I recently came across this link for the the "Map of Coins" website.
http://mapofcoins.com/ I was very impressed with the work of the website, but felt like it wasn't an accurate map in that the important coins are not highlighted.
I have made this map based on coins with the highest marketcaps or in some cases the platforms that haven't been released yet, but are impressive concepts and have a good backing.
A. After Bitcoin came out lots of imitation coins tried to copy it. They made small modifications to the code, but were really the same thing. Most of these have had their market value crash and are dead.
B.
Litecoin was one of the first real innovated forks of Bitcoin. At the time it was billed as Asic proof, but now uses Asics in a positive way to keep the network secure. One problem is that 25% of Litecoins are owned by 3 wallets.
C. The success of Litecoin spawned almost 1000 clones. All of which have no real innovation and should fade away more than they already have.
D.
Dogecoin is the exception to the rule, a coin that turned out to be fun and got a real community. It is a clone of Litecoin with lots and lots of coins so anybody can have some.
E.
Namecoin is a truly innovative coin. One of the first to do something original. Namecoin is a fork of Bitcoin but its blockchain can store data. One possible use of this feature is to create a new DNS system, but the idea didn’t ever catch or get widespread use (yet).
F.
Darkcoin is marketed as “the first anonymous coin”. It has spawned lots of clones, none of which have caught on. It uses darksend technology to hide transactions.
G. Lots of Darkcoin clones, none of which have really done a lot for themselves or the cryptocommunity. Most are thought to be pump and dumps.
H.
Bytecoin is another addition to the anonymous transaction coins but uses a new method to hide transactions called Cryptonote. While the Cryptonote technology has been reviewed and thought to be good, Cryptonote’s origins and Bytecoin’s start are marred with lies and fraud.
I. A dozen or so Bytecoin clones. Many of which are tied into the original Bytecoin and Cryptonote scandal.
J.
Monero is the most successful clone of Bytecoin and tried to distance itself from the scandals, but has found problems of its own and as of late the marketshare is declining heavily.
K.
Maidsafe and
Storj are not coins but are in part inspired by the decentralized revolution started by Bitcoin. Both platforms look to decentralize data storage and applications on top of that data. Both platforms rely on everyday users’ hard drives for cloud storage instead of centralized servers that can be shutdown.
L.
Mastercoin was one of the first successful colored coins projects. It is integrated on top of the Bitcoin blockchain and can use the blockchain to represent tokens of different platforms. As of late it has lost its momentum.
M.
Counterparty has successfully usurped Mastercoin and made it irrelevant. It is based off of the same technology but is more advanced despite being later to the scene. Currently CounterParty wants to expand from just offering colored coins into something called Medici. It has done this by teaming up with Overstock. The plan for Medici is to offer shares in new companies, basically any company that wants funding via the platform anywhere in the world. It remains to be seen if CounterParty/Overstock can actually achieve this.
N.
Bitshares is a platform that is used to trade one commodity for another on the Bitshares platform. All commodities are not backed by the commodity they represent but by a different part of the Bitshare’s platform. Bitshares is running and so far is working mostly as promised, but has been met with some skepticism and hesitation by the cryptocommunity, which has seen many other bold platforms and ideas turn out to fail or be scams and investors lose their money.
O.
Ethereum is not a coin but is meant to be a raw blockchain that any other app or any other business or any other platform can connect into and use. It claims to be agnostic to other projects in the cryptocommunity and would like them all to be a part of Ethereum. The fundraiser has ended and coins cannot be currently traded.
P.
Ripple uses a consensus like distributed ledger to process transactions in a similar way to Bitcoin. Ripple though only uses gateways of real partners issuing IOUs for real goods deposited with the gateway. It has a beautiful GUI and is very fast and efficient compared to other platforms but has been marred by scandal too, constantly being called a scam for its large premine. Although the premine of XRP is not meant to be a currency in and of itself as is the case with Bitcoin, but instead as an anti-spam measure. Further scandals have plagued Ripple about its XRP distribution and handling of its funds.
Q.
Stellar is basically a clone of Ripple created in part by some of the same people but looks to be more transparent and fair with its platform token distribution. So far Stellar hasn’t gained the institutional partners to the degree that Ripple already has. Both/either platform if realized would make sending money overseas and changing from one currency to another extremely fast, efficient, and easy. These two platforms main and basically sole purpose is international remittance unlike the broad and wide scope many new platforms hope to achieve.
R.
Peercoin is another Bitoin based coin that went on to do something innovative. It very quickly had all its coins mined and switch from PoW to a new way of securing the network called PoS. This is where users of the platform can use their coin balances to protect the blockchain.
S.
NXT took the idea of PoS to a whole new level. It was written in an entirely different computer language than all the other cryptocoins before it. It has become a platform with many features such as encrypted messaging, asset exchange, digital goods store, and a free market with more features being worked on and planed for the future.
T. After the broad success of NXT, many other developers tried to recreate its gains. Most turned out to be blatant scams where the developer took money and left the community. Some have managed to make blockchains that claim to have new and novel proof-of-X algorithm but none have open sourced their code and all have been plagued with problems and are lacking.
U.
Supernet is a platform being built on top of NXT by a developer called Jl777. He has been very prolific on the NXT platform and has undertaken the ambitious project of Supernet. It aims to act as a bridge between other platforms connecting any altcoin with any other altcoin so that they can share each other’s benefits. It isn’t officially up and running and continues to be worked on daily by the developer.
V.
NEM is a new proof-of-X platform called PoI that is used to address flaws in other PoS algorithms. It too has been written from the ground up with an entirely new source code. It has original investors in the thousands and has had an extensive beta test and will have its official release within days. It has 5 core developers that have been working for 11 months to make NEM and additionally has other members that are involved in the business, design, and marketing aspects.
W.
Nubits is a coin built on the Peershares platform with Peercoin. Its innovation is to always keep a stable priced that is locked into the USD.
X.
Emunie is another platform that seeks to be a platform that can do anything and everything, not just send and receive coins. It has been in a very long and much delayed production cycle. It also had problems with funds from the fundraising be stolen. Despite this it has had closed betas and is planning to launch an open beta in the first part of 2015. The beta’s planned features are quite extensive and more than what is usually offered by other platforms.
Y.
Blockstream is a project by some of the most important and respected members in the Bitcoin community. No software has been released. Only a white paper is available. The plan of Blockstream is to introduce side chains into the Bitcoin blockchain. This has been labeled as the “altcoin killer”.
Z.
Adept is the collaboration between IBM and Samsumg. Looking forward to the internet of things (IoT), a time when most regular electronic devices will be wired into the internet and sending and receiving data about their stats. Adept seeks to make a simple and unified platform that would enable additional applications of the IoT.
