CoinDesk Guide to the World's National Altcoins

Unlike the world's other altcoins, which seek to either improve on bitcoin technology or merely copy it as part of 'pump and dump' schemes, national cryptocurrencies claim higher purposes, such as establishing sovereignty or building patriotism - or at least using those emotional themes to bootstrap the currency's value and newsworthiness.

They appear in places where the national currency is uncertain in value or status, subject to strict capital controls, or not that country's own.

'Rank' refers to where the national coin sits among all available cryptocurrencies, including #1 Bitcoin and #2 Ripple.

Currency Rank: 25th. Spaincoin, the national cryptocurrency of yes, Spain, launched on 12th March and its creator promised to wait one month for the price to stabilize and services to be developed before beginning distribution to Spanish citizens.

The coin makes Spain, with a population of 46.7m, by far the largest country to have its own national cryptocurrency.

The developers promise to give 50% of the coins to "People who don't have access to, or don't even know anything about cryptocurrencies", hoping the rollout will be an educational experiment as well as an economic one.

Currency Rank: 42nd. As well as being the largest country with a national cryptocurrency, Spain may be the only country to have two.

There will be a total of 166m PTC, described by its creator 'CryptoMP' as "[not] an explosive coin, but a modest currency that slowly finds its way into the community".

Unusually for a cryptocurrency, there is also no cap on the total number of coins.

eKrona is named after the traditional currency unit of "The most developed European countries: Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Those are best places to work and live according to many global surveys. Let this coin name be a tribute to all what what achieved there".