Blockchain One Stop Shop

What will be the future of money? Imagine walking into a restaurant and looking at the digital menu board for your favorite meal. Only, it shows as 009 BTC, not $8.99.

Could cryptocurrency really be the future of money? The answer to this question depends on the general consensus on several key decisions, from ease of use to security and regulations.

Let’s explore both sides of the (digital) coin and compare and contrast traditional fiat money with cryptocurrency.

The first and most important component is trust.

It is important that people trust the currency they use. What gives the dollar value? Is it gold? No, the dollar has not been backed by gold since the 1970s. So what gives the dollar (or any other fiat currency) value? Some countries’ currencies are considered more stable than others. Ultimately, people trust that the government that issued that money stands firmly behind it and essentially guarantees its “value.”

How does trust work with Bitcoin since it’s decentralized, meaning they don’t have a governing body that issues the coins? Bitcoin basically sits on the blockchain, an online ledger that allows the entire world to see every transaction. Each of these transactions is verified by miners (people who run computers on a peer to peer network) to prevent fraud and also to ensure that there is no double spending. In exchange for their services in maintaining the integrity of the blockchain, miners are paid for each transaction they verify. Since there are countless miners trying to make money, each one checks each other’s mistakes. This proof of work process is that the blockchain is never hacked. In fact, this belief is what gives Bitcoin its value.

Next, let’s look at security, which is trust’s best friend.

What if my bank was robbed or my credit card was fraudulent? My bank deposits are covered by FDIC insurance. My bank will likely charge back any charges I never made on my card. That doesn’t mean criminals can’t pull off at least some frustrating and time-consuming stunts. It is probably more or less the comfort of knowing that I will recover from any wrong done to me.

There are many options for where to store your money in cryptocurrency. For your protection, it is important to know that the transactions are insured. There are reputable exchanges like Binance and Coinbase that have a proven track record of fixing bugs for their customers. The same is true of cryptocurrency, as there are less than reputable banks around the world.

What happens if I throw a twenty dollar bill into the fire? The same is true for cryptocurrency. If I lose my credentials for a particular digital wallet or exchange, I won’t be able to access those coins. Again, I cannot stress enough the importance of doing business with a reputable company.

The next issue is scale. Currently, this may be the biggest obstacle preventing people from transacting more on the blockchain. When it comes to the speed of transactions, fiat money moves faster than cryptocurrency. Visa can process about 40,000 transactions per second. Under normal conditions, the blockchain can only handle 10 per second. However, a new protocol is coming into force that will increase this to 60,000 transactions per second. Known as the Lightning Network, this could result in cryptocurrency becoming the future of money.

No conversation is complete without talking about comfort. What do people typically like about traditional banking and spending methods? For those who prefer cash, it is often very easy to use. If you’re trying to book a hotel room or a rental car, you need a credit card. Personally, I use my credit card everywhere I go because of the convenience, security, and rewards.

Did you know there are companies that provide all of this in the crypto space as well? Monaco now issues Visa logo cards that automatically convert your digital currency into local currency for you.

If you’ve ever tried to transfer money to anyone, you know that the process can be tedious and expensive. Blockchain transactions allow a user to send cryptocurrency to anyone within minutes, regardless of where they live. It’s also much cheaper and safer than sending bank money.

There are other modern money transfer methods available in both worlds. Take apps like Zelle, Venmo, and Messenger Pay, for example. These apps are used by millions of millennials every day. Did you know they are starting to integrate cryptocurrency as well?

Square Cash now includes Bitcoin, and CEO Jack Dorsey said: “Bitcoin doesn’t stop at buying and selling for us. We believe it’s a transformational technology for our industry, and we want to learn as quickly as possible.”

“Bitcoin presents an opportunity for more people to have access to the financial system,” he added.

While it’s clear that fiat costs still dominate the way most of us transfer money, the fledgling cryptocurrency system is quickly gaining ground. The evidence is everywhere. By 2017, mainstream media coverage was hard to come by. Almost every major business news story now involves Bitcoin. From Forbes to Fidelity, they are all measured by their opinions.

What is my point? Perhaps the biggest reason for Bitcoin’s success is that it is fair, inclusive and provides financial access to more people around the world. Banks and large institutions see this as a threat to their existence. They are on the losing side of the biggest wealth transfer the world has ever seen.

