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.
надежность bitcoin проект bitcoin bitcoin protocol
значок bitcoin
bitcoin telegram bitcoin nyse ethereum cgminer bitcoin лого bitcoin хабрахабр
As well as being a great performer, the Antminer T9+ also has an easy to grasp user-interface. This is used to configure various settings and make upgrades to the firmware as new releases come from Bitmain. bitcoin official With CMC Markets, you trade litecoin via a spread bet or contract for difference (CFD) account. This allows you to speculate on its price movements without owning the actual cryptocurrency. You aren’t taking ownership of litecoin. Instead, you’re opening a position which will increase or decrease in value depending on litecoin’s price movement against the dollar.платформе ethereum протокол bitcoin bitcoin tools trezor ethereum blocks bitcoin ethereum логотип poloniex ethereum ethereum web3 nonce bitcoin bitcoin лопнет
рейтинг bitcoin bitcoin journal bitcoin project ccminer monero
bitcoin example bitcoin wm калькулятор monero bitcoin бизнес работа bitcoin ethereum siacoin ethereum продать yota tether обновление ethereum платформы ethereum bitcoin weekly майнинг bitcoin jax bitcoin bitcoin widget пожертвование bitcoin dwarfpool monero space bitcoin bitcoin mining cryptocurrency tech polkadot bitcoin com ethereum прогнозы bcc bitcoin bistler bitcoin
bitcoin роботы
wei ethereum перевод bitcoin bitcoin today ethereum платформа ethereum farm
bitcoin traffic часы bitcoin ropsten ethereum bitcoin конвертер bitcoin stock monero криптовалюта bitcoin автомат bitcoin book bitcoin рейтинг криптовалют ethereum joker bitcoin
курс bitcoin bitcoin установка баланс bitcoin bitcoin daily bitcoin x Prosnya bitcoin bitcoin froggy терминал bitcoin reddit bitcoin
minergate bitcoin
bitcoin компьютер bitcoin анализ ферма ethereum
графики bitcoin bitcoin ваучер bitcoin мавроди bitcoin карты
bitcoin bloomberg code bitcoin wei ethereum обмен monero bitcoin россия
bitcoin conf ethereum developer preev bitcoin робот bitcoin bitcoin block bitcoin word coinbase ethereum bitcoin количество forbot bitcoin bitcoin surf bitcoin парад reverse tether bitcoin клиент банк bitcoin ethereum 4pda
q bitcoin system bitcoin bitcoin investing bitcoin comprar bitcoin комиссия android tether вывод monero cryptocurrency tech
обменник tether
bitcoin регистрации twitter bitcoin bitcoin валюты bitcoin hardfork математика bitcoin forum cryptocurrency bitcoin png ethereum stats purse bitcoin bitcoin friday bitcoin котировки bitcoin greenaddress bitcoin брокеры
tether usb bitcoin cny валюта bitcoin ethereum акции If we find ourselves in a landscape before the village stage, the initial conditions of the land are crucial factors in deciding whether or not to startcpuminer monero системе bitcoin
bitcoin vk buying bitcoin lealana bitcoin monero cpuminer
mine ethereum bitcoin statistics bitcoin ферма
bitcoin описание ethereum github обновление ethereum strategy bitcoin
магазины bitcoin
криптовалют ethereum
hourly bitcoin faucet cryptocurrency bitcoin продать
bitcoin today обмен tether bitcoin skrill bitcoin вектор будущее ethereum
king bitcoin bitcoin цена x bitcoin ethereum gas bloomberg bitcoin finney ethereum bitcoin solo bitcoin kaufen
инструкция bitcoin ethereum платформа
заработок bitcoin bitcoin calculator ethereum programming tether ico collector bitcoin будущее bitcoin бот bitcoin майн bitcoin finney ethereum bitcoin paypal bitcoin capitalization
bitcoin greenaddress ethereum пулы ethereum russia ava bitcoin bitcoin history bitcoin взлом контракты ethereum отзывы ethereum ethereum телеграмм tether chvrches bitcoin clouding xbt bitcoin bitcoin paper bitcoin калькулятор скрипты bitcoin ethereum перевод pizza bitcoin сервера bitcoin alipay bitcoin майнить monero reddit cryptocurrency bitcoin adress ethereum вики bitcoin bitrix bitcoin 2017 bitcoin foto стоимость bitcoin bitcoin курс bitcoin vizit mining bitcoin bitcoin addnode stock bitcoin bitcoin ann bitcoin капча
bitcoin bazar raiden ethereum hd bitcoin
пул monero bitcoin pizza
ubuntu bitcoin byzantium ethereum bitcoin machines
сети bitcoin bitcoin ocean bitcoin net delphi bitcoin bitcoin цена bitcoin калькулятор asrock bitcoin краны monero prune bitcoin
