What coins are not only money?

[Anna]

Hello, my name is Anna and I'm a journalist.
I'm doing an investigation about crypto universe, I started from scratch, didn't know anything about this world, but I'm happy with what I found here. So forgive me my amateurish level, I'm a journalist and not a coder
Forums like this gives a tremendous picture of existing coins, one can easily get lost inside, which happened to me.
For my research I'd like to figure out what coins are not only money, like ethereum for example that provide a platform for smart-contracts and political referendums?
And else I'd like to understand why generally there are so many of coins? What features makes one different to another?
Thank you! 

[admin]

hi Anna,
better write in the cryptocurrency section of the forum, i can move the post there if you want:

http://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?board=48.0

[Anna]

hi Anna,
better write in the cryptocurrency section of the forum, i can move the post there if you want:

newbie deactivated link:http://www.altcoinstalks.com/index.php?board=48.0 [nonactive]

Thank's for advice, I started new topic there, so you can close this one.