The Good Tech Companies - Educational Byte: How to Tell Apart Cryptos with The Same Name?

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/educational-byte-how-to-tell-apart-cryptos-with-the-same-name. There are numerous similarly ...named crypto coins, including but not limited to over 50 flavors of “Bitcoins” on CMC. Do you know how to tell them apart? Check more stories related to web3 at: https://hackernoon.com/c/web3. You can also check exclusive content about #cryptocurrency-investment, #cryptocurrency-names, #cryptocurrency-tickers, #crypto-trading, #learn-cryptocurrency, #crypto-exchanges, #obyte, #good-company, and more. This story was written by: @obyte. Learn more about this writer by checking @obyte's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. There are over 50 flavors of “Bitcoins” and “Ethereums” on CoinMarketCap (CMC), for instance. Each coin must have its own ticker (and one that is not easy to change), but they can be repeated as well. If you see something with the same name but a tiny market cap, that’s a red flag.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This audio is presented by Hacker Noon, where anyone can learn anything about any technology. Educational Byte. How to tell apart cryptos with the same name, by Obyte. Most cryptocurrencies are free and open source software, which means anyone can use them at no cost. But maybe a thing you didn't know is that different coinscans share the same name because anyone can create a token and name it whatever they want. There's no global rule or trademark system to prevent duplicates. That's how we ended up with numerous similarly named crypto coins, including but not limited to over 50 flavors of, bitcoins, and, ethereums, on coin marketcap, CMC, for instance. The namesakes, of course, aren't the same as the originals, and they all have different
Starting point is 00:00:44 prices, features, and communities. Do you already know how to recognize the one you're looking for? There are some pitfalls along the way. It's no coincidence that the teams behind these coins have taken the same name as the originals, after all. Ticker, market cap, and codes. PUP quiz. You're seeing two token pairs in a crypto exchange. USDT, BTC, and USDT, Bitcoin.
Starting point is 00:01:08 You want to buy the original Bitcoin with Tether. Which one do you select now? If you chose Bitcoin, congratulations. You just bought some bits of an obscure Ethereum-based token called Harry Potter ObamaSonic 10 Inu. Yes. Really, those coins shortcuts or symbols above are called tickers, and they often come in parentheses next to the cryptocurrency or platform name, bitcoin, btc, ether, eith, obite, gbyte. However, if you're looking at trading pairs, the names
Starting point is 00:01:38 are likely not there, because they abbreviate tokens with tickers. You could expect that each coin must have its own ticker, and one that is not easy to change, but they can be repeated as well. You can double check the real tickers on trusted sites like CMC or Coingecko. Also, if you're in an exchange, check Murethin the ticker, because it could vary. The combination of name plus ticker should give you the real, identity, of a coin. Another helpful sign is the market cap. A coin's price multiplied by circulating supply, or, basically, how big a coin is.
Starting point is 00:02:12 Bitcoin and Ether are huge, with massive trading volumes and billions in market cap. If you see something with the same name but a tiny market cap and barely any trading activity, that's a red flag. It doesn't always mean it's a scam, but it's definitely not the original coin. This data is also available on sites like CMC and Coingecko. Want to go a step further? Look at the source code. Most legit cryptocurrencies have public code on GitHub. If you're a beginner, look for signs like recent updates, lots of stars, those little
Starting point is 00:02:44 bookmarks, and links to the code on reliable websites, yes, like CMC. If it looks abandoned or there's no link at all, that's your cue to be cautious, coins inside, and outside, networks. Well, now let's talk a bit about wrapped tokens and different crypto networks. There's this token called wrapped bitcoin. WBTC, for example, which has roughly the same price as bitcoin and a very decent market cap. This one isn't exactly a copy or a scam, but a version of bitcoin created to be exported into other networks, like ethereum or obite. Wrapped tokens are like stablecoins, but their price is anchored to the crypto they represent,
Starting point is 00:03:23 rather than some fiat currency. Sometimes, they're not even called, wrapped, something. But you can tell the Yare because they're not working in their original network, ledger, or chain. Bitcoin can't work on Ethereum, or vice versa. Not without an additional twist called a crypto bridge. Therefore, if a token called, BTC, is being exchanged on the Ethereum network, even if it's the same price, you should know that it's not exactly the original. Not until you exchange it for BTC on the original network, it works to make some neat defy investments, though. In obite, we have the counter-stake bridge to import and export tokens from NTO different
Starting point is 00:04:01 networks. This way, you can bring compatible versions of coins like WBTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, BNB and more to be used across the Obyte ecosystem. The option to convert these coins to versions compatible with other networks is also available through the same bridge, for the Metamask wallet. Featured Vector Image by Vector Juice, free pick Thank you for listening to this Hacker Noon story, read by Artificial Intelligence. Visit hackernoon.com to read, write, learn and publish.

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