.
• Golem (GNT) - a token used for paying for decentralised computations & calculations. Launched in 2016.
• Gnosis (GNO) - another prediction market coin. Launched in 2016 from Germany.

Brand tokens (Specific-Use on Single Entity’s Network):
• Basic Attention Token (BAT) - Token used to make micropayments in a web browser called Brave. Launched in 2017.
• Civic (CVC) - Something to do with identity verification on the blockchain. I hope it solves the problem of having too many passwords. Launched in 2017.
• Steem (STEEM) - Token used for making micropayments on social media and forum sites. Launched in 2016.

This is just a short list of the many tokens and platforms that exist today.