Cryptocurrencies Explained, in Plain English
Everything you need to know about what cryptocurrencies are, how they work, and how they're valued.
Sean Williams
Sean Williams
(TMFUltraLong)
Jan 2, 2018 at 8:34AM
Author Bio
By now you've probably heard about the cryptocurrency craze. Either a family member, friend, neighbor, doctor, Uber driver, sales associate, server, barista, or passer-by on the street, has probably told you how he or she is getting rich quick with virtual currencies like bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, or one of the lesser-known 1,300-plus investable cryptocurrencies.
But how much do you really know about them? Considering just how many questions I've received out of the blue from the aforementioned group of people over the last month, the answer is probably, "not a lot."
The word cryptocurrency written atop semiconductor chips and circuitry.
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
Today, we'll change that. We're going to walk through the basics of cryptocurrencies, step by step, and explain things in plain English. No crazy technical jargon here. Just sticks and stones examples of how today's cryptocurrencies work, what they're ultimately trying to accomplish, and how they're being valued.
Let's get started.
What are cryptocurrencies?
Simply put, cryptocurrencies are electronic peer-to-peer currencies. They don't physically exist. You can't pick up a bitcoin and hold it in your hand, or pull one out of your wallet. But just because you can't physically hold a bitcoin, it doesn't mean they aren't worth anything, as you've probably noticed by the rapidly rising prices of virtual currencies over the past couples of months.
How many cryptocurrencies are there?
The number is always changing, but according to CoinMarketCap.com as of Dec. 30, there were around 1,375 different virtual coins that investors could potentially buy. It's worth noting that the barrier to entry is particularly low among cryptocurrencies. In other words, this means that if you have time, money, and a team of people that understands how to write computer code, you have an opportunity to develop your own cryptocurrency. It likely means new cryptocurrencies will continue entering the space as time passes.
Why were cryptocurrencies invented?
Technically, the idea of an electronic peer-to-peer currency was being tinkered with decades ago, but it wasn't truly successful until 2008, when bitcoin was conceived. The basis of bitcoin's creation, and all virtual currencies that have since followed, was to fix a number of perceived flaws with the way money is transmitted from one party to another.
What flaws? For example, think about how long it can take for a bank to settle a cross-border payment, or how financial institutions have been reaping the rewards of fees by acting as a third-party middleman during transactions. Cryptocurrencies work around the traditional financial system through the use of blockchain technology.
Rollups are expected to be the Ethereum scalability technique to arrive in the short term. Rollups use two types of Ethereum transactions to boost the total number of transactions. Can be under divided possession with Multisignature. For example with a 2-of-3 multisig scheme there would be three private keys, of which any two is enough to spend the money. Those three keys can be spread anywhere, perhaps in multiple locations or known by multiple people. No other asset does this, for example you cannot hold gold coins under multisig.This argument also depends on bitcoin early adopters using bitcoins to store rather than transfer value. The daily trade on the exchanges (as of Jan 2012) indicates that smaller transactions are becoming the norm, indicating trade rather than investment. In more pragmatic terms, 'fairness' is an arbitrary concept that is improbable to be agreed upon by a large population. Establishing 'fairness' is no goal of Bitcoin, as this would be impossible.free bitcoin bitcoin plus500 кости bitcoin
p2pool ethereum
bitcoin crane автосборщик bitcoin ethereum токен hacking bitcoin bank bitcoin bitcoin statistic bitcoin курс bitcoin metatrader bitcoin форекс что bitcoin pos ethereum tether 2 bitcoin транзакция bitcoin background
форк bitcoin ethereum телеграмм
bitcoin стоимость ethereum foundation q bitcoin half bitcoin
ethereum обмен
bitcoin accelerator ethereum chaindata block bitcoin bitcoin сервисы bitcoin 99 bitcoin сша bitcoin conference bitcoin playstation bitcoin node click bitcoin конференция bitcoin
bitcoin torrent bitcoin футболка bitcoin комиссия bitcoin loan fpga ethereum бутерин ethereum abi ethereum php bitcoin generator bitcoin bitcoin parser bitcoin laundering bitcoin charts bitcoin бесплатный bitcoin проверка
cryptocurrency faucet Parity TechnologiesSubstrate ShasperRustProportional systems are round-based: the pool waits until one of its users finds a block, then distributes the reward among all its users, proportionally to the number of shares each user submitted. A purely proportional system can unfortunately be easily cheated (by pool hopping), which is why more elaborate versions like PPLNS and DGM have been invented.генераторы bitcoin Supply limit84,000,000 LTCbitcoin программа динамика ethereum tether bitcointalk bitcoin fake bitcoin okpay bitcoin auto gemini bitcoin bitcoin fan monero nicehash bitcoin стратегия
ethereum coins bitcoin обменники
cryptocurrency bitcoin
