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This is the eighth part of a series that will cover all the first 50 Cryptocurrencies and will provide an introduction on what the currency does, because it is important and on all the important highlights. The goal of the Top 50 series is to provide readers with a basic understanding of each coin that simplifies a thorough technical understanding in just a few easy-to-understand points. The coin classification changes from day to day and may not always reflect the order in this article.
36 of 50 – Chainlink (LINK)
Chainlink is a unique project that is facing the Oracle problem. An Oracle is a service that is able to import data from outside a data structure into the structure. This is particularly applicable in blockchain because smart contracts can only "push" data, they can not "pull" them. This means that an intelligent contract can not require data to be sent from an external source.
Chainlink attempts to solve this problem by creating a system of oracles and nodes that can function in a decentralized environment. Currently Chainlink works only with Ethereum but expects to expand. Chainlink uses an on-chain and off-chain configuration, where off-line nodes work with external APIs and other sources of information. These nodes refer to multiple sources to reduce the likelihood of incorrect data and thus push the data into chains in smart contracts. The nodes are compensated with LINK tokens.
37 of 50 – Paxos Standard Token (PAX)
PAX is a stablecoin developed by Paxos Trust. Paxos Trust has managed a cryptocurrency exchange since 2014 and has recently pivoted to provide a payment settlement platform using the Paxos standard token.
PAX is a stablecoin supported by a guarantee similar to Tether. Each PAX is supported 1: 1 in US dollars. PAX is regularly verified on a financial level and has been verified on a security level. PAX is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum Blockchain.
38 of 50 – Bitcoin Diamond (BCD)
BCD was a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain in November 2017. The main differences between Bitcoin Diamond and Bitcoin is that BCD does not use the SHA-256 hashing algorithm and instead uses X13 instead. X13 is an ASIC-resistant algorithm and the goal is to further promote mining decentralization. BCD also has a block size of 8 MB, which is much larger than the block size of Bitcoin 1 MB (2 MB with Segwit).
BCD is a minor fork of Bitcoin and has not seen adoption or increased use.
39 of 50 – Bytecoin (BCN)
Bytecoin is a private currency that allows users to send anonymous transactions similar to Monero (XMR), ZCash (ZCASH) or DASH (DASH). Monero is a fork of Bytecoin along with many other resources. Bytecoin has also influenced the development of Electroneum (ETN).
Bytecoin is an initial project that has lost the traction and attention of developers, but has recently gained traction and attention. It still represents a risky bet against much more established and used privacy cryptographers.
40 of 50 – Nano (NANO)
NANO is the payment cryptocurrency that uses a direct acyclic graphic rather than a blockchain. Provides almost instantaneous transactions that do not require a transaction fee. Although it offers free transactions, it does not incentive any miner or validator with a reward. As such, the NANO network relies on cryptocurrency users to maintain nodes equal to portfolios.
NANO suffered a high-profile attack through the Bitgrail exchange, which damaged trust in the currency as the exchange was the main supplier of the NANO cryptocurrency. NANO uses the test of the delegated game for its consent.
