Ethos’ Alphabetical Guide to Cryptocurrency

Definitions and Metrics

MARCH 12, 2018 | IN LEARNING AND EDUCATION | BY ETHOS
Welcome to Ethos’ Alphabetical Guide to Cryptocurrency De nitions and Metrics. We know,
there are dozens of these guides out there, but this is the one to rule them all. OK, crypto’s

complicated. There’s bound to be a load of stuff we’ve missed. Just know, this is only the
start. This guide will be updated on a monthly basis with all of the cool happenings in the

world of crypto. We’re writing it in plain English, because we want to make everything as

clear as possible. Besides, for all the crypto-wizards out there, you probably know it all

anyway, right?

It’s for anyone that wants to learn more, and maybe have a go at explaining it to their friends,

colleagues, relatives and fellow investors: for those that have been in crypto for a while and
want a simple de nition of the latest stuff, or the ones just getting into it, and who want to

get up to speed. So, nd your favourite easy chair, sit back, and relax. It’s about to get

technical, yo!
 Airdrops

A way of distributing free cryptocurrency or

tokens to users. This can occur by simply holding

an account with a partnered exchange or holding a

compatible cryptocurrency, such as ETH or

Bitcoin, in a speci ed 3rd party wallet or can even

take place in completely public events. Sometimes

both apply i.e. an exchange may require you to

hold a certain amount of one coin, before you can receive another. It is seen by some as a PR

exercise, and by others as a viable option / alternative to ICOs for fairly distributing an asset.

Once received, these assets then become transferable and tradeable on the open market.

Airdrops can also occur in the form of a hard fork, where the original version of the

cryptocurrency is required, and a blockchain ‘snapshot’ of ownership is taken before the

owner of the original cryptocurrency receives the new, forked version of cryptocurrency.
 

Atomic Swaps

A technology allowing two different users to

directly exchange cryptocurrencies belonging to

separate blockchains, without any third-party or

intermediary e.g. XRP to Ethos. The technology is

still in its nascent stages, and while progress is

being made, there are associated risks involved.

Currently, the only viable alternative is to use an

exchange, which requires trading the original cryptocurrency i.e. XRP into a compatible

intermediary i.e. Bitcoin, and then trading this cryptocurrency into what you want to
purchase i.e. Ethos. This trade incurs fees, which would be negligible using an Atomic Swap.
Were you to currently attempt sending a cryptocurrency to an incompatible address, there is

a high likelihood that you would lose your funds, and they would be irrecoverable. See the

section below on an ‘Address’ for more information.

Addresses

Composed of a unique, alphanumeric string of characters, an address is a secure identi er

enabling an individual or entity to perform a blockchain transaction. A private key is required

to access these funds, which is an equally unique string that operates as a password or PIN

number. In conventional terms, your address can be seen as your account number and sort
code. Bitcoin addresses start with a ‘1’ or a ‘3’. Ethereum addresses start with an ‘0x’. It is

important to note, as per the de nition above on Atomic Swap technology, that sending a

cryptocurrency to an incompatible address is not advised, as it is likely you will lose the

funds. Unlike a centralized system, there is often no resource to protect your funds should

you make a payment to an incorrect address, so it is important to get it right. If in doubt,

always send a small amount of value rst, to practice, and then proceed with the main

transaction.

Altcoins
Any category of cryptocurrency that isn’t Bitcoin. These alternative coins are made up of

currencies and tokens. Many present alternatives to Bitcoin, aiming to be faster and cheaper,

while many operate as access tokens for digital goods and services applications (DApps) that

operate on a blockchain. Many popular altcoins operate using Bitcoin’s core technology,

while others are completely unique. Others, such as Ethos, are built on the Ethereum

blockchain and are known to be ERC-20 compliant – a common standard for Ethereum based

coins. The original altcoin is considered by many to be Litecoin, as it was based on the Bitcoin

source code. As of 19th February 2018, there are 1,544 altcoins available on CoinMarketCap,

comprising 62.6% of the entire cryptocurrency market. Altcoins can be stored in compatible

wallets and traded with other altcoins via an exchange.

 
ASICs – Application Specific Integrated Circuits

Microchips or processors designed and manufactured to perform the highly speci c task of

mining cryptocurrency. Bitcoin ASICs came into existence in 2013, vastly outperforming

existing technology at the time. Many consider the use of ASICs mining to be incompatible

with the decentralized vision of cryptocurrency, as it is generally a technology accessible by

those with a high degree of technical expertise and funding. Nonetheless, the majority of

Bitcoin ‘Proof of Work’ mining is now carried out by these types of processors, which perform

well, yet also consume considerable amounts of electricity. Therefore, more sustainable

alternatives to generating cryptocurrencies are being developed, including PoS and DPoS

protocols.

