Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

Atencoin is the First AML Compliant CryptoCurrency
http://www.YourDigitalCoin.com YDC | Your Digital Currency By The People For The People Rarer than BitCoin, LiteCoin.

By: YourDigitalCoin

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Atencoin is the First AML Compliant CryptoCurrency - Video

Bitcoin vs. Political Power: The Cryptocurrency Revolution - Stefan Molyneux at TNW Conference
Historically, politicians have always fought for the power to create money out of thin air, so they can increase their spending without having to directly increase taxes. The staggering growth...

By: Stefan Molyneux

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Bitcoin vs. Political Power: The Cryptocurrency Revolution - Stefan Molyneux at TNW Conference - Video

TNW - Stefan Molyneux - Money, Power and Politics The Cryptocurrency Revolution
Historically, politicians have always fought for the power to create money out of thin air, so they can increase their spending without having to directly increase taxes. The staggering growth...

By: The Next Web

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TNW - Stefan Molyneux - Money, Power and Politics The Cryptocurrency Revolution - Video

A cryptocurrency is a medium of exchange designed around securely exchanging information which is a process made possible by certain principles of cryptography. The first cryptocurrency to begin trading was Bitcoin in 2009. Since then, numerous cryptocurrencies have been created. Fundamentally, cryptocurrencies are specifications regarding the use of currency which seek to incorporate principles of cryptography to implement a distributed, decentralized and secure information economy.

When comparing cryptocurrencies to fiat money, the most notable difference is in how no group or individual may accelerate, stunt or in any other way significantly abuse the production of money. Instead, only a certain amount of cryptocurrency is produced by the entire cryptocurrency system collectively, at a rate which is bounded by a value both prior defined and publicly known. In centralized economic systems such as the Federal Reserve System governments regulate the value of currency by simply printing units of fiat money or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, governments cannot produce units of cryptocurrency and as such, governments cannot provide backing for firms, banks or corporate entities which hold asset value measured in a decentralized cryptocurrency. The underlying technical system upon which all cryptocurrencies are now based was created by the anonymous group or individual known as Satoshi Nakamoto for the purpose of creating an economy within which the practice of fractional reserve banking would be fundamentally impossible.[1][2][3]

Hundreds of cryptocurrency specifications now exist; most are similar to and derived from the first fully implemented cryptocurrency protocol, Bitcoin.[4][5][6][7][8] Within cryptocurrency systems the safety, integrity and balance of all ledgers is maintained by a swarm of mutually distrustful parties referred to as miners who are usually members of the public handling cryptocurrency transactions for a small fee. Miners use resource intensive computer software to help secure a particular cryptocurrencys network by increasing that networks ability to solve mathematic equations which the network directly uses to impede fraudulence. Subverting the underlying security of a cryptocurrency is mathematically possible, but the cost may be unfeasibly high. For example, against Bitcoin's proof-of-work based system, an attacker would need computational power greater than that controlled by the entire swarm of miners in order to even have 1 / (2^(# authentication rounds for this cryptocurrency) - 1) of a chance, which means directly circumventing Bitcoin's security is now a task well beyond even a technology company the size of Google.[9]

Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually introduce new units of currency, placing an ultimate cap on the total amount of currency that will ever be in circulation. This is done both to mimic the scarcity (and value) of precious metals and to avoid hyperinflation.[10][11] As a result, such cryptocurrencies tend to experience hyperdeflation as they grow in popularity and the amount of the currency in circulation approaches this finite cap. [12] Compared with ordinary currencies held by financial institutions or kept as cash on hand, cryptocurrencies are less susceptible to seizure by law enforcement.[10][13] Existing cryptocurrencies are all pseudonymous, though additions such as Zerocoin and its distributed laundry feature have been suggested, which would allow for anonymity.[14][15][16]

The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was created in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto, and used SHA-256 as its proof-of-work scheme.[17][18][19] Later, other cryptocurrencies, such as Namecoin (an attempt at a decentralized DNS, which would make internet censorship very difficult), Litecoin (which uses scrypt as a proof-of-work, as well as having faster transaction confirmations), Peercoin (which uses a proof-of-work/proof-of-stake hybrid, and has inflation of about 1%) and Freicoin (which implements Silvio Gesell's concept of Freigeld by adding demurrage) were also created.[20] Many other cryptocurrencies have been created, though not all have been successful, especially those that brought few innovations.

David Chaum designed a number of electronic money systems such as DigiCash and ecash, which incorporated certain concepts of cryptography to anonymise electronic money transactions, however these were not cryptocurrencys because they did not have a transaction approval system based upon miners providing proof of stake/work, instead the systems used a centralized issuing and clearing system similar to paypal.[21]

For the first two years of existence, cryptocurrencies gradually gained attention from the media and public.[22] Since 2011, interest has rapidly increased, especially during the rapid price rise of Bitcoin in April 2013.

