Comparison Study of the Top 5 Leading Cryptocurrencies based on

General Consensus Protocol: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, XRP and

Bitcoin Cash

MOHAMMED ALAHMAD1*, ADEL ALFOUDERI1, AHMAD ALONAIZI1,

MESHAL ALDHAMEN2

1Computer Department, College of Basic Education, PAAET, KUWAIT

2Computer Department, Higher Institute of Telecommunication and Navigation, PAAET, KUWAIT

*Corresponding Author

Abstract: - Bitcoin has had a tremendous impact on the monetary system around the globe today since its

launch in 2009 by its founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. Since then, over three thousand cryptocurrencies have risen

to compete with traditional fiat currencies. While many experts believe that cryptocurrencies are more

comparable to assets like gold, few others believe that cryptocurrencies could replace traditional fiat currencies

as a medium of payment, just as Satoshi envisioned when he published the Bitcoin protocol. As such, there

exist few papers in the literature discussing the potential for Bitcoin to become a major payment currency.

Nevertheless, there is a lack of research in evaluating whether Bitcoin is set to dominate the market as a

payment currency, or whether another cryptocurrency would take the lead. In addition, the issue of strict

regulation capping the potential of cryptocurrencies has been well-studied in the literature and, hence, this

paper tries to evaluate the top five leading cryptocurrencies (based on their market cap value as of July 2020)

from a different perspective. Particularly, the evaluation is based on five benchmark evaluation factors: Speed,

Activity, Decentralization, Users, and Community. For this preliminary study, we assign all these benchmarks

an equal weight. Our conclusion shows that Ethereum could be more suitable as a future payment currency

rather than Bitcoin.

Key-Words: - Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Tether, Bitcoin Cash, cryptocurrency, blockchain, transaction per

second (TPS)

Received: May 21, 2022. Revised: January 11, 2023. Accepted: February 15, 2023. Published: April 3, 2023.

1 Introduction

In 2009, the rise of the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin,

which operated at the top of blockchain-

decentralized public ledger technology (DLT),

marked the beginning of a new monetary era.

Unlike the traditional centralised monetary system

that is tightly controlled by sovereign central banks,

Blockchain’s DLT network is a peer-to-peer

network that eliminates the third party, banks, from

being the median of exchange between the two end

parties, leading to eventually ending the domination

of the sovereign central banks.

Over the years, cryptocurrencies, led by Bitcoin,

gradually got the attention of the public including

developers, investors, and authorities. As a novel

disruptive monetary system, cryptocurrencies are

getting a collective momentum contending fiat

currencies, [1]. At the same time, these

cryptocurrencies are facing a plethora of challenges

preventing them from flourishing to their true

potential as major payment currencies as envisioned

by the Bitcoin founder, S. Nakamoto, [2]. Next, we

briefly list some of the major challenges that

cryptocurrencies are facing, followed by our

approach to identify which of the cryptocurrencies

is set to be the payment currency of the future.

1.1 Technical Challenges

The modern payment system went through multiple

generations to become reliable, secure, and fast. On

the other hand, cryptocurrencies are still in their

infancy. Among the main milestones in the

cryptocurrencies' short life are the invention of:

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano cryptocurrencies.

Each invention came with improvements to the

scalability factor, which is a weak point that

cryptocurrencies have suffered since their early

days. Scalability means the number of Transaction

Per Second (TPS) that a cryptocurrency can process.

A booming cryptocurrency should balance between

the three triad blockchain trilemma. But

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Mohammed Alahmad, Adel Alfouderi,

Ahmad Alonaizi, Meshal Aldhamen

E-ISSN: 2415-1521

Volume 11, 2023

unfortunately, cryptocurrency designers had to

choose only two out of the three factors from the

blockchain trilemma when designing a new

cryptocurrency. Most of the existing

cryptocurrencies sacrificed scalability and increased

decentralization and security factors. For example,

Bitcoin achieved a decentralization factor by

distributing users’ information and data in multiple

nodes connected to the blockchain networks. Also,

Bitcoin achieved a security factor by implementing

secure cryptographic hash functions well recognized

by the IT security community, such as SHA-3. But

Bitcoin still suffers from a scalability factor due to

its transaction size initially designed by its founder

S. Nakamoto. Since then, cryptocurrency designers

have come up with different designs hoping to

create the new world's dominant currency. Today,

there are over 3000 cryptocurrencies in the market

with different characteristics trying to balance the

blockchain trilemma, [3]. The blockchain trilemma

is presented in Figure 1.

