Amidst a Cryptocurrency Arms Race, "Altcoins" Seek to Replicate Bitcoin's Success

The most counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

You’ve no doubt heard all about Bitcoin. What do you know about Litecoin? How about Peercoin? Namecoin? Dogecoin?

That’s a lot of coins to remember.

Ethan Lou of The Canadian Press, in an article cross-posted at The Huffington Post, discusses the rise of “altcoins” seeking to push into the digital currency market currently dominated by Bitcoin. Lou interviewed a number of tech experts on why they see glimmers of hope among the hundreds of competing currencies.

Jay Su, who runs an online Litecoin exchange, points to the currency’s potential for appreciation and its relative ease of production. The process of “mining” bitcoins has become so burdensome for most that many have turned their attention to underrated alternatives. Thus, the rise of altcoins.

Yuri Takhteyev, a technology researcher at the University of Toronto, explains that this current wave of altcoins has little hope of triumphing beyond what Bitcoin has already accomplished:

If a cryptocurrency will break the Bitcoin domination, he said, it’ll likely be something completely different from Bitcoin — something not yet available — as current alternatives are merely derivatives.

“If you look at Dogecoin versus Bitcoin — what’s the difference?” he said. “It has a dog as its logo. That’s the extent of the difference.”

Take a look at Lou’s article (linked again below) to learn more about how altcoins are generated.