Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

In the world of cryptocurrency, there is a lot of focus on bitcoin and other major currencies. However, there are quite a few altcoins who take the concept of creating a scarce supply to extreme measures. Although scarcity alone does not give a cryptocurrency intrinsic value by any means, it goes to show it can create an illusion of value over time.

The current cryptocurrency with the absolute lowest supply of coins to be recorded so far is bitGold. Its supply only has 10.2299 coins right now, all of which are quite valuable. In fact, the market cap of US$14,473 may look small, but it does mean every BTGOLD is worth over US$1,400. Unfortunately, bitGold only had less than US$100 worth of trading volume in the past 24 hours, making this cryptocurrency less than attractive to investors.

Rather than trying to create an altcoin with a fancy name, 42-coin simply illustrates the available coin supply. All 41.9999 coins have been brought into circulation, establishing a market cap of US$32,019. Not necessarily a favorite altcoin either, as its volume is even lower than bitGold right now.

Quite a few altcoins have tried to piggyback on the Bitcoin name, including bitBTC. With a supply of 43,8132 it is almost as scarce as 42-coin and generates slightly higher trading volumes. The market cap of US$46,854 is not bad, considering bitBTC has no real world use yet.

Not every altcoin with a smaller supply is worth next to nothing. Jinn is one of the few currencies bucking the trend as every one of the available 56,703 coins is worth US$6.56 each. This puts its market cap at well above the US$280,000 mark right now. Dont be surprised if you have never heard of Jinn, though, as its use cases are virtually non-existent.

One of the surprise entrants on the list of low-supply yet valuable alternative cryptocurrencies goes by the name Byteball. Under the GBYTE ticket, a total supply of 100,000 coins has been made available. With every coin surpassing the US$87.24 value, the market cap is on its way to surpass US$9m. Byteball also generated nearly US$120,000 in trading volume over the past 24 hours, making it quite successful in its own right.

When ZCash launched not too long ago, it became clear the supply of this currency would remain somewhat limited for quite some time. With just over half a million coins in circulation right now, the price per ZEC found a new home around the U$38.82 mark. It is intriguing to see this privacy-centric currency reach a market cap of nearly US$23m in such a short amount of time, though. ZCash continues to generate a fair amount of daily trading volume as well, making it quite a popular cryptocurrency.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

View original post here:
Top 6 Rare Cryptocurrencies - The Merkle

While some countries are busy trying to come up with laws to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies, others are busy coming up with laws to legalize digital currencies. In light of the events by the European Commission, member countries of the European Union are coming up with laws to regulate Bitcoin. Russia has however not made such steps, instead its doing the opposite. Last year Russia announced that it considers Bitcoin transactions and exchanges as legitimate in the eyes of the law. This was good news to the Cryptocurrency world considering that Russia is a country where laws relating to capital control are more strict than in most countries.

Dmitry Marinichev, Russias internet ombudsman, has made suggestions to bringthe use of cryptocurrencies to residents of Crimea. With Crimea in need of investors, Mr. Marinichev believes that opening of Cryptocurrency exchanges will help to attract new investors to this region. For this to be successful, a free economic zone will have to be created within the peninsula. Mr. Marinichev also had this to say on regulation of Cryptocurrencies in Russia: Today Crimea is an exclusive economic zone, which makes it possible to start with the opening of Cryptocurrency exchanges operating there absolutely legally. As a result we will see the actual legalization of Cryptocurrencies.

The head of the Working Group For the Assessment of Risks of Cryptocurrencies in the state of Duma of the Russian Federation, Elina Sidorenko highlighted that using Cryptocurrency instruments for international transactions would improve the banking climate on the peninsula. There is truth to that sentiment because major players in the banking industry do believe that the blockchain technology, which is the technology behind cryptocurrency, is the future of global financial system.

There is a significant number of regions in Crimea, which are unbanked. Residents of these unbanked regions of Crimea now have good news because transactions involving digital currencies do not need banks to be validated. Cryptocurrencies are completely decentralized and the blockchain technology ensures that transactions are validated, hence detecting any fraudulent or unauthorized transactions. Alex Fork, CEO of Humaniq had this opinion on the unbanked regions: Unbanked regions usually consist of a financially poor population. the most important thing is to provide them with a new technology available absolutely free of charge.

There have been countries, mostly in the European union, that in recent times are trying to regulate digital currencies because of criminals using them to commitillegal operations. These unbanked regions provide a chance to experiment and finally make a sound decision regarding digital currencies. The residents of these unbanked regions also get a chance to enjoy the exciting advantages of cryptocurrencies. This move by Russia provides a win-win situation for both the regulator and the residents. Its always good news in the cryptocurrency world when a new country joins.

