AnnaSST wrote: ↑January 7th, 2018, 1:16 pm
Hello, my name is Anna and I'm a journalist.
Hello, Anna. Nice to meet you here!
Where do you work?
AnnaSST wrote: ↑January 7th, 2018, 1:16 pm
I'm doing an investigation about crypto universe, I started from scratch, didn't know anything about this world, but I'm happy with what I found here. So forgive me my amateurish level, I'm a journalist not a coder
It's ok, we all have started from scratch.
Actually, the world of crypto is nascent today. There are no all-in-one places for newcomers to learn about Bitcoin & co.
Not so many thoughtful blogs, books, videos as well.
That is why people dig crypto mostly by talking to each other. Just like you did!
By the way, if you want to discover the best cryptocurrency resources around, have a look at this comprehensive
list.
AnnaSST wrote: ↑January 7th, 2018, 1:16 pm
Forums like this give a tremendous picture of existing coins, one can easily get lost inside, which happened to me.
For my research, I'd like to figure out what coins are not only money, like ethereum for example that provide a platform for smart-contracts and political referendums?
And else I'd like to understand why generally there are so many of coins? What features makes one different to another?
Thank you!
Good questions!
There are 1300+ coins and tokens (
see them all) on the market. Actually, launching your own token is a matter of just 15 lines of code:
Code: Select all
contract AnnaToken {
string public constant symbol = "ANN";
mapping (address => uint256) public balanceOf;
function AnnaToken(
uint256 initialSupply
) {
balanceOf[msg.sender] = initialSupply;
}
function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value) {
require(balanceOf[msg.sender] >= _value);
require(balanceOf[_to] + _value >= balanceOf[_to]);
balanceOf[msg.sender] -= _value;
balanceOf[_to] += _value;
}
}
That is one of the main reasons why there so many of them
So why do we really need 1300 cryptocurrencies? Let's start by classifying them by purposes:
First, people create new currencies for payments - Bitcoin analogs. There are a handful of altcoins with its own unique properties: bCash, Litecoin, Dogecoin provides slightly different conditions for miners, Monero is fully anonymous, Dash focuses on speed etc etc.
Second, as you said, there are platforms for launching smart contracts. Ethereum has competitors on this field:
NEO,
XEM provides similar functionality.
Third, some tokens may be used as a fuel for a decentralized app (dApp). For example, you can pay with SC (SiaCoin) and borrow someones free storage on his iMac and host your photos! Or play a 100% fair gambling game.
Fourth, some companies create tokens because they can! They do not need the power of decentralization and cryptography to create their project, but they still want (see why below) to own a cryptocurrency. Example: SkinCoin (buy videogame assets with their coin). Can be done without the coin.
As you can see there are a lot of needs of creating your own coin or token. One of the main reason why everybody is rushing creating their own currency -
greed
It's much easier to earn money by talking everybody around that your product is "changing the world" and collect money from naive ones than make something truly valuable for people. By owning a coin/token you can speculate it: the higher demand, the higher it's price, the more dollars you have as a founder.
Sad to say, the main goal of a cryptocurrency startup is to create
buzz, not value.
Cryptocurrency world today looks like Wild West. Be careful and trust no one
Learning the
basics will
always be the best way to get in crypto.
