bitcoin

An Introduction To Cryptocurrency

If you are relatively new to cryptocurrency and have been wanting to learn more and get started here is a brief quick start guide. Let’s start with some context.

R.I.P. Fiat Money

The word FIAT derives from latin, meaning a determination by authority. Our money is controlled by the central banks and the system is broken. It has been for a long time, only now the house of cards appears to be collapsing fast.

Last year Turkey reported that its Lira has lost approximately 40% of its value over the last two years alone, but in truth we have been in a state of hyperinflation for way beyond that time.

Something had to give, and you know that’s true when the World Economic Forum comes out and says that it is time for a reset. They want to bring in a Central Bank Digital Currency, which basically means they will control your money, albeit in a different form. That does not solve anything.

I recall here in the UK the last recession, when we experienced a bank run after the collapse of Northern Rock bank back in 2008. People could not get access to their money. It underlined that the current banking system controls your money and can freeze your account at will.

What’s more, the bailouts and bail-ins of the big banks are effectively funded by you! Not to mention how that this same money can also be forged easily

Source image: ginifoundation.org

What is Cryptocurrency?

It is out of the rubble and backdrop of that recession that cryptocurrency emerged in the form of bitcoin. May 22nd 2021 marked the 11th anniversary of bitcoin, and you may be aware of the famous story of two men who sold two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin, which was next to nothing back then.

Cryptocurrency is a form of digital cash which is secured by something called cryptography so that it cannot be duplicated. It is decentralized meaning that you own it when stored in your own private wallet. It effectively allows you to become your own bank. As it gets widespread adoption you can use it in the same way you use traditional money.

Already you can use cryptocurrency to send digital cash to friends irrespective of where they live in the world. You can trade with it. You can pay for business services with it. You can also get cash backs in the form of cryptocurrency at certain shopping outlets. The list goes on.

There are so many different cryptocurrencies arising right now. The most well known cryptocurrency is bitcoin, reportedly created by someone called Satoshi Nakamoto. Depending on who you talk to there are various interpretations as to who this person is or was – an individual, team, or maybe a covert government set up.

It has a total supply of 21 million and a current circulating supply of just over 19 million. Over 15,000 businesses accept bitcoin including paypal, microsoft, home depot and starbucks to name but a few. On the downside bitcoin is having to deal with congestion and latency problems which may reflect in its transaction fees.

Bitcoin ATMs are springing up and becoming more ubiquitous, with the USA and Canada leading the way. You can find out where they are via this map.

Source: https://coinatmradar.com

What is The Blockchain

All transactions take place on something called the blockchain. The blockchain is like a digital ledger system which records all transactions in a way that cannot be removed or altered, making for greater transparency. There are different blockchains for different cryptocurrencies. When you perform a transaction you can check its status from start to finish on the blockchain. The blockchain is a trustless system bringing transparency to the financial world.

Become Your Own Bank

Before buying bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency it is important to grasp the concept of being your own bank. This comes with a responsibility to manage your security and privacy.

You need somewhere safe to store your bitcoin for peace of mind. When you use an exchange to buy cryptocurrency it is important not to leave it there as exchanges can be hacked.

There are various types of wallet which can be created seamlessly and quickly. They fall into two broad categories. Hot wallets and cold wallets. A hot wallet is a wallet that remains connected to the internet.

Exodus would be a common example. Exodus is a wallet you can download to your computer and also has an inbuilt swap feature for several cryptocurrencies, which is very useful. I have this on my computer.

A cold wallet on the other hand is not connected to the internet, a bit like a flash drive. These types of wallets cannot be compromised, and I strongly recommend you buy one and store it in a fireproof safe for obvious reasons.

The three common cold wallets are ledger, trezor and yubikey. I have the ledger nano S

The other important aspect of opening a wallet is that you will be given private keys in the form of seed words which need to be stored offline ideally in a fireproof safe. They act like unique passwords, with the important exception that if you lose them they are not recoverable like passwords are. Be warned, and store them safely on paper.

