What is the difference between coins and tokens?
An altcoin is a completely seperate currency, with its own blockchain, that isn't dependant on another blockchain, has it's own wallets etcetera.
Tokens are usually based/made upon another crypto currency. Take for example the ethereum protocol. There's tons of "tokens" which are on it. They use the same wallets as their parent currency, are (mostly) coded the same way, etc. (-- If Ethereum would stop functioning, so would all the tokens that are on their platform.)
You should see tokens as another currency inside the blockchain of another coin.
https://coinmarketcap.com/tokens/This is a great explanation in plain, easy-to-read English. Short, yet you got all the main points covered ; )
@OP: May I just add a few more links to that which I believe might be of interest to you should you be looking for some in-depth information.
These are the resources I would recommend:
(1)
https://coincheckup.com/ (a basic overview of most of the coins & tokens around)
(2)
https://compare.digitalcoinprice.com/ (lets you compare two or more coins & tokens with one another, has been often really quite useful!)
P.S. While I was typing, a fellow member already mentioned something regarding another aspect which was basically what I wished to say also ; ) Now especially when you've got a start-up, they might design their tokens as so called "
functional utility tokens", meaning their tokens would have a specific function within their platform / ecosystem. An interesting read on this issue of terminology might be the following short article on coindesk:
https://www.coindesk.com/utility-coins-crypto-assets-token-terminology-one-big-gray-area/
