Major cryptocurrencies. The main differences between cryptocurrencies. Legal regulation of cryptocurrency

Today, perhaps, there is not a single sphere in life that has not been touched by new information technologies. Even finance, in fact, can now be virtualized. What is meant? Let's talk about currency. It is customary for us to perceive this concept as a certain monetary unit of any state. So, in our country the ruble is the national currency. The currency can also be collective. This is the euro. There are many classifications for this concept. But what a cryptocurrency is, it's harder to tell in simple words.

Cryptocurrency concept

Digital or is in high demand among users of the Internet space. It is worth immediately distinguishing between the concepts of electronic currency and the system of Internet money. The main difference is that the equivalent of the latter is real currency, for example, rubles. This is how Yandex. Money and Qiwi systems work.

And the Webmoney system has its own electronic currency, which works only within itself. That is, when money is transferred to the wallet of this system, it turns into its own currency.

Cryptocurrency occupies a separate niche. It is a digital currency, the exchange, issue and accounting of which is based on cryptography, that is, encryption. To summarize what has been said, what is a cryptocurrency in simple words and how does it differ from other types of electronic currencies? Unlike money in electronic form, for example, Yandex. Money, it does not have a physical embodiment. And unlike electronic currencies, for example Webmoney, cryptocurrency is decentralized, that is, it is not controlled by a single server that belongs to a bank or any organization.

How did cryptocurrency come about?

For the first time, cryptocurrency appeared in the Bitcoin payment system. This happened in 2009. The system was developed by a group of people or a person under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. It was constantly refined, changed, bitcoin is still dynamic.

In 2010, the first Bitcoin purchase was made. One of the Americans bought two pizzas for 10 thousand bitcoins. Note that initially bitcoin cost $ 0.1, and then soared to $ 1,300 for one and even higher - up to three thousand American dollars in the summer of 2017.

What lies at the heart of cryptocurrency?

What is cryptocurrency based on? To explain what a cryptocurrency is in simple words and what lies at its heart, let's compare cryptocoins with gold coins.

Like the stock of gold, the number of cryptocoins is limited, this is a kind of protection against emission. The cryptocurrency was originally created using a technology that will not allow it to fall. Bitcoins, like gold, cannot be counterfeited. Like gold, you can buy or even mine cryptocurrency yourself. Again, as in the case of real gold, the amount of bitcoins is limited (in total, 21 million coins are available, more than two-thirds are already in the circulation of users).

The algorithm for creating virtual money is based on the following:

A public database is stored on each computer.
To make a transfer, a key is used, which is created only once.

what is in simple words

Bitcoin is the very first type of cryptocurrency. What is cryptocurrency in simple terms? These are bitcoins since they became the first cryptocurrency. Basically, Bitcoin can be called a computer program that creates a virtual currency. The way Bitcoin works can be compared to how torrents work. Several people immediately install the program on their PCs, and then transfer files between themselves without anyone's control. The difference from torrents is that not files are transferred, but "virtual glasses".

At ATMs, bitcoins can be exchanged for real money. They can also pay for goods and services.

Ethereum (Ethereum) as a kind of cryptocurrency

In 2013, a programmer from Canada, Russian by origin, Vitaly Buterin created a new type - the Ethereum cryptocurrency. What it is? In simple words, this is, in fact, another analogue of bitcoin, but with new features. The Ethereum platform can be used to create new cryptocurrencies. Ethereum, like Bitcoin, can be mined.

Mining, or How to make money on cryptocurrency in simple words

The process of mining cryptocurrency is called mining. It comes from the word "mine" - "to excavate". The method is, of course, different from gold mining. To implement mining, they take a motherboard, server or other power supply, hard drive, monitor and video cards. A special mining program is selected and installed, then it is launched, then the fork and pool are selected and the mining process itself begins.

Further, in simple words, the program installed on your PC will create the tasks that it must solve. For this action, the computer will receive virtual money. So, for bitcoin, the program gives out no more than 3600 crypto coins per day.

Each time, the tasks that a miner's PC must perform become more complicated, and miners have to create more powerful machines to solve them. The main point is that whoever decides first will receive bitcoin. Today there are a huge number of so-called "farms" - machines for solving program tasks.

How to exchange cryptocurrency?

There are two ways to exchange cryptocurrency. Further, in simple words, that this is a cryptocurrency exchanger. In the virtual space, there are special services for the exchange of such money. Easier - exchangers. First of all, when choosing one, pay attention to the rate and commission.

Power users put exmo.com first. Here you will need to enter your mail and come up with a password. If we want to exchange bitcoins, go to the "exchange" menu. We indicate the amount of bitcoins that we want to exchange. The system will show us the course. To complete, click "exchange".

Another exchanger is 60cek.com. Similarly, we go through registration, confirm via mail and activate the account. Next, we also enter the number of bitcoins, what we want to exchange. You can immediately transfer to the card in the bank. To do this, enter the card number, full name of the owner and other data.

The third most popular exchanger is blue.cash. We register in the same way as in the previous versions. Click "Exchange", enter the number of bitcoins that we want to exchange. You can withdraw exchange money to Yandex. Wallet. To do this, you need to specify the wallet number and mail.

