Posted on

Kraken vs Coinbase: All You Need to Know

Cryptocurrency is big news and trading in it is becoming highly popular and, more importantly, incredibly lucrative. Entering into not just a new currency, but a complete re-imagining of what currency is, however, is certainly a little intimidating. Thankfully, help is at hand through a number of cryptocurrency exchanges, the most popular of which are Kraken and Coinbase.

Kraken-vs-Coinbase

To help you understand each of these digital platforms a little more clearly, we’ve put together a list of the pros and cons of each. And, by the end of it, you should have a better idea of where you’re going to buy, sell and store your cryptocurrencies.

Kraken vs Coinbase

Kraken

Kraken

Founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell, Kraken is located in San Francisco and was one of the first Bitcoin exchanges to launch on the Bloomberg Terminal. Here are the pros and cons that you need to be aware of when using Kraken:

PROS

  • Wide range of currencies available: Kraken is able to boast 14 different currencies on their exchange and these include the three most popular in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin
  • Low fees: Trading fees on Kraken are some of the lowest you can find among crypto-exchanges
  • High limits: Kraken allows you to deposit and withdraw up to $25,000 per day
  • Simple verification: Users are able to start trading in both digital and fiat (issued by a government) currencies by providing just a few personal details

CONS

  • No credit/debit card facilities: The only method for withdrawing and selling on Kraken is through bank transfers and cryptocurrency
  • Not user friendly: The Kraken interface has been criticised for being unfriendly to users and causing beginners to make numerous errors

Coinbase

Coinbase

Coinbase was founded in San

Francisco by Brian Armstrong in 2012 and now has a user base of around 13.3 million users. If you’re interested in trading on Coinbase then these are the pros and cons of the platform:

PROS

  • User friendly: Simplicity is the name of the game with Coinbase and it ensures that beginners are able to get up and running with the minimum of fuss
  • Good buy/deposit methods: Coinbase allows its users to use either credit/debit card, bank transfers and cryptocurrency to facilitate withdrawals/deposits
  • Safe Limits: Rather than allow new users to lose huge amounts of money immediately, Coinbase sets purchase limits based on account age, buying history and verification status
  • Easy verification: Bank details can be linked to your account almost instantly to allow you to start trading

CONS

  • Limited cryptocurrencies: Coinbase only supports Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum, so the choice of available cryptocurrencies is limited
  • Medium fees: Purchase fees on Coinbase are higher than their rivals with 1.49% and 3.99% fees for bank transfer and credit card transactions respectively

Final Thoughts: Kraken vs Coinbase

No matter what people tell you, the cryptocurrency bubble is not going to burst. And that’s why there’s no better time to get involved with cryptocurrency.

Kraken and Coinbase both represent fantastic options for getting to grips with the complexities of cryptocurrency, but with a significant difference in the services on offer. Kraken, of course, provides a wide range of different cryptocurrencies to work with, but offers limited options when it comes to withdrawing/depositing funds. Coinbase, meanwhile, may offer slightly higher transaction fees, but it’s a platform which is intuitive and offers superior buy/deposit methods.

Deciding on which platform is entirely down to your circumstances, but if you choose carefully then you stand to make the whole process easier and more financially rewarding.

Posted on

Where Can I Buy Ether?

If you’re interested in purchasing crypto currency as opposed to mining for it, you may find yourself asking ‘where can I buy ether’ and that is the key question we’ll cover in this article.

But first a quick recap…

What is Ether?

As a quick recap, Ether, ETH, is the currency that powers the Ethereum network. Ether is one of the most popular virtual currencies at the moment, generally considered to be second only to Bitcoin.

Many people think that Ethereum, and the Ethereum Virtual Machine will have a more important long-term future than other currencies like Bitcoin, as it can be used for other things like smart contracts.

Ether is the currency that is used to reward nodes on the Ethereum network that ultimately makes all these things possible.

Ethereum

When people talk about buying Ether, ETH or Ethereum they are all different names for the same thing.

So, where can you buy it?

Where Can I Buy Ether?

The safest way to buy Ethereum tokens is through a reputable crypto currency exchange. There are a handful of exchanges that are simple enough to use and will let you buy Ether in a short space of time.

With most exchanges you will need to open an account and verify your identity. You will then be able to deposit funds and make your first purchase of Ether.

  1. If this is your first time buying Ether you can open an account with someone like Coinbase as this is one of the best known exchanges and only has a limited number of currencies available. This makes it simpler to use. 
  2. You will be asked to upload identity documents such as a driving license.
  3. There are different deposit limits and withdrawal limits depending on the payment method you use, i.e. credit card vs. PayPal.
  4. If you are new to Coinbase, you can sign up with this link to get $10 worth or free Bitcoin. 

