Blockchain News
span (CoinMarketCap). Bitcoin Cash
(BCH) came into existence primarily due to
scalability issues with bitcoin.
Generally speaking, supporters of
cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin, like
Bitcoin Cash, believe in increased block
sizes. Therefore, block sizes with bitcoin
cash are 8 MB compared to only 1 MB.
Basically, BCH enthusiasts want to see faster
transactions whereas the original bitcoin
community doesn’t agree with this approach.
Regardless of their differences, for a huge
crypto-exchange like Coinbase to accept
Bitcoin Cash has increased its legitimacy. It
should be interesting to see how the crypto-
community continues to react to Bitcoin
Cash.
Another cryptocurrency to look out
for is Verge (XVG). This cryptocurrency
places top priority on maintaining user
anonymity and a high level of security.
Considering bitcoin’s scalability issues and
slow transaction processing times, Verge
aims to keep transaction times between 5
and 10 seconds. It accomplishes this by using
the Simple Payment Verification (SPV)
protocol with its Electrum wallet. With
SPV, it is not necessary to download the
entire blockchain. Only header information
is needed to process transactions. Verge has
been gaining momentum as its price has
increased by 800%.
Many crypto-investors have also turned
to Litecoin (LTC) this year because one of
Litecoin’s priorities is to process transactions
faster. Litecoin has increased in value by
8000%. This is many orders of magnitude
greater than bitcoin. Litecoin transactions
can be completed in a mere fraction of the
time compared to bitcoin’s transaction times.
Litecoin transaction costs are negligible.
Litcoin has also been around since 2011,
which adds to its credibility and legitimacy.
Over the years, it has also become easier
to acquire Litecoin. It’s worth noting,
however, that Charlie Lee, the creator of the
cryptocurrency has recently sold all of his
LTC coins.
Qtum, a Chinese blockchain company,
has found its place among the top 20
cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization
of over $4.5 billion. Like Ethereum, Qtum
facilitates Smart Contracts and decentralized
applications, but is designed in a way that
makes it more practical for businesses to
work with (according to Qtum’s official
website). On December 17th, Qtum was
trading around $30 USD, but has since
jumped to nearly $70 at the time of this
writing (CryptoCompare).
Coinbase recently surpassed the Youtube
app to become the #1 most downloaded
application on the Apple App store. This
indicates that people are continuing to take
more interest in cryptocurrencies. It would
not be unreasonable to expect cryptocurrency
market capitalization to surpass $1 trillion,
at least by the end of 2018. However,
what’s more important is if the underlying
technologies
behind
cryptocurrencies
continue to develop in a way that makes
them conducive to mainstream adoption.
Omar Faridi
[email protected]
Core Magazine
23