Exchange as a means of exchanging cryptocurrency

The exchange is very popular among Russian miners.The exchange works with 6 types of currencies:

You can perform exchange operations using payment systems:

VISA / MASTERCARD.
"Yandex money".
WebMoney.
QIWI.

The commission is 0.2 percent of the transaction amount.

On the official website of the exchange, click the "Start" button. This is how we start the system. We register in the "Profile" - "Verification" section. You need a passport here. You need to download its scanned copy.

The site works in English and Russian. In the "Trades" tab you can get acquainted with the exchange rate.

EXMO works with both conventional and cryptocurrencies.

LiveCoin is an exchange established in 2014. Supports the following trading pairs:

BTC / EUR.
BTC / USD.
BTC / RUR.
EMC / USD.
EMC / BTC.
LTC / BTC.
LTC / EUR.
LTC / USD.

On this exchange, you can not only buy or give away currency, you can simply exchange it. The site works in English and Russian.

Cryptocurrency in Russia

There is no unequivocal position in our state regarding cryptocurrencies. But still, most compare them to pyramid schemes. What is cryptocurrency in Russia? In simple words, it is called surrogate money.

The Ministry of Finance has prepared amendments to the legislation on the punishment for the use of cryptocurrency, transactions with it.

In Russia, the concepts of cryptocurrency and blockchain are shared. If the first is treated sharply negatively, then the second is different. considered precisely as a technology. It is proposed to develop the blockchain for further use in the banking system or registries. Currently, the use of cryptocurrency by legal entities is considered as countering the legalization of proceeds from crime.

Almost 9 years have passed since the first digital coin appeared, and during this period different types of cryptocurrencies saw the light. People realized that it is really profitable, new and unusual to have a currency that the authorities cannot control, influencing its course. And after political sanctions affected the dollar, the availability of coins began to reassure.

Perhaps they are not salvation from the economic crisis, but they look more than attractive as an alternative to conventional money. In particular, the difference between cryptocurrencies and fiat money is in their decentralization. At least the most popular cryptocoins have this property. But the list of existing cryptocurrencies is constantly expanding. Hundreds of new coins appear on the market every year. True, most of them are not competitive and quickly burst, but there are coins that become hits and only grow in value every year.

Today, if we consider the list of all cryptocurrencies, we can count about one and a half thousand, 900 of which are in stable, albeit not always high, demand. Do not be surprised, but in addition to Bitcoin, the developers have released a lot of coins for payments on the Internet. At first, in real life, new money has practically no weight, but with the growing interest in it, currency can be exchanged in special exchangers, receiving benefits.

Considering what cryptocurrencies exist, there are several general rules:

Decentralized, that is, not controlled by anyone;
Centralized, which, as a rule, quickly burn out;
Gaming, used for calculating in Internet games and not only.

It is possible to list for a long time, since each newly appeared virtual coin has its own peculiarity. Of course, almost complete clones of popular coins sometimes appear on the market, but such ones do not last long. And users warmly accepted the changes in the financial world, which contributed to the need for a more thorough review of virtual money.

Cryptocurrency market overview

New types of cryptocurrencies appear almost every day. The total number of cryptocurrencies in the world is more than 1300 and is constantly growing, so it is rather difficult to calculate how many cryptocurrencies there are. But, as already mentioned, they are classified. The classifications can be different. Given the economic situation of these coins, the following types of cryptocurrencies can be distinguished:

Their popularity also depends on the characteristics of cryptocurrencies. For example, there are groups where the number of coins is:

Limited;
Not limited.

The first is bitcoin. His monetization is limited, although the principles of such resource allocation depend on many factors, in particular, on the developer's desire. But when reviewing cryptocurrencies, bitcoins are not singled out as a separate category. The fact is that this is the first digital currency, and thanks to a high-quality system for increasing demand, it will most likely not be replaced by any other financial unit. Even considering the high speed of generating new products.

A review of cryptocurrencies today, at the end of 2017, shows that this market will no longer be able to close. Coins appear at a catastrophic rate. Some take a place next to the leader for a long time, while others disappear after a couple of months, or even days. But in any case, we will discuss the list of leaders today, because we need to sum up the results of 2017 in the world of digital money.

Bitcoin - BTC

Considering the main cryptocurrencies, one cannot ignore the most famous of the famous cryptocurrencies. Surely it is easy to guess that we are talking about bitcoin (btc). So, let's take a look at the peculiarities of this coin, because it is not only the first digital financial unit, but also the only coin that managed to achieve such colossal success.

In general, it is not surprising that the popularity of bitcoin as a cryptocurrency in the world is only growing. Today the rate fluctuates around 17 thousand dollars, and this is an almost unattainable mark for most other currencies. Also, it should be replaced that bitcoin is constantly being updated. The outgoing 2017 was a real breakthrough for the coin.

The course has grown. If the year began with a course that barely reached a thousand dollars, today it is 17 thousand. This is a colossal leap.
The latest version of Bitcoin 0.15.1 has been released. This happened in November of this year, when a sharp rise in the rate of the coin began.
In August of this year, the developers changed the structure of bitcoin, resulting in a fork of bitcoin, called Bitcoin Cash. That is, until August, this coin developed together with bitcoins, but after the fork it became a separate unit with an incompatible structure.

