Summary
In this chapter, readers have been introduced to the overall cryptocurrency landscape. A few altcoins have been discussed in detail, especially Zcash and Namecoin. Cryptocurrencies are a very active area for research, especially around scalability, privacy, and security aspects. Some research has also been conducted in order to invent new difficulty retargeting algorithms in order to thwart the threat of centralization in cryptocurrencies. Further research can be carried out in the areas of privacy and specially scalability. Readers now should be able to appreciate the concept of altcoins and various motivations behind them. Some practical aspects, such as mining and starting a new currency project, have also been discussed, which hopefully will give readers a strong foundation and enable them to further explore these areas. Altcoins are a fascinating field of research and open a lot of possibilities for a decentralized future.