7 Types of Cryptocurrencies You Must Know About

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Tokens and digital currencies are of many forms. Bitcoin may have been the first publicly usable cryptocurrency. But it is by no means the only one, and numerous alternatives exist. At least four categories of cryptocurrency exist, distinguished by their respective formulations, code designs, applications, and use cases.

Here are the details, such as how cryptocurrencies are distinguished from one another, how they are used, and the numerous types of each kind.

1) Utility Tokens:

While utility tokens may conjure images of coupons or vouchers, they are just digital units reflecting value on the blockchain. It means, these tokens facilitate their holders the access to a product or service provided by the issuers of the tokens. An individual who purchases a token and subsequently exchanges it for the product or service’s set access value has gained access. Token holders are granted access to goods or services equal to their token’s worth but not ownership of those goods or services. For instance, they will be given free or reduced-price access to the product or service if they possess the tokens.

2) Security Tokens:

These digital currencies have been securitized, meaning that their value comes from another asset permitted to be traded as security under applicable financial law. For this reason, security tokens are used in the securitized tokenization of assets such as equities, bonds, real estate, and other fiat currencies. Therefore, financial regulators must oversee and manage the issuance, trading, tokenization, backing, and exchange of all transactions to safeguard users’ capital. As such, the rule of law is in place to protect users’ money and investments while also making creators answerable for their actions. Security tokens are digital representations of ownership interests in a company or other entity, with associated voting and dividend rights. Profits made by issuers or management are distributed to owners or holders.

3) Payment Tokens:

Payment tokens are digital assets used to transact business on decentralized marketplaces without a central bank or other intermediaries. Both security and utility tokens fit under this category. But it is needed to not bear the misunderstanding that these tokens can be treated as securities. Some utility tokens can be used as currency, and some can’t. As a result, they have not considered asset securities.

4) Exchange Tokens:

Although exchange tokens have use beyond the scope of the underlying exchange platform, we found that they were most useful when used to buy and sell other tokens on the platform or to pay for the gas utilities utilized by the platform. Centralized exchanges can issue them with or without their decentralized platforms or blockchains. However, it is better to rely on bitcoin and blockchain infused economy with token you want to purchase. They can be used to pay for gas or fees at a discount, boost liquidity, offer free discounts, manage blockchains (in exchange for voting rights or access to a specific cryptocurrency exchange’s services), and so on. The reason exchanges employ them is to entice people to take part in initiatives and increase liquidity.

5) Non-Fungible Tokens:

Tokens representing non-fungible assets are digital certificates of ownership that can only be used to access that specific asset and cannot be exchanged for anything else. As the utilization of these tokens are concerned, utilizing these tokens you can be paid for your artwork from a platform or user. Also, you can also have a partial ownership of a property by paying these tokens.

6) DeFi Tokens:

To facilitate worldwide transactions via peer-to-peer means and access to global markets, decentralized finance or dApps in short are formed. These dApps are created on blockchain bases. You can easily access dApps with the help of internet connectivity. Anyone with an internet connection can use these DeFi applications. In the DeFi ecosystem, each app has a token that can be used within its token economy. As a sort of programmable money, these tokens allow developers to incorporate custom logic into financial transactions.

Conclusion

At the moment, dozens of different cryptocurrencies are available, and many more are starting up daily. There are some differentiations between them. However, they all operate on the same fundamental principle of a consensus-based, decentralized, and irreversible ledger to facilitate the digital transfer of value between parties.

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