 
Bitcoin

The original cryptocurrency created by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Allowing for near instant

transactions of value in a P2P way, it operates as an decentralized, and thus un-hackable and

immutable ledger of value stored on what is known as a blockchain. Bitcoin is not backed by

any central government or institution. It exists purely as a distributed network of computers

that attest to the uniqueness of any given transaction. Colloquially known as ‘The King of

Crypto’ and ‘Digital Gold’ it is the most liquid of all cryptocurrencies, worth $189.76bn in

terms of its total market cap, according to CoinMarketCap on 19th February 2018. Bitcoin

requires a large amount of computing power to operate, relying on what’s known as a Proof of

Work protocol. For more information, please refer to the ‘What is Bitcoin?’ article on the

Ethos website.

 
 Blocks / Blockchain

Refers to a public ledger, or database, that in

theory cannot be changed without consensus.

This immutability allows for data within that

database to perform different transactional

functions, and the elements of this database are

known as blocks. These blocks can represent

movements of value, like a currency, or work as an

access mechanism or functional utility, for a platform providing goods and services. As more

transactions take place on a ledger, new blocks are added to the chain containing the
recorded transaction data. There are different ways of generating and managing blockchains.

Some are mined, others are pre-minied. Each has a different amount of data it can store, and
there are large variations of speed in which the data can be transferred. Some blockchains are

managed centrally by specialized parties that run nodes in the network, and might more
accurately be termed distributed ledger technology, and others like the Bitcoin blockchain are
completely decentralized. There also exists hybrid systems, which aim to combine the

bene ts of centralisation and decentralisation.

Block Height

Refers to the number of blocks that have been produced in a speci c blockchain, in the case
of blockchains which are mined i.e not pre-mined. Starting with what is referred to as a
‘genesis block’ (the rst block in a blockchain), these blocks can store and manage multiple

types of information like documentation data, yet popularly relay transactional values or
functions of utility. The block height on a transactional blockchain like Bitcoin can be

accessed publicly via a ‘block explorer’. The speed at which a particular block height is
reached depends on the dif culty and in ationary / de ationary model of the respective

blockchain.

Block Reward

A payment, in the form of cryptocurrency or fees, offered to the miner of a successfully

hashed block on a blockchain. What this reward is will depend on the algorithmic policy of
the cryptocurrency: such variables include the age of the blockchain, hashing dif culty, and

therefore the in ationary model of said cryptocurrency. For instance, Bitcoin mining
currently awards 12.5 Bitcoins for each block that is successfully hashed. After a certain

period of time, rewards will decrease as the hashing dif culty is increased. Often, the block
reward halves when a certain number of blocks have been mined, every 210,000 in the case of
Bitcoin.

Centralized

A term referring to an organization or system that

is controlled by a single group or entity.

Governments and corporations are centralized

organizations, as are their currencies and shares
respectively. Current centralized systems have

various advantages that decentralized systems

lack, such as regulation, yet conversely
decentralized systems have advantages over centralized systems, such as resistance to abuse,

attack and failure.

Cold Storage

Describes a method of storing digital data, such as

cryptocurrencies, in a way that is not connected to

the internet. Popular methods of cold storage

include specialized USB enabled ‘hardware

wallets’. Due to the lack of user-friendly software,

it makes the use of such data more complicated

and less likely to be regularly accessed.

Additionally, one aspect of such devices is the opportunity for physical damage, loss or theft.
However, the advantages of such tools is that they are far less likely to be prone to software
theft, commonly known as hacking.

Consensus

De ned as any agreement by a given majority, often placed at 51%. If 51% of people, or
entities on a network, agree to a certain condition, be that a value transaction or change to

the system, the result is known as consensus. An important part of the cryptocurrency space,
consensus is required to verify the validity of digital transactions on a blockchain. It is also a

way of politically managing decentralized systems, for instance whether or not a hard fork
should occur.
 

Cryptocurrency

Any type of currency that is transferred via a blockchain, using decentralized and
cryptographic protocols. By using these protocols, the value of the data being transferred is

resistant to fraud, and is protected from negative features of traditional at currency, such as
counterfeiting. This transparency, coupled with its P2P and portable nature is considered one

of its many bene ts, in addition to the fact that it is theoretically unable to be interfered with
by centralized governments and organizations. As of 19th February, the most valuable

cryptocurrency in the world is Bitcoin. Other cryptocurrencies include Litecoin, Dash, ZCash,
Monero, and Nano.
 

