"Altcoin" is shorthand for "alternative coin" — any cryptocurrency that isn't Bitcoin. There are thousands of them. Most will never matter. A handful have become genuinely important, either because of the technology they introduced or the networks they built around them.

OrangeTill accepts Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. This article will help you understand what each one is, why it exists, and why we chose to include it.

The coins you'll hear about — and what makes each one different

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Bitcoin
BTC · The original
Created in 2009, Bitcoin is the first and most valuable cryptocurrency. It has the largest network, the longest track record, and the most recognition. When people say "crypto," they usually mean Bitcoin. Its supply is permanently capped at 21 million coins — no government or company can create more. That scarcity is a significant part of its value.
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Ethereum
ETH · The programmable blockchain
Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency and the most important one after Bitcoin. While Bitcoin is primarily digital money, Ethereum is a programmable blockchain — a platform developers can build on. NFTs, decentralized apps, and most of "DeFi" (decentralized finance) run on Ethereum. Think of Bitcoin as gold and Ethereum as a global computer that happens to have its own currency.
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Litecoin
LTC · The silver to Bitcoin's gold
Created in 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google engineer, Litecoin is essentially a faster, lighter version of Bitcoin. Transactions confirm about four times faster. It's one of the oldest and most stable altcoins, often described as "the silver to Bitcoin's gold." It doesn't innovate as aggressively as newer coins, but its reliability has made it a long-standing staple.
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Solana
SOL · Built for speed
Solana launched in 2020 and quickly became known for one thing: speed. It can process thousands of transactions per second with fees that are fractions of a cent — making it practical for micropayments and high-frequency applications. It's become a major home for NFTs and consumer crypto apps, and has attracted a large developer community.
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Dogecoin
DOGE · The people's coin
Dogecoin started in 2013 as a joke — literally. Two engineers created it as a lighthearted parody of crypto mania, featuring the Shiba Inu dog meme. It never disappeared though, and developed a genuinely enthusiastic community. Elon Musk's public support sent its price soaring in 2021. Today it's one of the most recognized crypto names on the planet. Its transaction fees are tiny and its community is famously friendly to newcomers.
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USD Coin
USDC · Stable by design
USDC is a stablecoin — its value is pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. One USDC is always worth one dollar. It's issued by Circle and backed by actual dollar reserves and US Treasury bonds. For merchants, USDC eliminates the volatility concern entirely: if a customer pays you $42.00 in USDC, you receive exactly $42.00 worth of value. No surprises.
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Tether
USDT · The world's most used stablecoin
Like USDC, Tether is pegged to the US dollar. It's the oldest and most widely traded stablecoin, and has the highest transaction volume of any cryptocurrency — more than Bitcoin on most days. It's particularly dominant in international crypto markets. Some controversy has surrounded its reserve disclosures over the years, which is why many conservative merchants prefer USDC, though USDT remains widely trusted and used.
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XRP
XRP · Built for banks, used by everyone
XRP was created by Ripple Labs specifically to solve a problem banks have: international wire transfers are slow and expensive. XRP settles in 3–5 seconds and costs fractions of a cent. It's been adopted by hundreds of financial institutions globally. A years-long legal battle with the SEC concluded largely in Ripple's favor in 2023, giving the project renewed momentum.

The person who changed everything: Vitalik Buterin

To understand Ethereum — and really to understand where crypto went after Bitcoin — you need to know Vitalik Buterin.

Co-founder, Ethereum

Vitalik Buterin

Vitalik Buterin was born in Russia in 1994 and moved to Canada as a child. He discovered Bitcoin at 17 through his father and became immediately fascinated — not just by the currency, but by the underlying technology and what else it might be capable of.

By 19, he had dropped out of the University of Waterloo after winning a Thiel Fellowship ($100,000 to pursue his ideas instead of finishing school) and published the Ethereum whitepaper. His core insight was straightforward but profound: the blockchain didn't have to be just a ledger for money. It could be a platform for any kind of programmable agreement — what he called "smart contracts."

Ethereum launched in 2015. Today it underpins hundreds of billions of dollars of economic activity and is the foundation of most decentralized finance. Vitalik remains deeply involved in its development and is widely regarded as one of the most important thinkers in the space — known for his intellectual honesty, his willingness to publicly grapple with hard problems, and his genuine commitment to Ethereum being a public good rather than a personal wealth vehicle.

He donated over $1 billion worth of crypto to charity in 2021 — much of it to COVID-19 relief in India — becoming one of the largest individual donors in history by some measures. He was 27 years old at the time.

The foundations doing the work

Two foundations connected to Ethereum's story are worth knowing — one focused on the technology, one focused on the people.

Ethereum Foundation
Founded by Vitalik Buterin
A non-profit organization based in Switzerland, the Ethereum Foundation funds research and development of the Ethereum protocol. It doesn't own Ethereum or control it — the network is decentralized — but it coordinates and funds much of the core technical work that keeps the chain secure, scalable, and evolving. It has distributed hundreds of millions in grants to researchers and developers around the world.
CryptoChicks
Founded by Natalia Ameline — Vitalik's mother
CryptoChicks is a global non-profit founded by Natalia Ameline with a mission to educate and support women in blockchain and AI. It runs hackathons, bootcamps, and educational programs in dozens of countries, and has helped thousands of women enter the crypto and technology space. The fact that Vitalik's own mother built an organization focused on inclusion and access in the industry he helped create is a detail that says something meaningful about both of them.

So which altcoins actually matter for your business?

Honestly? For taking payments at a small business, none of them do. OrangeTill accepts Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, and that's a deliberate choice — not a limitation.

Here's the reasoning. Bitcoin has the longest track record, the deepest liquidity, and the most recognition of anything in this space. Lightning makes it instant and nearly free to spend. Add same-day auto-convert and you've solved the one thing merchants actually worry about — price swings — without the counterparty risk, the depegging risk, or the "which chain is this on?" confusion that comes with the rest.

Every coin above is worth understanding, because your customers will mention them. But "worth understanding" and "worth building your checkout around" are different things. One focused, battle-tested money beats a fistful of half-supported ones at a busy counter.

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Hodl says
You don't need to have an opinion on which altcoin is "best." You just need to accept them and let your customers choose. The one they have is the right one for your register.