Since the creation of Bitcoin in 2008, there have been oodles of new blockchains to play around with and invest in. These blockchains (or alternative cryptocurrencies, or 'altcoins' for short) all rival each other in a sense, with their price freely floating and fluctuating on various exchanges. Some altcoins offer innovations and supposed improvements, others are more for fun and games.

Sometimes, as with Dogecoin, the fun and games happen to result in huge price increases.

Investing in altcoins can be risky, but it's a fun thing to do with any money you're willing to play around with. And it can be a fun way to get involved with cryptocurrencies and learn a little about how they work. In this blog we aim to give you an outline of everything that's out there and how it works. We don't offer any opinions about which coins we think you should buy, but you can feel free to do that in the comments.