If you already hold other crypto currencies, you can use these to buy Ether, for example you could exchange Bitcoin to Ethereum.

The best crypto currency exchange will depend on your specific circumstances and what you are looking for. Some are more sophisticated that others, or only work in certain jurisdictions.

How else can you get you hands on Ether?

get you hands on Ether

There are a couple of other ways that you could get Ether other than buying it.

  1. Accept it as payment – If you run a business, you could accept payment in Ether
  2. Mine for it – If you care technically minded you could mine for Ether.

Crypto Currency Course

If you’re new to this space it is worth educating yourself before you make any investment. There are several good crypto currency trading courses available that will give you a good grounding in the concepts and help you make informed decisions.

These types of courses will almost certainly be of use once you move past your initial question of “where can I buy Ether?”. 

Posted on

Cryptocurrency Trading

The high gains experienced by cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum over the past year have created much interest and hype in this space. Even major investment banks that previously spoke negatively of the crypto movement have opened trading desks to address demand from their clients.

Cryptocurrency Trading

This article will explore why cryptocurrency trading is so popular, the difficulties involved and how to get started.

The growth of crypto

Interest in cryptocurrencies is being driven by two main factors:

  • Long term growth – The value of crypto currencies has grown astronomically over the past 18 months, and this makes it very attractive to investors who speculate that it will continue to rise over the long term. People also hope to identify new coin offerings that will have the same explosive growth of bitcoin and ethereum.
  • Volatility – While the value of cryptocurrencies is increasing, it is by no means a sure thing, and prices are incredibly volatile. Traders hope to use this volatility to make money in the short term, buying and selling to take advantage of the peaks and troughs.

Many see the potential of bitcoin in particular as a store of value, in the same way that gold is used today.

Cryptocurrency trading challenges

Cryptocurrency trading challenges

There are several reasons why cryptocurrency trading is an uncertain and volatile business:

  • Complicated space – while it is not essential to have an understanding of blockchain and the specifics of how cryptocurrencies work in order to trade them, it is still beneficial to have a broad understanding of the concepts. Even at a high level, cryptocurrencies can be very complex, and the economics of how coins function differs from one coin to the next.
  • Signals are not the same as stocks and shares – many of the traditional measures that traders use to assess the value of stocks and shares don’t apply to cryptocurrencies. This means that people are having to invent new ways to determine whether a coin is a good investment.
  • Don’t have the historical data – Further to the fact that we don’t have good tools and measures, we also don’t have good historical data to tell us how cryptocurrencies react to different events. This makes it difficult to predict how their value fluctuates relative to geopolitical and economic inputs.
  • Regulatory landscape is immature – as much of the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies is new and relatively unproven, regulators are understandably nervous. In some jurisdictions they have sought to limit trading of crypto currencies by blocking exchanges and imposing new regulation. You wouldn’t want to be holding a large amount of cryptocurrency in a country where it suddenly became very difficult to sell.

Exchanges

In order to buy or sell crypto currencies you will first need to register with an exchange or cryptocurrency trading platform. The best cryptocurrency exchange for you will depend on what exactly you are looking to buy and how sophisticated you need it to be.

Coinbase is generally seen as a good entry point, but you can get more advanced trading features on other exchanges.

Cryptocurrency trading Courses

If you’re new to this space, there are a number of crypto currency trading courses available that will have you get up to speed quickly and save you lots of time researching the topic.

You should view purchasing an online course as an investment in helping you to make longer term trading decisions further down the line.

Cryptocurrency Trading: final thoughts

The future of currencies like bitcoin and ethereum is far from certain, and it is even less clear for the multitude of altcoins that are now available on the market.

That being said, the huge gains that these currencies have seen over the past year will no doubt continue to draw attention to the space.

If you’re serious about investing, make sure you take steps to educate yourself before you get started, and be wary of the the commentators who think that this could turn out to be a bubble waiting to burst.

Posted on

Best Crypto Currency Exchange

The crypto currency market has many people excited, with the explosive growth over the past few years leading to some media outlets to refer to it as a modern day gold rush.

We have covered in previous posts how you go about mining for crypto assets, but what if you just want buy them?

In this post we’ll look at how to find the best crypto currency exchange to help you get up and trading as quickly and as smoothly as possible.

Coinbase

Coinbase

Coinbase is one of the most popular and best well known exchanges, and for good reason.

What’s great about coinbase?