Fig. 1: The blockchain trilemma

1.2 Suspicious Authorities and Lack of Legal

Framework

Scalability is not the only issue preventing Bitcoin

from becoming a major payment currency.

Governments and central banks have their genuine

fears and suspicions leading them to be against or, at

least find genuine difficulties in regulating

cryptocurrencies, [4], [5]. Since its early days,

Bitcoin, and its sibling cryptocurrencies, suffered

from a lack of clear legal frameworks that

accommodate its new monetary model.

Unlike traditional currencies that are issued and

regulated by central banks, cryptocurrencies are

decentralised in nature with no single authority

controlling them. That means depriving central

banks of a valuable utility they use today to control

the economy and tackle its problems, like inflation

for example. In addition, lacking authorities’ control

could enable malicious and criminal entities to

evade their monetary transaction using decentralised

cryptocurrencies, [6].

For that, most central banks have suspicions and

negative views toward the new cryptocurrencies. In

the best cases, cryptocurrencies are contending as

trustworthy alternatives to sovereign currencies in

weak economies. But in most developed countries,

cryptocurrencies are working in a grey legal area,

[7].

Using the blockchain in cryptocurrencies has its

benefits like simplifying the transactions process,

[6], [8]. Therefore, some central banks are

encouraged to issue their sovereign cryptocurrencies

and eliminate private money, like Bitcoin, from the

economy, [9]. Such a move would mean losing the

decentralisation feature of the current

cryptocurrencies and, again, raise the issue of trust

in sovereign cryptocurrencies that are managed by

perhaps untrusted central banks. Still, central banks

themselves are hesitant to advance in this move

fearing that utilising the blockchain would introduce

a direct link between the public and the central bank

without the need for commercial banks in the

middle. Eliminating commercial banks from the

economy would change the way we use, lend, and

borrow money in unexpected ways that might be

destructive to the economy, [6].

1.3 Not Behaving as a Payment Currency

The lack of a legal framework creates a new

dimension of challenges whether directly or

indirectly. Any major currency should fulfill the

requirements of money. These requirements include:

1) Serve as a medium of exchange.

2) Serve as a unit of account.

3) Serve as a storage of value.

Some researchers believe that Bitcoin largely

fails to fulfill these requirements, [8], [10]. Among

the reasons for this failure is being disconnected

from the banking and payment systems, due to the

lack of the legal framework as described earlier,

[10].

[11], thought Bitcoin was behaving as a

speculative asset rather than a major currency. They

think that utilising an instant exchange marketplace

is necessary to aid Bitcoin, or some other

cryptocurrencies, to become a true major currency.

Of course, such access to marketplaces would be

limited due to the lack of legal governing

frameworks.

Other researchers analysed the behaviour of

cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, over the years

and concluded that they are behaving more like an

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Mohammed Alahmad, Adel Alfouderi,

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E-ISSN: 2415-1521

Volume 11, 2023

asset, such as gold, [12], like a speculative

investment, [4], [8], [12], or even like a bubble,

[13]. That is understandable given the volatile

nature of the cryptocurrencies which could give a

good return on the investment. In other words, it is

more rewarding to hold cryptocurrencies for longer

rather than to use them in daily payment

transactions.

An attempt to address these issues can be seen

in a category of cryptocurrencies called stablecoins.

