This article has been translated from English to Gen Z Slang.
Altcoins are like the trendy lil' cousins of bitcoin. 😎 Many of them are just remix versions—a.k.a. "forks"—of big bro bitcoin.
“Altcoin” is a mash-up: “alt”, short for alternative, and “coin”, which is basically currency but make it crypto. 🔥
This term stems from the vibe that bitcoin is the OG crypto, and all the other ones are its hype squad of “alternative” coins. 📈
Together, they’re the underdog cryptos that bring some spicy competition to bitcoin, Mr. Original Crypto. 💰
Lotta altcoins have popped up like dandelions, but let’s keep it real—bitcoin is still the king of the crypto jungle. 👑
People toss around “altcoin” for practically any digi-assets that could also be dubbed “tokens” instead of full-on coins. 🤓
The crowd faves? Those ERC-20 tokens rocking and rolling on the Ethereum blockchain. 👾
Since the drop of Bitcoin in ’08, over 2,000 alternative cryptos have been unleashed into the wild. 🚀
A bunch of these altcoins came to life as tweaked clones of Bitcoin through what’s called a Hard Fork. Even though they share some vibes, every altcoin's gotta unique twist on things. 🌈