  • Simple to use – The user interface is simple and intuitive to use, much like other modern web services that you’ll be familiar with. 
  • Fast time to get registered – coinbase uses an automated verification process which scans your drivers license via your webcam or camera phone. This is simple to use and means that most users can be registered, verified and trading within a few minutes.
  • Backed by reputable companies – Coinbase lists Andreessen Horowitz among its investors, the same venture capital firm behind companies like … and …
  • Based in the US – While there are currency exchanges based all over the world, for those that are concerned about where their money is going, Coinbase is located in the US.

    Downside

  • Lack of available currencies – You can only trade a handful of currencies on coinbase, like Bitcoin, Ether and Litecoin. 

You can get a special offer when you sign up to Coinbase using this link.

$10 worth of free bitcoin.

Other Exchanges

Other Exchanges

There are a plethora of other exchanges and some of the best known include Kraken, Bitpanda and Bitstamp. 

The positives of these exchanges are varied:

  • Wide range of currency pairs – while Coinbase is limited to a very small subset of the crypto currencies available today, on other exchanges the possibilities are virtually limitless. You can purchase Ripple with ETH, or Doge with dollars.
  • More functionality – many of these exchanges offer functionally more akin to a trading platform and allow you to do things such as set up advanced automated buy and sell orders set at different trigger points. This is particularly useful if you want to take advantage of the volatility of certain currencies, but are not able to actively trade throughout the day.

Some of the things to be wary of when choosing an exchange include.

  • Long time to verify – reputable crypto currency exchanges now require users to complete KYC checks before they can pay in fiat currency. This typically involves users sending photo of a drivers license or passport. Particularly during peak periods (e.g. at the end of 2017) this can take a long time. Some people reported delays of over 2 weeks waiting to be verified, which obviously is no good if you’re looking to get in at the start of a run.
  • Security – there have been several high profile hacks of crypto currency exchanges over the past few years, with customers losing most or in some cases all of the money they had online. You should seriously consider transferring you keys to a hardware wallet where they are more secure.
  • Ease of use – while Coinbase is designed to look and feel like most modern web interfaces and is therefore simple and intuitive to use, the same cannot often be said for some of the alternatives. The increased functionality and options in terms of currency pairs brings complexity. In some cases even figuring out how to transfer money into the exchange can be difficult.
  • Hidden fees – some exchanges will change a fee when you transfer crypto currency in and this is t always immediately obvious in the fees. Check the small print so that you know exactly what you’re paying for.

Many of the most popular exchanges are based in countries like South Korea and China and have suffered over the past year as governments have sought to impose regulation on the crypto currency trading space.

In the long run it is widely expected that the regulators will relax these rules once the hype around crypto currencies subsided and the space is better understood.

If you are serious about investing in crypto currency you should think about enrolling in crypto currency trading course, this will help you to get a broad understanding of the crypto space and help you to make more informed decisions.

Best crypto currency exchange: final thoughts

There are many options available if you want to trade crypto currencies, but if you’re just starting out, Coinbase is the simplest and easiest to use. If you want more advanced trading features, or access to a wider range of currencies, you should consider some of the other options like Kracken or …

Posted on

Monero vs. Bitcoin

This article, originally published on CoinCentral, explores the key differences between Monero vs. Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin gave the world digital cash. The ability to transact large sums of money across the globe, without needing to ask permission, and without the need to use middlemen is truly groundbreaking. But for all its advantages over national fiat currencies, Bitcoin now only seems to serve a limited set of use cases. It is not very private, transactions are generally slow and becoming costly. It’s becoming harder to upgrade and add new features to the protocol making it resistant to new innovations and technologies.

Then came Monero – private by default with untraceable transactions. It has an adaptive block size. It has its own codebase and is not simply another Bitcoin clone. Even its developers are mainly anonymous. Monero ticks most the permissionless digital cash boxes – is it all too good to be true?

In this Monero vs Bitcoin comparison, we’ll take a deeper look at Monero’s features that have helped it grow to a top 10 cryptocurrency.

Why Bitcoin lacks privacy and What Monero does about it

Bitcoin vs Monero

Bitcoin is pseudonymous, meaning that users can transact without providing their identities. Instead of using real world identities as banks do, Bitcoin uses addresses to make transactions possible between wallets.

The problem is that the addresses, along with the transaction information, all get stored on a public ledger. Although users can make transactions without attaching their personal identity, it is now widely known that the Bitcoin blockchain is being data mined by blockchain analysis companies. These companies are able to de-anonymize Bitcoin transactions with a high degree of accuracy.

Unlike Bitcoin, where you need to take extra steps to achieve anonymity, Monero has privacy turned on as a default setting. Untraceable transactions and anonymity are baked into the protocol.