How To Buy Cryptocurrency

I will use bitcoin as an example. You can buy bitcoin at an exchange like coinbase, and coinbase also has tutorials to aid your learning. Other popular exchanges are binance and kucoin. You do need to check if the exchange operates in your country as there are variations.

You will usually need to attach bank details or a debit card in order to make a purchase, and if it is a first time, just be aware that your bank may reject the transaction, so you may need to liaise with them to prevent it repeating.

If you want to acquire bitcoin without payment or risk, you can use faucets such as cointiply to get your feet wet, so to speak without risk. This is just one of many faucets. You can also use mining sites such as nicehash but I would be cautious due to the energy it might consume in electricity given the rise in energy prices.

There are social media sites you can join that give you cryptocurrency for engaging on their site. For example Steemit, and our own Markethive Ecosystem.

In Markethive you can pay for membership in bitcoin, and you can also acquire their own markethive coin just by engaging in the platform through various marketing activities. That could be reading someone else's blog, adding content or referring friends. They have some fun gamification like the wheel of fortune too.

These are just a few simple and safe ways you can get started with cryptocurrency that are low cost or no cost. Welcome to the cryptocurrency world.

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

The Z Generation And Cryptocurrency

In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of a new generation, who are often referred to as the “Z Generation.” A generation that has only ever known a world with the Internet. They have grown up in a time of rapid technological development and have been raised with ever-increasing political, social, and economic uncertainty.

They are connected, globally-minded, and innovative; they are a product of their time in many ways. Gen Z is very familiar with technology and has always had access to it, and they do not need to be taught or encouraged to use it. They live their lives through their devices and social media, and many have turned to cryptocurrencies as an alternative investment.

Money And Excitement From The Game.

The young are not discouraged by the endless crashes from cryptocurrencies, and they see it as a means to accumulate wealth and an investment opportunity.

As 20-year-old Paxton See Tow told the BBC, "All my friends were talking about cryptocurrencies, so one day I decided I could get involved too and see if I could make a living."

All he needed was a phone, and he was only a few clicks away from thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency purchases.

Who Are Gen Z?

Generation Z is a group of people born around the mid-1990s until about 2010. So it grew up in an interconnected world at a time when the Internet was practically everywhere. They are used to playing online games and meeting friends virtually, without physical contact.

This new generation was born into a relatively peaceful time. However, a peaceful childhood is undoubtedly compensated for by the events that take place during their adolescence. Recent developments in the world are proof of this.

The Black Lives Matter movement in America, the riots in Hong Kong, and the Fridays for Future Movement have spread around the world. All these movements were founded or strongly supported by representatives of the Z generation.

The Economist has described Generation Z as a more educated, well-behaved, stressed, and depressed generation in comparison to previous generations.

From Wikipedia:

Other proposed names for the generation include iGeneration, Homeland Generation, Net Gen, Digital Natives, Neo-Digital Natives, Pluralist Generation, Internet Generation, Centennials, and Post-Millennials.

They Are Among The Technologies At Home

The development of technology is undoubtedly an important factor that contributed to the definition of Generation Z.

In his article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Marc Prensky describes Generation Z as a digital native, and they are surrounded by technology from birth. According to Prensky (2001), the younger generation "thinks and processes information significantly differently than its predecessors."

The possibility of quick profits has always attracted young people to invest in risky assets. For Generation Z, it is the significant price fluctuations – and the decentralized nature – of digital assets that are pulling.

Whether they are cryptocurrencies or so-called unmistakable tokens (NFT), however, no one regulates the sector, which means minimal investor protection.

The trend for young people to trade in cryptocurrencies and NFTs has intensified during the pandemic.

"The market has gone through extreme price fluctuations. When you have such fluctuations, you have an opportunity in the market," says Lily Fang, a professor of finance at INSEAD Business School.

"Young people stayed at home, and it became almost a game. All these factors created the perfect conditions for that."

