Cryptocurrency Blog

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Since the success of bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies have emerged. In 2014, these were the big contenders in the cryptocurrency world – PeerCoin aka PPCoin, Litecoin, Freicoin, and Dogecoin. At the end of 2017, these are the top five contenders, according to one source. 1. Litecoin (LTC). Launched 2011. 2. Ethereum (ETH). Launched 2015. 3. Zcash (ZEC). Launched 2016. 4. Dash (used to be Darkcoin). Launched 2014. 5. Ripple (XRP). Launched 2012. Looking at what these currencies are worth in November 2017, these are the current prices in US dollars: Litecoin – $69.31 Ethereum – $346.04 Zcash – $297.68 Dash – $453.65 Ripple – 23 cents Peercoin – $1.62 Freicoin – 0.005 cents Dogecoin – 0.001 cents There are other ways to rank cryptocurrencies. The point of this article to show how many altcoins are out there. An altcoin is an alternative to bitcoin. It depends on which source you turn to for your information. There is something impor...

The size of the bitcoin block has bothered a number of developers, miners, and others involved in the popular cryptocurrency. It seems that the limit of 1 megabyte as the block size means that only 7 transactions can be handled in one second. Because of the number of transactions increasing, this can cause the system to lag. On August 1, 2017, the protocol was changed making the block size limit 8 megabytes. The result was that the new currency was not the same as the bitcoin core so it had to fork into two streams of currency. The first bitcoin cash block was mined 6 hours after bitcoin’s block 478558 was mined. This was the last entry in the blockchain before mining the first bitcoin cash block. It held 6,985 transactions and was nearly 2 MB in size – 1.915 MB. Holders as of block 478558 were suddenly owners of both versions of bitcoin. If you owned a bitcoin on that date, it split into two and for every bitcoin you had, you received bitcoin cash. After that, you had bo...

A bitcoin wallet is software that connects you to the bitcoin network. This is the first step in acquiring bitcoin. You know how it is when you send someone an email. You have to have an email address, a password, and a way of connecting to the network. It can be webmail or a program such as Thunderbird or Outlook. You open up your email program and send an email to someone, using the email address that they gave you. The email is sent using your email address. If someone gets your password, they can log into your email account and send out messages pretending they are you. With bitcoin, you also need software to connect to the network. Your wallet is the software that allows you to connect to the bitcoin network. You have a public key and a private key instead of an email address and a password. You have to protect your private key because if anyone gets access to your wallet, they can clean it out. Think of it as leaving a tangible wallet stuffed with cash out where any...

If you do a search for free bitcoins, you will be deluged with great offers to earn bitcoin by visiting websites or playing online games. There are suggestions that you start mining. After all, everyone knows that miners get great payouts. First of all, most of the places that recommend joining sites where you earn bitcoins for watching videos, visiting websites, or any of the usual online low-paying schemes pay in satoshis. What is a satoshi? It’s the smallest unit of bitcoin that gets to be recorded in the blockchain. What is it worth? One hundred millionth of a bitcoin (0.00000001 BTC). What does this mean in terms of dollars? It converts to $0.0000824865 USD. This is on a day when a bitcoin is worth about $8,300. It’s a fraction of a cent. If you had a thousand satoshi, you would have 8 cents. Be careful before you enter into the world with enticing suggestions that you can earn bitcoin. If it seems too good to be true, then it likely is too good to be true. About...

Forking is when the basic protocol of bitcoin has been changed and suddenly the blockchain splits. There is a fork in the road. One of the limitations of bitcoin that seems to plague many users is the size cap on the block. One megabyte seems to be too small to make sense. In 2010, it might have been okay but in the streaming world of today, it seems to be prohibitive. Developers tried to find ways to improve bitcoin, at least to their way of thinking, their changes would be improvements. The issue is that the changes had to appeal to enough people in the crypto currency community so that the new cryptocurrency would be accepted. A shot at changing this protocol was Bitcoin XT. This forked bitcoin core which is the basis of the bitcoin network. In 2015, the plan was to allow the block to have a cap of 8 megabytes. It would increase the number of transactions that could be contained in each block. It was not a popular idea and it quickly faded and within a year, it was re...

The images on the internet show bitcoin mining in a form reminiscent of the old gold rush miners, pickaxes digging out the gold. The actual mining is not quite like that and it changes over time. Bitcoin miners are a special necessity in the bitcoin network. When a bitcoin is spent, a transaction occurs. Your transaction is verified by checking back through the transactions to ensure that you have the bitcoin available to spend. Your wallet synchronizes with the network to make sure that it is up-to-date and accurately reflects the amount of bitcoin you have available. When the transaction is created, it floats into the network and is considered an unconfirmed transaction because it has not yet been allocated to a block on the blockchain. The blockchain is a public ledger and every transaction has to be verified and placed into a block. Mining is the process of verifying each transaction. It is important that transactions are added in order. Otherwise, an unscrupulous per...

We learn from our mistakes. In the world of bitcoin, there have been some real doozies of mistakes. Anyone who has ever lost or misplaced a password can relate to the common problem of bitcoin owners who have lost their private key. There is no second chance of recovering from this blunder. This is why it is recommended to write it down on paper and store a copy of it in several safe digital places. Of course, once someone has your keys, they can have your coin. Be careful. In 2017, the estimate is that 25% of all the bitcoin mined has been lost. That’s a lot of money. Sometimes it is a matter of a lost key, rendering the bitcoins locked away, never to be recovered. Some are like James Howells who threw out his computer without realizing he had his only wallet on the computer. He had 7,500 bitcoins. Given a price of $8,000 per bitcoin at 2017 prices, this comes to a hefty $60 million USD. James is not the only person who has done something like this. In the early days, b...

There is a slight difference between how to buy bitcoin and where to buy them. How to is all about the wallet and exchanges and the typical sources. Where to buy bitcoin digs a little deeper into some of the alternatives to exchanges and setting up your own shop that takes bitcoin. Some larger areas have bitcoin ATMs. The prices are comparable to exchanges. This is a convenient process. Looking at the prices for the middle of November 2017, these are the prices at a bitcoin ATM in the United States. The dollars are US dollars. 0.01 costs $90.80. 0.001 costs $9.08. Another source for bitcoin is eBay. A typical posting reads something like this, “0.001 bitcoin to your wallet. Pay with Paypal.” The seller wants a selfie of you holding your passport or driver’s license so they can compare your face to the ID and your name with the Paypal account. This 0.01 bitcoin costs $19.99. This is on a day when a bitcoin is selling for $8. Another eBay seller is offering 0.01 bitcoin f...

The first step in buying bitcoins is acquiring a wallet. This is what the software that contains your bitcoins is called – a wallet. It is this wallet that allows you to join the bitcoin world. Think of it like getting a bank account. You need it to participate in the money world. Even if you stash your cash under your mattress, usually it comes to you in checks and money orders or direct deposit. You need to have someplace where you can access this cash. Once you have your bitcoin wallet, you are ready to receive bitcoins. You used to be able to use PayPal to buy bitcoins but a potential problem arose. Bitcoin buy and sell transactions are completely tracked and protected so it is not possible to say that you paid for bitcoins and never received them. It’s a done deal when you buy bitcoins. No chargebacks. No denial of receipt. Paypal has developed a high level of trust because it offers protection to buyers and sellers. There is a little loophole here that caused a pro...