[ad_1]
By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business
Bitcoin and ethereum are the Coke and Pepsi of crypto: their combined value of around $ 1,000 billion represents almost two-thirds of the $ 1.6 trillion in digital currencies in the world.
But just as some fans of soft drinks prefer Dr Pepper, there are plenty of other crypto alternatives out there as well, over 10,000 of them, according to research site CoinMarketCap.
Many of these “altcoins” have legitimate niche use cases for specific industries. These aren’t cryptos like a joke like Elon Musk’s beloved dogecoin and his canine cousin Shiba Inu.
One of the top performing crypto pairs this year is two related tokens for online content creators Theta and Theta Fuel. Theta climbed nearly 400% in 2021 while Theta Fuel is up 1,700%.
Both run on a blockchain known as Theta Network and allow PC users with unused bandwidth to share video streams with others on the network. The reward ? They are able to extract tokens. Theta has impressive supporters from the digital media world, including YouTube co-founder Steve Chen and Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, who are Theta advisers.
Meanwhile, many other altcoins are gaining more attention from the crypto investing community and many of these investors say this is just the beginning.
“It’s still only the early days of blockchain networks. Many more are being built, ”said Greg King, Founder and CEO of Osprey Funds, a company that invests in cryptocurrencies. “Not everyone is trying to emulate bitcoin.”
King said he was focusing on two smaller pieces: polkadot and algorand. King described polkadot as an internet of blockchains that helps connect different networks and transfer coins between them.
And he said algorand is a more environmentally friendly “green” crypto than bitcoin, which has been criticized by many, including Musk, for the massive amount of energy used by people who “mine” crypto on massive servers.
Algorands are distributed in a more energy efficient way as they are part of the so-called proof-of-stake distribution which randomly selects blocks to distribute to users, instead of being rewarded for people who mine large chunks of the currency. .
King believes investors should focus more on cryptos and tokens like these two, which have legitimate uses and not get caught up in the hype and noise of things like dogecoin, which has risen by over 6,000% this year thanks in large part to Musk’s tweets. although it is a joke.
“The coins meme are a little distracting, but I guess that’s part of the libertarian side of crypto,” King said, referring to the fact that people skeptical of government-backed currencies tend to flock. to digital parts. “There will be a lot of chips going from stupid to serious and a lot in between,” he said.
Michael Sikorsky, president of Copia Wealth Studios, agreed. He said his company owns ethereum and bitcoin, but it also owns several other less common altcoins.
Sikorsky said Copa Wealth Studios has positions in cardano and polygon, two other cryptos similar to algorand in that they are not operated by power-hungry supercomputers.
“We get our noses wet,” Sikorsky said. But he added that investors should keep in mind that these and other cryptos will remain volatile.
Altcoins are therefore not for the faint of heart, but neither are they.
“It’s becoming a real asset class,” said Charlie Silver, CEO of Permission.io, which owns a token called ASK for e-commerce advertisers.
But he cautioned that “successful altcoins have to have real use. Those who are just bets will not be good for the industry, ”said Silver. “But we see this as the next big wave of investment.”
[ad_2]
picture credit