Altcoin

What is an Altcoin?

, , , 0 Comment

Everyone that watches the news or surfs the web is familiarized with the term cryptocurrency or bitcoin. Even though bitcoin is the most famous of them all and the one that actually has some trading power in the real world in some countries, there are a lot of other coins that are also presented in the online coin market and they are all named Altcoins.

Altcoin basically means alternative to bitcoin and there are now more altcoins than you can count on both your hands. For example, some of them are named Monero, dash, ripple, etc.

What sets altcoins apart?

Most of the altcoins differ from the Bitcoin in several ways. Some of them have a different economic structure, some have a different distribution method for their miners, others have completely different mining algorithms and require special hardware to be mined. All in all, there are many ways an altcoin can differ, but there are also coins that are completely similar to bitcoin, and they still kind of work and exist. Truth is there are probably more coins that are similar than coins that have some unique function.

What is usually the case with coins is that a few have different ideas and purposes and then a ton of others take that idea tweak it a bit and then make it sound like they did a lot when in fact they did not. Examples of this can be that some new altcoins can come on the market with a bigger pool of coins for distribution, but that is not worth much in the end when the price of those coins is next to nothing. Some can be mined faster, some can have more security and so on.

Bottom line

When it comes to altcoins, if you compare them to Bitcoin, most of them actually have no benefit. They are just here so that people can trade with them instead of the bitcoin. This can be good for people that want to get into the mining business as at this moment people that don’t have tons of money to invest in new computers can’t mine Bitcoins due to their mining difficulty. For this reason, the value of many altcoins is high as they represent an alternative to mining bitcoins for many miners.

When it comes to their promises of useful features, many of them are just promises and should not even be considered by the majority. However, there are some that have potential if their developers remain on track. This will make their market cap raise and maybe we can see those promises fulfilled in the end.

Some of these altcoins that have a high market cap are

– Ethereum

– Bitcoin Cash

– Ripple

– Litecoin

– IOTA

They all have some unique feature that can be used in today’s world and current technology market, but they have a long way till they are actually legitimate currencies that can be used for trading on the internet.

Windows-10-cryptocurrency-widget-cover-740x480

Cryptocurrency

What Are Cryptocurrency Forks And Cryptocurrency Airdrops?

, 0 Comment

While every day we get new cryptocurrencies on the market sometimes we are not aware how they came into existence. There are several ways of how a new coin is created and one of those ways is by “forking” an existing coin.

What is the fork?

To get into greater detail on the explanation that is the fork of certain cryptocurrencies we will use examples that people can be familiar with. Let’s say for instance that you have a certain piece of software that was made in the past, like Windows XP and then the developer that is Microsoft decided that it will update its software with a newer version due to new hardware capabilities or just because they wanted to release a new better version of windows. Once a new version is created the old windows and new windows will perform the same function, but one will not be compatible with the other in many ways. This will result in a “fork” where there are fundamental differences between the old and the new.

In most cases when a fork happens with a cryptocurrency it is because the developers of that certain coin have decided to update their cryptocurrency and, in the process, they have come to a part where they need to change certain codes that will change their coin complete as the new version will no longer be compatible with the old. This causes a fork where the new and improved code for third coin is divided from the old, and while the old one may still exist usually the new one gets more support. However, they are now two seepage currencies with separate values and miners need to decide which coin they will continue to mine.

What are cryptocurrency airdrops?

Now that we have explained what a fork is, we can get down to the airdrops. This might sound like a military action, but it’s a simple giveaway that a lot of altcoins have done. It’s a basic distribution of the coins to the crypto community that usually has some rules before people are eligible to get them.

These rules are usually something in the form of proof of possessing the said currency, or additional registration to a certain platform and many other ways. The format of these airdrops typically goes in the following order

Certain coins get created, then to get the coin going there is a portion that gets distributed to the people who register with the website of the coin.

Another format is that at a certain time everyone who holds X amount of Y coin gets a certain number of said coins as free tokens.

This can be an interesting way to get new people familiarized and interested in certain coins, but ultimately if those certain coins don’t raise in value many of the dropped coins end up being worthless. However, never look a gifted horse in the mouth, airdrops are usually free so you don’t have anything to lose if you enroll yourself into an airdrop.

How-to-buy-Bitcoin-Litecoin-DogeCoin

Cryptocurrency

What are BTC, ETH, and LTC?

