[DRU]

This might help some of you.

PoW = Proof of Work - Uses expensive hardware and lots of energy to "mine" crypto. It's a bunch of computers trying to guess an extremely complicated string of characters. The first one to guess wins the prize of mining that block and receiving the reward.

PoS = Proof of Stake - Instead of the most powerful computers winning the reward, this is more like putting your name in a random drawing. However, the more crypto you have, the more times your name is placed in the hat. When your name is drawn, your computer gets to min the block and win the reward. So it doesn't require such crazy computing power to guess and solves the energy problem.

Bitcoin - First mover and most popular. PoW crypto that introduced using blockchain for this type of use case. Yes, people use it as a currency, but most are holding it as a store of value, and may swap into a different crypto if they're actually going to use it to pay for something. A cap of 21M bitcoin will ever be created, making it a scarce asset.

Litecoin - A copy of Bitcoin that uses the lightning network. It's basically a more efficient, cheaper, much faster version of Bitcoin. Often called the Silver to Bitcoin's Gold. You may find more people using this for actual transactions because it's cheap and fast.

Ethereum - Currently PoW, so has the same drawbacks as other PoW cryptos, but they are currently in the process of moving to PoS. Ethereum is more like Amazon Web Services than it is a currency. It allows you to build software and launch decentralized applications (dapps). This has turned into decentralized finance (defi), which is a very real thing, and it's going no where. Ethereum has problems with scalability, and its fees are very high right now, so it's difficult for people to use these dapps and defi systems unless you're dealing with a lot of money so the fee percentages are small. They are moving to PoS to (hopefully) solve this problem.

Cardano - Created by one of the original founders of Ethereum. Originally designed as PoS and is presented as a "3rd generation" blockchain technology that solves all of the problems of Bitcoin and Ethereum and other PoW blockchains. It will also include the ability to launch dapps/defi with tiny fees compared to Ethereum. It's the most decentralized blockchain available right now, and they just made deals with African governments to build out a national ID and attainment to help verify grades, distribute degrees, etc. all on a blockchain. They are also working on defi apps to bring finance to these unbanked areas of the world, and use it as a prototype for other countries.

Binance - A marketplace for trading crypto, but also has their own blockchain - Binance Smart Chain. They made a way for Ethereum dapps to run on the Binance Smart Chain, and solved the fees problem, so you use these apps on this blockchain a lot more easily than you can Ethereum right now. This is great, but they are a very centralized organization, which would go against what some would say is the overall goal of this whole space...decetralization.

Dogecoin - Created as a joke. It mints billions of coins that will never end, and is designed as an insanely inflationary currency to be funny. If you are riding the wave that's awesome. As a blockchain/currency, it really does not have any use, and the other blockchains are where all of the "real stuff" will be happening.

Polkadot - Created by another one of the original Ethereum founders. Also designed as PoS and aims to make a better platform for developers to build dapps/defi projects on. Much cheaper, and they beat Cardano to the punch by launching their smart contracts (ability to deploy dapps) more quickly than Cardano did.

Uniswap / Pancake Swap - These are decentralized exchanges. Most of you probably use Coinbase, Binance, Crypto.com or some other centralized exchange to purcahse your crypto. Decentralized exchanges do not have this. Instead, holders of crypto can provide liquidation to these exchanges and earn the fees that the centralized exchanges / market makers are earning now. There is just as much volume happening on these exchanges (if not more now) as the centralized exchanges.

Cosmos - With all these crypto currencies, who's going to win? Some would say nobody. They are all going to exist alongside each other. To that end, Cosmos aims to be "the internet of blockchains", connecting all the different networks together so they can communicate with each other.

There are many others, of course, some striving to solve some problem, and others to pump and dump and have fun.

Open DAO is an interesting one that is building a defi network for real world assets. Real estate, vehicles, assets of all kinds are tokenized to prove ownership on the blockchain. These assets can be leveraged to borrow cash out of the defi liquidation, and that interest gets paid back to the people providing the liquidation, of course.

Then you have things like LonelyFans. They are working with OnlyFans to models to provide free membership to LOF token holders, and are aiming to turn it into a NFT-type currency system for the models and their subscribers. When you send a "kiss" or a "heart" to a model, that is your tip. Those emojis could be sold on the exchanges for fiat currency if wanted, or traded directly. Celeb level models that once owned a particular emoji would give that emoji more value. It has prominence, proved by the blockchain.

ALL SORTS OF STUFF GOING ON IN THIS SPACE!!!