Bitcoin is a globally recognizable entity. Since its creation in 2008, it has come to stand for the entire cryptocurrency industry, for better or worse. Still, there are far too many people that currently invest in cryptocurrency without actually knowing what it is or how it works.
Being able to submit cryptocurrency guest blog posts means that you speak as an authority on a burgeoning marketplace. But how can you speak authoritatively about something if you aren’t familiar with it yourself?
Understanding cryptocurrency, not just Bitcoin, is essential if you aim to be that voice of authority on a growing market. Knowing the essentials of cryptocurrency can help you be as prepared as possible to speak from a knowledgeable perspective.
How Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Works
When a transaction happens, it is known almost immediately by the entire network. Only after a specific amount of time, however, does the transaction get confirmed. The confirmation is the critical concept when it comes to cryptocurrencies. As a matter of fact, you could say that they are all about the aspect of confirmation.
So long as a transaction is unconfirmed, it is considered to be pending and can be forged. When it is finally confirmed, it is set in stone and is no longer forgeable. This means that it can’t be reversed and is part of an immutable record of transactions, also known as the blockchain.
Miners are the only ones that can confirm transactions. They take those transactions and essentially stamp them as legit and spread them throughout the network. When the transaction is confirmed by a miner, every node has to add it to its database and this is the part where it becomes part of the blockchain.
The miners, for their role in this, get rewarded with a token of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is the most obvious example of this as it is the most well-known cryptocurrency out there. Since the miner’s activity is the most important part of the system, it is only right they be rewarded.
This is the way of legitimizing transactions within the cryptocurrency system without that centralized authority figure. It is still in its infancy stages as a legitimate form of currency, but the potential is certainly there.
Bitcoin remains the face of the cryptocurrency movement but there are more and more companies joining the fray. There is no timetable as to when cryptocurrency will become a more common form of exchanging currency, but the movement has begun.