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Although I initially believed there were only a couple cryptocurrencies available on the market, after some research, I've discovered that there are well over a thousand different cryptocurrencies!...even if a large percentage of these have extremely small market capitalizations. So my question is: What does it take to "create" a new cryptocurrency? More specifically, what degree of time, money, technical knowledge (and any other pertinent resources) is required?

*I apologize but I should have also mentioned: Since I have limited technical experience, I would appreciate a non-technical "theoretical" answer.

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    "some research" = coinmarketcap.com
    – David
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 21:20

2 Answers 2

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quick approach:-

Not that difficult , Just fork a github repo of a smart contract supporting ERC20 token starndard and deploy the contract on main net.

developer approach:-

If you want to make your own crypto currency the easiest way is to learn ethereum smart contract development , most crypto currencies present in market today are build over the top of etherum smart contract. If you have programming experience in javascript or similar languages it will be very easy to start with solidity language used to develop smart contracts.

Also learn about ERC20 token standard which is followed by crypto currencies build over top of ethereum The ERC20 token standard describes the functions and events that an Ethereum token contract has to implement.

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  • Does using ethereum smart contract development allow for adaptations to the core technology? Such as different block sizes as just a very basic example? Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 21:11
  • @Shersha Fn Nice!
    – David
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 21:20
  • -1, cause the original request is asking, what it takes in time, money, and technical knowledge to create a crypto currency. Your answer is limited to one specific case (Ethereum), missing out other parameters, and even directs into very specific case of ERC tokens and smart contracts. Your answer looks like a promotion (which is mostly opinion based, what is generally disliked here). Maybe you can extend your answer, to contain information about degrees of time, money and technical knowledge, to create a crypto currency, that is not Ethereum, has no ERC20 token and not solidity? Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 22:04
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You can find two types of crypto currencies - Ethereum token based and altcoin (new blockchain). Tokens are relatively easier to develop than an altcoin. The work involved in creating an ecosystem around the coin is also stacked against an altcoin. This would include developing your block explorer, mining pools, testing the code and just regular maintenance. Again all this is subject to the degree of sophistication you desire the final product to have. Altcoin dev - You can start with forking any of the crypto repositories and customizing it for your specifications. I would say the dev time would range from a week to 3 months depending on the customization. The technical knowledge and cost could follow the same ascending order of the timeline. Token - You can create an erc20 token and publish it to the ethereum blockchain. You would have to do the crowdsale contracts and payment gateways as well. Dev time can range from a few days to a month at most Technical knowledge required and cost is at a significantly lower bar compared to altcoin dev.

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