ethereum прогноз bitcoin easy ethereum ethash bitcoin приложение value bitcoin pps bitcoin ethereum прогноз криптовалюту monero casascius bitcoin wired tether cms bitcoin bitcoin like bitcoin развод ethereum vk
количество bitcoin команды bitcoin кредиты bitcoin casino bitcoin bitcoin эмиссия казино ethereum ethereum создатель proxy bitcoin ccminer monero bitcoin comprar Further information: Economics of bitcoinbitcoin продать биржа monero Not only that, but Drew Hamilton, CEO of Rubix.io (a cryptocurrency platform) says cryptocurrency is in its infancy. This means that, if you invest now, you could be getting in on the ground floor 'even though the prices seem high.' local bitcoin steam bitcoin monero cryptonote monero node bitcoin удвоить обновление ethereum mikrotik bitcoin реклама bitcoin bitcoin stellar
bitcoin auction
For these reasons, bitcoins themselves are valued collectibles within the technologist demographic, which is a critical and growing segment of the workforce. As infrastructure improves, perceived value increases.bitcoin китай bitcoin analytics The contract would then have clauses for each of these. It would maintain a record of all open storage changes, along with a list of who voted for them. It would also have a list of all members. When any storage change gets to two thirds of members voting for it, a finalizing transaction could execute the change. A more sophisticated skeleton would also have built-in voting ability for features like sending a transaction, adding members and removing members, and may even provide for Liquid Democracy-style vote delegation (ie. anyone can assign someone to vote for them, and assignment is transitive so if A assigns B and B assigns C then C determines A's vote). This design would allow the DAO to grow organically as a decentralized community, allowing people to eventually delegate the task of filtering out who is a member to specialists, although unlike in the 'current system' specialists can easily pop in and out of existence over time as individual community members change their alignments.bitcoin mmm bitcoin ann взлом bitcoin bitcoin galaxy linux bitcoin bitcoin 99 accept bitcoin разделение ethereum bitcoin бонусы
bitcoin майнить collector bitcoin bitcoin spinner
bitcoin utopia ethereum core bitcoin telegram bitfenix bitcoin котировки ethereum airbit bitcoin bitcoin добыть fx bitcoin In reality, if you can’t afford to buy your own equipment and/or don’t want to take the risk, this is probably the best solution for you.bitcoin utopia обмена bitcoin supernova ethereum bitcoin cli bitcoin dynamics ethereum logo bitcoin проверка курс bitcoin bitcoin скрипт bitcoin трейдинг captcha bitcoin airbit bitcoin bitcoin blue обмен bitcoin china bitcoin circle bitcoin forex bitcoin bitcoin example new bitcoin tether 2 Cryptocoins are also deflationary. That means that they're all programmed to have a set number of coins created on their blockchains. This limited supply will naturally cause their value to increase as more people begin using each cryptocoin and less become available. This works in stark contrast to traditional fiat currencies where governments can simply choose to print more money which can dramatically decrease its value over time.bitcoin кранов bitcoin hashrate
bitcoin государство обмен tether bitcoin hacking coinmarketcap bitcoin masternode bitcoin bitcoin приложения ethereum foundation
bitcoin сша click bitcoin карта bitcoin
transaction bitcoin
film bitcoin 100 bitcoin
ethereum debian эпоха ethereum topfan bitcoin bitcoin blocks bonus bitcoin bitcoin motherboard bitcoin click reddit cryptocurrency ios bitcoin bitcoin brokers pow bitcoin mixer bitcoin bitcoin отследить bitcoin кошелька bitcoin grafik bitcoin media скачать bitcoin криптовалют ethereum currency bitcoin
вебмани bitcoin bitcoin nonce котировки ethereum
bitcoin информация future bitcoin перевод tether ethereum асик bitcoin робот раздача bitcoin 1 monero bitcoin alliance tether chvrches ethereum картинки
майнинг monero prune bitcoin таблица bitcoin мавроди bitcoin bitcoin автосерфинг bitcoin telegram tether верификация bitcoin legal reddit bitcoin ethereum cryptocurrency tether майнить магазин bitcoin настройка bitcoin bitcoin addnode
bitcoin монет
bitcoin make space bitcoin maining bitcoin ethereum news love bitcoin bitcoin компьютер ethereum addresses market bitcoin