Cryptojacking

The covert use of a computer to maliciously mine

cryptocurrency. Traditionally reliant on a piece of

software installed on the computer itself, modern

cryptojacking techniques can be managed

remotely by simply accessing the computer’s

browser. Website owners are essentially hacked,

have the rogue software installed on their servers,

and then the software activates whenever a user accesses a particular page on that website. It
is also possible to cryptojack via display ads on websites, using a similar technique by

installing within the advert’s HTML code.

 

DAO – Decentralized Autonomous Organizations

An organization that operates through rules encoded as smart contracts. Think of it as a

nancial or crowdfunding program, built on a decentralized blockchain, existing entirely

online. They’re designed to be autonomous, yet often require maintenance by specialized

individuals who are hired by the DAO’s members to encode elements that cannot be
performed autonomously. DAOs are not owned or governed by individuals. Instead, they
operate via network of distributed computers, with actions decided by consensus. In many

ways, a DAO is effective democratic, nancial system with safeguards in place to protect its
members. However they cannot be considered infallible or incorruptible, as proven by the

Genesis DAO hack of May 2016.

 

Decentralized

Drawing from the de nition given by Vitalik

Buterin, founder of Ethereum, the term can be
broken into three parts when referring to

decentralized blockchains: architectural, political

and logical decentralisation. ‘Architectural

decentralisation’ is the number of computers on

the network. ‘Political decentralisation’ is the

number of users of that network. ‘Logical decentralisation’ asks whether two halves of the
network could operate independently of one another, were you to split users and providers of

the network equally. Blockchains are politically decentralized, as no single entity controls
them. They are also architecturally decentralized, meaning they don’t exist on a central
server, resulting in a lack of central point of failure. However, they are logically centralized,
as there is agreement related to the operational behaviour of the system, for example that

users agree Bitcoin will only ever have a total supply of 21M coins. Therefore, anything that
de nitively breaks that rule (a hard fork) isn’t Bitcoin.

DApp – Decentralized Application

Software applications that run on top of dedicated, decentralized P2P networks. They differ
from smart contracts, and therefore are also different from DAOs. Any number of participants
from the provider and user sides may interact with these applications, and the function need

not be nancial, as is the case with a DAO. Like conventional, centralized applications, DApps
can be written in a variety of programming languages from Javascript and C# to PHP and
Java, and more besides. Ethereum is the most popular DApp platform at the time of writing,
primarily using a custom coding language called Solidity. The Ethos Universal Wallet is an
Ethereum DApp.

Difficulty

When creating blockchains through the process of hashing, the dif culty determines the
amount of computer power required to solve the cryptographic puzzle that adds a block to
the chain. Therefore, two factors determine the dif culty or hashpower required: the
parameters set by the cryptocurrency, and the number / power of computers on the network

trying to solve the puzzle. Typically, the dif culty parameter and reward mechanism of the
cryptocurrency is predetermined, so the variable affecting the dif culty is dependent on the
 number / power of computers on the network. The
computer network’s hash power is improved by
using ASICs.

ERC-20

A certi able standard for tokens launched on the Ethereum network, that guarantees they

work in a predictable and secure way. This allows for the easy transfer of compatible tokens,
in the instance of an ICO for example, that would require the exchange of Ether. The bene t
of having this benchmark of compliance also means that wallets and exchanges only need to
apply a single contract address for Ethereum in order to manage multiple types of token.
 

ETH – Ether

According to the de nition on the Ethereum website, “Ether is a necessary element – a fuel –
for operating the distributed application platform Ethereum. It is a form of payment made by

the clients of the platform to the machines executing the requested operations. To put it
another way, Ether is the incentive ensuring that developers write quality applications
(wasteful code costs more), and that the network remains healthy (people are compensated
for their contributed resources)”. Developers who intend to build DApps that will use the
Ethereum blockchain require Ether, as do users interacting with its smart contracts. Using the

platform, transaction fees are measured based on the gas limit and gas price, ultimately paid
for in Ether.
 

Ethereum

The foremost DApp platform at the time of writing, proposed and founded by Vitalik Buterin
in 2013. Development was funded by an online crowdsale that took place between July and
August 2014. The system went live on 30th July 2015. Ethereum provides a Turing-complete

virtual machine, known as the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), that allows for open-source,
public and blockchain based distributed computing, using smart contract functionality. The
DApps that can be built on the Ethereum platform range widely in use cases, from prediction
markets and identity systems, to games and social media platforms. Ethereum is the second

largest blockchain by market cap, worth an estimated $91bn on CoinMarketCap as of 19th

February, 2018, representing approximately 19% of the entire cryptocurrency market.
 

