Top 25 Cryptocurrencies By Market Cap (Archive)

[Lucian Armasu]

Here are the 25 cryptocurrencies with the biggest market capitalization. Many have similarities, but also have unique features and technologies.

Top 25 Cryptocurrencies By Market Cap : Read more

 

[abryant]

Archived comments are found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3511248/top-cryptocurrencies-market-cap.html

 

[10tacle]

My opinion only, but I think Tom's Hardware needs an entirely separate page dedicated to mining. I say that because there is a toxic environment between we PC enthusiasts and miners who are ruining our upgrade potential with their GPU demands. We don't want to hear about nor care about cryptocurrency mining, and many hope it crashes altogether. I've been building PCs since 1998 and have never seen such difficulty getting a GPU without extremely overpaying for it. Even the rush on GPUs in 2010-2011 doesn't come close to this.

 

[hmayle]

@10TACLE

well said I couldn't agree more....

 

[10tacle]

^^Thanks

And another thing about cryptocurrency: it increases the boldness of hackers and ransomeware as well as general criminal activity because it is effectively untraceable. Recently the City of Atlanta Georgia's city computers were hacked into exposing hundreds of thousands of citizen's personal data. Everything from someone paying a parking ticket online to paying property taxes. The hackers demanded to be paid in Bitcoin.

And it's still not over: https://gizmodo.com/the-city-of-atlanta-is-still-locked-out-files-over-a-we-1824242001

Quote: "In any case, ransomware attacks are rapidly expanding, and one of the reasons the FBI discourages paying up is that it might encourage attackers to hit more vulnerable systems in the future. According to NPR, the FBI received 2,673 reports of such attacks in 2016, and over 3,000 last year."

I'd love to see the stats on how many of those attacks demanded payment in cryptocurrency.

 

[pensive69]

i'm thinking that no democratic government would or will allow unrestricted digital currency to be owned or traded in their banking systems and by their citizens.
the key is that they are difificult or impossible to tax.
simply stated that is the problem first on their agendas.
whether they are a refuge for illegal activity and consume natural resources out of the norm or screwing with the entire world order are other lower tier issues.

 

[10tacle]

In the US the IRS is already trying to figure out how to legally subpoena accounts tied to Bitcoin and Ethereum and trace back to the owner for an audit. It's only a matter of time before governments start cracking down on cryptocurrency. Some nations are already taking steps to ban transactions with it altogether. A step in the right direction IMO and I'm no big fan of big nanny state government.

Would that prevent trading cryptocurrency? No, not anymore than banning illegal drugs keeps people from getting them. However, it's only a matter of time before the banks feel the pressure from a non-backed decentralized currency. And that's exactly when big banks will use their political clout and power to pressure governments to ban it. It's not a matter of if; it's just a matter of when.

 

[TJ Hooker]

My opinion only, but I think Tom's Hardware needs an entirely separate page dedicated to mining. I say that because there is a toxic environment between we PC enthusiasts and miners who are ruining our upgrade potential with their GPU demands. We don't want to hear about nor care about cryptocurrency mining, and many hope it crashes altogether.

If it doesn't interest you, don't click on the article. I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't care about articles that deal with tech vis-a-vis american politics, but nobody's asking Tom's to post those articles on a different page/site.

 

[10tacle]

If it doesn't interest you, don't click on the article. I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't care about articles that deal with tech vis-a-vis american politics, but nobody's asking Tom's to post those articles on a different page/site.

Oh absolutely. A fair point and taken. Maybe we should have a TH poll and see what the community thinks about Tom's posting stories about mining. But political related articles don't revolve around the root cause of why GPUs are outrageously priced right now. Again it's only my opinion, but acknowledging mining just further hurts the enthusiast community. I sure don't see any of those articles on Guru3D. Not even Anandtech is touching that hot potato. That's all I'm saying.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Tom's isn't strictly a gaming site. It's a tech site with a focus on PCs/PC components. GPU mining (and be extension cryptocurrencies) would seem to fall into that category, making it a perfectly logical topic for Tom's to cover, and one that I'm sure plenty of people are interested in. Even if Tom's coverage of crypto(mining) does make any noticeable difference on GPU availability (I'm skeptical), I don't see why that should mean they shouldn't cover it.

Any time a new generation of CPUs/GPUs are released there can be supply shortages, e.g. Coffee Lake being hard to find/overpriced for a while after release. Tom's coverage of Coffee Lake could have in theory increase demand for it, thereby hurting availability. Should Tom's have refrained from talking about it?

 

[10tacle]

You are completely missing my argument. Mining and any acknowledgement of it is hurting the PC enthusiast community. In fact GPU prices are even pushing long time PC game builders into buying consoles. It's nothing new of course as I stated previously during a rush on hardware in 2010-2011. Does them posting articles affect the craze? No, of course not. But it is guilt by association.

And no, I'm not just talking about gaming as I both game and video render. The Coffee Lake shortage argument is an Intel production problem. Miners are not flocking to new CPUs. In fact most use years old CPUs with new GPUs. That's all of course not even taking into consideration that Intel's tick-tock program since Sandy Bridge has made people realize they can skip three or four generations of CPUs before needing an upgrade (like me). So that's not a good example.

With all that said, again, this is just my opinion as a Tom's Hardware member since 1999 (in 2008 I had to create a new account). I have extreme animosity towards people or a movement taking away from the enjoyment of upgrading and building a new rig. I'm just glad I saw this train wreck coming last year and bought a 1080 Ti when it was still retail priced. Check out NewEgg. They are going for $1,100+ now.