The Start

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       You’re here for the basics and to get an overview of what crypto is so let us start at the beginning. The domain name bitcoin.org was registered in August of 2008 but the software for it was not made public until 2009. The real founder or founders is not known except for the name used Satoshi Nakomoto. The first blocked mined aka the genesis block was mined on January 3 2009 using a proof of work algorithm. We will touch more on proof of work later. It is estimated that Satoshi mined around one million bitcoins by 2010 and then disappeared.  

        At this time there were several people interested in growing the currency and by 2012 founded the Bitcoin Foundation to help promote Bitcoin and provide upkeep to the development. It grew from there and since it was used as an anonymous payment system. Many black markets would use it for transactions. The most famous of these was the Silk Road. Unfortunately, this did taint bitcoins image to a lot of people. They perceived it as currency for criminals. So much so that there is still a remanence of this sentiment around. There are about ten pages worth of history I could add but for an introduction, this lays a good base for its beginning. 

        So now you know the start of Bitcoin but what is crypto? This question in itself is like asking what do Amazon employees do? There are the obvious answers Wearhouse employees, truck drivers and management. Then you have the less obvious like janitors, underwriters, and purchasing. Crypto is so vast it has its obvious parts but not-so-obvious parts as well. The true basic bread and butter of crypto is it is to be used as a medium of exchange while preserving your identity from others.  

        So how can you trust someone you don’t know? Well, every transaction that has ever happened is public knowledge. Every person can go through the blockchain and find their first transaction any time they want. They will be able to see the time, quantity of trade, and to who they got/sent some bitcoin to. You do this not by using your identification, but by searching for your wallet/ledger ID. None of your personal information is tied to it. Having everything out in the open creates security without risking your identity. Several times the phrase “a trustless system” has been used to describe crypto. You can’t lie and say you have a certain amount of funds and are willing to pay for an item just to pull your money back after you have the item in hand. Transactions don’t rely on people but on smart contracts. These contracts will not be valid unless both parties agree on the terms and present proper payment.  

        Let us move on to decentralization. This core fundamental can get clogged up with algorithms that would have made Albert Einstein go crazy. The concept is easy to grab but the inner workings are going to be a whole other beast to tackle. When you interact with the blockchain such as sending or receiving transactions, you’re not going through a localized server. You are actually using a pathway through an individual's computer who is running a program that is linked up with thousands of other computers running the same program supporting the blockchain. If you remember from the vocab, these are called nodes. This adds security to the blockchain in case a few nodes are compromised or shut down the blockchain can continue to run with little to no impact on transactions. This is why a fee or “gas” is associated with all transactions. It is compensation for the nodes. Every chain has a unique way of how they keep its chain secured which we will touch on in a later segment.