5 Bitcoin's Primary Competitors - Are They Good For Investment?

The year 2017 can be considered as Bitcoin Year, because Bitcoin is able to reach its highest point near $ 20,000, and even in some South Korean bourses the price has risen above $ 20,000. Although during the first quarter of 2018 Bitcoin continued to decline by up to 70%, but it seems that for the next quarter Bitcoin will be able to set a new record highs to reach $ 25,000.

With the rise of Bitcoin's popularity over the past year, the popularity of Altcoin (Alternative Bitcoin) has also trailed and posted a sharp rise. In fact, there are some Altcoin that actually able to book a higher percentage increase than achieved by Bitcoin.

In this topic of discussion, we will discuss 5 Crypto of Prime Bitcoin Competitors who have the possibility to overcome its adoption and its use globally, since Altcoin is generally aimed at achieving perfection that Bitcoin could not achieve before, such as the problem of Scalability causing slowness of transaction confirmation and swelling Fee.

1. Ethereum

Ethereum is a data-driven public blockchain that has a variety of intelligent, Scripting and Smart Contracts features related to cryptographic transaction processing. Ethereum has an EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) that allows developers to adopt the Ethereum blockchain, and apply it to DApps (Decentralized Applications) that is developed very easily. This allows the adoption of Smart Contracts in Applications that have other purposes such as Supply Chain as well as E-Commerce based.

Main Advantages of Ethereum

As the main competitor of Bitcoin who currently fancies it in number 2, Ethereum has many advantages. Some of them are:

• Simple, easy, and fast to create tokens with the standard ERC20.
• A solid and active development team working on new technologies that will continue to improve the stability, security, functionality and scalability of Blockchain Ethereum.
• The development team is currently working on an upgraded version of ERC20 called ERC223, with many advantages that other crypto blockchain does not yet have.
• Developers and Businesspeople can save their time, money and effort by synchronizing the system to the Ethereum blockchain.

2. Ripple

Ripple has a primary goal as a crypto currency that wants to connect traditional banking as a whole, with an emphasis on speed and ease of use. Ripple's motto is "One Frictionless System to Send Money Globally", and claims to be the world's only corporate blockchain solution for global payments.

While almost all crypto currencies compete with Bitcoin directly, whether about its popularity, adoption, or capitalization growth, Ripple has taken a global approach to a new level, with an emphasis on being a tool for banks worldwide.

Main Advantages of Ripple

• Long Term Stability
Investing in all forms of crypto currency is a risky thing. Ripple has strong relationship with banking institutions, so it’s decided as safe investment for long term.
• Ripple Wants To Be A Companion, Rather than Compete With Bitcoin
Any discussion about the value of Altcoin, we always associate it with the most popular coins today, Bitcoin. In Ripple's case, this crypto currency view does not seek to form "Zero Sum Games". Ripple is designed for large scale adoptions that can be used by financial institutions involving multiple currencies.

3. Litecoin

Litecoin is commonly called the "Silver of Bitcoin" nickname, because its creation base is from pure Bitcoin blockchain, later modified by Charlie Lee, to produce crypto currencies that have greater functions and benefits.
Unlike Bitcoin, Litecoin uses an algorithm named Scrypt. The algorithm is intended to facilitate the process of mining new coins (transaction confirmation and block creation).

Main Advantages Of Litecoin

• Speed of Transaction Process & Generation Block
All of the transactions in the blockchain should be confirmed by “Miner”, and take different time for confirmations.

According to data from Blockchain.info, the average transaction confirmation time of the Bitcoin network is more than 10 minutes per transaction.

Litecoin slashed the need for that time into just 2.5 minutes of time needed to confirm every transaction made within the network.

In addition, there is a special option in Litecoin, which is Private Send which makes the transaction no need to wait for confirmation at all. However, there are risks that must be borne by the transactors because of its nature

4. EOS

EOS is a decentralized blockchain crypto-based crypt that aims to scale the business by providing key business functions needed. EOS allows businesses to build their own blockchain applications very easily, and can support a web base.

Main Advantages of EOS

• No Scalability Problems
While Bitcoin can only process about 3 - 7 transactions per second, then the Etheeum blockchain can only confirm 7 - 14 transactions per second, EOS comes with the ability to offer millions of transaction processing per second with the Distributed Proof of Stake (DPOS) consensus mechanism.

• Almost No Transaction Fees
By storing multiple EOS units within the Wallet (intended for a contribution to the network), you can transact at very low cost up to the micro level, without the maximum limit of nominal money being traded.

• Upgradable
In contrast to other blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum that always make Hardfork the solution of every problem, by separating the old Chain and producing new Chain in the more perfect proposition, EOS is able to implement Soft Fork system, so upgrading the network function will never interfere with the existing ecosystem .

Such a system is able to provide assurance of network sustainability, and follow further technological developments in the future.

5. Cardano

Cardano is a blockchain platform Conduct Ethereum’s Blockchain, which also features Smart Contracts with a focus on security through double layered architecture.

Cardano uses the Haskell programming language, which has a high level of fault tolerance. Being made with the Haskell programming language, Cardano also has the ability to upgrade Softfork without having to disrupt the main network ecosystem.

Main Advantages Of Cardano

• Use of Second Generation Ethnicum Blockchain For Lower Transaction Costs
When the user transfers the value, there are two sets of information sent, the core information (from / to whom the funds are sent, the total amount of funds sent), and the metadata (the entity involved, the transfer terms, why the money is transferred etc.). In other blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, the above two information are made together and sent simultaneously.
The use of the Second Generation Etherealum blockchain allows the integration of all core information and metadata. The more metadata that is sent, the GAS (transaction costs) to be paid more and more. EOS is able to separate between the two into 2 different layers, so the cost to be paid is only on Core confirmation only.

• Upgradable
Like the EOS advantages described above, the Cardano Network can also apply Softfork to upgrade network functionality, without having to disrupt major network ecosystems. This function also allows the network to adopt the latest technology that is currently undiscovered.