These assets aim to be money: a store of value and a settlement medium, not platforms for building applications. They are judged on the credibility of their monetary policy, network security and censorship resistance, not on throughput or how many apps run on top. The category is deliberately small, because very few assets genuinely compete on this ground.
What to compare: Compare the certainty of the issuance schedule, the cost of attacking the network, and how realistic settlement use actually is. Limited programmability is usually a design decision rather than a shortcoming.
7 entries
BTC · #1
The base monetary asset of crypto.
LTC · #16
One of the oldest Bitcoin forks, positioned as faster settlement money.
KAS · #44
A proof-of-work network using a blockDAG to allow very fast block rates.
ZEC · #50
Shielded payments on a Bitcoin-derived proof-of-work base.
XMR · #51
The reference private currency: untraceable payments by default, not by option.
BCH · #52
The 2017 Bitcoin fork that bet on cheap on-chain payments over layering.
DASH · #53
An early Bitcoin fork built around instant settlement and optional privacy.