Cryptocurrency markets are volatile enough without making simple, easily avoidable mistakes.
Investing in cryptocurrencies and digital assets is now easier than ever before. Online brokers, centralized exchanges and even decentralized exchanges give investors the flexibility to buy and sell tokens without going through a traditional financial institution and the hefty fees and commissions that come along with them.
Cryptocurrencies were designed to operate in a decentralized manner. This means that while they’re an innovative avenue for global peer-to-peer value transfers, there are no trusted authorities involved that can guarantee the security of your assets. Your losses are your responsibility once you take your digital assets into custody.
Here we’ll explore some of the more common mistakes that cryptocurrency investors and traders make and how you can protect yourself from unnecessary losses.
Losing your keys
Cryptocurrencies are built on blockchain technology, a form of distributed ledger technology that offers high levels of security for digital assets without the need for a centralized custodian. However, this puts the onus of protection on asset holders, and storing the cryptographic keys to your digital asset wallet safely is an integral part of this.
On the blockchain, digital transactions are created and signed using private keys, which act as a unique identifier to prevent unauthorized access to your cryptocurrency wallet. Unlike a password or a PIN, you cannot reset or recover your keys if you lose them. This makes it extremely important to keep your keys safe and secure, as losing them would mean losing access to all digital assets stored in that wallet.
Lost keys are among the most common mistakes that crypto investors make. According to a report from Chainalysis, of the 18.5 million Bitcoin (BTC) mined so far, over 20% has been lost to forgotten or misplaced keys.
Storing coins in online wallets
Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges are probably the easiest way for investors to get their hands on some cryptocurrencies. However, these exchanges do not give you access to the wallets holding the tokens, instead offering you a service similar to banks. While the user technically owns the coins stored on the platform, they are still held by the exchange, leaving them vulnerable to attacks on the platform and putting them at risk.
There have been many documented attacks on high-profile cryptocurrency exchanges that have led to millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency stolen from these platforms. The most secure option to protect your assets against such risk is to store your cryptocurrencies offline, withdrawing assets to either a software or hardware wallet after purchase.
Not keeping a hard copy of your seed phrase
To generate a private key for your crypto wallet, you will be prompted to write down a seed phrase consisting of up to 24 randomly generated words in a specific order. If you ever lose access to your wallet, this seed phrase can be used to generate your private keys and access your cryptocurrencies.
Keeping a hard copy record, such as a printed document or a piece of paper with the seed phrase written on it, can help prevent needless losses from damaged hardware wallets, faulty digital storage systems, and more. Just like losing your private keys, traders have lost many a coin to crashed computers and corrupted hard drives.
Fat-finger error
A fat-finger error is when an investor accidentally enters a trade order that isn’t what they intended. One misplaced zero can lead to significant losses, and mistyping even a single decimal place can have considerable ramifications.
One instance of this fat-finger error was when the DeversiFi platform erroneously paid out a $24-million fee. Another unforgettable tale was when a highly sought-after Bored Ape nonfungible token was accidentally sold for $3,000 instead of $300,000.
Sending to the wrong address
Investors should take extreme care while sending digital assets to another person or wallet, as there is no way to retrieve them if they are sent to the wrong address. This mistake often happens when the sender isn’t paying attention while entering the wallet address. Transactions on the blockchain are irreversible, and unlike a bank, there are no customer support lines to help with the situation.
This kind of error can be fatal to an investment portfolio. Still, in a positive turn of events, Tether, the firm behind the world’s most popular stablecoin, recovered and returned $1 million worth of Tether (USDT) to a group of crypto traders who sent the funds to the wrong decentralized finance platform in 2020. However, this story is a drop in the ocean of examples where things don’t work out so well. Hodlers should be careful while dealing with digital asset transactions and take time to enter the details. Once you make a mistake, there’s no going back.
Over diversification
Diversification is crucial to building a resilient cryptocurrency portfolio, especially with the high volatility levels in the space. However, with the sheer number of options out there and the predominant thirst for outsized gains, cryptocurrency investors often end up over-diversifying their portfolios, which can have immense consequences.
Over-diversification can lead to an investor holding a large number of heavily underperforming assets, leading to significant losses. It’s vital to only diversify into cryptocurrencies where the fundamental value is clear and to have a strong understanding of the different types of assets and how they will likely perform in various market conditions.
Not setting up a stop-loss arrangement
A stop-loss is an order type that enables investors to sell a security only when the market reaches a specific price. Investors use this to prevent losing more money than they are willing to, ensuring they at least make back their initial investment.
In several cases, investors have experienced huge losses because of incorrectly setting up their stop losses before asset prices dropped. However, it’s also important to remember that stop-loss orders aren’t perfect and can sometimes fail to trigger a sale in the event of a large, sudden crash.
That being said, the importance of setting up stop losses to protect investments cannot be understated and can significantly help mitigate losses during a market downturn.
Crypto investing and trading is a risky business with no guarantees of success. Like any other form of trading, patience, caution and understanding can go a long way. Blockchain places the responsibility on the investor, so it’s crucial to take the time to figure out the various aspects of the market and learn from past mistakes before putting your money at risk.
How & Why You should Prepare Here are just a few examples of what that sort of total control may look like: Government in total control The government could not only withhold money … Continue reading CBDC’s Tyranny Is Coming→
Here is a list of 100 of the best based things: Trust is not based, and relying on trust is unbased. It is foolish to ever trust someone, because the only way to … Continue reading 100 Based things→
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take us back to the CypherPunk Movement starting in the 1970’s. Cryptography … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement→
The first ever bitcoin transaction from one person to another, on 2009-01-12 at 04:30 used Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK), when Satoshi Nakamoto sent coins to Hal Finney in Block 170. P2PK is no longer used … Continue reading Block 170 – First ever bitcoin transaction→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
Cryptocurrency markets are volatile enough without making simple, easily avoidable mistakes.
Investing in cryptocurrencies and digital assets is now easier than ever before. Online brokers, centralized exchanges and even decentralized exchanges give investors the flexibility to buy and sell tokens without going through a traditional financial institution and the hefty fees and commissions that come along with them.
Cryptocurrencies were designed to operate in a decentralized manner. This means that while they’re an innovative avenue for global peer-to-peer value transfers, there are no trusted authorities involved that can guarantee the security of your assets. Your losses are your responsibility once you take your digital assets into custody.
Here we’ll explore some of the more common mistakes that cryptocurrency investors and traders make and how you can protect yourself from unnecessary losses.
Losing your keys
Cryptocurrencies are built on blockchain technology, a form of distributed ledger technology that offers high levels of security for digital assets without the need for a centralized custodian. However, this puts the onus of protection on asset holders, and storing the cryptographic keys to your digital asset wallet safely is an integral part of this.
On the blockchain, digital transactions are created and signed using private keys, which act as a unique identifier to prevent unauthorized access to your cryptocurrency wallet. Unlike a password or a PIN, you cannot reset or recover your keys if you lose them. This makes it extremely important to keep your keys safe and secure, as losing them would mean losing access to all digital assets stored in that wallet.