, , 0 Comment

Today everyone has at least heard about bitcoin, which is the de facto leader when it comes to online cryptocurrencies. BTC is short for bitcoin and it’s a coin that came into existence back in 2009. Since then bitcoin has become the golden standard when it comes to online currencies and it is slowly gaining ground when it comes to potential trading power in the real world.

Some countries are already accepting trades done in bitcoins, but there is still a long way before bitcoin becomes accepted as an alternative to the standard banking system. However, its potential in making financial transactions without the need for a middleman like a bank is the reason bitcoin has become so popular. Its decentralized system is still being developed and as its value keeps rising it’s only a matter of time before it gets accepted as one of the official currencies in the world.

However, bitcoin is not alone in this mission, as there are many more Altcoins that have their own methods and ways they are pursuing.

Another coin that is at this moment the second when it comes to value and popularity is the Ethereum. Ethereum is a coin that originates from the Ethereum platform, which is basically an open-sourced software platform that has its technology based on the blockchain method. It’s primarily used to develop and distribute decentralized applications from developers. The Ethereum platform offers technology like Smart contracts that help safely store data without third parties. Ethereum is predicted to rise in value on par with the bitcoin in the near future as its market cap has steadily increased several thousand percent as compared to when it first debuted.

Last but not least we have the LTC which is an abbreviation to the Litecoin.

Litecoin is another Altcoin that has become increasingly popular over the past few years. As one of the most prominent cryptocurrencies, the Litecoin has gained in popularity due to its easier generation of the block. The standard bitcoin block takes about 10 minutes to perform the transaction while the Litecoin takes only 2.5 minutes.

Litecoin was created by a former Google employee named Charlie Lee who was the director of engineering at Google.  Another good thing about Litecoin is that it has a different technology for mining when compared to bitcoin, and once the Litecoin price started soaring the mega miners from bitcoin could not change to the Litecoin in an instant, which let more people get involved with the Litecoin and its decentralized system.

All of these coins have several things in common, which is that they all have wonderful desires to aspire to something much bigger than to be online currencies. However, until the full development process of every Altcoin is not complete those only remain as promises. But one thing is certain, cryptocurrency is here and it’s here to stay. In the future, we will be seeing cryptocurrency applied more frequently in the real world.

Blockchain-Technology

Blockchain Technology

What Is The Blockchain Technology And What Is Its Future?

, 0 Comment

Many people wonder if the blockchain technology is the new amazing discovery of the age and how can it impact our lives.

The blockchain is an unquestionably a smart development and one that will leave its trail that will echo for future generations.

By enabling computerized data to be circulated yet not replicated, blockchain innovation made the foundation of another kind of web. Initially invented for the advanced form of online currencies like Bitcoin, the technology group is currently finding other potential uses in our world.

While we will talk about its many purposes we have to point out that it’s one of the fundamental ways on which bitcoin was built, and the current value of bitcoin is over 100 billion us dollars.  It is deemed as the gold standard for online currencies.

With that being said nothing would be possible without the blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology is in many ways considered to be like the internet as it also is diverse and not centralized like the internet itself. Blocks inside the blockchain are stored with information that are being monitored across the whole network. With such a method it offers complete independence from any individual entity. Which means that no single entity can control or limit the information inside the blocks. This, in turn, means that there is no single point of failure, but in fact that there are many backups that are constantly aware of changes within the network.

The blockchain network is an entity that has its own state of consensus where it automatically checks itself every 10 minutes of operation. This gives potential investors the needed safety for investment as a potential self-auditing ecosystem can’t be hacked and destroyed by individuals with an agenda.

With such an ideology the blockchain actually has limitless use in our current world. Imagine that everything can be decentralized and monitored by everyone at the same time. The security around this aspect is also one more angle where the blockchain technology really shines. Imagine if you have a wallet and one day you lose your wallet too theft. There would be no way for you to get the contents of your wallet besides the possibility that you get it back from the same person that stole it. But on the blockchain, there is no possible way that anyone alone can steal your information, in fact, it is so secure that millions of people guarantee that your information is not being moved in any shady way. Its biggest potential comes from the crowd and how the crowd implements it in certain aspects of their lives.

The blockchain is without a doubt one of the greatest creation of the 21 centuries. It will shape the way we view transactions and many other aspects of our lives and we can’t wait to see all the potential applications of such a technology in our daily lives.

