By: Steven Hay | Last updated: 4/24/20

Cryptocurrencies are the latest evolution of digital money. But what exactly is a cryptocurrency and what are its characteristics? This post explains it all, simply.

Cryptocurrencies are digital coins that arent controlled by a central authority but through a network of equally privileged participants that follow an agreed set of rules. The three ingredients that make a cryptocurrency are: A peer-to-peer (p2p) network, cryptography, and a consensus mechanism.

Thats the definition of a cryptocurrency in a nutshell. For a more detailed definition keep on reading, heres what Ill cover:

The term cryptocurrency is a contraction of cryptographic currency. While a cryptocurrency is a form of digital currency, there are many digital currencies today that arent cryptocurrencies.

For example PayPal, Zynga chip and even our traditional fiat currencies (USD, EUR, etc.) are mostly digital.

In March 2018, Merriam-Webster announced that they would include this term in their dictionary. Their definition is as follows:

cryptocurrency noun cryptocurrency krip-t-kr-n(t)-s , -k-rn(t)-s : any form of currency that only exists digitally, that usually has no central issuing or regulating authority but instead uses a decentralized system to record transactions and manage the issuance of new units, and that relies on cryptography to prevent counterfeiting and fraudulent transactions. First Known Use: 1990

Lets try to break this confusing sentence down to the 3 main ingredients that constitute a cryptocurrency.

Unlike traditional digital currencies, cryptocurrencies dont rely on any central authority to validate or facilitate transactions.

Instead, theres a network of equally privileged participants that validate and update transactions in a shared ledger called a blockchain.

Cryptography is the art of secure communication in a hostile environment. Cryptography is used in cryptocurrencies so peers can communicate securely without the need of a central authority to validate their messages.

Now that we have a group of equally privileged participants that can communicate securely, we need to establish rules for our cryptocurrency. These rules are known as a protocol and they also include a consensus mechanism.

The consensus mechanism is a rule regarding who gets to update our shared ledger of transactions. In Bitcoins case, the mechanism used is called Proof of Work. Different cryptocurrencies use different consensus mechanisms.

If we visit Websters definition again after understanding these core ingredients, you can see that it makes much more sense.

While all cryptocurrencies claim to be decentralized, the truth is far from it. In reality, you have completely decentralized currencies like Bitcoin and centralized cryptocurrencies like stablecoins and Ripple.

Centralized cryptocurrencies are usually issued by a for-profit company that established the cryptocurrencys protocol and also determines who can participate in the network.

A good example would be the upcoming Facebook Libra a coin to be issued by Facebook, that while all participants in the network are equal, the network itself isnt open to everyone.

Centralized cryptocurrencies can be looked upon as an upgraded version of traditional fiat currencies, as they are still prone to all of the risks of centralized management (fraud, negligence, control).

Decentralized cryptocurrencies are usually issued by a non-profit organization. With decentralized cryptocurrencies, the playing grounds are leveled for all to participate.

The classic example for this would be Bitcoin. Anyone in the world can participate in the Bitcoin network, receive funds or become a Bitcoin miner, without the need to request permission.

Truly decentralized cryptocurrencies are completely transparent, open to all and censorship resistant.

Its important to note that while some cryptocurrencies are indeed built as decentralized, they are in fact centralized since not enough people are participating in their network. This makes the decentralized platform effectively controlled by a small number of participants.

The main takeaway here is that true decentralization is a matter of both design and adoption.

One important distinction that needs to be made is the difference between cryptocurrencies and tokens.

Cryptocurrencies are coins that have all of the three ingredients Ive mentioned above, hence creating their own blockchain of transactions.

Token, on the other hand, are a representation of an asset that resides on an already existing blockchain. For example, Tether is an ERC-20 token that uses the Ethereum blockchain to operate.

So tokens can be considered as a sub coin of a certain cryptocurrency that has its own blockchain and has the ability to run code that creates tokens (also known as the ability for smart contracts).

Tokens can start as part of an already existing blockchain and then convert to their own cryptocurrency. For example, EOS started as an ERC-20 token and later on became an independent cryptocurrency.

Tokens can be divided into two main categories utility tokens and security tokens.

Utility tokens are tokens that promise the future use of a product or service. They arent meant to be an investment, they have a utility.

Security tokens, on the other hand, are tokens that represent tradable financial assets, a share or a bond from a company, for example. They are meant to be a form of investment.

Cryptocurrencies use blockchains in order to operate in a decentralized manner. Cryptocurrency is the coin and blockchain is the ledger of transactions that documents the coins transactions.

Another way to describe this is that blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrencies.

Having said that, a blockchain is, in fact, the cryptocurrency itself as cryptocurrencies are just a record on a ledger (theres no actual physical coin). But for the sake of distinction, people use cryptocurrency to describe the end and blockchain to describe the means to that end.

Cryptocurrencies are the next evolution in digital currencies. Money has come a long way from commodities to coins, paper and finally digital information controlled by a central authority. Today, in its next phase of evolution, money is becoming decentralized through the use of cryptocurrencies.

Its important to distinguish between centralized cryptocurrencies, decentralized cryptocurrencies, and tokens. Hopefully, this guide made the difference clearer.

What are your thoughts about cryptocurrencies? Are they indeed the future of money? Let me know in the comment section below.

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What is Cryptocurrency? A Short Beginner's Explanation ...

This article analyses the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation.

Beginning with the largest, the top 10 are currently Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH), XRP ($XRP), Tether ($USDT), Bitcoin Cash ($BCH) , Litecoin ($LTC), EOS ($EOS), Binance Coin ($BNB), Bitcoin SV ($BSV) and Tezos ($XTZ).

There are approximately 5,392 cryptocurrencies being traded with a total market capitalisation of $201bn (as of April 22, 2020).

Our site is packed full of free guides, crypto news, jobs, news about jobs in blockchain technology, cryptocurrency analysis, and lots of features such as women in blockchain. Please take a look at our site and use the search bar at the top of this page to make use of our resources. We have a real passion for helping people understand the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

As a starting point, here are a few facts about the top 10 cryptocurrencies and some latest news for each one.

In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.orgwas registered. On October 31st 2008, a paper was published called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are.

The paper outlined a method of using a peer-to-peer network for electronic transactions without relying on trust. On January 3rd 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number 0 (or the genesis block), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins.

Ethereum was launched by Vitalik Buterin on July 30th 2015. He was a researcher and programmer working on Bitcoin Magazine, and he initially wrote a white paper in 2013 describing Ethereum. Buterin had proposed that Bitcoin needed a scripting language. He decided to develop a new platform with a more general scripting language when he couldnt get buy-in to his proposal.

The development was funded by an online crowdsale between July and August 2014. The system went live with 11.9 million coins already mined for the crowd sale (about 13% of the total supply in circulation). Following the collapse of The DAO project in 2016, Ethereum was split into two blockchains. The new version became Ethereum and the original blockchain continues as Ethereum Classic.

Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) developed by the Ripple company. It is also referred to as the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) or Ripple protocol. It can trace its roots to 2004 when a web developer called Ryan Fugger had the idea to create a monetary system that was decentralised and could effectively allow individuals to create their own money.

RipplePay.comwas launched in 2005 to provide a secure payment system for members of an online community via a global network. Jed McCaleb began developing a digital currency system in 2011 in which transactions were verified by consensus among members of the network, rather than by the mining process used by Bitcoin which relies on blockchain ledgers. This new version of the Ripple system was designed to eliminate Bitcoins centralised exchanges, use less electricity than Bitcoin, and perform transactions much more quickly.

Story continues

Ripple was launched in 2012 to facilitate secure, instant global transactions supporting tokens representing fiat currency, cryptocurrency or any unit of value.

The EOS.IO platform was developed by private company block.oneand released as open-source software on June 2nd 2018. One billion tokens were distributed on the Ethereum blockchain by block.one. EOS is based on a white paper published in 2017.

Litecoin was released in October 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee. It was a fork of Bitcoin with the main difference being a smaller block generation time, increased maximum number of coins and a different script-based algorithm.

Bitcoin Cash was born out of the idea of making Bitcoin more practical for small, day-to-day payments. In May 2017, Bitcoin payments took about four days unless a fee was paid, which was proportionately too large for small transactions. A change to the code was implemented and Bitcoin Cash was born on 1st August 2017.

Tether was issued on the Bitcoin blockchain. In their own words Tether converts cash into digital currency, to anchor or tether the value of the coin to the price of national currencies. So, the value is meant to mirror that of the US dollar and each unit of Tether is backed by $1 held in reserve.

One of the main uses of Tether is to facilitate trading between cryptocurrencies with a rate fixed to the US$ allowing traders to take advantage of trading opportunities.

Stellar was founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim. At launch it was based on the Ripple protocol but the network eventually forked. Stellar is an open source protocol for exchanging money where servers use the internet to connect to and communicate with other Stellar servers, forming a global value exchange network.

The TRON Protocol is pitched as one of the largest blockchain-based operating systems in the world, offering scalable, high availability and high throughput support that underlies all the decentralised applications in the TRON ecosystem.

An ICO campaign took place in September 2017 and raised US$70 million. The coin is called the TRONix (TRX).

To kick the month off weve had an extra $19B enter the market allowing Bitcoin to break past the previous resistance weve seen in 2019 and see all new highs. Bitcoin now is trying to break through major resistance of $6,000 which held for many months during 2018. Weve also seen a large premium on the exchange Bitfinex due to the news around Tether and reserve funds.

To kick the month off weve had an extra $16B enter the market allowing Bitcoin to break past the previous resistance weve seen in 2019. Tron ($TRX) has left the top ten leaderboard and has been replaced with Cardano ($ADA). Tether has dropped a few places this month as the sentiment is generally more bullish and people are taking cash out of Tether to buy back into the market.

This month we see a new entry in the top 10 as Binance Coin enters for the first time ever. Bitcoin SV drops out into the number 11 spot. The remaining top 10 are the same with some changes Ripple and Ethereum have traded positions once again and TRON has dropped two places.

