Recently you may have heard a lot about Bitcoin a theory am ripple or crypto currencies in general.
So when people say cryptocurrency they're referring to one of the following things.
A digital currency a virtual currency a digital coin or a digital token that can be used to replace
our current local currencies.
And it also refers to a payment system that can be used for sending and receiving money online.
Because there are many resources that explain clearly what crypto currencies are and how they work in
the digital world.
I'll only dive into the most important things that you'll need to learn before trading or investing
in crypto currencies.
Below are everything you need to know about bitcoins and other crypto currencies.
Most crypto currencies are de-centralized de-centralized means that transactions are made directly from
one person to another person through the Internet.
And there's no need for a bank or financial institution to act as the middleman.
Thanks to this the transaction fees are much lower and that can be used in all the countries around
the world.
Your cryptocurrency account cannot be frozen and no one can limit or block your account.
This means that you will have full control of your account and no one can access it.
And the best thing is more and more merchants are starting to accept crypto currencies and you'll soon
be able to buy anything you want with them.
And because of this cryptocurrency values are rising every single day.
If you take a look at bitcoin for example which was first introduced in 2011 back then its value was
only $1 per coin and now its value has increased over ten thousand dollars per coin in just a few years.
This made a lot of people millionaires and even billionaires and I believe its value will go higher
and higher in the future and thats why we need to get into the cryptocurrency world right now before
we get left behind.
The best thing about crypto currencies is that most transactions are made pseudonymously pseudonymous
means that while all transactions are publicly viewable on an open ledger called the block chain the
senders and receivers are only known as a string of numbers and letters.
So this means that using bitcoins or crypto currencies in general can be done anonymously owning a cryptocurrency
simply means you'll have a private key.
Similar to a password.
With this you can easily transfer your cryptocurrency to someone else.
These private keys are often stored in digital wallets.
If you have no idea about what digital wallets are.
Don't worry we'll get into this in the next lecture.
When you send cryptocurrency to someone the transaction will be added to the block chain block technology
serves as a platform that allows the transit of digital information without the risk of being copied.
BLOCK chains are kept secure from hacking through the work of validators whose jobs are just validating
transactions.
You may have heard about bitcoin mining or cryptocurrency mining the miners here are known as the validators
because they use their computer power to help verify and validate transactions made in the digital world.
Validators or minors are given crypto currencies as reward or payment every time they verify a transaction
and they may also be rewarded transaction fees paid by the sender.
So this is the reason why many people invest a lot of money in buying computers and machines to just
validate transactions and earn money along the way.
When the transactions are validated the transactions are marked as confirmed or completed and they'll
appear in the receiver's wallet.
It normally takes two to three confirmations between the network before the receiver can use the cryptocurrency
they've received.
This process may take a few minutes to several days depending on the workload of the network.
So if you don't receive your cryptocurrency when someone sends it to you or when you send from one wallet
to another.
Don't panic just wait a few hours.
Everything should be fine if you want to speed up the process.
Just check out the material below.
I've made you a step by step guide on how to get your transactions confirmed in less than an hour.
So now you have a good understanding of crypto currency and exactly how it works.
I believe everything you've learned in this lecture is enough for you to get started.
Below are the next things you'll need to prepare before buying your first cryptocurrency.
First of all you'll need a digital wallet where you can store your money online.
Next you'll need to open trading accounts from some popular cryptocurrency exchanges so you can buy
and sell any cryptocurrency you want.
Then you'll need to understand how to convert your local money into crypto currencies and how to sell
your crypto currencies to get real money understanding this is very important.
Many people don't know exactly how to get into cryptocurrency.
They have no idea about what will happen with their money and how they can actually make a profit.
In addition you'll need to know some places where you can do some research to find information related
to your crypto currencies will dive into all of these things in this module in the next lecture.
I'll teach you how to get your digital wallets to store your crypto currencies.