Lost keys are among the most common mistakes that crypto investors make. According to a report from Chainalysis, of the 18.5 million Bitcoin (BTC) mined so far, over 20% has been lost to forgotten or misplaced keys.
Storing coins in online wallets
Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges are probably the easiest way for investors to get their hands on some cryptocurrencies. However, these exchanges do not give you access to the wallets holding the tokens, instead offering you a service similar to banks. While the user technically owns the coins stored on the platform, they are still held by the exchange, leaving them vulnerable to attacks on the platform and putting them at risk.
There have been many documented attacks on high-profile cryptocurrency exchanges that have led to millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency stolen from these platforms. The most secure option to protect your assets against such risk is to store your cryptocurrencies offline, withdrawing assets to either a software or hardware wallet after purchase.
Not keeping a hard copy of your seed phrase
To generate a private key for your crypto wallet, you will be prompted to write down a seed phrase consisting of up to 24 randomly generated words in a specific order. If you ever lose access to your wallet, this seed phrase can be used to generate your private keys and access your cryptocurrencies.
Keeping a hard copy record, such as a printed document or a piece of paper with the seed phrase written on it, can help prevent needless losses from damaged hardware wallets, faulty digital storage systems, and more. Just like losing your private keys, traders have lost many a coin to crashed computers and corrupted hard drives.
Fat-finger error
A fat-finger error is when an investor accidentally enters a trade order that isn’t what they intended. One misplaced zero can lead to significant losses, and mistyping even a single decimal place can have considerable ramifications.
One instance of this fat-finger error was when the DeversiFi platform erroneously paid out a $24-million fee. Another unforgettable tale was when a highly sought-after Bored Ape nonfungible token was accidentally sold for $3,000 instead of $300,000.
Sending to the wrong address
Investors should take extreme care while sending digital assets to another person or wallet, as there is no way to retrieve them if they are sent to the wrong address. This mistake often happens when the sender isn’t paying attention while entering the wallet address. Transactions on the blockchain are irreversible, and unlike a bank, there are no customer support lines to help with the situation.
This kind of error can be fatal to an investment portfolio. Still, in a positive turn of events, Tether, the firm behind the world’s most popular stablecoin, recovered and returned $1 million worth of Tether (USDT) to a group of crypto traders who sent the funds to the wrong decentralized finance platform in 2020. However, this story is a drop in the ocean of examples where things don’t work out so well. Hodlers should be careful while dealing with digital asset transactions and take time to enter the details. Once you make a mistake, there’s no going back.
Over diversification
Diversification is crucial to building a resilient cryptocurrency portfolio, especially with the high volatility levels in the space. However, with the sheer number of options out there and the predominant thirst for outsized gains, cryptocurrency investors often end up over-diversifying their portfolios, which can have immense consequences.
Over-diversification can lead to an investor holding a large number of heavily underperforming assets, leading to significant losses. It’s vital to only diversify into cryptocurrencies where the fundamental value is clear and to have a strong understanding of the different types of assets and how they will likely perform in various market conditions.
Not setting up a stop-loss arrangement
A stop-loss is an order type that enables investors to sell a security only when the market reaches a specific price. Investors use this to prevent losing more money than they are willing to, ensuring they at least make back their initial investment.
In several cases, investors have experienced huge losses because of incorrectly setting up their stop losses before asset prices dropped. However, it’s also important to remember that stop-loss orders aren’t perfect and can sometimes fail to trigger a sale in the event of a large, sudden crash.
That being said, the importance of setting up stop losses to protect investments cannot be understated and can significantly help mitigate losses during a market downturn.
Crypto investing and trading is a risky business with no guarantees of success. Like any other form of trading, patience, caution and understanding can go a long way. Blockchain places the responsibility on the investor, so it’s crucial to take the time to figure out the various aspects of the market and learn from past mistakes before putting your money at risk.
How & Why You should Prepare Here are just a few examples of what that sort of total control may look like: Government in total control The government could not only withhold money … Continue reading CBDC’s Tyranny Is Coming→
Here is a list of 100 of the best based things: Trust is not based, and relying on trust is unbased. It is foolish to ever trust someone, because the only way to … Continue reading 100 Based things→
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take us back to the CypherPunk Movement starting in the 1970’s. Cryptography … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement→
The first ever bitcoin transaction from one person to another, on 2009-01-12 at 04:30 used Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK), when Satoshi Nakamoto sent coins to Hal Finney in Block 170. P2PK is no longer used … Continue reading Block 170 – First ever bitcoin transaction→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
Cryptocurrency markets are volatile enough without making simple, easily avoidable mistakes.
Investing in cryptocurrencies and digital assets is now easier than ever before. Online brokers, centralized exchanges and even decentralized exchanges give investors the flexibility to buy and sell tokens without going through a traditional financial institution and the hefty fees and commissions that come along with them.
Cryptocurrencies were designed to operate in a decentralized manner. This means that while they’re an innovative avenue for global peer-to-peer value transfers, there are no trusted authorities involved that can guarantee the security of your assets. Your losses are your responsibility once you take your digital assets into custody.
Here we’ll explore some of the more common mistakes that cryptocurrency investors and traders make and how you can protect yourself from unnecessary losses.
Losing your keys
Cryptocurrencies are built on blockchain technology, a form of distributed ledger technology that offers high levels of security for digital assets without the need for a centralized custodian. However, this puts the onus of protection on asset holders, and storing the cryptographic keys to your digital asset wallet safely is an integral part of this.
On the blockchain, digital transactions are created and signed using private keys, which act as a unique identifier to prevent unauthorized access to your cryptocurrency wallet. Unlike a password or a PIN, you cannot reset or recover your keys if you lose them. This makes it extremely important to keep your keys safe and secure, as losing them would mean losing access to all digital assets stored in that wallet.
Lost keys are among the most common mistakes that crypto investors make. According to a report from Chainalysis, of the 18.5 million Bitcoin (BTC) mined so far, over 20% has been lost to forgotten or misplaced keys.
Storing coins in online wallets
Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges are probably the easiest way for investors to get their hands on some cryptocurrencies. However, these exchanges do not give you access to the wallets holding the tokens, instead offering you a service similar to banks. While the user technically owns the coins stored on the platform, they are still held by the exchange, leaving them vulnerable to attacks on the platform and putting them at risk.
There have been many documented attacks on high-profile cryptocurrency exchanges that have led to millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency stolen from these platforms. The most secure option to protect your assets against such risk is to store your cryptocurrencies offline, withdrawing assets to either a software or hardware wallet after purchase.
Not keeping a hard copy of your seed phrase
To generate a private key for your crypto wallet, you will be prompted to write down a seed phrase consisting of up to 24 randomly generated words in a specific order. If you ever lose access to your wallet, this seed phrase can be used to generate your private keys and access your cryptocurrencies.
Keeping a hard copy record, such as a printed document or a piece of paper with the seed phrase written on it, can help prevent needless losses from damaged hardware wallets, faulty digital storage systems, and more. Just like losing your private keys, traders have lost many a coin to crashed computers and corrupted hard drives.
Fat-finger error
A fat-finger error is when an investor accidentally enters a trade order that isn’t what they intended. One misplaced zero can lead to significant losses, and mistyping even a single decimal place can have considerable ramifications.
