Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. These are three of the most popular crypto-currencies in the world.
All offer a unique take on blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. However, they also have their own set of pros and cons. Which one is right for you? Bitcoin has been around since 2009 when Satoshi Nakamoto created it.
Since then it has grown to be the largest decentralized currency in the world with a market cap of over $200 Billion USD. It’s also been well known for its volatile price swings (sometimes up to $1,000).
This is because Bitcoin relies on a large network of people running nodes which validate transactions and agree on what should be added to the blockchain next (what “block” is added to the chain).
The more people involved in this process, the less likely it is that someone can make an attempted transaction fraudulently (although no system is 100% secure). Ethereum was created by Vitalik Buterin as part.
The incredible story of how I missed the boat on Bitcoin,
still got rich, and how you can do the same.
The year is 2009.
I am sitting in my office in Asunción, Paraguay.
An intriguing document has just crossed my desk.
It was talking about a new kind of digital money called “Bitcoin”. As I read it, I immediately realized what a potential breakthrough this new technology could be.
But of course I was skeptical. Unsure if it would really work in practice.
I decided to buy a few bitcoins just in case it was for real and would go on to become successful.
After all, one bitcoin was worth just a few cents…
So I went online to see where I could buy some.
But there was a problem.
There was no marketplace to buy or sell bitcoin. Bitcoin was too new. Such exchanges simply didn’t exist yet.
I knew there was a process for “mining” bitcoin.
But I didn’t want to spend days setting up an extra computer. And then install the software, figure out how it actually worked and keep watching over my mining computer.
It was too much of a hassle just to get my hands on some bitcoin that were worth almost nothing at the time.
So I decided to keep an eye on Bitcoin and monitor its progress.
Fast forward to February 2011.
I had gotten busy with other projects and suddenly remembered to check on Bitcoin.
I was shocked to see that the price was over $1.