BLOCKCHAIN

At its most basic, a blockchain is a list of transactions that anyone can see and verify. The Bitcoin blockchain, for example, contains a record of each time someone has sent or received bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that powers them make it possible to transfer value online without the need for an intermediary, such as a bank or credit card company.

Almost all cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, are secured through blockchain networks. Which means that accuracy is constantly being checked for enormous computing power.

The list of transactions contained in the blockchain is critical for most cryptocurrencies because it allows you to make secure payments between people you don’t know without having to go through a third-party verifier, such as a bank.

CRYPTOCURRENCY

At its core, cryptocurrency is typically decentralized digital money created for use on the internet.

Cryptocurrency makes it possible to transfer value online without the need for an intermediary such as a bank or payment processor, allowing value to be transferred globally, almost instantly, 24/7 at low rates.

Typically, cryptocurrencies are not issued or controlled by any government or other central authority. They are managed by peer-to-peer networks of computers running free open source software. As a rule, anyone who wants to participate can.They are secure because all transactions are vetoed by a technology called blockchain.

Unlike a bank’s ledger, a cryptocurrency blockchain is distributed across the entire digital currency network.It is not controlled by any company, country or third party; and anyone can participate.

BITCOIN

The world’s first widely adopted cryptocurrency. With Bitcoin, people can securely and directly send digital money over the internet.

Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym for the person or team who created the technology in a 2008 white paper. It’s a very simple concept: bitcoin is digital money that enables secure peer-to-peer transactions on the internet.

There will only be 21 million bitcoin. This is digital money that cannot be inflated or manipulated.

ETHEREUM

Ethereum, launched in 2015, is the second largest cryptocurrency by total market capitalization after Bitcoin. But unlike Bitcoin, it was not created to be digital money. Instead, the founders of Ethereum set out to build a new type of global, decentralized computing platform that takes the security and openness of blockchains and extends those attributes to a wide range of applications.

Everything from financial tools and games to complex databases are already running on the Ethereum blockchain. And its future potential is only limited by the programmers’ imagination. According to the non-profit Ethereum foundation: “Ethereum can be used to encode, decentralize, secure and transact virtually anything.

MINING

Mining is the process that Bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies use to generate new coins and verify new transactions. It involves vast, decentralized networks of computers around the world that verify and secure blockchains – the virtual ledgers that document cryptocurrency transactions. In return for contributing their processing power, computers on the network are rewarded with new coins. It’s a virtuous circle: the miners maintain and secure the blockchain, the blockchain awards the coins, the coins provide an incentive for the miners to maintain the blockchain.