Crypto Asset Descriptions

Outlined below are the most popular and (still) relevant crypto assets today. We'll build a historical understanding of crypto assets and altcoins by segmenting them into chronological order based on launch date.

Prior to 2015 The Original coins

  • Bitcoin (BTC): launched in 2009, digital gold, long live the king 👑
  • Litecoin (LTC): forked from Bitcoin in 2011, digital silver, Bitcoin's little bro 🙇
  • Ripple (XRP): blockchain replacement for ACH system, maybe worth avoiding 🤷
  • Dogecoin (DOGE): created as a joke in 2013, but now a popular meme in crypto 🐶
  • Monero (XMR): Bitcoin with added privacy, all transactions are hidden 🕶️
  • Dash (DASH): Bitcoin fork from 2014 focused on transaction speed, but losing steam 💨
  • Stellar (XLM): payment network forked from Ripple in 2014, Stripe funded 👀

2015-2017 The ICO Craze

  • Ethereum (ETH): build on a decentralized world computer, create NFTs and dapps 🛠️
  • Zcash (ZEC): similar to Monero, but with the Venmo private or public toggle 🔦
  • Tether (USDT): stablecoin, backed by US dollars (maybe) ‼️
  • Cardano (ADA): Bitcoin and Ethereum had a baby in 2017, slow development 🐣
  • Chainlink (LINK): Ethereum enabler, connects the blockchain and real world 🌎
  • Bitcoin Cash (BCH): not Bitcoin, but a controversial fork of Bitcoin focused on payments 💳
  • Binance Coin (BNB): created by Binance (centralized exchange), makes it easy to trade altcoins 💱
  • Basic Attention Token (BAT): currency for the Brave browser, get paid to watch ads.. actually 🤹
  • Enjin (ENJ): gaming coin that can be minted into digital assets... and melted back 🍯

2018 to today The dEFI Summer

  • Uniswap (UNI): swap crypto assets without a middleman, built on Ethereum 💹
  • SushiSwap (SUSHI): Uniswap clone, but you get a small dividend 💸
  • USD Coin (USDC): stablecoin created by Coinbase & Circle in 2018, backed by US dollars 💵
  • Filecoin (FIL): rent spare storage space on your computer, a decentralized Dropbox 📦
  • Polkadot (DOT): another take on Ethereum, the shiny new toy of 2020 ✨
  • Decentraland (MANA): buy land, create content, monetize a virtual world 🏕️
  • Solana (SOL): low-fee blockchain (that's good) with questionable uptime (that's bad) ⚖️
  • Avalanche (AVAX): sports advanced blockchain tech, but not battle tested ⚔️
  • Polygon (MATIC): attempts to solve Ethereum's scaling issues, ETH + MATIC = 💜
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