The idea of stablecoin is built around the ability to

fix the price of the cryptocurrency to a fiat currency,

like USD. Therefore, users who are interested in

using cryptocurrencies as a medium of payment are

more attracted to using stablecoins instead of

Bitcoin, [14]. The top stablecoin in terms of capital

value is Tether, and it has the potential to be the

major payment cryptocurrency of the future. A.

Lipton, et. Al analysed this emerging category of

cryptocurrencies with clear detentions and defined

challenges and potential, [15].

1.4 Research Method

The literature is rich in research showing the

limitations of Bitcoin and the challenges it is

currently facing. It sounds inevitable that Bitcoin

would not be the major currency of the future for

day-to-day payment transactions due to its limited

number of coins that cannot accommodate the ever-

growing global economy. Nevertheless, among the

thousands of current cryptocurrencies, there might

be a currency that is fit to be the payment currency

of the future. In this paper, we are not in a position

to propose legal frameworks or monetary policies to

reduce cryptocurrency volatility. Rather, the focus is

only on the technical challenges described earlier.

By developing a technically sound cryptocurrency,

we are one step closer to convincing legislators in

implementing an accommodating legal framework

for cryptocurrencies, [5].

We conducted this preliminary research to

analyse, review, and compare the top five leading

cryptocurrencies based on their market cap value as

of July 2020 to predict which one of them is set to

be the major payment currency of the future. Our

factors of comparison include speed, activity,

decentralization, users, and community. We assign

all these benchmarks an equal weight.

2 An Overview of the Top Five

Leading Cryptocurrencies’

Architectures

Table 1 briefly depicts an elevated comparison of

the top five leading cryptocurrencies studied in this

paper. This comparison provides readers with a first

impression of the top five leading cryptocurrencies

studied in this paper of the future monetary system

around the globe.

2.1 Bitcoin

Bitcoin, [2], is the very first peer-to-peer

decentralized distributed digital electronic cash

cryptocurrency ever created in 2009 by S.

Nakamoto. It allows money transfer directly from

two parties without the interference of a third party

or median financial institution, for ex., a bank.

Bitcoin is operated in a blockchain network. In this

protocol: every Bitcoin (BTC) transaction spent is

validated, recorded, and then added to the ledger in

order based on their arrival time. Validation is

calculated through miners. Bitcoin miners are

dedicated to solving a complex math puzzle to reach

the desired hash value previously produced by the

blockchain network. Proof of Work (PoW) is the

energy nodes consume to solve the math puzzle

initially produced by the blockchain network. The

miner who solves the puzzle first before the other

miners will be rewarded with a block reward.

Sometimes, a mining pool “group of miners” who

shares resources will distribute the reward instead of

a single miner. Then, blockchain miners continue

the transaction validation process, recording and

adding them to a block. That means each block is

composed of multiple transactions. And, of course, a

group of blocks will form a chain of blocks called a

blockchain. The newly added information to the

blockchain is sent to all participants by the

blockchain protocol to update their shared ledger.

On the other hand, when the Bitcoin price increases,

the block reward gets higher and incentivizes

participants to join the network. As a result, the

more miners join the network; the more secure the

network will become since this increase will thwart

attackers from controlling the network and achieve a

51% attack. In addition, more miners joining the

network means more hardware needs to be

purchased to win the fight for block rewards.

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Table 1. An elevated comparison of the top five

cryptocurrencies studies in this paper

2.2 Ethereum

Ethereum, [16], is the first alternative

cryptocurrency created by V. Buterin in 2013.

Ethereum is a decentralized peer-to-peer software

platform that enables smart contracts and

decentralized applications (DApps) to be built at the

top of its blockchain. A smart contract is a self-

computer program that behaves like a legal notice

between two parties when their conditions are met

and agreed upon. Currently, Ethereum uses the PoW

system in its blockchain network. But Proof of

Stake (PoS) is the system that will be used in

Ethereum by late 2020, which enables miners to

mine their next coin based on how many coins this

miner holds (the more coins she/he holds, the more

chance to mine the next new coin). PoS is less

energy consumed compared to PoW. Like Bitcoin,

validation, recording, and adding processes are

identical to Bitcoin. Ether is the native currency

used in the Ethereum blockchain. According to

Ethereum, the source code of Ethereum can be used

to “codify, decentralize, secure and trade just about

anything.” Following the attack on the DAO in

2016, Ethereum was split into Ethereum (ETH) and

Ethereum Classic (ETC). This paper will study and

compare the native currency of Ethereum, ETH.

