🛠️ Direct Codebase ForksThese projects used Bitcoin's open-source architectural blueprint but started an entirely fresh blockchain from a new "Genesis Block".Litecoin (LTC): Launched in 2011 by Charlie Lee as a self-described "silver to Bitcoin's gold". It cloned the Bitcoin Core codebase but shortened block times to 2.5 minutes (from 10 minutes) and switched the mining algorithm to Scrypt to resist specialized mining hardware.Dogecoin (DOGE): Created in 2013 as a joke, its code was largely copied from Luckycoin, which itself was a fork of Litecoin. It retains Bitcoin's underlying peer-to-peer structure but has an infinite supply and faster block times. Peercoin (PPC): Released in 2012, it took the Bitcoin codebase and introduced the world's first hybrid Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system to drastically improve energy efficiency.Qtum (QTUM): A unique hybrid project that blends Bitcoin's UTXO transaction model with an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) layer, allowing smart contracts to run on a Bitcoin-derived architecture. #bitcoin #litecoin #dogecoin #virtacoin