Crypto Basics

The decentralized finance market is developing rapidly, and with it, more cryptocurrency projects are emerging with a focus on DeFi services and products. Numerai is a hedge fund platform that uses a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain technology, and data science to create financial prediction models.

Zilliqa deploys a finely-tuned blend of tech solutions in search of the blockchain holy grail: true scalability with high throughput and low congestion. This promises to open the doors to dApp and smart contract developers to put this sharded network to use on large-scale applications from advertising to financial services.

Every modern cryptocurrency is hosted by a blockchain network. Currencies like Bitcoin, Ether, and Dogecoin have their own blockchains, while other currencies run on existing blockchains. Here’s a guide to the market’s top blockchain networks.

There are lots of ways to buy cryptocurrency and even more options when it comes to storing it securely. Here are the options, with pluses and minuses for each – everything you need to take the next step in digital investing.

Launched in 2018, the Tezos project started in 2014 as an experiment in using a decentralized self-governance mechanism to make decisions about rewards and other factors. The network is distinguished by its high staking rewards.

Gnosis is a decentralized predictions market that allows developers to create betting applications based on weather, election results, sports matches, and other variables. The ecosystem includes tools for creating bets and rewarding users who validate outcomes.

Serum is part of a serious attempt to change the world by streamlining the way cryptocurrencies are traded and spent. It's part of an idealistic, ambitious ecosystem project headed by one of the crypto world’s youngest billionaires.

SelfKey is a blockchain-based decentralized identity management platform that helps users store and secure sensitive data in one place. The project includes a marketplace of financial services that rely on SelfKey for user identity verification.

Cryptocurrency sites like Kriptomat tend to use the terms “coin” and “token” interchangeably, but in fact, there is a simple technical difference. Once you know it, you'll be able to speak authoritatively like a crypto insider!

Modern cryptocurrencies run on blockchains, open ledgers made from blocks of transaction data. Funds are secure because the data blocks containing transaction data are cryptographically validated before they are added to the blockchain.

Video streaming has grown into a hugely valuable industry over the last few years. In fact, live video streaming accounted for more than two-thirds of all internet traffic in 2015. But the sector is far from perfect. Many of us have paid high fees for video streaming services, only to experience bad picture quality and frequent rebuffering.

Mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has grown from something individuals could do in their basements, through a phase when it was something akin to a cottage industry, into an increasingly centralized sector of the economy. It has become an expensive endeavor, requiring specialized hardware and it continues to be incredibly energy-intensive.