Read the rest here:
Cryptocurrency: Now in Crimea - Eastern Daily News

The cryptocurrency community is currently under threat! A new malware is reportedly making rounds on the internet, infecting computers and stealing cryptocurrency from compromised machines.

The yet to be named malicious software was detected by Cyren, the internet security company. According to the companys latest blog, published during the last week of January 2017, the malware disguises itself as an email communication from reputed banking institutions. These emails appear like fund transfer notifications, and they are found to originate from bots in the United States and Singapore. The attachment contained in these emails are embedded with a versatile keylogger malware.

The next time somebody receives an email from reputed banking institutions like Emirates NBD or DBS, they are better off not knowing what the attachment contains unless of course, they are sure about its authenticity. If the user ends up clicking on the malware-containing executable email attachment, the malware executes itself, creating a filename.vbs file in the Windows startup directory. Once the file is created, the attachment deletes itself.

Whenever the computer restarts, the saved .vbs file runs a script, executing the malware. The malware scours the computers registry for passwords and other sensitive information. It goes through the installed browsers and email clients, gathering stored information, usernames, passwords, browsing history, cache, cookies, etc. At the same time, it also looks for well-known cryptocurrency wallets on the computer.

Cyrens lists the vulnerable wallets on its blog,

Among the wallets it tries to find: Anoncoin, BBQcoin, Bitcoin, Bytecoin, Craftcoin, Devcoin, Digitalcoin, Fastcoin, Feathercoin, Florincoin, Freicoin, I0coin, Infinitecoin, Ixcoin, Junkcoin, Litecoin, Luckycoin, Megacoin, Mincoin, Namecoin, Phoenixcoin, Primecoin, Quarkcoin, Tagcoin, Terracoin, Worldcoin, Yacoin, and Zetacoin.

The infected machines stay vulnerable for a long time as the malware creates hooks for mouse and keyboard, logging every keystroke and mouse movement. Even if the software fails to find any sensitive data in the cache, it can easily capture usernames, passwords, etc., as and when it is typed and send it to the command and control server. This leaves the individuals accounts vulnerable to hacking.

Few media reports indicate that this particular malware was reported earlier in 2015 as well. At that time, it was distributed along with pirated video games. The extensive list of targeted cryptocurrencies and the convincing appearance of the email communication makes it much dangerous, capable of targeting a wider group of audience.

Go here to see the original:
Malware Alert! A Banking Email That Steals Cryptocurrencies ... - newsBTC

SibCoin is developed on a fork of Dash cryptocurrency platform. Dash is currently the sixth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization.

The cryptocurrency industry is flooded with hundreds of altcoins. The open source nature of many cryptocurrency platforms offers an easy way to create and deploy new altcoins. However, unless these altcoins serve a specific purpose or solve a particular problem, they will eventually fade into oblivion.

SibCoin, short for Siberian Chervonets is one such altcoin which is out there on a specific mission meeting the blockchain needs of the Russian community. SibCoin is developed on a fork of Dash cryptocurrency platform. Dash is currently the sixth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. The highly successful SibCoin recently broke the record after its masternode network volume surpassed that of its parent coin. With increasing adoption, the gap between Dash and SibCoin continues to widen.

Unlike other cryptocurrencies, SibCoin has a unique advantage. The digital currency is created by a group of Russian developers, for the Russian community. In a country where the Western concepts are taken with a pinch of salt due to decades of mistrust, a home-grown cryptocurrency is much easier to accept.

Also, in Siberia and many other Russian cities, people feel that their contributions to the countrys economy are underappreciated. They are also fed up with corruption and bureaucratic inefficiencies plaguing the system. They believe that blockchain, with its transparency, can be a solution to all these issues.

SibCoin has broken the barrier which Bitcoin was unable to surpass since its inception. The creators of SibCoin have made further improvements to the Dash protocol by employing additional encryption algorithms to make it much better and more adaptable among the Russian population. At the same time, the SibCoin team is also involved in active promotion and awareness campaigns across Russia to familiarize the population to SibCoin and blockchain technology in general.

As the SibCoin community grows, the cryptocurrency could turn out to be the driving force behind the countrys blockchain revolution.

Read this article:
SibCoin Meets the Needs of Russian Cryptocurrency Community ... - newsBTC

The privacy-focused digital currency monero has captured the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which has expressed concerns overits use among criminals.

Joseph Battaglia,a special agent working at the FBIs Cyber Division in New York City, said during an event last week that widespread use of the increasingly popular cryptocurrency might impact the way the agency conducts investigations.