Emission

The speed at which certain cryptocurrencies are created and released, often through the use
of airdrops or staggered ICOs. Whether this speed slows or remains constant determines
whether the cryptocurrency is based on a de ationary or in ationary model, respectively.
Often, a cap will be placed on the emission, so that by default it becomes de ationary after

that point, due to physical loss or token burns. This cap is known as the maximum supply.
However, there are examples of cryptocurrencies that employ an in nite emission model, so
that they will continue to be created and released, though at a lower rate of emission. Such a
currency is inherently in ationary, in that the unit value of the currency decreases over time.

Emission rates to not necessarily speak to the quality of a cryptocurrency, however from an
investment perspective it is worth understanding the concept, as it is a parameter that may
dilute your portfolio over time.

Forks – Soft & Hard

A change or upgrade to the software protocol of a blockchain. What determines if it is soft or

hard fork depends on a) whether the change can still operate alongside the existing protocol

and b) whether there is consensus related to the change. To clarify, soft forks are generally
seen as routine maintenance to improve issues related to the blockchain, such as security and
scalability. Much like when you download a patch for the operating system on your computer,
you are not fundamentally changing the main operating system. With a hard fork, the
operating system of a blockchain is being changed i.e. a new record of data begins. This
means the new version of the blockchain will disregard the old blockchain completely, and
becomes something fundamentally different. This new blockchain will then be maintained
independently from the previous one, and will be given a different name. Sometimes,
however, the older blockchain is given a different name, as was the case with Ethereum

Classic in 2016. After Ethereum was hard forked after the Genesis DAO hack of 2016, the new
version maintained the name Ethereum, while it was the old version that changed its name.
On various occasions, accidental hard forks have occurred that did not undergo a process of
network consensus. Hard forks regularly result in the resulting cryptocurrency being

delivered via airdrop to users that hold the ‘pre-fork’ version, as has been the case with
Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Diamond.

Gas
 On the Ethereum platform, each transaction i.e.

API call that is performed, costs gas. This small

cost pays for the computational resources of the
network to process the transaction. The more gas
a user pays, the faster the transaction occurs.
Think of it as an incentive for the miners on the

network to prioritise your transaction, over a user

that set a lower gas limit i.e. the maximum
amount of gas one is willing to spend on a
transaction. Any gas that is unused after a transaction occurs is returned to the user. If a

transaction fails for any reason, the user still pays the gas. Gas is calculated by multiplying
the gas price or ‘gwei’. gwei is a mathematical term referring to a fraction, also known as a
’shannon’, de ned as 1 billionth of a whole. That’s 1:100,000,0000. A typical gas price is 20
gwei, but can be as high as 50 gwei if the Ethereum network is busy. 2 gwei is the minimum

required to perform a transaction. A simple USD calculation of your maximum gas price is $
cost of Ethereum / 1 billion x gas limit. If you are performing regular transactions on the
Ethereum network, it’s worth understanding this formula.

Hashing / Hash Function

A computer program, which takes data and converts it into an alphanumeric sequence or
code. Hashing allows for faster retrieval of information related to the original data, because
hashes are typically shorter and therefore easier to compute. Hashes have the added bene t
of scrambling data, so that it becomes unreadable, secret and secure. The dif culty to crack a

hash function is therefore what de nes the security of a blockchain, as well as contributing to
its production.
 

SHA 256 – Secure Hash Algorithm 256

Originally designed by the US Government’s National Security Agency in 2001, and released
under a royalty-free licence, SHA is considered one of the most digitally secure ways to
encrypt and protect information. It is used by Bitcoin as the basis of its Proof of Work
algorithm, a variation of the Hashcash function invented by British cryptographer Adam Back

in 1997. It’s also used in creating Bitcoin addresses, thereby improving security and privacy. It
is estimated there are as many solutions to SHA 256 as there are grains of sand on earth,
making the economics of trying to crack it using brute force techniques unviable. See the
section on ‘Proof of Work’ to learn more about the fundamentals of its application to

blockchain technology.
 

Hashes per Second

Simply the number of hashes a computer can produce in a second. A megahash is measured

as 1 million (1,000,000) hashes, therefore a hashrate can be measured as 1 million hashes /

second or 1 MH/s. Of course, there are higher hashrate de nitions: A gigahash is one factor
above a megahash, so 1,000,000,000 hashes. A terrahash is one factor above that, at
1,000,000,000,000 hashes. And a petahash, well that’s 1,000,000,000,000,000 hashes! The

Bitcoin mining network is currently performing at approx. 22 PH/S, and growing.

 
 Keys – Private and Public

When performing a cryptocurrency transaction, it

is rst necessary to have a public and private key.
It is the combination of these two keys that allows

users to send and receive in a secure way. Each key

is represented by an alphanumeric string, a
hashed reference to that user’s ownership of a
cryptocurrency from a particular blockchain.