Ethereum - ETH

Russia has its own type of cryptocurrency called Ethereum. This financial unit was proposed by Vitalik Buterin in 2013, but the currency finally entered the market in 2015. Ethereum is not only a cryptocurrency, but also a platform built to implement blockchain-based decentralized online services.

Features:

The basis of the current principle of the implementation of the cryptocurrency works on the basis of smart contracts. This is its main difference from the bitcoin blockchain base. Moreover, it is much more profitable, since it allows you to speed up the transfer of data, with which there are problems in the bitcoin network;
Ethereum has its own fractional parts. They are called: 1/1000 - finney, 1/106 - szabo and 1/1018 - wei;
The author did not limit the cryptocurrency exclusively to payments. Rather, they are something of a pleasant bonus, while the main purpose of Ethereum is to act as a medium of exchange of resources;
The current spread of the cryptocurrency itself is pretty positive. In particular, today the exchange rate is $ 650 and continues to grow;
According to the description of the founder of this cryptocurrency, mining for this coin is not so important. It's easier to buy;
Ethereum is in second place in terms of capitalization after Bitcoin;

The Ethereum rate is changing much more actively than the rate of other cryptocurrencies, which makes this financial unit an excellent option for working on exchanges, making it possible to make money on fluctuations in this rate;
October 2017 was a landmark year for Ethereum, as Sberbank entered the non-profit alliance with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) this month, significantly improving the currency's stability. And interest in it from users has increased;
Ethereum features a large number of applications and platforms that significantly expand the functionality of the system. In particular, there is a decentralized and investment fund, FreeMyVunk (a platform that is used to monetize rankings in games).

Ethereum is one of the main types of cryptocurrencies that are in stable demand. It takes the second or third position in the list of the most popular virtual coins, which is a very good indicator, given the short
history of the coin. This points to her excellent prospects.

Of course, the system has vulnerabilities that triggered the emergence of a new separate cryptocurrency. She appeared as a way to solve the problems that have arisen and now leads a completely successful separate existence.

Ethereum Classic - ETС

Ethereum Classic is one of the most scandalous cryptocurrencies in the world. Her story began with the discovery of an error in the code of The DAO of ordinary Ethereum in 2016. The developers chose the path to solve it and changed the blockchain. Many people did not like the hard fork. But the stolen funds in the amount of, at the then exchange rate, $ 50 million were returned to their rightful place. After such a decision, the first Ethereum branch was formed - Ethereum Classic.

A description of the distinctive features of this type of cryptocurrency is as follows:

Ethereum Classic is not only a coin that is included in the list of the most famous cryptocurrencies. In fact, this is the same classic Ethereum that was developed at the very beginning, and not a fork. It's just that, as already mentioned, changes in regular Ethereum were made without the opinion of all users. They decided to follow the standard coin scheme, and Ethereum went its new course. That is why this coin is called Classic Ethereum.

Experts argue that this currency has a great future, since the problems that were associated with the error have already been eliminated, and all the advantages of the crypto coin remained with it. Already, the rate is tending upward, even if at the moment it is only $ 28. But there is every reason to believe that money will rise in value in the new year.

Litecoin - LTC

Litecoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world. This coin is the second fork of Bitcoin after Namecoin and released in free float in 2011. Among the world's cryptocoins, this coin occupies a leading position. Let's discuss the features and characteristics of this digital currency.

The peculiarity of this type of cryptocurrency is in their variability and versatility. The developer wanted to make them like that, and he did it. But the system also has its drawbacks. For example:

As with almost all cryptocurrencies, if the wallet is lost, it will be impossible to return the money;
Despite the rapid and rapid growth of the coin over the past month, its rate remains quite unstable, which forces us to be more careful in working with it;
Despite the fact that this is a fork of bitcoin, compared to the parent coin, the turnover of this digital currency is too low to pose a serious danger to bitcoin;
Due to the fact that block generation is very fast, double costs often occur on the network. This is not valid for a trusted digital currency.

Zcash - ZEC

Today it is no longer easy to calculate how many cryptocurrencies exist in the world, but Zcash definitely stands out among them. It was developed by the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company, with an emphasis on open source. This ensures maximum confidentiality and selective transparency of transactions.

Let's take a closer look at what this cryptocurrency is:

Naturally, they could not help but be interested in such a coin. In particular, you can send donations to WikiLeaks in Zcash. As for individuals, Edward Snowden singled out this coin from the thousands of cryptocurrencies existing today and called it the most promising replacement, or, more precisely, an alternative to Bitcoin. And this is given the fact that Zcash only appeared in 2016.

Monero - XMR

The existence of cryptocurrencies is no longer surprising, although few can foresee which existing coins will be popular in the future. But there is still an expert opinion that this list will definitely include Monero. This currency is a fork of ByteCoin (this is not Bitcoin, just consonant names).

