One of the biggest and most important cryptocurrencies in circulation right now is Bitcoin. It has almost never failed investors, despite its volatility (that is common in all crypto markets). The highs and the lows have demonstrated that Bitcoin is the most stable asset that you can invest in, but something about it is making people doubt its continuity.
The issue is that Bitcoin has a limited coin supply that can ever be issued, which is 21 million. Until now, around 19 million bitcoins have been minted, and it seems like the end is sooner than we expected. However, experts say that even if all coins are supplied and none can be issued again, Bitcoin’s value is not supposed to decrease or lose investors’ interest. However, we’re not sure what will happen to this cryptocurrency in ten years, so we’ll analyze some alternatives that might be better than Bitcoin in the following paragraphs.
Ethereum
Ethereum is the second leading cryptocurrency on the market. It has been built with the intent of providing more than a way to make transactions and has gained popularity because developers can write smart contracts on it or create DApps. It is said that one day Ethereum will get to the top and outshine Bitcoin since blockchain users are constantly working to make Ethereum better and easier to use.
For example, the latest improvement, called the Merge, was established so that energy consumption would be lowered and people could mine ether more easily without having to spend thousands of dollars on computational power. At the same time, this improvement can make transactions faster, which was already the case since mining bitcoins would take ten minutes while minting ether would take up to a few seconds.
Tether
Tether is the most known for being a stablecoin, which means it’s less volatile than most cryptocurrencies. It was launched in 2014 and was designed to be valued at $1.00, so it’s supposed that you can trade one Tether for $1 no matter how the market fluctuates. Although it does not provide the same high returns as Bitcoin, given that it surpassed it in trading volume in 2019, Tether has the potential to become the next most traded cryptocurrency since it provides more safety.
Tether is an excellent investment for someone who wants to have a diversified portfolio that can stably generate revenue without risking too much of its assets. This is because Tether is linked to a real-life commodity, the US dollar. However, investing in Tether is considered to be necessary for holding a stable store of value rather than making money.
Algorand
Algorand was created to compete with Ethereum. Many companies use it as an alternative for the second leading blockchain, even though it was introduced to the market in 2019. Compared to other significant cryptocurrencies, Algorand is more affordable, provides a fast-scaling time and has many use cases. The platform allows writing smart contracts and uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which facilitates the transactional process, while Bitcoin still uses proof-of-work.
If you already know how to buy Bitcoin, you’ll be able to get Algorand in the same way since all you need is an Algorand wallet and a credit or debit card. What you can do with this cryptocurrency is:
- Process payments
- Vote digitally
- Securitize loans
At the same time, the Algorand blockchain allows users to conduct automated crowdfunding projects, manage multiple wallets and benefit from immutable data backup. What makes this blockchain unique is that there’s no computational power required to solve cryptographic puzzles ―you receive ALGO rewards by staking Algorand in a crypto wallet.
Render
Render is one of the most interesting crypto projects that has started to become popular. This utility token was created in 2017, and you can use it to pay for animation, motion graphics and VFX on the Render Network. Render is currently the leading provider of decentralized GPU-based solutions, aiming to democratize GPU cloud rendering.
However, it might not be one of the greatest investments right now since the token is seen as unsafe, and experts’ predictions don’t seem encouraging for investors. Still, the platform can be used for revolutionizing the crypto exchanging process, as founders want to. We know that many investors struggle to balance GPU usage with gaining cryptocurrencies since mining requires a lot of computational power, so we’re looking forward to what Render can do.
Solana
Solana was founded in 2020, and even if it entered the market when cryptocurrencies were the most vulnerable, it reached a market cap of $11,552,202,860 because it is one of the fastest blockchains out there. Solana can process up to 60,0000 transactions per second through its unique confirmation method. Solana uses proof-of-history, unlike most cryptocurrencies that use POS or POW.
Besides the speed, Solana also provides users with some of the lowest gas fees investors pay to confirm and encode transactions. Its blockchain is also the place where some of the most interesting Web3 projects take place, which is pushing its popularity close to the Ethereum blockchain. However, what Solana needs to improve at the moment is enforcing security and scalability, which is why the platform has gone down a few times in the last year.
Ripple
Ripple is one of the best Bitcoin alternatives for international exchange. This cryptocurrency provides the quickest and most efficient way of sending money internationally while charging substantially lower fees than Bitcoin for transactions. And since it has gained popularity and credibility among banks and investors, it can get to so much more in the future.
However, experts believe that Ripple tends to be centralized and controlled excessively since a considerable amount of Ripple tokens are held by a few important people within the Ripple company. Another downside of Ripple is that not so many people use it; therefore, it’s not accepted as a way of payment in most cases.
Final thoughts
Although Bitcoin is the leading cryptocurrency on the market and has proved to be reliable, many other new cryptocurrencies are better and evolving at a faster pace. Therefore, the tokens listed above might take the lead in the future.