The value of cryptocurrencies has grown this month with the value of the top 10 pushing back over $100bn following last months drop to $97bn.

The top 10 remains unchanged from last month in terms of the cryptocurrencies present, but there has been extensive jockeying for positions. Apart from the ever-present Bitcoin in the number-one spot, all the other cryptos have moved. TRON improved by two positions in the rankings, Stellar Lumens moved down three, and the remaining coins have seen a slight move up or down.

There has been a prolonged bear market in crypto, and the story this month is that from a market cap of $187bn on November 7th, the top 10 cryptocurrencies now have a combined market cap of $97bn. That is a remarkable drop in value over three months.

TRON reenters the top 10 at the expense of Cardano. This months big story is Ethereum regaining the number two spot from Ripple. It was a big story when Ripple became the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation during November:

Ethereums rally is due to the anticipation of a series of upcoming hard forks. Ethereum Classic Vision will be airdropped to Ethereum holders at a ratio of 3:1 on January 11th. The Ethereum Nowa fork, meanwhile, is planned on January 12th:

There has been some minor movement up and down for the remaining top 10.

This month has seen a dramatic fall in values, and there has been a lot of movement in the top 10. Bitcoin SV appears as a new currency and is a new entrant following the Bitcoin Cash fork. Ripple makes it into the number two slot at the expense of Ethereum as the flippening happens. The price crash of the last month has led to changes in the rest of the top 10 with various currencies moving position.

These last two weeks have seen the biggest change in the Top 10 this year. Bitcoin Cash drops out following the Bitcoin Cash fork. Ripple makes it into the number two slot at the expense of Ethereum as the flippening happens. Prices have crashed over the last two weeks. This has led to dramatic changes in the rest of the Top 10 with Tether gaining the most places. TRON makes it back into the Top 10. It has been in the Top 10 this year and is always close but the removal of BCH makes room for it to take the last spot in the Top 10. There is frequent movement in the top 10 as values fluctuate, so expect older currencies to drop out and re-enter the list regularly.

This month sees all the cryptocurrencies remaining fairly stable in terms of market capitalisation. The only currency that has changed significantly is Tether which sees its market cap fall by $1.04bn. This has dropped it from eight to ten in the rankings allowing Cardano and Monero to move up one place each.

This month sees all the cryptocurrencies remaining in the same position in the Top 10. Whilst there is no change in rankings to report, its interesting to note that Ripple actually gained approximately $10bn during the month. Every other currency (except Tether) lost value.

The total value of the top 10 cryptocurrencies (as of 3rd September 2018) is $200.79bn. This is a drop of $27bn compared to the previous month (August). This is a dramatic fall of $80bn since June where the total value stood at the $281bn mark.

This month sees Monero as a new entrant to the Top 10. Tether moves up to number eight whilst IOTA drops out of the Top 10 altogether. All the other cryptocurrencies are in the same spot as last month.

The Top 10 remained the same as Julys. Litecoin dropped from the number six spot to number seven; Stellar Lumens rose from the number eight spot to number six and Cardano dropped one place to number eight.

Themarket capitalisation of the Top 10 cryptocurrencies grew by$4.34bn in a month (August 2018 vs July 2018).

There were 2,041 cryptocurrencies with a total market capitalisation of $253bn.

TRON dropped out of the top 10 into the number 11 spot. It was replaced by Tether.

The market capitalisation of the Top 10 cryptocurrencies fell by $57 billion in a month (July 2018 analysis compared to the June 2018 analysis).

There were 1,894 cryptocurrencies with a total market capitalisation of US$275 bn.

Bitcoin SV came into existence following the Bitcoin Cash chain split on November the 15th 2018. The chain split was caused at two competing software implementation for the Bitcoin Cash blockchain (BitcoinABC and Bitcoin SV) broke away from consensus, and was subsequentlysupported by two different groups of miners. After the time of the fork, users could claim tokens on each side of the fork if they had previouslyheld tokens on the old Bitcoin Cash chain.

Bitcoin Cash ABC is now being recognised by most exchanges as Bitcoin Cash (the name of the original pre fork currency) with a separate listing for Bitcoin Cash SV.

Here is the original post:

Top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation

Editor's note: This column has been updated to disclose the writer's advocacy of blockchain technology--the underpinning of all cryptocurrencies--and a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warning about these investments.

Cryptocurrency (digital currency) is taking off this year. New millionaires are being made almost daily as Ethereum, Bitcoin, NEO, Litecoin, Ripple, Stratis, and other cryptocurrencies reach all-time highs. It is becoming somewhat of a modern-day gold rush.

Bitcoin is worth thousands of dollars. Ethereum is worth hundreds of dollars. For coins that were once worth only pennies, investors have made serious money in the past few years.It should be noted here that I am an advocate ofblockchain technology.

Bitcoin might be the oldest, but it's not the only cryptocurrency on the block. In fact, the majority of people getting into cryptocurrency are flocking to Ethereum. Ethereum has had the most impressive gains this year after recently being the first cryptocurrency to be backed by major corporations such as Microsoft, Samsung, JPMorgan Chase, and others in what's being called the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. Ethereum does for code and programming what Bitcoin did for financial transactions. For simplicity's sake, think of Ethereum like a more advanced and sophisticated Bitcoin backed and utilized by major corporations because of its technological advances and clear pathway to building a decentralized internet.

Editor's note: Bitcoin and digital currencies, as with any investment, may involve the risk of loss. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has warned that virtual currencies, including Bitcoin, carry "significant risk" to consumers.

One Ether (Ethereum's crypto token) was worth as little as $12 earlier this year, but the cryptocurrency is now worth multiple hundreds of dollars per coin with a total market cap well into the multiple 10s of billions. Ethereum is slowly but surely making gains on Bitcoin's market cap. Many spectators believe that "the flippening" will happen sometime this year, in which Ethereum becomes the most valuable (market cap) cryptocurrency in the world, overtaking Bitcoin in total value (total number of coins times price per coin).

Ethereum isn't the only new coin on the block, but it is definitely the most promising. Others to watch that I will explain and write about in future articles include NEO, TenX, Metal, Litecoin, and Siacoin. All these coins have something unique and technologically innovative about them.

Buying cryptocurrency is confusing for a lot of people. It's not a stock or a typical "investment." It's not like anything most people have ever seen or experienced. You don't get shares; instead you get digital coins or tokens. The coins are "better" than a paper dollar bill because they actually support a greater cause, as in Ethereum's case, to build a decentralized internet and host code and apps on a decentralized platform. And coins help "fuel" that cause, so to speak, without getting technical.

For most people in the U.S., Coinbase would be the easiest option to buy Ethereum, Bitcoin, or Litecoin (it doesn't support any others yet). After verifying your account, you can add a number of payment methods including credit or debit cards, U.S. bank accounts, or even wire transfers of funds. Other options for exchanges that will take U.S. dollars for coins are Kraken, and Gemini in the U.S. Typically you will need to verify your account with a driver's license and add other details to expand your buy limits. Since cryptocurrencies are "hard currencies," the exchanges don't want to risk getting ripped off, since you can't reverse a cryptocurrency transaction once it's done.

If you are looking for some of the newer coins like NEO that are making big movement but haven't made their way to the aforementioned exchange sites, you can look into Bittrex, Poloniex or Livecoin. You can transfer Bitcoin or Ethereum to these platforms from Coinbase and then exchange it for any other digital currency that you want.

If you are outside the U.S., here are a few options for exchanges that take your local currency: BTC Markets (Australia), Bitthumb or Coinone (Korea), CHBTC or Huobi (China), and QuadrigaCX (Canada.) You can find a full list on this page of where to buy Ethereum for your local currency.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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How to Buy Your First Cryptocurrency Coins (Ethereum ...

Using a trust to transfer cryptocurrencies keeps information about your coins private and out of probate.

When you have cryptocurrency, you need to consider how to include this asset in your estate plan. If you dont, your beneficiaries may not be able to access your crypto-investments after you die. One way to ensure your loved ones will inherit your cryptocurrency is to leave it through a will. Another way to pass along cryptocurrency is to leave it through a trust.

There are several advantages to using a trust. For example, a trust:

A trust is a flexible estate planning tool that can be created while youre alive or after you pass away through your will. A living trust is made by transferring some of your property to the trust during your lifetime.

Living trusts are popular because they can be revoked or changed during the trust makers lifetime. During life, trust makers usually act as trustees of their own trusts, managing trust assets just as they did before they transferred their property into the trust. When a trust maker dies, the successor trustee (named in the trust) takes over. What happens to the trust property depends on the terms of the trust. Some trusts will direct the successor trustee to distribute trust property to beneficiaries, ending the trust. Other trusts will instruct the successor trustee to continue to manage trust property for the benefit of the beneficiaries.

Putting your cryptocurrency in a trust makes it less likely that your cryptocurrency will go undiscovered after your deathbecause the existence of your cryptocurrency will be documented in the trust. This is important because, unlike other property, cryptocurrency is not an easily discoverable asset. It has little to no paper trail, so its difficult for your loved ones to discover it after you die. If they dont already know you have cryptocurrency and how to access it, this asset might be lost to them forever.

However, when your cryptocurrency is in a trust, its documented and youve made a plan for what should happen to it when youre dead. Your trust tells your successor trustee that your cryptocurrency exists, where to look for it, and what to do with it. This greatly reduces the possibility that your cryptocurrency will be lost after you die.

While your trust alerts your successor trustee to the existence of your cryptocurrency (and names who should get it), you dont have to leave all of the details of your cryptocurrency in your trust document. Instead, its wise to create a separate document that describes in detail how to find and access your cryptocurrency. You can leave this access plan for your successor trustee or whoever will need to access your coins after you die.

When you die, the law requires (most of) your property to go through a legal process called probate. During this process, your estate is submitted to the court, and your property is distributed to your loved ones either according to the terms of your will or by intestacy laws. This process can still take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months and can be quite expensive, especially if the estate must pay a lawyer or an executor, or both.