Still undecided? Ask yourself this question: “Do people trust governments and banks more or less with each passing day?”

Your answer to this question may be what determines the future of money.

In the first days of its launch in 2009, several thousand bitcoins were used to buy a pizza. Since then, the cryptocurrency’s rise to $65,000 in April 2021, after falling nearly 70 percent to $6,000 in mid-2018, has boggled the minds of many people—cryptocurrency investors, traders, or just the curious. missed the boat.

How it all started

Note that dissatisfaction with the current financial system led to the development of digital currency. The development of this cryptocurrency is based on blockchain technology by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym apparently used by a developer or group of developers.

Despite numerous opinions predicting the death of cryptocurrency, bitcoin’s performance has inspired many other digital currencies, especially in recent years. The success with crowdfunding brought on by blockchain fever has also attracted the unsuspecting public to fraud, which has caught the attention of regulators.

Beyond Bitcoin

Bitcoin inspired the launch of many other digital currencies, Currently there are more than 1000 versions of digital coins or tokens. They are not all the same and their value varies widely, as does their liquidity.

Coins, altcoins and tokens

Suffice it to say at this point that there are fine differences between coins, altcoins, and tokens. Although altcoins such as Ethereum, litecoin, ripple, dogecoin and dash fall under the ‘mainstream’ category of coins, they are mostly traded on cryptocurrency exchanges, meaning that altcoins or altcoins generally describe something other than mainstream bitcoin.

Coins serve as a currency or store of value, while tokens offer an asset or utility use, such as a blockchain service for supply chain management to verify and track wine products from winery to consumer.

It’s worth noting that low-value tokens or coins offer positive opportunities, but don’t expect the same meteoric growth as bitcoin. Simply put, little-known tokens can be easy to buy but hard to sell.

Before getting started with cryptocurrency, start by learning the value proposition and technology considerations, i.e. the commercial strategies outlined in the white paper that accompanies every initial coin offering or ICO.

For those familiar with stocks and shares, this is no different than an initial public offering or IPO. However, IPOs are issued by companies with tangible assets and business experience. All this is done in a regulated environment. On the other hand, an ICO is based purely on an idea proposed in a white paper by a business – which is still operational and has no assets – looking for funds to start.

Uncontrolled, so buyers beware

The situation with digital currency is probably ‘the unknown cannot be regulated’. Regulators and regulations are still trying to catch up with the ever-evolving cryptocurrencies. The golden rule in the crypto space is caveat emptor, buyer beware.

Some countries are open-minded in adopting a hands-off policy for cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications, while focusing on outright scams. However, in other countries, there are regulators who are more concerned with the negative aspects of digital money than the positive ones. Regulators generally recognize the need to strike a balance, and some are looking to existing securities laws to try to manage the many flavors of cryptocurrencies globally.

Digital wallets: The first step

A wallet is essential to start cryptocurrency. Think electronic banking, but in the case of virtual currency, exclude the protection of the law, so security is the first and last consideration in the crypto space.

Wallets are digital. There are two types of wallets.

• Internet-connected hot wallets that put users at risk of being hacked

• Cold wallets that do not connect to the Internet and are considered more secure.

Apart from the two main types of wallets, it is worth noting that there are wallets for only one cryptocurrency, while others are wallets for multiple cryptocurrencies. There is also the possibility of having a multi-signature wallet, having a joint account with some banks.

The choice of wallet depends on the user’s choice, purely interested in bitcoin or ethereum, since each coin has its own wallet, or you can use a third-party wallet with security features.

Wallet records

A cryptocurrency wallet contains a public and private key with private transaction records. A public key contains a reference to a cryptocurrency account or address, as opposed to the name required to receive a check payment.

The public key is publicly available, but transactions are only confirmed after verification and validation based on a consensus mechanism specific to each cryptocurrency.

A private key can be considered a PIN code widely used in e-financial transactions. It follows that the user should never disclose the private key to anyone and should not back up this data, which should be kept offline.

It makes sense to have a minimal amount of cryptocurrency in a hot wallet, and a larger amount in a cold wallet. Losing your private key is as good as losing your cryptocurrency! The usual precautions for online financial transactions apply, from strong passwords to being aware of malware and phishing.

