For many people involved with Bitcoin, altcoins are nothing more than testnets. Hundreds of digital currencies are currently listed on CoinCap.io , but Bitcoin still dominates 78 percent of the market. In total, there are only 10 digital currencies with a current market cap of $10 million or more.
When looking at the most popular altcoins, it’s easy to see that there are some cryptocurrency features that are more desirable than others. Many have said that any altcoin with useful features will eventually see those features incorporated into Bitcoin. Up to this point, it’s clear that many of the most popular altcoins contain features that are similar to new improvements that are planned for Bitcoin.
It should be noted that Ripple will not be included in this list as it fits the archetype of a permissioned ledger more than an open, permissionless blockchain.
Ethereum
Ethereum is the most successful altcoin in the history of digital currency ‒ at least when measured as a percentage of Bitcoin’s overall market cap. It was the second altcoin to ever reach a $1 billion market cap (after Litecoin ).
The main selling point of Ethereum is that it is a platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications . These sorts of applications have long been talked about as a sort of “Bitcoin 2.0.”
Bitcoin Alternatives: There are a variety of ways in which Ethereum-esque applications could make their way to Bitcoin:
> Rootstock is a smart contract platform with similar goals to Ethereum. In fact, it is partially based on the combination of the Bitcoinj and Ethereumj clients. RSK Labs intends to implement the Rootstock project as a sidechain to Bitcoin; this means, while operating on a separate blockchain, Rootstock would exist in the Bitcoin currency network. Segregated Witness enables many new improvements to Bitcoin. […]
