What is "Bitcoin"?
Cryptocurrencies have received worldwide recognition.
But is still not understood by most people & businesses.
Besides the hype and the press releases the overwhelming majority of people, bankers, consultants, etc- have limited knowledge about these currencies. They often fail to even understand the simple concepts behind them. I hope this helps you, even a little bit.
What Are Cryptocurrencies & How Did They Emerge?
Cryptocurrencies emerged along side of another invention. Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin (The first and most important cryptocurrency, never intended to even invent a currency)
Satoshi's announcement of Bitcoin in late 2008, Said he developed “A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.“
“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with hardly a fraction in reserve.”
-Satoshi Nakamoto
The most important part of his invention was that he found a way to build a true decentralized digital cash system. In the nineties, there were many attempts to create 'digital money', but they all failed miserably. His vision was to create a digital cash system that would operate without a central entity.
This ultimately became the birth of cryptocurrency. Everyone is missing the missing piece Satoshi found to realize digital cash. The reason why is quite technical and hard to grasp, but if you do understand, you‘ll know more about cryptocurrencies than the avergage Joe.
Let's Simplify;
To fathom digital currency you need a payment network with accounts, balances, and transaction. That‘s pretty straight forward. The major problem every payment network has to solve is to prevent the double spending (to prevent that one entity spends the same amount twice.) Typically, this is done by a central server who keeps record of the balances.
In a decentralized network, you don‘t have this- So you need every single entity of the network to do this job. Every peer in the network must be a list with all transactions to check if future transactions are valid or in attempt to double spend.
How can these entities keep a concesus about such records?
If the peers in the network disagree about only one single, minor balance, everything is broken. They need to be absolutely consise. Again, usually you take a central authority to declare the correct state of balances. But how do you achieve a consensus without a central authority?
Nobody had a clue, until Satoshi came around. In fact, nobody believed it was even possible.
He proved it was. His major innovation was to achieve consensus without a central authority. Cryptocurrencies are all a part of the solution- What made this so thrilling and fascinating was that it benefited the entire world.
Would you like to learn more about cryptocurrency? Have any questions?
Let me know! I would love to go more in depth on the entire topic if there's enough interest.
Recent Comments
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Well I thought it was interesting. Did you ever make any money with it, Y or N. And what happened to USI-T, Hmmm, very interesting, Corbin.
I did write down your facebook spot, I'm barely a facebook and not a twitter. I'd like to hear your answers to these questions. thanks Corbin.
Suzay
Basically USI Tech and Bitconnect were both Ponzi Schemes that eventually ran off with peoples money. I was so close to trying out USI Tech too, but thought better of it.
Oh jeez. USI was like BitConnect, to my knowledge. I personally lost my fair share with bitconnect (pyramid scheme). In terms of trading cryptocurrency, yes I am making money. I get excited with thinking about a lot of the coins purpose and what use they will be in the digital evolving future.
That's a well-written post, Corbin.
Make sure you don't include any links, as there are permitted spaces for these. And if caught having them somewhere else, a permanent account explosion (their words, not mine) could be intact, in some cases. Spam is a NO NO! Also, make sure You don't duplicate material, as everytihng in here should be unique.
More to that here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.wealthyaffiliate.com/profiles/1207579/1526297266_resized.jpg
And right! I almost forgot...
WA has their own cryptocurrency! :-) Introducing WootCoin, Our OWN Cryptocurrency.
Corbin,
My point was not to say don't do it but to share that a market as agile as the currency to me make sense but this is because I see the currency market having more space for maneuver than the Bitcoin. But don't think I tried to tell you to avoid it because you know now the ins and outs of this market. I didn't criticize it I just said I don't know enough to try it. You know how to manage risk in the Bitcoin market. To me, I only could buy or sell bitcoins.
You have the knowledge and I appreciate you taking the time and having the patience to explain me about bitcoin when the only knowledge I have and see is that it is a new trading option available, now, to anyone.
Thanks
Marcus
I gotcha, Marcus. May have misinterpreted a couple things.
My apologies. In terms of managing risk- that's something I'm always trying to improve on. I always manage to come out back on top, but oh my god am I ever thankful for USDT (tether).
I think you'd be hooked if you endeavoured into Crypto, I was the definition of a skeptic when I first got involved. And I was a hard sell after I lost $1000 to a pyramid out of utter stupidity. The importance of life is learning from mistakes, I'm thankful that I can still do that among the people around me in my generation (haha).
Wishing you all the best for success this year Marcus.
Chat anytime,
Corbin
Thanks, Corbin for the info
I missed the boat years ago. I received a report from financial experts back in 2013 (I think it was 2013) and off memory, one bitcoin was about $1,000. I didn't know how to buy them at the time and they were not advertised like they are today.
Man, I wish I would have followed up back then.
So Noah hasn't left yet? Great News!!! I wonder who I will take with me on the ride, my daughter or my wife .... hehe
Hello Corbin,
Good job and I don't remember if I did share with you that I use to trade in the options market quite a lot either short and long but because of the market be more extensively regulated than the cryptocurrency the trades are done by a large public inclusive professional and no professionals in the case of cryptocurrency the market is completely in professional hands so any group holding a large cash on hands can take the market in the direction that they want. Am I right? - a lot of risks but fascinating - I particularly love the currency market but as you know George Soros corner the Bank of England and they were forced to devalue the pound. I believe that any trade when you are dealing in a professional market and among large buyers, or large sellers it is interesting to get to know better before taking any risk which showed you do.
You did a great work Corbin great explanation about their formation and control. I myself know very little about trading with cryptocurrency. Thank and success trading in the cryptocurrency business.
Good job.
Marcus
Hey Marcus, I do remember you mentioning that I believe!
Of course I respect everyone's beliefs, and to an extent you're right in some cases. There's always risk in investing. Like Warren Buffet once said, it's about "managing risk, not avoiding it."
Is there more risk involved in cryptocurrency? There has to be.
But wouldn't that make sense given the lack of understanding (and volume).
People still are adapting. Asking a banker what they think of cryptocurrency, is like asking the CEO of a Taxi company what they think of Uber.
Warren Buffet says that bitcoin is rat poison.
I agree. The banks are the rats. (haha)
Excellent information. Of course, Bitcoin is hardly the only crytocurrency available on the market. Which one of the others would you say shows the greatest profit potential for the average investor?
Craig
Thank you very much Craig!
In what timeframe?
That's certainly up for debate. I have high hopes for many, but I think Ripple is probably the most undervalued right now.
I'm actually going to disagree with Ripple. It's one of the most heavily centralized cryptos out there which pretty much defeats the purpose of cryptocurrency.
I hold some Vertcoin it hasn't moved much but there's a USD ---> Vertcoin exchange coming out within the next month or 2 and I think that will boost the value greatly.
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Interesting Corbin!! Thanks for this!
Tried and True
Elaine
Thanks for the acknowledgement Elaine! :)