Addressing a group of about 150 law students at New York's Fordham University, hesaid:

"There are obviously going to be issues if some of the more difficult to work with cryptocurrencies become popular. Monero is one that comes to mind, where its not very obvious what the transaction path is or what the actual value of the transaction is except to the end users."

Launched in April 2014, monero (XMR) is a cryptocurrency with enhancedprivacy features. A fork of the Bytecoin codebase, monero leverages identity-obscuring ring signatures to make it unclear which funds have been sent by whom and to whom.

The cryptocurrency saw its price soar in 2016, climbing from about $0.50at the beginning of the year to about $12, a 2,760%increase.

Since 2013, the agency has seen "enormous growth" in the number of cases involving digital currencypayments, according to Battaglia. Of those, 75% involved bitcoin, he said, though he mentioned litecoin and monero as other cryptocurrencies the agency has encounteredthus far.

TheFBI Cyber Division looks into a diverse range of online criminal activity.

In 2015, the agency reportedransomware losses of$18mfroma single type of software. Since at least last October, the agency has been investigating a $1.3m bitcoin theft tied to the hacking of theBitfinex exchange.

Battaglias statements came afterhis "high-level" account of a typicalcryptocurrency investigation given at theevent, which oneof a series of blockchain workshops co-hosted withIBM.

Other panelists included Brigid McDermott, vice president of blockchain business development at IBM; Dan Ramsden, a Fordham Business School adjunct professor; and Gregory Xethalis, a partner at law firmKaye Scholer.

Following the event, the special agent said he couldn't provide additional details specifically pertaining to the FBIs investigative techniques surrounding monero when asked by CoinDesk.

Duringthe panel, however, Battaglia described the FBI as "a reactionary organization", addingthat, instead of trying to predict the direction that cryptocurrency use might go, the agency has adopted await-and-see approach.

Battaglia concluded:

"Were going to look at what catches on, and what becomes mainstream, and then were going to keep an eye on that, because usually not long after that is when you start to see some of the fraud and some of the more nefarious uses of that technology."

Photo credit: Bruce Gilbert / Fordham University

CrimeFBIMonero

See original here:
The FBI is Worried Criminals Might Use the Private Cryptocurrency Monero - CoinDesk

January 30, 2017 BitConnect.co, the team behind BitConnect Coin (BCC) takes pleasure in announcing the completion of its successful ICO. The ICO saw community members buying over 1 million BCCs, paving the way for the next phase of development which included the launch of its proprietary BCC exchange.

During the ICO, the new cryptocurrency was sold at the rate of 1000 BCCs per BTC, and the early adopters received up to 40% bonus on their investment. With enough backers, the platform finished the exchange development in just ten days. The BCC exchange will see a lot of new features in the coming days, including the addition of support for multiple cryptocurrencies alongside BCC.

BitConnect Coins full-node software is openly distributed with a new desktop client for mining and staking the cryptocurrency under proper guidance. BCC holders can now use the existing web wallet to conveniently send the cryptocurrency to BitConnect desktop client and other desired trading platforms. The BitConnect Coin is based on a special POW/POS algorithm for added network security. The algorithm also turns BCC into an interest-bearing asset with a 120% return per year. To gain profits through POS minting, users will have to hold their coins in aBitConnect-QT wallet.

BCC community members can experience a new level of empowerment through the open source platform that connects them socially and financially to a secure, protected community of investors and lenders. With the communitys help, BCC owners can also benefit from the cryptocurrencys exponential price rise by increasing their deposits in the wallet. The interest gained during the period translates to a hefty profit.

Few new features in store for 2017 include the launch of BCC Mining and Staking Pool and its own Smart Card. These features will not only allow community members to earn, but also spend the cryptocurrency for their everyday expenses. The whole BitConnect platform, which started as a concept in Q1, 2016 has scaled to become the worlds fastest growing online Bitcoin community. The website, BitConnect.co features among the top 80k sites on Alexa. More information on BitConnect Exchange is availablehere.

About BitConnect

BitConnect is an open source platform for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency users to earn, learn, but and sell bitcoins to other trusted community members directly.

Learn more about BitConnect at https://bitconnect.co/ Register on BitConnect Exchange at https://bitconnect.co/register Access BitConnect-QT wallet at https://bitconnectcoin.co/guide/10/How-To-Set-Up-BitConnect-Coin-Wallet-on-Windows-Operating-System#Download

Media Contact

Contact Name:Vindee, Marketing Manager Contact Email:bitconnect@tutanota.com Phone:+16415696739 Company Name:BitConnect Ltd Contact Location:Ashford, England

BitConnect.co is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

Go here to read the rest:
BCC Cryptocurrency Exchange Launches in Record Time Following Successful Completion of BitConnect Coin ICO - newsBTC

What is EverGreenCoin?

