[1ark]

There are only a handful of cryptocurrencies that have the same properties as Bitcoin. While being first sure is a factor, that's at least not how Bitcoin maxis argue.

- Permissionless chain. Anyone can join by just downloading software and start mining. Tbf it has moved beyond this quite a bit with ASICs but you can still validate.

- Fair launch (just filtering all cryptocurrencies on this criteria will result in ~10 or so)

- Devs, anyone can make a PR or write BIPs.

- No foundation/community/devs that extract a fee from the operation of the chain. Communities and companies operate outside of the Bitcoin network. - Hard cap on 21m coins.

Most others compromise on some of these to use less energy, be faster, enrich themselves, or all.