Wallet formats

Different types of wallets are available to suit individual preferences.

• Hardware wallets developed by third parties and must be purchased. These devices work like a USB device, which is considered somewhat secure and is only connected when the Internet is needed.

• For example, web-based wallets provided by cryptocurrency exchanges are considered hot wallets that put users at risk.

• Software-based wallets for desktop computers or mobile phones are mostly free and may be provided by coin issuers or third parties.

• Paper-based wallets can be printed in QR code format displaying relevant information about the cryptocurrency that holds the public and private keys. These should be kept in a safe place until required during a cryptocurrency transaction, and copies should be made in case of accidents such as water damage or print data fading over time.

Cryptocurrencies and markets

Cryptocurrencies are trading platforms for those interested in virtual currencies. Other options include websites for direct trading between buyers and sellers, as well as brokers, where there is no “market” price but a trade-off between the parties to the transaction.

Thus, there are many cryptocurrency exchanges located in different countries but with different security practices and infrastructure standards. They consist of anonymous registrations that only require an email to open an account and start trading. However, there are others that require users to comply with international identity verification and anti-money laundering (AML) measures known as Know Your Customer.

The choice of cryptocurrency depends on the user’s choice, but anonymous ones may have restrictions on the permissible limits of trading or may be subject to sudden new regulations in the country where the exchange resides. Minimal administrative procedures with anonymous registration allow users to trade quickly while going through KYC and AML processes, which will take more time.

All crypto trades must be properly processed and confirmed, which can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours depending on the coins or tokens traded and the volume of the trade. Scalability is known to be a problem with cryptocurrencies, and developers are working on ways to find a solution.

Cryptocurrency exchanges fall into two categories.

• Fiat-Crypto-Currency Such exchanges provide the purchase of fiat-crypto-currency through direct transfers from banks or credit and debit cards, or ATMs in some countries.

• Cryptocurrency only. There are crypto-only cryptocurrency exchanges, which means that customers must already own a cryptocurrency — such as bitcoin or ethereum — to “exchange” it for other coins or tokens based on the market rate.

Fees are charged to facilitate the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies. Users should do their research to ensure they are satisfied with the infrastructure and security measures and also determine the fees they are comfortable with as different exchanges charge different rates.

Don’t expect a common market price for the same cryptocurrency on different exchanges It may be worthwhile to spend time researching the best price for the coins and tokens you are interested in.

Online financial transactions carry risks, and users should consider warnings such as two-factor authentication or 2-FA, keep up-to-date on the latest security measures, and be aware of phishing scams. One of the golden rules when it comes to phishing is to never click on provided links, no matter how genuine the message or email is.

As we expected, after publishing Crypto TREND, we received many questions from readers. In this publication, we will answer the most common one.

What changes are coming that could be game changers in the cryptocurrency sector?

One of the biggest changes that will affect the cryptocurrency world is an alternative block validation method called Proof of Stake (PoS). We’ll try to keep this explanation fairly high-level, but it’s important to have a conceptual understanding of what the difference is and why it’s an important factor.

Remember that the underlying technology with digital currencies is called blockchain, and most existing digital currencies use a validation protocol called Proof of Work (PoW).

With traditional payment methods, you must rely on a third party such as Visa, Interact, or a bank or check clearing house to complete your transaction. These trusted institutions are “centralized,” meaning they maintain their own private ledger that stores the history of the transaction and the balance of each account. They will show you the transactions and you have to agree that it is correct or start an argument. Only the parties to the transaction see it.

With Bitcoin and most other digital currencies, the ledgers are “decentralized,” meaning everyone on the network gets a copy, so no one has to rely on a third party, such as a bank, because anyone can verify the information directly. This verification process is called “distributed consensus”.

PoW requires “work” to be done to validate a new transaction to be included in the blockchain. With cryptocurrencies, this verification is done by “miners” who have to solve complex algorithmic problems. As algorithmic problems become more complex, these “miners” need more expensive and powerful computers to solve problems ahead of everyone else. Mining computers are often specialized, usually using ASIC chips (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) that are more adept and faster at solving these difficult puzzles.