EverGreenCoin is much more than a new currency, a new 'cryptocurrency' as it's called. Cryptocurrency is a sort of digital money that can be used as a store of value or in exchange for goods and services. The EverGreenCoin currency itself is only the mechanism leveraged to nourish our more important focus, taking responsible care of our environment and the world we live in.

EverGreenCoin is a decedent of Bitcoin and EverGreenCoin inherited some great traits from its ancestors. Traits like being able to transfer anywhere in the world with near zero fees, regardless of borders. Zero risk to personal information loss or theft because personal information is never required. Zero manipulation by governments and banks because EverGreenCoin is not printed, or 'mined' as the case may be, out of thin air. Rather the supply is finite, predetermined, rates never change, and only the free market dictates its price. But we, the environmentally awake, will determine its true value.

EverGreenCoin has taken its ancestral traits and built upon them, and in ways more friendly for both our planet and the people storing, spending, and receiving value with EverGreenCoin. In large part, this comes from Proof of Stake mining. Proof of Stake replaces the Proof of Work methodology for making transactions happen and securing the record of transactions that have happened in the past. This record is called a blockchain. For maintaining the blockchain through mining, you are rewarded and this is true for both Proof of Work and Proof of Stake.

The difference is that with Proof of Stake, you are not wasting electricity and taking a gamble on what your reward amount might be. With EverGreenCoin your reward is always 7% annual and the energy consumed is no greater than running a word processor on your computer and can be done in the background during times you already have your computer on.

EverGreenCoin is also much faster than Bitcoin. Transaction on the EverGreenCoin network are fully confirmed, which means fully received and spendable, faster than a Bitcoin transaction would get its first confirmation. In what Bitcoin could transfer in an hour, EverGreenCoin could do 10 times over again. Actually 100 time, because of EverGreenCoin's larger blocks also.

Neither traditional banking system nor Bitcoin can give you what EverGreenCoin gives you. In addition, you are helping yourself and all living things by increasing asset potential for EverGreenCoin's environmental aspirations.

It is free to make an EverGreenCoin account. You do not need to surrender any personal information. You do not need a credit check. There are no age or border restrictions. You do not need to make an account on this website, but it is encouraged as it will allow you to communicate with like-minded people. Click here for help deciding which solution is best for your needs.

Follow this link:
EverGreenCoin - Environmental Green Causes, nurtured by ...

Zerocash transactions

Zerocashs functionality is realized using just two new types of transactions: mint transactions and pour transactions. Like Bitcoin transactions, Zerocash transactions are broadcast and appended to a decentralized ledger.

Mint transactions. A mint transaction allows a user to convert a specified number of non-anonymous bitcoins (from some Bitcoin address) into the same number of zerocoins belonging to a specified Zerocash address. The mint transaction itself consists of a cryptographic commitment to a new coin, which specifies the coins value, owner address, and (unique) serial number. The commitment is based on the SHA-256 hash function, and hides both the coins value and owner address.

Individual Zerocash nodes maintain a Merkle tree over all of the coin commitments seen thus far. Any user can then demonstrate ownership of a coin commitment, via its decommitted values as well as a short witness of membership in the tree. Unfortunately, merely publishing this information as an ownership proof is not private; instead, to achieve privacy, we rely on a second type of transaction, which allows a user to prove, in zero knowledge, that he knows such information.

Pour transactions. A pour transaction allows a user to make a private payment, by consuming some number of coins (owned by this user) in order to produce new coins. Roughly, a pour transaction, for (up to) two input coins and (up to) two output coins, involves proving, in zero knowledge, that:

The pour transaction consumes the input coins by revealing their serial numbers, but does not reveal any other information such as the values of the input or output coins, or the addresses of their owners. Optionally, the pour transaction can also output some (non-anoymous) bitcoins. This last feature can be used to transfer zerocoins back into (non-anonymous) bitcoins or to pay transaction fees.

For a mint transaction, the commitment contained therein is constructed so that that anyone can verify that the committed coin has the claimed value.

For a pour transaction, anyone can verify that the zero-knowledge proof contained therein is valid (and that a few other simple invariants hold). For efficiency, however, Zerocash does not use any zero-knowledge proof, but leverages zero-knowledge Succinct Non-interactive ARguments of Knowledge (zk-SNARK) systems, which are zero-knowledge proofs that are particularly short and easy to verify.