Initially, the coin was named BitMonero, but the Bit prefix was removed. Interestingly, shortly after the first block was generated in 2014, hackers began to attack the coin. The first massive attack occurred in early fall 2014, and Monero survived it successfully, even without significant damage to itself. But this attack showed that the hackers knew very well the source code of the coin and how it works, which is different from other types of cryptocurrencies. Therefore, the danger existed. The developers have taken several very effective measures to minimize damage and make the system even more secure.

In principle, it is not surprising that the coin interested the attackers, because in the beginning it did not even have a normal interface, wallets, etc. This was confusing, because the actions had to be performed through the command line.

But let's discuss other features of the system:

For some reason, there is an opinion that Monero is used exclusively on the black market. In fact, this is not the case. Monero is often used for settlement in games, online casinos and other online settlements.

All cryptocurrencies in one table

The list of cryptocurrencies is already quite large: there are more than 1300 coins. Every year this list of cryptocurrencies will only expand. And in order not to get lost in this variety, it is advisable to have a complete list of cryptocurrencies before your eyes. Then you can at any time start decrypting cryptocurrencies and see which cryptocurrencies are suitable for mining at that moment.

The list of cryptocurrencies, of course, is a very handy tool that helps to understand the types of cryptocurrencies, their details, etc. The following information is usually included in the cryptocurrency table:

And to check where the course is heading, you can look at the statistics of changes. As a rule, the table shows the changes that occurred during the day, and the changes that can be traced over the course of a week or longer. To help coin holders navigate to sell or buy money.

In general, tables are very useful as tools for miners and traders. And cryptocurrency producers, thanks to them and knowing the details of their coin, can view the rating of their financial unit in the world of virtual digital money.

The table looks like this. And you can see how it works in practice here.

	Name	Ticker	Price in USD	Market drip	Volume (24 hours)	Volume (%)	Price in BTC	Change for 7 days (%)
1	Bitcoin	BTC	16.887,0	$ 288.71B	$ 12.61B	55,07%	1	+49,69%
2		ETH	676,58	$ 45.98B	$ 1.47B	6,40%	0,0276026	+2,53%
3	Bitcoin Cash	BCH	1.566,20	$ 24.01B	$ 951.42M	4,16%	0,0823458	-7,89%
4	IOTA	MIOTA	4,26770	$ 12.24B	$ 456.94M	2,00%	0,00025456	+59,28%
5	Litecoin	LTC	341,020	$ 10.60B	$ 2.12B	9,25%	0,0113507	+92,58%
6	Ripple	XRP	0,43870	$ 9.70B	$ 178.64M	0,78%	0,00001454	-0,42%
7		DASH	EOS	6,44000	$ 2.33B	$ 146.96M	0,64%	0,00025333	+13,60%
15	NEO	NEO	42,760	$ 2.29B	$ 78.77M	0,34%	0,00203516	-14,34%
16	BitConnect	BCC	326,30	$ 1.87B	$ 40.03M	0,17%	0,0226545	+20,31%
17	Populous	PPT	37,6780	$ 1.19B	$ 4.02M	0,02%	0,00167293	+118,28%
18	Waves	WAVES	13,6116	$ 1.12B	$ 75.37M	0,33%	0,00064589	+70,27%
19	Stratis	STRAT	9,7400	$ 1.06B	$ 68.62M	0,30%	0,00062331	+47,89%
20	Qtum	QTUM	14,8169	$ 985.81M	$ 217.56M	0,95%	0,00077319	-2,55%

What is the future of crypto money

All cryptocurrencies have a future. Someone is good, and someone is not very. In particular, it is no secret to anyone that over time, many coins simply disappeared, failing to arouse enough interest from miners or buyers. But how many cryptocurrency coins have succeeded and now cost several hundred dollars, and their rate continues to grow steadily? There is a pattern that the higher the rate, the more chances that the coin will stay with us. And the quotation depends on the following indicators:

Frequency of use;
Generation speeds;
Cryptocurrency coin numbers;
System algorithm;
Possibility to exchange for other coins and;
The lifespan of a financial unit.

Different cryptocurrencies were perceived differently. For example, bitcoin was not taken seriously for a long time. Again, I recall the story of two pizzas that were bought for 10,000 bitcoins. Coins that appeared later found it easier in this regard. But the high level of competition in the crypto world forces us to come up with unique coins.

Most digital money was created as a means of speculation. They do not have a limited number of units, like bitcoin. This really poses a threat to the economies of countries that will do nothing. The development of virtual finance cannot be stopped. They are anonymous, complex and decentralized.

Considering what cryptocurrencies exist today, we can already say that at least a thousand coins have a future. Which one exactly depends on the users. But the most optimistic predictions say that even if bitcoin disappears, the development of crypto-finance cannot be stopped. All of them will sooner or later. True, it is necessary to simplify their storage system and expand the area of \u200b\u200busing money to the real world, providing safe, fast and convenient ways of converting, for example, bitcoins into fiat money.

Hello dear readers!

The concept of "cryptocurrency" is now on everyone's lips. This technology, which came out of nowhere, is capable of generating huge income. In this article, you will learn in simple words all the important information about cryptocurrency. So, cryptocurrency: what is it and how to make money using this technology?

In recent years, the world has experienced a full-fledged financial crisis and a war of sanctions. The consequences affected all developed countries. America, European states, our country and many other countries are annually short of billions of dollars!