As a side effect of anonymous and untraceable transactions, Monero is more fungible than Bitcoin. Fungible simply means that you can’t tell apart one coin from the next. Bitcoins are subject to being tainted. For instance, if a particular exchange has been hacked, or funds are stolen, the hacked or stolen Bitcoins can be tracked and subsequently blacklisted by exchanges or vendors. This can make a percentage of Bitcoins unspendable, which is not ideal for a digital representation of cash. Monero’s inherent untraceability makes this a non-issue.

How exactly does Monero achieve privacy?

Monero uses three different privacy innovations, namely, ring signatures, Ring Confidential transactions, and stealth addresses.

Ring signatures hide information about the sender, using a technique where a group of users sign the transaction. This obscures who the actual sender was.

Next, by using a technique known as RingCT, which stands for Ring Confidential Transactions, Alice can send Bob some Monero, and the only people that will ever know the amount sent will be Alice and Bob. Although the transaction is visible on the blockchain, there is no way to determine the amount transacted.

Lastly, Monero uses stealth addresses which adds privacy to the receiver of a transaction. Stealth addresses use ‘spend keys’ to obscure the receiver’s address. A sender is required to generate a spend key address for the receiver and send the Monero through this address. A ‘view key’ is then used by the receiver to display incoming transactions. This method means that while a transaction is recorded on the blockchain, only the sender and the receiver can determine where the payment was actually sent.

Monero vs Bitcoin: Other Key Differences

Monero-vs-Bitcoin

Released in early 2014, it is understandable that Monero still has some catching up to do compared to Bitcoin which has been around since 2009. This is reflected in the two coin’s market cap differences, with Monero sitting in 9th place at the time of writing.

Bitcoin had a lot more time to build out its network, and it won’t be giving up its first mover advantage that easily. With Monero, however, the market cap comparison does not reflect the fact that Monero has a different use case than Bitcoin, a use case built around its privacy. Monero is now establishing itself as the ‘coin of choice’ for people that want privacy in their transactions or that want to use Dark Markets. Bitcoin lost flavor with Dark Market users who quickly switched loyalty when they realized that Monero took privacy a few steps further than Bitcoin ever could.

Monero is not a one-trick-pony either. Privacy aside, the Monero developers have been addressing some key issues that Bitcoin has found challenging.

Hard forks have proved dangerous in Bitcoin as they show major rifts in consensus and make protocol upgrades contentious. When it comes to upgrading the protocol, Monero has a policy of hard forking every 6 months. All users are given fair warning and are expected to upgrade their software, making upgrading a breeze.

Monero has a dynamic block size which can adapt to the network’s requirements, unlike Bitcoin’s hard capped limited block size. With dynamic block sizes, you also get dynamic fees. It takes an average of 2-minutes for the average Monero block to be mined, and for transactions to be confirmed – a clear advantage for retail like scenarios.

Miner centralization, due to the use of ASIC chips, is a problem that Bitcoin has not been able to avoid. Short of a contentious fork to change the Proof of Work algorithm, it looks like mining centralization is here to stay in Bitcoin. Monero uses mining algorithms that are ASIC resistant, meaning it can be mined using standard CPUs and GPUs, which keeps the mining decentralized.

How has the Market received Monero?

Monero saw incredible growth in 2016, where it was the best performing crypto for the year. It has a growing legion of fans. Many were originally Bitcoiners that became frustrated with Bitcoin’s inability to achieve consensus to add improvements. As data analysis firms started de-anonymizing Bitcoin users, privacy oriented coins became all the more appealing.

Eager to grow their community and see their currency gain use, Monero fans have organized and have even set up their own LocalBitcoins style exchange for Monero called LocalMonero.co where buyers can find local sellers for one-on-one trades.

The bottom line

Since its inception, Monero has forged ahead and carved its own path in cryptocurrency privacy innovation. When compared to Bitcoin, and despite early setbacks and engineering challenges, it clearly leads the way in terms of anonymity and untraceability. But it is not alone in the privacy niche. Hot on its heels are other privacy focused coins, like Dash, Zcash, PIVX and Verge among others.

But competition is good in the cryptocurrency space because a coin can adopt new and innovative techniques that other developers have found to be successful. It is more about keeping the protocol agile so it can implement improvements and upgrades. Monero devs have shown that this is something they consider to be very important.

Bitcoin has gone through its own upgrade recently with the activation of SegWit, providing the oldest blockchain with some much needed new capabilities. SegWit allows for second layer innovations to be built on top of Bitcoin’s protocol layer. The SegWit upgrade was hotly contested for a couple of years. This had the effect of stalling innovations like the Lightning Network for fast transactions, and Confidential Transactions which offer enhancements in user privacy.