If you leave your cryptocurrency through your will (or you make no plan at all), your cryptocurrency will go through probate and your beneficiaries wont have access to your cryptocurrency until the probate process is completeweeks or months after your death. With the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency markets, your coins could lose tremendous value before your beneficiaries ever get access to your digital wallet while they wait for your estate to be probated.

Any property included in your trust wont go through the probate process when you die. Instead, your successor trustee will immediately have the right to access and distribute your cryptocurrency following the terms of your trust. Keeping your cryptocurrency out of probate will likely save your beneficiaries time and money because they will get access to your coins faster and with fewer court costs.

Another benefit of using a trust is that you can maintain more privacy for you and your beneficiaries. During the probate process, a will is filed with the court and can become part of the public record. So if you leave your cryptocurrency through your will, information about your cryptocurrency may not remain private.

This prospect is unappealing for people with large cryptocurrency assets. Any public information about your cryptocurrency will make it easier for hackers and scammers to target your loved ones.

In contrast, trust documents arent part of the public record and only your successor trustee will need to know about your cryptocurrency. This added layer of privacy will help maintain the security of your cryptocurrency for you and your beneficiaries.

Creating a trust for your cryptocurrency is a good idea if your beneficiaries are very young, aren't tech savvy, or are unable to manage their own finances because a trust provides a system of management for the cryptocurrency you leave behind.

If your beneficiaries receive your cryptocurrency through a will, legally, they will have direct access to your coins. In some cases, this may not be a good ideaparticularly if your beneficiaries dont understand what cryptocurrency is or how it works. It may be overwhelming for those beneficiaries to learn about digital wallets, figure out cryptocurrency exchanges, and maintain all the security practices needed to secure the cryptocurrency they inherit.

Under a trust, your cryptocurrency will be managed by your successor trustee after you die. Your successor trustee will be responsible for accessing, maintaining, securing, and distributing your cryptocurrency according to the terms of your trust. So you can lay out exactly what should happen to your cryptocurrency and give the responsibility of managing it to a person who can be trusted to know or learn how the system works. In this way, using a trust could be a great relief to your beneficiaries, especially in the wake of your death.

One of the greatest benefits of creating a cryptocurrency trust is maintaining some control of your investment even after you die. You can use your trust to dictate how an asset is used and for what purpose. This is different from leaving cryptocurrency through a will, which gives your loved ones complete control over your cryptocurrency after they inherit it.

For example, if you want your beneficiaries to stay invested in cryptocurrency for a specific period of time, the trust can hold your coins until then. This can prevent a premature sale of your coins if you believe your cryptocurrency will get more valuable as time goes on. A trust can also allow your loved ones extra time to understand cryptocurrency before they get control of it, or you can choose to have the trust manage this asset for them indefinitely. You can tailor your trust to fit the specific needs of your loved ones.

There are some challenges unique to cryptocurrency trusts, but you can cover your bases by consulting an estate planning attorney or doing the necessary research. Creating a trust isnt necessary, but it will ensure that your coins wont get lost after you pass away and help maintain a level of privacy. A trust also provides a trusted manager for your coins and relieves your loved ones from the burden of trying to figure out cryptocurrency after you die.

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Leaving Cryptocurrency in a Trust | Nolo

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You might have heard about Bitcoin, but there's so much more to cryptocurrency than that. Our guides make learning about cryptocurrency easy allowing you to buy, trade and store your cryptocurrency in as much time as it takes to set up a new bank account.

More here:

Crypto Finder | Cryptocurrency beginner guide - August ...

Cryptocurrency facts takes a simplified look at digital currencies like Bitcoin to help explain what cryptocurrency is, how it works, and its implications. On this site, we cover everything you need to know about:

TIP: If you are new to cryptocurrency, check out ourguide to cryptocurrency for beginnersfor a crash course on the basics. Or, check out ourcryptocurrency investing starter kit.

As of 2020, cryptocurrency has been used as a decentralized alternative to traditional fiat currencies (which are usually backed by some central government) such as the US dollar (USD). Meanwhile, cryptocurrency technology, including smart contracts and blockchain technology, have been used for a number of other purposes such as apps, cloud computing, and more.

For theaverage person using cryptocurrency is as easy as:

For advanced users, the possibilities are vast.

How do I get cryptocurrency? If you want to get cryptocurrency you can mine it, trade goods and services for it, or buy it via brokers and exchanges using dollars and other cryptocurrencies. Check out Coinbase for a broker/exchange/wallet solution.

What is a cryptocurrency address?: A public address is a unique string of charactersused to receive cryptocurrency. Each public address has a matching private address that can be used to prove ownership of thepublic address. WithBitcoin the addressis called a Bitcoin address. Think of it like a unique email address that people can send currency to as opposed to emails.

The first decentralized digital cryptocurrency can arguably be traced back to bit gold(not to be confused withBitgold), which was worked on by Nick Szabo between 1998 and 2005 but was never implemented.

Although bit gold is widely considered the first precursor to bitcoin, cryptocurrency pioneer David Chaums company DigiCash (a company founded in1989 which attempted to innovate digital currency),Wei Daisb-money(a conceptual system published in1998 which Satoshi cites it in the Bitcoin white paper), ande-gold (a centralized digital currency that started in 1996) are all notable early mentions.

With that history noted, modern digital currency starts in 2008 whenSatoshi Nakamoto (an anonymousperson and/or group) released theirpaper detailing what would become Bitcoin.

Bitcoin became the first decentralized digital coin when it was created in 2008. Itthen went public in2009.

As of 2020, Bitcoin is the most commonly known and used cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, other coins including Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), and more are all notable mentions.

Given thepopularity of Bitcoin as well asits history, the term altcoin is sometimes used to describe alternative cryptocurrenciesto bitcoin (especially coins with small market caps).

As of January 2015, there wereover 500different types of cryptocurrencies or altcoins for trade in online markets. However,only 10 of them had market capitalizations over $10 million.

As of September 2017, there were over 1,100 cryptocurrencies and thetotal market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies reached an all-time high surpassing $60 billion! Then, by December 2017, the total market cap reached $600 billion (a multiple of 10 in only two months).

Since that time the total amount of coins has grown while the market cap has ebbed and flowed.

Although the future is uncertain, cryptocurrency is proving itself to be more than just a fad. Today cryptocurrency is shaping up to be a growing market that (despite the pros and cons) is likely here for the long haul.

On this site, we explore every aspect of cryptocurrency. Simply choose a page from the menu,visitour what is cryptocurrency page for a more detailed explanation of cryptocurrency, or jump right in to the how cryptocurrency works section to start learning about transactions, mining, and public ledgers.

Link:

Introduction to Cryptocurrency - CryptoCurrency Facts

As you become involved in the new digital monetary mechanisms known as cryptocurrency, it doesn't take long to recognize there's risk involved in these transactions. And we're not talking about the volatility of the market. Scams are everywhere online, and cryptocurrency exchanges are no different. As you consider investing in different startups and exchange platforms, be aware of the possibilities of losing your cryptocurrency investments.

When you're looking into digital cryptocurrency companies and startups, experts recommend that you confirm that they're blockchain-powered, which means they track detailed transaction data. Also, check that they have solid business plans that solve real problems. Companies should specify their digital currency liquidity and ICO rules. There should be real people behind the company. If the startup you're investigating lacks some of these characteristics, think through your decision even more carefully.

Here's in a look at the more common scams and ways to avoid becoming a victim as you join the exciting future of cryptocurrency.

You may be following a solid tip from someone with a lot of expertise but still become a victim by accidently visiting a fake website. There's a surprising number of websites that have been set up to resemble original, valid startup companies. If there isn't a small lock icon indicating security near the URL bar and no "https" in the site address think twice.

Even if the site looks identical to the one you think you're visiting, you may find yourself directed to another platform for payment. For example, you click on a link that looks like a legitimate site, but attackers have created a fake URL with a zero in it instead of a letter o. That platform, of course, isn't taking you to the cryptocurrency investment that you've already researched. To avoid this, carefully type the exact URL into your browser. Double check it, too.

Another common way scammers trick cryptocurrency investors is through fake apps available for download through Google Play and the Apple App Store. Although stakeholders can often quickly find these fake apps and get them removed, that doesn't mean the apps aren't impacting many bottom lines. Thousands of people have already downloaded fake cryptocurrency apps, reports Bitcoin News.

While this is a greater risk for Android users, every investor should be aware of the possibility. Are there obvious misspellings in the copy or even the name of the app? Does the branding look inauthentic with strange coloring or an incorrect logo? Take note and reconsider downloading.

If you're following celebrities and executives on social media, you can't be sure that you're not following impostor accounts. The same applies to cryptocurrencies, where malicious, impersonating bots are rampant. Don't trust offers that come from Twitter or Facebook, especially if there seems to be an impossible result. Fake accounts are everywhere.

If someone on these platforms asks for even a small amount of your cryptocurrency, it's likely you can never get it back. Just because others are replying to the offer, don't assume they aren't bots, either. You have to be extra careful.

Even if it looks exactly like an email you received from a legitimate cryptocurrency company, take care before investing your digital currency. Is the email the exact same, and are the logo and branding identical? Can you verify that the email address is legitimately connected to the company? The ability to check on this is one reason why it's important to choose a company that has real people working for it. If you have doubts about an email, ask someone who works there. And never click on a link in a message to get to a site.

Scammers often announce fake ICOs, or initial coin offerings, as a way to steal substantial funds. Don't fall for these fake email and website offers. Take your time to look over all the details.

Unfortunately, there are many ways that some Internet users exploit unsecure computing systems to mine or steal cryptocurrency. Learn more about staying safe and protecting yourself in this emerging market before you start investing in cryptocurrency.