These things don't go without consequences. As a result, we saw a sharp rise in the euro against the dollar, a fall in the British pound, a depreciation of the Swiss franc. What can we say about the rates of national currencies of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine? Today, there is no such currency left in which one can be sure one hundred percent.

However, technology does not stand still. While chaos reigns in the financial sector, the Internet has its own electronic currency. Moreover, not even one, but dozens ...

The history of the creation of cryptocurrency

Modern technology is a miracle. Various useful things come out of nowhere and help us in life.

It's hard to imagine, but there were no smartphones 15-20 years ago. People called only on landline "city" telephones.

Today everything has changed. It is difficult to imagine a person without a "mobile phone". It is very convenient to use cell phones. Therefore, even the most conservative people use it.

Cryptocurrency is another technology that can change our world for the better. This concept appeared several years ago. However, the technology turned out to be very useful and in demand in various fields. Starting from everyday payments and ending with the protection of national interests.

The University of Cyprus accepts bitcoins for payment

The history of the creation of cryptocurrency began with the creation of bitcoin. Bitcoin is the very first of the cryptocurrencies. She is the most popular and most expensive today.

Who and why invented bitcoin

It all started in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis ...

That year, a group of enthusiasts decided to create a one-stop payment solution that was policy independent.

On October 31, 2008, an article appeared on one of the sites for programmers, which described a promising electronic payment system with some "bitcoins". The article was titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".

On January 9, 2009, the first version of the bitcoin wallet was released and the first bitcoins appeared. In fact, the first crypto money.

For a long time, it was believed that the creator of Bitcoin is the Japanese Satoshi Nakamoto

Over the course of several months, there have been certain improvements to this system. There are a number of different settings and support for the popular linux operating system.

At that time, bitcoin was still known only to a group of its developers and testers. Therefore, the developers of the system decided to somehow attract public attention.

In November 2009, a forum about Bitcoin payments was opened. People became interested. The popularity of bitcoins began to grow slightly. In addition, new ideas for improving the first cryptocurrency were born in the discussions.

During 2010, developers found and eliminated several cryptocurrency vulnerabilities. Security has been improved and bitcoin sending speed has been increased. After that, the number of Bitcoin wallets began to grow rapidly.

Already in May 2010, the first exchange of bitcoins for real goods took place. Then, American Laszlo Hanech, for fun, exchanged 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas. In fact, this was the first use of bitcoin as money.

In fact, it turned out to be the most expensive pizza in history. After all, now for 10,000 bitcoins you can get almost one hundred million dollars!

Since 2012, the development of bitcoins has been supervised by the American company Bitcoin Foundation. The main developer of this company is Gavin Andresen. It is he who can now be considered the project manager.

In recent years, the popularity of bitcoin has grown dramatically. Hundreds of thousands of people buy them to.

How cryptocurrencies appeared

Bitcoin took off in just a year and a half. Noticing this success, many developers started creating new cryptocurrencies. Most of them, in fact, copy bitcoin technology and only slightly modify it. However, there are some really interesting cryptocurrencies that even the governments of many countries are thinking about using.

To date, more than 250 different cryptocurrencies are known to exist. Venezuela has its own cryptocurrency, Belarus will soon have it. Even the famous TV presenter Olga Buzova is now releasing her own cryptocurrency. Perhaps this is only affection. But the most interesting thing is that you will most likely be able to make good money on the "Buzov" cryptocurrency.

The most common cryptocurrencies

Currency name	Currency code	Year of creation	Price on January 01, 2018
Bitcoin	BTC	2009	8,017 USD for 1 BTC
Litecoin	LTC	2011	161 USD for 1 LTC
Ethereum	ETH	2011	737 USD for 1 ETH
Ripple	XRP	2011	0.0043 USD for 1 XRP
Bitcoin Cash	BCH	2017	1.49 USD for 1 BCH
Dash	DASH	2012	703 USD for 1 DOGE
Dogecoin	DOGE	2013	0.006 USD for 1 NXT

How does cryptocurrency work

Where does cryptocurrency come from? Obviously, this is not ordinary money. They are not issued by central banks. They do not depend on the monetary policy of this or that state.

The new cryptocurrency is released digitally. Anyone can literally mine cryptocurrency.

The process of producing a new cryptocurrency is called mining. In order to mine, the computing power of a computer is used.

What is cryptocurrency mining

The word "mining" came to us from English. Literally translated as "mining". Only the mining of cryptocurrency is carried out not in the mine, but at the computer.

We download a special program, set it up and the computer itself will produce a new cryptocurrency. True, computers are needed for this powerful, otherwise we will be mining one conditional bitcoin for years.

Any cryptocurrency is, in fact, a sequence of unique encrypted blocks of information. Simply put - a specific sequence of characters.

To mine cryptocurrency, you need to calculate a new unique sequence of blocks. As soon as we start the mining program, the computer starts calculating a new sequence.

As soon as the computer finishes computing, information about this is transferred to a specialized data storage. And at the same time you get one unit of cryptocurrency. For example, one new bitcoin.

