Jargon is a big part of the crypto community, and one such word is altcoins. Traditionally, altcoins refer to all cryptocurrencies apart from Bitcoin. In that respect, the very need for such a term is redundant. A better term here is Bitcoin purist: people who believe in the monopoly and future of Bitcoin only. However, the definition of altcoins has evolved over time. Even if we argue about the need for such a term, its existence cannot be denied. In the initial days of crypto, only Bitcoin was considered a true cryptocurrency. The other coins were often not taken seriously, and hence, termed alternate coins, or altcoins. But the origin of Ethereum changed the picture. Ethereum became too big of a project not to take seriously. Now the definition of altcoin changed, and the word no longer bore an alternate connotation.
Altcoins came into the forefront of the crypto market with Ethreum. With the gradual rise of Solana, Cardano Binance Coin, and more, altcoins started referring to every cryptocurrency that had its own blockchain. All other cryptocurrencies then came to be known as tokens. With further innovation, every altcoin started to roll out features that were exclusive to its protocol. Now the clubbing together of all coins apart from Bitcoin does not make any sense. Instead, a better approach now is to use the collective term cryptocurrency for all the coins in the crypto ecosystem. Bitcoin, on the other hand, will remain the benchmark against which other cryptocurrencies would be assessed. In 2022, it is time to change the cryptocurrency lexicon and make it more relevant.
