Why so many cryptocurrencies?

Did you know that there are 1538 cryptocurrencies listed in coinmarketcap.com? That is more than all the fiat currencies in the world. Nine years ago, there was just one; Bitcoin. All these crypto coins exist to leverage the blockchain technology that will affect areas of finance, energy, data storage, security, privacy, machine learning, supply, and logistics, among others.

Many have different functions other than to function as currency. Some allow other cryptocurrencies to built on top of their networks. Ethereum is the best example of this. They have the Ethereum Virtual Machine that allows the creation of tokens.

Others are platform or app cryptocurrencies. We build them on the utility currencies. That explains why there are so many. They allow creating previously difficult or impossible systems. People want to leverage that to make what they want to, in the best ways possible.