One instance of this fat-finger error was when the DeversiFi platform erroneously paid out a $24-million fee. Another unforgettable tale was when a highly sought-after Bored Ape nonfungible token was accidentally sold for $3,000 instead of $300,000.
Sending to the wrong address
Investors should take extreme care while sending digital assets to another person or wallet, as there is no way to retrieve them if they are sent to the wrong address. This mistake often happens when the sender isn’t paying attention while entering the wallet address. Transactions on the blockchain are irreversible, and unlike a bank, there are no customer support lines to help with the situation.
This kind of error can be fatal to an investment portfolio. Still, in a positive turn of events, Tether, the firm behind the world’s most popular stablecoin, recovered and returned $1 million worth of Tether (USDT) to a group of crypto traders who sent the funds to the wrong decentralized finance platform in 2020. However, this story is a drop in the ocean of examples where things don’t work out so well. Hodlers should be careful while dealing with digital asset transactions and take time to enter the details. Once you make a mistake, there’s no going back.
Over diversification
Diversification is crucial to building a resilient cryptocurrency portfolio, especially with the high volatility levels in the space. However, with the sheer number of options out there and the predominant thirst for outsized gains, cryptocurrency investors often end up over-diversifying their portfolios, which can have immense consequences.
Over-diversification can lead to an investor holding a large number of heavily underperforming assets, leading to significant losses. It’s vital to only diversify into cryptocurrencies where the fundamental value is clear and to have a strong understanding of the different types of assets and how they will likely perform in various market conditions.
Not setting up a stop-loss arrangement
A stop-loss is an order type that enables investors to sell a security only when the market reaches a specific price. Investors use this to prevent losing more money than they are willing to, ensuring they at least make back their initial investment.
In several cases, investors have experienced huge losses because of incorrectly setting up their stop losses before asset prices dropped. However, it’s also important to remember that stop-loss orders aren’t perfect and can sometimes fail to trigger a sale in the event of a large, sudden crash.
That being said, the importance of setting up stop losses to protect investments cannot be understated and can significantly help mitigate losses during a market downturn.
Crypto investing and trading is a risky business with no guarantees of success. Like any other form of trading, patience, caution and understanding can go a long way. Blockchain places the responsibility on the investor, so it’s crucial to take the time to figure out the various aspects of the market and learn from past mistakes before putting your money at risk.
Cryptocurrency markets are volatile enough without making simple, easily avoidable mistakes.
Investing in cryptocurrencies and digital assets is now easier than ever before. Online brokers, centralized exchanges and even decentralized exchanges give investors the flexibility to buy and sell tokens without going through a traditional financial institution and the hefty fees and commissions that come along with them.
Cryptocurrencies were designed to operate in a decentralized manner. This means that while they’re an innovative avenue for global peer-to-peer value transfers, there are no trusted authorities involved that can guarantee the security of your assets. Your losses are your responsibility once you take your digital assets into custody.
Here we’ll explore some of the more common mistakes that cryptocurrency investors and traders make and how you can protect yourself from unnecessary losses.
Losing your keys
Cryptocurrencies are built on blockchain technology, a form of distributed ledger technology that offers high levels of security for digital assets without the need for a centralized custodian. However, this puts the onus of protection on asset holders, and storing the cryptographic keys to your digital asset wallet safely is an integral part of this.
On the blockchain, digital transactions are created and signed using private keys, which act as a unique identifier to prevent unauthorized access to your cryptocurrency wallet. Unlike a password or a PIN, you cannot reset or recover your keys if you lose them. This makes it extremely important to keep your keys safe and secure, as losing them would mean losing access to all digital assets stored in that wallet.
Lost keys are among the most common mistakes that crypto investors make. According to a report from Chainalysis, of the 18.5 million Bitcoin (BTC) mined so far, over 20% has been lost to forgotten or misplaced keys.
Storing coins in online wallets
Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges are probably the easiest way for investors to get their hands on some cryptocurrencies. However, these exchanges do not give you access to the wallets holding the tokens, instead offering you a service similar to banks. While the user technically owns the coins stored on the platform, they are still held by the exchange, leaving them vulnerable to attacks on the platform and putting them at risk.
There have been many documented attacks on high-profile cryptocurrency exchanges that have led to millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency stolen from these platforms. The most secure option to protect your assets against such risk is to store your cryptocurrencies offline, withdrawing assets to either a software or hardware wallet after purchase.
Not keeping a hard copy of your seed phrase
To generate a private key for your crypto wallet, you will be prompted to write down a seed phrase consisting of up to 24 randomly generated words in a specific order. If you ever lose access to your wallet, this seed phrase can be used to generate your private keys and access your cryptocurrencies.
Keeping a hard copy record, such as a printed document or a piece of paper with the seed phrase written on it, can help prevent needless losses from damaged hardware wallets, faulty digital storage systems, and more. Just like losing your private keys, traders have lost many a coin to crashed computers and corrupted hard drives.
Fat-finger error
A fat-finger error is when an investor accidentally enters a trade order that isn’t what they intended. One misplaced zero can lead to significant losses, and mistyping even a single decimal place can have considerable ramifications.
One instance of this fat-finger error was when the DeversiFi platform erroneously paid out a $24-million fee. Another unforgettable tale was when a highly sought-after Bored Ape nonfungible token was accidentally sold for $3,000 instead of $300,000.
Sending to the wrong address
Investors should take extreme care while sending digital assets to another person or wallet, as there is no way to retrieve them if they are sent to the wrong address. This mistake often happens when the sender isn’t paying attention while entering the wallet address. Transactions on the blockchain are irreversible, and unlike a bank, there are no customer support lines to help with the situation.
This kind of error can be fatal to an investment portfolio. Still, in a positive turn of events, Tether, the firm behind the world’s most popular stablecoin, recovered and returned $1 million worth of Tether (USDT) to a group of crypto traders who sent the funds to the wrong decentralized finance platform in 2020. However, this story is a drop in the ocean of examples where things don’t work out so well. Hodlers should be careful while dealing with digital asset transactions and take time to enter the details. Once you make a mistake, there’s no going back.
Over diversification
Diversification is crucial to building a resilient cryptocurrency portfolio, especially with the high volatility levels in the space. However, with the sheer number of options out there and the predominant thirst for outsized gains, cryptocurrency investors often end up over-diversifying their portfolios, which can have immense consequences.
Over-diversification can lead to an investor holding a large number of heavily underperforming assets, leading to significant losses. It’s vital to only diversify into cryptocurrencies where the fundamental value is clear and to have a strong understanding of the different types of assets and how they will likely perform in various market conditions.
Not setting up a stop-loss arrangement
A stop-loss is an order type that enables investors to sell a security only when the market reaches a specific price. Investors use this to prevent losing more money than they are willing to, ensuring they at least make back their initial investment.
In several cases, investors have experienced huge losses because of incorrectly setting up their stop losses before asset prices dropped. However, it’s also important to remember that stop-loss orders aren’t perfect and can sometimes fail to trigger a sale in the event of a large, sudden crash.
That being said, the importance of setting up stop losses to protect investments cannot be understated and can significantly help mitigate losses during a market downturn.
Crypto investing and trading is a risky business with no guarantees of success. Like any other form of trading, patience, caution and understanding can go a long way. Blockchain places the responsibility on the investor, so it’s crucial to take the time to figure out the various aspects of the market and learn from past mistakes before putting your money at risk.
Cryptoassets being held, generally as longer-term plays; sometimes used self-deprecatingly for soft or losing positions one should close, but can’t for whatever reason. “Too bad none of my alt bags saw the moon that I did today. #cryptoeclipse”
Bitcoin Maximalists
The truest believers in bitcoin’s original mission and design, often paired with a disdain for altcoins.
Block
Blocks are found in the Bitcoin block chain. Blocks connect all transactions together.
Transactions are combined into single blocks and are verified every ten minutes through mining.
Each subsequent block strengthens the verification of the previous blocks, making it impossible to double spend bitcoin transactions (see double spend below).
BIP
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal or BIP, is a technical design document providing information to the bitcoin community, or describing a new feature for bitcoin or its processes or environment which affect the Bitcoin protocol.
New features, suggestions, and design changes to the protocol should be submitted as a BIP.
The BIP author is responsible for building consensus within the community and documenting dissenting opinions.
Black Swans
A black swan is an event or occurrence that deviates beyond what is normally expected of a situation and is extremely difficult to predict.
Black swan events are typically random and unexpected.
The term was popularized by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a finance professor, writer, and former Wall Street trader.
Block Chain
The Bitcoin block chain is a public record of all Bitcoin transactions. You might also hear the term used as a “public ledger”.
The block chain shows every single record of bitcoin transactions in order, dating back to the very first one.
The entire block chain can be downloaded and openly reviewed by anyone, or you can use a block explorer to review the block chain online.
Block Height
The block height is just the number of blocks connected together in the block chain. Height 0 for example refers to the very first block, called the “genesis block”.
Block Reward
When a block is successfully mined on the bitcoin network, there is a block reward that helps incentivize miners to secure the network.
The block reward is part of a “coinbase” transaction which may also include transaction fees.
The block rewards halves roughly every four years; see also “halving”.
BTFD | #BTFD
“Buy the Fucking Dip” Advice to other traders to pick up a coin that’s presumably hit its bottom.
“$GNT Golem making moves. Underpriced @ 7.5K If U are buying GNT under 10K still a good price 3 X LETS GO $ETH #CRYPTO #trading #BTFD”
Change
Let’s say you are spending $9.90 in your local supermarket, and you give the cashier $10.00. You will get back .10 cents in change.
The same logic applies to bitcoin transactions.
Bitcoin transactions are made up of inputs and outputs.
When you send bitcoins, you can only send them in a whole “output”.
The change is then sent back to the sender.
Cold Storage
The term cold storage is a general term for different ways of securing cryptocurrency offline (disconnected from the internet).
This would be the opposite of a hot wallet or hosted wallet, which is connected to the web for day-to-day transactions.
The purpose of using cold storage is to minimize the chances of your bitcoins being stolen from a malicious hacker and is commonly used for larger sums of bitcoins.
Cold Wallet and Hot Wallet
Cold storage is an offline wallet provided for storing cryptocurrency.
With cold storage, the digital wallet is stored on a platform that is not connected to the internet, thereby, protecting the wallet from unauthorized access, cyber hacks, and other vulnerabilities that a system connected to the internet is susceptible to.
Confirmation
A confirmation means that the bitcoin transaction has been verified by the network, through the process known as mining.
Once a transaction is confirmed, it cannot be reversed or double spent.
Transactions are included in blocks.
Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency is the broad name for digital currencies that use blockchain technology to work on a peer-to-peer basis.
Cryptocurrencies don’t need a bank to carry out transactions between individuals.
The nature of the blockchain means that individuals can transact with each other, even if they don’t trust each other.
The cryptocurrency network keeps track of all the transactions and ensures that no one tries to renege on a transaction.
Cryptocurrency 2.0
Also known as a decentralized app,(Dapp) a cryptocurrency 2.0 project uses the blockchain for something other than simply creating and sending money.
They typically involve decentralized versions of online services that were previously operated by a trusted third party.
Cryptography
Cryptography is used in multiple places to provide security for the Bitcoin network.
Cryptography, which is essentially mathematical and computer science algorithms used to encrypt and decrypt information, is used in bitcoin addresses, hash functions, and the block chain.
Cypherpunk
1. A person with an interest in encryption and privacy, especially one who uses encrypted email.
2. Cypherpunk, a term that appeared in Eric Hughes’ “A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto” in 1993, combines the ideas of cyberpunk, the spirit of individualism in cyberspace, with the use of strong encryption ( ciphertext is encrypted text) to preserve privacy.
Cypherpunk advocates believe that the use of strong encryption algorithms will enable individuals to have safely private transactions.
They oppose any kind of government regulation of cryptography.
They admit the likelihood that criminals and terrorists will exploit the use of strong encryption systems, but accept the risk as the price to be paid for the individual’s right to privacy.
Dark Web
The part of the World Wide Web that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable.
The Dark Web poses new and formidable challenges for law enforcement agencies around the world.
Decentralized
Having a decentralized bitcoin network is a critical aspect.
The network is “decentralized”, meaning that it’s void of a centralized company or entity that governs the network.
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer protocol, where all users within the network work and communicate directly with each other, instead of having their funds handled by a middleman, such as a bank or credit card company.
Difficulty
Difficulty is directly related to Bitcoin mining (see mining below), and how hard it is to verify blocks in the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin adjusts the mining difficulty of verifying blocks every 2016 blocks.
Difficulty is automatically adjusted to keep block verification times at ten minutes.
Dogecoin
Dogecoin is an altcoin that first started as a joke in late 2013. Dogecoin, which features a Japanese fighting dog as its mascot, gained a broad international following and quickly grew to have a multi-million dollar market capitalization.
Double Spend
If someone tries to send a bitcoin transaction to two different recipients at the same time, this is double spending. Once a bitcoin transaction is confirmed, it makes it nearly impossible to double spend it. The more confirmations that a transaction has, the harder it is to double spend the bitcoins.
DYOR | #DYOR
“Do Your Own Research.” The trader’s caveat that advice shouldn’t be taken at face value.
“$BCY has an appealing risk/reward here. Could take a few months to play out, however, and will require patience. #DYOR”
Exit Scam
Traditionally a term for darknet markets and vendors that, after building up a good reputation, accumulate bitcoins and disappear; exit scams are also feared by ICO participants who worry that, once they’ve raised hundreds of millions in hard-to-trace money, the developers will take the money and run.
Fiat
Government-issued money.
Full Node
A full node is when you download the entire block chain using a bitcoin client, and you relay, validate, and secure the data within the block chain.
The data is bitcoin transactions and blocks, which is validated across the entire network of users.
FOMO | #FOMO
“Fear of Missing Out.” When a coin starts to moon, dumb money rushes in. “$LGD on a TEAR right now!!! It has major highs right now! Some major #FOMO going on!!! Sell while it’s high. It WILL drop before fight!!!”
FUD
“Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.”
Another non-crypto term that describes attempts to scare weak-handed coin-holders into selling their positions, often with rumors of exit scams or hacks; the cheap, dumped coins are then picked up by the FUD-ers.
Fungibility
Fungibility is a good or asset’s interchangeability with other individual goods or assets of the same type.
Assets possessing this fungibility property simplify the exchange and trade processes, as interchangeability assumes everyone values all goods of that class the same.
HODL
HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE!
The intentionally misspelled word hodl has its roots in a December 2013 post on the Bitcoin Talk forum, “I AM HODLING”; when the author, GameKyuubi, couldn’t be bothered to fix his typo, the community instantly turned it into a verb: to hodl.
Along with other terms, hodl is an effective litmus test for sussing out newcomers, carpetbaggers, and tourists.
Halving
Bitcoins have a finite supply, which makes them scarce.
The total amount that will ever be issued is 21 million.
The number of bitcoins generated per block is decreased 50% every 210,000 blocks,roughtly four years.
This is called “halving.”
The final halving will take place in the year 2140.
Hash
A cryptographic hash is a mathematical function that takes a file and produces a relative shortcode that can be used to identify that file.
A hash has a couple of key properties:
• It is unique.
Only a particular file can produce a particular hash, and two different files will never produce the same hash.
• It cannot be reversed.
You can’t work out what a file was by looking at its hash.
Hashing is used to prove that a set of data has not been tampered with.
It is what makes bitcoin mining possible.
Hash Rate
The hash rate is how the Bitcoin mining network processing power is measured.
In order for miners to confirm transactions and secure the block chain, the hardware they use must perform intensive computational operations which is output in hashes per second.
Then, try changing just a letter in the input text to see how the resulting hash varies significantly
Hard Fork
A hard fork is when a single cryptocurrency splits in two.
It occurs when a cryptocurrency’s existing code is changed, resulting in both an old and new version.
Meanwhile a soft fork is essentially the same thing, but the idea is that only one blockchain (and thus one coin) will remain valid as users adopt the update.
So both fork types create a split, but a hard fork is meant to create two blockchain/coins and a soft fork is meant to result in one.
Segwit was a soft fork, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, and Segwit2x are all hard forks.
Immutability
In object-oriented and functional programming, an immutable object (unchangeable object) is an object whose state cannot be modified after it is created.
This is in contrast to a mutable object (changeable object), which can be modified after it is created.
Lambo | #Lambo
A running joke among traders, you’re cryptorich when you can buy a Lamborghini; though absurd, it’s not unheard of — when Alexandre Cazes, the suspected founder of a major darknet marketplace, was found hanged in his Bangkok jail cell, Thai media reported that he owned four Lamborghinis.
Mining
Bitcoin mining is the process of using computer hardware to do mathematical calculations for the Bitcoin network in order to confirm transactions.
Miners collect transaction fees for the transactions they confirm and are awarded bitcoins for each block they verify.
Moon | #Moon
A rapid price increase.
Peer-to-Peer
Typically, online applications are provided by a central party that organizes all the transactions.
Your bank runs its own computers, and all the customers log into the bank’s computer to handle their transactions.
If Bob wants to send money to Alice, he asks the bank to do it, and the bank controls everything.
In a peer-to-peer arrangement, technology cuts out the middleman, meaning that people deal directly with each other.
Bob would send the money directly to Alice, and there wouldn’t be any bank involved at all.
Pool
As part of bitcoin mining, mining “pools” are a network of miners that work together to mine a block, then split the block reward among the pool miners.
Mining pools are a good way for miners to combine their resources to increase the probability of mining a block, and also contribute to the overall health and decentralization of the bitcoin network.
Private Key
A private key is a string of data that shows you have access to bitcoins in a specific wallet.
Think of a private key like a password; private keys must never be revealed to anyone but you, as they allow you to spend the bitcoins from your bitcoin wallet through a cryptographic signature.
Proof of Work
Proof of work refers to the hash of a block header (blocks of bitcoin transactions).
A block is considered valid only if its hash is lower than the current target.
Each block refers to a previous block adding to previous proofs of work, which forms a chain of blocks, known as a block chain.
Once a chain is formed, it confirms all previous Bitcoin transactions and secures the network.
Pump
A rapid price increase believed to be the result of market manipulation, a.k.a. pump and dump.
Public Address
A public bitcoin address is cryptographic hash of a public key.
A public address typically starts with the number “1.”
Think of a public address like an email address.
It can be published anywhere and bitcoins can be sent to it, just like an email can be sent to an email address.
Private Key
A private key is a string of data that shows you have access to bitcoins in a specific wallet.
Think of a private key like a password; private keys must never be revealed to anyone but you, as they allow you to spend the bitcoins from your bitcoin wallet through a cryptographic signature.
Rekt | #Rekt
Meaning “wrecked”.
“I never sell because of #FUD, and I never buy because of #FOMO.
That’s the easiest way to get #Rekt”
Sats
Satoshis, currently the smallest unit of a single bitcoin, useful for tracking coin prices. “At the rate $XRP’s moving, I wouldn’t be surprised if it hits 10K sats by the end of the day.”
Security Tokens
A security token (sometimes called an authentication token) is a small hardware device that the owner carries to authorize access to a network service.
The device may be in the form of a smart card or may be embedded in a commonly used object such as a key fob.
Shitcoins
Pejorative term for altcoins, especially low-cap coins, often affectionately used by shitcoin hodlers.
SEGWIT
SegWit is the process by which the block size limit on a blockchain is increased by removing signature data from Bitcoin transactions.
When certain parts of a transaction are removed, this frees up space or capacity to add more transactions to the chain.
Transaction
A transaction is when data is sent to and from one bitcoin address to another.
Just like financial transactions where you send money from one person to another, in bitcoin you do the same thing by sending data (bitcoins) to each other.
Bitcoins have value because it’s based on the properties of mathematics, rather than relying on physical properties (like gold and silver) or trust in central authorities, like fiat currencies.
Wallet
Just like with paper dollars you hold in your physical wallet, a bitcoin wallet is a digital wallet where you can store, send, and receive bitcoins securely.
There are many varieties of wallets available, whether you’re looking for a web or mobile solution.
Ideally, a bitcoin wallet will give you access to your public and private keys.
This means that only you have rightful access to spend these bitcoins, whenever you choose to.
Whale
Anyone who owns 5 percent of any given coin, often used as a boogeyman to explain unwanted price movements.
“Nice support $NEO. Clear whale manipulation.”
Blue Pill vs. Red PillChoose wiselyWhen You’re ready …
How & Why You should Prepare Here are just a few examples of what that sort of total control may look like: Government in total control The government could not only withhold money … Continue reading CBDC’s Tyranny Is Coming→
Here is a list of 100 of the best based things: Trust is not based, and relying on trust is unbased. It is foolish to ever trust someone, because the only way to … Continue reading 100 Based things→
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take us back to the CypherPunk Movement starting in the 1970’s. Cryptography … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement→
The first ever bitcoin transaction from one person to another, on 2009-01-12 at 04:30 used Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK), when Satoshi Nakamoto sent coins to Hal Finney in Block 170. P2PK is no longer used … Continue reading Block 170 – First ever bitcoin transaction→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
Bitcoin is not Abracadabra… but Bitcoin can be Avada Kedavra for the current Banking system!
Bitcoin is not Magic… but it can be for Muggles!
Bitcoin is not an “Investment” … but educating yourself about bitcoin can be!
Bitcoin is not an “Investment”… but knowing the basics and being educated about it, lowers the chances of loosing your hard earned money!
Bitcoin is not an “Investment”… but staking Sats proved to be a preety good Strategy in the Long Term!
Bitcoin is not digital money… but it’s ons of it’s first applications!
Bitcoin is not money… but is Money for the Internet!
Bitcoin is not PRICE !!!
Bitcoin is not PRICE… but the market is driven mostly by FUD & FOMO people
Fear Uncertainty Doubt
bring the market Down
Fear Of Missing Out
bring the market Up
Bitcoin is not a “Get Rich Quick Scheme” and the one’s that got rich were the one’s that were there from the begining…
Bitcoin is not voodoo people, magic people… but a bunch of smart geeks & nerds that support the bitcoin’s philosophy and what it stands for…
Bitcoin is not under no juridstiction… but it is a global p2p network of like-minded people that with the power of their equipment sustain, mantain and make the bitcoin network stronger and more decentralized!
Bitcoin is not a Coin… but an entry in a digital ledger!
Bitcoin is not illegal activity money… but bitcoin can be used in such activity… Reports show that FIAT is still the No. #1 choice for “Evil Doers” as it doens’t have an public, open and visible ledger … Duh…
Bitcoin is not evil… but bitcoin can be used to do evil! As does a Pen! It can be used to do evil! How, you would ask? If I take this ✏ and stick it up your a… who is Evil ?!? The One who invented the pen? The Pen? Me? Your a.. cause it was in the way 🤣 Perspective is a matter of opinion…
Bitcoin is not News… but instead read pools, github, exchanges, wallets… They are the ones that pave the way where bitcoin could, should or would go!
Bitcoin is not DEAD… It was already declared Dead 441 times!
1 – Bitcoin consumes too much electricity, they don’t understand POW!
2 – Bitcoin isn’t a government backed currency, you should ask who backs their government… If the answer is the Army…
3 – Bitcoin isn’t backed by gold like the the US$… Neither is the $ since ’71
4 – Bitcoin isn’t real because I can’t see it… 80% of world’s money is Digital…
5 – Bitcoin isn’t a store of value as good as Gold is… Gold had thousands of years to prove that, bitcoin only 13… give it time! It already proved a lot !!!
6 – Bitcoin’s inventor is annonymous and can’t be trusted… Who invented money then? How do money come up into existance?
7 – Bitcoin will never be largely accepted because it isn’t issued by a government… You know what else wasn’t issued by no government ? Cars, Electricity, Steam Engine, Facebook, Uber, Google, Amazon, etc bla bla bla
8 – Bitcoin can’t be a currency cause I can’t buy anything with it… I think I have shared a list with places that you can buy things with bitcoin…Quite a few!!!
9 – Whales… Beware of yapidi yap of whales cause they say one and do the opposite 🙂 😉 !!!
9 – Bitcoin is not this, bitcoin is not that but they all swarm around the bee’s honeypot as if it were honey 🤣🤣🤣
I forgot…In the meantime, little unsignificant countries like El Salvador, mine bitcoin with 🌋 !!!
And still newspapers, investors that bite their whatever not having invested when it was under $1, and a hole portion of the world are all saying…
Etc bla bla bla Yapidi Yapidi Yap
Never Forget The Golden Rules:
Not Your Keys, Not Your Crypto!!!
Don’t Trust, Verify!!!
Don’t Believe, Do your own Resesearch and due diligence!!!
Save your Wallet’s Mnemonic Phrase in at least 3 places for safe-keeping!!!
WE ARE SATOSHI
When you’re ready…Timothy C. MayHal Finney
Poem of the Legacy
From the ashes of the long forgotten past, A bright mind wrote a code that would for ever last… A code so powerful and strong, That would change the world for oh so long…
The code he wrote and set it free, For the humankind legacy to be… To change the lives of future generations to come, He wrote the code and he was gone…
Oh, bright mind your legacy will last, For generations to come and be thankful about the past… Nobody knows who you might be, Some do and say Kudos to You for Ethernity!
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
How can I calculate how many hashes I generate per second?
I have a function which generates hashes from a string:
string GenerateHash(string plainText);
I generate as many hashes as possible with 4 threads.
How do I calculate how many hashes (or megahashes) I generate per second?
Your problem breaks down nicely into 3 separate tasks
Sharing a single count variable across threads
Benchmarking thread completion time
Calculating hashes per/second
Sharing a single count variable across threads
public static class GlobalCounter { public static int Value { get; private set; } public static void Increment() { Value =GetNextValue(Value); } private static int GetNextValue(int curValue) { returnInterlocked.Increment(ref curValue); } public static void Reset() { Value = 0; } }
Before you spin off the threads call GlobalCounter.Reset and then in each thread (after each successful hash) you would call GlobalCounter.Increment – using Interlocked.X performs atomic operations of Value in a thread-safe manner, it’s also much faster than lock.
Parallel.ForEach will block until all threads have finished
Calculating hashes per second
... sw.Stop(); var hashesPerSecond = GlobalCounter.Value / sw.Elapsed.Seconds;
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If so, please consider a donation to help the evolution and development of more helpful articles in the future, and show your support for alternative articles.
How & Why You should Prepare Here are just a few examples of what that sort of total control may look like: Government in total control The government could not only withhold money whenever they deemed … Continue reading CBDC’s Tyranny Is Coming→
Here is a list of 100 of the best based things: Trust is not based, and relying on trust is unbased. It is foolish to ever trust someone, because the only way to truly ensure that … Continue reading 100 Based things→
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take us back to the CypherPunk Movement starting in the 1970’s. Cryptography for the People … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement→
The first ever bitcoin transaction from one person to another, on 2009-01-12 at 04:30 used Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK), when Satoshi Nakamoto sent coins to Hal Finney in Block 170. P2PK is no longer used because it is … Continue reading Block 170 – First ever bitcoin transaction→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The work, which is … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
Finance, like most human inventions, is constantly evolving.
In the beginning it was basic: food was traded for livestock, and livestock for resources like wood, or maize. It progressed to precious metal, such as silver and gold. And now, the next step in financial evolution has come to light.
This new form of currency has been constantly evolving over the past decade, developed by an unknown person and maintained by a collective group of the brightest minds in technology.
It’s a new form of money that is created and held digitally, and the most important part, of course, is that no government owns it, or decides its value – the peer-to-peer network community does.
We call this new money, ‘Bitcoin’.
Historically, U.S. currency has been based on gold – you could give a dollar to the bank and receive a set amount back in gold. In contrast, Bitcoin isn’t based on silver or gold – it’s based on mathematical proofs validated by a public ledger called blockchain technology.
Bitcoin is generated through a complex sequence of mathematical formulas that run on computers; the network shares a public ledger using blockchain technologies that record, and validate, every transaction processed.
