🔍 Not All "Crypto" Is Created Equal

Ten thousand of them

There are more than 10,000 different cryptocurrencies.

Almost none of them work anything like Bitcoin.

One word, many different things

"Crypto" gets used as a catch-all term, but the assets underneath vary enormously.

Some are pure speculation. Some function more like company shares. Some have a small handful of people controlling most of the supply.

Lumping them together isn't a neutral simplification — it hides exactly the differences that matter.

Common patterns in most tokens

• A founding team or company often holds a large "pre-mine" or pre-allocation
• Supply can frequently be changed by that team's decision
• A foundation or small group of insiders often has significant influence over the network's direction

"Often" is doing real work in those sentences. These are common patterns, not universal ones — the point is that they're possible at all.

How Bitcoin started differently

Bitcoin launched with no pre-mine, no company, and no founder holding a special allocation.

Satoshi Nakamoto mined bitcoin the same way anyone else could — under the same open rules, available to everyone from day one.

There was no private round, because there was nobody to sell to and nothing to sell.

Try it: Bitcoin or typical token?

Five structural claims. Which one does each describe?

Pre-allocations, foundations that can change the supply, whether the founder got special treatment. None of it is about price — it's about who held what at the start and who can change the rules now. Open the Bitcoin or Typical Token? tool →

Quick check: What's a common feature of many tokens that Bitcoin doesn't have?

1. A public blockchain
2. A founder or team pre-allocation ("pre-mine") ✓
3. A fixed maximum supply

Bitcoin had nothing to allocate — the coins only came into existence through mining that anyone could do.

Quick check: How did Satoshi Nakamoto obtain their early bitcoin?

1. Through a founder allocation written into the software
2. By participating under the same open rules available to anyone else ✓
3. By purchasing it from early investors

Same software, same rules, no special case. And the vast majority of those coins have never moved since.

Next up

If they're built so differently at the start, how are they actually secured differently?