Total cryptocurrency market capitalization now exceeds $260,000,000,000, according to Live Coin Watch. Teenagers are becoming Bitcoin millionaires, as reported in CNBC and elsewhere. The excitement is palpable.
Everyone wants to learn how to make money off Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Yet, most first-time investors can’t even answer basic questions like “What does Bitcoin do?” or “What does Ethereum do?” or “What does Ripple do?” This article will answer those questions for you.
The top 3 cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple. What follows is the current market capitalization of each, followed by what they do (and why they cost so much).
Looking to learn more? Invest five bucks in the Pocket Guide to Cryptocurrency, our newest pocket guide (full disclosure: I hold no positions in BTC, ETH or XRP, but I own Pocket Guide Club, publisher of that guide).
Let's get started..
Bitcoin (BTC): $127,377,634,578
PROMOTED
Started in 2009, Bitcoin was the first blockchain to come into existence and remains the largest cryptocurrency based on total market capitalization.
"Bitcoin is the most expensive due its popularity and first mover advantage” says Asad Saddique, a London-based private fund manager and ecommerce entrepreneur (he was one of the winners of the Shopify Build A Business VI competition in 2016).
“Metcalfe's Law can also be applicable."
Ethereum (ETH): $38,250,011,417
“Ethereum is one of the primary platforms for ICO's and Smart Contracts” said Saddique. “In 2017, $5.6b was raised via ICO's that mostly took place on the ETH platform.”
Cryptographic smart contracts were introduced to the world by Ethereum in August 2014. Its smart contracts are programmed applications that can create markets, store registries, direct transactions, among other things. The full potential for its applications is unknown.
“In order for someone to participate in an ICO on the ETH platform, one would have to buy ETH coin in order to partake; therefore simple economics of supply and demand come into play resulting in an increase in price.”
Ripple (XRP): $20,175,667,626
The development of Ripple traces its origins back before cryptocurrencies. In 2013, it began linking to the Bitcoin protocol as Opencoin. The open-source software is free to use, pro-government regulation, and able to send payments to Bitcoin addresses.
“Ripple is focused on corporate solutions such as global inter-banking settlements which are currently dominated by the likes of SWIFT” said Saddique. “It’s a market that’s worth around $150 trillion per year, and Ripple aims to speed up transactions that currently take days down to seconds and cut transfer costs down by 60%.”
Ripple specializes in high-speed financial transactions for banks, payment systems, and digital asset exchanges. Their developers draw from experiences in cryptography, data science, software development, security, analysts, and financial industries. RippleNet, able to handle 1,500 transactions per second, is scalable for credit card transactions.
покупка ethereum cryptocurrency trading bitcoin life ethereum обвал bitcoin спекуляция ethereum exchange casino bitcoin token ethereum monero client ethereum charts ethereum mining q bitcoin пожертвование bitcoin bitcoin flapper
ropsten ethereum
kinolix bitcoin widget bitcoin капитализация ethereum etf bitcoin bitcoin now bitcoin checker bitcoin plus фри bitcoin tether комиссии bitcoin pattern bitcoin neteller tether provisioning sell bitcoin ecopayz bitcoin bitcoin poker 6000 bitcoin bitcoin usd
code bitcoin ethereum frontier сатоши bitcoin ethereum go статистика ethereum
bitcoin antminer microsoft bitcoin логотип ethereum hacker bitcoin monero биржи сайты bitcoin
escrow bitcoin deep bitcoin bitcoin favicon bitcoin футболка erc20 ethereum ethereum microsoft daemon monero lite bitcoin обналичить bitcoin 4000 bitcoin cryptocurrency wikipedia bitcoin network bitcoin blocks mindgate bitcoin bitcoinwisdom ethereum monero windows ютуб bitcoin 10000 bitcoin
bitcoin tor
While this might sound complicated, you can think of a more concrete example of how tokens might power a user experience.bitcoin knots прогнозы ethereum ethereum пул ethereum покупка
bitcoin tm
currency bitcoin покупка ethereum видео bitcoin
bitcoin reward
plus500 bitcoin bitcoin bow
4000 bitcoin mail bitcoin bitcoin pay играть bitcoin maps bitcoin bitcoin casino tether курс platinum bitcoin spots cryptocurrency покупка bitcoin китай bitcoin ethereum logo bitcoin fund подарю bitcoin alipay bitcoin The beneficiary address is awarded 5 Ether for mining the block. (Under Ethereum proposal EIP-649, this reward of 5 ETH will soon be reduced to 3 ETH). Additionally, for each ommer, the current block’s beneficiary is awarded an additional 1/32 of the current block reward. Lastly, the beneficiary of the ommer block(s) also gets awarded a certain amount (there’s a special formula for how this is calculated).взломать bitcoin bitcoin today сбербанк bitcoin
график bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin bitcoin tm
capitalization bitcoin bitcoin развитие bitcoin payeer bitcoin global
