Cryptocurrency or virtual currency is the new in thing. This is my attempt at understanding where these currencies are.

1. Cryptocurrency
Kapil Gupta
4/12/2013

2. Bitcoin - BTC
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Peer–to-Peer technology and no central authority or banks
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Transaction fees are lower
Managing transactions and issuing of bitcoins is carried out
collectively by the network
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Open-Source, design is public, nobody owns of controls Bitcoin
21 million Bitcoins to be issued
Currently the dominant cryptocurrency by far
Market cap - $12 billion

4. Bitcoin anonymity
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Bitcoin is pseudonymous, not anonymous, and bitcoins cant just
disappear
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It works because every transaction is public and visible to each and
every other person using bitcoin network
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A person is only as anonymous as their link to their wallet

5. Major Crypto-currencies – 5/12/2013
1. Bitcoin
2. Litecoin
3. Peercoin
4. Namecoin
5. Megacoin
6. Quarkcoin
7. Protoshares
8. Worldcoin
9. Primecoin
10. Feathercoin
11. Nxt
12. Novacoin
13. Freicoin
14. Anoncoin
15. Terracoin
16. CryptogenicBullion
17. Infinitecoin
18. Zetacoin
19. BBQCoin
20.Stablecoin

6. Differentation

7. Litecoin
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Based on Bitcoin protocol
Can be efficiently mined on consumer grade hardware
Faster transaction confirmations (2.5min on average)
Proof-of-stake in addition to proof-of-work
Scheduled to produce 84 million currency units
Current market cap - $867 million

8. Peercoin
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Increased security via Proof-of-work + proof-of-stake hybrid
algorithm
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Energy efficiency - generating proof-of-stake blocks
Current market cap - $116 million

9. Namecoin - NMC
• Key/Value registration
and transfer system
• Based on Bitcoin
technology
• Allows you to:
– Securely register and
transfer arbitrary names
(keys)
– Attach value (data) to the
names
– Trade and transact
namecoins
• Use cases:
– Timestamping
– Bonds, shares
– Voting / Web of Trust
• Market cap - $62 million

10. WorldCoin
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Faster transaction time – 30 sec (over 20 x faster that Bitcoin)
1% reward reduction weekly, encouraging quicker adoption
1 hour, maximum 10% difficulty retargeting to prevent
pool abuse
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Market cap - $24.5 million

11. Other major cryptocurrencies
• Quark
– Uses nine rounds of secure
hashing from six different
algorithms
– Extra secure
– Market cap - $30 million
• Primecoin
– Cryptocurrency with Prime
Number Proof-Of-Work
– First currency to have nonhashcash proof-of-work
– Market cap - $16.9 million
• Feathercoin
– Market Cap - $15.9 million
• Megacoin
– Restricted to 42 million
– Market cap - $26 million

12. Tumbling
• A couple of reddit users realised that the sheer size of the heist makes
“tumbling” the coins - the normal method of laundering bitcoins impossible, as long as they kept on their toes.
• Someone with bitcoin can send some to a tumbler like bitcoinfog, where
it will be split into smaller subdivisions and mixed with other bitcoins
from other places, recombining and splitting again several times over
until the whole amount eventually comes out the other end, theoretically
in such a way that it’s impossible to track.
• Silk Road’s in-built tumbler successfully foiled the FBI, allegedly.