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How Does Blockchain Technology Work?
As stated in our guide “What is Blockchain Technology?”, there are three principal technologies that combine to create a blockchain. None of them are new. Rather, it is their orchestration and application that is new. These technologies are: 1) private key cryptography, 2) a distributed network with a shared ledger and 3) an incentive to […]
What Can a Blockchain Do?
Financial institutions have financed the disruption of countless industries over the last 30 years; they have an idea of what a revolutionary technology can do to static incumbents. So, to stay ahead of change, banks have been proactive in setting up R&D labs, building test centers and establishing partnerships with blockchain developers to fully understand […]
What is a Distributed Ledger?
Ledgers, the foundation of accounting, are as ancient as writing and money. Their medium has been clay, wooden tally sticks (that were a fire hazard), stone, papyrus and paper. Once computers became normalized in the 1980s and ’90s, paper records were digitized, often by manual data entry. These early digital ledgers mimicked the cataloguing and accounting […]
Why Use a Blockchain?
As the implications of the invention of have become understood, a certain hype has sprung up around blockchain technology. This is, perhaps, because it is so easy to imagine high-level use cases. But, the technology has also been closely examined: millions of dollars have been spent researching blockchain technology over the past few years, and […]
How Could Blockchain Technology Change Finance?
This question has been asked by every futurist research lab in many of the largest banks, central banks, financial institutions, think tanks, consulting firms and government committees around the world. R3CEV, a consortium effort financed by some of the world’s largest banks, is busy trying to answer this question. Goldman Sachs, McKinsey Consulting and Consumers’ Research […]
What are Blockchain's Issues and Limitations?
There are treacherous passes in any technological revolution. Some people in the blockchain industry have pointed out that blockchain has become overhyped, when, in reality, the technology has limitations and is inappropriate for many digital interactions. But through research and development, success and failure, and trial and error, we’ve learned the current issues and limitations of blockchains. […]
Hard Fork vs Soft Fork
Last updated: 16 March, 2018 Forks, or the threat of them, seem to be an established feature of the cryptocurrency landscape. But what are they? Why are they such a big deal? And what is the difference between a hard fork and a soft fork? A “fork,” in programming terms, is an open-source code modification. […]
What is SegWit?
Last updated: 22 February, 2018 SegWit (short for Segregated Witness) is a protocol upgrade that changes the way data is stored. It was activated on litecoin on May 10, 2017, and on bitcoin on 23 August, 2017. Developer Pieter Wiulle first presented the idea at the Scaling Bitcoin conference in December 2015. Many hailed it […]
How to Trade Crypto On Bitfinex
A cryptocurrency exchange based in Hong Kong and founded in 2012, Bitfinex is one of the market’s largest and most liquid exchange services providers, has long attracted a clientele drawn by its offerings of leverage and more advanced trading tools. An early market entrant, Bitfinex has experienced the bumps and bruises that accompany such distinctions. […]
How to Trade Crypto On BitMEX
Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange (BitMEX) is a “crypto-products trading platform” founded in 2014 by a group of former bankers behind HDR Global Trading Limited and is currently operating in Hong Kong while being registered in Seychelles. BitMEX is probably best known for its margin lending capabilities, which allow its users to conduct a leveraged trade as […]
How to Trade Crypto On Bitstamp
A key player in the first generation of cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitstamp’s largest competitors for many years were mostly exchanges that no longer exist today. Now eight years old, Bitstamp has currently amassed over 3 million users, largely in Europe. Once based in Slovenia, Bitstamp is now regulated by the Luxembourg financial regulator, the Commission de […]
How to Trade Crypto On Bittrex
US-based cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex is one of world largest cryptocurrency exchanges, often finding its way into the top 3 US exchanges in terms of trading volume. Based in Seattle, Bittrex is also one of the largest suppliers of alternative cryptocurrencies, which currently lists hundreds of different coins to choose from. Founded in 2013 by Bill […]
How to Trade Crypto On Coinbase
Based in San Francisco California, Coinbase may have achieved the strongest brand recognition amongst cryptocurrency exchanges since its founding in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ersham. It has since grown from a small-medium enterprise (SME) into something much larger, employing more than 500 people and growing rapidly over its seven-year history, to where it stands today […]
How to Trade Crypto On Gemini
Gemini aims to take the “Wild West” out of the cryptocurrency industry by providing its users with a set of safety and legal standards not reciprocated by many other trading platforms. Founded by brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in 2014, the investors who sued Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg in 2008 for idea theft, Gemini was […]
How to Trade Crypto on Huobi
Founded in 2013, Huobi is a Singapore-based global cryptocurrency exchange that has perhaps evolved more than any other major exchange in its time in the market. Meaning “currency” in Mandarin, Huobi today still consistently ranks as one of the world’s top 10 largest exchanges by trade volume. Yet, at times in its history, Huobi was […]
How to Trade Crypto On Kraken
Kraken is one of the world’s oldest and best-known cryptocurrency exchanges and has built upon its reputation for both security and as a leader in bitcoin to euro trading volume. Founded by Jesse Powell in July 2011, the exchange offers 47 market pairs with seven base currencies ranging from the US dollar to the British […]
How to Trade Crypto On Poloniex
An exchange that dates back to the colorful early days of cryptocurrency, U.S.-based Poloniex has had a long journey to its current version. Acquired in a $400 million deal by Goldman Sachs-backed Circle in Feb. 2018, it does not allow users to trade government currencies for cryptocurrency. But while less appealing for beginners today, early […]