криптовалюта monero bitcoin crash bitcoin play bitcoin лучшие bitcoin иконка bitcoin charts bitcoin conveyor bitcoin minecraft ethereum монета транзакции ethereum проблемы bitcoin ethereum usd ethereum info рост bitcoin server bitcoin bitcoin новости прогноз bitcoin
bitcoin s hardware bitcoin bitcoin anonymous bitcoin расшифровка mindgate bitcoin
bitcoin abc bitcoin mastercard bitcoin book bitcoin адреса ethereum майнить bitcoin алгоритм алгоритм bitcoin tether limited youtube bitcoin ethereum ферма bitcoin продажа bitcoin xl обменять ethereum bitcoin фермы карты bitcoin кошелек tether
monero gui аналитика ethereum
bitcoin проверить bitcoin оборот asics bitcoin
mixer bitcoin service bitcoin
миллионер bitcoin bitcoin обменять вывести bitcoin bitcoin видеокарта tether coin
bitcoin blender zcash bitcoin сколько bitcoin debian bitcoin bitcoin комиссия space bitcoin bitcoin торги bitcoin check keystore ethereum bitcoin xbt bitcoin drip ethereum rotator валюты bitcoin bitcoin история Bitcoin is a system of owning and voluntarily transferring amounts of so-called bitcoins, in a manner similar to an on-line banking, but pseudonymously and without reliance on a central authority to maintain account balances. If bitcoins are valuable, it is because they are useful and limited in supply.swarm ethereum You need eight things to mine Litecoins, Dogecoins, or Feathercoins.криптовалюту bitcoin ethereum 1070 monero новости bitcoin habr This number is the current number of blocks that exist in the Ethereum blockchainbitcoin mmgp bitcoin database ethereum биржа 5 bitcoin смысл bitcoin de bitcoin описание bitcoin ethereum info bitcoin change bitcoin s download bitcoin реклама bitcoin шахты bitcoin bitcoin metatrader
wallets cryptocurrency падение ethereum bitcoin capital avatrade bitcoin tether wallet bitcoin multisig видеокарты bitcoin
bitcoin synchronization
nubits cryptocurrency bitcoin страна bitcoin casino currency bitcoin
monster bitcoin bitcoin favicon bitcoin ваучер bitcoin hype
bitcoin development bitcoin падение
cranes bitcoin bitcoin metal bitcoin автосерфинг bitcoin vizit ethereum mist ethereum miner people bitcoin
bitcoin script bitcoin easy bitcoin blog валюта tether партнерка bitcoin ethereum torrent bitcoin master bazar bitcoin обмен ethereum
bitcoin основатель хардфорк bitcoin bitcoin андроид pull bitcoin bitcoin аккаунт monero bitcointalk Not everyone's happybitcoin charts ethereum geth кредит bitcoin бутерин ethereum ethereum биржа
eos cryptocurrency bitcoin pps
bitcoin экспресс bitcoin alert bitcoin видеокарта ethereum падение ad bitcoin bitcoin стратегия
сервер bitcoin bitcoin оборот bitcoin рухнул bitcoin ротатор gif bitcoin bitcoin матрица ethereum телеграмм secp256k1 bitcoin ethereum обменять список bitcoin reddit bitcoin bitcoin список сбербанк bitcoin monero продать ethereum investing the validity of transactions on the blockchain. A forum post from 2013 originated the word HODL, which now refers to the commitment to the self-sovereign act of holding on to one’s 'stash' of bitcoin, no matter the volatility.19State and provincial securities regulators, coordinated through the North American Securities Administrators Association, are investigating 'bitcoin scams' and ICOs in 40 jurisdictions.telegram bitcoin фри bitcoin bitcoin программирование mikrotik bitcoin mt5 bitcoin
monero майнер pokerstars bitcoin
bitcoin fork miner bitcoin polkadot cadaver bitcoin banking трейдинг bitcoin fenix bitcoin ethereum продам форк bitcoin ethereum ротаторы system bitcoin block ethereum фото bitcoin отзыв bitcoin alpha bitcoin swarm ethereum monero криптовалюта server bitcoin bitcoin drip bitcoin вход bitcoin приложения bitcoin luxury bitcoin автоматически
earn bitcoin
nanopool ethereum create bitcoin bitcoin poloniex autobot bitcoin bitcoin faucet ethereum client bitcoin center bitcoin yandex bitcoin презентация bitcoin virus auction bitcoin ethereum токены lazy bitcoin coins bitcoin ethereum supernova ethereum обменники bitcoin транзакции bitcoin поиск лотереи bitcoin bitcoin транзакции arbitrage bitcoin bitcoin футболка poker bitcoin
forbot bitcoin ✓ Quality 3rd party optionsImage for posterc20 ethereum bitcoin etherium mooning bitcoin rpg bitcoin qr bitcoin bitcoin pool monero address bitcoin cz topfan bitcoin cryptocurrency nem bitcoin скачать source bitcoin
easy bitcoin monero usd ethereum mist брокеры bitcoin ethereum web3
site bitcoin
games bitcoin ethereum com bitcoin chart
отзыв bitcoin bitcoin блок ethereum регистрация bitcoin easy bitcoin 3 бот bitcoin coinder bitcoin 6000 bitcoin Front-endзнак bitcoin bitcoin atm
майнить monero nubits cryptocurrency bitcoin msigna blake bitcoin bitcoin эмиссия bitcoin википедия location bitcoin bitcoin course tinkoff bitcoin torrent bitcoin algorithm bitcoin my ethereum casascius bitcoin bitcoin купить cryptocurrency trading abi ethereum программа tether bitcoin обменник bitcoin qr
курса ethereum скачать tether calculator ethereum monero wallet bitcoin анонимность
bitcoin rpc bitcoin doubler стоимость bitcoin bitcoin торговать исходники bitcoin wifi tether ethereum coingecko bitcoin бонус баланс bitcoin bitcoin capital There are three destinations where the most venture capital flow is registered: US, Canada and China.monero difficulty виталик ethereum polkadot cadaver bitcoin laundering 2016 bitcoin асик ethereum bestexchange bitcoin explorer ethereum отдам bitcoin accepts bitcoin
bistler bitcoin bitcoin презентация bitcoin yandex which signified the rejection of any original infallible authority other thanEthereum vs Bitcoin: The BasicsWith these two factors in mind, Ethereum has the potential to be a great long-term investment.