Cryptocurrencies that appeared before 2013

It would be interesting to analyze which coins appeared on the cryptocurrency market after January 3, 2009 (the Bitcoin network deployment date) and what fate befell them. Are there successful projects among them? Will we find those which have not passed the test of time and left the race? Let’s make a short retrospective journey into the history of crypto.

If you look at the list of cryptocurrencies that entered the market between 2009 and 2012, only six new cryptocurrencies were launched after Bitcoin: Namecoin, Litecoin, Devcoin, Peercoin, Terracoin, and Freicoin. 

Three coins from this list: Feathercoin, Novacoin, and Mincoin, entered the market at the beginning of 2013, so they were not included in our review.

It should be noted that it was much more difficult for pioneer cryptocurrencies in those days than for new crypto assets now because the market was emerging. Yep, there was practically no market before 2013!

Bitcoin, whose Proof-of-Work network was launched by Satoshi Nakamoto in January 2009, became a trendsetter. All subsequent coins also deployed their own PoW blockchains, hoping to win back some market from Bitcoin.

In those days, the media did not yet write about cryptocurrencies. They were not scolded daily on channels like Bloomberg and CNBC, so the audience consisted of a few geeks, IT people, and cypherpunks. There were also few web resources then, so crypto enthusiasts spent time on GitHub and communicated mainly on the BitcoinTalk forum that appeared at the end of 2009.

This is a Bitcoin fork that appeared on October 13, 2011. The second altcoin in the history of cryptocurrencies, called "digital silver," as opposed to bitcoin that had the status "digital gold." Litecoin is currently ranked #14 on Coinmarketcap by market cap of over $6.3B. Daily trading volumes consistently exceed $500M. This crypto asset is present on almost all exchanges and is in the portfolios of many old-time retail investors. The project is quite technologically advanced – the network, wallets, and services are constantly updated, and mining in pools is also relevant. Litecoin is one of the few coins that has maintained its popularity since 2011 and is the most successful project that can be put on par with Bitcoin. Unfortunately, this cannot be said about all the coins of that time.

This coin is the first altcoin and the first fork of Bitcoin, which appeared on September 16, 2009 – 9.5 months after the first cryptocurrency. This asset aspired to become "second after God," but it did not succeed in overshadowing Bitcoin. One of the developers of this coin is Aaron Swartz, an American programmer known for creating RSS, Creative Commons, Demand Progress, and Reddit. He advocated the free dissemination of information and free internet, which caused conflicts with law enforcement agencies. In the struggle for these ideals with the US judiciary, he died in January 2013. The smallest piece of Namecoin, dubbed swartz, was named after him.

Namecoin occupies a modest 580th place in the Coinmarketcap rating with a market cap of $21 million and is traded on four exchanges. The project is still alive but isn't kicking that much.

This altcoin appeared in 2012 and used a hybrid of PoW and PoS algorithms. The coin's website states that the Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm (to which Ethereum recently migrated from PoW) was invented by developers Sunny King and Scott Nadal and was first (!) implemented in Peercoin.

The asset is ranked 739 by market capitalization on Coinmarketcap and is traded in currency pairs on six different exchanges. Judging by the updated design of the project website and activity on social networks, Peercoin continues to expand a group of enthusiasts and retains a certain community of fans.

The remaining three coins from the list fell into the category of losers. Devcoin, which entered the market in 2011 and positioned itself as the "third altcoin in the world," is now a dead project. Terracoin, which appeared on October 26, 2012, and Freicoin (2012) are not doing any better. They have low capitalization and trading volumes, lag behind in the ratings, and are listed on one of the exchanges. These projects could not stand the competition and did not find a way to successfully use the early market entry factor to create a significant group of interested holders and miners around them.

As you can see, seven assets appeared on the cryptocurrency market by 2013 but only two became popular – Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC). They managed to achieve success thanks to the presence of successful and large development teams, the constant improvement and updating of software and services, as well as the promotion of the concept of "decentralized money" on the Proof-of-Work algorithm, which is considered the most conducive to decentralization. The analogy between "digital gold" and "digital silver" also worked positively. Bitcoin and Litecoin have been popular and recognizable cryptocurrencies in the market for all these years. That is, professional marketing had its hand in this as well. New projects now have someone to look up to, who to imitate, and who to take an example from.