7-ways-blockchain-can-protent-environment-mitigate-climate-change

Blockchain Technology

4 Ways the Blockchain Can Help us Save The Environment

, , 0 Comment

The blockchain technology is definitely one of the best creations after the internet. It is predicted that the blockchain will create new ways industries are operating and it will explore new methods of approach to problems that have been present in our society for many years.  For instance, it can be adopted to help stop the problem that is climate change.

If you are wondering how we will explain 4 ways that the blockchain technology can help us save the environment.

Recycling

As we are getting oversaturated with garbage that can be recycled, we are slowly investing money into the recycling business. Blockchain technology can monitor which companies are investing, how much are they investing, and are those investments going to the proper places. Encouraging participation and enforcing the will of the people on the companies that are not doing anything about it.

Supply Chain Management

As many people are doing their daily shopping, many are wondering how the products that they are buying are being made. This information is not often attainable by the common man, and even when it is there is little that he can do about it. As the product changes several hands before it gets to the store it’s hard to keep track of everything that happens from the production line to the store. Blockchain can help us identify where every product comes from and what was its journey till it got here.

This gives the power back into the hands of the consumer.

Non-profits

Nonprofit organizations are growing in numbers, however, there are many that are being corrupted by certain individuals that are not working for the greater good. The bureaucracy of this particular kind of organizations tends to lose track of many donations and it’s hard to hold them responsible for the mismanagement when we can’t keep track of every transaction that comes inside and that goes outside of the organization. The blockchain can remedy that as it can safely store information on every financial transaction that is being donated to the nonprofit organization and can liquidate the need fora third party in those transactions. Furthermore, it can hold responsible every organization that is not using its investments as promised.

Energy

When it comes to energy all power grids are centralized. Blockchain wants to first decentralize that, and after it has established itself in the energy business it can slowly build up a network that can distribute surplus energy in a more efficient way.

In short blockchain technology is amazing and its implementation in our daily lives can revolutionize how we deal with certain things. The important part to grasp is that once blockchain starts to decentralize certain systems it will be an avalanche of actions where we will see blockchain establish itself. We can only hope that we can start implementing the blockchain technology in time as there have been several climate change warnings that it leads to believe we might be too late to help reverse the path we began our journey on.

Blockchain_0116

Blockchain Technology

Elements Influencing the Adoption of the Blockchain Culture in Our Daily Lives

0 Comment

Blockchain has become the most talked technology of this century. Slowly the blockchain tech has crept into our culture and way of life first by introducing itself with the cryptocurrencies, but now even in other potential aspects of our lives. However, there are many ways that the adoption of such a technology is being slowed down.

While we do understand that the blockchain technology can bring many benefits to our lives, many people still have fears that are based on rational conclusions. Some of these real reasons that are at present a deterrent for the blockchain tech:

– The tech is genuinely mind-boggling in nature to many accomplished developers, let alone simple people.

– The possibility of putting away information on everyone’s PCs gives a chilling sense to everyone that deals with financial information.

– The absence of proficient and experienced designers.

– Huge fluctuations in fees and transactions.

– Spending a great deal of cash and time on a framework like a blockchain on which you don’t have any control.

With a specific end goal to conquer all the above obstacles, we have to comprehend and embrace one noteworthy favorable position of this innovation, which is ‘the manner by which we adapt to each other when conducting business is only going to change more and more”.  Due to technology taking a bigger pie out of our lives every day, each business must change how it works so it connects with clients consistently. There is no solution left for the organizations if they don’t adapt to technology, they must in order to survive in the competitive business world.

Thus, as opposed to attempting to change the world, the organizations should begin with littler applications towards blockchain and attempt to integrate it into their everyday business forms. This will, in the long run, lead them to see how the innovation carries on and how it can fit into their business.

The biggest influence the blockchain technology will have on us is in these sectors:

– The Government

The government is usually functioning behind closed curtains and many transactions are not being displayed nor are being tracked. With the blockchain tech, everything can be tracked and everyone can be held responsible.

– The Banks and Financial Institutions

This tech alone is going to revolutionize the financial industry as it brings with itself the cryptocurrencies that are now dominating the market value. Bitcoin alone is worth more than 100 billion dollars. This technology can lead the way to finally decentralize the financial system from the banks.

– The Identity authorities and certificate issuers

The real gem in this tech lies in its capability to protect individuals from many forms of theft and market manipulation. If we see an adoption of the blockchain technology in the identity department we will soon see its application in many forms of the government sector.

All in all, the technology can help us change our culture for the better, but the biggest question is how it can harm our culture and will it change it so much that we won’t be able to recognize our past from our future.