What is Cryptocurrency? Cryptocurrency Security: 4 Tips to Safely Invest in Cryptocurrency

Scam websites what they are and how to spot them

How to report a website

How to identify and avoid fake apps

Top 6 online scams

Scams are common online and cryptocurrency exchanges are no different. Read about four common cryptocurrency scams and how you can recognize and avoid them.

See more here:

4 Common Cryptocurrency Scams | How to Avoid ...

By Peter Kent, Tyler Bain

Cryptocurrency mining involves the addition of transactions to a blockchain by a crypto miner. But, its a bit more complicated than that. Take a look at decentralization and discover the role of the crypto miner.

Cryptocurrencies are decentralized that is, no central bank, no central database, and no single, central authority manages the currency network. The United States, for example, has the Federal Reserve in Washington, the organization that manages the U.S. dollar, and European Central Bank in Frankfurt manages the euro, and all other fiat currencies also have centralized oversight bodies.

However, cryptocurrencies dont have a central authority; rather, the cryptocurrency community and, in particular, cryptocurrency miners and network nodes manage them. For this reason, cryptocurrencies are often referred to as trustless. Because no single party or entity controls how a cryptocurrency is issued, spent, or balanced; you dont have to put your trust in a single authority.

Trustless is a bit of a misnomer. Trust is baked into the system. You dont have to trust a single authority, but your trust in the system and fully auditable codebase is still essential. In fact no form of currency can work without some form of trust or belief. (If nobody trusts the currency, then nobody will accept it or work to maintain it!)

In the trustless cryptocurrency world, you can still trust the cryptocurrency community and its mechanisms to ensure that the blockchain contains an accurate and immutable unchangeable record of cryptocurrency transactions. Cryptocurrencies are established using a set of software rules that ensure that the system can be trusted, and the mining process is part of this system that allows everyone to trust the blockchain.

Cryptocurrencies have no central bank printing new money. Instead, miners dig up new currency according to a preset coin-issue schedule and release it into circulation in a process called mining.

When you compare cryptocurrency mining to gold mining, why the process is referred to as mining becomes clear. In both forms of mining, the miners put in work and are rewarded with an uncirculated asset. In gold mining, naturally occurring gold that was outside the economy is dug up and becomes part of the gold circulating within the economy.

In cryptocurrency mining, work is performed, and the process ends with new cryptocurrency being created and added to the blockchain ledger. In both cases, miners, after receiving their reward the mined gold or the newly created cryptocurrency usually sell it to the public to recoup their operating costs and get their profit, placing the new currency into circulation.

The cryptocurrency miners work is different from that of a gold miner, of course, but the result is much the same: Both make money. For cryptocurrency mining, all of the work happens on a mining computer or rig connected to the cryptocurrency network no burro riding or gap-toothed gold panners required!

Cryptocurrency miners add transactions to the blockchain, but different cryptocurrencies use different mining methods, if the cryptocurrency uses mining at all. (Most cryptocurrencies dont use mining.) Different mining and consensus methods are used to determine who creates new blocks of data and how exactly the blocks are added to the blockchain.

How you mine a particular cryptocurrency varies slightly depending on the type of cryptocurrency being mined, but the basics are still the same: Mining creates a system to build trust between parties without needing a single authority and ensures that everyones cryptocurrency balances are up-to-date and correct in the blockchain ledger.

The work performed by miners consists of a few main actions:

The preceding cryptocurrency mining process is essential work, needed for the continued propagation of the blockchain and its associated transactions. Without it, the blockchain wont function. But why would someone do this work? What are the incentives for the miner?

The bitcoin miner actually has a couple of incentives (other cryptocurrencies may work in a different manner):

Combined, the fees and subsidy are known as the block reward. In Bitcoin, the block subsidy began at 50 BTC. (BTC is the ticker symbol for bitcoin.) The block subsidy at the time of writing is currently 12.5 BTC. The block subsidy is halved every 210,000 blocks, or roughly every four years; sometime around May 2020 it will halve again to 6.25 BTC per block.

The image below, from the BlockChain.com blockchain explorer, shows a block subsidy being paid to an address that is owned by the miner who added the block to the blockchain. Near the top you can see that 12.5 BTC is being paid as the subsidy; the actual sum received by the miner (the full reward, 13.24251028 BTC) is larger, because it also includes the transaction fees for all the transactions in the block.

For a cryptocurrency to function, several conditions must be met by the protocol. Jan Lanksys 6-factor list is particularly helpful. (Jan is a cryptocurrency academic teaching at a university in the Czech Republic). As can be seen, below, mining (in the mineable cryptocurrencies, non-mineable currencies have different mechanisms) is an integral part of making sure these conditions are met.

If even one of these six conditions arent met, a cryptocurrency will fail because it cant build enough trust for people to reliably use it. The process of mining solidifies and satisfies every single one of these conditions.

Theres a mind exercise known as the Byzantine Generals Problem (or the Byzantine Fault, the error avalanche, and various other things) that illustrates the problem that cryptocurrency consensus algorithms seek to solve.

The overall problem? Youre trying to reach consensus; in cryptocurrency, youre trying to reach agreement over the history of currency transactions. But in a cryptocurrency network, a distributed computer system of equals, you have thousands, maybe tens of thousands of computers (nodes); in the Bitcoin network you currently have 80,000 to 100,000 nodes.

But out of those tens of thousands of systems, some are going to have technical problems; hardware faults, misconfiguration, out-of-date software, misfunctioning routers, and so on. Others are going to be untrustworthy; theyre going to be seeking to exploit weaknesses for the financial gain of the people running the node (they are run by traitors). The problem is that for various reasons, some nodes may send conflicting and faulty information.

So someone came up with a sort of parable or metaphor, the Byzantine Generals Problem. (A guy named Leslie Lamport Shostak first told this story back in 1980, in a paper related to general issues of reliability in distributed computer systems.)

Originally named the Albanian Generals Problem, it was renamed after a long-defunct empire so not to offend any Albanians! (Though in this interconnected world of constant social media offense, there must be at least some offended residents of Istanbul.)

Apparently distributed-computing academics like to sit around and devise these little metaphors; theres the dining philosophers problem, the readers/writers problem, and so on. In fact the Byzantine Generals Problem was derived from the Chinese Generals Problem.

Anyway, the idea is this, as described in the original paper:

We imagine that several divisions of the Byzantine army are camped outside an enemy city, each division commanded by its own general. The generals can communicate with one another only by messenger. After observing the enemy, they must decide upon a common plan of action. However, some of the generals may be traitors, trying to prevent the loyal generals from reaching agreement. The generals must have an algorithm to guarantee that A. All loyal generals decide upon the same plan of action.[and] B. A small number of traitors cannot cause the loyal generals to adopt a bad plan.

(Search online for byzantine generals problem leslie lamport robert shostak marshall pease if youre interested in seeing the original paper.)

Thats the problem that cryptocurrency consensus algorithms, as theyre known, are trying to solve. How do the generals (the computer nodes) come up with consensus (all agree on the same plan of actionor transaction ledger), and avoid being led astray by a small number of traitors (faulty equipment and hackers)?

To have a chance at the mining reward, crypto miners must set up their mining rigs (the computer equipment) and run that cryptocurrencys associated mining software.

Depending on how many resources the crypto miner is committing, he or she will have a proportional chance to be the lucky miner who gets to create and chain the latest block; the more resources employed, the higher the chance of winning the reward. Each block has a predetermined amount of payment, which is rewarded to the victorious miner for their hard work to spend as they wish.

So how is the winning miner chosen? That depends. In most cases, one of two basic two methods are used:

When Bitcoin first started, anyone with a simple desktop computer was able to mine. The would-be miner simply downloaded the Bitcoin mining software, installed it, and let the BTC roll in! As time went on, though, competition increased.

Faster and more powerful computers were built and used for mining. Eventually, specialized processing chips called Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) were developed. An ASIC, as the name implies, is a computer chip designed for a specific purpose, such displaying high-resolution graphics quickly, running a smartphone, or carrying out a particular form of computation.

Specific ASICs have been designed to be highly efficient at the forms of computation required for cryptocurrency mining for example, for Bitcoin mining. Such a chip can be 1,000 times more efficient at Bitcoin mining than the chip in your PC, so in todays Bitcoin mining environment, its go ASIC or go home!

For high-difficulty cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, the ideal mining environment is one with:

Fear not, though! With many different copies and mimicry of Bitcoin running rampant, Bitcoin is no longer the only game in town, and you can find lots of alternative mining choices, with varying levels of required computing power. Today, some of the most profitable cryptocurrencies to mine are lesser known and can be mined using off-the-shelf computer hardware due to less stringent difficulty levels that are associated with lower popularity and adoption.

Currently, a large portion of the global cryptocurrency mining takes place in China, at perhaps three times the rate of the next closest nation (the United States). A combination of cheap electricity and easy access to cheap computer components for building mining rigs gives China an edge that Chinese miners have leveraged and so far, maintained, even with their governments apparent disapproval of cryptocurrencies.

This is a testament to how resilient and difficult to shut down distributed cryptocurrency systems such as Bitcoin are.

A cryptocurrency has value because a large number of people collectively believe that it does. But why do they believe cryptocurrency has value? The answer is trust.

A holder of Bitcoin can trust that their Bitcoin will be in their wallet a day from now or 10 years from now. If they want to research how the system works, they can audit the code base to understand the system on a deeper level to see how trust is maintained.

However, if they do not have the skillset or the computer science knowledge to audit code, they can choose to trust that other people, more knowledgeable than them, understand and monitor the system; they can trust the overall blockchain community that is managing the particular cryptocurrency.

Without the mining functionality underpinning the distributed peer-to-peer cryptocurrency system, this collective trust (based on the proof of collective work towards the chain) would not exist.

Cryptocurrency mining makes sure that your balances wont change without your authorization. It incentivizes everyone to behave correctly and punishes those who dont. It creates a digital form of value transfer that can be trusted by each individual user as an equal peer in the network because every part of the system is aligned for one purpose: providing a secure way to create, verify, and transfer ownership of digitally scarce cryptographic units.