The Thrill Of it All

But in addition to financial losses, addiction is also a great danger. Resh Chandran, a financial educator, said, “The cryptocurrency market never sleeps, so people really swallow it up.”

Andy Leach from an addiction clinic in Singapore says he has experienced an increase in addictions to the thrill of trading crypto and NFTs and confirms Chandran’s sentiments, stating,

“You can watch the bitcoin rise and fall, the whole process, the roller coaster ride, the highs and lows – all on your phone, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Making Money As A Game

But even the stories of people who lost a lot of money on cryptocurrencies do not seem to discourage young traders. Many of them have encountered digital assets for the first time through games that allow them to obtain NFTs or cryptocurrencies and use them within the game itself or exchange them for cash.

"Every child wants to make money playing games," says a 23-year-old Malaysian businessman who is nicknamed YellowPanther. "This is the dream of my generation."

“In the Czech Republic, the number of wallets with cryptocurrencies is estimated at half a million,” says Binance marketing manager Maya Bersheva.

On the opposite side of the globe, research has shown that one in five Australians believes that crypto is the key to homeownership as confidence in traditional savings dwindles.

A survey conducted by the Kraken Cryptocurrency Exchange found that a growing number of young Australians are depressed by traditional investment opportunities. Almost a quarter of respondents expressed concern that the value of money in traditional cash savings is declining.

A similar trend is confirmed by other research showing a change from traditional attitudes towards investment and property. More than a third of millennials view crypto assets as an increasingly valid alternative to an elusive investment property, a new survey finds.

Commissioned by cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, it found that around four million Aussies say they are likely to purchase digital currencies in the next 12 months.

The survey, which was conducted by global researcher YouGov, found 21% of Australians are readying to purchase digital tokens if they hadn’t already, including 34% of millennials and 32% of Gen Z.

According to the survey, young Russians consider cryptocurrencies a safe investment. Due to Western sanctions, which increase the pressure on Russia's economy, young Russians consider cryptocurrencies to be a reliable and profitable investment. According to a recent study on the existence of BTC, two-thirds of Russian citizens know.

New Research Shows That 40% Of Young People Want To Use Cryptocurrencies For Payments

Cryptocurrencies are rapidly gaining in attractiveness among younger groups, with 40% of consumers aged 18-35 expressing their intention to use cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ethereum, and stablecoins to pay for goods or services within the next 12 months.

The report, entitled "Cryptocurrency Demystification: Shedding Light on the Acceptance of Digital Currencies for Payments in 2022," was presented by global payment provider Checkout.com at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami on April 6. It revealed an increasingly positive trend in accepting cryptocurrencies for online payments.

Although digital currency often pretends to be an investment for young people, they often pay the most for its volatility. The "computer generation" perceives crypto as a game that can be easily and well earned.

Thanks for reading

Margaret

Source:

https://zpravy.aktualne.cz

https://kryptomagazin.cz

https://medium.com

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

THE PRICE OF BITCOIN

What happens to bitcoin, what is the price, and why did it fall so badly, the answers are multiple but also questions are many.

Bitcoin is the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency, a type of digital asset that uses public-public key cryptography to record, sign and send transactions over the Bitcoin blockchain all done without the oversight of a central authority. It’s the original and most valuable cryptocurrency by far, despite its huge — and normal swings in recent months, ranging in value from less than $30,000 to more than $60,000. Bitcoin has also seen a lot of new investors, with more than half of all having bought in the past year.

It is also certain that the price now at this moment when I am writing this is $28,320.50, a change of -4.30% over the past 24 hours. The recent price action in Bitcoin left the token’s market capitalization at $539,510,082,593.91 USD. So far this year, Bitcoin has a change of -37.87%.

