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Bitcoin is an ordinary computer program. Only it is located not on any separate computer or server, but directly on the millions of computers that communicate directly with each other through this program.

Torrents work according to a similar principle. You install the program, and someone else does the same. After that, you can transfer files to each other directly, without the participation of any servers, and almost without control. This feature made torrents the main breeding ground for piracy on the Internet. So the bitcoin system works the same way. Only the task of this program is not to transfer files between users, but to give them “virtual points”.

Table of contents

1. What is Bitcoin: Understanding The Basics
2. Bitcoin Benefits
3. Bitcoin Wallets: Everything You Need To Know
4. 5 Ways To Buy Bitcoin
5. How To Sell Your Bitcoin
6. Inside Bitcoin Transactions: How It All Works
7. Where Can You Spend Bitcoin? Here Are The Places
8. How To Accept Bitcoin Payments For Your Business
9. The Best Bitcoin POS Terminals For Your Business
10. Can Bitcoin Scale?
11. Bitcoin Law: What Are The Rules?
12. Who Created Bitcoin? An Overview of Satoshi Nakamoto
13. Understanding Bitcoin Charts
14. Bitcoin Mining: How It Works
15. Want To Mine Bitcoin? Here’s How To Set Up
16. Bitcoin Mining Pools: Collective Mining Power
17. The Most Popular Bitcoin Mining Pools
18. Bitcoin Forums: Where To Discuss Bitcoin
19. What Is Bitcoin Cash?

The Ultimate Guide To Bitcoin

Bitcoin is an ordinary computer program. Only it is located not on any separate computer or server, but directly on the millions of computers that communicate directly with each other through this program.

Torrents work according to a similar principle. You install the program, and someone else does the same. After that, you can transfer files to each other directly, without the participation of any servers, and almost without control. This feature made torrents the main breeding ground for piracy on the Internet. So the bitcoin system works the same way. Only the task of this program is not to transfer files between users, but to give them “virtual points”.

How does Bitcoin work?

A certain character under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto (or a group of characters) introduced the world to Bitcoin. In the already legendary research work, it was defined as “peer-to-peer electronic payment system”. In other words, Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer digital currency system. The whole system works thanks to the actions of a group of people called miners.

Adding transaction information to blocks

When a group of miners creates a new block, they become the temporary owners of this block. Imagine that Masha sent Pete 5 Bitcoins. Of course, she physically does not send anything, just users add information about this operation to the blocks in the blockchain, and only at the moment when the block is added, this transaction will become perfect, and Bob will receive her 5 coins.

Problems of scalability

To solve the problems of scalability, two ways were proposed: Soft fork and Hard fork.

Fork (fork) – in the practice of software developers, the so-called project cloning followed by changing its code. Thus, the original code of the project remains unchanged, and its new version can exist in parallel with the old one.

What is Soft Fork?

A soft fork is easiest to imagine as a software update with backward compatibility. What does it mean? Suppose you are using MS Excel 2005 on your laptop and want to open a spreadsheet created in MS Excel 2015. It will still open in Excel 2005 because MS Excel 2015 is backward compatible (with older versions).

What is Hard Fork?

The main difference between the soft fork and the hard fork is that the hard fork does not have backward compatibility. Once it is implemented, there will be no way to return to the original state.

What transaction data does the block body contain?

• Any transaction consists of three elements:
• The sender information is input.
• Information about the recipient – exit.
• Digital signature.

The digital signature is very important because it confirms that the sender has the necessary amount of funds required to complete the transaction. As you can see in the diagram above, it is part of the input. And although this is very important data, a big problem arises with them – they take up a lot of space. In a block of 1 MB in size, the signature takes up almost 65%!

What will happen to Bitcoin in the future?

If we talk specifically about Bitcoin, then it will be the same as with any other financial bubble. He will burst. But it will last for a long time because the system is “sharpened” under the automatic reduction of the issuance of coins to miners.

But if we talk about the idea of cryptocurrency in general, then it seems to me that everything is much more promising. The financial situation in the world is increasingly heating up due to a small flaw in the modern monetary system. Namely, the Fed issues the currency as they want, and they also demand to return this money with interest.