Ebitz is a clone of Zcash without founder rewards and changing his algo. We are going to collect funds in another way, giving an opportunity to all investors in an open pre-sale, not in shady close doors ICO. And we are going to change the algo to PoS to prevent the control by a few centralized GPU farms. Its a Zerocash implementation with more fair use and organization for the crypto community. We are going to port all the updates from Zcash to Ebitz. With the funds collected we expect to add some new features to Ebitz, that they are not included in Zcash right now. We dont want to collect a big amount of money with Ebitz (we dont need it), so we are thinking to put a limit to the open pre-sale.

Whitepaper 1

Whitepaper 2

Read more:
Ebitz cryptocurrency

Dash

Official Dash logo

Dash (formerly known as Darkcoin and XCoin) is an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that offers instant transactions (InstantSend),[1] private transactions (PrivateSend)[2] and token fungibility. It was rebranded from "Darkcoin" to "Dash" on March 25, 2015, a portmanteau of "Digital Cash".[3]

Dash operates a decentralized governance and budgeting system, making it the first decentralized autonomous organization.[4]

Dash uses a chained hashing algorithm called X11 for the proof-of-work. Instead of using the SHA-256 (from well-known Secure Hash Algorithm family) or scrypt it uses 11 rounds of different hashing functions.[5]

As of 2016, Dash is among the top-7 most popular cryptocurrencies.[6]

Main website is http://www.dash.org

PrivateSend is a coin-mixing service originally based on CoinJoin. Later iterations used a more advanced method of pre-mixing denominations built into the user's wallet. The implementation of PrivateSend also allows masternodes to submit the transactions using special network code called DSTX,[7] this provides additional privacy to users due to the deadchange issue present in other CoinJoin based implementations such as DarkWallet and CoinShuffle.[8]

DarkSend rebranded to PrivateSend June 2016.

In its current implementation it adds privacy to transactions by combining identical inputs from multiple users into a single transaction with several outputs. Due to the identical inputs, transactions usually cannot be directly traced, obfuscating the flow of funds. PrivateSend makes Dash "Fungible"[9] by mixing the coins in the same denomination with other wallets, ensuring that all coins are of the same value.

PrivateSend's mixing is performed by Masternodes, servers operating on a decentralized network which have the responsibility of signing the transactions. For each round of PrivateSend, the user selects two to eight (or even more) rounds of mixing which vary the degree of anonymity achieved. Random Masternodes are then elected to perform the coin mixing. Masternodes are trust-less cryptographic technology, in the sense that they cannot steal user coins, and the combination of multiple Masternodes ensures that no single node has full knowledge of both inputs and outputs in the transaction process.

To avoid the possibility of sybil attack, a process where a peer-to-peer network is overtaken by "bad actors", collateral requirements have been added to the process of joining the Masternode network second tier. These are presently 1000 DASH [10] and allow secure network communication in via signed messages. As an incentive for operating a Masternode, chosen nodes currently earn 45% of the mining rewards.[11]

InstantSend is a service that allows for near-instant transactions. Through this system, inputs can be locked to only specific transactions and verified by consensus of the Masternode network. Conflicting transactions and blocks are rejected. If a consensus cannot be reached, validation of the transaction occurs through standard block confirmation. InstantSend purportedly solves the double-spending problem without the longer confirmation times of other cryptocurriencies such as Bitcoin.[12]

InstantX rebranded to InstantSend June 2016.

X11 is a hashing algorithm created by Dash core developer Evan Duffield. X11's chained hashing algorithm approach utilizes a sequence of eleven cryptographic hashing algorithms for the proof-of-work. This is so that the processing distribution is fair and coins will be distributed in much the same way Bitcoin's were originally.[citation needed]

With chained hashing, high end CPUs give an average return similar to that of GPUs. Another side effect of the algorithm is that GPUs run at about 30% less electrical power than scrypt and 30% to 50% cooler, putting less stress on the computing setup and ensuring lower energy bills for miners.[13]

Dark Gravity Wave (DGW) is a mining difficulty adjustment algorithm created by Dash core developer Evan Duffield to address flaws in Kimoto's Gravity Well. It uses multiple exponential moving averages and a simple moving average to smoothly adjust the difficulty, which is re-targeted every block. The block reward is not adjusted strictly by block number, but instead uses a formula controlled by Moore's law: 2222222/((Difficulty+2600)/9)2.[14][15]

Dash is the first decentralized autonomous organization powered by a Sybil proof decentralized governance and funding system.[16] DGBB or Decentralized Governance By Blockchain as it's called is a decentralized process by which the network determines where money is spent. Each Masternode operator is given the ability to use 1 vote on each governance proposal, which is a completely open and decentralized process.[17] Community interaction with proposal submitters is done usually through community driven websites, like DashWhale.[18] These websites allow proposal submitters to provide multiple drafts, then lobby for community support before finally submitting their project to the network for a vote. After the submitter has enough support, the network will automatically pay out the required funds in the next super block, which happen monthly.

