Once Bitcoin started to gain traction, it became inevitable that other cryptocurrencies would start to appear. And so the altcoins were born. 

 

An altcoin - as you may remember from the last episode - is any cryptocurrency that isn’t Bitcoin. There are now thousands of altcoins in existence, but the flood began as a mere trickle with the release of Namecoin in 2011. Slowly, other altcoins began to emerge - some of which are still with us today, many of which have faded into obscurity.

 

In this episode, we look at a few of the most notable altcoins to break out in the decade following Bitcoin’s entrance into the world. As so many are no longer relevant, we’ve focused mostly on the ones that have survived in some way, shape or form. It’s a useful look into crypto's past, which will help us better understand its present over the course of future episodes. 

 

This episode will also serve as a useful primer for our upcoming series of episodes about the king of all the altcoins: Ethereum.

 

Some interesting chapters and snippets about altcoins can be found in several of the books we’ve referenced before. These include:

 

Bubble or Revolution? (2021), by Neel Mehta, Adi Agashe and Parth Detroja

The Age of Cryptocurrency (2015) by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey

 

We hope you enjoy the show.

 

Producer for iHeart Media: Noel Brown

Editor: Sam Moult

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