Which cryptocurrencies are the innovative ones (for the time they were introduced)?.

Which cryptocurrency introduced ring signatures?. Which one introduced colored coins as part of its design (As used in NXT)?.

I'm interested in free as in freedom cryptocurrencies that have been the first to bring a new technology (for instance, Peercoin with its PoS). With all of the hundreds of existing cryptocurrencies, most of which are clones, it's hard to tell what are the ones that bring improvements instead of being a pump and dump scheme or plain worthless.

Note: I have checked what are the top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, but this doesn't tells me whether they have bringed something new, and with so many speculators and people who are into altcoins just for pump and dump, market capitalizatioin doesn't seems like a good indicator of innovation or even technical proficency.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks you.

Hello.

I'm looking for a VPS which:

Accepts Bitcoin as payment.
Has package(s) below 8 USD/month (equivalent in Bitcoins).
Doesn't uses proprietary software like cPanel. Allows GNU/Linux.
(Preferred) Gives VNC access from outside the server, allowing the users to (re)install the operating system.

If you would be so kind, please recommend a VPS with these characteristics. I have used search engines which give lots of results, but I'd like to hear from user experiences as well. Thanks.