Crypto-currency: All You Need to Know about the Revolution

The Beginning:

Cryptocurrency is a revolution in digital currency backed by the technology named Blockchain. We all know about the Financial Crisis of 2008, but along with the slowdown of the global financial system and depreciation in the U.S Dollar, one more thing evolved and that was the Bitcoin- the first ever digital currency.

After the Financial crisis, people were highly unsatisfied and had animosity against the U.S Government and Central bank which favored the reach investment banks, and common people had to pay the price of bailouts. Thus just to eliminate this third party governance and to overcome the losses due to depreciation of Dollar as a result of bailouts, a person aliased as Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin in 2009 after writing a whole research paper on it in 2008.

Blockchain Technology:

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency based on Blockchain, thus to understand Bitcoin one has to understand Blockchain technology first. Blockchain technology works as a distributor ledger. This ledger includes the details of all the transactions, and users’ data is saved on millions of computer around the world and not just in one like the central banks do. This data is saved on a block, and those numerous blocks are connected to each other with an invisible chain and that’s the justification behind the name Blockchain.

In Blockchain, the data of the previous block decides the address of the next block in the chain. A person has to have two separate keys to access his data stored in a block, these keys are called public key and private key. From them the Public key works as the address of user’s block and the private key acts like a password to the block. Without the private key a user can never access his data or the block.

One of the major advantages of Blockchain is also that it works on the rule of 51:49. The rule states that if a person wants to change any data in a block then in order to validate it universally, he has to change the data in 51 percent of the total computers containing Blockchain; otherwise it would count as void. This also secures the whole system.

Bitcoin:

Bitcoin also works on this technology along with any other crypto in the world. Satoshi Nakamoto when invented Bitcoin, eliminated a problem called double spending problem in Blockchain, which was based on providing coins to two persons when the coins were sufficed only for one person. He solved that and stated that the long chain of blocks would be the valid one. Now we can see that Bitcoins can be purchased through money but in starting a person had to solve a complicated mathematical problem to generate a Bitcoin. This method is called mining which is still prevalent.

Ethereum:

Just like Bitcoin, there are many other cryptocurrency as well, one of which are Ethereum. Ethereum is the second most popular cryptocurrency in the world, but most of the people confuse Ethereum with Ether. Ether is the currency and Ethereum is a Blockchain application for saving contracts in Blockchain, which gets executed at the stated point of time. Ethereum is also called the ecosystem for connecting smart contracts, in which execution is done by Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) through coding. As it’s based on a subtle fundamental, even if Bitcoin breakdowns in future, Ethereum would still held value.

Crypto Exchanges and Wallet:

These cryptocurrencies along with other crypto like Ripple, Lightcoins, etc. are traded on various Crypto exchanges that act just like stock exchanges. There are a good number of crypto exchanges in the world that includes Coinbase, Electrum, Jaxx, Javvy wallet and more. The crypto coins are saved in the wallet provided by these exchanges. In India, there is Coinsecure who provides this facility. The wallets are also protected by Public and Private Keys, so a user has a good hold of his cryptocurrency.

There are numerous news on how cryptocurrency meltdown has begin and how the Blockchain is also going to feel the brunt, but that’s a mirage. Blockchain has huge scope and this is just the beginning for the whole revolution!