Speaking specifically about bitcoins, there is a special limitation on their production. The fact is that the more bitcoins have already been mined, the more difficult it will be to get (calculate) new ones. Also, the release of new bitcoins is limited. That is, at some point, it will no longer be possible to mine new bitcoins. You can only buy the existing ones. And, this will happen by 2031.

Separately, I note that for cryptocurrency mining, you need to perform a large number of calculations independent of each other. Technically, this task is best done by GPUs (video cards). For this reason, the rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies has caused a rush of demand for powerful video cards in 2017. The most "sophisticated" models doubled in price, as people massively bought them for mining. Now, fortunately, the situation is calmer. The excitement around video cards is gone.

Cryptocurrency wallet

Blockchain is the most popular and reasonably secure bitcoin wallet

You can store cryptocurrency in special electronic wallets. Today there are several dozen different wallets. Some of them are installed on a computer / phone, others work online. That is, through some website on the Internet.

Purchase and sale and transfers of cryptocurrency are carried out either directly through transfers between wallet owners oracross .

Due to its popularity, cryptocurrencies can already be used to pay in many online stores and even in regular stores.

Now you can even issue a payment card tied to your crypto-wallet. This card can be used at any store or ATM. Conversion from cryptocurrency to regular money will automatically take place at the current exchange rate.

Simply put, if we have a bitcoin wallet, we can issue a card tied to the balance of that wallet. With this card, we can go to a regular store and buy, relatively speaking, sausages, bread and milk. Well, or something bigger.

Cryptocurrency rate for today

Digital currencies are independent of geopolitics. They are not affected by oil production or sanctions. To date, the rate of cryptocurrencies adds up exclusively according to the laws of economics. So, supply and demand decide everything. Well, since the demand for cryptocurrencies is consistently high, then their rate is constantly growing.

In addition, speculation can affect the course. So, in 2013, bitcoin market makers made a huge jump in the rate. Then, in just one month, the value of bitcoin increased from $ 200 to $ 1000 for 1BTC.

By the way, the price of bitcoin has also increased significantly recently. Over the past couple of years, the rate has grown tenfold.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Cryptocurrency

Thanks to digital technology and the lack of ownership, cryptocurrencies have several advantages over conventional currencies:

Transparency... By virtue of their technology, cryptocurrency wallets store the entire history of transactions. Any user can view the balance and all transactions of any crypto-wallet, knowing its number.
Safety... Cryptocurrency cannot be counterfeited.
Anonymity... No binding to name and address. Banks and tax authorities do not control the movement of cryptocurrencies.
Independence... The turnover of cryptocurrency is not subject to government authorities and.
Convenience... Opening an e-wallet is much easier than opening a bank account. At the same time, the speed of operations with cryptocurrencies is an order of magnitude higher, and the commission is lower.

The disadvantages include:

Uncertain legal status... In some countries, cryptocurrencies are fully legalized. And in some, for example in Russia, the laws on cryptocurrency are still being discussed.
Use in the shadow economy... Attackers use cryptocurrencies to settle accounts with each other. This way they avoid the attention of the supervisory authorities.

How can you make money on cryptocurrency

There are three proven ways to make money on cryptocurrencies:

Mining. That is, the production of a new cryptocurrency for the purpose of its subsequent sale;
Investments in cryptocurrency. That is, a purchase for a period of one month or more for the purpose of subsequent resale when the rate rises.
Trading. That is, speculative cryptocurrency trading.

We have considered mining. Therefore, let's dwell on other possibilities in more detail.

Investing in cryptocurrency

Famous billionaire Richard Branson considers Bitcoin as the best investment

Everything is very simple. Setting up a crypto wallet. We buy this or that cryptocurrency in anticipation of its growth. After a while, we sell cryptocurrency.

It is most convenient to buy cryptocurrency in electronic exchange offices. I recommend using only the most proven ones. These include xhange or 60cek.

In this article, you will be able to see everything on the example of bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency trading

Brokerage companies usually provide the most popular cryptocurrencies for trading. For example, FXOpen allows us to trade bitcoins and litecoins for dollars, euros and rubles.

Liquidity is usually provided by some major online exchange. For example - "BitStamp". In other words, trading is carried out using ECN technology. That is, the second party to transactions is not the broker itself, but other traders. Everything is fair.

In general, cryptocurrency trading is a super-profitable option for those who are ready to try their hand and are not afraid of high trading risks.

For most investors (and especially beginners), I would not recommend trading, but ordinary investments. It's much easier, but the return on investment in cryptocurrency can also be high. I myself invest now in bitcoin, ethereum and ripple. And, just last year, these cryptocurrencies brought me over 700% of the profit!

I would be grateful for your questions or your opinion about what cryptocurrency is and how you can make money on it in comments.

I wish you all a profitable investment!

09.03.2019 14.03.2019

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The cryptocurrency market today has a volume of tens of billions of dollars. New cryptocurrencies of the world appear like mushrooms after rain. Cryptocurrency rates in a matter of minutes can grow by 100-200%, and even 1000%. The number of world cryptocurrency exchanges has exceeded 50. In this article, we will provide a basic list of cryptocurrencies.

