One could be overwhelmed by the number of alternate cryptocurrencies currently circulating fueled by the skyrocketing price of Bitcoin. The original intention of these posts was to each coin individually and I may continue that in future posts; however, so many are similar in nature or just clones of the two dominant coins that they do not need a post to themselves.
Feathercoin
To give a quick overview, these coins are usually classified by the hashing algorithm they use, SHA256 (Bitcoin) or Scrypt (Litecoin). The type of equipment used for mining Bitcoin are GPUs or specialized ASIC hardware. Scrypt based coins are mined using GPUs, although there are some companies developing specialized Scrypt hardware. Most wallet software for these coins are clones of the existing Bitcoin/Litecoin QT wallet software. The mining of these currencies need the use of the same mining software, cgminer or bfgminer as Bitcoin or Litecoin.
Multipool Home Page
Where differences appear is in transaction speed, mined block rewards, and some other minor differences. Most of the material on these currencies advertise the benefits of cryptocurrencies in general instead of focusing in on what sets them apart. Altcoin developers would do well to push new ideas and innovations into their projects instead of rehashing (pun intended) Bitcoin or Litecoin with a different name and logo. If anyone would like to point me toward an altcoin you find innovative, I would love to take a look instead of sorting through installation software for an altcoin that still has Bitcoin or Litecoin in the titlebar, help menu, etc.
With that said, there are pools that mine based on the current value reward in proportion to mining Litecoin or Bitcoin and will switch to mining a coin that will give a potentially better return on investment of equipment and power costs. Sites like Multipool.us, that I have used for several days, make it easy to mine a variety of coins or choose one if you like. The pool will switch as their system reevaluates the current price and block difficulty of each coin. This helps someone like myself, interested in mining but not necessarily wanting to put myself at risk of a junk altcoin that is a scam or worse. These coins can then be migrated to an exchange like Cryptsy for a currency that I am more confident in long-term and miners are still able to help the legitimate altcoins off the ground.
Cryptsy Home Page
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