Other innovations are also in the pipeline, like MimbleWimbe and Atomic swaps, that can make cross-chain transactions possible, meaning you can send someone Monero, and they get the value in Bitcoin – or vice versa. Such developments can foster a sense of blockchains cooperating instead of directly competing to eat each other’s lunch. With that in mind, it is probably less about picking a winner between Monero and Bitcoin, and more about both coins growing independently and serving distinct use cases and markets.

Monero’s clear efforts in being distinctly different from Bitcoin are already paying off as it is clearly the leader in the privacy niche, and it is certainly here to stay.

This is  article was written by Theo Tsihitas and originally published on CoinCentral . Read the full article here.

Posted on

Crypto Mining Mastermind

At the request of our readers we are looking at forming a small, virtual crypto mining group. 

This will most likely be by invitation only, with members being accepted based on their level of experience and specific areas of interest. It will also be limited to 8-12 members initially.

Crypto Mining Mastermind

This will ensure that the conversation is focused on things that people will get the most value from and that people’s voices will be heard.

We envisage that the group will include:

  • Fortnightly call to discuss all things crypto
    • Rough agenda agreed with participants beforehand
    • Occasional guest / expert speakers
    • Typed up minutes from the meetings shared afterwards
  • Access to closed Facebook group for ongoing conversations

We are still in the planning stages and would very much appreciate your input on what this group could look like.

If this sounds like it could be of interest to you and you’d like to be kept in the loop as the group evolves, please register your interest using the form on our contact page, with “Mastermind” as the subject.

 

Posted on

What is Ethereum? The Ultimate Beginners Guide

With the second largest market cap in the cryptocurrency world, Ethereum has drawn a lot of attention from investors and crypto enthusiasts alike.

This relatively new cryptocurrency not only presents a significant change to the status quo, it also allows for the quick development and deployment of new applications. Ethereum essentially enables dozens of new and extremely innovative cryptocurrencies to exist.

While Ethereum’s utility is obvious to programmers and the tech world at large, many people who are less tech-savvy have trouble understanding it. This guide to will appeal to both crowds and expose anyone from complete crypto beginners and intermediates to this potentially game-changing cryptocurrency.

If you’re interested in learning about how you can profit from trading crypto currencies, you might want to consider enrolling in a crypto currency trading course. 

What is Ethereum?

EthereumSimply put, Ethereum is a blockchain-based decentralized platform on which decentralized applications (Dapps) can be built.

Remember, blockchain is the structure the vast majority of cryptocurrencies run on. It’s a database with no central server that keeps track of every transaction and exchange.

Ethereum’s appeal is that it is built in a way that enables developers to create smart contracts. Smart contracts are scripts that automatically execute tasks when certain conditions are met. For example, a smart contract could technically say, “pay Jane $10 if she submits a 1000 word article on goats by September 15, 2018,” and it would pay Jane once the conditions are met.

These smart contracts are executed by the Turing-complete Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), run by an international public network of nodes.

The cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network is called ether. Ether serves two different functions:

  1. Compensate the mining full nodes that power its network. This keeps things running smoothly at an administrative level.
  2. Pay people under smart contract conditions. This is what motivates users to work on the Ethereum platform.

If you’re still a little confused, don’t worry. The underlying technology is complicated even at a surface level.

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a better understanding of Ethereum than 99.999% of people out there… and that’s a pretty good start!

We’ll go over things such as how Ethereum functions, Ethereum’s history, and some of the exciting dapps running on the Ethereum platform.

Welcome to a Wild Ride: Ethereum

In 2011, a 17 year old Russian-Canadian boy named Vitalik Buterin learned about Bitcoin from his father.

In 2013, after visiting developers across the world who shared an enthusiasm for programming, Buterin published a white-paper proposing Ethereum.

In 2014, Buterin dropped out of the University of Waterloo after receiving the Thiel Fellowship of $100,000 to work on Ethereum full-time.

In 2015, the Ethereum system went live.

In 2017, Ethereum hit a cap rate of $36 billion dollars.

Whether you’re looking at this from an investment standpoint, tech perspective, or witness to history; Ethereum is extremely exciting.

Buterin’s goal was to bring the same decentralization from Bitcoin to more than just currency. This could be accomplished by building a fully-fledged Turing-complete programming language into the Ethereum blockchain.