Think as your private key as your digital ID, or PIN number. Like a conventional bank
account, it’s required to spend, withdraw or transfer funds, or carry out functions on the
account. A hash algorithm processes your private key, in order to generate your public key.
When you make a transfer, your public key is broadcast to the nodes on the blockchain

network. Via consensus, the network con rms the validity of that transfer, that is to say that
the private and public keys are compatible, and the entity that performed the transfer
actually owns the funds. Once con rmed, the transaction is sent to the recipient’s public
address. The addresses themselves are generated via the public key, and you can think of your

address as an account number and sort code. Although public keys and addresses are
generated from a private key, and both the public key and address are visible on the network,
trying to reverse the process to nd a private key is practically impossible. This is due to the
hashing algorithm on the network, which makes trying nd the key economically non-viable,
due to the cost of the hash power required, which would need to exceed the power of 51% of

the entire network. It is important to safeguard your private key. You can always regenerate
your public key and address from your private key, but if you lose your private key, you will
lose access to your account. See the ‘Mnemonic – Seed Phrase’ reference in this guide for
more information on how to remember and protect your private keys.

Lightning Network
 Described in its whitepaper as “Scalable Off-Chain
Instant Payments”, the Lightning Network is a

theoretical technology that allows for high-speed,

high-throughput, low-cost micropayments to
occur on the Bitcoin network. Indeed, should it
succeed in its vision, the technology could be

applied to a range of cryptocurrencies. A much

discussed issue with Bitcoin as a payment
protocol, aside from the volatility of its price, is
the number of transactions that can be made on the network, known as its ‘scalability’.
Depending on how busy the network is, the transaction range can be anywhere from 5-20 per

second, with the average being around 7. Compare this to the Visa network, which can peak
around the 45,000 t/s range, and it’s clear there’s a scaling issue for Bitcoin as a global
payment method. Bitcoin Cash (BCH), a Bitcoin hard fork, aims to solve the problem by
increasing the amount of data a block can hold from 1MB to 8MB. By contrast, rather that

updating Bitcoin’s technology, the Lightning Network will achieve scalability by creating an
extra layer of technology that sits alongside the Bitcoin blockchain, in the form of hashed
timelock contracts, while still harnessing the same level of security in its transactions. One
potential issue is that BTC must be locked in these time locked contracts in order to

participate in the Lightning Network.

Miners & Mining

Miners are users, or nodes on a network, that perform the important task of creating
cryptocurrency, validating blockchain transactions, and adding them to the public ledger in
the form of new blocks. Miners are rewarded transaction fees for the work they carry out, as

well as a payment in the form of the blockchain’s cryptocurrency when hashing new blocks.
Miners are the entities that decide which version of a blockchain should be mined. The
services they provide allow for issuance of new cryptocurrency, and through decentralisation
also ensure the security of the blockchain. Anyone with the correct equipment and
technological understanding to engage with the process is able to, however due to the cost of

both the modern hardware (CPUs, GPUs and ASICs) and electricity required to run a mining
rig, in addition to the industrial competition for hash power, many are limited from doing so.
Due to these challenges, many miners collaborate in ‘mining pools’ in order to share
resources, and the rewards from the cryptocurrency they create.

Mnemonic – Seed Phrase

‘Mnemonic’ refers to any system that helps you remember something. It could be a series of

rhyming words, abbreviations, a song, or even a journey through an imaginary place. When
creating a cryptocurrency wallet, a mnemonic phrase is sometimes generated in order to
provide an easier way to remember your private key, instead of having to memorize an
alphanumeric string. Also referred to as a ‘seed phrase’, it’s important to keep it somewhere

safe. As with any private key you hold, if you lose it means you’ll also lose access to your
cryptocurrency. Try not to keep your passwords anywhere that could be destroyed or stolen,
and if possible try to keep them separate from other details about your crypto-wallet. To be
highly secure, keeping your passwords away from internet connected devices is also advised.

Multi-signature
 This means that more than one private key is

required before a transaction can occur. It

increases security by decentralizing control, and
therefore has a number of bene ts from a
business perspective. The most common
commercial application is escrow. Though the

current escrow application does not provide an

absolutely trustless environment, it does not
require the degree of centralization that
traditional escrow services do. For example in a digital marketplace, a buyer will often wish to

withhold funds until their delivery arrives. In centralized marketplaces like eBay, the escrow
service is at the discretion of eBay. There is a voting system to protect buyers, but ultimately
eBay has the nal say. Even in cryptocurrency environments, a form of escrow can be
deployed with a user acting as a middleman for both parties, however this system is still open

to corruption. With a multi-signature wallet, a buyer, seller and middleman can all have
private keys, with funds not released from the buyer until all parties agree that the delivery
took place. This gives all parties more control, with the only trust being placed on the wallet
provider. If the wallet itself is decentralized, the system becomes trustless.