Peter Kent is a longtime technology author who also created the online course Crypto Clear: Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency Made Simple. Tyler Bain is a professional engineer who specializes on the electrical grid. He is also a Certified Bitcoin Professional who focuses on system resiliency and mining mechanics.

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What is Cryptocurrency Mining? - dummies

Here is a guide to cryptocurrency for beginners. We offer simple answers to questions like what is cryptocurrency, how does it work, what is Bitcoin, what is blockchain, how do I buy cryptocurrency, etc.

Metaphor: Cryptocurrency is a bit like online banking without a central bank. It is software-based, like an online banking platform. There is a ledger (called a blockchain), balances, and account numbers. You access your balances by using a password and can make transactions this way. Just like with online banking, you dont need to know how it works under the hood to use it.

What is Cryptocurrency? Cryptocurrency is a type of digital asset that functions as a currency. The system that makes a cryptocurrency possible is based on cryptography (crypto) and a cryptocurrency is meant to be used like a currency (currency). With that in mind, not every digital crypto asset is meant to be used as a currency like the popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin is.

What is Bitcoin? Bitcoinis a software file stored on computers across the world that acts as a ledger of financial transactions called a blockchain. The ledger contains account numbers called public addresses associated with balances of Bitcoin. People can move around balances of Bitcoin if they have the passwords (or private keys) to those accounts using software called a cryptocurrency wallet (see description below). Bitcoin is the name of both this system and its unit of the currency. You can phrase it like this, balances of Bitcoin tokens are moved around on the Bitcoin blockchain by creating transactions in Bitcoin wallets.

What is Blockchain?Technically Blockchain is first and foremost a database protocol (a set of rules) for sorting data into blocks, but its easier to think of a Blockchain as a type of database. Essentially, it is a spreadsheet where data is stored in cells (or blocks) that are linked together in order by cryptographic codes called hashes. This database is generally decentralized and distributed on many computers instead of being stored in one central location or managed by one central entity. In Bitcoin, blockchain is generally used to describe both the public ledger where all transaction data is stored and technology (the protocol) behind the ledger. Many who arent believers in Bitcoin as a currency / digital asset are supporters of blockchain technology and its many applications both within finance and beyond.

On Being Decentralized and Distributed. Instead of Bitcoin being hosted on one computer or one companys computers, Bitcoin is hosted on many computers by many different entities (it is distributed). Meanwhile, everything is either done democratically or is controlled by algorithms, so there isnt a need for a centralized middle-man like a bank or government (it is decentralized). Bitcoins blockchain is in this sense both decentralized and distributed.

How is Cryptocurrency Different From Fiat Currency? Fiat currency, like the U.S. dollar, is controlled by central banks and controlled by states. It is legal tender and you can pay your taxes with it. Cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, isnt controlled by a central entity but it isnt legal tender and you cant pay your taxes with it. Otherwise both fiat currencies and crypto currencies act as mediums of exchange and stores of value. With that in mind, some argue that cryptocurrency is a digital asset with exchange value, but not a true currency.

Can I buy things with Cryptocurrency? Cryptocurrency can be used as a payment method for any good or service that accepts cryptocurrency. The most common cryptocurrency used as payment is Bitcoin. As time goes on, accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment is becoming more common. Check out a list of things you can buy with Bitcoin.

What are the Benefits of Using Cryptocurrency as a payment method? There are a number of benefits of cryptocurrency as a payment method. The main benefits of cryptocurrency in this sense are the often low transaction costs and quick transaction fees compared to other payment systems. On a good day cryptocurrency is the quickest and cheapest way to send money around the globe (XRP is a great example of this). Cryptocurrency is also an easy way to make payments online, especially for peer-to-peer transactions. Another big benefit is that cryptocurrency doesnt require trust, which removes potential worry for both the sending and receiving party. Meanwhile, for some people in some states, cryptocurrency can act as an alternative to a states currency (which can be good if that currency is suffering from rapid inflation for example).

How do I Buy / Sell Cryptocurrency? One can buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin via online brokers or exchanges like Coinbase or GDAX. Exchanges are like digital stock exchanges, but for cryptocurrencies. Learn how to trade cryptocurrencyor check out ourcryptocurrency investing starter kit.

Is Cryptocurrency Legal? In general, cryptocurrency is legal in every respect in the U.S. and much of the world. The only rules of thumb are 1. you have to pay taxes on it and 2. anything that would be illegal otherwise is also illegal with cryptocurrency.

Is Cryptocurrency Taxable in the U.S.? Cryptocurrency is taxed as an investment property, that means you have to tally profits and losses at the current market value of a cryptocurrency when you sell it, use it, or trade it and then pay the capital gains tax on profits in a calendar year. Please take time to learn about the tax implications of cryptocurrency.

What is an ICO? An ICO is an initial coin offering, a way for a new coin to raise money by offering a pre-sale of an up-and-coming token. ICOs are controversial. On one hand, some ICOs have been scams, on the other hand some states have worried that ICOs are mimicking securities without following the securities rules. One should do extra research before participating in an ICO.

What is a token? Token is a word that has a few different meanings in cryptocurrency. In simple terms, it just describes a cryptocurrency and its unit of value (a cryptocurrency = a token). For example one could say I have 10 Bitcoin tokens. The term is also sometimes used to describe cryptocurrencies existing on other coins networks. For example, the KIN ICO is a token on the Ethereum network. Lastly, encrypted bits of data that dont contain identifying information are also called tokens, this type of token is also used in cryptocurrencies. In other words, what the term means depends on context.

How Do Transactions Work? Software called a cryptocurrency wallet (see below) is used in conjunction with an account number and password (technically public address and private key). The private key (known only to its owner, like a password) is used to create a signature that allows the owner to move around funds on the blockchain. Transactions are then secured on the blockchain in sequential blocks by miners (see the next section). Almost all cryptocurrencies work like this.

How Do I Store Cryptocurrency? In overly simple terms, you essentially store cryptocurrency in cryptocurrency wallets(see the next point for the technical details). For long term, youll likely want a cold wallet(where you store your private keys offline). For short term use, you might use a range of options or even temporarily keep funds on an exchange (but be careful, if it is connected to the internet, it is a hot target).

What is a Cryptocurrency Wallet? A wallet can be thought of as software that allows one to store cryptocurrency and create cryptocurrency transactions. This is a simple way to think of a wallet even though cryptocurrency isnt technically stored in a wallet (instead public addresses are associated with transactions recorded on the blockchain, and thus are associated with balances, which the wallet software can read and display for you). More technically then, a wallet is software that allows you to store your private keys, view balances associated with public addresses, and create and sign outgoing transactions. With that noted, one must differentiate between wallets where you control your private keys (like the Bitcoin Core wallet), and custodial wallets where third parties host the wallet for you and are in control of the private keys (like the wallets on Coinbase or GDAX).

What is a Node? Since cryptocurrency is distributed many computers around the world have to run the software. Any computer running a copy of the software is a node. A full node runs a full copy of the blockchain.

How are New coins Created? When a transaction is created in a wallet it is broadcast to everyone in the Bitcoin network. For that transaction to be added to the ledger, users running mining software must solve cryptographic puzzles that let them add a block of transactions to the blockchain. The reward for adding a block is newly minted cryptocurrency. Thus mining is cracking puzzles to play digital accountant, and new coins are minted as rewards for mining transaction blocks.

How is Bitcoin Secure? Bitcoin is secure for two main reasons. 1. It uses a lot of one-way encryption that makes everything that is encrypted next to impossible to hack (it requires a ton of work). 2. It is distributed and so there is no central software to hack.

How does the cryptography aspect of Bitcoin work? At the core of Bitcoin, in terms of cryptography, iscryptographic hash functions. Key concepts includepublic-key cryptographyand proof-of-work functions. If you want a crash course in the cryptography behind those terms, clicks those links and try reading the Bitcoin white paper:Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.

What Happens If I Lose My Keys or if Someone Steals My Cryptocurrency? If you lose your private key, you lose access to the balances associated with it. If someone gets access to your crypto and they steal it, there is generally no way to resolve this issue. However, if you use a third party platform, like an exchange, and the exchange and not your account is hacked, then you might have recourse. The major exchanges tend to be good about reimbursing users in the case of a hack.

How Can I better Secure My Cryptocurrency? Since losing your keys and theft are real issues, it makes sense to follow some best practices of basic internet security. Keep your keys backed up offline (learn more about secure cold wallets), dont store all your crypto in one location, be careful about URLs (make sure the URL is the real one), use a browser dedicated to crypto, use two factor authentication on any account you can, choose strong unique passwords, and dont use your public email to log into your accounts. Taking just a few of these steps will go a long way to protecting you, taking none of these steps is asking for trouble. As a rule of thumb two-factor authentication is a must, so make sure it is enabled on all platforms that allow it! TIP: Although there are exceptions to this rule, the main security risk with the major cryptos isnt the software (the software takes a ton of work to hack) or the major exchanges (the major ones are ensured, keep most of their funds in cold storage, and have security teams), it is people not taking care to secure their accounts.

Is Bitcoin Anonymous? Bitcoin is pseudo-anonymous. Every transaction is recorded on the public ledger (the blockchain), but no identifying data is used. Everyone can see the transaction and the public wallet address associated with it, but no one knows who made the transaction (unless that person or entity makes that information public). Other cryptocurrencies have more or less focus on privacy than Bitcoin. Some cryptocurrencies, likeMonero are truly anonymous (in theory). With Monero, not even transaction data is public.

What is a smart contract? A smart contract is exactly what it sounds like, a smart (software-based and programable) contract (a set of conditions that when met execute the terms of the contract). Smart contracts can be written to a cryptocurrencys blockchain to create a trustless contract (a peer-to-peer contract that doesnt require a middle-man or trust). Unlike paper contracts a software contract can execute any function that can be executed by the software once conditions are met. This means in theory smart contracts can replace real contracts, but also do anything software can do. Ethereums system relies heavily on smart contracts, anyone can create a smart contract on Ethereum if they have the native Ether token to pay the fee for using the system. TIP: Bitcoin transactions are smart financial contracts, but Ethereum allows for smart contracts for much more than just financial transactions. Ethereums contracts can distribute new tokens, double as insurance contracts, or anything you can think of.

