Alternative types of cryptocurrency

Bitcoin mining began as a profitable diversion for computer enthusiasts that made use of spare computing cycles on their processors. As the use of expensive, noisy, power-hungry mining systems has grown to an industrial scale, the ability to make even a minimal profit with a homemade bitcoin mining system has disappeared.

This is one reason behind the development of numerous cryptocurrencies as alternatives to bitcoin, which are commonly referred to as altcoins. Some altcoins are designed to make it more difficult and more expensive to design an ASIC to solve the challenge required to mine the coin. Some are designed to avoid the compute-intensive proof of work that forms the basis of bitcoin. By avoiding intentionally compute-intensive operations, these coins substantially reduce the amount of electrical energy required to mine and transact with the coin.

For any cryptocurrency to become widely accepted and used, new users must be confident...