Want to launch your own coin? Here's what you need to know.

From meme coins to serious projects, launching a cryptocurrency is more accessible than ever. But beware: most fail. Here’s the real roadmap.

Step 1: Choose Your “Home” (the blockchain)

You’re not starting from zero. You have ready-made platforms:

• Ethereum: The most secure and established, but expensive (gas fees high)
• Solana: Fast and cheap, active developer community
• Cardano: Focused on academic security
• Avalanche: Good scalability

The key question: How many transactions per second do you need? How much will you pay in fees? Does your developer community understand the platform?

Step 2: Define Your Coin (the important part)

Here you decide the why. Name, symbol, total supply… but the crucial questions are:

How are transactions validated?

• Proof of Work (PoW): Miners solve math puzzles. Secure but energy-intensive (like Bitcoin)
• Proof of Stake (PoS): Validators stake their coins to earn rewards. 99% more energy-efficient

How do you distribute your coin?

• Pre-mining (founders keep a portion)
• Airdrop (give to users)
• ICO (initial coin offering)

Steps 3-5: The Dirty Work

Development: If you’re not a programmer, you’ll need to hire one. This is where most spend real money.

Testing: Simulate attacks, test security, make sure it doesn’t “crash.”

Launch: Upload to an exchange or distribute directly. Wait for someone to buy.

Secrets to Avoid Failure

• Solve a real problem: Why would someone switch from Bitcoin or Ethereum to your coin?
• Community > Marketing: A small, loyal community beats 10k useless followers
• Be honest about tokenomics: If everything is pre-mined for founders, it will be obvious from a mile away
• Patience: Don’t expect to become a millionaire in 6 months

TL;DR: Creating a crypto is technically easy in 2024. Making it successful is still harder than solving an equation in PoW.