Why are there so many alternate coins (alt coins)?

Yesterday I covered things to look for when investing in alt. coins so today I thought I would cover the different types and use cases of cryptocurrencies. The market is large with over 1000 coins but I can almost guarantee you some of them will no longer be around in a few years. You might ask what makes these coins valuable? It's like the money in your wallet it's a combination of confidence and the fact that people value it. GFC and money printing left a sour taste in everyone's mouth. Decentralised and blockchain is here to sanitise that.

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CURRENCY
The first example that comes to mind is LITECOIN. This in my opinion is an amazing coin which is often compared to as the silver to bitcoin which is seen as gold.

Anyone that uses this coin will know that the fast and low transaction fees make it an easy means for everyday purchases it is an ideal candidate. I am always impressed by its speed when making transactions. There are several other coins which 'play' in this space such as DASH which is approved by Apple as a currency.

PRIVACY
If you want anonymous transactions that are untraceable MONERO and VERGE are good candidates. Why would you want untraceable coins? Perhaps you don't want people seeing what you're buying? It doesn't have to be anything that is illegal which is everyone's first thought. Bitcoin for instance is on a public blockchain so all transactions are viewable by the community. There are many positive use cases so let's not always be quick to assume. I have seen MONERO triple to quadruple since being in this game.

STAKING
These are my personal favourite type of coins. There are a fair few of them out there. As you all will know NEO is my most loved coin in this category. There are other candidates such as QTUM, LISK and STRATIS. Essentially by downloading the wallets and allowing your computer to download the blockchain (whole list of transaction files) and continuously updating you are rewarded with a small % of coin. This is usually in the 5% range.

To make it more clear, all you have to do is download the NEO wallet for instance. Place your coins in there and if you come back in a few months you will generate GAS which is the dividend or reward for holding the coins.

APPLICATIONS
This is very user dependent and technology dependent and valuations of coins are difficult. CIVIC for instance looks to use its tokens for identity verification. IOTA looks to use its coins to fund the machine economy and allow for seamless transactions between smart devices and other devices/robots. Given the technology is ground breaking and is solving a real world application. If partnerships and mass adoption form these coins can go far.

PLATFORMS/ICO'S
There are a few in this category. ETHEREUM is the staple head as a platform. Majority of ICO's (Initial Coin Offerings) are on the Ethereum platform. ICOs are basically a means of raising funds. There are other coins in this category such as NEO and WAVES. This is very valuable for holders of these coins as for anyone to participate in ICOs they must own the 'platform' coin which will always sustain demand. Keep in mind however we play in volatile markets.

SOCIAL
STEEM! I have written this post on Steemit and you will note that I do get paid for posts if I get enough up votes. This is a great disruptor to Facebook. The technology and business case is very clever. Everyone should make an account and get blogging. Essentially the cryptocurrency funds the users and the coins are circulated on the network.

LBRY is another social platform that is decentralised and is for videos. This is comparable to YouTube however without the censorship. You can reward content creators with LBRY tokens. However one of the biggest success indicators of these social platforms are the community. LBRY has recently seen some serious pullback in price. If the community support pulls through I do expect it to have a massive swing up. This is just my opinion - please DYOR.

BITCOIN?
Where does Bitcoin sit in all of this? It doesn't really. It is said to be a currency but my view is that it is more a storage of wealth and comparable to physical gold. The transaction fees are fairly significant and the 2X Fork in November will be interesting. Don't worry I will be posting about it as it gets closer.

HODL. Lambo. Moon.

Cryptoshaf

DISCLAIMER:Please note I am not a financial advisor and none of this should be taken as financial advice as they are my opinions and always do your own research as you should only be investing with money you can afford to lose.

FREE BITCOIN GENERATING FAUCET- https://freebitco.in/?r=5345367
I usually keep this on the side and have it generate some bitcoin on the side for me. It can reward handsomely if you land on the right digits - just link it to your wallet and once you have enough satoshis you can withdraw.