The leading crypto Bitcoin is struggling to fully recover after weeks of losses. Bitcoin price crashed below $26,000 in early May amid a broader market sell-off of risky assets but has risen slightly a little many are saying all is because of the struggles and crash of TerraUSD (UST), one of the largest stablecoins, which play a big role in Bitcoin’s recent crash. Stablecoins are intended to bring stability to the crypto markets and have a similar value to hold as close to the U.S. dollar as possible, but the UST dropped below 12 cents in early May and many investors on the market panicked and sold off their coins. The Terra blockchain has officially halted and UST has remained de-pegged from the U.S. dollar since May.

To return to the question posed where will the price of bitcoin go I think no one knows, we can speculate about this, but still, it is good to believe in what bitcoin means for us crypto investors and what benefits it brings to the whole planet in implementing cryptocurrency, how the money transfer is faster and safer and how they eliminate the bank fees and other problems of the Bank system.

So believe in Bitcoin and don't sell wait .

I believed the bitcoin will come back stronger than ever,in the end, I want to end with a quote " People give value to things "

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

What is cryptocurrency?

Bitcoin is a form of cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is a form of digital money that is designed to be secure and, in many cases, anonymous. It is a currency associated with the internet that uses cryptography, the process of converting legible information into an almost uncrackable code, to track purchases and transfers. Cryptography was born out of the need for secure communication in the Second World War. It has evolved in the digital era with elements of mathematical theory and computer science to become a way to secure communications, information and money online. The first cryptocurrency was bitcoin, which was created in 2009 and is still the best known. There has been a proliferation of cryptocurrencies in the past decade and there are now more than 900 available on the internet. Here's everything you need to know about cryptocurrencies.

How do cryptocurrencies work?

Cryptocurrencies use decentralised technology to let users make secure payments and store money without the need to use their name or go through a bank. They run on a distributed public ledger called blockchain, which is a record of all transactions updated and held by currency holders.

Units of cryptocurrency are created through a process called mining, which involves using computer power to solve complicated maths problems that generate coins. Users can also buy the currencies from brokers, then store and spend them using cryptographic wallets. Cryptocurrencies and applications of blockchain technology are still nascent in financial terms and more uses should be expected. Transactions including bonds, stocks and other financial assets could eventually be traded using the technology.

What are the most common cryptocurrencies?

Bitcoin:
Bitcoin was the first and is the most commonly traded cryptocurrency to date. The currency was developed by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, a mysterious figure who developed its blockchain. It has a market capitalisation of around $45 billion as of July 2017.
Ethereum:
Developed in 2015, ethereum is the currency token used in the ethereum blockchain, the second most popular and valuable cryptocurrency. Ethereum has a market capitalisation of around $18bn as of July 2017. However, ethereum has had a turbulent journey. After a major hack in 2016 it split into two currencies, while its value has in recent months reached as high as $400 but crashed briefly to as low as 10 cents.
Ripple:
Ripple is another distributed ledger system that was founded in 2012. Ripple can be used to track more kinds of transactions, not just of the cryptocurrency. It has been used by banks including Santander and UBS and has a market capitalisation of around $6.3 billion.
Litecoin:
This currency is most similar in form to bitcoin, but has moved more quickly to develop new innovations, including faster payments and processes to allow many more transactions. The total value of all Litecoin is around $2.1 billion.

Why would you use a cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrencies are known for being secure and providing a level of anonymity. Transactions in them cannot be faked or reversed and there tend to be low fees, making it more reliable than conventional currency. Their decentralised nature means they are available to everyone, where banks can be exclusive in who they will let open accounts. As a new form of cash, the cryptocurrency markets have been known to take off meaning a small investment can become a large sum over night. But the same works the other way. People look to invest in cryptocurrencies should be aware of the volatility of the market and the risks they take when buying.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges

Tracing Mt. Gox’s stolen coins led feds to Alexander Vinnik

This week, one of Bitcoin’s largest and most notorious coin exchanges

was brought down by law enforcement — and police and prosecutors are now beginning to explain why. On Thursday, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Alexander Vinnik — thought to be the operator, or one of the operators of Bitcoin exchange BTC-e — charging him with 21 counts of money laundering and other related financial crimes. The counts range from operating an unlicensed money transmittal business to a variety of money laundering charges, including laundering associated with ransomware payouts and a theft from the now-defunct Mt Gox exchange. More generally, the indictment paints BTC-e as a hub of criminal activity, laundering the proceeds of everything from drug trafficking to ransomware attacks.

