When the concept of cryptocurrency was introduced way back in 2009, nobody would have imagined that it would turn out to become a blockbuster. In fact, this is the major reason we have seen the emergence of so many digital currencies making their way out after the evolution of bitcoin.

If the sources are to be believed, there are about 1384 cryptocurrencies as on January 2018 and this number is still counting. According to the market price index, bitcoin has the largest blockchain network followed by ethereum, ripple, litecoin, and others.

There is no doubt that the decentralized form of the currency has got adequate attention from the worldwide audiences. All this gaining of focus has played a vital role in increasing its popularity.

Moreover, the digital currency market has gone from strength to strength with new players getting introduced. With this the scale of competition is getting to a much higher altitude, where still bitcoin is leading the way forward.

1. Bitcoin
Well, bitcoin is the digital currency from where all this game began. Therefore, it becomes essential to discuss the oldest, most popular and one of the widely used cryptocurrencies based on the ground-breaking Blockchain technology. It first made its appearance in 2009 and credit for introducing currency goes to Satoshi Nakamoto, which is a pseudo name.

Soon after its release, the market value of bitcoin stood at $0.39 in 2010. However, there was a great upsurge and in 2016 it traded around $952. Surprisingly, the current value of bitcoin is $6046.

The Bitcoin (BTC) is also based on the SHA-256d algorithm. The coding of this digital currency is programmed on the C++ programming language. You also need to remember that is quite difficult to mine bitcoins because of its immense popularity. It is a peer-to-peer payment system where the transaction occurs between two parties without the involvement of any middleman.

As such bitcoins are highly secured as well as reliable and each of the transaction gets verified by nodes, which is stored in the public ledger. You can spend even the smallest fraction of bitcoin, which is as small as 0.00000001 BTC. The processing fee is very low.

2. Litecoin
Ex Google engineer Charles Lee introduced the litecoin in the 2011, two years after the advent of bitcoin. It makes use of the Scrypt encryption unlike bitcoin’s SHA-256d algorithm. This particular cryptocurrency is extremely difficult to mine and soon followed the footsteps of bitcoin.

It is open source of payment system with the decentralized network. However, it has a plus point over bitcoin that the transaction speed is much faster. You can mine coins four times more in comparison to bitcoin with a maximum supply of 84 million tokens.

Presently, the market cap value of one litecoin is equal to about $117.60 and around $55 million are in circulation. Also compared to bitcoin it has a simpler cryptographic algorithm helping to conduct faster transactions. The third party remains absent in litecoin too; the users are only required to swap the digital currency using a smart contract.

3. Ethereum
It was Vitalik Buterin who led the proposal to introduce ethereum in 2013, but initially it made its appearance in July 2015. As such it has some similarities with bitcoin as it is also based on the Blockchain technology. But on the other hand, it is based on the decentralized distributed computing platform operating on the Smart contract. Ethereum allows its users not only to transfer money but also content or even property.

Talking about the current market value, it is around $647.79 and the circulating supply is about $97 million. Here also there is no involvement of third party and so any issues related to fraud is nearly negligible. The cryptographic taken circulated is known as ether. The developers use it for coding or even for the decentralization process.

However, in 2016, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization Project (DAO) suffered a major setback due to a cyber-attack. The resulted in developing two separate blockchains - Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC).

4. Ripple
The Ripple is based on the RTGS technique (Real Time Gross Settlement). It is also referred to as the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) and has been developed on the distributed open source Internet protocol or native cryptocurrency (XRP).

Ripple is not new but made its debut in 2012 but compared to other cryptocurrencies its market cap value did not increase even after a span of five years. It is still low and staying around $0.63, which is in no match with bitcoin and ethereum.

But the fact that makes it a winner in the tough race is the speed of the transaction and scalability. Moreover, it has gained much popularity amongst the financial institutions such as the banks. And one of the facts that makes Ripple rule over its competitors is that it makes the international transactions look easier. Another striking feature of this digital currency is that it does not require mining.

5. Zcash
Well, if you are looking for a digital currency that offers more protection and security during the transactions, you can trust on Zcash or ZEC. Zcash is relatively new in the team as it was released in October 2016 and is an open source of cryptocurrency.

It gives extra covering through the additional transparency. It means the sender, the receiver or the amount transferred will not be revealed when recorded in the blockchain. The simplest definition of Zcash is that if bitcoin is like http, Zcash is the https.

Zcash requires a definite proof for securing the transactions and this in fact, helps in maintenance of network, making the ledger securer. The current market cap value of this cryptocurrency is about $290, which keeps on fluctuating.

6. Dash
Dash is an open source peer-to-peer digital currency that made its way in the year 2014. It basically runs on the decentralized form of mastercode network. It uses a two tier architecture to strengthen its network. However, it must be known that its original name was not dash, but it came as XCoin. Only a month after it was renamed as Darkcoin. It got is current name in 2015.

The maintenance and management of this cryptocurrency is responsibly on an autonomous organization that is self-funded. It has gained the attention of the users because of its unique features.

Firstly, it offers the facility of InstantSend where the customer can conduct immediate transaction and secondly the option of PrivateSend where entire privacy of the sender, receiver and history of the transaction is maintained. However, the most astonishing factor is the surge in price with one Dash valuing at $400, which was mere $11 at the start of 2017.

7. Monero
If we talk about Monero (XMR), it is comprehensively different from the techniques that bitcoin operates on. To begin with, it is an open source cryptocurrency based on the CryptoNight PoW hash algorithm, highly secured and most importantly it cannot be traced. Another characteristic of Monero is that it each of its units can be replaced by other units.

The additional security that it offers in the form of cryptographic technique is better referred to as the ring signatures. This protective layer nearly hides almost all transaction details securing from the cyber-attacks looming large today. The identity of the user does not get disclosed in the real world.

It was launched in April 2014 and this untraceable nature of this digital currency is what makes it popular among the folks. Now talking the current market cap value it is priced around $159.60.

8. IOTA
As you guess from the name, IOTA has something to relate with the Internet of Things (IoT). Well, the motive behind developing the IOTA cryptocurrency is giving impetus to the new evolving machine-to-machine economy, which will further support the Internet of Things. It is a block-less distributed ledger, which has been termed as Tangle. The transactions conducted are absolutely free of cost as there is no processing fee. Plus, you can conduct unlimited transactions every second.

The tangle ledger offers various benefits such as safeguarding the data and the micro or nano payments, making it easier to lease out smart devices etc. It must be noted that it is impossible to mine the IOTA coins, but you can avail the tokens, which are
currently in circulation. The current market value of IOTA is $1.35.

9. Dogecoin
Dogecoin was unveiled in the year 2013 and since then it has become one of the favorite cryptocurrencies for the users. The protocol of both Dogecoin and bitcoin are almost same but it is the feature that distinguishes this digital currency. It makes use of Scrypt encryption, similar to what we found in the case of Litecoin.

Dogecoin is worthy if you have to make smaller transactions as many of the coins are of lower value. And there is no limit to the release of Dogecoins that can be launched in a minute. At present, it is priced at $ 0.003458.

10. Primecoin
It was Sunny King who introduced the Primecoin with the intention of providing full-proof security while conducting the digital transactions. The protocol of this digital currency is based on the prime numbers, the one that we have studied in mathematics. It searches for a series of long prime number chain offering the security and making mining simpler.

Conclusion
Well, although we have emphasized on the ten most important digital currencies that have established itself in the market and playing a key role in enhancing the world economy, the list contains many more of these. Frankly speaking, it is not possible to discuss of all these in one go.

And don’t restrict the definition of cryptocurrency to only bitcoin. These virtual currencies have a bright future ahead and so we are witnessing more and more addition with the passage of time.