Primecoin doesn’t have this name by chance or due to the creativity of its creator. Besides using the energy spend in mining to support important projects, this cryptocurrency also has another function, another way to make the most of Primecoins’ mining “waste”. This function is simply tracking down long chains of prime numbers, but this is just one of the cryptocurrency’s important features that you must learn to be able to call yourself a true crypto-connoisseur.

Searching for prime numbers using Primecoin’s proposed method could be very beneficial. It would “leads us to useful byproducts in other areas of number theory, provides an incentive for computational hardware development and leads to insights in the underlying workings of prime numbers themselves”, the Bitcoin Magazine wrote during July 2013, when Primecoin was launched.

Because of this and much more, Primecoin is today called “crypto 2.0”. It is considered an evolution when compared to Bitcoin because, unlike the world’s most famous cryptocurrency, its mining activity is actually useful to some important missions and projects. It’s not an empty effort, like Bitcoin mining, which is getting more difficult and less profitable on a daily basis, was called so many times.

In this case, the critics are probably right: mining Bitcoin is a void exercise. But Primecoin could be the answer that changes the game. However, with Bitcoin’s growth and massive acceptance across the world, maybe Primecoin is a little too late to get in the game as a true alternative.

Only time will tell how the world of cryptocurrencies is able to evolve and manage all the competition, taking into account the dozens of new digital currencies that popped up in the last year. For now, here is a useful comparison between Bitcoin and Primecoin that promises to end with some of your doubts about these two virtual coins.

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