708dd1515b98d38a8689f0be9d5f155a

Cryptocurrency

How Cryptocurrencies Can Reduce Global Poverty

0 Comment

As we all know the cryptocurrencies are the new fad that is being accepted by the online world. Even though this is where it all begins it does not have to be the only place where we can see some action regarding the cryptocurrencies. The online coins can be a technology that can help us in one of the biggest social problems we have in our society, which is of course poverty. There are many ways that we can utilize this technology to help us reduce or eradicate poverty and we will explore some of them in the text below.

– Helping the unbanked

There are several million people in the world that have no way to get included in the banking system. This is highly troublesome as even though people can’t get access to the basic banking system, they still need money and financial resources. What usually happens to these people is that they turn to loan sharks which take a bit part of financial services to the unbanked people.

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency can help these people as once cryptocurrency gets adopted as another form of official currency, it becomes decentralized, which means that banks don’t control who can enter its system or who can leave. Everyone is welcome and able to join and furthermore people from all over the world can assist one another without the need to pay huge fees for services rendered.

– It can elevate banking access

Many people in the developed world have the world at their fingertips, which is their phone. Many don’t visit the physical location of the bank for many months as their main method of accessing their finances is the internet over their computer or mobile phone.

The goal is to create a service that can be used by anyone at any place. Having physical banks present in every part of the world is not a viable method and is one that is highly unlikely to be made in such a way that it will benefit the consumer instead of the banks. This can be cut short with cryptocurrency as it can provide a service anywhere in the world at the touch of your fingertips. It can also help people who have no credit history establish an identity for themselves.

– Why is blockchain a unique method?

There have been currencies and banking systems since we learned how to trade way-way back in the past. The thing that makes cryptocurrency a unique approach to finances is that it gives most of the power in a distributed manner, where everyone is responsible for keeping the network and accessibility of it running with their own contribution.

This gives it the chance to have people be paid more fairly, with more frequency when it comes to transactions and with more accountability. The cryptocurrency is the way of the future and we can only hope that we will start implementing them in our physical purchases as the potential of cryptocurrencies should be exploited now while its technology is in the golden age.

blockchain-technology-financial-market-cryptocurrency-bitcoin

Changing The World

Ways Blockchain Technology Is Changing The World

, , 0 Comment

Even though blockchain has debuted with cryptocurrencies it has a far bigger potential outside of it if applied properly. The truth of the matter is that there are many industries that are suffering from inefficient methods of operation that have not gotten an update on methodology just because other industries depend on them being connected.

However, as we can see how fast technology is moving, we can also assume that all the industries that are being run inefficiently will sooner rather than later be changed and upgraded. An example can be a business that did not want to adapt to the rising popularity of the internet back when the internet debuted. Every single business that did not transfer or make their product available on the online platform soon found itself closing down.

Here are some of the industries where blockchain technology can change the world

– Banking

One of the oldest industries is having its roots shaken up by the presence of the cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology. The new methods revolutionize how we can deal with finances and how we can finally decentralize the financial system away from the traditional banking.

– Gathering capital

Gathering capital has never been an easy task, but even when people make all the right moves, there is a third party that is making money on the people who are gathering the capital without doing anything. Today we have the ICO which is bringing unprecedented levels of capital in one place as every business that wants to gather capital can use this method to successfully gain an advantage over the competition.  Additionally, these methods are cutting out the middleman that was once the banking system.

– Agriculture

If we are looking for another industry that needs a refreshing new method on how it can be managed we can turn to the agriculture. The transparency is badly needed in this sector as many people are heavily requesting to know from where their food is coming and by what means it was being grown. Additionally, farmers can finally be paid for their job well done as they are owed instead of constantly using labyrinths that is the current system.

– Supply chain management

In logistics, it’s important to have every part of the transportation logged and stored. Blockchain technology offers the best methods of protecting and saving information which can be specifically used in the supply chain management industry. With the blockchain being implemented here we can expect less miss managed shipments, fewer delays, less corruption in the sector as everything will be accounted for a detailed inspection.

Conclusion

Blockchain technology is changing the world at a quick pace. With its entry in 2008, the innovation has shown huge potential and has had a huge demand. With the coming artificial intelligence industry and cybersecurity, we can only expect that the blockchain technology will become even bigger and better. The capabilities of such tech can’t be correctly assessed at this time as we have yet to find the best method and industries for its implementation.