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List of Crypto Currencies
DIR By: BMC
Date: January 20, 2014, 7:32 pm
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A cryptocurrency is a digital medium of exchange. The first
cryptocurrency to begin trading was Bitcoin in 2009. Since then,
numerous cryptocurrencies have become available. Fundamentally,
cryptocurrencies are specifications regarding the use of
currency which seek to incorporate principles of cryptography to
implement a distributed, decentralized and secure information
economy. When comparing cryptocurrencies to fiat money, the most
notable difference is in how no group or individual may
accelerate, stunt or in any other way significantly abuse the
production of money. Instead, only a certain amount of
cryptocurrency is produced by the entire cryptocurrency system
collectively, at a rate which is bounded by a value both prior
defined and publicly known.
Dozens of cryptocurrency specifications have been defined, and
most are similar to and derived from the first fully implemented
cryptocurrency protocol, Bitcoin.[citation needed] Within
cryptocurrency systems, the safety, integrity, and balance of
all ledgers is ensured by a swarm of mutually distrustful
parties, referred to as miners, who are, for the most part,
general members of the public, actively protecting the network
by maintaining a high hash-rate difficulty for their chance at
receiving a randomly distributed small fee. Averting the
underlying security of a cryptocurrency is mathematically
possible, but the cost may be unfeasibly high. For example,
against Bitcoin's proof-of-work based system, an attacker would
need computational power greater than that controlled by the
entire swarm of miners in order to even have 1 / 2^(#
authentication rounds for this cryptocurrency - 1) of a chance,
which means directly circumventing Bitcoin's security may be a
task well beyond even a technology company the size of
Google.[citation needed] As of January 2014, no nation has
replaced fiat money with cryptocurrency.
Most cryptocurrencies are designed to gradually introduce new
units of currency, placing an ultimate cap on the total amount
of currency that will ever be in circulation. This is done both
to mimic the scarcity (and value) of precious metals and to
avoid hyperinflation.[1][2] As a result, such cryptocurrencies
tend to experience hyperdeflation as they grow in popularity and
the amount of the currency in circulation approaches this finite
cap. [3] Compared with ordinary currencies held by financial
institutions or kept as cash on hand, cryptocurrencies are less
susceptible to seizure by law enforcement.[1][4] Existing
cryptocurrencies are all pseudonymous, though additions such as
Zerocoin and its distributed laundry feature have been
suggested, which would allow for anonymity.[5][6][7]
Contents [hide]
1 History of cryptocurrencies
2 Proof-of-work schemes
3 Notable cryptocurrencies
3.1 Notes
4 Criticism
5 Major markets
6 See also
7 References
History of cryptocurrencies
Early attempts to integrate cryptography with electronic money
were made by David Chaum, via DigiCash and ecash, which used
cryptography to anonymise electronic money transactions, albeit
with centralized issuing and clearing.[8]
The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was created in 2009
by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto, and used SHA-256 as
its proof-of-work scheme.[9][10][11] Later on, other major
cryptocurrencies, such as Namecoin (an attempt at a
decentralized DNS, which would make internet censorship very
difficult), Litecoin (which uses scrypt as a proof-of-work, as
well as having faster transaction confirmations), Peercoin
(which uses a proof-of-work/proof-of-stake hybrid, and has
inflation of about 1%) and Freicoin (which implements Silvio
Gesell's concept of Freigeld by adding demurrage) were also
created.[12] Many other cryptocurrencies have been created,
though not all have been successful, especially those that
brought few innovations.
For the first two years of existence, cryptocurrencies gradually
gained attention from the media and public.[13] Since 2011,
interest has rapidly increased, especially during the rapid
price rise of Bitcoin in April 2013.
Proof-of-work schemes
The most widely used proof-of-work schemes are SHA-256, which
was introduced by Bitcoin, and scrypt, which is used by
currencies such as Litecoin.[12] Some cryptocurrencies, such as
Peercoin, use a combined proof-of-work/proof-of-stake
scheme.[12][14]
Notable cryptocurrencies
Some or all of this article's listed sources may not be
reliable. Please help this article by looking for better, more
reliable sources, or by checking whether the references meet the
criteria for reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be
challenged or deleted. (January 2014)
This is a list of notable cryptocurrencies. As of December 2013,
all except Ripple are based on the ideas and code of Bitcoin. By
December 2013 there were more than 60 cryptocurrencies available
for trade in online markets.[15]
Currency
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