How do I define "mainstream coins" and "altcoins"?
In the articles I wrote, I always recommend that ordinary investors invest in digital currency funds and allocate most of their funds in "mainstream currencies".
And our analysis believes that whether it is based on the global economic situation, potential risks, or the development of blockchain technology itself, before the official launch of Ethereum 2.0, that is, before 2022 and 2023, only the "mainstream currency" will have a big impact. Quotes.
Then, opposite to "mainstream currency", another type of currency that we often hear is "alt currency".
So what is an "altcoin"? How to distinguish between "altcoins" and "mainstream coins"? How should we treat "altcoins"? Next, I will share with you a small series.
Today we will first analyze with you what is a "cottage currency".
1. The origin of "altcoin"
Regarding "altcoins", in fact, there is no unified statement in the industry. It first refers to all coins except BTC.
Because BTC is the originator of all digital currencies, and all other digital currencies are developed on the basis of BTC, and are derived from modifying its consensus mechanism, encryption mechanism or script system on the basis of BTC. Different features and functions.
Therefore, in the early years, only BTC was considered "orthodox", while all other currencies were considered "cottage".
2. “Altcoins” grow into “mainstream coins”
Later, as more and more people began to pay attention to and use digital currency, blockchain technology was separated from BTC by some engineers, and tried to expand the application of this technology to other fields besides payment and transfer. Therefore, Some emerging application areas and scenarios have emerged.
In these new fields and scenarios, some digital currencies have unique advantages and functions that BTC does not have, so their status has gradually been recognized and established their "mainstream" status.
The most typical one is Ethereum. Because of the ICO, it made the world see the power of smart contracts, which far exceeds BTC in terms of function and efficiency, thus establishing its position second only to BTC in the field of digital currency.
3. How to define "Altcoin"
Therefore, we say whether a coin is a "mainstream coin" or a "cottage coin" mainly depends on whether the coin's investment value and usage scenarios in the industry are recognized by everyone.
If a coin has just been launched recently, is still in the early stages of development, or has been launched for a period of time, but the development status is still relatively vague, so it is not well recognized in the industry, it is a "cottage coin".
Of course, everyone has different views on the degree of recognition, so everyone's judgment on "altcoins" is also different.
I wrote in the article that a group of people are "BTC fanatics". In their view, only BTC is the mainstream currency so far, and other currencies including Ethereum are altcoins.
I don't think so, I think the mainstream currency is more than BTC, but compared to the altcoins, the mainstream currency is still only a small minority.
At present, we consider the leading coins in the following fields to be considered mainstream coins:
1) Digital currencies that focus on payment scenarios such as BTC, Litecoin, etc.;
2) Digital currencies featuring smart contracts such as Ethereum, EOS, etc.;
3) Digital currencies featuring privacy such as Monero and Zcash;
therefore
thereforeExcept for some leading varieties in these fields, other coins (even some star projects) are either not optimistic in the long run, or I think their status is still not strong and need to be further tested and consolidated. These are what I consider "altcoins".
