In 2009, only Bitcoin was introduced as the only cryptocurrency in the world. But today we are witnessing an increase in a large number of cryptocurrencies and this has created a competition between Bitcoin and Altcoins. A competition in which each of them has its own characteristics.

Why is it not enough to have just Bitcoins in the world of cryptocurrencies?

Bitcoin was introduced in 2009 and today, it is the first cryptocurrency to be introduced to the world, which is in the first place. But in the world of cryptocurrencies, bitcoin may not have all the features of a good digital currency, and it certainly has its limitations. These restrictions have led to the creation of Altcoins.

Examples of bitcoin shortfalls include:

The number of transactions per second

Bitcoin can only process 4.6 transactions per second.

Privacy

The existence of public transactions and transparency makes it easy to track transactions (Of course, no information can be obtained from the person or organization) But the same transparency makes your address transactions easily traceable. This is unlike a feature used in the monero (XMR) token, which allows transactions on the network to remain completely anonymous. Thus XMR became one of the most popular of the confidential tokens.

Another example of confidential tokens:

• Zcash
• Dash
• PIVX

Fees

Another problem with Bitcoin is the high fees. Of course, you should note that compared to traditional transfer systems, Bitcoin has a lower fee. But imagine using bitcoin for daily purchases, and given the many fees, this is not cheap. There are tokens like Nano, Digibyte, XRP, DASH, Stellar (XLM), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Monero (XMR), Litecoin (LTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE), that receive much less fees than Bitcoin. So here, too, altcoins came to the aid of Bitcoin.

Environmental Problems

Excessive use of energy for mining has become a challenge to environmentalists. Increasing energy consumption, as well as increasing environmental pollution, has led to tough policies on bitcoin mining in some countries. But other solutions, such as using renewable energy to mine bitcoins, have been proposed. However, bitcoin mining mainly causes environmental problems. There are altcoins that solve this problem and consume less energy. Some of them are:

• Chia
• Cardano
• IOTA
• Solarcoin
• Nano

Why Are There So Many Cryptocurrencies?

The existence of a large number of cryptocurrencies makes each of these projects have its own characteristics. Each of them solves a specific problem. There are now thousands of cryptocurrencies and their number is increasing. These cryptocurrencies have special features and their projects are created for a specific purpose. But you should note that not all of these cryptocurrencies succeed, and many of them fail or are fraudulent. But what is certain is that the presence of Bitcoin and altcoins together makes the world of digital currencies interesting and challenging, leading to greater adoption.