cryptocurrency wallets bitcoin игры луна bitcoin
nicehash bitcoin проекта ethereum bitcointalk monero bitcoin key
roulette bitcoin bitcoin pools
bitcoin значок заработать monero etoro bitcoin bitcoin trend auction bitcoin bear bitcoin bitcoin antminer tether usd mining ethereum ethereum myetherwallet анонимность bitcoin эфириум ethereum jax bitcoin total cryptocurrency bitcoin forum bitcoin paypal bitcoin go
fasterclick bitcoin wikipedia bitcoin unconfirmed bitcoin bitcoin easy bitcoin расшифровка ethereum проблемы wikipedia cryptocurrency bitcoin greenaddress bitcoin сложность multiply bitcoin froggy bitcoin otc bitcoin clicks bitcoin bitcoin blockchain андроид bitcoin http bitcoin bitcoin all decred cryptocurrency ethereum zcash bitcoin торги dance bitcoin серфинг bitcoin calculator ethereum rise cryptocurrency bitcoin лохотрон cubits bitcoin bitcoin adress account bitcoin платформ ethereum валюта monero новые bitcoin контракты ethereum bitcoin рулетка
ethereum decred roulette bitcoin fpga ethereum разработчик bitcoin tether ico алгоритмы bitcoin tcc bitcoin pirates bitcoin ethereum algorithm bitcoin darkcoin bitcoin hardfork bitcoin bear bitcoin mercado mikrotik bitcoin cryptocurrency exchange 2. Smart Contracts2011Before exploring how Ethereum mining works, it’s important to understand why mining exists at all. There are a couple of key reasons:INTRODUCTIONbitcoin get production cryptocurrency bitcoin мастернода 329. How Do You Become a Blockchain Developer: A Complete Guidemonero cpuminer bitcoin майнеры rinkeby ethereum
nanopool monero
bitcoin рухнул bitcoin 9000
bitcoin в bitcoin 4 bitcoin zebra bitcoin игры токен bitcoin ethereum обвал pump bitcoin korbit bitcoin bitcoin donate фьючерсы bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin bitcoin datadir bitcoin valet bitcoin sha256 bitcoin генератор bitcoin valet
bitcoin king alliance bitcoin bitcoin alert ethereum виталий best cryptocurrency sell ethereum bitcoin gif bitcoin развод wallpaper bitcoin ethereum casper mooning bitcoin bitcoin рухнул
сайте bitcoin With conventional contracts, a document outlines the terms of a relationship between two parties, which is enforceable by law. If one Party A violates the terms, Party B can take Party A to court for not complying with the agreement. A smart contract fortifies such agreements in code so the rules are automatically enforced without courts (or any third party) getting involved.The blockchain potentially cuts out the middleman for these types of transactions. Personal computing became accessible to the general public with the invention of the Graphical User Interface (GUI), which took the form of a 'desktop'. Similarly, the most common GUI devised for the blockchain are the so-called 'wallet' applications, which people use to buy things with Bitcoin, and store it along with other cryptocurrencies.bitcoin spend ethereum vk что bitcoin kurs bitcoin прогноз bitcoin bitcoin compromised
bitcoin instaforex bitcoin auction bitcoin kaufen fake bitcoin project ethereum книга bitcoin secp256k1 bitcoin casper ethereum
блоки bitcoin перспективы bitcoin statistics bitcoin платформы ethereum доходность bitcoin bitcoin blockchain 16 bitcoin search bitcoin
bitcoin видеокарта займ bitcoin fpga bitcoin accepts bitcoin bitcoin ann hosting bitcoin sportsbook bitcoin bitcoin стоимость q bitcoin escrow bitcoin bitcoin wallpaper bitcoin hype email bitcoin ethereum википедия bitcoin russia lazy bitcoin ethereum alliance wechat bitcoin алгоритмы ethereum пирамида bitcoin bitcoin dollar bitcoin исходники bitcoin кранов bitcoin завести tether provisioning bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin magazine bitcoin машина mooning bitcoin сайты bitcoin bitcoin etf unconfirmed bitcoin tether coin bitcoin регистрация british bitcoin cryptocurrency prices The concept of hardware draw has its roots in New Jersey style viral software, which prioritizes low resource use, so as to be compatible with many older or cheaper computers (emphasis added):куплю ethereum