The Ethereum white paper goes into detail for some of the potential use cases, all of which could be built through decentralized apps on the Ethereum network. The list goes on and on:

  • Token Systems
  • Financial Derivatives
  • Identity and Reputation Systems
  • File Storage
  • Banking
  • Centralized Autonomous Organizations
  • Insurance
  • Data Feeds
  • Cloud Computing
  • Prediction Markets

By building these apps on the Ethereum network, these dapps can utilize Ethereum’s blockchain instead of having to create their own.

The Ethereum Virtual Machine

Early blockchain applications like Bitcoin only allowed users a set of predefined operations. For example, Bitcoin was created exclusively to operate as a cryptocurrency.

Unlike these early blockchain projects, Ethereum allows users to create their own operations. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) makes this possible. As Ethereum’s runtime environment, the EVM executes smart contracts. Since every Ethereum node runs the EVM, applications built on it reap the benefits of being decentralized without having to build their own blockchain.

Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are strings of computer code capable of automatically executing when certain predetermined conditions are met.

Instead of requiring a single central authority to say “yay” or “nay,” these contracts are self-operated. This not only makes the entire process more effective, it also makes it more fair and objective.

For example, a simple smart contract use case would be:

  • Jim wants to bet Sarah 100 Ether (ETH) that the price of ETH will be above $1000 on August 30th, 2018.
  • They agree on a data feed to be used to determine the ETH price.
  • They each escrow 100 ETH to a smart contract, with the winner taking the full 200 ETH.
  • On August 30th, 2018 the data feed is queried and the contract immediately executes sending money to the winner.

Using the smart contract, there’s no need for Jim and Sarah to trust each other. They just have to trust the data feed.

Keep in mind that this is only a very simple example. Many smart contracts are extremely complex and can work wonders.

The takeaway: Smart contracts can automate a variety of tasks, without requiring intermediaries. All a smart contract needs is the arbitrary rules written into it.

Ethereum vs Bitcoin

Ethereum vs BitcoinNow that you have a decent understanding of what Ethereum is and how it functions, it’s useful to consider how it compares to Bitcoin at a technical level.

While the two cryptocurrencies serve different purposes, Ethereum provides a number of benefits over Bitcoin:

  1. Shorter Block Times – On Ethereum, blocks are mined roughly every 15 seconds compared to Bitcoin’s 10-minutes rate.  This shorter time allows the blockchain to more quickly start confirming transaction data, although it also means more orphaned blocks.
  2. More Sophisticated Fee Structure – Ethereum transaction fees are based off storage needs and network usage. Bitcoin transactions are limited by block size and compete with each other.
  3. More Sophisticated Mining – Bitcoin mining currently requires ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits), necessitating a large amount of capital investment to mine.  Ethereum’s mining algorithm was designed with ASIC-resistance in mind, thus leveling the playing field and aiding in the decentralization of mining.

Ethereum arguably currently functions better than Bitcoin as a currency. With Ethereum, you can reliably send transactions faster, pay lower transaction fees, and mine at a more profitable rate (although it still has its downfalls for miners).

Future Updates to Ethereum

The future for Ethereum is bright, but it is not without its potential uncertainty.

A notable event on the horizon is the Metropolis hard fork that is set to occur in late September. This hard fork indicates some major upgrades for the platform including:

  1. Increased anonymity with new zero-knowledge proofs, or “zk-SNARKs.” This means users will be able to conduct transactions at much more secure levels of anonymity than ever before.
  2. Smart contracts and programming will be much easier to work with. Gas is also going to be adjusted for bill setting.
  3. Masking will increase security on the network. Users will be able to determine the address for which they have a private key, and this will protect them from quantum computer hacking.
  4. A “difficulty bomb” will be included in the upgraded, meaning mining will become much more difficult. This is a significant step as Ethereum transitions from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-sake (PoS).

We won’t know how this hard fork will affect the price of Ethereum as markets could adjust in a variety of ways. If the upgrades attract more users, the price could rise. However, if mining becomes more difficult and slows, the price could fall.

The next upgrade after Metropolis is referred to as Serenity, which should increase stability and encourage more investment.

How to Buy Ethereum

The easiest way to invest in Ethereum is by using a cryptocurrency exchange. CoinCentral has compiled a list of the best exchanges where you can buy Ethereum.  On this page you can find key details of these exchanges, as well as links to their individual reviews and user guides.

If you’re new to the world of cryptocurrency, Coinbase offers one of the simplest ways to buy, sell, and store Ethereum.

Coinbase offers free BTC worth $10 for new joiners using this link. 