1. What is Bitcoin: Understanding The Basics

2. Bitcoin Benefits

3. Bitcoin Wallets: Everything You Need To Know

4. 5 Ways To Buy Bitcoin

5. How To Sell Your Bitcoin

6. Inside Bitcoin Transactions: How It All Works

7. Where Can You Spend Bitcoin? Here Are The Places

8. How To Accept Bitcoin Payments For Your Business

9. The Best Bitcoin POS Terminals For Your Business

10. Can Bitcoin Scale?

11. Bitcoin Law: What Are The Rules?

12. Who Created Bitcoin? An Overview of Satoshi Nakamoto

13. Understanding Bitcoin Charts

14. Bitcoin Mining: How It Works

15. Want To Mine Bitcoin? Here’s How To Set Up

16. Bitcoin Mining Pools: Collective Mining Power

17. The Most Popular Bitcoin Mining Pools

18. Bitcoin Forums: Where To Discuss Bitcoin

19. What Is Bitcoin Cash?

How To Use Smart Contracts

We tell how smart contracts appeared, how they work, where they can be used and what are their advantages.

What is a smart contract?

A smart contract (or smart contract) is a special protocol designed for parties who can participate in negotiations, check their conditions, implement agreements and monitor contract performance.

How did the smart contracts come about?

Some may argue that the blockchain is notable for its applications that record various data and events. Others believe that the greatest value of the blockchain is in its ability to process transactions. All these functions of the blockchain, like many others, can be combined to create an extremely useful application – smart contracts.

How do smart contracts work?

The basic principle can be explained by the example of a vending machine that implicitly executes instructions. The fulfillment of the obligations of the parties is checked automatically.

What do you need to create a smart contract?

The subject of the agreement

The program must have access to the goods or services about which the contract is concluded, and be able to automatically give or close access to them.

Terms of an agreement

Conditions of a smart contract in the form of an exact sequence of operations. All members must sign these terms.

Decentralized platform

The smart contract is recorded in the blockchain of this platform and is distributed on its nodes.

What are the benefits of smart contacts?

Security

The smart contract is encrypted and stored distributed, which guarantees protection against loss or unauthorized changes.

What are the disadvantages of smart contracts?

Human factor

The code is written by people, and they can be wrong, while the smart contract is recorded in the blockchain, and therefore can not be changed. A good example of such a mistake is the story of DAO. Errors of developers have cost dearly to users, and companies – hackers took advantage of the vulnerability and stole about $ 60 million.

Undefined legal status

Today, smart contracts are not regulated by governments, so if the government decides to create a legal framework for smart contracts, problems may arise.

Why to use smart contracts

Smart contracts can optimize and automate a wide variety of transactions that occur in any professional sector. They can help businesses establish trust with their customers and ensure maximum transparency of transactions. And, most importantly, they are unchanged, that is, eliminate the risk that someone will change the contract in order to take advantage of the benefits at the expense of others. These features can be very valuable, especially in industries such as the financial sector or public administration. Although smart contracts are a simple concept, the nuances associated with their use, in reality, can complicate matters.

UPayCard Review

It is a British-based company with its headquarters in London. UPayCard was established in 2013. Today, it regulates by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. The company is involved in activities like prepared payment systems and international payment transfers. Like its rivals, UPayCard Bitcoin debit card features an e-wallet that goes along with the respective virtual and physical cards. This one feature separates it from its competitors by giving it a competitive edge. They also issue both business and personal cards, making it a great investment for entrepreneurs interested in Bitcoin and also blockchain startups.

In the beginning, the company did face some setback due to its high fee structures. But it has learned from its mistakes and reduced their fees vastly.

In this brief review, we shall highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the UpayCard Bitcoin debit card and further learn what this debit card has in store for its users.

Advantages

1. UpayCard Bitcoin debit card is mastered up with MasterCard, making it acceptable in 99% of the stores worldwide.
2. The debit card has a user-friendly mobile app along with an e-wallet facility. This allows easy access to users as they can track their balance when on the go.
3. UpayCard Bitcoin debit card is also very secure. Its customers can enable a two-factor authentication system and also a PIN-code/password.
4. There are no bank transfer charges involved when transferring money amongst pay cardholders.
5. A majority of their services are up for grabs free of cost. UpayCard doesn’t have a monthly maintenance fee. Setting up an account is also free of cost. Moreover, the user doesn’t have to pay any extra charge for inactivity and neither when topping up via bank transfer.

