Solstice Pay is a social payments app. It allows users to exchange payments conveniently with family and friends, and it has proven to work across all mobile and desktop platforms. There are now initial markets available.

Solstice offers Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin, Elrond, ChainLink, Uniswap, Polkadot, Yearn Finance, and Injective. These are all based on collaborator networks and community interests. But what about Solstice altcoins?

What Is an Altcoin?

Before we can ask about Solstice altcoins, it helps to know what an altcoin is. If you are new to the world of crypto, it can be confusing to hear the term. This is largely due to the fact that Bitcoin, the innovator, became the unquestioned top dog.

That has left a lot of other coins behind them. These are the alt coins in question. They have been created and added by the thousands in the years since the creation of Bitcoin. This is in reference to any other type of coin besides Bitcoin. Despite its high price and popularity, Ethereum is considered to be an altcoin.

As of February 2022, there are more than 17,000 different types of cryptocurrencies on the market. Bitcoin remains the unquestioned leader, taking up almost half of all the market cap in the cryptocurrency market to date, with Ethereum taking up another quarter. That leaves roughly 40% available to the remaining altcoins.

What Are the Top 3 Altcoins?

Determining the best altcoins can vary depending on your outlook. The smart contract blockchains like Solana and Ethereum are powering these altcoins, and there are new apps that are being created each and every day, particularly through Web3.

Web3 is any application that intends to integrate blockchain into their product. So, Coinbase would be a Web2 exchange that operates because of the goals of the company. Uniswap, on the other hand, is a Web3 exchange protocol operating entirely on-chain.

As the modern cryptocurrency market continues to expand, there are products that have cut into the market cap dominance that Bitcoin has displayed. This leads to some of the top altcoins being worth your consideration.

Ethereum (ETH)

Without a doubt, the biggest altcoin in the space is Ethereum, and it is getting hard to imagine a cryptocurrency market without Ethereum. It was released back in 2015, and the vast majority of cryptocurrencies out there have been created using Ethereum smart contracts.

Smart contracts are funny in that they don’t have to really be either. It is basically a simple term for a piece of code that is running on their blockchain.

There is one main difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a ledger, whereas Ethereum is the ledger plus a computer. Adding a computer into the blockchain means that you can create blockchain-based applications, things such as NFTs, new tokens, exchanges, lending markets, and so much more.

Space on the Ethereum computer is limited to make sure that all of the miners are able to keep a full record without the need to buy their own personal data center. This is what helps to keep the blockchain secure and decentralized.

On top of that, the security of Ethereum is very highly valued in the market, which is why Ethereum is allowed to charge such high fees. The fees are based on supply and demand within the space available on the blockchain. High fees don’t signal weakness but a lot of demand instead. This has all led to retail traders being priced out of Ethereum.

Ethereum is considered to be the blockchain foundation and home to the most blockchain activity, mostly because of its superior security. The network is powered by its native asset, Ether, which is a reflection of the demand for the blockchain as a whole.

Chainlink (LINK)

There is value provided by Chainlik through real-work data to all the smart contracts not only on Ethereum, but other blockchains. This has the potential to result in thousands, maybe even millions, of new blockchain applications that come from using Chainlink’s data.

Chainlink is known as a decentralized oracle network. The oracle term is a fancy one that means a source of trusted information. Chainlink allows a lot of different entities to give an answer to a single question, returning the answers provided by the majority.

For legacy applications like real estate or insurance funding, there are serious benefits to on-chain execution. Right now, insurance is slow and manual, but the payouts could become automated using smart contracts.

On-chain exchanges could also benefit from having reputable pricing information for certain off-chain assets. This could allow users to change between crypto and fiat using their wallet address as their identity.

Sushi (SUSHI)

This is a blockchain-based exchange, similar to Uniswap. Funny enough, it began by copying and pasting the entire codebase of Uniswap. Sushi has since launched its own suite of DeFi applications and products such as farming, staking, and lending—Uniswap does not.

The story is also a unique one, with the original creator leaving with no trace and taking millions with them. But the community banded together and managed to turn it into a protocol that has more than $2 billion in smart contracts.

That said, the core team of Sushi is under SEC investigation, which presents a serious risk. But because of Ethereum’s decentralization, the SEC can’t stop its exchange protocols from running.

Conclusion

Bitcoin has been the biggest name in crypto for a long time, and rightfully so. This leaves all the others, known as altcoins, to fight for the remaining market cap. There are more than a few successful altcoin options out there, it just depends on what you are looking for.

Getting involved in altcoins, especially early on, can lead to potentially huge profits. The real challenge is determining which altcoin will become a major player and which ones will simply be left by the wayside.