The most widely used proof-of-work schemes are SHA-256, which was introduced by Bitcoin, and scrypt, which is used by currencies such as Litecoin.[20] Some cryptocurrencies, such as Peercoin, use a combined proof-of-work/proof-of-stake scheme[20][23] and one Nxt[24] , exclusively use proof-of-stake.

This is a list of cryptocurrencies. By December 2013 there were more than 60 cryptocurrencies available for trade in online markets.[25]

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Cryptocurrency - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

AltCoins

What is Litecoin?

Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant payments to anyone in the world. It differs from its parent Bitcoin in that can be efficiently mined with consumer-grade hardware. Litecoin provides faster confirmations (targeted at every 2.5 minutes on average) and uses memory-hard, scrypt-based mining to target the CPUs and GPUs most people already have. The Litecoin network is scheduled to produce four times as many currency units as Bitcoin.

One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that could run at the same time, on the same hardware used to mine bitcoins. With the rise of specialized ASICs for Bitcoin, Litecoin continues to satisify these goals. It is unlikely for FPGA or ASIC mining to take over Litecoin until the currency is widely used.

Namecoin is a peer-to-peer generic name/value datastore system based on Bitcoin technology (a decentralized cryptocurrency). It allows you to:

There are plenty of possible use cases. Read more about Namecoin.

Note: the latest version of this document is at: this github location.

Devcoin is the coin where 90% of the generation goes to open source developers and 10% to the miners.

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Crypto()Currency - CryptoCurrency.org

Currencies designed to fix perceived flaws in Bitcoin could lead to competition that makes the idea of digital cryptocurrency stick.

In recent weeks, the digital currency Bitcoin has soared and then dipped in value, along the way attracting more public attention than ever before and speculation as to whether it could become an established and widely accepted way to pay for goods and services.

But Bitcoin isnt the only cryptocurrency out there. Several others are also surging in popularity and value, and they claim to offer technical improvements that make them better suited to mainstream use.

Some of these competing currencies already represent significant stores of value. The value of a single bitcoin on the most popular exchange was $93.70 at time of publication, and the total value of all bitcoins in circulation just over $1 billion (it was over $2 billion at the markets high point last week). The largest alternative cryptocurrency, litecoins, were worth $2.31 each and $38 million in total; the next largest, PPCoin, were worth $0.22 each adding up to a total value of $4 million.

Bitcoin is based on mathematical techniques that control the production of new bitcoins, make it possible for a person to verify money sent to them is genuine, rule out counterfeiting, and limit the maximum number that can ever exist (to 21 million) (see What Bitcoin Is, and Why It Matters).

The Bitcoin alternatives are inspired by that design, which is published openly, and try to offer improvements.

One of Litecoins most significant claimed improvements over Bitcoin is that it allows transactions to be confirmed as legitimate much more quickly, says Charles Lee, who designed the currency, which is now maintained by him and a small group of other enthusiasts.

Bitcoin transactions are verified by the work of software run by other people using the currency, a process that takes on average 10 minutes and can be much longer, an hour in the case of many exchange sites. Lee says that hinders operators of online stores from using the currency. With Bitcoin, sometimes merchants are forced to accept unconfirmed transactions because confirmations are way too slow, he says. Faster confirmations lead to a more useful currency. Litecoin transactions are confirmed on average every 2.5 minutes, which Litecoins developers say is more practical for businesses.

Both Litecoin and the third most-popular cryptocurrency, PPCoin, also generate new coins in a way intended to be more practical than Bitcoins design. New bitcoins are created through a process known as mining, in which people run software that competes to solve a computational puzzle. Each time a puzzle is cracked, new coins are awarded and a new challenge is set. In a neat twist, the process of solving a puzzle also confirms the validity of recent transactions made with bitcoins.

However, because more powerful computers are more likely to solve these puzzles, an arms race between bitcoin miners has resulted. Today only those with very powerful, customized machines have a chance of profitably mining bitcoins and miners are still racing to build ever more powerful mining rigs.

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As Bitcoin Soars in Value, Alternative Cryptocurrencies ...

This is the digital symbol for PotCoin, the cryptocurrency aiming to solve the marijuana industry's banking woes. (Photo: PotCoin.info)

DENVER Morgan Carr, co-owner of Wellspring Collective pot shop in Denver, recently told the Wall Street Journal that after losing his seventh bank account, he hired a security firm to transport his cash to a vault in a undisclosedlocation.

