Since the creation of
bitcoin in 2009, the number of new
cryptocurrencies has expanded rapidly.
[1]
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority estimated there were over 20,000 different cryptocurrencies by the start of 2023, although many of these were no longer traded and would never grow to a significant size. [2]
Year of introduction | Currency | Symbol | Founder(s) | Hash algorithm | Programming language of implementation | Consensus mechanism | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | Bitcoin | BTC, [3] XBT, ₿ | Satoshi Nakamoto | SHA-256d [4] [5] | C++ [6] | PoW [5] [7] | The first and most widely used decentralized ledger currency, [8] with the highest market capitalization as of 2018 [update]. [9] |
2011 | Litecoin | LTC, Ł | Charlie Lee | Scrypt | C++ [10] | PoW | One of the first cryptocurrencies to use scrypt as a hashing algorithm. |
2011 | Namecoin | NMC | Vincent Durham [11] [12] | SHA-256d | C++ [13] | PoW | Also acts as an alternative, decentralized DNS. |
2012 | Peercoin | PPC | Sunny King (pseudonym)[ citation needed] |
SHA-256d[ citation needed] | C++ [14] | PoW & PoS | The first cryptocurrency to use both PoW and PoS functions. |
2013 | Dogecoin | DOGE, XDG, Ð | Jackson Palmer & Billy Markus [15] |
Scrypt [16] | C++ [14] | PoW | Based on the Doge internet meme. |
2013 | Gridcoin | GRC | Rob Hälford [17] | Scrypt | C++ [18] | Decentralized PoS | Linked to citizen science through the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing [19] |
2013 | Primecoin | XPM | Sunny King (pseudonym)[ citation needed] |
1CC/ 2CC/ TWN [20] | TypeScript, C++ [21] | PoW [20] | Uses the finding of prime chains composed of Cunningham chains and bi-twin chains for proof-of-work. |
2013 | Ripple [22] [23] | XRP | Chris Larsen & Jed McCaleb [24] |
ECDSA [25] | C++ [26] | "Consensus" | Designed for peer-to-peer debt transfer. Not based on bitcoin. |
2013 | Nxt | NXT | BCNext (pseudonym) |
SHA-256d [27] | Java [28] | PoS | Specifically designed as a flexible platform to build applications and financial services around its protocol. |
2014 | Auroracoin | AUR | Baldur Odinsson (pseudonym) [29] |
Scrypt | C++ [30] | PoW | Created as an alternative currency for Iceland, intended to replace the Icelandic króna. |
2014 | Dash | DASH | Evan Duffield & Kyle Hagan[ citation needed] |
X11 | C++ [31] | PoW & Proof of Service [nt 1] | A bitcoin-based currency featuring instant transactions, decentralized governance and budgeting, and private transactions. |
2014 | NEO | NEO | Da Hongfei & Erik Zhang | SHA-256 & RIPEMD160 | C# [32] | dBFT | China based cryptocurrency, formerly ANT Shares and ANT Coins. The names were changed in 2017 to NEO and GAS. |
2014 | MazaCoin | MZC | BTC Oyate Initiative | SHA-256d | C++ [33] | PoW | The underlying software is derived from that of another cryptocurrency, ZetaCoin. |
2014 | Monero | XMR | Monero Core Team | RandomX | C++ [34] | PoW | Privacy-centric coin based on the CryptoNote protocol with improvements for scalability and decentralization. |
2014 | Titcoin | TIT | Edward Mansfield & Richard Allen [35] | SHA-256d | TypeScript, C++ [36] | PoW | The first cryptocurrency to be nominated for a major adult industry award. [37] |
2014 | Verge | XVG | Sunerok | Scrypt, x17, groestl, blake2s, and lyra2rev2 | C, C++ [38] | PoW | Features anonymous transactions using Tor. |
2014 | Stellar | XLM | Jed McCaleb | Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) [39] | C, C++ [40] | Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) [39] | Open-source, decentralized global financial network. |
2014 | Vertcoin | VTC | David Muller [41] | Verthash [42] | C++ [43] | PoW | Aims to be ASIC resistant. |
2015 | Ethereum | ETH, Ξ | Vitalik Buterin [44] | Ethash [45] | C++, Go [46] | PoW, PoS | Supports Turing-complete smart contracts. |
