Hi all,
First off let me take the opportunity to introduce myself, my name is Mark. I got into Cryptocurrencies first in early April 2017. Cryptocurrency was something I had talked a little about and thought about for a while before finally getting involved myself. Before anyone gets involved in Cryptocurrency you should understand the basics. These include four main questions. If someone does not understand the answers to these questions they will not be able to take their first tentative steps into the Crypto world. So let’s look at these questions shall we?
What is Cryptocurrency?
The most basic definition of any Cryptocurrency is digital money. However like fiat currency eg.€,$,£ etc there are many different Cryptocurrencies. When people think of Cryptocurrencies the first one they usually think of is Bitcoin, this is a Cryptocurrency but it is just one of many. Let’s look at an analogy, If we think of Cryptocurrency as the world we know there are many different countries which make up the world by that logic Bitcoin could be USA we could say Ethereum is Canada, Russia is Bitcoin Cash and Ireland is Ripple. So with that in mind we can see that although the world is Cryptocurrency the countries within it make up all the different crypto coins.
What is a Blockchain?
A Blockchain is a public ledger, it is used to track the various transactions that take place between buyers and sellers of Cryptocurrencies. This is important as it guarantees that a buyer can not purchase multiple items using Cryptocurrency's coins they have already spent elsewhere.
What is an Exchange?
An exchange is a place where Cryptocurrencies can be bought and sold. There are two types of exchanges. Fiat currency exchanges and Crypto to Crypto exchanges. Fiat Currency exchanges allow you to transfer fiat currency’s to bigger more well known Cryptocurrencies an example of a well known exchange which does this would be Coinbase, which allows you to trade Dollars for either Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum or Litecoin. The other type of exchange which can be used is a Crypto to Crypto exchange these exchanges require you to first purchase a Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and use that then to purchase another Cryptocurrency an example of this sort of exchange would be Bittrex.
What is a Wallet?
A wallet is a secure place to store your Cryptocurrencies. There are many different types of wallets including hardware wallets, paper wallets and online digital wallets.
After answering these questions I was ready to start purchasing some Cryptos. It was around time when I first realized that there was more to Cryptocurrencies than meets the eye. Anyone who buys Cryptocurrency, whether they know it or not is also joining a global community of people who have the potential to throw off the oppression of banks, governments and regulated centralized currency’s. How might they do this? Well the thing is Cryptocurrencies are not regulated therefore they do not lend themselves to any manipulation by any one government or otherwise. This truly was a currency set up by people for people.
Familiar story right? I’m sure that many of you reading this are thinking to yourself, ''what’s this, another twenty something with grandiose notions in his head?'' But what you need to understand is I was not an early adopter of Cryptocurrency. I’m not one of the first, I didn’t get into the game early and when I did first like so many sure it started out being about making some money, but that’s not the whole story with Cryptocurrency there’s so much more!
We know Cryptocurrency is not mainstream yet, this is true the world over. One particular example that will showcase the obscurity of Cryptocurrency (at least in my country) is as follows. The President of Ireland was attending the BT Young Scientist Competition in Dublin, this is a competition that young people take part in every year in Ireland. While reviewing some of the exhibits at the event, a teenager showcasing their project had to explain to the President what exactly Cryptocurrency was. Now the President of Ireland is just one person who holds mostly a ceremonial position anyway, but at the same time if the President dosen’t know how can we expect the man on the street to know?
People in government are unlikely to warm to Cryptocurrency, this may be true, but what I would say about this is, people ought to know, in fact I believe they have the responsibility to know and to review something which potentially may be better for all of us as a society than what we have at the moment let them make up their own minds.
My job at the moment centers on (among other things) Cryptocurrency, I show people what it is, how to use it and why it has grasped the attention of so many people. These days I am seeing more people coming in who have heard of Cryptocurrency but the vast majority are completely ignorant to the real potential of it.
How do we change a mentality?
How do we get people to understand the merits of Cryptocurrencies?
How do we affect change in the world that could lead to mass adoption of Cryptocurrency?
So these are the questions, I look forward to discussing with you guys. In an upcoming post I will be explaining the concept I use when deciding on Cryptocurrencies to purchase. Of course I will not be touting any one Crypto over another but it’s important to understand that not all Cryptocurrencies are created with the best intentions.I look forward to reading your thoughts on the world of Crypto's.
Spread the word!
Mark