In this turmoil, a potential investor needs to choose the right cryptocurrency to invest in. In this article, we will briefly describe the largest cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin, BTC

Bitcoin, BTC (Bitcoin) - the first commercially successful cryptocurrency without any government or economic regulation. The Bitcoin code is open and all subsequent cryptocurrencies are based on it. The number of crypto coins in the system is limited to 21 million. Transactions in the system are anonymous and irrevocable. Transfers are carried out directly between two Bitcoin clients, without using any intermediate servers. Read more about Bitcoin.

Litecoin, LTC

- Developed by former Google employee Charlie Lee as an enhanced version of Bitcoin. The world's second largest cryptocurrency. The maximum number of coins in the system is 84 million (four times more than in Bitcoin), the payment is confirmed 4 times faster. The coin mining algorithm allows you to generate cryptocurrencies on ordinary computers. Read more about Litecoin.

Peercoin, PPC

There is no limit on the volume of coins in the system and currently 21 million coins have been issued. The generated coins are distributed not only among miners, but also among Pircoin clients. This additional motivation has been well received by users and is now the third largest cryptocurrency in the world. Read more about Pircoin.

Namecoin, NMC

- cryptocurrency was created not only for payments, but also as a domain name system (DNS). Namecoin registers domains in the .bit domain zone and accepts its banknotes as payment for domains. The domain zone is decentralized and cryptographically secure, no one except the owner can change or block the domain. The creators of the system are in talks to include support for the .bit zone in popular browsers. More about Namecoin.

QuarkCoin, QRK

Is the most "opaque" cryptocurrency. In Quarkcoin, transactions are encrypted sequentially with six different algorithms. The value of such encryption is not yet clear. The simplicity of mining attracted many participants to the system and caused an avalanche of coins. Sharp fluctuations in the Quarkcoin rate on cryptocurrency exchanges suggest that the currency was created exclusively for speculation and the bulk of the coins is in the hands of several founders. Read more about Quarkcoin.

Feathercoin, FTC

- was created as an improved analogue of Litecoin. The volume of coins has been increased by 4 times (336 million coins), the algorithm has minor improvements. The term 51% attack is widely used in advertising. The meaning of the 51% attack is as follows - theoretically, if more than 51% of the system's coins are concentrated in one hand, then such a user can generate new coins without confirming uniqueness, and thus establishes full control over the system. Feathercoin developers claim that their system is completely protected from such attacks, but the value of such an opportunity is currently low. "51% attacks" with the current complexities of cryptocurrency networks are almost impossible. Read more about Feathercoin.

Protoshares, PTS

- the coins of the system are not only monetary units, but also shares, to which, in the future, the creators of the system plan to distribute profits from the cryptocurrency and digital goods of the Invictus Innovation company. The creators of Protoshares claim that they do not have their own crypto coins and the ability to influence the exchange rate. Learn more about Proto-shares.

Worldcoin, WDC

- The only advantage of Worldcoin over other cryptocurrencies is the speed of crypto coins transfers and is a maximum of 1 minute, which is 20 times faster than Bitcoin. Worldcoin is almost never used as a means of payment. The Worldcoin rate since its launch has grown by 7500% and is $ 0.5, the total value of the currency is about $ 20 million. More about Worldcoin.

Megacoin, MEC

Is the most eccentric cryptocurrency. The name of the currency is similar to the new project of the former owner of the Megaupload file sharing site Keith Dotcom - Mega.co.nz Apparently, the creators assumed that the cryptocurrency would be used by people supporting the struggle for freedom on the Internet. Cryptocurrency analysts believe that Megacoin is completely speculative cryptocurrency. Read more about Megacoin.

Freicoin, FRC

- was created to solve another problem of all cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency owners currently prefer not to spend cryptocoins, but store them in their wallets in order to increase the rate. Such "investing" slows down the development of cryptocurrencies and turns the crypto market from a payment market into a speculative one. To stimulate the turnover of crypto coins, Freycoin developers introduced a "storage tax" of 5% per year. The tax is paid automatically on every transaction. The developers plan to transfer 80% of the system's coins to the Freicoin Foundation for subsequent donations. How donations will be made is not yet clear. Read more about Freycoin.

Primecoin, FRC

- this cryptocurrency differs from others in that the mining process makes a useful function not only for the miner (in the form of a reward), but also for society - the calculation of strings of prime numbers, for example, Cunningham sequences. Such calculations are useful for scientific research. Also, a feature of this cryptocurrency is that there is no emission limit. Read more about Primecoin.

All existing cryptocurrencies are developed according to a similar principle. It complies with such a rule as "Proof-of-work". The user's personal computer is involved in mining (mining of cryptocurrencies using the power of computers for calculations). At the same time, he performs calculations according to a special algorithm and confirms the work done in a predetermined way. As a rule, complex mathematical formulas are used for these purposes. As a result, the PC performs the necessary calculations, spends its resources, and its owner receives cryptocurrency as a reward.

For a procedure like mining, special programs are needed to calculate. At the same time, all participants in this process regularly exchange data and thanks to this, the uniqueness of all operations performed by the system is guaranteed.