The security company Brinks refuses toprovide armored cars to legal marijuana businesses in Denver to transfer the massive amounts of cash on hand at their medical and recreational dispensaries.

Thieves have already burglarized Colorado pot shops using guns, bear mace, axes and a circular saw.

Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey summed it up sufficiently.

You hit a 7-Eleven, youll get 20 bucks, he said. You hit a dispensary, youll get $300,000. Its only a matter of time before someone gets shot.

But what if there was a way that pot shops could head such apending incident off at the pass by bypassing the banks that still seem tepid about coming to their aid?

Enter PotCoin, the marijuana worlds answer to Bitcoin. Its founders envision a day when the necessary cash-on-hand at any and all Mile High pot shops could be as insignificant as that of a 7-Eleven.

Launched on Jan. 24 at 4:20 p.m., the cryptocurrency is already being accepted by several online marijuana vendors, including Smoke Cartel, which sells marijuana paraphernalia, Bitcoin Seedstore, which sells marijuana seeds, and Chronic Star Medical, an online store that sells edible pot.

At first, PotCoins three developers were reluctant to relinquish their identities, going simply by Hashoshi, MrJones and Smokemon514. That changed on April 9 at the CryptoCurrency Convention in New York City. Nick Iverson identified himself as Smokemon514 and Joel Yaffe as MrJones.

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PotCoin cryptocurrency aiming to aid Colorados cash-only pot shops

23 hours ago Apr. 25, 2014 - 10:25 AM PDT

In this weeks bitcoin review, we take a look at how bitcoin explainers and visuals are starting to creep into the news cycle.

Bitcoin is a technology has the potential to revolutionize everything, but its hard to explain to an average person what a blockchain is. Bitcoin already has a marketing problem and its complexity is a huge barrier for entry for many people. Adding to the difficulty is that bitcoin does not exist in the physical world so how do we make sense of (and explain) bitcoin? This week brought us several interesting examples as bitcoin was tracked on Twitter and seen on both the small screen and the big screen.

Vox had already done a 19-card explainer on bitcoin, but Ezra Kleins two-minute video on how bitcoin is like internet in the 1980s that was released this week is worth watching to get a good understanding of the cryptocurrency. (For those curious as to what a blockchain is, the answer is around the 25 second mark.)

Bitcoin also made its debut on the big screen this week at the Tribeca Film Festival with The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin. The documentary follows Dan, a 35-year-old computer programmer in Pittsburgh, as he discovers and then follows the rabbit hole down into the deep world of bitcoin and ends as Newsweek exposes Dorian Nakamoto as the creator. Reviews of the film, which also brings the Winklevoss twins into the fold, were largely positive although Coindesk noted that its not a film for rookies to the cryptocurrency space. (For those people, watch the video above).

Gigaom reporter Derrick Harris also did his own visual analysis of bitcoin based on more than a million tweets. He was able to track everything from who the most prolific bitcoin tweeters are to what timezones theyre tweeting from. To give you an idea of how global bitcoin is, this map below from Derricks analysis shows where all of the location-identified tweets were coming from.

Bitcoin had a pretty stable week, only fluctuating from a low of $470 to a high of just over $510.The market closed at $500.26 on Thursday, but had fallento $452 at 10:20a.m. PST amid more rumors of a Chinese crackdown on the currency. For background on why were using Coindesks Bitcoin Price Index, see note at bottom of the post.

In other news we covered this week:

Here are some of the best reads from around the web this week:

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This week in bitcoin: Visualizing cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency markets drop slightly but remain relatively stable, while plans for bitcoin satellites are made.

Bitcoin has continued to gradually drop in value, following a trend that began at the beginning of this week. A fall of just over 1% over the last 24 hours has been mirrored by most other major digital currencies.

Only dogecoin has seen its value rise, rebounding slightly by 2% from a recent steady decline that has seen its market capitalisation fall by 20% over the last seven days.

Last-gasp effort to save MtGox

A group of investors led by Jon Holmquist, the founder of Bitcoin Black Friday, is making one final attempt to prevent the planned liquidation of Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange MtGox.

The exchange filed for liquidationearlier this month after plans to rebuild under bankruptcy protection fell through.

Sunlot Holdings, the firm representing the investor group, claims that it is possible to revive the exchange. A decision by court-appointed administrators will be made by 9 May.

Holmquist has said that the bid is being made primarily to restore customer confidence.

"This isn't about Gox," Holmquist said."This is about helping the community get their coins back while also kickstarting a new exchange. We're hoping to make the customers whole. And as part of that, reinstill confidence in the Bitcoin ecosystem."

Bitcoin Satellites

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Cryptocurrency News Round-Up: Bitcoin in Space & MtGox 2.0