What are altcoins used for?

Many altcoins are used within their respective blockchains to accomplish something, such as ether, which is used in Ethereum to pay transaction fees. Some developers have created forks of Bitcoin and re-emerged as an attempt to compete with Bitcoin as a payment method, such as Bitcoin Cash .

Is bitcoin an altcoin?

Back then, anything but Bitcoin (BTC) was considered an altcoin. Today the world of crypto assets is much broader. There is a wide variety of coins and tokens with use cases that go well beyond a medium of exchange, meaning they aren’t necessarily Bitcoin competitors.

How to invest in altcoins?

If you hold altcoins that you wish to spend, then you would need to find a merchant that accepts that particular coin. You can also choose to invest in altcoins, but like all cryptocurrencies, altcoins are very risky investments. Their prices can be quite volatile.

Are altcoins a fork?

Altcoins belong to the blockchains they were explicitly designed for. Many are forks—a splitting of a blockchain that is not compatible with the original chain—from Bitcoin and Ethereum. These forks generally have more than one reason for occurring. Most of the time, a group of developers disagree with others and leave to make their own coin.

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