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Alternatives to Bitcoin - What are they ? Advantages / Disadvantages


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from TinyUrl.com/About Bitcoins - Guide to "Mining" & Price Dynamics

 

 

Other Alternative Currencies

 

Bitcoin, Namecoin, Litecoin, Devcoin, IXCoin, PPCoin, Terracoin ...

 

/see-Prices: https://vircurex.com/

 

(2)

MAJOR:

 

-BTC Bitcoin - first, strongest, most accepted, most mined, high volume market, a true currency

-LTC Litecoin - second only to BTC , faster than BTC, Small efficiency gap between GPUs and CPUs , ASIC - proof

-NMC Namecoin - merged mined with BTC, used for alternative p2p domain system

 

MINOR:

 

-PPC PPcoin Proof Of Stake [very innovative, low energy ] , compatibile with BTC miners

-TRC Terracoin based on BTC, fast difficulty adjustment - miner-jump resonance resistant

-DVC Devcoin merged mined with BTC, 90% of generation goes to foundation, 10% to miners

-IXC IxCoin merged mined with BTC, premined 580k coins but still alive

-NVC NovaCoin - scrypt hashing[like LTC] , proof of stake [like PPC] , controversial

-FRC Freicoin back alive. 4.89% annual demurrage. for the first 3 years 80% block subsidy goes to foundation, 20% to miners

 

NEW:

-Bytecoin- the 1:1 bitcoin copycat. really bad difficulty adjustment for altcoin, extremally high hashrate for that young coin.

 

DEAD / DYING : (MANY - see List)

 

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/source: https://bitcointalk....?topic=134179.0

 

"The other currencies should only trade alternative currencies against each other."

 

This cuts down on the required regulation. (says: BitcoinReport)

 

 

Bitcoin is on the ropes, so what are the alternatives and their Advantages and Disadvantages?

 

 

It seems to me that what is needed in a cryptocurrency is a blockchain that is as divisible as the currency itself. This means that people could not only transact via exchanges but amongst each other, much like people do when trading between themselves, thus removing the need for exchanges These blockchains could split and rejoin within the network so there would never be a barrier to trade except if the internet itself was cut off. I've no idea technically how that might be carried out but if I see a currency developed that has this characteristic I will jump on it.

 

 

 

[brief summary of what exists currently - others please feel free to add]

 

 

 

"What is Litecoin?

Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant payments to anyone in the world. It differs from its parent Bitcoin in that can be efficiently mined with consumer-grade hardware. Litecoin provides faster confirmations (targeted at every 2.5 minutes on average) and uses memory-hard, scrypt-based mining to target the CPUs and GPUs most people already have. The Litecoin network is scheduled to produce four times as many currency units as Bitcoin.

 

One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that could run at the same time, on the same hardware used to mine bitcoins. With the rise of specialized ASICs for Bitcoin, Litecoin continues to satisify these goals. It is unlikely for FPGA or ASIC mining to take over Litecoin until the currency is widely used."

 

 

 

"Freicoin is a peer-to-peer (P2P) currency based on the accounting concept of a proof-of-work block chain used by Satoshi Nakamoto in the creation of Bitcoin.

 

Unlike Bitcoin, Freicoin has a demurrage fee that ensures its circulation and bearers of the currency pay this fee automatically. This demurrage fee was proposed by Silvio Gesell to eliminate the privileged position held by money compared with capital goods, which is the underlying cause of the boom/bust business cycle and the entrenchment of the financial elite, and has been tested several times with positive results."

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Red, White, and Blue versions of the same currency ?

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http://techcrunch.co...ment-ecosystem/

 

OpenCoin will use its new capital to expand the open-source code behind Ripple, which, for those unfamiliar, is a virtual currency and payment system that aims to make it easy and affordable for anyone to trade any amount in any currency. Headed by financial services veterans like CEO Chris Larsen, who is also the founder of P2P lending giant Prosper, OpenCoin is on a mission to create a new kind of global currency.

Some would say that makes OpenCoin the equivalent of a “Bitcoin copycat”, due to its being a distributed, open source payments network with its own native virtual currency called “Ripples” (like bitcoins). But OpenCoin, for its part, is eager to avoid that moniker — and to avoid being mislabeled as the “next Bitcoin.”

In spite of (or because of) its growing popularity — and its becoming a billion-dollar market for the first time — Bitcoin has been subject to increasing volatility and security issues. Bitcoin transactions also have a tendency to take a long time to confirm.

OpenCoin wants to solve these problems by creating a unified ledger, which keeps track of every account, transaction and balance, which the system automatically pings to confirm the legitimacy of transaction, allowing them to clear in under a minute, the company says. By doing so, it hopes that it’s also created a system that can eliminate interchange fees and enable people to trade across borders with minimal cost and chargebacks, while solving some of Bitcoin’s security issues.

The company claims that Ripple can accommodate any currency, including dollars, yen, euros, and even bitcoins, making it one of the first distributed currency exchanges. Until now, a few Ripples have been in circulation, but the company will begin releasing a huge chunk of its currency (with plans to distribute 50 billion Ripples) beginning in May, with plans to put 100 billion coins into circulation over the long-term, the company tells us.

 

 

Interesting little snippet here though...

 

http://p2pfoundation.net/OpenCoin

 

The initial project was funded by the LDA, and brought together a team interested in law, cryptography, software, money theory, mobile phone development. This team produced the protocol, a first iteration of software, a legal report and a cryptographic report.

 

The LDA link takes me to 'Greater London Authority' website. Which also came up in a search for LDA.

 

Can anyone shed any light on LDA?

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OpenCoin wants to solve these problems by creating a unified ledger, which keeps track of every account, transaction and balance, which the system automatically pings to confirm the legitimacy of transaction, allowing them to clear in under a minute, the company says. By doing so, it hopes that it’s also created a system that can eliminate interchange fees and enable people to trade across borders with minimal cost and chargebacks

==

 

Whoops!

Doesn't "an open ledger" mean it can be hacked, or modified at source?

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  • 2 months later...

Bitcoin's successors: from Litecoin to Freicoin and onwards

 

The Guardian - ‎3 hours ago‎

Everyone in the cryptocurrency world has heard of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin. But not many have heard of Peter Bushnell, the not-so-mysterious inventor of Feathercoin.

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