Counterparty is a peer-to-peer financial platform and a distributed, open source protocol built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain and network.

[1] It was one of the most well-known "Bitcoin 2.0" (later known as non-fungible token) platforms in 2014, along with Mastercoin, Ethereum, Colored Coins, Ripple and BitShares.

[2] It is a "metacoin"-type protocol, and provides features such as tradable user-created currencies, additional financial instruments and a decentralized asset exchange.

[3] Over time, it has developed a strong user base, mostly due to the protocol hosting the non-fungible token collections Spells Of Genesis (2015) and Rare Pepe (2016).

[7] In August 2014, Dogeparty, which is based on Dogecoin, was forked off Counterparty, offering lower fees and faster transaction times.