These are the most important cryptocurrencies

Over 1500 different cybercoins are now traded. Many are even bigger rockets than Bitcoin. These ten cyber currencies have great potential. The bets are already running.

Just before Christmas, worth $ 20,000, now just under half: The fierce ups and downs in the Bitcoin price keeps private investors and regulators on their toes. Bitcoin is no longer the only virtual currency . There are now more than 1,500 cybercoins traded to financial regulators and banks. They are called "crypto" currencies because every digital coin is encrypted by complicated arithmetic operations (cryptography).
Every purchase or sale of a cybercoin is recorded on what is known as a block chain. Like a thread being pulled one pearl at a time, a new block is written for each shop. The longer the list of transactions, the longer the blockchain.

This storage chain is a decentralized commercial register in the network that all users can view at the same time. This makes classic middlemen such as banks, brokers, stock exchanges - and their fees - superfluous. New transactions can only be entered if all previous ones have been confirmed as correct. This makes the blockchain transparent and tamper-proof. It can not be manipulated later. A classic bank account is no longer necessary. Users save their cyber coins in wallets on their PC, mobile phone or tablet - like digital cash.

But the blockchain is much more than a money machine. Basically, you can use it all decentralized book - not only on account balances, but also on real estate, car ownership or marriages. The technology could revolutionize the economy in the future. So that you do not lose track of the growing offer, n-tv.de presents the most interesting and market capitalization on coinmarketcap.com most important crypto currencies.

Bitcoin: The Ur-cyber money from Japan ( 150 billion dollars)
The original cyber money was created in 2009 in the financial crisis. The developers wanted to create a monetary system that is not controlled by states and central banks. To this day it is not clear who is behind the creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Is it a pseudonym or a group? The only thing that is clear is that the Bitcoin-makers are much older than other development teams. Therefore, critics consider it very conservative .

New Bitcoins are created by "mining" until a maximum of 21 million "coins" have been created. Based on real currencies, they are like gold from the ground, so to speak, promoted from nothing, by computers solve complicated mathematical computational tasks. That's why huge computing power is needed. If the so-called miners have cracked the task, there is another block on the Bitcoin blockchain as a reward. If you want to make a transfer, you have to pay a fee to the "builder".

Bitcoin is by far the undisputed number one among the cryptocurrencies. Their total market value is currently around 430 billion dollars - almost as much as Facebook is worth on the stock market. One third of that is accounted for by Bitcoin alone. The cyber money is something like the dollar of the crypto-world: in the reserve currency, by far the largest volume transactions take place.

Ether: Smart contracts in Russian ( 82 billion dollars)
Money at Ethereum is just a byproduct. The developers are talking about the potential of Blockchain as a database: people who have never met can use it to complete tamper-proof businesses around the world.

Ethereum is therefore more of a platform for smart contracts than a currency. In order to finance the Ethereum system, the first application in 2014 was the Cyber-Money Ether, which is still traded today.

The idea came from Russian software genius Vitalik Buterin, who manages the system today through the Ethereum Foundation in Switzerland. Also financially Ether is more successful than Bitcoin: The ether price is today 65 times higher than twelve months ago. By contrast, the Bitcoin price has "only" increased ninefold over the same period.

Ripple : transfer money quickly and cheaply ($ 40 billion)
Of all the cryptocurrencies, Ripple is the closest to the classic banking system . Like Ether, Ripple is not really money, it's a global network - just for wire transfers rather than smart contracts. Real currencies such as dollars, euros or pounds can be transferred internationally - in seconds rather than days of delay as in bank transfers. Many financial institutions such as UBS, Unicredit and Santander already use the system. That has pushed up the price - 159 times in the last twelve months.

For each transfer, a ripple mini-fee is due as a fee. The money supply is fixed from the beginning: 100 billion ripple. Unlike Bitcoin, no new coins are created by mining. Energy-consuming mining is not an issue. Part of the coins was spent in 2012 - as was the case with Ether - when the currency was created, to interested buyers to finance the system, and is still traded today. But the big rest is controlled by the ripple startup in San Francisco alone. If it suddenly flooded the market, the price could collapse.

Bitcoin Cash: The Cyber ​​Dollar with the Turbo (20 billion dollars)
Due to the big onslaught of crypto fans, Bitcoin has increasingly reached its technical capacity limit : by the end of 2017 - when the cyber money cost $ 20,000 - it was virtually impossible to pay with it. A small transfer cost horror fees of up to 100 euros and lasted more than ten minutes.

Therefore, in the summer of 2017, the spin-off Bitcoin Cash. The little brother of the original bitcoin is significantly faster, because the blocks on its storage chain are larger (eight instead of one megabyte). The higher tempo lowers the transaction fees. Instead of several dollars, a few cents are due.

Thanks to the recent fall in prices Bitcoin transfer fees have fallen again. Nevertheless, the spin-off is considered successful: the market capitalization is increasing, the interest of users is growing. The price has almost tripled within a year. Nevertheless, the overwhelmingly conservative team could not agree on another bifurcation. Allegedly, it continues to be discussed violently.

Cardano: The best cryptocurrency of all? ($ 9 billion)
The Cardano project started in 2015, but only three months ago, the coins can also be traded on the known stock exchanges. The youngster in the crypto-universe has decided to solve all the difficulties of the Blockchain currencies. Scalability and security are very important to developers.
Behind the project are three organizations: the company IOHK in Hong Kong, the Cardano Foundation in the Swiss Krypto-Valley Zug and the Japanese company Emurgo, which takes care of the operative business and tries to establish the coin in Japan. By the end of 2018, there will be around 25 ATMs. Similar to Ethereum, developers are not just about money. They also want to develop digital contracts: Charles Hoskinson, one of the main inventors worked before Cardano already at Ethereum.

Like the Ripple team, the Cardano developers also want to work with the regulators to spread their coin. The market capitalization shows that there should be some fantasy in this rather unknown crypto-currency. Since the beginning of December, the Cardano course has almost tripled.

There is also a lot going on in the back ranks of the crypto world. The second part of the series continues this afternoon with Litecoin, Eos, Iota, Dash and Monero.