The term cryptocurrency is alien to a lot of people. If you go online, you would be able to see ads and blogs about crytocurrency. So, what is cryptocurrency?
A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure the transactions and to control the creation of additional units of the currency. Cryptocurrencies are classified as a subset of digital currencies and are also classified as a subset of alternative currencies and virtual currencies. In layman's term, cryptocurrency is the new currency or monetary amount that is used for online transactions and is used for digital payments.
Bitcoin is the grand daddy of all cryptocurrencies. It was created by an unknown programmer, or a group of programmers, under the name Satoshi Nakamoto around 2009. Bitcoin started as a concept for more secure transactions online than it grows to a new currency. Below shows the increasing value year after year:
June 2009 1 BTC = 0.0001 USD
June 2010 1 BTC = 0.07 USD
June 2011 1 BTC = 15 USD
June 2012 1 BTC = 7 USD
June 2013 1 BTC = 100 USD
June 2014 1 BTC = 600 USD
June 2015 1 BTC = 220 USD
Right now, Bitcoin or BCT is valued as $3438.44 in the stock market. Who would have thought that this kind of digital currency would grow this big? Considered as the highest valued cryptocurrency ever created.
If you check online, you can find new cryptocurrencies like Steem, Zcash, Dash, Monero, Litecoin, and Etherium. I want to talk more about Etherium since I am a bit familiar with it and I've been trying to mine Etherium in different free websites. If you spend a lot of time scavaging the web, you will find a lot of site offering free Etherium claim and mining. Etherium is the second largest cryptocurrency, valued right now at $271.92. Like Bitcoin, Ethereum is a distributed public blockchain network. Although there are some significant technical differences between the two, the most important distinction to note is that Bitcoin and Ethereum differ substantially in purpose and capability. Bitcoin offers one particular application of blockchain technology, a peer to peer electronic cash system that enables online Bitcoin payments. While the bitcoin blockchain is used to track ownership of digital currency (bitcoins), the Ethereum blockchain focuses on running the programming code of any decentralized application.
What is Initial Coin Offering (ICO)?
Initial coin offering (ICO) is an unregulated means of crowdfunding via cryptocurrency. In simple term, it's a website trying to raise fund using different cryptocurrencies. they usually offer deals like investment plans or life-time earnings. Some of the sites I know is Rasputin.ICO, STARMINE and LATIUM to name a few. These sites truly are amazing and very diverse in their nature, not to mention style and functionality as well. Early ICO’s were often organized just for funding the development of actual new crypto currency tokens/chains, but modern ICO’s have become incredibly elaborate, with separate budgets for marketing, community growth and so on. There are highly different incentives built into many of these crowdsales, for miners, node operators, and investors alike.
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The paper currency, which is a legal tender of the country is governed by the government who decides when to print, how much to print and how to distribute it. In case of Bitcoin, it doesn't have a central government as it is decentralised and doesn't have a physical form. So where do bitcoins come from? From mining. Bitcoin miners use specialized software to solve math problems and are allotted a specific number of bitcoins in exchange. This gives a smart way to issue the currency and at the same time provides an incentive for more people to mine.
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