2.3 Tether

Tether, [17], is the first and most popular digital

currency-defining stablecoins. Stablecoins tend to

reduce and stop the volatility prices of most

cryptocurrencies today. Launched in 2014, Tether

describes itself as "a blockchain-enabled platform

designed to facilitate the use of fiat currencies in a

digital manner”, [17]. Tether is designed by Tether

Limited to reflect the U.S. dollar value and tends to

become the official digital U.S. dollar recognized

globally by governments and individuals. On Jan. 8,

2020, Tether was the fourth-largest cryptocurrency

by market cap, with a total market cap of $4.6

billion and a per-token value of $1.00, [18]. Tether

consists of three stake layers which are depicted in

Figure 2. Here is a review of each layer:

1) The first layer is the Bitcoin blockchain. Tether

transactional ledger is embedded in the Bitcoin

blockchain as metadata via the embedded consensus

system, Omni.

2) The second layer is the Omni Layer protocol.

Omni is a foundational technology that can:

a) Grant (create) and revoke (destroy) digital

tokens represented as metadata embedded in the

Bitcoin blockchain; in this case, fiat-pegged

digital tokens, tethers.

b) Track and report the circulation of tethers via

Omnichest.info (Omni asset ID #31, for example,

represents Tether USD) and Omnicore API.

c) Enable users to transact and store tethers and

other assets/tokens in i:

i. p2p, pseudo-anonymous, cryptographically

secure environment.

ii.opensource, browser-based, encrypted web

wallet: Omni Wallet.

iii. multi-signature and offline cold storage

supporting system.

3) The third layer is Tether Limited, their business

entity primarily responsible for:

a) Accepting fiat deposits and issuing the

corresponding tethers.

b) Sending fiat withdrawals and revoking the

corresponding tethers.

c) Custody of the fiat reserves that back all

tethers in circulation, [18].

d) Publicly reporting Proof of Reserves and other

audit results.

e) Initiating and managing integrations with

existing Bitcoin/blockchain wallets, exchanges,

and merchants.

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f) Operating Tether to a web wallet allowing

users to conveniently send, receive, store, and

convert tethers, [18].

Tether uses Proof of Reserves, (PoR)

configuration is a novel system because it simplifies

proving that the total number of tethers in

circulation (liabilities) are always fully backed by an

equal amount of fiat currency held in reserve

(assets). In tether configuration, each tether USD in

circulation represents one US dollar held in their

reserves (i.e., a one-to-one ratio) which means the

system is fully reserved when the sum of all tether's

inexistence (at any point in time) is exactly equal to

the balance of USD held in their reserve. Since

tethers live on the Bitcoin blockchain, tethers'

probability and accounting at any given time are

trivial. Conversely, the corresponding amount of

USD held in their reserves is proved by publishing

the bank balance and undergoing periodic

professional audits.

Fig. 2: Tether stake layers, [6]

2.4 XRP

XRP is a cryptocurrency that uses Ripple distributed

open-source protocol created initially by Ripple

Labs Inc. U.S.-based technology company by three

designers: David Schwartz, Noah Youngs, and

Arthur Britto. XRP is a unique cryptocurrency that

does not need mining. It is a pre-mined

cryptocurrency before its launch. That means there

is no creation of XRP over time. It is supplied by the

market network based on network guidelines. As a

result, XRP is a fast cryptocurrency that reduces

high power consumption and network latency

precipitated by mining. The Ripple Protocol

consensus algorithm (RPCA) is applied every few

seconds to network nodes. In each round, each

server takes all new transactions called “candidate

set” that was just initiated by the end-user of the

server. Then, each server amalgamates this

candidate set of transactions to its Unique Node List

(UNL) and votes its veracity of all transactions.

