What are the fundamental differences to the total count of coins that can be mined or the process of mining?
Obviously BTC was first but are the subsequent alternatives more refined or more efficient?
Some coins have different amounts than Bitcoins that can be mined, like Litecoins (84 million instead of 21 million) and Peercoins (never ending supply each year). Some have a different process of mininig and are more efficient like Peercoins (no mining required, just run client software). Some are more refined like Litecoins which are faster (2.5 minutes block confirmations instead of 10 minutes).