Although, only in use a few months, the funding system has seen growth of its month revenue, from originally ~$14 thousands in September 2015, to nearly $30 thousands in March 2016.[19] Eventually the budget system can theoretically scale to $9M per month at a market cap of $500M.[20]

Since its inception, the project has used the system for important assets like acquiring dash.org,[21] adoption into the Lamassu ATM[22][23] and the Dash N' Drink instant soda machine,[24] along with funding many public events.[25][26][27][28]

Masternodes utilize a cryptographic bond model, which results a supply and demand market between the interest rate Masternodes are paid and the risk of holding the underlying asset. Early on in the history of the asset, the high return caused a massive uptake of Masternodes, starting from about 500 in Oct 2014 and increasing to 3650 in March 2016.[29]

Dash was originally released as XCoin (XCO) on January 18, 2014. On February 28, the name was changed to "Darkcoin". On March 25, 2015, Darkcoin was rebranded as "Dash".[3]

I discovered Bitcoin in mid 2010 and was obsessed ever since. After a couple of years in 2012 I started really thinking about how to add anonymity to Bitcoin. I came up with maybe 10 ways of doing this, but I soon realized that Bitcoin would never add my code. The developers really want the core protocol to stay the same for the most part and everything else to be implemented on the top of it. This was the birth of the concept of Darkcoin. I implemented X11 in a weekend and found it worked pretty well and it would give a completely fair start to the currency. What I really was aiming for with X11 is a similar development curve where miners would fight to create small advantages much like the early start of Bitcoin. I think this a requirement to create a healthy ecosystem.

[30]

Within the first hour of launch, approximately 500,000 coins were mined, followed by another 1,000,000 coins in the next 7 hours and finally another 400,000 in 36 hours. All told 1.9 million coins were mined in 48 hours, or approximately 32% of the current supply (as of October 2015) of approximately 5.9 million,[31][32] generating controversy regarding the initial distribution of coins. According to Duffield, this was the result of an error in the code "which incorrectly converted the difficulty, then tried using a corrupt value to calculate the subsidy, causing the instamine".[33] At the time, Duffield was working a full-time job and coding for Dash on the side, so its not surprising that there were errors in the initial code.[33] Duffield claims in the official bitcointalk.org thread (mirrored) that "Dash has no premine and was fairly and transparently launched".[34]

At the time Dash (then called Xcoin) was launched, the cryptocurrency space was riddled with scams. People were creating new currencies, hyping their value, then dumping them and abandoning the project. Many likely feared the same for Dash. However, since Dash's launch, there has been over two years of development, leading to a cryptocurrency that has over 50 volunteers and has solved such vexing issues as slow confirmation times, block size increases, decentralized governance, and a self-funding development budget.

According to CoinMarketCap, in August 2016 the daily trade volume of Dash was ~1% of the total trade of all cryptocurrencies,[35] and the market capitalization of Dash was ~80 millions of US dollars.[36] Since then, Dash has become the most active community on BitcoinTalk reaching more than 6000 pages, 122k replies, 6.6M reads.

Zerocoin, Cloakcoin and DarkNet also have built in the mixing services as a part of their blockchain network.[37]

The Dark Wallet client software for bitcoin was built to natively mix transactions between users.[38]

Monero_(cryptocurrency) is a cryptocurrency based on the CryptoNote protocol. It has gained attention recently for being adopted by dark net market AlphaBay.[39]

Read the original:
Dash (cryptocurrency) - Wikipedia

What is cryptocurrency: 21st-century unicorn or the money of the future?

This introduction explains the most important thing about cryptocurrencies. After youve read it, youll know more about it than most other humans.

Today cryptocurrencies have become a global phenomenon known to most people. While still somehow geeky and not understood by most people, banks, governments and many companies are aware of its importance.

In 2016, youll have a hard time finding a major bank, a big accounting firm, a prominent software company or a government that did not research cryptocurrencies, publish a paper about it or start a so-called blockchain-project.

Virtual currencies, perhaps most notably Bitcoin, have captured the imagination of some, struck fear among others, and confused the heck out of the rest of us. Thomas Carper, US-Senator

But beyond the noise and the press releases the overwhelming majority of people even bankers, consultants, scientists, and developers have a very limited knowledge about cryptocurrencies. They often fail to even understand the basic concepts.

So lets walk through the whole story. What are cryptocurrencies?

Where did cryptocurrency originate?

Why should you learn about cryptocurrency?

And what do you need to know about cryptocurrency?