Lastly, transactions that receive more “yes” will be

passed onto the next round “must agree more than

%80 of yes votes of network nodes”, where the ones

that receive less than %80 of votes will be either

discarded or added to the candidate set of the next

ledge. All transactions qualified that gain %80 of

votes will be added to the new last-closed ledger.

Ripple's founder team categorized the problems

facing distributed payment systems into three issues:

correctness, agreement, and utility. Correctness

means a distributed system must differentiate

between a correct and fraudulent transaction. In

contrast, the agreement refers to the problem of

maintaining a single global truth in the face of a

decentralized accounting system. And utility is a

slightly more abstract problem, which they

generally define as the “usefulness” of a distributed

payment system, but which, in practice, most often

simplifies the system's latency, [19]. As of Jan. 8,

2020, Ripple had a market cap of $9.2 billion and a

per-token value of $0.21, [20].

2.5 Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a hard fork (updated code of

the original Bitcoin code) by the Bitcoin blockchain

community. The hard fork took place on 1 Aug

2017. The purpose of the hard fork is to increase the

block size to 8 MB instead of the original Bitcoin

size, which is 1 MB. The main idea of this

amendment is to make the BCH blockchain network

more scalable than the Bitcoin blockchain network

and processes more transactions per second. As a

result, BCH consumes less power with less network

latency, which yields low transaction fees. BCH

uses the PoW protocol system, just like Bitcoin.

PoW stamps every new block generated by the

blockchain network. The time needed to calculate a

block is based on the difficulty of mining a

blockchain network. Difficulty mining means that

the blockchain algorithm can keep the block time

constant in case of increasing and decreasing the

number of participating nodes on the blockchain

network. This algorithm is called the Difficulty

Adjustment Algorithm or simply DAA. Adjusting

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mining difficulty occurs every 144 blocks on the

BCH blockchain network.

3 Comparison Between the Top Five

Leading Cryptocurrencies

The top five leading cryptocurrencies must be

compared via numbers to reach a subjective study.

The criteria we will use in this study are based on

the consensus protocol. We chose five main

benchmarks evaluation factors, they are:

1) Speed measured in transactions per second.

2)Activity measured in average transactions per day.

3)Decentralization is measured in the number of

active nodes.

4)Users are measured in the number of active

accounts.

5)Community measured in the number of active

developers.

3.1 Speed (Transaction Per Second)

One of the most important benchmarks is to

measure how many transactions a cryptocurrency

can perform per second. And this benchmark can be

divided into two main branches: claimed and

estimated TPS. This study will focus only on

estimated TPS since it reflects a realistic TPS value

of a cryptocurrency.

Estimated TPS means the actual and practical

number executed by a cryptocurrency per second in

blockchains today. For example, if a certain

cryptocurrency can execute six transactions per 60

minutes, as shown in Eq. (1): TPS = 6 transactions/

60 seconds = 0.1 TPS (1)

Also, this number means this cryptocurrency

can execute one transaction every 10 seconds.

Transaction confirmation is the time it takes a

cryptocurrency to confirm and settle a given

operation. For example, Bitcoin completes seven

transactions per second, but it might take up to one

hour to ensure one operation. In other words, you

might purchase and sell items using Bitcoin, so it

might take up to one hour to confirm your operation.

As a result, transaction time confirmation is

different from the TPS concept. This paper

estimates the TPS of the top five cryptocurrencies,

as illustrated in Table 2 below.

Also, this number means this cryptocurrency

can execute one transaction every 10 seconds.

Transaction confirmation is the time it takes a

cryptocurrency to confirm and settle a given

operation. For example, Bitcoin completes seven

transactions per second, but it might take up to one

hour to ensure one operation. In other words, you

might purchase and sell items using Bitcoin, so it

might take up to one hour to confirm your operation.

