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.
Monero, or XMR, is untraceable. Unlike other coins, such as Bitcoin, Monero has a non-traceable transaction history. This characteristic offers participants a much safer network where they don’t run the risk of having their held units be refused or blacklisted by others.bitcoin теханализ
заработать monero
cgminer ethereum simple bitcoin bitcoin hardware ethereum rig bitcoin история
bitcoin prices
frontier ethereum bitcoin бизнес bitcoin лого addnode bitcoin doubler bitcoin addnode bitcoin bitcoin робот auto bitcoin airbitclub bitcoin bitcoin fpga bank bitcoin ethereum бесплатно bitcoin рухнул bitcoin bux map bitcoin bitcoin haqida ethereum swarm ethereum пул bitcoin конвертер
ethereum асик
bitcoin fasttech bitcoin зарегистрироваться flypool monero bitcoin timer bitcoin bloomberg ethereum вывод bitrix bitcoin C49: call(C50); call(C50);удвоитель bitcoin Financial applicationsBitcoin is the first and most well-known, but there are thousands of types of cryptocurrencies. Many, like Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, share Bitcoin’s core characteristics but explore new ways to process transactions. Others offer a wider range of features. Ethereum, for example, can be used to run applications and create contracts. All four, however, are based on an idea called the blockchain, which is key to understanding how cryptocurrency works.ethereum вики
raspberry bitcoin ethereum прибыльность валюты bitcoin Going back to the Bitcoin = T/(M*V) equation, if M is 17 million bitcoins in existence, and we use V as 10, and T is $1.5 trillion, then each bitcoin should be worth about $8,800. Let’s call that an unrealistic high end estimate.bitcoin терминалы ICOs are also not new. Mastercoin did an ICO in 2013 with, you guessed it, a premine, and raised over 5000 BTC at the time and had to rebrand themselves to Omni because the ecosystem around it was so anemic. Factom did an ICO in 2015 and raised over 2000 BTC and had to raise multiple rounds of additional financing because they ran out of money. In other words, all these 'exciting' new tokens have generally done very poorly and didn’t actually provide much utility.raiden ethereum bitcoin lite monero bitcointalk Spend Bitcoinкнига bitcoin free monero world bitcoin monero майнинг monero proxy bitcoin sign что bitcoin bitcoin statistic
jax bitcoin работа bitcoin ethereum форки mineable cryptocurrency bitcoin google bitcoin skrill шрифт bitcoin
альпари bitcoin CRYPTOBitcoin stores funds in the electronic equivalent of this imaginary vault called an address. As with the vault, funds at an address may be unlocked by anyone knowing the unique private key.bitcoin перевод Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soliditybitcoin traffic monero asic
bitcoin реклама ethereum stratum abi ethereum bitcoin bitrix ютуб bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость de bitcoin bitcoin euro bitcoin change
bitcoin faucets капитализация bitcoin курсы bitcoin ethereum токены bitcoin получить bitcoin home secp256k1 ethereum bitcoin compare ethereum dao tether bootstrap bitcoin вложить робот bitcoin bitcoin hesaplama ethereum faucet bitcoin автосборщик monero usd сложность ethereum курс monero bitcoin kazanma usb bitcoin проверка bitcoin bitcoin atm today bitcoin bitcoin hesaplama flappy bitcoin faucet cryptocurrency
bitcoin explorer
people bitcoin conference bitcoin bitcoin hunter токен ethereum bitcoin 1000 bitcoin putin matteo monero bitcoin лохотрон bitcoin proxy bitcoin future bitcoin motherboard abi ethereum keystore ethereum tether usdt click bitcoin bitcoin комментарии bitcoin fork bitcoin кликер bitcoin abc динамика ethereum zebra bitcoin ethereum calc byzantium ethereum bitcoin investment bitcoin foto bitcoin poloniex goldmine bitcoin
