Lesson: the basics of cryptocurrencies and bitcoin

Lesson 1: Cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin

• Cryptocurrencies are decentralized digital currencies secured with cryptography
• Bitcoin is the top in terms of market cap because of its first-mover advantage
• Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Namakoto
• Bitcoin is only in it's infancy with huge potential for growth and major adoption

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• Why cryptocurrencies?

cryptocurrency is a type of digital money that is used to exchange values between parties similar to regular currency except it uses cryptography to secure transactions.
The US Federal reserve prints fiat currencies which leads to inflation. On other hand, bitcoin supply is capped. It is produced by predetermined protocol at predetermined rate capped at specific amount. Compared to US Federal reserve, bitcoin is build on peer-to-peer, open source, and decentralized network of nodes. The transactions on the blockchain are certified on the public ledger. This makes bitcoin open for trade 24/7 anywhere in the world. No holidays, no office hours. Also you don't have to disclose your identity to make trade. There are fees in bitcoins and usually are lower than bank fees. The payments of bitcoin once confirmed are irreversible.

• Introducing Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency started in 2009. Bitcoin is by far the most popular digital currency in the world. There are many merchants that accept it as payment. Its the forerunner of the current cryptocurrency trends. Transactions can not be censored from government or other parties. It has been accepted by many to be safe compared to other cryptocurrencies and required no third parties. Many merchants accept it as payment from shops, restaurants, real estate and others and keeps growing.

• Past, present and future of bitcoin

created by the anonymous group or person Satoshi Nakamoto in publication October 31, 2008 the the cryptography mailing list. The title of the paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System". The first implementation was in January 2009. And came into the world existence on January 3, 2009 with the release of the first software version and issuance of first bitcoins. Satoshi continues to collaborate until mid 2010. He transferred the control of the source code to Gavin Andersen and soon after stopped contributing to the project. Transactions were facilitated by online forums. One of most famous is the purchase of 10,000 bitcoin pizza purchase, that is now worth more than 20 million USD eight years later. Today most bitcoin exchanges are made through online trading platforms. Major early vendors accepting bitcoin payments were TigerDirect, Overstock.com, Expedia, Dell and Microsoft. Bitcoin transactions rate is increasing on daily basis along with cap on supply and ongoing reduction of bitcoins produced the value of bitcoin continues on upward trend every year. Fiat currencies lost value due to inflation in comparison with bitcoin which is deflationary. Although it's popularity has increased it has not gone viral on mainstream yet this is due to fact that many apps, upgrades, and protocols, to improve it's performance and adoption is still being developed. It's probably still in it's infancy stages.

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