There are so many cryptocurrencies now it’s hard to keep them straight. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, which went live around 2009. Bitcoin uses blockchain technology to transact as an open source community network, without an official leader or administrator. So far it is the most widespread, most secure and has the most diverse participants out of all the cryptocurrencies. According to CoinMarketCap, by Monday bitcoin's global market cap was worth more than $247 billion.
It is possible to argue litecoin and monero are the two altcoins, aka alternative coins, that are most similar to bitcoin. They have grassroots contributors that cooperate with nonprofit foundations without taking direction from them. Both the bitcoin and litecoin communities are experimenting with something called the Lightning Network, which creates a whole new layer for unprecedented features and cross-chain transactions. It will be a long time until this scaling solution is really implemented on the bitcoin network.
In the meantime, the important thing to remember about altcoins is they are not all bitcoin “rivals.” Litecoin and bitcoin have a symbiotic relationship. Some tokens serve very different functions altogether. There is no beef between monero and bitcoin, only between a few individual fans who may get in fights on social media. To the contrary, cryptocurrency communities often overlap and learn from each other.