2015 | Ethereum Classic | ETC | EtcHash/Thanos [47] | PoW | An alternative version of Ethereum [48] whose blockchain does not include the DAO hard fork. [49] Supports Turing-complete smart contracts. | ||
2015 | Nano | XNO, Ӿ | Colin LeMahieu | Blake2 | C++[ citation needed] | Open Representative Voting [50] | Decentralized, feeless, open-source, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. First to use a Block Lattice structure. |
2015 | Tether | USDT | Jan Ludovicus van der Velde [51] | Omnicore [52] | PoW | Tether claims to be backed by USD at a 1 to 1 ratio. The company has been unable to produce promised audits. [53] | |
2016 | Firo | FIRO | Poramin Insom [54] | Merkle tree Proof [55] | C++ [56] | PoW | The first financial system employing Zero-knowledge proof to protect users' privacy. [54] It conducted the world's first large-scale blockchain election for Thailand Democrat Party in 2018. [57] |
2016 | Zcash | ZEC | Zooko Wilcox | Equihash | C++ [58] | PoW | The first open, permissionless financial system employing zero-knowledge security. |
2017 | Bitcoin Cash | BCH [59] | SHA-256d | PoW | Hard fork from bitcoin, increased maximum block size from 1MB to 8MB (as of 2018 [update], 32MB) | ||
2017 | EOS.IO | EOS | Dan Larimer | WebAssembly, Rust, C, C++ [60] | delegated PoS | Feeless Smart contract platform for decentralized applications and decentralized autonomous corporations with a block time of 500 ms. [60] | |
2017 | Cardano | ADA, ₳ | Charles Hoskinson | Ouroboros, PoS Algorithm [61] | Haskell [62] | PoS | Proof-of-stake blockchain platform: developed via evidence-based methods and peer-reviewed research. [63] [64] [65] |
2017 | Tron | TRX | Justin Sun | Java, Solidity [66] | |||
2018 | AmbaCoin | official cryptocurrency of the Cameroonian separatist entity of Ambazonia | |||||
2018 | Nervos Network | CKB | Kevin Wang, Daniel Lv, Terry Tai | Eaglesong | Rust, JavaScript, C | PoW | Multi-layered blockchain smart contract platform [67] |
2019 | Algorand | ALGO | Silvio Micali | Go [68] | PoS | Uses a verifiable random function to randomly select groups of users to certify blocks. [69] | |
2020 | Avalanche | AVAX | Emin Gün Sirer, Kevin Sekniqi, Maofan "Ted" Yin | PoS | |||
2020 | Shiba Inu | SHIB | Ryoshi | PoS | |||
2020 | Polkadot | DOT | Gavin Wood | Rust | PoS | ||
2020 | Solana | SOL | Anatoly Yakovenko | Rust | PoS | ||
2021 | DeSo | DESO | Nader al-Naji (aka diamondhands) [70] | Go [71] | PoW [72] | Also a social media platform, resembling Twitter. [73] [74] Known as BitClout until September 2021. [70] | |
2021 | SafeMoon | SAFEMOON | SafeMoon LLC | Solidity [75] | PoW |
Release | Currency | Symbol | Founder(s) | Hash algorithm | Programming language of implementation | Cryptocurrency blockchain ( PoS, PoW, or other) |
Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Coinye | KOI, COYE | Scrypt | PoW | Used American hip hop artist Kanye West as its mascot, abandoned after he filed a trademark lawsuit. | ||
OneCoin | Ruja Ignatova and Stephen Greenwood | A Ponzi scheme promoted as a cryptocurrency. | |||||
2017 | BitConnect | BCC | BitConnect was described as an open source, all-in-one bitcoin and crypto community platform but was later discovered to be a Ponzi scheme. | ||||
2018 | KodakCoin | Kodak and WENN Digital | Ethash [76] | KodakCoin is a "photographer-centric" blockchain cryptocurrency used for payments for licensing photographs. | |||
Petro | Venezuelan Government | onixCoin [77] | C++ [78] | Stated by Nicolás Maduro to be backed by Venezuela's reserves of oil. As of August 2018 [update] it does not appear to function as a currency. [79] | |||
PlusToken | A ponzi scheme which mainly had investors in China and South Korea. [80] |
The coin is not sold on any major cryptocurrency exchange. No shops are known to accept it.