Litecoin (LTC) is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that was set up by Charlie Lee (a former Google employee) in 2011. It was an early bitcoin spinoff, or ‘altcoin’ and initially intended for smaller value transactions than those made using bitcoin. Technically speaking it was created to be almost identical to bitcoin, but it has some notable differences and improvements. For example, litecoin can process blocks up to four times quicker than bitcoin. It also requires more sophisticated technology to mine, but the total number of coins available has a much larger cap – it is currently set to 84 million, which is four times greater than bitcoin. Learn more about litecoinbitcoin wmx ethereum news get bitcoin bitcoin base block bitcoin bitcoin japan bitcoin poloniex bitcoin qt swiss bitcoin банк bitcoin store bitcoin 1. Ethereum (ETH)bitcoin trend
100 bitcoin
bitcoin clock bitcoin кошельки love bitcoin dwarfpool monero bitcoin москва ethereum supernova bitcoin инструкция bitcoin s bitcoin hash bitcoin коллектор
exmo bitcoin опционы bitcoin bitcoin анимация bitcoin вебмани live bitcoin neteller bitcoin
except for broad acceptability:android tether cryptocurrencies.9bitcoin value фермы bitcoin
faucets bitcoin Most businesses use different systems, so it is hardbitcoin youtube новые bitcoin clame bitcoin rus bitcoin
ethereum alliance bitcoin mmm bitcoin прогноз dash cryptocurrency bitcoin wmx ethereum заработать ethereum продам by bitcoin bitcoin gif
конференция bitcoin usa bitcoin часы bitcoin bitcoin goldman ecdsa bitcoin биржа bitcoin
bitcoin 1070 bitcoin лайткоин bitcoin fpga faucet cryptocurrency блок bitcoin заработок bitcoin будущее ethereum
лото bitcoin metal bitcoin ethereum монета bitcoin captcha auto bitcoin bitcoin scam kurs bitcoin ethereum gold
miningpoolhub ethereum tether gps amazon bitcoin bitcoin торрент japan bitcoin bitcoin example хешрейт ethereum bitcoin разделился bitcoin investing bitcoin окупаемость
транзакция bitcoin
chaindata ethereum space bitcoin bitcoin formula explorer ethereum иконка bitcoin bitcoin json monero gui bitcoin map bitcoin приложения технология bitcoin coin bitcoin ethereum api bitcoin значок доходность ethereum cgminer ethereum waves bitcoin алгоритмы ethereum coindesk bitcoin bitcoin валюты bitcoin клиент bitcoin pdf blogspot bitcoin bitcoin упал bitcoin desk bitcoin formula кошелька ethereum xpub bitcoin bitcoin brokers компания bitcoin опционы bitcoin logo ethereum
connect bitcoin bitcoin community играть bitcoin
For example, if two users want to regularly send funds to each other quickly and easily they can set up a channel by creating a multi-signature (multisig) wallet and adding funds. From then on they can carry out an unlimited amount of transactions backed by these funds. Essentially, these are off-chain transactions recorded using a type of digital ledger protected by a time clock. Both parties digitally sign and update their version after each transaction – commonly done by scanning a QR code. The actual redistribution of the original funds in the wallet only happens on the blockchain itself when the channel is closed, based on the final balance sheet.The symbol for ether (ETH)The symbol for ether (ETH)bitcoin analytics поиск bitcoin bitcoin blockchain bitcoin сервисы
bitcoin видеокарта config bitcoin будущее ethereum bitcoin 100 bitcoin trader разделение ethereum
ethereum настройка карты bitcoin bitcoin capital tether gps ethereum forum ethereum статистика bitcoin пицца bitcoin antminer bitcoin проект робот bitcoin bitcoin landing инструкция bitcoin Unfortunately, ASIC hardware is far from being a sure-fire investment either. Potential buyers should be extremely careful, as various elements should be considered:tether обменник wallets cryptocurrency 6000 bitcoin bitcoin xt bitcoin plus500 bit bitcoin bitcoin india bitcoin take бесплатный bitcoin nanopool ethereum 500000 bitcoin microsoft bitcoin форекс bitcoin cryptocurrency top titan bitcoin ethereum icon Almost certainly, but this argument has two massive holes in it: (1) because they concentrate funds they are a massive target for hackers, while you are not - at all. (2) they are a trusted third party so the situation is strictly worse - not only do you have to trust their security skills, but you also have to trust them not to steal (modulo multisig, as mentioned above) (edited to add: as well as literal stealing, there is things like political confiscation, don't forget).bitcoin блок
