Cryptocurrencies

Ethereum was first outlined by its creator Vitalik Buterin in an official whitepaper that arrived in 2013.  Having first taken interest in Bitcoin two years earlier, Buterin quickly became an expert on the new technology, learning all he could while…

A fork in cryptocurrency occurs when software updates need to be implemented. The more far-reaching the changes, the more controversial the fork. As with any metaphorical fork in the road, at some point there needs to be a decision on…

Blockchains are designed to operate without the need for a central authority, with each recorded transaction requiring every node operating on the network to check that it’s correct. Understanding who made the transaction is simple – with the use of…

The proof of activity consensus protocol combines the best features of both proof of work (PoW) and proof of stake (PoS) in order to increase the security of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.  Created in 2014, the protocol begins by instructing…

A fork is a collectively agreed upon software update to a cryptocurrency built on blockchain. In order for a proposed update to any cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, to be implemented, there must be consensus among members of the Bitcoin community,…

If you’ve been around the cryptocurrency space for a while, you may have seen dips and spikes of more than 10% in the price. This is because, compared to other assets such as gold, which has been around for centuries…

As the name suggests, the lightning network is a solution created to make transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain faster by processing multiple transactions at once before they are recorded on the chain. First proposed in 2015, the lightning network allows…

A node refers to computers that make up the Bitcoin network and are used to verify transactions on the blockchain. Nodes are spread across the world and talk to each other using the internet, sharing data to update Bitcoin’s distributed…

Cryptocurrency investors argue that Bitcoin is the digital equivalent of investing in gold, in the sense that it is a hedge against inflation and turbulence in the financial markets. In other words, investors have long invested in gold as a…

A Schnorr signature is a type of digital signature used to verify and authorise transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. Think of a digital signature as an electronic version of a physical signature that is virtually impossible to fake. It was…

The Taproot upgrade was implemented to improve Bitcoin’s network speed, privacy, and security features. It did this by making it possible to process transactions in batches. This means it takes less time to process transactions, allowing Bitcoin to continue to scale…

Consensus protocols are the rules by which a network operates. In the case of a blockchain network, the consensus protocol provides the rules by which a transaction on the network is verified as legitimate or fraudulent. As the nature of…