Crypto-currencies

Crypto-currencies are digital online currencies that exhibit that use cryptographic algorithms to control the supply to create "virtual scarcity" and to overcome the counterfeiting and double spending problems. The first was Bitcoin, and then many more began to arise with their own unique properties, strengths and weaknesses such as Namecoin, Litecoin and Ethereum. Crypto-trading is now becoming very popular which is the idea of making money by transferring value between the various crypto-currencies as their value changes with respect to one-another. Usually Bitcoin is used as the base currency since all exchanges that offer multiple crypto-currencies allow them all to be bought or sold with Bitcoins.

Exchanges offering multiple crypto-currencies

• Find exchanges worldwide
• Bittrex
• Poloniex
• Kraken
• Crytopia - hacked
• BTC-E
• CoinMKT
• Cryptsy - hacked, 30KBTC and 300KLTC stolen

Orderless exchanges

• ChangeNOW
• Changelly
• ShapeShift - requires signup now

Multi-asset wallets

• Exodus - desktop platforms
• Atomic Wallet - desktop and mobile platforms
• Jaxx - desktop and mobile platforms

Decentralised exchanges

• Bisq
• HODLHODL
• BitShares
• BlockNet
• Coinfeine
• Etherex
• Waves DEX
• Good list on Reddit
• Multigateway: The First Decentralized Cryptocurrency Exchange
• OmiseGo - set for release in 4^th quarter 2017
• Forbes on DEXes - the DEXes are coming!

Crypto-based mutual credit

• Holochain - post-blockchain crypto + mutual credit based financial mechanism
• Credit Commons - the idea of Bitcoin, but incorporating trust and credit into the protocol to be freed from the constraints and injustices of commodity money
• Waba's Moneda Par - Latin America’s first blockchain-based Mutual Credit Network
• Sikoba - decentralised peer-to-peer IOU platform using blockchain technology
• Trustlines

Sites with charts/stats/info for multiple crypto-currencies

• A glimpse into the dark underbelly of crypto-currency markets - understanding how the price site, exchange and coin dev system operates
• OpenMarketCap.com - coin stats without the fake volume included by some other sites
• CoinCap.io
• CoinMarketCap.com - see also the new FCAS metric explained
• AltCoinIndex.com - Price chart showing ATH (All Time High) info
• BitcoinWisdom - awesome chart service covering many currencies and exchanges
• Crypto Trade - this exchange has historical charts of about ten cryptos
• Bter - this exchange has historical charts of many cryptos
• CoinMKT - this exchange has historical charts of many cryptos (need to be logged in)
• TheWorldWantsBitcoin - good stats on use by country and top cryptos
• Crypto Coin Charts - good info on vaious coins and exchanges and their trading volume
• BlockExperts - block explorers for many lesser known cryptos
• BitInfoCharts.com - good stats over all time and many coins
• Blocktivity.info - index of chain activity cross cryptos

Interesting cryptocurrencies & crypto-projects

• A list of coins with purpose
• Elixxir - new scalable quantum-proof blockchain by David Chaum and team, more info here
• Ethereum
• Namecoin & Emercoin
• BoolBerry - the most anonymous coin to date, based on CryptoNote, but with improved unlinkability
• XCurrency - creating the "blocknet"
• Mastercoin (MSC)
• Nextcoin (NXT)
• Ripple
• Stellar
• BlackCoin - the first 100% proof-of-stake coin
• New Economy Movement (NEM)
• BitShares - all the Invictus Innovations cast explained
• SuperNET
• StealthCoin - X13 hashing and built-in Tor
• Create any asset, backed by your website, and make it liquid over the Internet
• ByteCoin
• BurstCoin - the first proof-of-capacity coin
• NODE - a new crypto 2.0 contender enters the arena
• ZCash - the return of ZeroCoin
• Byteball - bitcoin holders will receive a proportional amount of byteball on Christmas day
• Stampery and Stamp.io - ensure the existence, integrity and attribution of communications, processes and data
• Holochain's global currency whitepaper

Cryptocurrency news sites

• Crypto Coin News
• Global crypto news

Proof of work

This is the original method of securing blockchains introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto and is explained in detail in the Hash article.

Proof of stake

Imagine 100 people sitting around a circular table. One person has a bundle of papers, each with a different transaction history. The first participant picks up a pen and signs one, then passes it onto the next person, who makes a similar choice. Each participant gets $1 if they sign the transaction history that most of the participants sign in the end. Oh and btw - if you sign one page and later sign a different page, your house burns down... this is probably a good incentive to sign the right piece of paper.

— Vitalik's simple Casper analogy

Rather than requiring the prover to perform a certain amount of computational work, a proof of stake system requires the prover to show ownership of a certain amount of money. The reason why Satoshi could not have done this himself is simple: before 2009, there was no kind of digital property which could securely interact with cryptographic protocols. Paypal and online credit card payments have been around for over ten years, but those systems are centralized, so creating a proof of stake system around them would allow Paypal and credit card providers themselves to cheat it by generating fake transactions. IP addresses and domain names are partially decentralized, but there is no way to construct a proof of ownership of either that could be verified in the future. Indeed, the first digital property that could possibly work with an online proof of stake system is Bitcoin (and cryptocurrency in general) itself.

• Proof-of-stake on Wikipedia
• What is proof-of-stake and why it matters
• Proof-of-stake: How I learned to love weak subjectivity - Vitalik Buterin
• Vitalik explains light-clients and proof-of-stake
• Casper getting closer to realisation
• Proof-of-stake and proof-of-security
• Casper and Tendermint PoS algorithms compared
• Delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS)

Proof of retrievability

This is an awesome idea! Permacoin solves two major problems with bitcoin in one elegant solution. The problem of the huge waste of resource that mining occupies, and the problem that the bitcoin network has no mechanism for large-scale data storage.

