Groestlcoin is a blockchain payment protocol with a number of technical innovations and an active developer community. Groestlcoin was the first coin that activated SegWit and supports the Lightning Network. Transaction fees are very low and it claims to have instant payments. It is also one of the only coins that can be sent over SMS.
Groestlcoin's active developer community has made the payment protocol very adaptable, and it a popular coin among many crypto investors. Groestlcoin has an ASIC resistant Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism.

BitcoinDark is a fork of Bitcoin with a poorly defined purpose and use case. BitcoinDark is based on the InstantDEX protocol, a decentralized exchange for BitcoinDark and other cryptocurrencies supported by the project. The platform is also supposed to include a Pegged Asset Exchange (PAX) to allow users to buy and sell pegged assets – including fiat currencies, commodities, ETFs, and stocks.
BitcoinDark is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) currency that has gained a significant market cap, but the project has failed to show how its vision will be implemented or how it will add value compared to other blockchain projects.

MonaCoin is the first alternative cryptocurrency developed in Japan. It is based on the popular Japanese character, Mona. MonaCoin has a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism and uses a version of the Lyra2RE mining algorithm that was first used by Vertcoin.
MonaCoin has an enthusiastic user base that has developed a variety of Mona-based web applications and services. MonaCoin holders also use the coin as a tipping system.