As a result, transaction time confirmation is

different from the TPS concept. This paper

estimates the TPS of the top five cryptocurrencies,

as illustrated in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Estimated TPS of the top five leading

cryptocurrencies (July 2020)

BTC

Ether

Tether

XRP

BCH

Estimated

TPS

500

1500

300

Ranking

3.2 Activity (Average Transactions Per Day)

Activity is calculated by how many transactions are

executed per day. And the average daily transactions

reflect how many actions are happening in the

blockchain network. Some blockchain communities

consider activities executed by cryptocurrencies to

be the actual value of blockchains. Table 3 below

depicts the average daily transactions executed by

the top five leading cryptocurrencies studied in this

paper (July 2020).

Table 3. Estimated average transactions per day of

the top five cryptocurrencies (July 2020)

BTC

Ether

Tether

XRP

BCH

Average

Transactio

ns Per

Day

350,0

1,000,0

800,0

802,7

14,0

Ranking

As Table 3. shows, Ether is the winner of achieving

more average daily transactions than others. The

first three winners (Ether, XRP, and Tether)

obtained close numbers between each other where

BTC is less than half the average transactions per

day of the third position (Tether). Lastly, BCH

obtained an extremely low average transaction per

day value.

3.3 Decentralization (Number of Active

Nodes)

Decentralization is distributing users’ information,

data, and authorities equally in multiple nodes

connected to the blockchain networks. This study

measures decentralization on how many active (live)

nodes are connected to a blockchain network. This

will reflect how the authorities, responsibility, and

accountability are distributed among the various

management levels of the blockchain nodes. The

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more nodes connected to a blockchain network, the

more decentralized it is. Table 4 illustrates the

number of connected nodes in the top five leading

cryptocurrency blockchain networks.

Table 4. Numbers of connected nodes of the top five

cryptocurrencies (July 2020)

BTC

Ether

Tether

XRP

BCH

Node

Count

47,00

8,000

1304

Ranking

Table 4 shows the node count in each of the top five

leading cryptocurrencies studied in this paper. BTC

has more nodes connected to its blockchain than the

others because it is the first-ever cryptocurrency

launched on the market, so it earned the enormous

trust of investors. Ether is the second large

blockchain with nodes connected to its blockchain,

with an enormous difference from BTC, which is

39,000 nodes. BCH has the least number among the

lists. Tether uses proof of reserve as its consensus

system. That means every Tether coin issued

corresponds to one U.S. dollar. As a result, the

number of nodes in Tether cryptocurrency is

negligible in Table 4. That will affect Tether’s

decentralization network of becoming more

centralized. XRP is a pre-mined cryptocurrency

before its launch. That means there is no creation of

XRP over time. It is supplied by the market network

based on network guidelines. So, XRP’s node count

is also negligible here.

3.4 Users (Number of Active Accounts)

Active users connected to a blockchain network are

measured in the number of active accounts. Below,

Table 5 shows the active addresses of the top five

leading cryptocurrencies studied in this paper. BTC

achieved first place, having more active lessons than

the others. Ether, Tether, BCH, and XRP

cryptocurrencies reached the rest of the positions.

Table 5. Numbers of active addresses of the top five

cryptocurrencies (July 2020)

BTC

Ethe

Tether

XRP

BCH

Active

Addresse

1,000

,000

520,

000

203,7

6500

72,000

Ranking

As Table 5. shows the more active addresses the

cryptocurrencies blockchain has, the more

decentralized that network is.

3.5 Community (Number of Active

Developers)

The community of each of the top five leading

cryptocurrencies is measured in the number of

active developers. Active developers reflect the

acceptance of a blockchain network by the

community. Consequently, the more active

developers are building their apps at the top of a

blockchain, for example. Bitcoin blockchain is the

more decentralized and secure that network is.

Below, Table 6. depicts the number of active

developers of each of the top five leading

cryptocurrencies studied in this paper.

Table 6 shows that BTC has 10478

decentralized applications (Dapp), and active users,

while Ether has only two thousand Dapp active

users. Tether, XRP, and BCH’s Dapp daily active

users’ evaluation are negligible in Table 6. due to

the specific protocols built into their network.

