More Ways That Cryptocurrency Is An Alternative Investment In Our Current Monetary System.

We are hearing more ways that cryptocurrency is becoming an alternative investment, like real estate or stocks and bonds, which can co-exist with our current monetary system. At a recent financial investment event, Peter Thiel co-founder of Paypal and billionaire said bitcoin is useful as a "a reserve form of money" similar to gold.

The billionaire said that Bitcoin is useful as a store of money, whether you use it for transactions or not. But he explained that it is even harder to mine than gold, and with a limited cap of 21 million coins.

Each day I try to learn something more about the confusing process of mining cryptocurrency and what the future holds for it.

How does bitcoin mining work?

Mining bitcoin is an energy intensive process to mine bitcoin, similar to computer miners competing with each other for coins.

While governments print paper money, btcoin transactions are collected into a block, and miners confirm the transactions and write the blocks into a general ledger called the blockchain.

Blockchain miners take a block and apply a mathematical formula to it to create a "hash" which verifies the transaction and seals off the block on the blockchain so a new hash can be created. A hash consists of a series of numbers and letters. Once a miner successfully seals off a block, he or she is rewarded with 25 bitcoin. Sounds like a fun game if you have the time and inclination, and you get a great reward at the end!

source - https://www.coindesk.com/information/how-bitcoin-mining-works/

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