Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency and even the first ever to circulate in the crypto market. It’s hugely beneficial to investors as bitcoins proved to be reliable in the long run, despite the volatile market. If you check the bitcoin price chart, you’ll notice that it has a certain constant. But besides being a store of value, Bitcoin is slowly turning into an old cryptocurrency that isn’t fun to get anymore, which is why many other alternatives are released to the market.
Ethereum, Cosmos or Polygon are some of the newest (and greenest) cryptocurrencies out there, and they offer much more than only a platform for digital transactions. We’ll discuss them later, but until then, here are the most unique and unusual cryptocurrencies out there.
Mooncoin
Mooncoin is considered an alternative to Bitcoin, and the decentralized cryptocurrency project aims to release one Mooncoin for every millimeter of the distance between our Earth and the Moon. The cryptocurrency was built in 2013 and was expected to become a platform for fast and secure transactions while pursuing innovative initiatives.
Mooncoin is a PoW coin but provides a faster reoccurring block speed than Bitcoin, which uses the same consensus mechanism. There was no ICO or pre-mining period to ensure everyone had equal access to the coin, which helped in its deflationary approach.
Skincoin
Skincoin was designed especially for the online gaming community as a way to trade skins, wager bets and e-sports platforms. Universal cryptocurrency is highly beneficial for securing payments. Skincoin was launched in 2017, and it aimed to replace in-game skins as a way to
make gaming more accessible and safer.
The cryptocurrency is based on the Ethereum blockchain and is an open-source and decentralized coin. The ecosystem provides wallets, exchanges, and its own marketplace, which helps gamers get their preferred items without having to leave the game page.
Bongger
Bongger is yet another interesting cryptocurrency. This coin supports the cannabis movement by funding medical, pharmaceutical and scientific research on cannabis. The Bongger team aims to help people by providing knowledge and funds.
The Bongger Foundation is made to raise capital for helping people in need of cannabis treatment, which has been proven to treat serious illnesses and diseases, but it can be expensive. The Bongger ecosystem is also a crowdfunding platform and a charitable organization.
Other unique cryptocurrencies
The crypto projects presented above are only profitable if you’re implied to make a change or are one of the developers. Although investing in these unique cryptocurrencies can benefit your portfolio in some ways, it’s best to stick with more reliable projects that can bring real value to your investments. Let’s see what attractive cryptocurrencies are on the market.
Avalanche
Avalanche is one of the cryptocurrencies whose value can reach considerable rates. The project was released in 2020, which makes it among the newest cryptocurrencies on the market. With its Byzantine consensus mechanism, the blockchain can process around 4,500 of them in less than two seconds, which is impressive considering that Bitcoin needs about 60 minutes for a few transactions and Ethereum needs six minutes for 12 transactions.
Another great thing about Avalanche is its low fees, which are close to zero compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum. But what’s even more interesting about Avalanche is that it is built on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which provides superior scaling programs, lower fees and faster execution.
Although a decentralized platform, Avalanche has collaborated with Mastercard, Deloitte and BitGo to improve some of their centralized projects. Besides being useful for companies, Avalanche can help people make passive income by staking AVAX, the cryptocurrency’s official coin.
IOTA
The IOTA project, with its MIOTA coin, was released in 2017, but 2023 is the year in which IOTA 2.0 will come back to life. IOTA is not blockchain-based, which means it uses another system, the Tangle one. This directed acyclic graph requires the system to confirm two previous transactions for a new one. This makes the network more efficient and secures data transfer and value between humans and machines.
IOTA aimed to avoid blockchain technology because the network slows down by the time new blocks are validated. At the same time, mining costs energy and expenses, which is why IOTA chose to work with Tangle so that transactions are feeless and they take a few seconds to reach their final wallet.
Another aspect that makes IOTA special is its social impact, through which developers want to help others in need. Secondly, global trade is a priority and allows anything tangible to become a digital asset. Finally, the project’s digital; identity approach provides a self-sovereign identity and citizen-centric governance.
Algorand
Algorand is currently known as one of the best green cryptocurrencies out there. The project was released in 2019 and was a permissionless blockchain from the start and uses the Byzantine Agreement as a protocol. Algorand has three main specialties in regard to technology:
- It handles more than 1,000 transactions in around four seconds, while the transaction fee is .001 ALGO;
- The blockchain focuses on operability so that more projects can be linked, such as financial applications of blockchains;
- It’s highly secure through its proof-of-strake consensus mechanism;
Algorand is also viewed as a serious Ethereum competitor. That’s because it’s safer, faster, and provides lower transaction fees. At the same time, both platforms provide all the means for developers to create new applications and develop their ecosystems. However, at least for the moment, Algorand can’t compete with Ethereum because it’s less known, And Ethereum is continuously getting updates to innovate the blockchain.
Bottom line
The market is full of cryptocurrencies that are more or less useful. Some were created only for fun, such as Dogecoin, while others were seriously intended to change the world, like Bitcoin. However, there are many alternatives to the famous cryptocurrencies we know today, and they provide better features. Therefore, the coins presented above can help your portfolio grow or just allow you to have some fun with crypto.