Table 6. Numbers of active developers of the top

five cryptocurrencies (July 2020)

BTC

Ether

Tether

XRP

BCH

Dapp

Daily

Active

Users

10478

2000

Ranking

4 Discussion and Results

This section discusses the aggregated results from

the subsections tables from the previous main

section. Table 7 shows the final positions of the

comparison of the top five leading cryptocurrencies

based on the sum of numbers in ranking rows of

Table 2, Table 3, Table 4, Table 5, and Table 6.

Firstly, the numbers obtained from the ranking rows

of the tables are summed. Then, the least number

resulting from the summation is inserted in the

compared cryptocurrencies' first position until the

most significant sum number corresponding to the

last position is reached.

Table 7 shows Ether cryptocurrency secured the

first position to become the best of the top five

leading cryptocurrencies in the market today. Where

Bitcoin won the second position, Tether and XRP

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Mohammed Alahmad, Adel Alfouderi,

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E-ISSN: 2415-1521

Volume 11, 2023

were even and won the third position with equal

points (15 each), while BCH deserved the last. The

five benchmark evaluation factors studied and used

in these papers made this comparison study more

subjective since numbers are used to accomplish

that. However, Ether is considered the second

generation of cryptocurrency, which increases the

TPS number of the first Bitcoin generation from 7 to

15 TPS. In other words, the scalability factor is

developed while maintaining the same level of the

other cryptocurrency trilemma, security, and

decentralization.

One of the main reasons Ether’s investors trust

this coin is the increasing number of decentralized

applications that can be built at the top of Ether’s

blockchain network. More precisely, Ether added a

smart contract option to the blockchain industry,

which made the Ether blockchain network more

attractive. These facts increased the number of

transactions performed in the Ether blockchain

network. Which, in turn, raised the number of active

addresses used in Ether’s blockchain network.

Bitcoin came in second position despite its

popularity. TPS factor and not supporting the smart

contract option of Bitcoin cryptocurrency are the

two main reasons that made it behind Ether. But the

Bitcoin blockchain network still has the most

significant number of node counts (47K) and active

addresses (1M) compared to others. More users

connected to the Bitcoin blockchain network means

a more decentralized blockchain network, so Bitcoin

has the largest decentralized network containing the

most significant number of Dapp daily active users

(10K).

Stablecoins like Tether and XRP gained fifteen

points each and secured the third position together.

Tether and XRP are produced due to the market

demand for stable price coins rather than price-

volatile ones like Bitcoin, Ether, and BCH. In

numbers, Tether and XRP have an average daily

transaction of 800K and 802K, respectively. That

means stablecoins cryptocurrencies like Tether and

XRP increased the trust between investors and the

market. But, as investors, the price stability of

stable coins affects the low-profit margin compared

to non-stable coins like Bitcoin since most

stablecoins are tied to either gold or fiat currency.

Tether has the second-best TPS (five hundred)

among other cryptocurrencies on the studied list.

Each Tether-coin is tied to one U.S. dollar fiat

currency. That means the issuance of one Tether

coin represents one fiat U.S. dollar. Along with the

protocols built at the top of the Bitcoin blockchain

network, Tether reached many TPS in the limited,

decentralized blockchain network.

XRP has the highest number of TPS but is not built

at the top of any blockchain network and is a pre-

mined coin. So, in our opinion, XRP is a more

centralized coin, which explains its high TPS. BCH

gained 18 points and deserved the last position of

the top five leading cryptocurrencies studied in this

paper. BCH performs 300 TPS better than BTC and

Ether altogether. BCH used a lightning network as a

second layer added to the Bitcoin original

blockchain network, increasing the size of BCH’s

block to 8 MB. And that’s why BCH’s TPS has

increased tremendously from its original version,

Bitcoin.

