Generally, yes, but before cryptocurrency it was rather impractical to trade in other alternative currencies. There are ones like Mountain Hours, and there was e-gold, and there were Liberty Dollars. e-gold was stopped by the government, Liberty Dollars was as well. Mountain Hours as far as I know are still current, but these kinds of paper currency do need a lot of trust in the issuer, so it can be difficult to grow them. In a lot of places, such as in the UK, alternative currencies are legal, but never if they contain any precious metal - which basically cuts out the most attractive part of starting an alt currency.
But yes, generally what I said refers to cryptocurrencies as well. I originally posted this on Facebook, so it was more about branding, giving people something easily identifiable.
Have a good day
Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.