As some suspected, Vinnik’s alleged crimes go beyond just operating the exchange. Feds believe he played a role in the theft of more 800,000 bitcoin — about $400 million at the time — from Mt. Gox, a staggering loss that ultimately shuttered the exchange. According to the indictment, 530,000 of those bitcoin ended up passing through wallets controlled by or associated with Vinnik, although his role in the larger scheme remains unclear.Vinnik’s alleged crimes go beyond just operating a Bitcoin exchange

Vinnik himself is in custody, arrested while on vacation in Greece, but the Bitcoin world is still sorting through the larger implications of his arrest. BTC-e was one of the last major exchanges outside the reach of conventional finance, and now that it’s gone, it’s unclear what might replace it. There are many legitimate uses of Bitcoin, but Bitcoin transactions have also become essential for online crime — whether it’s ransomware or Silk-Road-style online marketplaces. There will continue to be demand for exchanges like BTC-e, and ____. With feds directly targeting exchanges that don’t play by the book, the split between the two halves of Bitcoin is becoming starker and starker.

BTC-e, founded in 2011, always stood out as an anomaly among the major Bitcoin exchanges. Even a cursory look at BTC-e flagged it as a little strange. “Their exchange prices always seemed weird and out of line with every other exchange, and I had wondered why,” Matthew Green, a professor at Johns Hopkins University told The Verge in an email.

Nicholas Weaver wrote at Lawfare that BTC-e was noted for its “sketchy ownership and control.” The exchange was supposedly located in Eastern Europe, but there were no clues as to who ran it — until now.300,000 bitcoin from Mt. Gox went to wallets tied to “BTC-e administrative accounts” But the big surprise in the indictment is how closely tied BTC-e is to a massive theft at Mt. Gox, one that eventually bankrupted the exchange in 2014. Founded in 2010, Mt. Gox dominated the Bitcoin world for years, at one point processing 80 percent of all bitcoin-to-currency transactions. Mt. Gox first suffered a multimillion-dollar theft in June 2011. When the exchange collapsed in 2014, the equivalent of nearly half a billion dollars was unaccounted for.

On Wednesday, in the wake of the arrest of Vinnik, WizSec published a blogpost presenting the findings of an investigation into the Mt. Gox thefts that they have apparently been preparing for years. According to WizSec, the Mt. Gox hot wallet private keys were stolen sometime in 2011, and the hacker (or multiple hackers) continued to steal bitcoin through 2012 and 2013. The bitcoin were laundered through wallets controlled by Alexander Vinnik. The indictment claims that 300,000 bitcoin were stolen from Mt. Gox went directly to three connected BTC-e accounts “directly linked” to “BTC-e administrative accounts” that only BTC-e admins and operators could have had access to.

At least one of the accounts — under the name “Vamnedam” — was controlled by Vinnik and “others known and unknown.” (The “others known” are either not named in the indictment or have been redacted from the published document.)Many of the charges allege more straightforward money laundering" More bitcoin from the theft were sent to other Mt. Gox wallets and wallets at a third exchange — the now-defunct Tradehill, which operated out of San Francisco, California. From there, they eventually ended up at BTC-e, in an account that was directly controlled by Vinnik. WizSec also claims that the wallets that laundered Mt. Gox coins also handled “coins stolen from Bitcoinica, Bitfloor and several other thefts from back in 2011 and 2012.”