Disadvantages

1. Despite being charge-free on top-up, there is still a 1% fee associated when dealing with Bitcoin.
2. Sadly, UpayCard Bitcoin debit card doesn’t offer anonymity. The users must verify their identity, proof of address and other requisites in the Know your Customers section.

UPayCard debit card Charges

• Most of the services offered with UpayCard Bitcoin debit card are free of cost, but not all. When topping up with a MasterCard or Visa, users are faced with a setback of 1.2% to 2.9%.
• Transfer services like Wechat, Alipay or UnionPay costs about 1.2%.
• ATM withdrawals are quite expensive too. Jus the tracking of your balance on an ATM will charge you €1.
• No matter where you are, withdrawing cash will cost €3.5.
• When converting payments, there is a 3% standard foreign exchange rate with UPayCard.

Summary

• Physical card: Yes
• Virtual card: Yes
• Card type: MasterCard
• Mobile app: Yes
• Supported fiat currencies: EUR, GBP, and USD
• Supported cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ripple (XRP) Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and 80+ other cryptocurrencies
• Anonymous: No

Final Word

When established, the company specialized in international money transfers and prepaid debit cards only. Today, they also feature Bitcoin as an option. The reason why UPayCard has such a big following is that customers are reassured of its services as it previously dealt in debit cards. On the downside, many still find its fees quite pricy and Bitcoin as the only cryptocurrency option as a limited opportunity.

CoinsBank Review

Located in Edinburg, CoinsBank was established in 2013 by Ronny Boesing. The company offers Bitcoin debit cards and also supports Litecoin. The firm also offers exchange services along with digital wallets for its users. The company has an up and running mobile to track your balance on the go. One of the biggest features that differentiate it from other debit card issuer firms is that it allows its users a wide range of supported fiat cryptocurrencies.

In this article, we shall review what more it has to offer to its clients, drawbacks and fee structures associated.

Advantages

1. It has an e-wallet for keeping tabs on the balance.
2. The user-friendly mobile app also makes it convenient.
3. Users enjoy strict security measures to ensure their cryptocurrency remains safe.
4. The debit card allows cryptocurrencies to convert instantly.
5. The debit card supports a number of fiat currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, RUB, and JPY etc.
6. The biggest perk is that users can receive instant crypto cash-back when using it in store.

Disadvantages

1. The company lacks transparency when it comes to determining who runs the firm.
2. The prices are considerably higher, which makes the card inconvenient for many users. Many users have also lodged online complaints regarding this. However, the company hasn’t done anything so far to resolve the issue.
3. The company offers free shipping but only to premium cardholders, which is, again, a drawback.

CoinsBank Bitcoin Debit Card Charges

• The company offers more than one type of debit card. The prices range from $2.95 to $1,000 as issuance fee.
• To use the physical debit card, users have to pay $14.95 as an activation fee.
• The CoinsBank debit card also has a monthly maintenance charge ranging from $0.95-$2.95.
• There is a $3.95 charge for domestic ATM withdrawals which is one of the highest we have seen so far. International ATM withdrawal costs $4.95.
• There is also a POS charge that ranges from $0.95-$1.99.
• Finally, currency conversions cost at 2.5 to 3%.

Summary

• Physical card: Yes
• Virtual card: Yes
• Card type: Visa
• Mobile app: Yes
• Supported fiat currencies: EUR, GBP, RUB, AUD, YEN, and USD
• Supported cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC)
• Anonymous: Yes

Final Word

If we talk about versatility, this debit card has a lot to offer. Professionals and travelers find is an extensive range of currencies to be extremely handy and practical. The users also have the choice to decide which type of card they want. There are premium features for premium users. However, if we compare its prices with other debit card issuers, CoinsBank debit card is quite pricy. There is even a shipping fee for the card which is mostly free of cost with other debit card issuers. Only premium cardholders can get free shipping. Not to mention, the POS and ATM withdrawal charges, which are hefty too. However, all these drawbacks can’t stop the people from investing in one since it also allows users to take cryptocurrency cash-back when using it in a store.