Hello. Steemuans.....
Find below a collection of the most frequent questions we are asked,
What is cryptocurrency?
The inventor of the most famous cryptocurrency today – Bitcoin – attempted to build a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system”. This had been tried many times before but the main point of difference between Bitcoin and previous efforts like Digicash was that it was to be entirely decentralised. Without an overarching entity controlling the currency, the notion of “trust” would be removed from the system.
To combat “double spending”, the major flaw in all digital cash systems at that point, Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto proposed a revolutionary technology known as the blockchain to record all the transactions made with his currency.
For any single balance, transaction, or change to the network to take place, there would need to be consensus amongst those validating the network – the miners. Since Bitcoin’s invent, many other programmers have attempted to use the model and tweak it to provide what they consider to be a more functional form of digital cash.
Other cryptocurrencies include Litecoin, Monero, Ether, and New Economy Movement. Many of these efforts tailor their currency for a special purpose. Speed, price, and privacy, are among the most common.
What is cryptocurrency used for?
Being such a new technology, it may be that cryptocurrency has not been used for its eventual use case. Still, today it is used for many purposes. These include, but are not limited to the following: remittances, trading, investment, payment for goods and services, private monetary transactions, gambling, and as a hedge against national currencies suffering rapid devaluation (Venezuela, Greece for example).
As the entire cryptocurrency space expands, it is likely that we’ll see additional uses joining this list. Already there are young services like SteemIt, which sets to revolutionise the way content is paid for on social media, as well as services like Musicoin which seeks to find a more equitable way of paying artists without the need of middlemen.
What is cryptocurrency mining?
Without Miners, cryptocurrency market would not work.
Miners provide a two-fold role in cryptocurrency. Firstly, they process complex mathematical problems to “unlock” new coins. Secondly, they validate transactions on the network.
They must have consensus on any change to the network for the blockchain to remain consistent. Non-consensus can lead to forks in the network. Forks are incredibly difficult to make happen on the Bitcoin network, and for many this is one of its strongest attributes.