It’s not clear whether Vinnik was directly involved in the Mt. Gox theft, or how close he is to any of those previous thefts, or even the CryptoWall ransomware hackers whose funds he is accused of laundering. But when it comes to Mt. Gox, at least, BTC-e’s proximity to the theft is fairly suspicious.“Anybody who thought about this for a second understood that law enforcement was working on a case against BTC-e" While the Mt. Gox allegations are the most eye-catching, many of the charges that brought down BTC-e allege more straightforward money laundering. The very first count listed in the indictment is for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business: a criminal charge based on failing to register with FinCEN, an intelligence network that’s mandatory for all financial companies dealing with US customers.

Participating in FinCEN comes with a range of requirements, from registration to internal anti-money laundering programs. Since 2013, it’s been clear that Bitcoin exchanges had to follow those same rules, and for the most part, exchanges have complied — and prosecutors haven’t been shy about filing charges against services that don’t. In recent years, BTC-e has been the largest Bitcoin exchange not registered with FinCEN, a distinction that made it an obvious target for law enforcement, even without Vinnik’s alleged Mt. Gox involvement. “Anybody who thought about this for a second understood that law enforcement was working on a case against BTC-e,” said Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center. “The question was just whether the government would catch them.”“designed so that criminals could effect financial transactions under multiple layers of anonymity”

Where other counts in the indictment focus on money transfers linked to theft and ransomware, the first two — operation of an unlicensed money transmitter and conspiracy to commit money-laundering — focus on the technological capabilities of BTC-e itself, claiming that the exchange had a “criminal design.” “BTC-e’s system was designed so that criminals could accomplish financial transactions with anonymity and thereby avoid apprehension by law enforcement or seizure of funds,” the indictment says, pointing out that BTC-e only required “a username, password, and an email address,” unlike “legitimate payment processors or digital currency exchangers.” The indictment also points to suspicious usernames like “ISIS,” “CocaineCowboys,” “blackhathackers,” “dzkillerhacker,” and “hacker4hire” as additional support for the money-laundering allegations.

The language in the indictment about BTC-e’s “criminal design” mimics the indictment against Liberty Reserve — an anonymous currency service taken down by law enforcement in 2013 — which also accused the online exchange of having a “criminal design” and a system “designed so that criminals could effect financial transactions under multiple layers of anonymity.” (The Liberty Reserve indictment also took the time to point out that account names on the site included “Russia Hackers” and “Hacker Accounts.”) BTC-e’s website claimed that they required customers to provide proof of identity — namely, a scanned ID card and a scanned utility bill or bank statement — and forbid any US customers, letting them off the hook for FinCEN registration. But neither turned out to be true, according to the indictment.“Exchanges will go one of two ways. Either they’ll clean up their act… or they’ll go fully underground.”

Now that BTC-e is down for good, it could have a profound impact on the criminal ecosystem more broadly. BTC-e handled about 5 percent of total Bitcoin transactions, but recent research found that as much as 95 percent of ransomware cashouts happened through the platform. With most comparably sized exchanges already registered under FinCEN, the takedown could make it both harder and riskier for criminals to cash out — something law enforcement seems to be counting on. In the same Lawfare piece, Weaver says he thinks taking down BTC-e “will probably prove more important than the AlphaBay and Hansa takedowns” in fighting online crime. For Bitcoiners less invested in law enforcement’s war on dark web marketplaces, the lesson is a more ambiguous one. Cornell professor Emin Gun Sirer says the focus on FinCEN compliance could lead to a lasting split in Bitcoin markets, as exchanges face the choice of whether to comply with US government demands.

“Exchanges will go one of two ways,” Sirer says. “Either they will clean their act, by first shopping for the most lenient jurisdictions and complying with relevant KYC/AML laws, or they'll go ‘fully underground,’ and operate with no rules, behind Tor and other anonymous communication technologies. The most colorful drama ahead will involve exchanges, such as Bitfinex, that operate in the gray zone, where they seem to neither comply with relevant laws nor go fully underground.” For a technology with a surrounding community built on libertarian ideas, that may be a difficult pill to swallow. But as the past week has made clear, those that don’t will be taking a very serious risk.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden