Bitcoin's success has led to the experimentation and adaptation of its underlying protocols and mechanisms. Since its release, there have been over five hundred alternative coins launched. Each coin assumes the liberty to borrow from and modify Bitcoin to implement its own variations on the original design.

In this chapter, we'll look at four innovative alternate coins (Litecoin, Namecoin, Peercoin, and Primecoin) to see how they have leveraged the blockchain technology to implement various concepts and systems in a decentralized way.

We'll see how the alternative coins can be used to store and validate arbitrary pieces of information such as domain names, public records, and digital assets. By simply changing the parameters of the blockchain, it can be used to arrange...