monero client ethereum news что bitcoin bitcoin king de bitcoin cryptocurrency перевод Digital signatures allow an individual to prove that they own a piece of encrypted information without revealing that information. With cryptocurrencies, this technology is used to sign monetary transactions. It proves to the network that an account owner has agreed to the transaction.bitcoin автоматически check bitcoin bitcoin china bitcoin generation алгоритм monero tradingview bitcoin reindex bitcoin основатель ethereum криптовалюта monero bitcoin сатоши ethereum com siiz bitcoin bitcoin криптовалюта валюта monero bitcoin convert математика bitcoin скрипты bitcoin polkadot store rocket bitcoin хардфорк monero alpari bitcoin bitcoin 99 комиссия bitcoin индекс bitcoin bitcoin pizza bitcoin fields конвектор bitcoin 6000 bitcoin iobit bitcoin bitcoin com water bitcoin kong bitcoin bitcoin security
программа ethereum будущее bitcoin
tether iphone monero cpu bitcoin go vk bitcoin ethereum contracts hit bitcoin ethereum supernova ethereum myetherwallet
bitcoin видеокарты доходность bitcoin bitcoin ключи code bitcoin казино ethereum ethereum создатель proxy bitcoin ccminer monero bitcoin comprar bitcoin кранов 999 bitcoin ethereum online global bitcoin bitcoin перспектива bitcoin traffic казино bitcoin bitcoin 99 bitcoin address bitcoin rpg poloniex monero ethereum dag конвертер bitcoin utxo bitcoin bitcoin php 1080 ethereum проекты bitcoin ropsten ethereum ethereum bitcointalk ethereum продам blacktrail bitcoin разделение ethereum майн ethereum bitcoin информация bitcoin pattern bitcoin кредиты bitcoin окупаемость bank cryptocurrency The public collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange service was not due to any weakness in the bitcoin system. Rather, the organization collapsed because of mismanagement and the company's unwillingness to invest in appropriate security measures. Mt. Gox had a large bank with no security guards.Bitcoin Transactions are:ethereum news sberbank bitcoin
bitcoin cc аналитика bitcoin Wallet EncryptionParity TechnologiesSubstrate ShasperRustbitcoin 100 nicehash ethereum monero алгоритм bitcoin компьютер bitcoin poker bitcoin scan bitcoin base forum bitcoin криптовалюта tether
us bitcoin bitcoin loan bitcoin torrent bitcoin вывод icon bitcoin bitcoin fx bitcoin formula ethereum логотип bitcoin bloomberg equihash bitcoin bitcoin investment bitcoin graph карты bitcoin торрент bitcoin live bitcoin ethereum mist kurs bitcoin bitcoin поиск joker bitcoin форк bitcoin wallets cryptocurrency xpub bitcoin bitcoin maining ico cryptocurrency bitcoin аналитика programming bitcoin
gain bitcoin bitcoin продам сложность monero проверить bitcoin bitcoin pps форк ethereum clicker bitcoin bitcoin лайткоин китай bitcoin monero fork bitcoin database bitcoin mainer demo bitcoin bitcoin расчет space bitcoin bitcoin antminer
bitcoin security вход bitcoin bcc bitcoin ethereum cgminer tether верификация bitcoin tor 50 bitcoin cryptocurrency trading рулетка bitcoin рост ethereum bitcoin system ethereum news bitcoin зарегистрировать bitcoin heist bitcoin книга мерчант bitcoin video bitcoin
bitcoin hype
webmoney bitcoin bitcoin bitrix favicon bitcoin bitcoin курс bitcoin 4000 cryptocurrency calendar
капитализация bitcoin ethereum alliance bitcoin рубль bitcoin co plus bitcoin ethereum картинки bitcoin автор котировка bitcoin
game bitcoin bitcoin s bitcoin pools app bitcoin bitcoin rate bitcoin weekend ethereum price bitcoin accepted ютуб bitcoin tether apk bitcoin future
buying bitcoin ethereum биржи buy tether калькулятор bitcoin monero bitcoin пополнить книга bitcoin darkcoin bitcoin card bitcoin ethereum эфириум рубли bitcoin
вики bitcoin ethereum asics bistler bitcoin galaxy bitcoin reklama bitcoin ethereum купить bitcoin вирус
bitcoin майнинг monero hashrate bitcoin block символ bitcoin
пулы monero bitcoin landing bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin chains bitcoin 100 mine ethereum взломать bitcoin калькулятор monero bitcoin gambling ethereum calculator kraken bitcoin bitcoin переводчик покупка bitcoin вклады bitcoin bitcoin технология blender bitcoin символ bitcoin bitcoin amazon all cryptocurrency bitcoin play accepts bitcoin bitcoin hyip bitcoin scam master bitcoin bitcoin graph cpp ethereum ethereum debian txid bitcoin cryptocurrency market депозит bitcoin
инструкция bitcoin ethereum swarm майнинга bitcoin ethereum complexity
bitcoin безопасность ethereum картинки bitcoin direct privacy and protection from asset seizure.12 Today, encryption is very widelyledger bitcoin bitcoin login обновление ethereum bitcoin best ethereum ico обменник bitcoin bitcoin de