Here is the process:

• Transactions are collected in a “block”.
• Miners confirm that transactions within each block are legitimate by solving a hashing algorithm puzzle known as a “proof of work problem.”
• The first miner to solve a block’s “proof of work problem” is rewarded with a small amount of cryptocurrency.
• Once confirmed, transactions are stored on a public blockchain across the network.
• As the number of transactions and miners increases, so does the difficulty of solving hashing problems.

Although PoW helps to get blockchain and decentralized, trustless digital currencies off the ground, it has some drawbacks, especially since these miners try to solve “proof of work problems” as quickly as possible with the amount of electricity they consume. According to Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, Bitcoin miners use more energy than 159 countries, including Ireland. As the price of each bitcoin increases, more and more miners spend more energy trying to solve problems.

All of this energy consumption has prompted many in the digital currency space to look for an alternative method of verifying blocks just to confirm transactions, and a leading candidate is a method called “Proof of Court” (PoS).

PoS is still an algorithm and the goal is the same as in proof of work, but the process of achieving the goal is completely different. With PoS there are no miners, instead we have “validators”. PoS is based on trust and the knowledge that all people validating transactions have skin in the game.

This way, instead of using energy to answer PoW puzzles, a PoS validator is limited to validating a percentage of transactions that reflect his ownership stake. For example, a validator that owns 3% of the available Ether can only theoretically validate 3% of the blocks.

Your chances of solving the proof of work problem in PoW depends on how much computing power you have. With PoS, it depends on how much crypto you have. The higher the stake you have, the better your chances of solving the block. Instead of winning crypto coins, the winning approver receives a transaction fee.

Appraisers enter their shares by “locking in” a portion of the stock’s tokens. If they try to do something harmful to the network, such as creating an “invalid block”, their stake or security deposit will be confiscated. If they do their job and don’t break the network, but don’t earn the right to approve the block, they’ll get their stake or deposit back.

Here’s what you need to know if you understand the basic difference between PoW and PoS. Only those who plan to become miners or validators should understand all the intricacies of these two verification methods. Most of the general public who want to own cryptocurrencies will simply buy them through an exchange and not participate in the actual mining or validation of block transactions.

Most of the crypto sector believes that for digital currencies to survive long-term, digital tokens must move to a PoS model. At the time of writing, Ethereum is the second largest digital currency after Bitcoin, and their development team has been working on a PoS algorithm called “Casper” for the past few years. It is expected that we will see the introduction of Casper in 2018, putting Ethereum ahead of all other major cryptocurrencies.

As we’ve seen before in this sector, big events like Casper’s successful implementation can drive Ethereum prices up significantly. We will keep you updated in future issues of Crypto TREND.

Stay with us!

Cryptocurrency (or Cryptography) is a controversial digital asset designed to act as a cryptographic medium of exchange to secure your transactions, additional monitor units and transfer assets. Cryptocurrencies are a type of digital currency, alternative currency, and virtual currency. Cryptocurrencies use decentralized control instead of a centralized electronic money system and central banks.

Decentralized control of each cryptocurrency works through a blockchain that underpins public transactions that act as a distributed ledger.

Formal definition

According to Jan Lansky, cryptocurrency is a system that meets four conditions:

• Policy determines whether new cryptocurrency units will be created. If new cryptocurrency units can be designed, the system determines the terms of the resource with the ownership of these new units.

• If two different instructions are entered to change the purchase of the same cryptographic units, the system executes at most one of them.

• The system allows operations to be carried out in such a way that the owner of the cryptographic unit is changed. The withdrawal operation can be issued only by the organization that proves the current owners of these units.

• Ownership of cryptocurrency units can only be shown cryptographically.

Overview

Decentralized cryptography produces the entire system of cryptographic services at a rate determined at the time of system creation and is publicly known. In centralized banking and economic policies, such as the Federal Reserve, administrative committees or governments control the money supply by printing units of trust funds or requiring additional digital ledgers. In the case of a decentralized cryptocurrency, governments or companies cannot produce new units, but they are not compatible with other companies, banks or institutions that have property values. The basic technical system based on decentralized cryptocurrencies was created by a group or individual known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

As of May 2018, there were over 1,800 crypto-transparent specifications. A system of crypto-currency security, integrity, and balance records is maintained by a community of mutually suspicious parties, called minors, who use their computers to confirm the time of a transaction and add them to the registry under a special timestamp scheme.

Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually reduce the production of this currency by limiting the total amount of coins that will be in circulation. Compared to common currencies held or held by financial institutions

cash in hand, police cryptocurrency can be more difficult to hold. This problem arises from the exploitation of cryptographic technologies.

As the name suggests, Blockchain is a block of transactions linked together in a chain. Originally created to support the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, Blockchain technology has taken off and has the potential to change our lives, our economy and our world. One of the greatest aspects of blockchain is that all transactions are open. This means you can trace everything back to its origin.

For example, imagine a foodborne illness outbreak. Pollution will be traceable from the dinner plate to the supermarket and to the source of the product. Let’s take this transparency a step further. We live in an armed society. Many weapons are illegally traded. Blockchain technology will not only eliminate illegal trade, but will also be a way to hold the source of the illegal arms trade accountable. In addition to allowing transactions to be open, Blockchain transactions are also fast.

Blockchain can potentially replace existing trading platforms, as investors selling shares through Blockchain will have immediate access to their funds instead of the typical waiting period. Transactions on Blockchain are extremely fast, low-cost, and most importantly, more secure than many, if not all, platforms. Security is a big factor in Blockchain, which is changing the world as we know it. By design, Blockchain is essentially unhackable. Its transaction ledgers are decentralized, meaning that copies of those transactions are available and verifiable by nodes. Once the transaction is confirmed, it is “sealed” into the block and is next to impossible to change. Since this platform is very secure, it can be used as a voting tool in the United States and even around the world.

There are so many alleged cases of corruption and fraud that voting using Blockchain will eliminate these fears. Again, everything is public. It happens instantly. And it’s very safe. There will be no worries about votes being tampered with or votes not being counted. The irrevocable book will confirm this. Besides being public, secure and safe, Bitcoin is also very economical. It will cut out the middleman for most transactions. There will be little need for third parties to manage or review transactions. Businesses won’t have to spend on security to prevent fraud because Blockchain has it covered. Businesses will also be able to use Blockchain to assess their supply chains and identify inefficiencies.

You find it funny how Blockchain started as a small platform to support Bitcoin and now it is bigger than what this technology was created to support. Although blockchain technology is relatively new, there are many advantages that are too good to overlook. Blockchain technology is transparent. All transactions take place in the public ledger. Blockchain technology is both fast and cost-effective. And finally, blockchain technology is safe and secure.

Blockchain is a unique invention: the brainchild of a person or group of people known as Satoshi Nakamoto. But since then, it has evolved into something much more significant, and the main question everyone is asking is: What is Blockchain?

By allowing digital data to be shared but not copied, blockchain technology has created the foundation for a new kind of internet. Originally designed for digital currency, Bitcoin community technology (buy Bitcoin) is now finding other potential benefits of the technology.

Bitcoin is called “digital gold” and for good reason. So far, the total value of the currency is close to 9 billion USD. And blockchains can create other types of numerical values. Just like the Internet (or your car), you don’t have to know how the blocker is using it. However, basic knowledge of this new technology demonstrates why it is considered revolutionary.

Blockchain Durability and robustness

Blockchain technology is similar to the internet in that its robustness is integrated. By storing the same blocks of data on your network, a blockchain cannot:

1. There is no single point of failure.

2. Be governed by any institution.

Bitcoin was invented in 2008. Since then, the Bitcoin blockchain has operated without significant disruption. (All problems with Bitcoin so far have been caused by hacking or mismanagement, in other words, these problems are caused by bad intentions and human error, not flaws in the underlying concepts).

The Internet itself is almost 30 years old. This is a good record for blockchain technology as it is still evolving.

Who will use Blockchain?

As a web infrastructure, you don’t need to know blockchain to be useful in your life.

Currently, finance offers the most effective use cases for technology. For example, international payments. According to World Bank estimates, more than $430 billion in remittances were sent in 2015. For now, development engineers are in high demand.

Blockchain potentially cuts out intermediaries for such transactions. Personal computing has become more accessible to the general public with the inventory of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that form the “desktop”. Also, the most common GUIs developed for Blockchain are named so. Wallet apps are used by people to buy things with Bitcoin and store them in other cryptocurrencies.

Online transactions are closely related to identity verification processes. It’s easy to imagine that transportation applications will embrace other types of identity management in the years to come.

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