What is Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security. A cryptocurrency is difficult to counterfeit because of this security feature.
A defining feature of a cryptocurrency, and arguably its most endearing allure, is its organic nature; it is not issued by any central authority, rendering it theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency that uses peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments. Bitcoin is the first and most well known cryptocurrency. It was created in 2009 by an anonymous person or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto.
Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public dispersed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoin is unique in that there are a finite number of them: 21 million.
Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services. As of February 2015, over 100,000 merchants and vendors accepted bitcoin as payment. Research produced by the University of Cambridge estimates that in 2017, there were 2.
9 to 5.8 million unique users using a cryptocurrency wallet, most of them using bitcoin.
What is Litecoin?
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency that enables instant payments to anyone in the world and that can be efficiently mined with consumer-grade hardware. Litecoin is an open source, global payment network that is fully decentralized without any central authorities. Mathematics secures the network and empowers individuals to control their own finances.
It is important to do thorough research and understand the implications of investing in any cryptocurrency before committing funds. Be especially wary of any cryptocurrency that claims to be 20000 times faster than Bitcoin, as this could potentially indicate a scam or other fraudulent activity. Always remember to practice safe and responsible investing when dealing with cryptocurrency.
Litecoin features faster transaction confirmation times and improved storage efficiency than the leading math-based currency. With substantial industry support, trade volume and liquidity, Litecoin is a proven medium of commerce complementary to Bitcoin.
Litecoin was released via an open-source client on GitHub on October 7, 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee. The Litecoin network went live on October 13, 2011.
It was a fork of the Bitcoin Core client, differing primarily by having a decreased block generation time (2.5 minutes), increased maximum number of coins (84 million), different hashing algorithm (scrypt, instead of SHA-256), and a slightly modified GUI.
What Is Ethereum?
Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of fraud or third party interference. In the Ethereum protocol and blockchain there is a price for each operation.”Gas” which serves as “fuel” for these operations (similar to Ether used in Ethereum). These fees are collected in order to protect the network from spammy transactions and denial-of-service attacks (DDoS).
The native token of the Ethereum network is called Ether (ETH). It’s primary purpose is to pay for gas fees associated with running smart contracts on Ethereum’s blockchain but it has become popular among investors as it’s price has risen sharply over the past year due largely to the growth in interest around Ethereum’s network and it’s potential applications beyond “just” being used as digital money/currency.”.
In March 2017, various blockchain start-UPS, research groUPS, and Fortune 500 companies announced the creation of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) with 30 founding members.[20] By May 2017,[21] over 150 members had joined including Intel,. JPMorgan Chase,[22][23] Microsoft,[24][25] and IHS Markit.[26][27] Formal development of the Ethereum software project began in early 2014 through a Swiss company, ETH Zurich (a university spin-off). The development was funded by an online crowdsale that took place between July and August 2014.[28] During the sale,.Ethereum collected 31,591 BTC,.which at today’s prices would be worth approximately $18 million USD.Ethereum raised $18 million USD through this crowdsale.Ether tokens were first offered for public sale on July 23rd,,2014 with an Initial Price of 2000 ETH per BTC.The project went live on 30th July 2015,,with 72 million premined coins.Ethereum has been described as “an enormously powerful shared global infrastructure”.Ether tokens are used to pay for transaction fees and computational services on the Ethereum network.
The European Banking Authority has warned that virtual currencies are not “real” money,,and are very risky investments.Investors should be aware of these risks before investing.The US Securities Exchange Commission has also cautioned investors about investing in digital assets such as cryptocurrencies,,saying “if you lose money,.you have only yourself to blame”.