Awareness of cryptocurrency among South Africans has grown at an encouraging pace in recent years, with 84% of the 1000 South Africans aged 18 and over surveyed by the OECD in 2019 saying that they have heard of digital or cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, 40% of the respondents surveyed had also heard of Initial Coin Offerings or ICOs.
On top of that, while only 23% of those surveyed currently own digital assets or cryptocurrencies, 46% said they would like to own such assets in the future.
In this article, we'll
There are two main parts to Ripple --- first, the Ripple coin, which goes by XRP; second, Ripple's global payment system built on blockchain technology, also known as RippleNet. US-based Ripple Labs appeared in 2012 to build a fast, cost-efficient cryptocurrency and payment network for enterprise use.
Ripple's native coin, XRP, is popular among banks and businesses because it has the shortest transaction time. According to Ripple Labs, its technology processes transactions in a maximum of four seconds --- faster than Ethereum, which takes two minutes, Litecoin, which takes ten minutes, or Bitcoin, which takes an hour. For comparison, a conventional international bank transfer running on the SWIFT network would generally take at least two days to process. Therefore, it is no surprise that over 300 financial institutions, including American Express, MoneyGram, and Siam Commercial Bank, presently use Ripple. The XRP token is also the third-largest cryptocurrency in the world by market capitalization.
Tether is a cryptocurrency backed by fiat currency that aims to combine the benefits of blockchain technology and traditional currency. Nicknamed the "stablecoin", Tether's value is always pegged 1:1 to its associated real-world asset. Tether has so far issued three tokens at the time of writing --- the USDT, which is pegged to the US dollar; the EURT, which is pegged to the Euro. And the CNHT, which is pegged to the offshore Chinese Yuan. Of the three, the USDT is the most well-known, most widely integrated, and is currently the fourth-largest cryptocurrency in the world by market capitalization.
According to Tether Limited, the Hong Kong-based company which issues the currency, each USDT token is primarily backed by one US dollar --- which is to say that, for example, if the exchange rate between the US dollar and South African Rand is US$1 to RM4.32 today, then the price to buy one USDT would also be roughly RM4.32. This simplicity and familiarity draw many to the USDT, who now use it as a substitute for the US dollar in the digital realm, serving as their "digital dollars".
Ethereum was launched in 2015 to create an open-source, public, customizable blockchain. Like most open-source platforms, it is maintained by a global network of developers supported by the Switzerland-based Ethereum Foundation.
Ethereum is the most versatile blockchain platform as it not only carries its own payment network and currency known as Ether (ETH) but is also in itself an internet browser, coding language, and programmable software that anyone can use to build and deploy new applications and even new tokens. Think of it as a completely decentralized version of Google's Android or Apple's iOS on steroids --- except more powerful, open, customizable, and without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud, or third-party interference.
Ethereum reached a major milestone in 2017 when a group of business giants, including Microsoft, JP Morgan Chase, and British Petroleum, came together to form a consortium known as the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance to drive the adoption of Ethereum in the industry. Meanwhile, market capitalization currently makes the ETH token the second-largest cryptocurrency globally.
Bitcoin was the very first cryptocurrency. Satoshi Nakamoto created it in 2008 to create a purely peer-to-peer electronic cash system that does not rely on anyone entity, such as a central bank or administrator. At the time of writing, Bitcoin remains the most well-known and widely used cryptocurrency in the world, with the largest market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies.
Of course, one can only introduce Bitcoin with mentioning blockchain- the open, distributed registry on which Bitcoin runs- also created by Nakamoto. Many entities and individuals adopted and adapted Nakamoto's blockchain technology. Still, the core principles of the technology remain: transactions that run on the blockchain rely on a peer-to-peer network that does not rely on intermediaries and is completely private. This means that when you transact with Bitcoin, your transactions are anonymous, your transactions do not run through an intermediary like a bank, and you pay either no or very low transaction fees.
Bitcoin Cash is a spin-off of Bitcoin created in 2017 to help scale the underlying Bitcoin technology and run on its blockchain. Similar to the original Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash's goal is to create a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. However, there are a few key differences between the two: firstly, Bitcoin Cash has modern technological advances in mind and can process more transactions in a much shorter time. Secondly, Bitcoin Cash is less widely used than its big brother. However, it already ranks as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with plenty of room for growth. Thirdly, since Bitcoin Cash is still in its infancy, it remains far more affordable for many than Bitcoin at only a tiny fraction of the price.
Litecoin was created in 2011 and is known as the cryptocurrency that is most similar to Bitcoin. Similar to Bitcoin Cash, it is a spin-off of the original Bitcoin to provide a faster and cheaper alternative to Bitcoin. Aside from being able to process transactions almost instantly and having near-zero transaction costs, Litecoin distinguishes itself from Bitcoin by having a different cryptographic algorithm. It is presently the seventh-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Why so many cryptocurrencies, you may ask? Well, just like the conventional currency market, which trades everything from the US Dollar to the Nigerian Naira and the Kuwaiti Dinar, having a wide range of cryptocurrencies is a great way to allow investors to diversify their portfolios while encouraging a healthy and robust crypto market.
In summary, the six leading cryptocurrencies you should know about are:
If any (or all) of these interest you, be sure to hop on over to Remitano.com to begin your crypto investment journey.