On Being Peer-to-Peer and Trustless. An important feature of cryptocurrency is that it is trustless. The encryption, code, blockchain, etc all comes together to allow for a trustless peer-to-peer distributed and decentralized system. That sentence might sound jargon-y, but it contains some important points. At the core, the idea is that all the aspects of cryptocurrency come together to create a system that doesnt rely on trusting your peers or trusting a middle-man. Contracts written to the blockchain are written in stone, there is no need for trust or middle-men to ensure the execution of a contract once its conditions are met!

Crypto Terms: FOMO is fear of missing out (an emotional response to seeing the price move a lot and wanting in). FUD is fear, uncertainty, and doubt that can affect prices of assets. HODL is a misspelling of hold from an old forum post (it today means hold on for dear life during big price movements). A hard fork is like a fork in the road, a copy and paste of software that allows each copy to branch off in a different direction (when this happens with Bitcoin the ledger is duplicated along with balances, meaning people get the newly forked coins for free). An Airdrop is a method of distributing newly minted coins to the wallet addresses of current coin holders. See a list of crypto jargon.

Did I miss something or do you need something clarified? Just ask me a question in the comments below and Ill answer it.

"Cryptocurrency For Beginners" contains information about the following Cryptocurrencies:

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Cryptocurrency For Beginners - CryptoCurrency Facts

The Indian cryptocurrency industry has been growing rapidly despite the nationwide lockdown and the coronavirus crisis. Two new cryptocurrency trading platforms are launching in India while existing crypto businesses seek clarification from the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The crypto sector in India is showing significant growth with several crypto exchanges reporting a 10X increase in trading volumes and a substantial increase in new users. Despite the global coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide lockdown, new cryptocurrency trading platforms are launching in India.

Global cryptocurrency exchange aggregator Coinswitch is launching a crypto trading app for Indian users on June 1. Announcing pre-registration for Coinswitch Kuber, Coinswitch explained on Wednesday:

Coinswitch Kuber will ensure the best rates by aggregating liquidity across all Indian exchanges and will support over 100 currencies for Indian users to buy and sell easily using Indian rupees (INR).

Coinswitch aggregates the liquidity of a number of crypto exchanges in India to provide its users with the best rates for cryptocurrencies. The exchanges include Binance, Huobi, Kucoin, and Hitbtc. To access this pooled liquidity, users simply enter the INR amount and the cryptocurrency they want to buy, and the service will provide a list of offers at various exchanges that auto-refreshes every 30 seconds.

The first 25,000 users during pre-launch pay no INR trading, deposit, or withdrawal fees. Users can earn Coinswitch points, or Kuber points, as a part of the new platforms reward program, which can be redeemed from the reward section once the platform is live.

Besides Coinswitch, another cryptocurrency exchange has launched in India. The Bangalore-based Bitpolo announced on Thursday that it is now live. The exchange offers instant INR deposits and claims that withdrawals are within seconds. Chief business officer Suresh Choudhary said:

We were building through the bear market and thought the timing of our launch cannot be more apt than when the world is slowly inching back towards normalcy post a pandemic & recessionary environment.

As we foresee fragilities of traditional asset classes, crypto markets seem to offer the bigger upside and we intend to bring simplicity and solid technology to the screens of Indian traders and hodlers, Bitpolo added.

Ever since the Supreme Court of India quashed the RBI ban, the Indian crypto community has been waiting for more instruction from the central bank. The RBI has not sent any notices to banks regarding the supreme courts ruling, which has led some banks to continue denying service to crypto businesses. According to reports, the central bank is not obligated to issue any updates.

A number of crypto businesses have reportedly approached the RBI seeking clarity on the status of the banking ban and the taxation of cryptocurrency. The cryptocurrency exchanges also want clarity as to whether they are being categorized as commodity, currency, goods or service as this is set to impact the way they get taxed under goods and services tax (GST) framework, the Economic Times reported Monday.

If the digital assets are not exempted from GST, the digital currency exchanges in India are going to have a standoff with the tax authority, Praveenkumar Vijayakumar, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Belfrics Global, was quoted by the news outlet as saying. He elaborated:

In the wake of the recent supreme court ruling, we have also approached the RBI for clarity on this, as if we pay GST on the whole transaction, then most platforms would not be able to survive.

Several Indian tax authorities have been examining how to tax bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The indirect tax department has been investigating whether cryptocurrency could be brought under GST and how much to tax crypto exchanges. The sales tax department and VAT authorities are also looking into cryptocurrency taxation.

What do you think about how fast the Indian crypto sector is growing? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Coinswitch, Bitpolo

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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New Cryptocurrency Exchanges Launch in India as Businesses ...

Would you accept cryptocurrency as a reward for watching ads? How about if you had to prove you had watched said ads by having your brain waves analyzed? It might sound a bit crazy, but its an idea Microsoft lays out in a new patent application titled Cryptocurrency System Using Body Activity Data.

Filed in September 2018, but only recently published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and highlighted by PC Magazine, the application describes a method of how brain wave or body heat emitted from the user when the user performs the task provided by an information service provider, such as viewing an advertisement or using certain internet services, can be used in the mining process.

As is described by the patent application, instead of the massive computation work that is required by conventional cryptocurrency systems, Microsofts hypothesis is that data generated based on the body activity of users can help solve the computationally difficult problem unconsciously. Other than brain waves and body heat, the system could also potentially monitor body fluid flow and organ activity and movement.

All of this would, of course, require biometric reading of users, potentially via attached sensors. As a reward for wearing these, however, the system would then pay out cryptocurrency for completing certain tasks. As the application notes: The cryptocurrency system communicatively coupled to the device of the user may verify if the body activity data satisfies one or more conditions set by the cryptocurrency system, and award cryptocurrency to the user whose body activity data is verified.

In addition to watching ads for a set amount of time, the patent application also notes how it could track tasks such as social media, using search engines, sending and receiving email, visiting websites, or using chatbots.

Overall, it leaves a whole lot more questions open than it poses answers. Which cryptocurrency? Would the mining of these currencies be the main benefit for Microsoft or would it be the ability to prompt users to use certain services? And, most crucially of all, will this ever transition from a proof-of-concept to a fully fledged product? As with many patents, theres a good chance that this is a defensive patent that will never actually be turned into a user-facing product. Nonetheless, its another reminder that tech giants are always looking for new ways to keep eyes (and brain waves, organ activity, etc.) on their products.

Excerpt from:

Mining Cryptocurrency By Reading Users' Brain Waves ...

$ 18.95

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Coinranking: Cryptocurrency Prices Live - Rates List Today ...

An Indian government official has claimed that two ministries and the Reserve Bank of India are actively working on a legal framework to ban cryptocurrencies on the subcontinent.

According to an Aug. 4 report from Indian news website Moneycontrol, authorities in India are making preparations to pass a law banning cryptocurrency trading. The site quoted an anonymous official as saying that consultations between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Ministry of Law and Justice, and the Reserve Bank of Indiahad begun regarding the framework of such a law.

Once Parliament resumes for the session, we are hoping to get [the law] ratified,the official said. Parliament is expected to reconvene in late August or early September.

The official stated that the government was considering banning crypto through legislative change rather than methods such as the blanket ban from the RBI for banks dealing with crypto firms because it would be more binding. It will clearly define the illegality of the trade, the person said.

In March, the Supreme Court of India struck down a blanket ban on banks dealing with crypto businesses thathad been imposed by the RBI since July 2018. The repeal led to a boom in new exchanges across the country.

However, government officials have been floating the idea of enacting a new law not allowing cryptocurrencies in India in place of the RBI ban.

Ashish Singhal, founder and CEO of Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch, said that the chances that the government would impose a blanket ban on digital currencies weremore likely in 2019 than this year. He said there has been a change in the way crypto is perceived across India, hopefully for the better.

Though many parts of India still face some restrictions on movement due to the pandemic since a lockdown was ordered in March, crypto exchanges in the country reported strong growth as some investors moved away from traditional assets.

Cointelegraph reported in May that India-based exchange CoinDCX had ten times the average number of users sign up in the week after the RBI ban was lifted as well as47% growth for Q1 2020. Trading platform WazirX also recorded a month-on-month growth of over 80% in both March and April. Additionally, United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase entered the Indian market, offering crypto-to-crypto conversions and trading services from April onward.

Moneycontrol said that millions of dollars worth of business in cryptocurrency is being done every week, with the lockdown pushing up the volumes.

A growing number of investors have found refuge in virtual currencies as traditional assets have taken a beating over worries about the health of the economy battered by the coronavirus outbreak.

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Indian Government Actively Working Toward New Crypto Ban - Cointelegraph

Diginex has launched a cryptocurrency exchange in Singapore, where it currently operates under a "temporary exemption" from licensing. The move comes ahead of its planned listing on Nasdaq, expected to take place this quarter.

Its Singapore exchange, EQUOS.io, would specialise in crypto derivatives trading and initially offer spot trading, with dated futures, options, and other derivative products to follow. The blockchain technology company added in a statement Thursday that the exchange was operating under an exemption in Singapore's Payment Services Act, and would be a "fair and transparent platform" for users.

It also would introduce an "easy to use" interface for retail investors as well as managed account features designed to improve collateralisation processes, amongst others.

Diginex CEO Richard Byworth said: "Our industry analysis has allowed us to understand the friction points for institutions to trade digital assets and address many of those with new and improved solutions around portfolio management."

The launch comes ahead of the company's planned merger with 8i Enterprises Acquisition, which is expected to be finalised in the third quarter and will see Diginex's listing on Nasdaq.

