Cryptocurrencies got their start as an alternative to regular financial institutions and banks. Instead of dealing with banks and the government, people used Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to buy and sell goods. These cryptos are different from traditional currencies in that they are created using cryptography and run on a decentralized ledger system. They’re also digital and aren’t tied to a government, so countries can’t control their production and distribution. You can use cryptocurrencies to buy things, trade them for other cryptos, or use them as currency to purchase goods and services.
The growing Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have only been around for a few years, but they’ve quickly grown into a worldwide industry and a way for people to send and receive money online. Bitcoin, the world’s number one cryptocurrency, has seen a rise in popularity over the last few years. Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that provides a completely different type of payment network to those found in today’s digital landscape.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is a type of digital currency. It’s often described as peer-to-peer electronic cash. It uses cryptography (a form of encryption) to control the creation and transfer of bitcoins and verify the transfer of bitcoins from one owner to another.
Ethereum
Ethereum is a cryptocurrency with a market value of $19 billion. The blockchain platform’s growth shows no signs of slowing, with new investors pouring into the Ethereum network every day.
Ethereum is a decentralized public blockchain network on which decentralized applications (dapps) can be built and run. It is the largest and most active blockchain in the world. Ethereum is a peer-to-peer network that maintains a shared public ledger using cryptography for security. It is designed to run applications whose source code is public and immutable (i.e., cannot be altered) and can only be deployed on a pre-approved list of known hosts.
Ripple
Over the next few months, Ripple will continue to grow rapidly. This is receiving lots of attention from the financial industry (banks, credit card companies, and stock exchanges) and regulators. Ripple is a convenient product for banks. It allows them to exchange value (money) without using intermediaries.
‘Ripple’ is seen by many as one of the biggest crypto-technologies around today, so it’s no wonder that it is drawing a lot of attention. Virtual currencies are still very much in their early days, and the crypto-world is still charged with controversy.
The falling Cryptocurrencies
The Sandbox
The Sandbox crypto falls. Cryptocurrencies have had a rollercoaster ride over the last couple of months, culminating in a catastrophic crash – one of the top five crypto declines in history. As the price of Sandbox crypto fell by 90%, the team decided to shut down their crypto token temporarily. The Sandbox crypto is the developer of a secure cryptocurrency ecosystem hosted within the Sandbox website.
Theta
Theta has become one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, and it’s currently falling from its all-time high price of $0.85. Why? The U.S. stock market has been (and still is) in a bull market, which has become a boon for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum. Many of these cryptos have risen in value at a magnitude of 100x or more, and this trend has carried over to Theta. But, with the stock market now in correction territory, investors are waiting to see whether cryptocurrencies will continue to soar.
Filecoin
The value of a Filecoin coin drops from $80 to around $50 in about two months. What makes this especially perplexing is that the company has been trying to position itself as the trusted intermediary between users that need storage and those who want to share it, all the while touting an increase in value of more than 1,000 percent so far in 2018.
Hedera
The market capitalization of the cryptocurrency Hedera Hashgraph has plunged 74% in the past seven days. It has fallen from $3.6 billion to $1.9 billion in that period. The decline is perplexing, and it is not clear why Hedera Hashgraph’s market cap has been at its weakest since February 2018. The crypto giant Hedera Hashgraph was launched in 2015 and backed by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, Accel Partners, and Union Square Ventures (USV). Two academics at Stanford, Dr. Jim Gierlich and Dr. Greg Kurtz, created Hedera Hashgraph.