By consensus

Every cryptocurrency in the ranking grouped by how its chain makes blocks — the mechanism, not the marketing. 508 chains across 7 families, $2.35T combined. Who may make blocks splits the families in two: open to anyone, or admitted only.

Open to anyone

Anyone who brings the resource — hardware, coins or disk space — can make blocks, without asking. A proof-of-stake chain that admits its validators from a list instead loses a point on the CoinSpectrum Grade.

Proof of Work

Chains whose next block is made by whoever first finds a hash below the network's target — a lottery each miner wins in proportion to the computing work it burns.

127 chains$1.70T combined

Proof of Stake

Chains whose next block is made by a validator chosen in proportion to the coins it has locked as stake, its own or delegated to it.

216 chains$545.5B combined

Proof of Space / Storage

Chains whose next block is chosen by proving reserved disk space — a "plot" laid down in advance, then queried against a challenge.

5 chains$1.0B combined

Hybrid

Chains that make blocks with two of the mechanisms above.

28 chains$687M combined

Admitted only

Only validators someone has approved make blocks, or count: the operator, the authorities already in the set, or the default list nearly every node follows.

Federated

Chains with no block producer in the usual sense: validators propose sets of transactions and converge on one in rounds, and each validator counts only the validators it has chosen to trust — the Unique Node List on the XRP Ledger, quorum slices on Stellar.

10 chains$95.2B combined

Proof of Authority

Chains whose blocks are made by a fixed set of authorities, known by name and admitted by the operator or by a vote of the authorities already in the set.

21 chains$3.8B combined

Not yet classified

A bucket rather than a family: chains whose way of making blocks fits none of the above.

Other

Chains whose way of making blocks fits none of the families above — Avalanche subnets whose validator rules are not yet established, Proof of Importance, Proof of Burn, Proof of Transfer, proof of personhood, or otherwise custom rules.

101 chains$2.4B combined

How blocks become final

Two ways of finishing a block run inside several families, so they are lists rather than families: a BFT vote, and a ledger shaped as a DAG. Each chain on them is filed in the family that makes its blocks.

BFT

BFT is not a family but a way for blocks to become final: a set of validators votes in rounds, and a block is final once more than two thirds of them, counted by number or by stake, have signed it.

100 chains$396.1B combined

DAG

A DAG is not a family but a shape of ledger: each block or transaction points to several earlier ones instead of one, so many can be added at once and put in order afterwards.

18 chains$5.1B combined

The taxonomy — what counts as which family — is the same one applied to every asset page in the ranking. Wrapped, staked and pegged claims are never counted here.