For those interested in regular trading, the following exchanges may be more suited to your needs:

  • Gemini
  • Kraken
  • GDAX
  • Bittrex
  • CEX.IO

Final Thoughts

While there is a lot of speculative interest around Ethereum, it’s important to note that the Ethereum and dapp communities are very much focused on building a tangible future.

Ethereum is a phenomenal application of the blockchain and has made it possible for hundreds of projects to exist.

This is a condensed version of an article originally published on CoinCentral written by Alex Moskov. Read the full article here.

Posted on

Crypto Currency Trading Course: How to Find a Winner

If you’re reading this page, it is likely that you’re aware of all the buzz in the media over the past few months around Bitcoin and other crytpo currencies like ETH and Ripple (XRP).

The internet is awash with stories of people who have made millions from Bitcoin in just a few short years.
e.g.

It’s easy enough to purchase bitcoin through an exchange. Coinbase is one of the most popular and easiest to use in the US.

 

BUT Investing in cypto currencies is not something you should jump into without first getting a greater understanding of the topic. Enrolling in a crypto currency trading course is a good way to get you up to speed quickly. 

This article will provide an overview of some of the popular courses currently available on the internet.

Crypto Currency Trading Course: Which one should you choose?

There are lots of courses available on the web, and obviously each claims to be the best. You have to take these claims with a pinch of salt, and delve a bit deeper into the actual contents.

Also, bare in mind that trading anything for a profit, let alone crypto currencies, is incredibly difficult and there are no surefire answers. If it were easy then everyone would be doing it.

Once you’ve decided on a course that you like, you should view the expense as a cost against any future earnings from trading cryptos.

We’ve outlined some of the bitcoin crytpo trading courses below:

  1. Bitcoin Black Book, – $47

This course makes some bold claims, it promises to”reveal the five steps anyone can follow to profit from one of the most exciting opportunities of our lifetime, from explaining what Bitcoin even is… the full risks involved… to how you go about buying and selling them…”

The guide also comes with a number of bonuses, including a 8 part video masterclass, covering some of the need to know information, like trading patterns and ICOs.

Unlike some other online products, the author is transparent about his background, Tiz Gambacorta (view on LinkedIn) holds an MSc in Maths and finance and previously worked at Barclays Capital.

See more info here.

2. Cryptocurrency Codex, by the Crypto Currency Institute – $47

 

This course claims to be one of the best for beginners, citing that it “shows complete newbies how to profit from Cryptocurrency.”

The course covers more or less everything you might want to know about cryptocurrency, right from mining, though to how to store your currencies. It also obviously covers trading strategies and how to profit from trading bitcoin.

Of the many bonuses, there is access to a private “ask me anything” Facebook group, where you have the opportunity to discuss trading with a wider community of members.

Get more info here.

Crypto Currency Trading Course: Final Thoughts

You can’t go into trading bitcoin with 100% certainty that you’ll come out successful, trading is invariably difficult. That being said, taking the time to study the area puts you ahead of most of the average punters that are investing at the moment.

Go in with your eyes open, pick a course that interests you and that you enjoy, and don’t invest money that you can’t afford to lose!

Posted on

Top Ethereum Mining Pools (2018)

Joining an Ethereum mining pool and combining your resources with other miners will help you see results faster and realize a quicker return on your investment.

This post will take a look at some of the top Ethereum Mining pools in 2018.

With so many mining pools at play in the market, solo miners are finding it more difficult to get blocks to process and the Ethereum mining rig that a solo-miner uses, needs to have massive processing power to be able to compete with the pools, which can be very expensive.

INTERESTED IN JOINING A CRYPTO MINING MASTERMIND? REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE. 

If you decide to join a pool, then choosing the right pool that meets your mining expectations is important, as well as understanding the different pay-out methods and how they will impact your earnings.

The larger pools, that have been mining for longer, are more reliable and you can be more certain of receiving your profits.

To calculate your expected earnings and see the best path to choose, you can use the calculator at this link.

Check out our other post on Ethereum mining calculators. 

If you’re interested in learning about how you can profit from trading crypto currencies, you might want to consider enrolling in a crypto currency trading course. 

The Best Ethereum Mining Pools for 2018

The top two Ethereum mining pools are Ethpool (http://ethpool.org) and Ethermine (https://ethermine.org). Together they have more than 27% of the network hashrate.

The two share an underlying pool, but have different payment methods. Ethermine uses the PPLNS payment method, (Pay Per Last “N” Shares) which involves some luck in the payment but on average pays 5% more. Ethpool is a predicable solo mining pool and pays on the PPS method, a standard pay per share model. Ethermine has more than 200 000 active workers and processes about 32 blocks an hour, while Ethpool has about 12500 active workers and processes about 5 blocks an hour.

