Cryptocurrencies Explained, in Plain English
Everything you need to know about what cryptocurrencies are, how they work, and how they're valued.
Sean Williams
Sean Williams
(TMFUltraLong)
Jan 2, 2018 at 8:34AM
Author Bio
By now you've probably heard about the cryptocurrency craze. Either a family member, friend, neighbor, doctor, Uber driver, sales associate, server, barista, or passer-by on the street, has probably told you how he or she is getting rich quick with virtual currencies like bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, or one of the lesser-known 1,300-plus investable cryptocurrencies.
But how much do you really know about them? Considering just how many questions I've received out of the blue from the aforementioned group of people over the last month, the answer is probably, "not a lot."
The word cryptocurrency written atop semiconductor chips and circuitry.
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
Today, we'll change that. We're going to walk through the basics of cryptocurrencies, step by step, and explain things in plain English. No crazy technical jargon here. Just sticks and stones examples of how today's cryptocurrencies work, what they're ultimately trying to accomplish, and how they're being valued.
Let's get started.
What are cryptocurrencies?
Simply put, cryptocurrencies are electronic peer-to-peer currencies. They don't physically exist. You can't pick up a bitcoin and hold it in your hand, or pull one out of your wallet. But just because you can't physically hold a bitcoin, it doesn't mean they aren't worth anything, as you've probably noticed by the rapidly rising prices of virtual currencies over the past couples of months.
How many cryptocurrencies are there?
The number is always changing, but according to CoinMarketCap.com as of Dec. 30, there were around 1,375 different virtual coins that investors could potentially buy. It's worth noting that the barrier to entry is particularly low among cryptocurrencies. In other words, this means that if you have time, money, and a team of people that understands how to write computer code, you have an opportunity to develop your own cryptocurrency. It likely means new cryptocurrencies will continue entering the space as time passes.
Why were cryptocurrencies invented?
Technically, the idea of an electronic peer-to-peer currency was being tinkered with decades ago, but it wasn't truly successful until 2008, when bitcoin was conceived. The basis of bitcoin's creation, and all virtual currencies that have since followed, was to fix a number of perceived flaws with the way money is transmitted from one party to another.
What flaws? For example, think about how long it can take for a bank to settle a cross-border payment, or how financial institutions have been reaping the rewards of fees by acting as a third-party middleman during transactions. Cryptocurrencies work around the traditional financial system through the use of blockchain technology.
компиляция bitcoin форумы bitcoin The financial sector has captured a larger percentage of the economy over time because there is greater demand for financial services in a world in which money is constantly impaired. Stocks, corporate bonds, treasuries, sovereign bonds, mutual funds, equity ETFs, bond ETFs, levered ETFs, triple levered ETFs, fractional shares, mortgage-backed securities, CDOs, CLOs, CDS, CDX, synthetic CDS/CDX, etc. All of these products represent the financialization of the economy, and they become more relevant (and in greater demand) when the monetary function is broken.lucky bitcoin криптовалюту monero bitcoin code bitcoin price
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When people started mining Litecoin in 2011, it was possible to buy GPUs to help do this. However, as GPUs are not powerful enough anymore, they can no longer be used!Litecoin ValueElliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman-Merkle (ECDHM) addresses are bitcoin address schemes that increase privacy. ECDHM addresses can be shared publicly and are used by senders and receivers to secretly derive traditional Bitcoin addresses that blockchain observers cannot predict. The result is that ECDHM addresses can be 'reused' without the loss of privacy that usually occurs from traditional Bitcoin address reuse.raspberry bitcoin pull bitcoin автосборщик bitcoin tails bitcoin биржи monero bitcoin видеокарта
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Another example of imbalance would be Ethereum Foundation. While Ethereum has a robust community of dapp (distributed application) developers, the core protocol is determined by a small group of project leaders. In preparation for Ethereum’s Constantinople hard fork, the developers made the decision to reduce mining rewards by 33 percent without consulting the miners. Over time, alienating miners leads to a loss of support from a major group of stakeholders (the miners themselves) and creates new incentives for miners to attack the network for profit or revenge.dag ethereum It is necessary to specify the version number of Solidity at the beginning of code as it eliminates incompatibility errors that can arise while compiling with another version. This is a mandatory clause that has to be there at the top of any Solidity code you write. You also need to mention the correct version number for the code.новости monero bitcoin shop payeer bitcoin Due to the fact that many ICOs intend to release their own tokens on the Ethereum network in the coming months, many expect to see Ethereum rise back up to its all-time high value and even pass it. For this reason, buying into Ether while it is still considered down in value may make a good opportunity to invest.bitcoin fire bitcoin cash взлом bitcoin разделение ethereum bitcoin map bitcoin click bitcoin video
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