Table of Contents
The idea of blockchains that underpin Cryptocurrencies was first proposed by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto in a white paper entitled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. Since that Bitcoin has seen a huge growth and is highly valued (although that value can fluctuate wildly) and literally thousands of Cryptocurrencies have sprung up along with alternative applications of blockchain such as ensuring drug authenticity supply chains. People erroneously claim BitCoins (and other cryptocurrencies) are anonymous but with a few exceptions (Monero being the primary one) that simply isn't true, the purpose/design of blockchains make every transaction traceable. They can be obfuscated by tumbling, sending many small payments over a period of time rather than one large transaction, which makes it harder for subsequent transactions to trace.
BitCoin
Monero
Monero is a bit different to BitCoin in that it has built in anonymity.
Ripple
Ripple is a bit different to other cryptocurrencies.
It has backing and investment from The Gates Foundation who are aiming to change access to reliable finances for the developing world as well as support from a number of well known international banks.
Posts
Spark
Some new blockchain that is Turing complete is doing an “airdrop” based on XRP holdings.
Connect XUMM wallet with the XRP Toolkit this enables the you to Claim Spark Tokens which requires adding a message key, representing a Flare address, to the XRP Ledge account.
Useful Reddit post here
Wallets
Wallets are somewhere to store your cryptocurrency. They can be software for your computer (whether thats your PC, tablet, phone, RaspberryPi) or dedicated physical hardware such as the Nano S Ledger or they can be websites/exchanges.
Links
General
- Awesome Coins an excellent and detailed resource on cryptocurrencies.
Wallets
Gateways/Exchanges
You need to purchase cryptocurrencies through gateways and can then exchange them.
