Until the introduction of Altcoins, Cryptocurrency was just another word for Bitcoin. Majority of the market is still based on Bitcoin, as it was in the beginning. Origin of Bitcoin is still a topic of debate and speculation. The speculation being that invention was done by one person by the name Satoshi Nakamoto or many programmers. On 3rdJanuary 2009, an open source program was introduced for peer-to-peer communication for all the transactions, eliminating the need for any intermediate regulating body.
Bitcoin paper was first published on 31stOctober 2008 and was registered in sourceforge.net. The first ever transaction took place between Satoshi to Hal Finney in block 170. This was the start of Cryptocurrency Era offering new possibilities for the people.
There are several investment opportunities offered by the Cryptocurrency market. More than 5 million users across the globe have Bitcoin wallets; being used for online transactions, buying a product, services, and even trading. Bitcoin mining is becoming popular day by even though it’s becoming more and more difficult to mine the Bitcoins. Bitcoin miners try to complete the Blockchains by adding the transaction info in this virtual ledger using hash calculations. It is all carried out by the computers or the specific equipment with high computational power owned by the miners. Once the Blockchain is complete the miner is rewarded with some amount of Bitcoins.
Mining can be a tedious task to get Bitcoins and hence to make any profit from it. The value of Bitcoins keeps on changing; it’s hard to predict the investment and profit margins before stating the mining venture. Easier way lets investors buy Bitcoins and trade for traditional currency, these Bitcoins can be sold when the price is right high or low depending on the market. Being open source system, there are several trading platforms and exchanges that offer these services, some even charge very less trading commission.
Blockchain technology makes it possible to empower the people who own the currency or involved in the mining. There is no particular server to deal with the transactions or to keep the record but several computers known as the nodes. These nodes validate the transactions using complex algorithms hence creating the Blockchains.
Along with the big chunk of Cryptocurrency as Bitcoin, there are Altcoins. Altcoins like Ethereum has shown a lot of promise to its investors. Early investments in the Ethereum led to the profits north of 1000%.
When it comes to investment there are risks involved everywhere. The sole purpose of the investment is to gain financially in long term or in short term. Same goes for the Cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin and other major Altcoins have shown promise, but no one can predict the future. The legality of Cryptocurrency usage varies from country to country. So it is better to check the jurisdiction and tax liabilities according to the country before stepping into the Cryptocurrency realm.