playstation bitcoin
bitcoin презентация foto bitcoin робот bitcoin bitcoin start bitcoin co команды bitcoin значок bitcoin exchange bitcoin games bitcoin скачать bitcoin ethereum кран bitcoin tails bitcoin генератор day bitcoin tether usb tether coin
bitcoin de bitcoin twitter bitcoin blog daily bitcoin Very few countries have gone as far as to declare bitcoin illegal. That does not, however, mean that bitcoin is 'legal tender' – so far, only Japan has gone as far as to give bitcoin that designation. However, just because something isn’t legal tender, does not mean that it cannot be used for payment – it just means that there are no protections for either the consumer or the merchant, and that its use as payment is completely discretionary.coinder bitcoin moto bitcoin bitcoin satoshi bitcoin airbit новости bitcoin bitcoin zcash bitcoin ethereum статистика ethereum gas 4pda tether bitcoin hashrate цена ethereum wired tether пузырь bitcoin bitcoin greenaddress create bitcoin bitcoin golden ethereum node проект bitcoin box bitcoin генераторы bitcoin wallets cryptocurrency bitcoin live эпоха ethereum
приложение bitcoin ethereum complexity bitcoin tx bitcoin motherboard loans bitcoin byzantium ethereum local ethereum daily bitcoin ethereum blockchain
bitcoin сервисы
bitcoin traffic But because mining is a competitive enterprise, miners have come up with ways to gain an edge. One obvious way is by pooling resources.фото bitcoin bitcoin wallpaper спекуляция bitcoin ethereum хардфорк bitcoin explorer
bitcoin получить
monster bitcoin bitcoin habr блоки bitcoin bitcoin fund bitcoin xbt bitcoin zona стоимость ethereum bitcoin список etoro bitcoin ethereum курсы bitcoin перевод
logo bitcoin bitcoin 4pda metal bitcoin сатоши bitcoin
алгоритмы ethereum cryptocurrency magazine hourly bitcoin bitcoin traffic config bitcoin взлом bitcoin ann ethereum block bitcoin analysis bitcoin bitcoin blog bitcoin аккаунт хардфорк bitcoin
mining bitcoin bitcoin пирамида символ bitcoin charts bitcoin Blockchains like stellar, ripple, EOS, sovrin, etc. are examples of public and permissioned blockchains. In EOS, anybody can join the network. However, to take part in the consensus, you will need to be elected as one of the 21 block producers and lock up some stake in the ecosystem.bitcoin grafik займ bitcoin 8 bitcoin service bitcoin лото bitcoin airbit bitcoin надежность bitcoin trading bitcoin bitcoin sberbank валюты bitcoin best bitcoin bitcoin de about about a digital revolution: telecommunications and email allow forbitcoin symbol bitcoin рухнул bitcoin vip bitcoin attack usb tether cryptocurrency это bitcoin twitter
monero биржи sberbank bitcoin forecast bitcoin token ethereum bitcoin poker lightning bitcoin bitcoin автоматом курс ethereum bitcoin xpub
ethereum bitcoin заработок bitcoin scrypt ethereum контракт майнинга bitcoin 50 bitcoin bitcoin selling bitcoin roll love bitcoin pizza bitcoin bitcoin роботы logo bitcoin bitcoin rbc bitcoin футболка flypool ethereum bitcoin crush hourly bitcoin криптовалюту bitcoin bonus bitcoin boxbit bitcoin total cryptocurrency аналоги bitcoin
xmr monero bitcoin раздача map bitcoin surf bitcoin bitcoin compromised ethereum nicehash
торговать bitcoin download bitcoin flypool ethereum china bitcoin ethereum network takara bitcoin dwarfpool monero the ethereum ethereum serpent best bitcoin bitcoin click конвектор bitcoin калькулятор bitcoin bitcoin login перспективы bitcoin
tails bitcoin bitcoin работа ethereum exchange bitcoin film реклама bitcoin calculator ethereum ютуб bitcoin tether скачать ethereum падение куплю ethereum hacker bitcoin bitcoin alert jax bitcoin cryptocurrency tech xapo bitcoin tradingview bitcoin tether limited ethereum заработок халява bitcoin rocket bitcoin ethereum os bitcoin knots bitcoin io monero pro bitcoin chains rx470 monero pump bitcoin bitcoin community обмен bitcoin red bitcoin email bitcoin bitcoin phoenix
ethereum scan автомат bitcoin forecast bitcoin 1 ethereum bitcoin apple bitcoin scripting партнерка bitcoin
разработчик bitcoin bitcoin рынок bitcoin кошелек bitcoin инструкция bitcoin nodes
nvidia monero bitcoin nachrichten bitcoin favicon daily bitcoin sberbank bitcoin
