When talking about crypto currencies, the different terms can confuse many people, such as what is altcoin, what is bitcoin, what is a bitcoin exchange, and so on. On Kucoin’s crypto trading platform, you can solve all your confusion. Kucoin offers extensive information on everything regarding crypto currency, such as the ADA/BTC exchange rate, XLM price, altcoins, trading bots, security features, NFTs, anything you can think of regarding cryptocurrency is most likely to be found on that platform. Let us delve deeper into what Altcoins are.
What Is An Altcoin?
An altcoin is an umbrella term that refers to every crypto currency that is not Bitcoin. Ethereum, Dogecoin, ADA, SHIB, or any other crypto currency, regardless of how stable, successful, or expensive it is, if it is not Bitcoin, it will be regarded as an Altcoin. Put in simple words, any crypto currency that is not bitcoin is an altcoin.
Altcoins and bitcoins work by following different rules, such as proof of stake and proof of work. Even so, every altcoin follows its own rules if it has its own blockchain.
Bitcoins are very expensive per token, but not a single altcoin even comes close to half the bitcoin price for one token. So many institutions and people buy bitcoins as a means of securing their investments against inflation. At the same time, altcoins are not used for this because of their volatility. Altcoins are not as stable as bitcoins, so their prices can change.
However, bitcoins can not produce as much potential and new opportunities as altcoins due to limitations. Comparatively, altcoins have unlimited potential when it comes to producing new projects and future opportunities.
As it appears, bitcoins are also used as means of payment by many. Major companies such as Microsoft have also started adopting crypto currencies such as bitcoins. Bitcoins are much more stable than any other altcoins so they can handle immensely massive payments.
On the other hand, altcoins are also being used as payment means but are not widely accepted yet, and there are some altcoins that are being more accepted, such as ADA and ETH.
Due to their volatility, most altcoins are not safe investments, like bitcoin, but massive profits are mostly made from risky investments.
Some issues that arise from bitcoins are the energy uses. A few years ago, the energy used to verify transactions of bitcoins was more than the collective energy used by all of Austria, which is a whole country being outrun by a cryptocurrency. This has raised many concerns over its sustainability in the long run, but altcoins can use other methods which are less energy demanding.
Conclusion
In the end, altcoins are basically crypto currencies as well, just like bitcoins, but they have their own rules, and any crypto currency that is not bitcoin is an altcoin. You can buy, sell, and trade altcoins on great, safe, and reliable crypto trading platforms such as Kucoin. Kucoin offers its user over 500 different altcoins to trade.
