Bitcoin Cash is a fork of Bitcoin that increased the block size to enable more transactions per second and lower fees. It emerged from the 2017 scaling debate and positions itself as the original vision of Bitcoin as peer-to-peer electronic cash.
Dogecoin started as a joke cryptocurrency based on the popular Doge meme. Despite its comedic origins, it became one of the most widely-held cryptocurrencies in the world, driven largely by community enthusiasm and Elon Musk's social media activity.
XRP is the native asset of the XRP Ledger, designed for fast, low-cost international payments. Ripple Labs uses XRP to facilitate cross-border transactions for banks and financial institutions. It has been at the centre of a landmark SEC lawsuit.
Litecoin is one of the earliest Bitcoin forks, created by former Google engineer Charlie Lee. It processes transactions 4x faster than Bitcoin and uses the Scrypt hashing algorithm. Often called digital silver to Bitcoin's digital gold, it has one of the longest track records in crypto.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable value, typically pegged to the US dollar. They exist in three main types: fiat-backed (USDT, USDC), crypto-backed (DAI), and algorithmic — the latter having a catastrophic track record including the $40B Terra collapse.
The Lightning Network is a Layer 2 payment protocol built on top of Bitcoin. It enables near-instant, near-free Bitcoin transactions by creating off-chain payment channels between parties. Only the opening and closing of channels are recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain.