Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

Promise and the Current State of DeFi (Decentralized finance) – pros & Cons

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Decentralized finance, or DeFi, has become a popular buzzword, especially with proponents of distributed ledger technology, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. Just as cryptocurrency was designed to ultimately take control of money away from governments, DeFi aims to take control of personal finance away from banks and investment firms.

What is DeFi?

Decentralized finance refers to a category of online financial platforms where one or more function is managed via smart contracts or other decentralized, blockchain-enabled, automated processes, rather than by a centralized system. However, as of this writing, there is no DeFi platform that is 100% truly decentralized. Each one still involves some degree of centralization in one or more aspects of its management.

The Current State of DeFi in 2021

Decentralized finance as we know it today is focused on one thing and that is to eliminate the middleman from financial transactions. As such, DeFi mainly relies on Ethereum as the blockchain that is easy to use and tailor according to the needs of a specific system.

What can a typical DeFi platform do today? The range of DeFi products varies significantly, but most systems guarantee the following functions:

1. Cryptocurrency exchange markets are free from central authorities
2. The ability to borrow or land digital coins
3. Near-instant payments from peer to peer
4. Advanced asset management through tokenization
5. The option of predicting asset fluctuations and capitalizing on your predictions

The Promise of Decentralized Finance

The aim of decentralization is to take control away from the establishment. Whether that establishment is a national government, regulators, or a centuries-old bank, proponents of decentralization see institutions as inherently corrupt and believe that people deserve greater freedom of how they store or spend their money. They also believe that the layers of bureaucracy slow things down to a pace that is not congruent with modern life, making it too difficult to send money across national borders or secure a loan to take advantage of a narrow window of opportunity.

The current bank customers may not even be the primary target audience for DeFi platforms. Many DeFi solutions are looking to engage with the unbanked or underbanked — people who currently have limited access to traditional financial services. This includes those in developing countries, rural areas, and people working in shadow economies.

Benefits of DeFi

Decentralized financial systems are not just a theoretical concept with little to no use, but rather highly practical inventions with tons of real-world benefits. Some of the major advantages of DeFi include:

  • The lack of centralized authority that monitors and controls financial transactions strictly. With DeFi, users’ deposits are free from external interventions.
  • Every participant in the DeFi system gains his own portion of financial sovereignty and democratic control. You know how the system works and you know that nothing can interfere with the process.
  • DeFi can reach the highest level of accessibility because, in theory, it only takes the Internet connection to gain access to the system regardless of your location.
  • Decentralization and the blockchain-powered platform make DeFi much safer and more difficult to penetrate by traditional hackers and malicious activities.

Cons of Decentralized Finance

Scalability 

DeFi projects encounter formidable difficulties in the scalability of host blockchain from various perspectives. First of all, the DeFi transactions require unbelievably extended periods of time for confirmation. 

At the same time, the transactions on DeFi protocols could become highly expensive during the period of congestion. For example, Ethereum could showcase capabilities for processing almost 13 transactions every second with Ethereum at full capacity. On the contrary, the centralized counterparts for DeFi could accommodate thousands of transactions in the concerned period.

Uncertainty      

The concerns of uncertainty also make a mark in the advantages and disadvantages of decentralized finance. In event of instability in a blockchain hosting a DeFi project, the project could automatically inherit instability from the host blockchain. As of now, the Ethereum blockchain is going through various changes. For instance, the mistakes committed during the transition from PoW consensus to the new Eth 2.0 PoS system can lead to risks. 

Shared Responsibility

The shared responsibility factor works negatively for users. The DeFi projects do not take responsibility for your mistakes. All they do is taking away the intermediaries, and it is the users who have to take responsibility for their funds and assets. Therefore, DeFi space needs tools that could prevent possibilities of human mistakes and errors.

Bottom line

Decentralized finance has become a promising favorite for transforming the conventional benchmarks of financial services. Most important of all, DeFi could foster the application of blockchain in the financial services sector. With the value benefits of transparency, immutability, and decentralization, DeFi space still has to encounter obstacles like scalability.  

A way to play Bitcoin Games in 2021

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Cryptocurrency has become a global phenomenon in recent years. Various industries are benefiting from the convenience of cryptocurrency, and one of those industries is online gaming.

As per a report by Wax, around 75% of online game players want to exchange their virtual assets for a currency that they could use to buy and sell on other platforms.

Cryptocurrencies enable players to collect and trade in virtual assets, which they can exchange and trade across anywhere in the world. Hence, it offers the gaming industry a safe and easy medium to make money.

Online games are adopting cryptocurrency to solve problems related to transactions and frauds that players encounter while playing online games.

Some of the benefits are streamlined payments, the real ownership of players, the decentralization of payments, and cross-game compatibility.

Let’s have a look at some of the benefits of using cryptocurrency in online games.

1.Instant Transaction
2.Ability to Play Anywhere
3.Safe and Secure
4.More for Your Money
5.Hide Your Identity

A way to play Bitcoin Games

The easiest way to play Bitcoin video games is to just sign up for a Bitcoin online casino. This could give you access to loads and heaps of crypto gambling games. One of the best Bitcoin casinos obtainable for playing novices takes place to be mBit. Whilst you go to their website, you may be caused to check in your account by means of entering your email identification and password, observed by depositing your selected amount of Bitcoin.

After that, you’ll see the subsequent web page, this page will display you two things:

1. First of all, you will be able to see your bitcoin balance. In case you need to feature in your bitcoin balance, then you have the option to replicate the public deal with or use the QR code to send Bitcoins.

2. Secondly, you’ll see the bitcoin bonuses that the casinos are presenting to you. Always keep a watch out for those bonuses. Some of those bitcoin bonuses can upload up and grow to be honestly rewarding.

Do I need to Deposit Bitcoin to Play Games?

In a maximum of the actual Bitcoin casinos, you will need to deposit some BTC into your playing account in advance. However, a few casinos like mBit offer a “No Deposit” bonus for Bitcoin gamers. A no deposit bonus can be the concept of a small preview of the Bitcoin casino. The Bitcoin casino offers a loose bonus for your account, on the way to assist you to play some of the extra popular bitcoin-earning video games. In quick, it gives you a quick tour of the Bitcoin casino playing enjoy.

In different phrases, there are some bitcoin casinos, wherein you could absolutely play without gambling any of your cash! The mBit online casino will come up with 50 free spins on the slot video games just for registering your gambling account.

Regardless, as soon as the registration is complete, you’ll in the end get to peer the host of bitcoin video games online in the Bitcoin online casino. From right here you could get started out winning bitcoins playing the satisfactory crypto games available.

Popular Bitcoin Games in 2021

As already said, there are plenty of bitcoin games that you could play at Bitcoin gambling websites. A number of those video games are extra popular than the opposite. In this phase, allow’s do a rundown of some of those popular Bitcoin-playing video games.

Bitcoin Cube

One of the most famous video games in the Bitcoin gaming world and the one that is most synonymous with crypto playing and Bitcoin. Bitcoin cube is incredibly easy and normal searching. You just need to wager that a roll of the cube will be lower or higher than your predetermined factor. If you bet correctly, then you’ll win a prize based on the chance of the guess being right. But, it’s far exactly because of its simplicity that it has turned out to be so popular.

Apart from its innate simplicity, Bitcoin dice games also provide a completely aggressive residence area. Almost all Bitcoin dice websites will offer a residence fringe of 1% or much less, while it is not unusual to find a house facet as low as zero.5%. In conjunction with the residence side, any other benefit takes place to be its velocity. Every single sport of cube is fantastically quick. You’ll be able to get through several rolls of dice per minute, making it an exciting experience.

Bitcoin Blackjack

Blackjack is one of the maximum popular crypto gambling video games available in both Bitcoin and widespread casinos. Popular versions of the sport available in bitcoin casinos encompass Double exposure, Multihand Blackjack, and Pontoon. In case you get toward 21 than your dealer, you’ll have the danger to win a prize. Many experienced gamers have advocated that learners who’re starting out inside the blackjack having a bet world must begin with bitcoin blackjack. The purpose being, the software program used makes the intricacies of the game easy.

Bitcoin blackjack capabilities 

The player makes a guess via choosing how much money they want to place handy. Maximum having a bet option will be among $1-$100. The fingers could be dealt with as soon as the stakes have been set.

As soon as a Bitcoin participant has visible their hand, they’ll have the option to Hit, Stand, or Double Down. If the Bitcoin participant’s hand consists of a couple, then a “split” option is likewise viable.

A unique function of Bitcoin blackjack is that there’s no limit to the number of card decks that may be used in this Bitcoin recreation.

Bitcoin blackjack is taken into consideration very participant-friendly since the house facet provided is regularly less than 1%. However, Bitcoin players ought to say that the greater decks of playing cards you upload into your play, the higher your own home aspect will become.

Coinbase Overview – Pros & Cons, Security, and Fees

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Coinbase is one of the biggest cryptocurrency companies around, supporting over 100 countries, with more than 30 million customers around the world.

Coinbase has a wide array of services but their main service allows users to buy and sell Bitcoins through a bank account, credit card, and debit card. The rates you’ll get on Coinbase are fair in general, however, the customer support is terrible.

Overview 

Coinbase first came into existence in San Fransisco, California, the USA, in the year 2012. Coinbase still has its headquarters in San Fransisco. However, now it has offices in multiple cities all across the US. Coinbase has started out only as a Bitcoin brokerage service (selling Bitcoins directly to customers), but additional services were added along the way. Coinbase is fully regulated and licensed. The company has raised over $540m from leading investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Rabbit Capital, and The NYSE.

Services

Coinbase brokerage

The main service Coinbase offers is a brokerage service for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. On the downside, one of the main complaints users have towards Coinbase is the lack of control of users over their own funds. When you open a Coinbase account you don’t have direct access to your coins and you don’t get any private key or a seed phrase. Coinbase stores your coins for you – it’s the equivalent of putting your cash at the bank, you don’t own it, the bank does.

Coinbase Pro

Coinbase Pro is a cryptocurrency trading platform. As opposed to the traditional Coinbase brokerage service, which simplifies buying cryptocurrencies at a premium, Coinbase pro is aimed at more experienced users. Coinbase pro allows users to trade several cryptocurrencies including BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, and ZRX. Fees are considerably lower than the brokerage service and there are advanced trading options as well.

Wallet 

In 2018 Coinbase launched their independent mobile wallet for iOS and Android. The wallet stores the private keys on the user’s device and only they have access to the funds. This brings Coinbase full circle as it started out as a wallet, transitioned to an exchange only (claiming that they are not a wallet) and now they are offering wallet services again.

Fees

Coinbase has an incredibly convoluted fee system that is also quite expensive if you are not using Coinbase Pro. The cost of trading on Coinbase’s standard platform is quite high in comparison to its competitors.

Buying Limits

Once your Coinbase account is set up you will be able to buy a small amount of Bitcoins until you raise your limit. In order to raise your limits you will need to do the following:

  • Provide and verify your phone number
  • Provide and verify your personal information
  • Provide and verify your photo id

If you are a fully verified US resident you can reach the highest limit which is currently $25K a day. Limits may also be set depending on the payment method you choose to buy the cryptocurrencies. For example, ACH transfer has higher limits than credit card purchases on Coinbase.

How safe is coinbase?

Coinbase uses premium security features, and all you need to do is maintain the security from your side. Coinbase offers biometric security, two-step verification, and insurance in case there is a breach at coinbase. However, this insurance is not valid if you perform any act of carelessness.

Pros and Cons

A solid variety of altcoin choicesHigh fees when not using Coinbase Pro
Extremely simple user interfaceThe user does not control wallet keys
Very high liquidityMay not have as many altcoins as some other exchanges

Bottom line

Coinbase is an ideal tool for new crypto investors who may not have any other investment experience. While the standard platform is overpriced, its features, like its learning to program and the ability to easily set up recurring purchases, provide the inexperienced with a clear path to becoming invested and actually understanding cryptocurrency.

Those with more trading experience will find that Coinbase Pro is a cheaper and more robust option, but it is still lacking in terms of features. If you wish to trade seriously, you may find that Coinbase is not the right fit for you. Overall, Coinbase is designed with the beginner in mind.

Top 5 Cryptocurrency Exchanges in 2021 – Best Crypto Exchange

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Trading on cryptocurrency exchanges requires knowledge about the market, which can help you gain profit.

Cryptocurrency exchange

A crypto exchange allows you to buy and sell crypto assets.

Cryptocurrency exchanges facilitate users to trade assets by acting as an intermediary. And earn profit through transaction fees. In this article, we will look into the top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges based on multiple parameters.

1.Binance

Binance is a crypto exchange that provides a trading platform and various cryptocurrency-related services. In January 2018, Binance stood as the world’s largest trading exchange in terms of volume. It is 2021, and this exchange platform has still managed to maintain its position on the top.

Origin

The origins of Binance go into China, although they had to shift their company because of the Chinese government’s ban on cryptocurrency. Binance currently operates in Japan.

Withdraw

Once you’re a registered user of Binance and start trading, you need to make withdrawals at times. Binance allows easy withdrawals after logging into your account, and then you can click on the spot wallet button.

Fees

Binance charges 0.1% of trading fees on every transaction. However, they do not charge any fees on deposits and charge 0.0004 BTC for withdrawals. Binance offers its users a 25% discount on using Binance coins while trading.

How safe is Binance?

Binance is the largest crypto exchange; hence the security is top-notch. They offer you 24×7 support and process more than 1,400,000 transactions every second.

2.Coinbase

Coinbase is one of the most extensive cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world. It is available in more than 100 countries and has 43M+ verified users. And it is the most popular crypto exchange in the United States.

Origin

Coinbase first came into existence in San Fransisco, California, the USA, in the year 2012. Coinbase still has its headquarters in San Fransisco. However, now it has offices in multiple cities all across the US.

Fees

Coinbase has a very complex fee structure and is also very high if you’re not a Coinbase Pro user. The fee charged by coinbase depends on the value of purchase, payment method, and even location.

How safe is coinbase?

Coinbase uses premium security features, and all you need to do is maintain the security from your side. Coinbase offers biometric security, two-step verification, and insurance in case there is a breach at coinbase. However, this insurance is not valid if you perform any act of carelessness.

3.Bityard

Bityard is one of the world’s best cryptocurrency contracts exchange. With its easy-to-use interface and instant signup process, Bityard is a beginner-friendly cryptocurrency exchange platform.

Origin

Bityard came into existence in the year 2019 in Singapore and regulates all its trades from Singapore. However, Bityard provides its services in more than 150 countries, far more significant than many massive trading platforms.

Fees

Bityard provides a shallow trading entry that is 5 USDT. Bityard charges a currency exchange fee of 0.05%. However, the following formula can determine the opening and closing fee:

(Margin * Leverage * 0.05%)

Is Bityard safe?

Many of the cryptocurrency contract exchanges fall under a single jurisdiction. However, Bityard is different; it falls under four jurisdictions and is regulated by:

  • The American money services
  • The MTR of Estonia for EU
  • Australia’s AUSTRAC
  • Singaporean ACRA

Bityard only stores a small fraction of funds in the wallets. The remaining funds remain in cold storage with optimum security. You also should maintain the security of your account by using two-step verification and keeping your data safe. Bityard helps you avoid phishing attacks as the entire communication is SSL encrypted.

4.Huobi

Huobi is one of the earliest crypto exchange platforms in the market providing services since 2013.

A mere three months after its launch, Huobi had a turnover of $4 billion. By 2014, Huobi had quadrupled this amount and made a mark on the Asian cryptocurrency market.

Origin

By the end of the year 2013, Leon Li had the trading platform running in China. However, China banned the trade of cryptocurrency in the year 2017. Huobi shifted its headquarters to Seoul, South Korea, and is still controlling its business worldwide from Seoul.

Fee

Huobi doesn’t have a specific withdrawal fee as they update it now and then according to the market. However, Huobi provides VIP membership that reduces the cost by up to 60%. You can also use HT tokens to slash the fee by almost half by storing them in your wallet and using them while making a trade or withdrawal.

How safe is Huobi?

The most essential and scary part of centralized exchanges is that they have a chance of being hacked. However, Huobi has never lost a single Bitcoin and they claim that your asset is highly secure under their top security. Huobi has recently launched its user protection funds.

5.Bitmex

Established in 2014, Bitmex has proven to be one of the best platforms for crypto trading. Bitmex offers leveraged contracts and is a peer-to-peer trading platform.

Bitmex allows its users to buy or sell assets using Bitcoin. In addition, Bitmex only handles bitcoins, and all the profit and loss incurred is in Bitcoin. It doesn’t take any Fiat currency.

Bitmex has no trading limits once the user registration is complete. However, Bitmex is currently facing a trial in the US and isn’t providing services to US residents.

Fees

Bitmex doesn’t charge any deposit or withdrawal fee. However, they do charge a minimum Bitcoin Network fee, which is dynamically based on Bitcoin.

How safe is Bitmex?

Bitmex uses Amazon web services to ensure that the servers are well protected and a variety of security facilities are available. Bitmex takes the security of its users’ assets carefully.

Things you should know before investing in Dogecoin

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What is Dogecoin?

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum—although it’s a very different animal than either of these popular coins. Dogecoin was originally created at least in part as a lighthearted joke for crypto enthusiasts and took its name from a once-popular meme. Despite this unusual origin story, it has exploded in popularity in 2021—as of writing, Dogecoin has become the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

How Does Dogecoin Work?

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that runs on blockchain technology, similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Blockchain is a distributed, secure digital ledger that stores all transactions made using a decentralized digital currency.

All holders carry an identical copy of the Dogecoin blockchain ledger, which is frequently updated with all new transactions in the cryptocurrency. Like other cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin’s blockchain network uses cryptography to keep all transactions secure.

People called miners use computers to solve complex mathematical equations in order to process transactions and record them on the Dogecoin blockchain—a so-called “proof of work” system.

In exchange for processing transactions and supporting the blockchain ledger, miners earn additional Dogecoin, which they can then hold or sell on the open market.

Interesting Facts About Dogecoin

Dogecoin is an open-source peer-to-peer digital currency popular among Shiba Inus around the world. 

The Shiba Inu is a Japanese breed of dog that has become popular as an online meme and is associated with Dogecoin. 

Dogecoin has one of the most active and largest communities in the cryptocurrency world. This group has banded together to support a variety of charitable endeavors and other ventures.

Unlike Bitcoin, Dogecoin has no upper limit, which means there are actually more than 100 billion doge coins in circulation.

Things to consider before investing in Dogecoin

There are multiple things to consider before you invest in any cryptocurrency. Here are some key things to consider before investing in Dogecoin.

Volatility

The first and foremost thing to note is Dogecoin’s high volatility. Dogecoin witnessed serious price fluctuations over the past few months as it rallied to an all-time high of around $0.70. However, soon after, it crashed to around $0.45. While Dogecoin has gained notable momentum with more people learning and investing in it, these investors also cash out when it spikes, thus crashing its price as a result. 

Influencers 

Not just stocks but cryptocurrency can also be influenced by prominent personalities. Elon Musk, the self-appointed Dogefather, and community dubbed Dogecoin CEO, has repeatedly tweeted about the cryptocurrency. As a result, its prices spiked sharply a couple of times. It only stands to reason that if an individual can influence Dogecoin pricing, it could go either way. 

While Musk has always shown support for the cryptocurrency, his recent appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) was expected to push its value near the $1 mark. However, that didn’t happen and in fact, Dogecoin fell sharply after his SNL appearance. 

Playing with a bubble

The Dogecoin cryptocurrency can be seen as a bubble that crashes soon. However, not considering it as such will be more of an issue since its price fluctuates based on how many people are holding it, how many Dogecoins are in circulation, and how many are being added every day. If one checks out Dogecoin’s price graph, the general expectation will be that it will go up in the future but sadly, there’s nothing backing up that notion.

FOMO and the sheep mentality

With Dogecoin taking over social media and everyone talking about investing in it, there can be real Fear Of Missing Out or FOMO on a lucrative investment opportunity. But before that happens, it should be taken into account that not everyone is as successful as the person who became a millionaire banking their life savings on a transient trend. 

Unlike stocks, one can use cryptocurrencies they’re holding to actually purchase something. 

Crypto Mining VS Crypto Validating – Beginner’s Guide

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Blockchain technology is a strong network designed to assure that digital currencies remain stable and serve their inception purpose. Learning about blockchain and cryptographic processes is quite interesting to technology fans and beginner investors.

Generally, cryptocurrencies are released in the blockchain through a process called mining. Although mining adds the blocks onto the chains, a preceding process called validation streamlines everything for mining. Let us understand everything about validation and mining.

What is Crypto Validation?

Crypto validation is where transactions and blocks in a blockchain are authenticated and verified. A block validator looks into the details of specific transactions in a blockchain, determines their authenticity, and merges it with others to form a block.

The validator gets a notification of upcoming transactions, works to verify and approve; among the issues that a validator checks include the legality and accuracy of each transaction. Checking for double-spending is also another vital issue that a validator focuses on.

What is Crypto Mining?

It’s the process where consensus algorithms are used in the blockchain to accept a particular validator’s block. Today, there are two types of consensus used, i.e., proof of work and proof of stake.

Proof of work (POW) requires parties called miners to solve some complex computations for their work to be added to the blockchain. The person who solves the computation first gets their block posted.

When it comes to proof of stake (POS), investors hold some amount of particular crypto assets during the validation process and get a share of the reward.

Difference Between Validation and Mining

ValidatingMining
Complexity The difficulty level in Validating is relatively lowThe difficulty level in mining is relatively high when compared to Validating
CostCosts in the validating part are lower than the mining sectionCost is high because the process of mining uses large amounts of power and high processor computers.
Transaction Crypto validation begins when users send transactions through the blockchainMining focuses on posting the block onto the distributed ledger.
RewardingValidators’ work only ends after the mining process ends. The income earned after the mining process comes in the form of coins released.A miner will only receive the rewards after the mining process ends and his block has been chosen and added to the chain.

Proof Of Work

As a beginner, you may be excited about joining the mining or validation process; therefore, you need to be ready to complete the whole validation plus mining process. It requires vast amounts of electricity and some super-performing computers for successful block release.

However, lately, some crypto projects have been introducing options that ease the mining process by providing cloud-based computing machines. Leveraging cloud mining platforms will help ensure that you earn better rewards at a way lower cost.

Proof Of Stake

If you leverage a platform that uses proof of stake mechanisms, just run your master node and stake some amount of crypto. The stakers will hold some amount of crypto assets against the validation process. In POS, the amount of rewards depends on the stake value and length of stake.

Bottom line

Crypto validation focuses more on the transaction introduced in the blockchain, while mining works on blocks of transactions, including adding them to the blockchain. However, although there are many differences, the processes are complementary to each other. The twosome processes are vital to secure the blockchain and release new coins. A crypto beginner interested in either mining or validating should be ready for the entire process.

What is Litecoin? – Difference between bitcoin and litecoin

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What Is Litecoin?

Litecoin is a decentralized, open-source, peer-to-peer, and fully global payment network where transactions are conducted in litecoins or LTC units. Litecoin is an alternative for bitcoin Launched in 2011 that was created using the same basic structure as Bitcoin. The brain behind the creation of Litecoin is that of Charlie Lee, MIT graduate, an ex-Google engineer.

Charlie’s initial goal behind the launch of Litecoin was to offer an improvement where Bitcoin fell short and make it up to be ‘the silver to Bitcoin’s gold.’ Based on market capitalization, Litecoin has remained among the top 10 performing cryptocurrencies ever since its inception.

Main Features of Litecoin

  • Litecoin shares Bitcoin’s open-source codebase structure, with only a few differences.
  • Litecoin is not backed by any government or centralized financial institutes. 
  • Litecoins are created through a procedure named mining, where the Litecoin network is spread across a wide pool of entities dubbed miners. 
  • Miners are responsible for recording all data related to transactions made over the Litecoin network into blocks. These blocks then get arranged in an orderly fashion on the blockchain so that the most recent blocks are added at the end of a chain.
  • Since there is only one blockchain that all miners can access, the miners have to go through a tedious process to create a new block to maintain maximum security and avoid any manipulation of the stored data altogether. 
  • To create a legit block, a miner needs to encrypt it with a unique cryptographic hash, abiding by several rules. 
  • Once the created block passes scrutiny by mining software, it’s made visible to all miners. The miner who creates the block gets awarded with 12.5 litecoins.   
  • A new block is produced and added to the chain every 2.5 minutes.
  • Cryptocurrencies typically have a fixed number of coins in circulation, as opposed to the infinite supply of traditional currencies. 
  • When a cryptocurrency becomes quite popular, the undersupply causes its value to go up. Similarly, with Litecoin, there will only ever be 84 million litecoins available for mining.

Difference between Litecoin and Bitcoin

BitcoinLitecoin
Coin Limit21 million 84 million 
Block Generation TimeEach block takes 10 minutes to generate.Each block takes 2.5 minutes to generate.
AlgorithmSHA-256Scrypt
Market Capitalization$237.23 billion$3.627 billion
Reward at Inception50 BTC/block50 LTC/block
Current Block Reward6.25 BTC/block12.5 LTC/block

Litecoin’s Blockchain

The Litecoin blockchain is capable of handling higher transaction volume than its counterpart – Bitcoin. Due to more frequent block generation, the network supports more transactions without a need to modify the software in the future.

As a result, merchants get faster confirmation times, while still having the ability to wait for more confirmations when selling bigger ticket items.

Litecoin has so much scope for growth, potential uses, and wide adoption. Right now, we must observe which companies begin adopting it and accepting transactions for their products and services. Other than that, the future of Litecoin is anyone’s guess.

How to Buy Litecoin

Litecoin is purchased through cryptocurrency exchanges the way any other crypto would be bought. However, even though there’s a larger circulating supply of LTC than BTC, you’re not guaranteed that most exchanges will have Litecoins available for purchase or trade like you may be with Bitcoin. 

Litecoin can be bought directly through an exchange marketplace, or converted from digital currencies in cryptocurrency conversion services. 

Create your account at your chosen exchange. You’ll need to provide a valid email address for verification and create a strong password. Put in the payment information you plan on using. This can be a checking account or your credit/debit card information.

Specify Litecoin (LTC) as the crypto you wish to buy, and then the amount of money you want to spend on it. When you buy your LTC it’s good to store it in a wallet.

About cryptocurrecny mining and its types

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What is Crypto mining?

The term crypto mining means gaining cryptocurrencies by solving cryptographic equations through the use of computers. This process involves validating data blocks and adding transaction records to a public record (ledger) known as a blockchain. A person who uses cryptocurrency is called a miner.

Types of Mining

There are a few ways you could go about cryptocurrency mining. Here you can see the main ones and start from the easiest one.

Cloud Mining

If you’re looking for crypto mining ways, cloud mining is probably the most popular way to mine cryptocurrencies without having to lift a finger.

Cloud mining is a process where you pay someone (most often it’s a big corporation) a specific amount of money and “rent out” their mining machine called a “rig”, and the process of mining itself.

This rent lasts for an agreed-upon period, through which all of the earnings that the rig makes are transferred to your cryptocurrency wallet. The people (companies) that offer these cloud mining services usually have huge mining facilities with multiple farms at their disposal and know perfectly well how to mine cryptocurrency.

CPU Mining

CPU mining utilizes processors to mine cryptocurrencies. It used to be a viable option back in the day, but currently, fewer and fewer people choose this method how to mine cryptocurrency daily.

All you need to be able to mine using the CPU method is just a computer and a couple of programs. It is possible to do it with a laptop, but it is very strongly not advised. Your laptop will probably fry and overheat in a matter of a couple of hours.

There are a couple of reasons why that is. First of all, CPU mining is extremely slow. You could go on for months without noticing the smallest amount of revenue.

But the fact that it’s so easy to start cryptocurrency mining attracts new CPU miners every day. Some people that are looking for how to mine cryptocurrency don’t care about the details – they just want to start the process as soon as possible, and in any way possible.

GPU Mining

GPU mining is probably the most popular and well-known method of mining cryptocurrencies. If you google “cryptocurrency mining”, GPU rigs are going to be some of the first things that you’ll see.

GPU mining is very popular because it’s both efficient and relatively cheap. The construction of the rig itself tends to be costly – but when it comes to its hash speed and the general workforce, the GPU mining rig is great.

GPU rigs utilize graphics cards to mine cryptocurrencies. One standard rig is made out of a processor, a motherboard, cooling, rig frame, and – of course – a few (2 – 8) graphics cards.

ASIC Mining

ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) are special devices that are designed explicitly to perform a single task, which in this case is crypto mining. It is very well known and treasured because they produce insane amounts of cryptocurrency when compared to its competitors’ GPU and CPU.

Interesting Facts

1.By mining, you can earn cryptocurrency without having to put down money for it.
2.Bitcoin miners receive Bitcoin as a reward for completing "blocks" of verified transactions, which are added to the blockchain.
3.Mining rewards are paid to the miner who discovers a solution to a complex hashing puzzle first, and the probability that a participant will be the one to discover the solution is related to the portion of the total mining power on the network.
4.You need either a GPU (graphics processing unit) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to set up a mining rig.

Bottom line

Cryptocurrency mining is an interesting alternative to the traditional centralized systems that currently operate throughout the world. However, it’s very taxing in terms of computer and power resources and isn’t feasible for many users as a result.

What is Ethereum ? – Practical uses of Ethereum

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Ethereum is a blockchain platform with its own cryptocurrency, called Ether (ETH) or Ethereum. It is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It’s a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH).

What’s an Ethereum wallet?

Ethereum wallets are applications that let you interact with your Ethereum account. Think of it as an internet banking app – without the bank. Your wallet lets you read your balance, send transactions, and connect to applications. You need a wallet to send funds and manage your ETH.

Your wallet is only a tool for managing your Ethereum account. That means you can swap wallet providers at any time. Many wallets also let you manage several Ethereum accounts from one application.

Types of wallet

  • Physical hardware wallets that let you keep your crypto offline – very secure.
  • Mobile applications that make your funds accessible from anywhere
  • Web wallets that let you interact with your account via a web browser
  • Desktop applications if you prefer to manage your funds via macOS, Windows, or Linux.

Practical uses

Ethereum allows you to move money, or make agreements, directly with someone else. You don’t need to go through intermediary companies.

Here are 5 practical uses of Ethereum:

1. It can be used in the healthcare system to securely store and share patient information.
2. Smart contracts can be used to make risk-free, direct transactions.
3. It can be used to improve the current election polling system by making it more transparent and secure.
4. It can be used as a decentralized data storage facility.
5. It can be used to build decentralized apps (DAPPS).

Interesting Facts

Here are 3 interesting facts about Ethereum:

1. Programmers of Ethereum created a custom programming language called ‘Solidity’.
2. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Ethereum’s currency ‘Ether’ doesn’t have a maximum number of coins. This makes it an inflationary currency.
3. Ether mining was originally based on the Proof-of-Work mining principle, but developers have since planned to switch over to Proof-of-Stake in the future.

Criticisms 

Ethereum faces the same criticisms that all cryptocurrency platforms face:

  • Cryptocurrencies may or may not be a bubble about to burst (again). This debate has been going on since at least 2017, a year during which Bitcoin’s value seesawed between about $20,000 and about $3,000.
  • Each of these networks is eating up a vast amount of energy. Cryptocurrency miners, in particular, are devoting a huge amount of computing power to the process of validating transactions. 

Is Ethereum Better Than Bitcoin?

Unlike the Bitcoin blockchain, the Etherium blockchain was not created to support a cryptocurrency. The Ether cryptocurrency was created to provide an in-house currency for applications built on the Etherium blockchain.

In other words, Etherium has wider ambitions. It wants to be a platform for all kinds of applications that can store information safely.

Despite their differences, the two are the creators of virtual currencies that have become rivals in the investing world. And virtual currencies are just that: They are coins that have no physical existence but are represented by a string of code that can be exchanged at a price agreed upon by a buyer and a seller.

Bitcoin Basics For Beginners

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What are bitcoins?

Bitcoins are decentralized, purely digital virtual coins exchanged directly between two parties online with no middle man. Unlike modern fiat money, Bitcoin, is not controlled or backed by any bank or central government authority.

Are bitcoins anonymous and untraceable?

No, contrary to popular belief, they aren’t. A traceable trail of each Bitcoin transaction is left behind in a public log known as the blockchain. The public record prevents people from spending the same bitcoins more than once.

How does Bitcoin work?

Each bitcoin is a computer file stored in a digital wallet on a computer or smartphone. To understand how the cryptocurrency works, it helps to understand these terms and a little context:

  • Blockchain: Bitcoin is powered by open-source code known as the blockchain, which creates a shared public ledger. Each transaction is a “block” that is “chained” to the code, creating a permanent record of each transaction. Blockchain technology is at the heart of more than 10,000 cryptocurrencies that have followed in Bitcoin’s wake.
  • Private and public keys: A bitcoin wallet contains a public key and a private key, which work together to allow the owner to initiate and digitally sign transactions, providing proof of authorization.
  • Bitcoin miners: Miners — or members of the peer-to-peer platform — then independently confirm the transaction using high-speed computers, typically within 10 to 20 minutes. Miners are paid in bitcoin for their efforts.

Bitcoin value follows the law of supply and demand — and because demand waxes and wanes, there’s a lot of volatility in the cryptocurrency’s price.

Besides mining bitcoin, which requires technical expertise and investment in high-performance computers, most people purchase bitcoins as a form of currency speculation — betting that the U.S. dollar value of one bitcoin will be higher in the future than it is today. But that’s difficult to predict.

How to store the Bitcoin?

Bitcoins can be stored in two kinds of digital wallets:

  • Hot wallet: Digital currency is stored in the cloud on a trusted exchange or provider, and accessed through a computer browser, desktop, or smartphone app.
  • Cold wallet: An encrypted portable device much like a thumb drive that allows you to download and carry your bitcoins.

Basically, a hot wallet is connected to the internet; a cold wallet is not. But you need a hot wallet to download bitcoins into a portable cold wallet.

How bitcoins are purchased?

There are four ways to get bitcoins:

  • Cryptocurrency exchanges – There are a number of exchanges in the U.S. and abroad. Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange trading more than 30 cryptocurrencies.
  • Investment brokerages – Robinhood was the first mainstream investment broker to offer Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (Robinhood Crypto is available in most, but not all, U.S. states). Tradestation, eToro, and Sofi Active Investing also offering cryptocurrency trading in most U.S. states.
  • Bitcoin ATMs – There are more than 7,000 bitcoin ATMs in the U.S. 
  • Peer-to-peer purchases – True to its original spirit, you can buy bitcoins directly from other bitcoin owners through peer-to-peer tools like Bisq, Bitquick, and LocalBitcoins.com.
  • Bitcoin mining – You can earn bitcoins through mining, but the technical expertise required and computer cost put this option out of reach for most.

Which companies accept Bitcoin payments?

Thousands of businesses throughout the world currently accept Bitcoin as a form of payment, including reputable e-commerce businesses like:


Burger King
Overstock
Microsoft
Subway
AT&T
KFC

Bitcoin is an incredibly speculative and volatile buy. It’s worth remembering that stock trading can give you a similar thrill — and picking stocks of established companies is generally less risky than investing in Bitcoin. 

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