The cryptocurrency phenomenon began after the Great Recession of 2008 sunk its teeth into the economy. A lack of trust in the economy and its leaders sparked an effort to design a new type of currency that could be transacted without being easily manipulated by governments. Bitcoin was born.
Behind the name was a technology, a revolutionary and potentially disruptive new way of generating secure, virtually unhackable key codes rooted in the laws of mathematics. The underlying logic for what was named “block chain” to generate and verify the unique identifiers and transactions was declared opensource technology, meaning that anybody and everybody is welcome to have the underlying code to build upon and use in the creation of new systems and even entirely new cryptocurrencies. Soon after Bitcoin hit the tech news and captured developers’ attention, several other new Bitcoin lookalikes and variations were spawned.
Many people who look deeper into how cryptocurrency works and how it can solve some of the inherent problems with the way that money works are speculating that some type of cryptocurrency, whether it turns out to be Bitcoin or something else, have the potential to completely replace the fiat currencies being used by countries around the world. Is this technology one that will lead to a one-world government with a single currency, making a “cashless society of every nation? Whether it is or isn’t, we are still a long way from that ever happening. The dollar is what it is, as are the Euro, Yen, Peso, and the multitude of other currencies around the globe. For now, at least, traders and speculators are starting to take notice. Evidence of that is in the fact that the combined market cap for these digital currencies is now in the hundreds of billions of dollars, with some folks predicting that it’s just a bubble that will soon pop, many others feel like the cap will trade into the trillions within the coming months or years. We just don’t know.
What we do know is that it is interesting. It’s interesting enough that meetups to discuss, learn about, and debate the topic are happening in cities throughout the world, including Greenwood, Indiana. The meetups are located at the Greenhouse Johnson County coworking space currently in the Tilson building (https://www.facebook.com/greenhousejoco). The schedule is planned to be Tuesday nights from 5:00 to 6:00. For more information, contact Andrew Angle at netgainassociates@gmail.com.
Special thanks to https://www.AmplifyIndy.com for providing the following list of resources for learning more about cryptocurrency. This list is provided with the obvious disclaimer that these links are for information purposes only and should not be construed as providing any type of financial advice.
EXCHANGES
First-Timers
- Coinbase – https://Coinbase.com
Experienced
- GDAX – https://gdax.com
- Kraken – https://gdax.com
STORAGE
Hardware Wallets
- Ledger Nano S – https://ledgerwallet.com
- Trezor – https://trezor.io
Paper Wallets
Mobile Wallets
- Blockchain – https://blockchain.info
- Bread Wallet – https://breadapp.com
- Loaf Wallet – https://loafwallet.org
- Copay – https://copay.io
- Jaxx – jaxx.io
APPS
- Blockfolio
- Bitworth
- Cryptotrader
TRUSTED COINS
- Bitcoin – Digital Gold
- Litecoin – Silver
- Ethereum – Programmable Contracts
- Dash – Privacy Focused
- Ripple – Enterprise Settlement Network
TRUSTED PEOPLE TO FOLLOW
- Charlie Lee – Founder Litecoin
- Andreas M. Antonopoulos – Thoght-Leader
- Vitalik Buterin – Founder Ethereum
- Perianne Borin – Chamber Digital Commerce
- Steve Beuregard – Blog
PODCASTS
- Bad Crypto Podcast – https://badcryptopodcast.com
- Bitcoin Podcast Network – https://thebitcoinpodcast.com
- Amplify Bitcoin Podcast – Coming Soon
NEWS
- Coindesk – https://coindesk.com
- Cointelegraph – https://cointelegraph.com
- Bitcoin Magazine – https://bitcoinmagazine.com
- Word Coin Index – https://worldcoinindex.com
COMMUNITY
- Reddit – https://reddit.com
- Telegram Messenger – https://telegram.org
