Other Crypto assets: first, second and third generation
There are currently more than 13,000 crypto assets (commonly referred to as “Altcoins”) that have different characteristics beyond those offered by Bitcoin. Although these “Altcoins”, like Bitcoin, do not meet the three fundamental characteristics to be considered legal tender, they offer other functionalities that may be interesting from a technological and business point of view.
In 2015, another blockchain emerged, Ethereum, which introduced a feature that Bitcoin did not offer: “smart contracts”. While Bitcoin was designed solely to record transactions, Ethereum allowed smart contracts to be stored and executed. Ethereum’s native token for using the Blockchain is Ether. Subsequently, other blockchains emerged, such as Algorand and Solana, which offered technical improvements in areas such as privacy, scalability, and energy efficiency.
Smart contracts are computer programmes stored on a blockchain that execute automatically when predefined conditions are met. Their usefulness lies, for example, in the possibility of automating the execution of an agreement without the involvement of an intermediary.