Crypto-currencies use various timestamping schemes to avoid the need for a trusted third party to timestamp transactions added to the blockchain ledger.
Proof-of-work schemes
The first timestamping scheme invented was the proof-of-work scheme. The most widely used proof-of-work schemes are based on SHA-256, which was introduced by bitcoin, and scrypt, which is used by currencies such as Lite-coin. The latter now dominates over the world of crypto-currencies, with at least 480 confirmed implementations.
Some other hashing algorithms that are used for proof-of-work include Crypto-Night, Blake, SHA-3, and X11.
Proof-of-stake and combined schemes
Some crypto-currencies use a combined proof-of-work/proof-of-stake scheme. The proof-of-stake is a method of securing a cryptocurrency network and achieving distributed consensus through requesting users to show ownership of a certain amount of currency. It is different from proof-of-work systems that run difficult hashing algorithms to validate electronic transactions. The scheme is largely dependent on the coin, and there's currently no standard form of it.
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