Cryptocurrencies By Rui Sakurai and Shane Spears

What is it? Cryptocurrency is a peer-to-peer form of virtual money that uses cryptography to secure itself from tampering. The cryptocurrency can be sent to other people just like any normal real-world currency. It is stored in a virtual software wallet.

Notable Examples

Bitcoin (BTC) •First decentralized cryptocurrency •Created with the idea of a decentralized online currency •Has a level of anonymity to it •By far the largest and most known Cryptocurrency •Open source •Has maximum amount of 21,000,000

Ethereum (ETH) •The cryptocurrency with the second largest market cap. •Does many of the things that Bitcoin does, but has a blockchain that’s much easier to program off of. •Is popular due to how easy it is to develop off of.

Monero (XMR) •Key value is anonymity •It’s blockchain is completely anonymous •It is popular due to its anonymity, which is very important to people for many different reasons.

History The first attempt was B-money in 1998, which Bitcoin took large inspiration and many ideas from. Bitcoin was the first to succeed in 2009. They are created as an alternative to centralized fiat money that requires a government to back it. There are over a thousand different cryptocurrencies as of September 2017.

How They Work People ‘mine’ the currency as a way to generate it and earn it. People looking to use the currency download a software ‘wallet’. This wallet generates an address that can be used to send and receive the currency. Transactions are sent through a ‘blockchain’ that verifies that the transaction is legitimate The blockchain is managed by a peer-to-peer network of computers. Stuff on this slide will be explained later

Wallets Cryptocurrency wallets are software that generates an address that allows you to receive and send the currency. When sending or receiving currency, your address and the other person's address form a ‘contract’ in the blockchain. Once the contract is proven valid, the currency is distributed to your wallet. Example of a Bitcoin address: 1HB5XMLmzFVj8ALj6mfBsbifRoD4miY36v

The Blockchain The blockchain is like a ledger for all transactions of a cryptocurrency. The blockchain is maintained by a peer-to-peer network of miners. The blockchain uses transaction history to prove that a wallet address has the correct amount of currency assigned to it. Transactions create “blocks” that cannot be edited, which makes it impossible to cheat the system.

Mining Is broken up into two types: Proof of Work and Proof of Stake. Is typically done with a high end graphics card or through computers specifically designed with mining in mind. Mining is verifying blocks generated by transactions in the blockchain. Mining is essentially bookkeeping for the network and getting rewarded a small amount for it.

An example of a mining setup.

Mining Pools To make Proof of Work mining effective for people without high powered machines or large amounts of equipment, people often form mining pools. Mining pools are groups of people putting their work together to mine a block. These people are rewarded based on how much they contribute to solving the block.

Why a GPU over a CPU? CPUs can’t process the mining information nearly as fast as a GPU can. GPUs are designed for repetitive work, while CPU’ are not. CPUs are designed to be an executive and make decisions, while GPUs are laborers made for constant video and mathematical processing.

Cloud Mining Some companies offer a “cloud mining” service. For a fee the company will dedicate a certain amount of hardware to mine a currency for you. The company handles maintenance and oversees the hardware, while all you have to is pay the fee and collect your currency.

Ethereum mining contracts offered by the cloud mining company Genesis Mining

Altcoins Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, but there are over a thousand different alternative, lesser known cryptocurrencies known as ‘altcoins’. Altcoins are just like Bitcoin, except that they usually have something that sets them apart. 42-coin, for example, is special in the fact that only 42 of 42-coin exist. Most of the time it’s a slight variation in how the coin's blockchain functions or something similar.

Why use it? It’s relatively anonymous -With most coins the blockchain is publicly visible to everyone Its value is global, so it’s not limited by borders. It doesn’t require a government to back it. Many companies such as Steam and Newegg have started accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment.

References http://www.pngpix.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PNGPIX-COM-Bitcoin-PNG-Transparent-Image.png https://www.genesis-mining.com/pricing https://bitcoin.org/img/icons/opengraph.png http://files.coinmarketcap.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/static/img/coins/200x200/ethereum.png https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@steemitguide/2017-top-list-of-big-companies-that-accept-bitcoin-and-cryptocurrencies

References http://blockgeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/infographics2017-01.png https://www.burniegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Blockchain-infographic.png https://fossbytes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/bitcoin-working.jpg https://bitcoin.org/en/how-it-works https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Why_a_GPU_mines_faster_than_a_CPU https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Mining_contractors

References https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining https://www.lifewire.com/cryptocoin-mining-for-beginners-2483064 https://neufund.org/cms_resources/tutorial/coins-2.png http://files.coinmarketcap.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/static/img/coins/200x200/monero.png https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/B-money http://www.allwhitebackground.com/images/2/2270.jpg https://www.odt.co.nz/sites/default/files/styles/odt_story_slideshow/public/slideshow/node-389965/2016/07/bitcoin_mining_computers_are_pictured_in_bitmain_s_57830be267.jpg?itok=8CRP1Osb