Peer to Peer

Describes any system in which there is no third party or middleman. In cryptocurrency, it is

the direct exchange of currency or data from user to user, without any central or external

involvement. The decentralized nature of P2P networks can make them more resilient to a
single point of failure. The larger a P2P network, the more resilient it becomes. However that
does not make it immune to failure, as the network will require nodes to connect users, which
could potentially be throttled or shut down using a denial of service (DDOS) attack.
 

PoB – Proof of Burn

A concept describing the economics of adding value to one cryptocurrency, by destroying the
availability of another. Put another way, provably removing liquidity from System A in
exchange for System B adds immediate value to System B. This can be done in a variety of
ways, typically by sending a cryptocurrency to a wallet, and then destroying the private keys
to that wallet. How this act is performed would be decided by consensus. Users that sent
value to the ‘burn wallet’ then receive an agreed amount of new cryptocurrency in exchange

for burning their old one. Such a process could be managed via a DAO. This model tends to
rely on burning Proof of Work currencies, such as Bitcoin, where there is demonstrable
economic resources i.e technical expertise, hardware costs and electricity, that went into
producing it. In short, PoB works as a practical application of the concept of ‘scarcity’, and is
an example of the economics of supply and demand, allowing for the ef cient transfer of

value between different systems.

PoO – Proof of Ownership

Describes the provable storage of document data

on a blockchain. Think of it as a way of immutably
proving that a record exists, in a way that other

systems cannot. For example, if you wanted to

prove that you owned a piece of property, the deed
to that property could be stored on the
blockchain. Traditionally, that proof would need
to be stored in some way on a centralized system, be that digital or analogue, and that
centralized method of storage could be open to a range of issues including tampering, loss or
destruction, in addition to the fact that the party in charge of that record must be trusted in
some way. Proof of Ownership removes elements of fraud associated with the production of
ownership certi cation. Therefore, the model can be used in a range of applications, from
wills, real-estate and digital rights’ management, to ID veri cation, logistics and medical
records. It’s a way of maintaining the integrity of important information, and proving

without doubt that the owner associated with that record is veri able.

PoR – Proof of Research

A concept related in many ways to Proof of Work. However, unlike Proof of Work where the
value associated with the production of a cryptocurrency is reliant on an arbitrary process of
hashing, which despite its provable input cost has no other value output other than the
creation of a cryptocurrency, Proof of Research aims to put the hash power of the

decentralized network to work on problems that have demonstrable, real world value. There
exists a number of companies that are attempting to build globally networked
supercomputers, that harness the spare computing power of ordinary, non-technical users,
and reward them in cryptocurrency for solving problems on their machines. These problems
can range from analysis of weather systems and astronomy, to research into new drugs and
arti cial intelligence. By offsetting the spare hash power of their computers, participants in
the network can bene t from the receipt of a publicly tradable asset, and scienti c research
teams can access an ad hoc network of computers. For the latter party, this is usually cheaper

and easier to access than a traditional, centralized supercomputer, and arguably more
dynamic in the ways in which hash power can be managed, making it possible for multiple
research teams to use the network simultaneously.
 

PoS – Proof of Stake

Proof of Stake is an algorithm that aims to solve the intensive energy requirements required

by Proof of Work, while allowing non-technical participants to be rewarded for their

continued engagement with a network. There are varying models, but the underlying
principle is that by owning the cryptocurrency associated with a particular blockchain, you
can stake it on the network and be rewarded, rather than having to perform the labour
intensive task of mining. Staking coins on the network can offer a range of bene ts to the
network, including increased
security and liquidity. Think of staking like a lottery, where the chances of winning the
lottery increase based on the overall stake you have in the network. A user with 100 coins on
the network would, in principle, have a 100 x chance of winning the lottery compared to a
user with 1 coin. Naturally, there are issues inherent to this model, such as centralisation of
coin value in order to game the system. However, certain parameters can be put in place to
prevent abuse of the system, such as placing a limit on the rewards that can be received by an
individual. There also exists the concept of Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), where users on a

network vote for ‘delegates’ who maintain the network, ‘forge’ new blocks on the blockchain,
and process transactions. Users can vote for these delegates, based on their value to the
network, and receive a proportion of the rewards that those delegates generate in the form of
new cryptocurrency, or transaction fees. Again, this system is not perfect, due to the semi-
centralisation of political power on the network, which may be open to abuse. However, many
developers are working on solving this model to make it as fair and secure as possible.

