Digital currencies and platforms are innovations which have continued to impact financial markets. Recent stats show an increasing number of people in South Africa getting involved in cryptocurrencies. While the frenzy and publicity has centred around the Bitcoin, there are a number of digital currencies and platforms currently existing. Here are some of them.

Ven

Ven is a global digital currency traded in international financial markets. The value of Ven is determined by the financial markets in a weighted basket of currencies and commodities trading at floating exchange rates. A cryptographic algorithm determines the value of Ven based on high frequency financial markets information.

Ethereum

Ethereum is similar to Bitcoin in the sense that it’s a public, peer to peer network or blockchain with its own digital currency called Ether. Verified customers from supported countries can add Ethereum wallet to what is called a Luno account. You will then be able to buy, sell, store, send and receive Ethereum. Just like normal money, you can earn it by providing goods or services, and asking people to pay you in Ether. This is often a cheaper and easier alternative to other payment methods

Chinacoin

Chinacoin is a litecoin based digital currency that uses the scrypt password based key derivation function. At the moment, it’s generated in 60 second blocks with about 88 coins per block.

Primecoin

Primecoin is an innovative cryptocurrency which is secured by cryptography and issued through a decentralized mining market. Primecoin is designed to sustain a prosperous mining market and high level of security, while maintaining good scarcity property like gold. Primecoin also processes payment transactions 10x faster than bitcoin network.

Peercoin

Peercoin, also known as PPCoin or PPC, is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency utilizing both proof-of-stake and proof-of-work systems. Peercoin seeks to be the most secure cryptocoin at the lowest cost, rewarding all users for strengthening the network by giving them a 1% annual PPC return when minting.

Dogecoin

Dogecoin is a fun, new and rapidly growing form of digital currency. Dogecoin is used with a wallet on your computer, your smartphone, or a website. You can use it to buy goods and services, or trade it for other currencies (both other cryptocurrencies or traditional currency like US dollars).

Dash

Dash is an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. You can use Dash to make instant, private payments online or in store using a secure open source platform hosted by thousands of users around the world.

Litecoin

Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world. Litecoin is an open source, global payment network that is fully decentralized without any central authorities. Litecoin features faster transaction confirmation times and improved storage efficiency than the leading math-based currency. With substantial industry support, trade volume and liquidity, Litecoin is a proven medium of commerce complementary to Bitcoin.

Ripple

Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange and remittance network. Ripple connects banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges and corporates via RippleNet to provide one frictionless experience to send money globally.

The cryptocurrencies listed above point to a rapidly expanding business segment.