Few people know, but cryptocurrencies emerged as a side product of another invention. Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown inventor of Bitcoin, the first and still most important cryptocurrency, never intended to invent a currency.

In his announcement of Bitcoin in late 2008, Satoshi said he developed A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.

His goal was to invent something; many people failed to create before digital cash.

The single most important part of Satoshis invention was that he found a way to build a decentralized digital cash system. In the nineties, there have been many attempts to create digital money, but they all failed.

After seeing all the centralized attempts fail, Satoshi tried to build a digital cash system without a central entity. Like a Peer-to-Peer network for file sharing.

This decision became the birth of cryptocurrency. They are the missing piece Satoshi found to realize digital cash. The reason why is a bit technical and complex, but if you get it, youll know more about cryptocurrencies than most people do. So, lets try to make it as easy as possible:

To realize digital cash you need a payment network with accounts, balances, and transaction. Thats easy to understand. One major problem every payment network has to solve is to prevent the so-called double spending: to prevent that one entity spends the same amount twice. Usually, this is done by a central server who keeps record about the balances.

In a decentralized network, you dont have this server. So you need every single entity of the network to do this job. Every peer in the network needs to have a list with all transactions to check if future transactions are valid or an attempt to double spend.

But how can these entities keep a consensus about this records?

If the peers of the network disagree about only one single, minor balance, everything is broken. They need an absolute consensus. Usually, you take, again, a central authority to declare the correct state of balances. But how can you achieve consensus without a central authority?

Nobody did know until Satoshi emerged out of nowhere. In fact, nobody believed it was even possible.

Satoshi proved it was. His major innovation was to achieve consensus without a central authority. Cryptocurrencies are a part of this solution the part that made the solution thrilling, fascinating and helped it to roll over the world.

[optin-monster-shortcode id=kzvnolsiafjpwmac]

If you take away all the noise around cryptocurrencies and reduce it to a simple definition, you find it to be just limited entries in a database no one can change without fulfilling specific conditions. This may seem ordinary, but, believe it or not: this is exactly how you can define a currency.

Take the money on your bank account: What is it more than entries in a database that can only be changed under specific conditions? You can even take physical coins and notes: What are they else than limited entries in a public physical database that can only be changed if you match the condition than you physically own the coins and notes? Money is all about a verified entry in some kind of database of accounts, balances, and transactions.

How miners create coins and confirm transactions

Lets have a look at the mechanism ruling the databases of cryptocurrencies. A cryptocurrency like Bitcoin consists of a network of peers. Every peer has a record of the complete history of all transactions and thus of the balance of every account.

A transaction is a file that says, Bob gives X Bitcoin to Alice and is signed by Bobs private key. Its basic public key cryptography, nothing special at all. After signed, a transaction is broadcasted in the network, sent from one peer to every other peer. This is basic p2p-technology. Nothing special at all, again.

The transaction is known almost immediately by the whole network. But only after a specific amount of time it gets confirmed.

Confirmation is a critical concept in cryptocurrencies. You could say that cryptocurrencies are all about confirmation.

As long as a transaction is unconfirmed, it is pending and can be forged. When a transaction is confirmed, it is set in stone. It is no longer forgeable, it cant be reversed, it is part of an immutable record of historical transactions: of the so-called blockchain.

Only miners can confirm transactions. This is their job in a cryptocurrency-network. They take transactions, stamp them as legit and spread them in the network. After a transaction is confirmed by a miner, every node has to add it to its database. It has become part of the blockchain.

For this job, the miners get rewarded with a token of the cryptocurrency, for example with Bitcoins. Since the miners activity is the single most important part of cryptocurrency-system we should stay for a moment and take a deeper look on it.

Principally everybody can be a miner. Since a decentralized network has no authority to delegate this task, a cryptocurrency needs some kind of mechanism to prevent one ruling party from abusing it. Imagine someone creates thousands of peers and spreads forged transactions. The system would break immediately.

So, Satoshi set the rule that the miners need to invest some work of their computers to qualify for this task. In fact, they have to find a hash a product of a cryptographic function that connects the new block with its predecessor. This is called the Proof-of-Work. In Bitcoin, it is based on the SHA 256 Hash algorithm.

Read Next What is Bitcoin? A Step-By-Step Guide For Beginners

You dont need to understand details about SHA 256. Its only important you know that it can be the basis of a cryptologic puzzle the miners compete to solve. After finding a solution, a miner can build a block and add it to the blockchain. As an incentive, he has the right to add a so-called coinbase transaction that gives him a specific number of Bitcoins. This is the only way to create valid Bitcoins.

