Auroracoin (AUR) is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency launched on January 24, 2014 as an Icelandic alternative to bitcoin and the Icelandic króna. The unknown creator or creators used the pseudonym Baldur Friggjar Óðinsson and allocated (premined) half of the 21 million total coins for the 330,000 Icelandic citizens living in Iceland.

This first-of-its-kind national ID enforced airdrop began with Phase I on March 25, 2014 with 31.8 auroracoins per claimant.  Phases II / III concluded in 2015 with 318 / 636 auroracoins respectively per claimant.

Of these 10.5 million premined coins, approximately 40% of the coins were claimed, 10% of the coins were gifted to the Auroracoin Foundation (M1 fund), and 50% of the premined coins were verifiably destroyed.  (AURburnAURburnAURburnAURburn7eS4Rf)   

In 2016 there was a hard-fork to a multi-algorithm(PoW) code change.  There was also a block-time change from 10 minutes to 61 seconds, a corresponding change in block-reward, resulting in a “halvening schedule” change and increase of maximum coins to 23.3 million. ( Adjusted to 17.97 million after 5.345 million burned ) 

In 2018 it was decided to liquidate 80% of the M1 fund to launch the Icelandic Blockchain Foundation (Rafmyntaráð) expanding Auroracoin’s blockchain advocacy efforts within Iceland.

In 2021 Auroracoin released another significant major release and continues to be volunteer-driven using open-source technology with the goal of offering an alternative to inflationary fiat currencies.

Auroracoin

Francs

Theta (THETA) is a blockchain powered network purpose-built for video streaming. Launched in March 2019, the Theta mainnet operates as a decentralized network in which users share bandwidth and computing resources on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis. The project is advised by Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube and Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch.

Theta features its own native cryptocurrency token, THETA, which performs various governance tasks within the network, and counts Google, Binance, Blockchain ventures, Gumi, Sony Europe and Samsung as Enterprise validators, along with a Guardian network of thousands of community-run guardian nodes.

Developers say that the project aims to shake up the video streaming industry in its current form — centralization, poor infrastructure and high costs mean that end users often end up with a poor experience. Content creators likewise earn less revenue due to the barriers between them and end users.

The Theta team has created a customer-centric business plan for their growing ecosystem of services focused on esports, music, TV, movies, and education. The list of Theta Network partners includes video platforms like Samsung VR, Cinedigm, Shout! Factory, Pandora.tv, Play Labs, and THETA.tv.

Wrapped THETA

Jinbi Token

Wrapped Astar

BlazerCoin

BlockCDN

WHEN Token

Peercoin, also known as PPC or Peer-to-Peer Coin, was created by Sunny King and his team and launched in August 2012. It is the first blockchain to implement Proof-of-Stake consensus.

The primary inspiration behind the creation of Peercoin was to address a number of perceived shortcomings of Bitcoin, including energy efficiency, security and sustainability, decentralization and long-term viability.

Essentially it was designed as an enhanced replacement for Bitcoin. As such, it was originally forked from Bitcoin and uses the same UTXO style blockchain. However, Peercoin's code was modified to introduce Proof-of-Stake as its primary consensus protocol. The next section explains how this makes for a better blockchain.

Given that Peercoin uses most of the same code, it can easily port new features from Bitcoin and utilize any of the supporting infrastructure, including tech advancements like Taproot or Lightning Network. Peercoin is the only Proof-of-Stake blockchain that uses modern Bitcoin code, making it the perfect drop-in replacement.

Peercoin also has a dedicated community, is actively developed, fairly distributed, has low barriers of participation, can do everything that Bitcoin does, minus the 13 TWh of energy usage, and it's not a scam.

Peercoin

XDC Network (formerly known as XinFin Network) is a hybrid (public / private) blockchain platform that combines the transparency of public blockchains with the speed and security of private networks. With the help of blockchain technology and state-of-the-art infrastructure, the project intends to provide streamlined financial services to its users.

The protocol’s open-source software uses a delegated-Proof-of-Stake (XDPoS) consensus mechanism, which facilitates fast transactions, interoperability, and cybersecurity. The network can process 2000 transactions per second (TPS), and thanks to interoperable smart contracts and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility, users can more easily scale their projects.