What is crypto currency?

Crypto currency is a digital currency which uses cryptography as its security feature and it makes difficult to fake the currency. This is totally immune to the government interference or manipulation and not issued by any central authority.

Bitcoin

The term bitcoin has been doing rounds for the past few years and the traction has increased since the ransomware attack. Recently the value of the bitcoin has surged to $2000 per coin and the total market cap value is above $33 billion (as on May 22). And there is a misconception that bitcoin is the only available form of crypto currency or digital currency in existence. The real fact is, even though the value of the bitcoin has seen a raise, the total market cap value of bitcoin has declined from 80% to 47%. The reason for the decline can be attributed to the existence of other digital currencies. ![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPcJKTbMwHjDe7YtGo2KtY2z59FrKi425wTvxfJbK3qPa/image.png) Image Source

Different crypto currencies available

Let us have a look at the other forms of digital currency which are also gaining popularity and market share.

Ripple

- It is the second most valuable digital currency in circulation after bitcoin. Released in 2012 by OpenCoin, it offers the low cost international payments with high speed transactions unlike the bitcoin.

Ethereum

- Launched in 2015 and it has managed to reach a market cap of $17 billion. The other major factor which would boost this currency is the alliance which has been formed by 30 large companies. The alliance’s objective is to create a standard Ethereum software so that the data and financial contracts can be tracked by the business around the world and making it suitable for business applications.

Litecoin

- It was launched in 2011 and it is the oldest cryptocurrency after bitcoin. There is an increase in number of merchants who have started to accept as payments.

Dash

- It got its name from Digital Cash and it was known as Darkcoin when it was launched in 2014. The main reason for rebranding was to get rid of the impression, that it is associated with the dark web. It has a strong focus on both privacy and speed.

NEM

- It stands for New Economy Movement and was launched in 2015. The most important aspect of this currency is that the transactions made through this can be tracked.

Can the digital currency replace the cash?

Unlike the existing physical currency, the market value of the digital currencies are driven only by supply and demand and no there is regulatory which overlooks the digital currency. Moreover, technical expertise is required for the normal users to understand and start using these currencies. So we have to wait and see when the digital currency can replace the cash and how the people will adapt to the change. Sources: • http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp • https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/20/btc2k/