At the same time, each of the digital currencies is mined differently, using specific functions. To determine the type of a particular cryptocurrency, you need to pay attention to their main characteristics:

all transactions are irreversible;
all participants can check any transaction for validity;
the complexity of calculations is increasing every time, as well as the ability to predict their dynamics.

How many cryptocurrencies are there in the world?

When calculating how many cryptocurrencies there are, it is easiest to indicate that new cryptocurrencies appear every year. In general, their list is in the hundreds of different options. What are the cryptocurrencies, or rather, the list of all existing virtual money can be viewed on the coinmarketcap resource. At the same time, no one can calculate the exact number of cryptocurrencies. After all, some of them, sooner or later, disappear, and immediately others appear, which can also sink into oblivion.

However, the number of cryptocurrencies is steadily increasing. The main reason is the widespread use of payment for services and goods via the Internet. If we take as a basis such a parameter as functionality, then all types of cryptocurrencies can be divided into the following groups:

gaming (intended for payment and mining in computer games);
market (they are a product of stock exchange speculations and are created in order to become a worthy replacement for bitcoin);
cryptocurrencies that are specifically designed for a particular platform.

Bitcoin does not belong to any of the above groups. After all, he is the leader in the virtual payment market. Given its strong system and increased demand, it will be difficult to squeeze out another cryptocurrency, despite the fact that many virtual currencies have a high generation rate.

Let's consider some types of cryptocurrency in more detail and their main differences and features.
Since we have already reviewed the well-known bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin in another article "Promising cryptocurrencies in 2018", in this review we will provide brief information about other popular crypto-coins.

Primecoin

Sunny King created it. This cryptocurrency is the result of deep processing of bitcoin. It appeared in circulation relatively recently - in the summer of 2013. Compared to other electronic currencies, it differs in the usefulness of calculations that are performed during the mining process. Currently, the cost of 1 primecoin reaches $ 0.20 (end of November 2017).

Finding the simplest numbers, namely, this principle of mining provides primecoin, is indispensable for cryptography, some mathematical sections and certain areas of science. Generous monetary rewards are used to stimulate interest in this method. They are provided for the fact that the PC finds prime numbers, more than "one", "ten", "one hundred" million, "one" billion decimal places. Of course, such mining is difficult, because user computing power is subject to heavy loads.

Peercoin

This cryptocurrency is included in the first 10 PPC electronic money. It is based on the open source bitcoin code. Unlike other virtual currencies, Primecoin does not have a limit on the number of coins generated. In this case, the function of the limiter is assigned to the annual inflation, which is 1%.

A distinctive feature of this cryptocurrency is that the profit from each monetary unit is distributed among themselves not only by miners, but also by other users of the system. I mean, the owners themselves. As for the cost of primecoin, it reaches $ 1.9 (end of November 2017).

Namecoin

This type of cryptocurrency appeared in 2011. Alternative DNS servers were used to create it. It now costs $ 1.8. The number of coins called namecoins is limited to 21 million.

Users are showing a genuine interest in this electronic currency because it provides an alternative to the global system that controls and allocates ICANN domain addresses. That is, if a given company can take absolutely any domain address, then with the help of the namecoin, users have the opportunity to buy a domain for themselves in such a zone as "bit". The safety of the latter is guaranteed. Also, thanks to the unique cryptographic coding of the data, complete security for the user is ensured. In short, only he can block or change the domain. But the namecoin itself acts as a means of payment with which users pay for the content of the domain and the registration procedure.

As for the generation process itself, it implies the formation of a digital representation of the list of domain addresses, as well as nodes. Then they are distributed among the participants. Compared to bitcoin, namecoin has a more complex settlement system.

Feathercoin

This cryptocurrency is a copy (fork) that mimics bitcoin as well as litecoin. It was created in 2013. At the same time, its creators are constantly positioning their offspring as the successor to Litecoin. However, it costs only $ 0.25 (end of November 2017).

It is noteworthy that at one time disinformation was thrown in the media to promote this cryptocurrency. That is, "duck". It was alleged that Fesercoin was allegedly hacked. Interestingly, its security system is in no way inferior to the main currency bitcoin. After that, a statement was circulated, which emphasized that the developers of this cryptocurrency had done a tremendous amount of work on the errors and improved the security system. As a result, they managed to create a myth that fezercoin is more reliable than bitcoin and litecoin.

But theoretically this system can be hacked. To do this, you need to gain control over more than 50% of all capacities that generate fesercoins. As for practice, it is unrealistic to achieve such a goal. Since the performance of the world-famous bitcoin is several hundred times higher than the total performance of all PCs.

Freicoin

It was created in 2013. The principle of its operation is based on eliminating the problem of excessive accumulation of foreign exchange funds without regular reinvestment. That is why its creators have provided for a special tax. Those users who do not put the earned virtual money into circulation are subject to tax liabilities charged in the form of a commission for each transaction. Currently, one Freycoin costs $ 0.006 (end of November 2017). Equivalent emission of 100 million

Due to the competent policy of profit distribution, which the creators of Freycoin adhere to, this system is regularly updated with new participants. At the same time, 80% of the money earned goes to a charitable organization called the Freicoin Foundation. The rest of the profit is distributed among all participants who provide the system with the productive capacity of their computers.