The current traditional payment system performs

1700 TPS. If cryptocurrencies want to compete with

the traditional payment system, they must perform

at least 1700 TPS or more. XRP is the nearest value

(1500) TPS from the traditional monetary payment

system. Cryptocurrencies need speed improvements

to replace such a system. On the other hand, people

need a non-volatile stable cryptocurrency that can

gain their trust in daily payment usage. Ether-coin

has these features but lacks TPS. As a result,

researchers are still designing and testing new

cryptocurrencies to produce a cryptocurrency that

balances scalability, security, non-volatility, and

decentralization.

Table 7. Aggregated results from the subsections

tables (Tables 2., 3., 4., 5., and 6.)

BTC

Ether

Tethe

XRP

BCH

Estimated

TPS

500

1500

300

Average

Transactio

ns Per

Day

350,0

1,000,0

800,0

802,7

14,00

Node

Count

47,00

8,000

1304

Active

Addresses

1,000

,000

520,000

203,7

6500

72,00

Dapp

Daily

Active

Users

1047

2000

Number’s

sum of

ranking

Final

positions

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on COMPUTER RESEARCH

DOI: 10.37394/232018.2023.11.3

Mohammed Alahmad, Adel Alfouderi,

Ahmad Alonaizi, Meshal Aldhamen

E-ISSN: 2415-1521

Volume 11, 2023

5 Conclusion and Future Works

This paper evaluated the top five leading

cryptocurrencies today based on five benchmark

evaluation factors: Speed, Activity,

Decentralization, Users, and Community. Despite

Bitcoin being the first cryptocurrency with the

highest market cap, the result of this study placed

Ether cryptocurrency in the first place, where

Bitcoin, Tether, XRP, and BCH cryptocurrencies

came behind, respectively.

The main goal of this study is to predict the best

fit among the top cryptocurrencies today to compete

with the traditional monetary system. Nevertheless,

we admit that Ether, the chosen cryptocurrency, is

still far away from replacing or even competing with

the existing traditional payment system.

In the future, the authors of this paper plan to

take this research in further directions. First, the

preliminary evaluation benchmark needs fine-tuning

and validation of the given weights. Further, it is

hard for cryptocurrencies to replace the traditional

monetary system worldwide without taking into

consideration the needs of different groups and

communities living in different regions of the world,

especially the large Islamic Region. Therefore, the

authors of this paper plan to explore the potential for

designing and implementing a new cryptocurrency

that balances scalability, security, decentralization,

and non-volatility based on the best practices found

in the evaluated cryptocurrencies. In addition, the

authors would try to introduce the principles of the

Islamic Economy in their proposal and study the

expected effect on the benchmarks introduced in

this paper. This intended cryptocurrency must fulfill

Islamic regulations and monetary system regulations

to be successful and recognized by Muslims and

Islamic governments.

Acknowledgment:

The Public Authority of Applied Education and

Training (PAAET), research project no (BE- 22-01)

supported and funded this work.

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DOI: 10.37394/232018.2023.11.3

Mohammed Alahmad, Adel Alfouderi,

Ahmad Alonaizi, Meshal Aldhamen

E-ISSN: 2415-1521

Volume 11, 2023

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Contribution of Individual Authors to the

Creation of a Scientific Article (Ghostwriting

Policy)

-Mohammad AlAhmad, Ahmad Alonaizi, Meshal

Aldhamen carried out the overview and the main

comparison of this study.

-Mohammad AlAhmad, Adel Alfouderi carried out

the main discussion and results section of this paper.

Sources of Funding for Research Presented in a

Scientific Article or Scientific Article Itself

The Public Authority of Applied Education and

Training (PAAET), research project no (BE- 22-01)

supported and funded this work.

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare

that is relevant to the content of this article.

Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

(Attribution 4.0 International, CC BY 4.0)

This article is published under the terms of the

Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

_US

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on COMPUTER RESEARCH

DOI: 10.37394/232018.2023.11.3

Mohammed Alahmad, Adel Alfouderi,

Ahmad Alonaizi, Meshal Aldhamen

E-ISSN: 2415-1521

Volume 11, 2023