 
PoW – Proof of Work

An algorithm that rewards participants, known as miners, for solving a cryptographic puzzle.
At its heart, the bene ts of PoW are security and economy, in that any attack on the system
i.e. blockchain, would be expensive vs. the rewards one would receive from doing so. Bitcoin
is an example of a PoW blockchain and cryptocurrency in which dedicated software, powered
by energy intensive CPUs, GPUs and ASICs, use the SHA 256 hashing protocol to produce new
blocks. The value of Bitcoin and other PoW based cryptocurrencies is therefore derived from
the hardware and infrastructure costs associated with its production. Bitcoin’s PoW protocol
works by allowing miners to broadcast the computational work they have done to the

network, with the network then verifying that work. The work is veri ed because it is
represented as a unique block, which in itself is attached to a chain of unique blocks. These
blocks are unalterable by anyone, ensuring the validity and fungibility of the system.
Bitcoin’s PoW protocol is based on a system invented in 1997 by British cryptographer Adam
Back, who created an algorithm called Hashcash designed to limit email spam. By proving
that an email was created by a human, rather than a machine, the algorithm was able to limit
the economic returns of spammers who would use computers and bulk delivery, by increasing
their cost per email.

Raiden Network

The Raiden Network is to Ethereum what the Lightning Network is to Bitcoin. As per the
Raiden Network website, it is an in-development “off-chain scaling solution for performing
ERC20-compliant token transfers on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing for the secure
transfers of tokens between participants without the need for global consensus”. This is
achieved using ‘state channels’ combined with digitally signed and hash locked transfers
called ‘balance proofs’. As with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, the bene ts are its ability to
perform scalable micro-payments, quickly, and with minimal fees. Gas costs on Ethereum are
not related to the size or value of the transaction being made. For mid-large transactions, gas
costs are less of a relative issue for the convenience the platform provides, however for
smaller transactions the gas cost can end up being a signi cant proportion of the overall

value of the transaction. Payments in the range of fractions of a $ cent can be transferred on
the Raiden Network, quickly, and with reduced cost to the sender, making it an effective
solution for day-to-day use. Yet users should also understand that networks like these require
value to be locked up effectively as ‘collateral’, in exchange for the bene t of instantly
transacting on the network.

Satoshi
Named after Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous individual or group that invented Bitcoin,
the satoshi represents one hundred millionth of a bitcoin. That’s 0.000000001 bitcoin. The
unit structure of bitcoins means 1 bitcoin (BTC) is equivalent to 1,000 millibitcoins (mBTC),
1,000,000 microbitcoins (μBTC), or 100,000,000 satoshis. Compare this structure to that of a
dollar, for example, which is only divisible by 100 (a cent) and it’s clear that it allows for far
greater exibility as a unit of value. However, due to current costs associated with processing
Bitcoin, sending or exchanging less that a certain value becomes uneconomical for the BTC
network or its service providers, so that the practicality of sending single satoshis is currently
non-viable. Many service providers, such as wallets and exchanges, set a minimum amount of

BTC that must be sent to clear a balance. These small values that cannot be processed by
current systems are commonly referred to as ‘dust’. It is thought that novel technologies such
as the Lightning Network may solve the issue of sending these fractional amounts.

 
 

Scalability

Scalability with regards to a blockchain generally references its speed. When discussing
Bitcoin, for example, it is usually the 1MB block size that is brought into question; a
parameter designed to limit the occurrence of spam attacks on the early network, yet which

has provided usability issues due to network overload as the cryptocurrency becomes more
popular. It’s also the case that all transactions on the network must be con rmed by
consensus, via globally distributed computers, which in themselves have limits in terms of
processing power. Similarly, Ethereum has faced scaling issues for similar reasons, in that all
smart contracts and transactions must run through the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
Solutions are being developed, such as Bitcoin’s Lightning Network and Ethereum’s Raiden
Network, in addition to a range of solutions like SegWit, sidechains and sharding. However, it
remains one of the largest challenges facing the development of blockchain technology, and

therefore adoption by the mass-market.

 

Segregated Witness

First proposed by Dr. Peter Wiulle, Segregated Witness (SegWit) is a scaling solution for
Bitcoin. It aims to solve the issues inherent to a 1MB block size, and therefore the speed of
transactions on the network. When a transaction happens on Bitcoin’s blockchain, the

process of con rming that a sender has enough funds in their balance happens on the
blockchain itself. This reference is known as a signature. This signature takes up space on the
blockchain, accounting for 65% of the information stored, and it is this additional
information that is enough to slow the network. New records are made on the Bitcoin
blockchain every 10 minutes, so by segregating the transaction signatures via SegWit and
managing them separately, space is freed up, allowing for a higher throughput of recordings
and transactions on the network. In order for this to take place, 95% of miners running nodes
on the Bitcoin network must agree to the change, by switching to a new Bitcore Core client
for a period of at least two weeks. Segwit has been a very controversial proposal within the
Bitcoin community due to differing political views on how Bitcoin should scale, which led to
the Bitcoin/Bitcoin Cash hard fork.

