Bitcoin vs. Other Cryptocurrencies: Understanding Your Options

So after learning what crypto actually is, you're probably staring at CoinMarketCap thinking, "What the hell are all these different coins?" Trust me, I felt the same way. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and something called Dogecoin that started as a meme—it's like walking into a candy store with 10,000 different options. The good news? You don't need to understand all of them. Most are garbage anyway. Let me break down the ones that actually matter and how to tell the difference. Bitcoin: The OG Digital Gold Bitcoin was first created in 2009 by a mysterious person called Satoshi Nakamoto (still nobody knows who that actually is). Think of Bitcoin as digital gold—people buy it to store value, not necessarily to spend on coffee. Here's what makes Bitcoin special: Only 21 million will ever exist —that's it. No more can be created, which is why people call it "digital scarcity." About 19.7 million are already out there, and the rest get harder to mine...