Crypto $ Outline--

Like many of you, I've been inindated with social media and other channels about bitcoin this and block chain that. Back in 2008 a guy names Satoshi Nakamoto created a protocal of exchange that allowed peers on a decentralized network to send units of a new currency anonymously while recording everything mathematically in encryption called a block chain. Please pardon the simplistic desciption. Since that time the value or 1 bitcoin is around $5500.00 US. In Bitcoins wake, a whole host of developers started asking "what is this block chain thing and what else can we distribute and exchange?" So the intent of this post is quick outline (since our attention span sucks) to give you enough ammo to talk inteligently at happy hour when the topic comes up.

BITCOIN

• Bitcoin has been around since 2008
• The first of many digital currencies that exist in today’s market
• The largest digital currency in price and market cap With a current market cap of $91,749,122,157 (Oct, 15,2017)
• Trade volume of $1,884,900,000
• One bitcoin today trades at $5518.79 USD
• Secured by encryption protocol called a blockchain
• Instead of using banks, governments, & other institutions, the ledger is secured by an encrypted peer to peer network.
• Sometimes referred to as a 3 entry ledger (debit, credit, encryption record)
• A safe & decentralized way to transfer & store value
• capped at 21 million units of bitcoin (should all be mined in 2040)
• processing transactions requires lots of computing power that is handled by very powerful graphic cards that use lots of electricity.
• for more financial information on bitcoin https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/
  

Ethereum

• Been in existence since 2013
• Ethereum is more of a centralized supercomputer that is made to have applications built on top of its frame work.
• Good analogy is the internet as the framework and websites built on top of them.
• Ethereum has smart contracts capabilities built into the code which allows for a whole host of applications to be built right on top.
• For more financial data on the #2 digital currency: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/
• With Ethereum you can take a bunch of smart contracts (instruction groups) and build decentralized applications or a system on top of ethereum.
  • The programming language is called solidity and functions like javascript
• This is where the token or Initial Coin offering (ICO) concept comes into play.

ICO's (Initial Coin offerings)

• a mechanism for a company to raise capital to build out and or deploy a specific block chained technology
• these technolgies can be grouped into:
  • Currencies
  • Developer Tools
  • Sovereignty
  • Fin Tech (financial tech)
  • Value Exchange
  • Shared Data
  • Authenticity
  • Other

This should get you started in my series of outlines. I hope you find this helpful. I will be working on more topics soon like SEC (securities exchange commision) regulation in the USA and strategies for minimal regulation and or meeting regulation of ICO's.