SPV – Simplified Payment Verification

Similar to what SegWit would do for Bitcoin transaction speed were it implemented,
Simpli ed Payment Veri cation (SVP) does for the handling of transaction data in a Bitcoin
wallet. If you want to receive BTC, you need a wallet to receive the funds. When your wallet
receives a transaction, it needs to con rm it’s valid i.e. the BTC is real, and has not been
spent elsewhere. How does it do this? Typically, wallets need to check the entire blockchain
 to con rm that the BTC is available to be spent.
This requires downloading and updating the
entire blockchain, which is computationally
intensive. Assuming you wanted to control your

own private keys (which you should), instead of

receiving your BTC to a centralized exchange
wallet, for example, this would require using a
‘heavyweight wallet’ which would be managed by
yourself. This would improve security, but is more
resource intensive given the amount of data it needs to handle. A ‘lightweight wallet’ uses
SVP to cross reference that the Bitcoin you have received is a viable transaction, con rming
against a speci c block number, rather than the whole chain. In this way, SVP allows for

management of a BTC wallet on lower-powered devices, like mobile phones, which would
otherwise struggle computationally to check the entire blockchain.

 
 Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are in many ways like traditional

contracts. With a traditional contract, an

agreement is made between two parties, and the

nancial terms of the contract are executed once
an event, speci ed within the contract, occurs. A
smart contract operates in the same way, yet
instead of requiring a centralized executor to
con rm the event took place, and validate a transfer of value, a smart contract is programmed
to execute the terms automatically. Because a smart contract exists on a decentralized
blockchain, which in itself cannot be tampered with, it operates as an immutable reference to

the terms of the agreement. Therefore, in addition to their programmable and automated
nature they maintain advantages over traditional contracts. In the event of a disagreement
between the parties of a traditional contract, it may require a judge or some other centralized
party to con rm a certain event took place, and then order that the terms be executed. This
party may be open to corruption, based on a bias towards a party within the contract. With a
smart contract, both the terms and the execution are built into the same, impartial program
designed around the original agreement. To quote Vitalik Buterin, Co-Founder of Ethereum,
which as of 19th February 2018 is the foremost smart contracts platform in existence, “…any

contract has its own internal memory containing a code. When an item participates in a
transaction, the code gets executed. It may work with data from the memory and create new
transactions. Thus one may encode any kind of rules or any sequence of events that have to
happen should the rules [be] observed. Programmable contracts managed and protected by
blockchain may apply to diverse interactions between parties”. Such interactions can range
broadly in terms of real applications. These include decentralized exchanges and prediction
markets, to wallets and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), the latter being a
method by which funds in the form of cryptocurrency from multiple, globally distributed
parties may simultaneously be allocated within in the same smart contract.

 
 

Trustless

Decentralized cryptocurrencies, based on blockchain, can in general be de ned as trustless

due to the method of consensus required to verify transactions on an immutable ledger. Yet
to really de ne what trustless means, it requires a comparison to a traditional, centralized

value system like at currency. Fiat currency is backed by a national government, which
determines issuance of the currency itself, and also a range of nancial elements that affect
the value of that currency: interest, in ation, debt and trade agreements with other nations,
in addition to political control of the economy and interactions with the private sector, by
which the value of the currency is backed. These aspects are generally outside of the direct
control of the users of the currency, despite being able to decide (within democratic systems)
which government is in charge. Therefore trust must be placed in this third party, which
includes co-participants in the process of choosing a government and the private sector, to
not debase or dilute the value of that currency. With a trustless currency, such as one based
on blockchain, it is the P2P nature that determines a currency’s value. A currency is as
valuable as the market says it is, without intervention by government. Of course, the value of
that currency can be affected by exterior actors, such as private interest and the economy at
large, but the system itself cannot be altered from within, without consensus of its users.
Additionally, there is greatly reduced potential for fraud and counterfeiting with
cryptocurrencies, because transactions are (outside of privacy coins) visible on the

blockchain itself, which requires independent veri cation at scale in order for a transaction
to complete. This overall lack of centralized dependence means that, in theory, these
currencies become trustless. A user can transfer value to another user, without a government
or bank being able to take control of the funds, and the only basis by which the value of that
currency can be determined is based on bartering with other users.

Related
An Open Letter to the Disrupting Traditional A Crypto Wild West - The
Community From Shingo Financial Frameworks & Good, the Bad and the
Lavine Enabling Self-Custody Fudly
November 20, 2017 March 7, 2018 February 24, 2018
In "Announcements" In "Learning and In "Learning and
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