Permacoin flips the mining paradigm on its orthogonal axis by saying that instead of time=money (i.e. processing power to mine coins with proof of work), they make space=money! "Miners" offer space to the network in a proof of retrievability system resulting in a usable distributed storage system instead of teraflops of unusable processing :-)

This effort is backed by Microsoft so may end up with some closed-source soul-selling strings attached, but the idea of proof-of-retrievability is sure to be an up and coming concept in the crypto future!

Proof of service

Holochain uses a system called "proof of service" to​ serve​ the trillions​ of​ small​ computational​ interactions​ that​ it​ will​ need​ to​ handle,​ we’ve designed​ its​ currency​ system​ to​ support​ millions​ of​ transactions​ per​ second​ and​ account​ for service​ provision​ in​ batches.​ The​ batching​ is​ facilitated​ by​ signed​ service​ logs,​ which​ record signed​ requests​ and​ their​ associated​ signed​ responses,​ along​ with​ the​ underlying​ computational metrics​ to​ deliver​ them.​ When​ the​ log​ on​ a ​ device​ accumulates​ enough​ micro-charges​ to​ cross the​ billing​ threshold​ (in​ terms​ of​ time​ elapsed​ or​ charges​ accumulated),​ it​ generates​ a Proof-of-Service​ invoice​ for​ the​ services​ performed.

Proof of cooperation

FairCoin uses a system called Proof of cooperation. In contrast to other cryptocurrencies FairCoin does not implement any mining or minting functionality, which are only needed for competitive systems. Instead, so called ‘Collaboratively Validated Nodes‘ (CVNs) cooperate to create new blocks and to secure the network. The money supply has been frozen at 53,193,831 FAIR and can not further be changed by creating blocks.

Other proof-of ideas

• 2017-04-07: Anti-Sybil Protocol using virtual Pseudonym Parties - proof-of-individuality protocol
• 2012-08-21: Charlie Lee introduces Proof of Activity proposal

Mining

• Good blog post by Vitalik about the various consensus options
• Low Cost Bitcoin Hashing Power Trading Platform Kryptologika Offers GH/s Backed With Physical Silver
• NiceHash - mines whatever's profitable at the time, very simple set up and stats

Regulation

No wonder a bunch of bitcoin companies are bailing from NY! (BitLicense) but the reality is that this kind of heavy-handed "regulation" is likely to spread more as the fiat system declines and crypto becomes more popular. But this has a good side as well - it will help to speed up truly anonymous solutions and fully distributed organisations (DAO's / DAC's).

• MerkleTree.io - shows legal status of crypto-currency around the world
• Mercator Report Finds Conflicting Bitcoin Regulation Harmful to Industry
• RBNZ breaks its silence on crypto

News & views

• 2019-01-26: Against Szabo’s Law, For A New Crypto Legal System
• 2018-10-16: With New Exchange Listings and Demand, New Stablecoins See Pegs Broken - also shows new stable coins gaining traction with $600M moving across from tether
• 2018-10-09: BitNation Bitnation releases first batch of Vienna Convention compliant diplomatic blockchain passports - public passports to be released in 2019
• 2018-03-11: Sierra Leone Uses Blockchain To Track Election Results, Swiss Company Provides Expertise
• 2018-01-08: Telegram to launch an ICO
• 2017-06-28: Realising the potential of blockchain - WEF paper on how crypto can integrate with the global economy
• 2016-09-28: A second Internet is coming soon courtesy of the blockchain
• 2016-06-29: China Signals a New, Accepting Approach to Digital Currencies
• 2016-02-27: Crypto likely the place to be to take advantage of the biggest capital outflow in history
• 2015-12-31: Linux Foundation Creates New Open Source Initiative for Blockchain Technology
• 2015-03-10: BitNation partners with Horizon and Blocknet
• 2015-03-10: Bitlancerr - microjobs for crypto!
• CryptoCurrency Security Standard (CCSS) a "Major Step Forward" in Bitcoin Security
• BitHalo releases version 2.1, competing head-on with PayPal and Western Union
• Vatalik Buterin raises some excellent points about crypto fragmentation here
• Blockchain Factory - Nathan Wosnack and David Mondrus from BitNation are setting up their own Governance 2.0 services

See also

• Bitcoin
• Ethereum
• Paper wallet - our local method of safely storing your crypto-assets
• QuarkCoin: Noble Intentions, Wrong Approach
• Profitability of the cryptocoins BTC LTC FTC PPC NMC IXC DVC FRC CNC BTE MNC BQC YAC
• Good article on PeerCoin
• Coin Pursuit - good site offering a broad range of info for crypto traders
• 10 signs that MaxCoin was the largest altcoin launch in history - a week after this article was published it crashed and never recovered lol
• Map of Coins
• List of exchanges on dotbit.org
• Development of an Open and Flexible Payment System - good doc on cryptocurrency written by Gary Howland in 1996
• All about NXT
• List of dead and scam coins
• Project Resilience - a proposed crypto-based UBI mechanism
• Nxtty – crypto messaging for the masses
• XCurrency Introduces the “Internet of Blockchains” – Blocknet
• Python Coinkit - tools for dealing with bitcoin and many alts
• ZeroNet - crypto based decentralised websites
• LoadDebitCard.com - load your VISA/Mastercard with crypto - ripoff but interesting
• How to build your own crypto-currency
• FellowTraveller on tethering
• BulletProofs - method for confidential contracts and transactions
• What is MAST? - understanding merkalised abstract syntax trees
• Cryptoanarchy Wiki
• App.co - portal for Dapps across all technologies
• Very complete cluster of crypto concepts at golden.com