A single institution, such as the government, does not control the Bitcoin network.
The idea behind the technology has always been – and remains – one of decentralization – that is, remaining completely independent of a central authority, like a bank, a government, or a country.
Anyone can access the open-source software that makes Bitcoin work, and its those individuals interested that maintain it.
But, who invented Bitcoin? Is it a valid and legitimate currency like USD? And why did nobody think of this before?
But before we begin, let’s talk about the creator of Bitcoin – or rather, the anonymous pseudonym that first published a concept.
How Did Bitcoin Start?
There are many questions about Bitcoin, but the most common one to be asked is, “Who created it?”
That answer is not straightforward, because the identity of the creator remains a mystery. All we have is a pseudonym – Satoshi Nakamoto.
The accounts are no longer active; the coins in his wallet have never been spent.
Satoshi Nakamoto has disappeared from the world, or so it would seem.
Fast Company recently published an article suggesting that Satoshi Nakamoto could be a group of people, including Neal King, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry. Apparently, these three people filed for a patent related to secure communication just two months prior to the purchase of the Bitcoin.org domain. Perhaps it’s a coincidence; perhaps it’s not.
What we do have, however, are facts:
On October 31st, 2008, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” was posted to a cryptography mailing list, published under the name “Satoshi Nakamoto”. The whitepaper outlined the foundation of how Bitcoin would operate.
On August 18, 2008, an unknown person or entity registered the Bitcoin.org domain.
On January 8th, 2009, the first version of Bitcoin is announced, and shortly thereafter, Bitcoin mining begins.
The mystery that surrounds Satoshi Nakamoto is fitting; privacy was a key value for both Bitcoin, and its users.
Others have tried to claim his mantle – most recently an Australian man named Craig Wright, who has since withdrawn his claim.
While we may never know who first created Bitcoin, we do know that the technology he started has left ripples in the financial industry.
Bitcoin has risen to fame thanks to individuals such as the Winklevoss twins controlling and growing the market, and major events that have defined this new technology’s existence such as the Mt. Gox Ponzi scheme disaster.
The people involved and the events that occur are a constant reminder that this market is unregulated and seem to fall in line with Satoshi Nakamoto’s goal of creating a decentralized network.
What is Bitcoin Used For?
Currency must have value to ensure stability.
The most common way for a person to judge a currency’s value is what they can use it on; Bitcoin is no different, and a host of vendors and merchants now accept it alongside, or in place of, fiat money.
One early adopter of Bitcoin was the computer retailer Dell. In fact, when Dell started accepting Bitcoin, it became one of the largest companies to do so internationally.
While the digital currency may total for just a fraction of the retailer’s total transaction volume, there are other key reasons why the growth of Bitcoin could be aboon for the retailer.
Dell reported earnings of $59 billion during 2015. Traditional transaction fees range from 2 to 3 percent of the purchase price – with Bitcoin, it’s much, much lower, nearing non-existent – saving the retailer a lot of money in the future.
Other companies, such as Expedia and Cheapair, have also started accepting Bitcoin, along with technology conglomerate Microsoft : users can add funds to their accounts with Bitcoin to purchase apps, games, and other types of digital content.
The acceptance of Bitcoin is a strategic decision on the part of these companies, most of which are reaching out to solidify their position with tech-savvy audiences.
There’s a lot of benefit to Bitcoin, and a variety of reasons for its use, including :
Faster Payment: Accepting wire transfers and checks is time consuming, and it can take several days for payment to clear. Bitcoin is faster and can take a matter of minutes, rather than days to process payment.
Lower Transaction Fees: The cost to accept Bitcoins is lower compared to other payment methods, such as credit cards or Paypal.
Independent of Governments: Since Bitcoin is decentralized, you own it – no authority has the right to take away your Bitcoin. People with concerns about mainstream banking systems unravelling find this a major benefit.
Elimination of Chargebacks: Once Bitcoin is sent, that’s it – you can’t chargeback, like you would with a credit card payment, which eliminates ‘chargeback fraud’ often used by criminals and scammers.
Protection Against Inflation: With a fiat currency, the government can print as much money as it desires – this drastically decreases the value of currency, and may result in inflation. In contrast, Bitcoin has a fixed number – after they have all been ‘mined’, no more Bitcoins will be created. Scarcity is an important aspect of currency which protects it from inflation.
Ownership of Currency: With Bitcoin, you own your coins. With other forms of digital fiat – such as Paypal – your assets may be held, and your account eventually suspending, locking you out of your earnings. Bitcoin puts you in control.
Is Bitcoin a Commodity, or a Currency?
Bitcoin is both. While it can be used to purchase items from major retailers, it’s also treated as property by government jurisdictions, such as the IRS.
The IRS issued a guide on Bitcoin for tax purposes, stating it will treat virtual currencies as property for federal purposes. They go on to state that:
In some environments, virtual currency operates like “real” currency — i.e., the coin and paper money of the United States or of any other country that is designated as legal tender, circulates, and is customarily used and accepted as a medium of exchange in the country of issuance — but it does not have legal tender status in any jurisdiction.
The notice provides that virtual currency is treated as property for U.S. federal tax purposes.
Typically, property is almost always something tangible that can be held in the physical realm.
The IRS goes on to state that:
General tax principles that apply to property transactions apply to transactions using virtual currency. Among other things, this means that:
Wages paid to employees using virtual currency are taxable to the employee, must be reported by an employer on a Form W-2, and are subject to federal income tax withholding and payroll taxes.
Payments using virtual currency made to independent contractors and other service providers are taxable and self-employment tax rules generally apply. Normally, payers must issue Form 1099.
The character of gain or loss from the sale or exchange of virtual currency depends on whether the virtual currency is a capital asset in the hands of the taxpayer.
A payment made using virtual currency is subject to information reporting to the same extent as any other payment made in property.
Bitcoin has garnered a lot of attention over the past decade, despite constant declarations of its death – 99 Bitcoins keeps a running tab of ‘Bitcoin obituaries’.
Despite all of this, Bitcoin’s future has remained bright. Greater adoption rates, and an increasing number of brands accepting the currency (you can get a full list qui) means the long-term view on Bitcoin is that it will see market maturity as time progresses.
Mainstream investing vehicles, such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Futures trading, including Bitcoin will be a major help to reaching that market maturity. Bitcoin Futures are already trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), and legislation to create a crypto ETF is in the works.
These securities will help stabilize cryptocurrency prices and mitigate volatility, which will help the public’s confidence grow in favor of Bitcoin.
It’s important to understand that, much like the early days of 1992, Bitcoin is a new technology – and new technologies can take decades to reach critical mass.
But, much like the Internet, no one wants to miss out on the ‘next big thing’ – and Bitcoin is the biggest thing yet. Constant updates are occurring to Bitcoin thanks to what is called a “hard fork”.
These constant updates ensure that digital currencies continue to experience growth through technological development.
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If so, please consider a donation to help the evolution and development of more helpful articles in the future, and show your support for alternative articles.