Bitcoins can only be created ifminers solve a cryptographic puzzle. Since the difficulty of this puzzle increases with the amount of computer power the whole miners invest, there is only a specific amount of cryptocurrency token than can be created in a given amount of time. This is part of the consensus no peer in the network can break.

If you really think about it, Bitcoin, as a decentralized network of peers which keep a consensus about accounts and balances, is more a currency than the numbers you see in your bank account. What are these numbers more than entries in a database a database which can be changed by people you dont see and by rules you dont know?

It is that narrative of human development under which we now have other fights to fight, and I would say in the realm of Bitcoin it is mainly the separation of money and state.

Erik Voorhees,cryptocurrency entrepreneur

Basically, cryptocurrencies are entries about token in decentralized consensus-databases. They are called CRYPTOcurrencies because the consensus-keeping process is secured by strong cryptography. Cryptocurrencies are built on cryptography. They are not secured by people or by trust, but by math. It is more probable that an asteroid falls on your house than that a bitcoin address is compromised.

Describing the properties of cryptocurrencies we need to separate between transactional and monetary properties. While most cryptocurrencies share a common set of properties, they are not carved in stone.

1.) Irreversible: After confirmation, a transaction cant be reversed. By nobody. And nobody means nobody. Not you, not your bank, not the president of the United States, not Satoshi, not your miner. Nobody. If you send money, you send it. Period. No one can help you, if you sent your funds to a scammer or if a hacker stole them from your computer. There is no safety net.

2.) Pseudonymous: Neither transactions nor accounts are connected to real world identities. You receive Bitcoins on so-called addresses, which are randomly seeming chains of around 30 characters. While it is usually possible to analyze the transaction flow, it is not necessarily possible to connect the real world identity of users with those addresses.

3.) Fast and global: Transaction are propagated nearly instantly in the network and are confirmed in a couple of minutes. Since they happen in a global network of computers they are completely indifferent of your physical location. It doesnt matter if I send Bitcoin to my neighbour or to someone on the other side of the world.

4.) Secure: Cryptocurrency funds are locked in a public key cryptography system. Only the owner of the private key can send cryptocurrency. Strong cryptography and the magic of big numbers makes it impossible to break this scheme. A Bitcoin address is more secure than Fort Knox.

5.) Permissionless: You dont have to ask anybody to use cryptocurrency. Its just a software that everybody can download for free. After you installed it, you can receive and send Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies. No one can prevent you. There is no gatekeeper.

1.) Controlled supply: Most cryptocurrencies limit the supply of the tokens. In Bitcoin, the supply decreases in time and will reach its final number somewhere in around 2140. All cryptocurrencies control the supply of the token by a schedule written in the code. This means the monetary supply of a cryptocurrency in every given moment in the future can roughly be calculated today. There is no surprise.

2.) No debt but bearer: The Fiat-money on your bank account is created by debt, and the numbers, you see on your ledger represent nothing but debts. Its a system of IOU. Cryptocurrencies dont represent debts. They just represent themselves. They are money as hard as coins of gold.

To understand the revolutionary impact of cryptocurrencies you need to consider both properties. Bitcoin as a permissionless, irreversible and pseudonymous means of payment is an attack on the control of banks and governments over the monetary transactions of their citizens. You cant hinder someone to use Bitcoin, you cant prohibit someone to accept a payment, you cant undo a transaction.

As money with a limited, controlled supply that is not changeable by a government, a bank or any other central institution, cryptocurrencies attack the scope of the monetary policy. They take away the control central banks take on inflation or deflation by manipulating the monetary supply.

While its still fairly new and unstable relative to the gold standard, cryptocurrency is definitely gaining traction and will most certainly have more normalized uses in the next few years. Right now, in particular, its increasing in popularity with the post-election market uncertainty. The key will be in making it easy for large-scale adoption (as with anything involving crypto) including developing safeguards and protections for buyers / investors. I expect that within two years, well be in a place where people can shove their money under the virtual mattress through cryptocurrency, and theyll know that wherever they go, that money will be there. Sarah Granger, Author, and Speaker.

Mostly due to its revolutionary properties cryptocurrencies have become a success their inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, didnt dare to dream ofit. While every other attempt to create a digital cash system didnt attract a critical mass of users, Bitcoin had something that provoked enthusiasm and fascination. Sometimes it feels more like religion than technology.

Cryptocurrencies are digital gold. Sound money that is secure from political influence. Money that promises to preserve and increase its value over time. Cryptocurrencies are also a fast and comfortable means of payment with a worldwide scope, and they are private and anonymous enough to serve as a means of payment for black markets and any other outlawed economic activity.

Go here to see the original:
What is Cryptocurrency: Everything You Need To Know [Ultimate ...