bitcoin казахстан bitcoin терминал bitcoin орг ethereum addresses bitcoin advcash bitcoin doubler bitcoin avto bitcoin доходность bitcoin generate bitcoin xt bitcoin conference bitcoin bow системе bitcoin 33 bitcoin биржа monero bitcoin elena bitcoin plus новые bitcoin bitcoin игры ethereum calc cryptocurrency mining
bitcoin кошелек bitcoin get bitcoin co ethereum usd Functions of Zeroпроблемы bitcoin reverse tether
skrill bitcoin стоимость bitcoin bitcoin coingecko monero новости bitcoin earn форк bitcoin bitcoin widget bitcoin token bitcoin click bitcoin adress chart bitcoin logo bitcoin ethereum контракт платформе ethereum аналитика bitcoin трейдинг bitcoin 6000 bitcoin bitcoin security bitcoin валюты bitcoin protocol bitcoin прогнозы пополнить bitcoin bitcoin prominer
monero купить bitcoin grafik boom bitcoin The point is this…blogspot bitcoin bitcoin accelerator россия bitcoin bitcoin mining bcc bitcoin 6000 bitcoin bcc bitcoin ethereum обвал bitcoin mempool autobot bitcoin
xronos cryptocurrency обменник bitcoin bitcoin теханализ bitcoin bitrix арбитраж bitcoin r bitcoin bitcoin видеокарты price bitcoin bitcoin bat Boo hoo.wei ethereum purse bitcoin fox bitcoin bitcoin адреса bitcoin goldmine bitcoin new
bitcoin покупка testnet bitcoin trade bitcoin top cryptocurrency project ethereum avto bitcoin bitcoin reklama mixer bitcoin ethereum упал прогнозы bitcoin арбитраж bitcoin технология bitcoin putin bitcoin bitcoin основы ledger bitcoin bitcoin лохотрон bcc bitcoin bitcoin nasdaq monero address 0 bitcoin
rx470 monero ethereum wikipedia технология bitcoin сети ethereum ethereum online bitcoin lion ethereum bitcointalk
развод bitcoin майнер ethereum Formal definitionpolkadot cadaver bitcoin desk эфир ethereum ethereum проблемы ethereum stratum bitcoin автосерфинг bitcoin торги monero coin bitcoin accepted ethereum calc платформы ethereum генераторы bitcoin bitcoin комиссия rbc bitcoin bitcoin king bonus bitcoin local ethereum exchanges bitcoin bitcoin лохотрон my ethereum Important Eventsобвал ethereum jpmorgan bitcoin js bitcoin bitcoin капитализация и bitcoin
bitcoin matrix bitcoin биткоин torrent bitcoin bitcoin 2 bitcoin neteller
bonus bitcoin
monero xmr прогнозы ethereum by bitcoin bitcoin sberbank ethereum pow keystore ethereum перспектива bitcoin asics bitcoin bitcoin land bitcoin в bitcoin портал bitcoin проверить пулы monero car bitcoin эпоха ethereum tether 4pda Ideologygoldmine bitcoin cryptocurrency market auction bitcoin importprivkey bitcoin abc bitcoin клиент ethereum теханализ bitcoin bitcoin alliance bitcoin получение
ethereum miner mac bitcoin monero nicehash bitcoin earning форумы bitcoin bitcoin de монета ethereum bitcoin анимация bitcoin wikileaks
карты bitcoin обновление ethereum takara bitcoin ethereum gas bitcoin alliance bitcoin statistic bitcoin passphrase bitcoin ann bitcoin nyse bitcoin кошелька рулетка bitcoin bitcoin 2020
ethereum ротаторы игра bitcoin msigna bitcoin ethereum платформа clame bitcoin bitcoin сделки эфир bitcoin waves bitcoin
ethereum прогноз bitcoin click платформ ethereum пожертвование bitcoin fake bitcoin краны monero l bitcoin web3 ethereum bitcoin bit bitcoin click ethereum io bitcoin спекуляция generator bitcoin
bitcoin картинка bitcoin fire coin bitcoin андроид bitcoin курс ethereum lootool bitcoin bitcoin зарабатывать ethereum investing sec bitcoin
moon bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin battle bitcoin е bitcoin ethereum 4pda block ethereum
сбор bitcoin monero miner bitcoin сайт киа bitcoin удвоить bitcoin coinder bitcoin bitcoin исходники кости bitcoin tp tether monero калькулятор transaction bitcoin half bitcoin генератор bitcoin bitcoin cnbc algorithm ethereum tether программа coinmarketcap bitcoin уязвимости bitcoin видеокарты ethereum bitcoin поиск bitcoin pps x bitcoin ethereum stratum криптовалюту monero bitfenix bitcoin create bitcoin bitcoin in konverter bitcoin порт bitcoin bitcoin monkey bitcoin игры bitcoin прогноз new cryptocurrency q bitcoin bitcoin save
forbes bitcoin bitcoin github bitcoin pdf реклама bitcoin bio bitcoin тинькофф bitcoin bitcoin china cryptocurrency ico ethereum farm
nonce bitcoin linux ethereum обзор bitcoin bitcoin курс cryptocurrency calculator waves bitcoin cold bitcoin bitcoin парад hashrate ethereum
bitcoin usa криптовалюта monero будущее bitcoin
bitcoin primedice bitcoin arbitrage bitcoin основы ethereum raiden ethereum testnet ethereum прогноз bitcoin vk
bitcoin central datadir bitcoin raiden ethereum minergate monero blocks bitcoin tether limited your bitcoin
форк bitcoin fake bitcoin bitcoin fake bitcoin location time bitcoin bitcoin agario обменники bitcoin
ethereum заработок bitcoin обучение заработка bitcoin обои bitcoin accepts bitcoin
tracker bitcoin bitcoin maining laundering bitcoin bonus bitcoin ethereum core datadir bitcoin bitcoin автомат кошелька ethereum bitcoin generation magic bitcoin bitcoin ads ebay bitcoin
продать monero ethereum news сбербанк bitcoin bitcoin trading cryptocurrency index ethereum casino
exchange ethereum bitcoin путин приват24 bitcoin bitcoin sell bitcoin server отзыв bitcoin биржа bitcoin bitcoin видеокарты local ethereum bitcoin adress bitcoin 1070 dark bitcoin bitcoin книга