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement→
How & Why You should Prepare Here are just a few examples of what that sort of total control may look like: Government in total control The government could not only withhold money … Continue reading CBDC’s Tyranny Is Coming→
Here is a list of 100 of the best based things: Trust is not based, and relying on trust is unbased. It is foolish to ever trust someone, because the only way to … Continue reading 100 Based things→
THE CYPHERPUNK MOVEMENT Let’s make a journey back in time to see where blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies came from. It will take us back to the CypherPunk Movement starting in the 1970’s. Cryptography … Continue reading CypherPunk Movement→
The first ever bitcoin transaction from one person to another, on 2009-01-12 at 04:30 used Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK), when Satoshi Nakamoto sent coins to Hal Finney in Block 170. P2PK is no longer used … Continue reading Block 170 – First ever bitcoin transaction→
The Art of War (Chinese: 孫子兵法; lit. ‘Sun Tzu’s Military Method’, pinyin: Sūnzi bīngfǎ) is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The … Continue reading The Art of War Quotes→
Unlike the communities traditionally associated with the word "anarchy", in a crypto-anarchy the government is not temporarily destroyed but permanently forbidden and permanently unnecessary.
It's a community where the threat of violence is impotent because violence is impossible, and violence is impossible because its participants cannot be linked to their true names or physical locations.
Until now it's not clear, even theoretically, how such a community could operate.
A community is defined by the cooperation of its participants, and efficient cooperation requires a medium of exchange (money) and a way to enforce contracts.
Traditionally these services have been provided by the government or government sponsored institutions and only to legal entities.
In this article I describe a protocol by which these services can be provided to and by untraceable entities.
I will actually describe two protocols. The first one is impractical,because it makes heavy use of a synchronous and unjammable anonymous broadcast channel. However it will motivate the second, more practical protocol.
In both cases I will assume the existence of an untraceable network, where senders and receivers are identified only by digital pseudonyms (i.e. public keys) and every messages is signed by its sender and encrypted to its receiver.
In the first protocol, every participant maintains a (seperate) database of how much money belongs to each pseudonym. These accounts collectively define the ownership of money, and how these accounts are updated is the subject of this protocol.
1. The creation of money. Anyone can create money by broadcasting the solution to a previously unsolved computational problem. The only conditions are that it must be easy to determine how much computing effort it took to solve the problem and the solution must otherwise have no value, either practical or intellectual. The number of monetary units created is equal to the cost of the computing effort in terms of a standard basket of commodities. For example if a problem takes 100 hours to solve on the computer that solves it most economically, and it takes 3 standard baskets to purchase 100 hours of computing time on that computer on the open market, then upon the broadcast of the solution to that problem everyone credits the broadcaster's account by 3 units.
2. The transfer of money. If Alice (owner of pseudonym K_A) wishes to transfer X units of money to Bob (owner of pseudonym K_B), she broadcasts the message "I give X units of money to K_B" signed by K_A.
Upon the broadcast of this message, everyone debits K_A's account by X units and credits K_B's account by X units, unless this would create a negative balance in K_A's account in which case the message is ignored.
3. The effecting of contracts. A valid contract must include a maximum reparation in case of default for each participant party to it. It should also include a party who will perform arbitration should there be a dispute. All parties to a contract including the arbitrator must broadcast their signatures of it before it becomes effective. Upon the broadcast of the contract and all signatures, every participant debits the account of each party by the amount of his maximum reparation and credits a special account identified by a secure hash of the contract by the sum the maximum reparations. The contract becomes effective if the debits succeed for every party without producing a negative balance, otherwise the contract is ignored and the accounts are rolled back. A sample contract might look like this:
K_A agrees to send K_B the solution to problem P before 0:0:0 1/1/2000. K_B agrees to pay K_A 100 MU (monetary units) before 0:0:0 1/1/2000. K_C agrees to perform arbitration in case of dispute. K_A agrees to pay a maximum of 1000 MU in case of default. K_B agrees to pay a maximum of 200 MU in case of default. K_C agrees to pay a maximum of 500 MU in case of default.
4. The conclusion of contracts. If a contract concludes without dispute, each party broadcasts a signed message "The contract with SHA-1 hash H concludes without reparations." or possibly "The contract with SHA-1 hash H concludes with the following reparations: ..." Upon the broadcast of all signatures, every participant credits the account of each party by the amount of his maximum reparation, removes the contract account, then credits or debits the account of each party according to the reparation schedule if there is one.
5. The enforcement of contracts. If the parties to a contract cannot agree on an appropriate conclusion even with the help of the arbitrator, each party broadcasts a suggested reparation/fine schedule and any arguments or evidence in his favor. Each participant makes a determination as to the actual reparations and/or fines, and modifies his accounts accordingly.
In the second protocol, the accounts of who has how much money are kept by a subset of the participants (called servers from now on) instead of everyone. These servers are linked by a Usenet-style broadcast channel.
The format of transaction messages broadcasted on this channel remain the same as in the first protocol, but the affected participants of each transaction should verify that the message has been received and successfully processed by a randomly selected subset of the servers.
Since the servers must be trusted to a degree, some mechanism is needed to keep them honest. Each server is required to deposit a certain amount of money in a special account to be used as potential fines or rewards for proof of misconduct. Also, each server must periodically publish and commit to its current money creation and money ownership databases. Each participant should verify that his own account balances are correct and that the sum of the account balances is not greater than the total amount of money created. This prevents the servers, even in total collusion, from permanently and costlessly expanding the money supply. New servers can also use the published databases to synchronize with existing servers.
The protocol proposed in this article allows untraceable pseudonymous entities to cooperate with each other more efficiently, by providing them with a medium of exchange and a method of enforcing contracts. The protocol can probably be made more efficient and secure, but I hope this is a step toward making crypto-anarchy a practical as well as theoretical possibility.
-------
Appendix A: alternative b-money creation
One of the more problematic parts in the b-money protocol is money creation. This part of the protocol requires that all of the account keepers decide and agree on the cost of particular computations. Unfortunately because computing technology tends to advance rapidly and not always publicly, this information may be unavailable, inaccurate, or outdated, all of which would cause serious problems for the protocol.
So I propose an alternative money creation subprotocol, in which account keepers (everyone in the first protocol, or the servers in the second protocol) instead decide and agree on the amount of b-money to be created each period, with the cost of creating that money determined by an auction. Each money creation period is divided up into four phases, as follows:
1. Planning. The account keepers compute and negotiate with each other to determine an optimal increase in the money supply for the next period.
Whether or not the account keepers can reach a consensus, they each broadcast their money creation quota and any macroeconomic calculations done to support the figures.
2. Bidding. Anyone who wants to create b-money broadcasts a bid in the form of <x, y> where x is the amount of b-money he wants to create, and y is an unsolved problem from a predetermined problem class. Each problem in this class should have a nominal cost (in MIPS-years say) which is publicly agreed on.
3. Computation. After seeing the bids, the ones who placed bids in the bidding phase may now solve the problems in their bids and broadcast the solutions.
4. Money creation. Each account keeper accepts the highest bids (among those who actually broadcasted solutions) in terms of nominal cost per unit of b-money created and credits the bidders' accounts accordingly
BitHouse 