Cryptocurrency is part of the future of money, but that doesn’t mean much if you don’t know how to understand a crypto, how to assess its potential, or know the metrics you should pay attention to. But for people just starting out, here’s a primer to help you get started with your research. If you can’t or don’t want to do your own research, then you can focus on these five cryptos.
- A = Avalanche
- B = Bitcoin
- C = chain link
- D = Decentralized country
- E = Ether
Now let’s take a quick look at these 5 cryptos. But before that, I want you to read the crypto metrics we discussed previously. And a few things to remember: The figures mentioned are as of November 19, 2021 and have been rounded. Market capitalization = Current price x Circulating supply. And the volume (24h) is the fiat value of this crypto traded in the last 24 hours.
A = Avalanche (AVAX)
Avalanche is one of the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) blockchains. What I like the most is that it allows me to launch custom private and public blockchains.
Avalanche has an incredible transactional throughput of 4,500 tps. The others are very low in comparison – Bitcoin (7 tps), Ethereum (14 tps), Polkadot (1500 tps).
AVAX is the native token of Avalanche and it can be used for staking, paying fees, and providing a unit of account between the multiple subnets created on Avalanche.
Some of the main AVAX metrics are:
| Price | $103 |
| An absolute record | $110.31 |
| The all-time low | $2.79 |
| Market capitalization | $22.8 billion |
| Volume | $1.9 billion |
B = Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin (BTC) is the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency. In fact, the word “blockchain” is derived from its white paper. In September 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender.
Today, many large financial institutions and corporations are beginning to hold and trade Bitcoin. We have witnessed the emergence of Bitcoin ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). Many people also envision Bitcoin becoming a store of value and surpassing the market capitalization of gold.
Bitcoin was not pre-mined, meaning that no coins were distributed among the founders before Bitcoin became publicly available.
Some of the basic metrics of BTC are:
| Price | $56,920 |
| An absolute record | $68,789.63 |
| The all-time low | $65.53 |
| Market capitalization | 1 trillion dollars |
| Volume | 43 billion dollars |
C = Chain link (LINK)
PICTURE
The problem that Oracles solve is: “How can a smart contract obtain data from the outside world?” Oracles act as middleware between smart contracts and external data sources. Chainlink is a decentralized network of independent oracle node operators.
LINK is the cryptographic token used to pay Chainlink node operators for providing Oracle services.
Some of LINK’s core metrics are:
| Price | $27 |
| An absolute record | $52.88 |
| The all-time low | $0.1263 |
| Market capitalization | $12.8 billion |
| Volume | $1.2 billion |
D = Decentralized country (MANA)
The Metaverse is a parallel “digital universe” where you can create your digital avatar and do all sorts of cool things: learn, play, party and more! Decentraland is building some really cool things in the metaverse and has 2 cryptos – MANA and LAND.
MANA is an ERC20 fungible token that can be spent to buy TO LAND which is an Ethereum ERC-721 token (non-fungible). Besides the virtual land, you can also purchase avatars, wearables, and even names on the Decentraland marketplace.
Some of the basic metrics of MANA are:
| Price | $3.96 |
| An absolute record | $4.69 |
| The all-time low | $0.007883 |
| Market capitalization | $8.7 billion |
| Volume | $7.1 billion |
E = Ether (ETH)
PICTURE
Ethereum is neither a blockchain nor a cryptocurrency, it is a protocol (a set of rules or procedures). The original Ethereum-powered public blockchain split into two blockchains – Ethereum and Ethereum Classic – after the 2016 Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) hack.
The Ethereum public blockchain is the world’s largest and most popular decentralized finance (DeFi) platform and its native cryptography is Ether (ETH). ETH is the fuel for running decentralized smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.
Some of the basic metrics of ETH are:
| Price | $4,146 |
| An absolute record | $4,869.5 |
| All-time low | $0.4209 |
| Market capitalization | $492 billion |
| Volume | $23.4 billion |
Rohas Nagpal is the author of the Future Money Playbook and the chief blockchain architect of the Wrapped Asset Project. He is also an amateur boxer and retired hacker. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
Interested in cryptocurrency? We discuss all things crypto with Nischal Shetty, CEO of WazirX, and Alok Jain, founder of WeekendInvesting, on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and everywhere you get your podcasts.
Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency that is not legal tender and is subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, business advice or any other advice or recommendation of any kind offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV will not be liable for any loss resulting from an investment based on any recommendation, forecast or other perceived information contained in the article.
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