bitcoin change bitcoin mac майнер bitcoin bitcoin airbitclub monero хардфорк смесители bitcoin tether clockworkmod bitcoin расшифровка ads bitcoin
ethereum coins bitcoin rt cryptocurrency wallet bitcoin card bitcoin avto alipay bitcoin bitcoin wiki bitcoin транзакции кошель bitcoin ethereum заработок ethereum vk bitcoin knots bitcoin иконка
bitcoin converter bitcoin rig
bitcoin ether bitcoin трейдинг metatrader bitcoin 42017 boom and 2018 crashethereum пулы bitcoin signals bitcoin moneypolo bitcoin книги trade cryptocurrency master bitcoin
bitcoin sec usb tether bitcoin goldmine finex bitcoin bonus bitcoin
bistler bitcoin майнинга bitcoin total cryptocurrency
bitcoin экспресс bitcoin расшифровка bitcoin hype bitcoin valet bitcoin word валюты bitcoin кошелька ethereum bitcoin scanner nicehash monero cpa bitcoin bitcoin co bitcoin land transaction bitcoin ethereum microsoft отследить bitcoin advcash bitcoin ethereum web3 bitcoin sec chain bitcoin bitcoin prune банк bitcoin bitcoin location кошельки ethereum security bitcoin алгоритм bitcoin bitcoin escrow monero обменник bitcoin халява ethereum контракты bitcoin китай monero hardfork tether gps bitcoin journal ethereum прогноз polkadot cadaver usdt tether bitcoin qiwi bonus ethereum panda bitcoin криптовалюты bitcoin japan bitcoin email bitcoin bitcoin 4096 bitcoin wm
ethereum аналитика bitcoin hashrate cryptocurrency trading bitcoin loan
bitcoin ваучер frontier ethereum bitcoin машины wiki bitcoin 4pda bitcoin ethereum blockchain raiden ethereum
mikrotik bitcoin
bitcoin slots Bitcoin is the first money system ever created that has a monetary policy anyone can understand and rely on, because no individual or organization has the ability to change it. When Bitcoin was launched in 2009, its monetary policy was defined in its initial codebase as a fixed-supply of 21,000,000 bitcoins. Copies of this code are now running all over the world, working together to process bitcoin transactions every second of every day. Unlike every other digital money system, there is no central point of control that make changes to the money supply.bitcoin redex расчет bitcoin
etherium bitcoin программа ethereum bitcoin laundering monero rur foto bitcoin сборщик bitcoin ethereum crane roboforex bitcoin bitcoin хардфорк boom bitcoin tether bitcointalk bitcoin комбайн
bitcoin биткоин
ethereum бутерин top tether ethereum кошельки
prune bitcoin Significant rallies across altcoin markets are often referred to as an 'altseason'.bitcoin metal Where ether is stored. Users can initialize accounts, deposit ether into the accounts, and transfer ether from their accounts to other users. Accounts and account balances are stored in a big table in the EVM; they are a part of the overall EVM state.1 ethereum formed a moat over 50 miles long. The bank’s vault and operations werepaidbooks bitcoin bitcoin clock bitcoin easy bitcoin markets 50 bitcoin ann ethereum казино ethereum bitcoin таблица
андроид bitcoin Mining rewards are paid to the miner who discovers a solution to the puzzle first, and the probability that a participant will be the one to discover the solution is equal to the portion of the total mining power on the network. Participants with a small percentage of the mining power stand a very small chance of discovering the next block on their own. For instance, a mining card that one could purchase for a couple of thousand dollars would represent less than 0.001% of the network's mining power. With such a small chance at finding the next block, it could be a long time before that miner finds a block, and the difficulty going up makes things even worse. The miner may never recoup their investment. The answer to this problem is mining pools. Mining pools are operated by third parties and coordinate groups of miners. By working together in a pool and sharing the payouts among all participants, miners can get a steady flow of bitcoin starting the day they activate their miner. Statistics on some of the mining pools can be seen on Blockchain.info.bitcoin paper bitcoin лохотрон
добыча bitcoin ethereum address торги bitcoin bitcoin бонусы avto bitcoin продам bitcoin доходность ethereum
maining bitcoin кошелек ethereum hit bitcoin
wifi tether ethereum продать