In its statement, the blockchain tech company added that it had applied for a Major Payment Institution licence in Singapore, where it currently operates under the temporary exemption.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) earlier this year published a list of entities that had been exempted from holding a licence under the Payment Services Act, for specific payment services, and a period of either six or 12 months. This exemption would end after the specified period or if the entity applied for a licence.

While based in Hong Kong, Diginex chose to launch its cryptocurrency exchange in Singapore because of the latter's regulatory regime, Byworth said in a Reuters report. He described Singapore as "more flexible" in its views about cryptocurrency.

In January, the country's Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in parliament that the government believed crypto derivative products were not suitable for most retail investors because they did not have intrinsic value and were subject to volatile pricing due to speculation. He said this prompted MAS to regulate crypto derivative products that were listed and traded only on approved exchanges, which were subject to regulatory requirements and oversight.

Tharman noted: "But we do not extend the regulation of crypto derivative products beyond approved exchanges. This would confer misplaced confidence in these highly volatile products and lead to a wider offering of such products to retail investors. Our approach has worked so far as trading in crypto products in Singapore remains limited and only a small number of retail investors are involved."

He said MAS had instructed all financial institutions to comply with additional measures if they offered crypto products to retail investors, such as restrictions on advertisement. The minister had stressed that such measures did not apply to entities not regulated by MAS.

Singapore last November said it was exploring plans to allow payment token derivatives, such as Bitcoin and Ether, to be traded on local exchanges and for such activities to be regulated. The move aimed to address international investor interest in cryptocurrencies.

MAS in 2018warned eight cryptocurrency exchangesagainst engaging in unauthorised trading, specifically, those involving securities or futures contracts. It also had repeatedlycautioned the publicabout the risks of cryptocurrencies and to understand the environment before investing in digital tokens, stressing that these were not recognised as legal tender and functioned in an unregulated environment.

Japan's messaging platform Line in July 2018 launched its cryptocurrency exchange, Bitbox, in Singapore, offering 30 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.

See more here:

Diginex launches Singapore cryptocurrency exchange | ZDNet

As bitcoin passes ,000 for the first time in months, the conversation around crypto is heating up again. The biggest crypto haters are now getting in on the action, most famously JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon. Ether, the Pepsi to bitcoins Coca-Cola, came into its own as a separate, distinct and viable long term investment. Many investors are beginning to view cryptocurrency as more than a short term speculation play or a portfolio hedge. There is evidence that the major cryptocurrencies are being used as a play against the falling U.S. dollar. News of Bitcoins new highs came at around the same time as headlines of dollar debasement

During the first mania in December 2017, bitcoin peaked at almost $20,000. Total market capitalization tripled from approximately $250 billion to $750 billion and barged into the mainstream public consciousness. Unfortunately for some traders, the market sold off just as quickly as it had pumped itself up.

The total market cap for the crypto market

Why Crypto is Here to Stay This Time

Professional analysts dont believe that crypto will give back its gains so quickly this time. I tend to agree. The major difference between 2017 and 2020 is cryptos ease of access. When I first bought crypto circa 2015, it was a real David Hasselhoff. The exchange I used, Coinbase, was clunky, slow and illiquid. I was so frustrated with my experience there that I immediately moved my crypto into a private wallet and didnt buy again for a time.

Moving my coins into an off exchange wallet was an experience as well. I remember downloading the entire blockchain to my computer because there were few trustworthy light wallets, and even less information actually explaining what that meant. I bought a separate computer just for my bitcoin. I tried my best to learn hashes and forks. I remember thinking I was a financial genius for being able to capture and claim my Bitcoin Cash. It was a challenge for me!

Today, Coinbase is a much better experience than I remember, and so are many other exchanges. I now have three wallets that are not only easy to use, but are actually fun to use. Fees have been reduced. Trading coins against each other is more like a video game. It is easy to switch coins. You can move in real time, fast enough to catch short term moves. I can basically trade my crypto just like I trade my securities.

Whats more, the establishment has bought in. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) now offers futures contracts on bitcoin. Banks fought for and received the right to hold crypto quite recently. Pop singer Akon is building an entire city in Senegal based around his own coin, the Akoin. Megacompanies like Facebook and countries like Russia are now trying to create crypto rather than kill it. Regardless of which coins pass the test of time, digital currency has legs. It is here to stay. All the market has to do is attract people in.

Story continues

When it comes to easy access in the crypto market, few platforms give you an easier time than eToro. eToro deals in contracts for differences (CFDs) that serve as proxies for top cryptocurrencies. Whats the difference? When you buy or sell a CFD, you actually never own the crypto. But since the price of the contract is tagged to the price of the coin, you do benefit from good trades and suffer losses for bad ones.

CFDs Versus Crypto

So what are the benefits of trading CFDs rather than real crypto?

First, you are trading on a highly liquid platform with easy entries and exits. Many crypto exchanges suffer from illiquidity and volatile price shifts. You also gain the safety of trading within the auspices of a regulated broker. eToro is regulated through many well known financial authorities including the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), the UKs Financial Conduct Authority and holds as Australian Financial Services License.

Second, you dont have to worry about actually buying crypto, which can still be a hassle. Governments are doing their best to regulate crypto, and they are clamping down on the exchanges the onboard ramps. As a result, you have to go through a bureaucracy of sorts to legitimately enter the market. You lose your anonymity, which was the first major advantage of using crypto in the first place.

Third, you can easily trade crypto using leverage. Your limit on eToro is 2X when you trade cryptocurrencies.

Getting in on the Game

As it was in 2017, bitcoin is the number one performing asset class in 2020. This time, society may actually be ready to embrace it. If you are looking for a quick way to get in the market without learning all of the nuances of crypto, eToro CFDs can help.

See more from Benzinga

2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Is Cryptocurrency Here to Stay This Time? - Yahoo Finance

On July 22, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued an interpretive letter confirming that national banks and savings associations may provide cryptocurrency custody and related services. National banks have long provided safekeeping and custody services for a wide variety of customer assets, including both physical objects and electronic assets, and the extension of these services to cryptocurrency is a modern form of these traditional activities.

In the letter, the OCC acknowledged that the provision of custody services could involve a range of services, from safekeeping to non-fiduciary and fiduciary custody. Depending on the type of custody service, banks will be able to provide a range of ancillary services, including facilitating cryptocurrency and fiat currency exchange transactions, transaction settlement, trade execution, record keeping, valuation, tax services, reporting and other appropriate services.

The OCC stresses that banks will need to apply effective risk management practices, as required under law, to any potential cryptocurrency custody services, and have adequate systems in place to identify, measure, monitor, and control the risks of its custody services. In particular, the OCC states that banks should include the following systems:

The OCC suggests that banks should also consider special controls for settlement of transactions, physical access controls, and security servicing. These controls would need to be tailored in the context of digital custody.

Finally, the OCC states the banks will need to address the risks associated with an individual account prior to acceptance through a sound know-your-customer and due diligence process. In summary, the OCCs letter is an overdue measure and tacitly recognizes that cryptocurrency is not an irregular and unusual asset. This development effectively expands the number of types of entities that provide cryptocurrency custody, allowing national banks to compete with state-chartered entities.

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Federally Chartered Banks Approved to Provide Custody of Cryptocurrency - Lexology

With a rise in the tendency to make a quick buck, Cryptocurrency Exchanges have emerged in different parts of the globe courtesy friendly regulations and crashes in financial markets. As the number of users and volume of trades reaches new heights, it is important to take precautionary measures from scams. Scams rob not only funds but also the reputation of cryptocurrencies.

Investors can avoid the above scams and stay safe by installing top-notch security features in their respective accounts. Taking steps such as two-factor authentication, reserving funds in cold wallets, double-checking cryptocurrency addresses before finalizing deals, and keeping their private keys safely with themselves will go a long way in preventing the occurrence of such dangerous scams.

Want to make your startup journey smooth? YS Education brings a comprehensive Funding Course, where you also get a chance to pitch your business plan to top investors. Click here to know more.

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How to unearth the different scams in Cryptocurrency Exchanges? - YourStory

Written by Noah Abbe, analyst and trader at BTCC UK

Traders all around the world are always looking for opportunities to make money. With progression of time and technological advancements, the traders life and opportunities have evolved along as well. Introduction of virtual financial assets, along with the popularity of the futures of virtual currency has brought interest from traders globally.

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency launched in 2009 and remained relatively low in terms of value the first few years until reaching a massive high in 2017 and staying close to a $10K mark now.

Looking at the chart above, having traded below a $2 000 mark until 2017, there was an upsurge in price where the return went as high as to 10 times in a single year.

That makes it a 10x or 1 000 percent in a single year of holding. Not just that, Bitcoin has provided immense such gains each year, with volatility so great that a trader could have made more than a 10x/1 000 percent each year in the previous three years just by trading.

In December of 2017, the two largest global exchanges the CBOE and CME launched the derivatives for Bitcoin which allowed the traders to take benefit of leverage Bitcoin trading.

The futures then allowed the traders to take a long as well as a short position on the Bitcoin letting the traders take benefit of each and every available opportunity that grew out as a result of rising volatility.

Looking at the graph above, it can be easily seen that BTC futures was close to $7 000 at the start of the year, where they rose to $10 000 mark, fell down to $5 000 during the ongoing pandemic, beginning in March 2020.

Soon thereafter, recovery of Bitcoin started and the futures rose as well. The retracement is now close to a 100 percent from the beginning of 2020 in February and currently trades close to $9 270 for a contract.

Let us consider if there are any opportunities available.

Just looking at the above available graph, there is another possibility of Bitcoin Futures.

The moment the futures break above the $9 500 mark, the futures would be moving up towards the $10 400 mark in a matter of a few days. Since the futures work on the underlying commodity which in this case is Bitcoin itself, this means that Bitcoin is ready to provide a move as well.

The lower black line should be the stopping point for any long move, where the upper pink line noting 2020 Febs previous top as the likely target.

