Bitcoin appeared in 2008 - Immediately after the Occupy Wall Street movement accused large banks of misusing borrowers' funds, cheating customers, interfering with the financial system and exorbitant fees. The pioneers of bitcoin dreamed of transferring responsibility for transactions to sellers, eliminating intermediaries, canceling interest rates and making transactions transparent in order to eradicate corruption and limit fees. At the moment, a lot of crypto currency.
The most important difference between Bitcoin from all other currencies and electronic money is decentralization (a system in which everyone could control their own funds and poimat what is happening to them). No institution in the world controls bitcoin. More details about the blockade and bitcoin can be read here, about the advantages of crypto currency - here.
In my material at all I would not like to touch upon the topic of mining, so as not to play into the hands of the marketing hysteria of sellers of various kinds of video cards and computer components. The theory is perfectly described by reference.
Many are puzzled by the question of how to actually store bitcoins or other crypto currency.
Fundamentally there are only three types of purses: the Exchange (their plus is that at any time you can change coins from one to another.) Less - all exchanges broke down, money was lost. Chances for default 2/10); Multicurrency wallets, in fact - banks (they manage your private keys, if they are hacked, then say goodbye to money - the odds for default are 1/10); And Mono-currency, where you have the keys: paper, iron or type MyEtherWallet. There no one will crack if you do not shine passwords.
The advice from the DeCenter channel is to keep long-term investments in their wallets, workers on exchanges. But there is a "but".
Imagine that you are one of those who were not warned that you can not store crypto-currencies on the stock exchange (you need it on your wallet). In the evening of July 31, you suddenly receive a notice from the exchange that they do not want to know anything about the forks, and that nothing about bitcoin cash has been heard. You are in a panic trying to bring the bitcoins to the purse, but the limits on the withdrawal of the exchange do not allow you to do this. The increase in limits takes longer than 3 months, so you are at a dead end. If you have 100 bitcoins there - you just lost $ 50 thousand, or rather, they stole from you. Those. 20% of the legitimate yield you just took away. More information about the situation can be found here (in English).
The expert on crypto currency Vadim Likholetov (TBI company) also recalls the importance of the "six blocks rule": to complete the transaction, it must receive a certain amount of confirmation from the network. The number of which differs for different wallets and for transactions of different volumes. Details can always be clarified by contacting him.
What is the hardcore bitcoin?
The best and clearest explanation of this mechanism I found on TJournal: "Hardcore is when new rules of work appear for crypto currency, but for their introduction it is necessary to divide into two branches of the block (fork - fork, or in this case branching.) In the case of softphone Separation is not required: new rules are introduced in addition to those already in existence, and the system only approves those softfoots that most users support (the activation mechanism is complicated and step-by-step).
Forks are very similar to application updates. For example, regular updates of the Facebook application for iOS add new functions to the social network. On older versions of these functions there, while users of both, and can continue to communicate with a friend - this is how softpacks work. If someone from Facebook users created a copy of the social network without "smart tape" and advertising, then it would hardly have liked Mark Zuckerberg and his company, and two social networks would have to exist in parallel - in this case, the new social network would be the hackery of the old one. All new content (published after the hard-core) in these social networks would be different, and the old one is the same.
The activation of Bitcoin Cash's hardcore occurred on August 1 at approximately 15:27 Moscow time. At this point the Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash blockhouses were identical, the last block had the serial number of 478558. Bitcoin Cash later had its own blocks, which will not be in the Bitcoin blockbuster, and vice versa: on August 2 at 14:00 the last Bitcoin Cash unit already had an order Number 478570, that is for the day in the blockade appeared 11 new blocks. "
How does the government react to the crypto currency?
The European Union recognizes the only purpose of a virtual currency is to use it as a means of payment. Bitcoin is, so-called, "contractual" means of payment. At the same time, some EU countries recognize bitcoin and in no way regulate the treatment of it legally, the other part - sets its own rules.
Japan officially recognizes the virtual currency and plans to officially include it in circulation.
The United States in the official reports of the World Bank and the FBI bitkoyn consider "virtual currency." According to the classification of the Commission on Financial Crimes under the Ministry of Finance of the United States, bitkoyne is referred to as "decentralized virtual currencies". The Decree of the US President, signed in 2015, gives controlling bodies the right to confiscate any available crypto-currency assets. Another feature is that authorized officials are not required to warn about their actions.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently published its position on the issue of ICO (the primary location of tokens) of crypto-currency projects. Tokens can be considered securities on a par with shares in the traditional exit of companies to the stock exchange, the department believes. A detailed analysis of the reasons for this decision and the consequences of them can be read here.
China does not regulate the circulation of bitcoin among individuals. In addition, it is in China that between 50% and 70% of world bitcoin operations are conducted. In early 2017, more than 90% were sold and bought for yuan. According to experts, China's actions can affect both the spread and the price of the crypto currency in its neighboring countries, such as Japan and South Korea, where now is the highest exchange rate of bitcoin in the world.
Russia has not established a direct ban on the circulation of crypto-currency, issued outside its borders. But there is no any kind of intelligible regulation or even a legislative position on this issue on the part of state power in our country.
Does Russia need a national virtual currency? What role does the crypto currency play in the "Digital Economy" program approved by the government? How many Russians know what crypto currency is and is actively using it? Do you need to actively educate Russians about crypto currency? Is it worth keeping the savings in the crypto currency and investing in it? - none of these questions have absolutely no answer or even a common understanding, in principle.