SHAKERS & MOVERS n BITCOIN & CRYPTO
CryptoConvo Chronicles From
My Last “Coffee and Crypto” Event
By Tony Tate, Blockchain Asset Analyst
Jennifer, Bitcoin is a digital currency
(or what you will hear a lot CRYPTO-
CURRENCY) that brought its underlying
blockchain technology to the world. The
reason that I, and so many others, think
it is so remarkable, is that this digital
money is not controlled by any central
authority that can fail or be banned
from taking part in the global money
remittance network.
The Bitcoin network is completely
decentralized and the currency is
produced by a community that anyone
can freely join. Because Bitcoin is
produced and held digitally, it can be
transferred almost freely and instantly,
no matter the transaction amount.
Bitcoins are created by miners, through
a process called mining, that uses open
source software to solve mathematical
problems.
There will only be 21 million Bitcoins
that can ever be mined and thus it is a
deflationary asset that is just as good (in
my opinion, better than) traditional fiat
money; yet unlike money, produced by
central banks in arbitrary amounts
“OK Tony, but now I have a question:
WHAT IS MINING?”
— Scott V.
The act of mining creates Bitcoin and
many other digital currencies. The
members of the network provide their
computational power for calculating
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mathematical problems, and for this
effort they are rewarded with currency
units.
In the Bitcoin network, there is a
daily global reward of 1,800 Bitcoins
distributed to the miners. Think of it
like, “if there was a little game filled with
little cyber accountants verifying and
confirming transactions.”
However, the more people that are
mining, the more competitive it gets.
Computers are good at solving
equations, so the networks create
more difficult problems by the minute.
There are already numerous types of
specialized hardware on the market
that have been designed specifically for
digital currency mining.
when their value increases. Depends
on your education level; as to how you
would approach that; which is where
Currency Cadets come in. We “Make
currencies make sense!”
“Alright, but what about the
alternate coins, or Altcoins, that I
hear about—Ethereum, Litecoin,
Augur, Dash, Monero—do they work
the same way?” — Stephen B.
Well actually there are a few different
“types” of Cryptocurrency. There are
“Currency” Cryptocurrency, “Utility”
Cryptocurrency, and “Application/
Platform” Currencies. Some are used to
help facilitat