See our full post on Ethpool vs Ethermine and the ethpool payout scheme. 

Other top pools include:

  • F2pool – Also known as Discus Fish (https://www.f2pool.com/).  F2pool has been operational since 2013 and contribute about 24% of the network hashrate.  Payments are also made via the PPS method and on a daily basis. The site is predominantly Chinese but has an English interface and has servers across Asia to ensure security and redundancy. F2pool can also be used as a litecoin mining pool.

  • Nanopool – Next on our list is Nanopool (https://nanopool.org). Nanopool currently has 40 000 Ethereum miners and accounts for 15% of the hashrate. Nanopool uses the PPLNS method to calculate payments the same as Ethermine. Payments are made several times during the day and Nanopool has servers in Asia, Europe and America. Nanopool also offers miners the option to mine in Ethereum Classic which is a split from the traditional Ethereum currency. Also see our article on Nanopool vs Ethpool.

  • Miningpoolhub – Miningpoolhub (https://miningpoolhub.com) currently generates about 7.6% of the hashrate activity on the network. The reward calculation is based on a transaction fee, a block finding fee and uncle rewards and incentives. Miningpoolhub also has servers across more than one continent (US, Europe and Asia) ensuring a redundant environment.

  • Dwarfpool – The last of our top performing Ethereum pools is Dwarfpool (https://dwarfpool.com). Dwarfpool uses a RBPPS payment method (round based pay per share), which is based on the PPS method. Autopayouts are done hourly and they guarantee 100% uptime due to their distributed infrastructure. Dwarfpool makes up about 13% of the network hashrate.

All these top pools offer statistical reporting and monitoring via e-mail.

There are a number of pools that support multiple currencies, we’ve covered some of these in our posts on dogecoin mining pools, and LTC mining pools.

Cloud Mining

Mining pools are not to be confused with Ethereum cloud mining where the full task of mining is outsourced to an organisation which supplies the hardware and running costs and pays you a dividend based on your investment.

Mining pool payout schemes

The various different mining pools have different payout schemes, including PPS+ vs PPLNS. These determine the method by which your contribution to the pool is calculated, and ultimately how much money you get. It is important that you understand the payment scheme before you get involved in a pool.

Posted on

Ethpool Payout Scheme

Many people have been asking for more information about the payout schemes for various Ethereum mining pools.

For example, what are the pros and cons of pps+ vs PPLNS.

In this article we’ll look specifically at the Ethpool Payout Scheme and point you in the direction of other resources where you can get more info.

EthPool Payout Scheme

EthpoolEthPool.org is slightly different to other mining pools in that it is more like solo mining and therefore doesn’t use the PPS / PPLNS / PROP methodology that some others do.

The Terms of Payment for the site states that:

“http://ethpool.org is a predictable Ethereum solo mining pool and implements a solo mining payout scheme. Each submitted share will increase the credits of the Miner who submitted the share by the fixed share difficulty of the pool. The Miner who accumulated the most credits will receive the reward of the next block that has been mined by the pool and his credits will be reset to his current credits minus the credits of the runner up Miner. “Uncles” are distributed in a similar way only that the credits of the Miner receiving the uncle reward will not be reset.”

This also clearly sets out the pool fees, which for EthPool is 1%.

EthPool also offers a support portal that covers many other specific questions relating to payment methods, frequency of payments etc.

This page explains further that the pool operates with a solo mining payment scheme.

“This means the miner who contributed the most work to the pool will receive the full reward of the next found block (or uncle) and his work account (credits) will be reset to his current credits minus the credits of the runner up miner.”

The site has a couple of useful features that will allow you to work out when you’ll be paid, including “time to next block”, on the balance page.

Top Ethereum mining pools

We’ve looked previously at ethermine vs ethpool.

And there is some debate around which pools offers the greater payout. Many suspect that Ethermine is better for smaller miners, while ethpool benefits much larger mining operations.

Large outfits are making it more difficult for smaller miners to compete on the pool, increasing the time it takes to get paid. As a result, several miners have switched to other pools like Nanopool.

See our other article on top ethereum pools in 2017 here.

Final thought

Here is a useful run through of the payment methods for most of the top pools, including the ethpool payout scheme.

Finding the right pool is really important, and it is definitely worth taking some time to investigate your options. Have a play around with the mining calculators as well.

The differences in picking the right pool can be substantial, beyond just the processing fees. You also have to consider things like opportunity cost, if you’re tied into a pool that is taking a long time, but you can’t leave as you are awaiting payment, that is time lost that could have been much better spent in another pool.