And in the news yet another article about crypto currency. They always seem to be on the rise, what is up with that? This topic peaked my interest a long time ago, but not enough to do my own research until now.
Bitcoin has been around for a while and there is really good websites explaining how it works. I like going to the source for these things first, so I had a look at the whitepaper on bitcoin.com. (→whitepaper)
Their beginner's guide was also quite helpful (→guide).
My initial and incomplete take away at first was just a few things around how this may work. Firstly, there is a public record of each transaction (aka the ledger). Secondly, there is a blockchain and it grows with each transaction. The chain is robust against attacks. But I had no idea how that works at this point. There is a limitation to how many bitcoins exist and due to this limit and the increased demand we see an increasing price (as of Nov 2017). Like any market it could turn around quickly.
Oh, one important fact is there is no centralized point where all records are kept, which makes for a few very interesting observations.
There is much more to know about mining and encryption and other fun topics but I didn't dig as deep.
At this point I decided to get some bitcoins. I find that having some skin in the game makes the research a bit more fun. So I tried to convert the equivalent of $100 CAD.
Most services are either made for USD or EUR it seems. Bitcoin.com has a few references so I started working through them. Most of the providers will offer a 'wallet' or an exchange or both. But there doesn't seem to be a standard on vetting customers or how to purchase the initial bitcoin. So buying BTC (or bitcoin) from Canadian Dollar was easier said than done...
Bitcoin has been around for a while and there is really good websites explaining how it works. I like going to the source for these things first, so I had a look at the whitepaper on bitcoin.com. (→whitepaper)
Their beginner's guide was also quite helpful (→guide).
My initial and incomplete take away at first was just a few things around how this may work. Firstly, there is a public record of each transaction (aka the ledger). Secondly, there is a blockchain and it grows with each transaction. The chain is robust against attacks. But I had no idea how that works at this point. There is a limitation to how many bitcoins exist and due to this limit and the increased demand we see an increasing price (as of Nov 2017). Like any market it could turn around quickly.
Oh, one important fact is there is no centralized point where all records are kept, which makes for a few very interesting observations.
There is much more to know about mining and encryption and other fun topics but I didn't dig as deep.
At this point I decided to get some bitcoins. I find that having some skin in the game makes the research a bit more fun. So I tried to convert the equivalent of $100 CAD.
Most services are either made for USD or EUR it seems. Bitcoin.com has a few references so I started working through them. Most of the providers will offer a 'wallet' or an exchange or both. But there doesn't seem to be a standard on vetting customers or how to purchase the initial bitcoin. So buying BTC (or bitcoin) from Canadian Dollar was easier said than done...
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