Having earned a technical view, I decided to go long on a 10x leverage where I enter when Bitcoin has provided me a breakout above $9 500.

I keep my target as $10 400 with a stop of $9 320. In that case, my stop-loss is $180 for the move while my target is $900 on the long move, making my Risk to Reward Ratio (RR Ratio) 1:5.

On every $1 that I have put at stake to lose on the basis of the wrong view, I can earn $5 A view that is prepared on technical basis led by experience, a defined stop-loss and moves is not gambling.

Instead, its an opportunity to trade. And the stop-loss, if taken, are the costs of doing business.

So, lets explain the above example in detail.

Lets say, I went long at $9 500 with a 20x leverage buying 1BTC contract each. So, I have now effectively exposure of 20BTC.

The money at risk that I have is 20 times the $180, making it $3 600 as the amount that I can lose. On the other hand, given that my technical view is right, on my exposure of position, I can in against make 20 x $900 = $18 000.

So, given that my RR ratio is good enough and I am making the right moves, assuming I took five trades and only one of them went right, I would still not be in a loss, if my three out of five or four out of five trades go right.

With a preview given on how to trade the contracts of Bitcoin futures, let us now speak about which platform to choose for your trading.

You need a platform which is safe, offers you a good leverage option and enough liquidity with low costs of position. For this purpose, I suggest BTCC.com.

It has options of letting you trade at a 100x leverage, with signup free bonus of $1 000 and allows you to trade nine pairs of major cryptocurrencies which include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, EOS, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, ADA, XLM and Dash.

The signup option takes 30 seconds and the charting option that the platform provides is extremely lucrative. It also offers a customer service option and financial security, making it one of the best available options globally.

Find out how to make your first Bitcoin or crypto futures trade on BTCC here.

Disclaimer: There are risks attached to investing, trading and speculating. With hefty gains, there is always a risk of losing your money given that you are not adequately taking care of it. It is advised that you follow safety measures which could include using technical entries, stop loss(es) and targeted exits. Understanding leverage is significant. Consulting your independent financial advisor before entering into any commercial trade is highly advisable.

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Making money on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency futures - htxt.africa

The overall performance of the nascent cryptocurrency market during Q2 2020 was not as good as it was when compared to the previous quarter.

According to Token Insight, the main reason for the relatively poor performance this past quarter may be attributed to very little fluctuation in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and other major digital assets.

The Token Insight team pointed out in its report that the BTC and larger crypto market trading during the month of June 2020 remained sideways.

The report states that the positive market sentiment due to the Bitcoin (BTC) halving in May 2020 has now been exhausted. The report also mentions that when the money-making effect is low, the entire market is relatively quiet.

According to research conducted by Token Insight, industry participants believed that the cryptocurrency derivatives market, particularly the competition in contract-based transactions, will become more intensified in the near future.

The researchers claim that this will be due to incomplete product forms of different cryptocurrency exchanges at this particular stage. They argue that if and when similar products (for example, forward perpetual, reverse perpetual, delivery, and options) are complete, the competitive landscape will change or be broken again.

The research teams findings indicate that Tether (USDT) contracts will continue to occupy the mainstream crypto market. Because of this, crypto exchanges with leading positions in forward contracts should have more of an advantage, the researchers claim.

They noted:

The reverse contract market will continue to exist. At this stage, large positions still account for a relatively high proportion of reverse contracts, especially at the BitMEX exchange.

The transaction volume of deliverable contracts in the cryptocurrency market rose quickly during Q1 2020, the report confirmed. Huobi appears to have offered the most attractive options in this particular market segment, the Token Insight team claims.

The report also pointed out that Binance recently introduced deliverable contracts.

The report predicted:

We [believe] that more exchanges will also launch deliverable contracts in the near future. [However,] the market share of Huobi and OKExs deliverable contracts is likely to fall; Binances deliverable contracts will also occupy part of the market, while Bybit will also gain a certain market share if it launches deliverable contracts.

They added:

The leverage ratio of the overall contract market should be between 20-50 times. The use of high leverage ratio will shorten the life cycle of ordinary users. At this stage, the life cycle of contract users is about two months.

The report revealed that many crypto trading platforms have adopted a customer loss model.

It also mentioned:

After users lose money in the industry, the funds earned by exchanges, and a large part of it is actually transferred out of the industry. Therefore, high-risk, high-leverage and other irregular behaviors in the derivatives field are actually consuming the vitality of the industry and users. Exchanges have to face the problems of high customer acquisition costs and high retention costs.

The report notes that specialization is most likely the future of cryptocurrency-based derivatives trading. It claims that contract fund transactions will account for more trading volume; but at this stage, the imperfect cryptocurrency custody infrastructure will limit the development of GP and LP; and the Counterparty Risk that LPs face is also an important factor.

Crypto exchanges will be competing with each other, more than ever, when it comes to offering the best or most affordable prices, the report states.

According to TokenInsight, transaction fees remain relatively high when compared to traditional market rates. Theres a significant gap among different digital currency exchanges in API, document specification and quality, and the poor infrastructure is also a reason why many professional investors have not yet entered the crypto market, the report revealed.

During Q2 2020, TokenInsight determined that the crypto derivatives market was valued at $2.159 trillion. The estimate is reportedly based on the activity of 42 digital asset exchanges. There was a modest increase of 2.57% in the size of the emerging derivatives market during Q2 2020 when compared to the previous quarter. There was a more impressive year-on-year growth of 165.56%.

Other key findings from the report regarding the digital asset derivatives market are as follows:

(Note: The full report may be accessed here.)

As covered recently, crypto markets are plagued with manipulation, endless wash trading, but industry executives are confident about H2 2020, according to a new report.

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Compliant Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchanges Accounted for Only 1% of the Trading Volume of the Sector During Q2 2020 with $21.62 Billion in...

Hello everyone! All of you are well aware of the term cryptocurrencies, which are the most common and useful terms nowadays. It is an essential and well-known term which are needed to be understood. Cryptocurrency meaning goes to the assets. It is a term related to the asset and where you can exchange your currency at the digital market place. It is instrumental nowadays in the era of technology and artificial intelligence. Here you can learn about the data controller to transfer your currency and to exchange your money.

The primary purpose is to describe the facts for cryptocurrency and the regulation of cryptocurrency like bitcoin in Europe, which is such the most prominent place to live. Europe is making a lot of progress in every walk of life, and the same is the case with cryptocurrencies. It is trying for more useful ways to regulate the cryptocurrency. In the next section, you will learn about the regulation of the cryptocurrency in Europe using the efficient and the tops ideas. You need to read the full article to know more.

Lets discuss the top and essential regulators of the cryptocurrencies in Europe. All of these are the best and efficient ways that are mentioned by the Financial Stability Board of Europe. These are the following:

European Commission is the first and the most important regulator of the cryptocurrency in Europe. The primary function of the European Commission is to plan, prepare, design, and propose the legislations involving in the cryptocurrency. The commission not only gives you the essential guidelines and the information, but the primary purpose is to stabilize the risks as well.

European Banking Authority also called as EBA is another well important and versatile regulator for the cryptocurrency. The EBAs primary functions include regulating the horizon-scan for innovative products and services in all over Europe. It monitors the aspects of the financial system and how these systems are stable by the countrys laws and regulations.

The main functions of the European Insurance and Occupational Pension Authority are to regulate and develop the methods for the coins currencies to control. It produces all of the important and the needed currencies in the country, including the bitcoin and many others.

European Securities and Markets Authority is another essential and efficient regulators which are called as ESMA. The main functions are to provide all of the necessary and fundamental rules for the cryptocurrency regulation. Not only has this, but it also provided the financial improvements providing the cryptocurrencies ideas.

Europe is making a ton of progress in these fields and is making the advancements, but it is still doing the best to improve the cryptocurrency so that you can learn more about bitcoin trader. It has made a lot of improvements and is looking for more. In recent days in 2020, it has made the new policies and new rules for the regulation of the cryptocurrency. The people working for the cryptocurrency are those who are making a lot of struggle for the improvements and all experts. The trends and the new advancements are given in the next sections.

Fifth-Anti Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) is the agency that works with legislations and make advancements. It brings the rules for the cryptocurrency exchange according to the new and upcoming ideas. Recently it has made the exchange rules in January 2020 and is getting a lot of achievements according to the planning. It has made several procedures as well for the regulation of the cryptocurrency.

5AMLD is just a nutshell in Europe that is making several advancements. The primary purpose is to look for how much the regulations are accepted and applied by all countries. The rules must be followed by the customers and the newcomers in the cryptocurrency states. It has created a phrase which to Know Your Customers called the KYC.

KYC is doing a lot of efficiency in this field, and the main of these is to look that how many people are doing the best in the cryptocurrency regulation just like bitcoin and how many people have been identified for this job. Million of the people are doing the succession by making the regulations in cryptocurrency and doing the best job in this field.

Several personalities are doing a great job and creating the new advancements because they are a member of the 5AMLD. The EU is making more progress day by day and is getting success in the regulation of the cryptocurrency. The exciting aspect is the KYC strategy, which is working at the tops level in the EU.

There is no doubt that Europe is making a lot of progress and success in cryptocurrency regulation like bitcoin. It is still keen and curious for the future advancements and is more furious for the next prospective. A lot of strategies are working, and a lot of plans are upcoming on the way.

The article is about the cryptocurrency regulation in Europe, as the bitcoin currencies. All of the critical regulators and the relevant agencies which are serving the entire EU are mentioned above. You are advised to follow the above regulators in the EU if you are living in Europe, and you can even use these all using your online sources. No matter where you are. Europe has made a lot of progress in this field but is looking for more advancement. The main reasons for the success in the cryptocurrency regulation include the 5AMLD and KYC. KYC is the basic need to be successful, according to the European people. These are all about the essential aspects, and the EU is still making new ideas. If you have more questions regarding the cryptocurrency regulation in Europe, you are welcome and feel free to ask any time you want.

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Regulation of Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in Europe - Euro Weekly News