A simple bitcoin Q/A. Learn new and interesting stuff about bitcoin.

[RivAngE]

Where are we at bitcoin now ? How many left to mine and how many is in circulation?

17,157,700 coins are in circulation out of the total supply of 21,000,000; that is 81.70% as of today.

Every 210.000 blocks the rewards are halved, with the next halving expected at 630000th block which is expected to be reached on May 2020.
So, the speed by which we're moving to 100% is continually beeing slowed.

Since his name is not Bill gator or pugman, I suppose I get no merits, but still it was an easy question which I wanted to answer! If you can still count my answer that'd be appreciated.
By the way I double posted because the rules are "10. No editing your posts after giving your initial answer. Making edits will disqualify your answer."

[arhipova]

I will add a question to keep this going.

We have seen bitcoin evolving from a payment option (currency) to an investment medium over time. Since the concept is still new , is more evolution possible ? If yes, in what forms can it be used in future.

[kitty94]

Newb question: What is a hash? How is it generated?

I have already posted an article regarding the hash functions and the differences between two of most famous hashing algorithms, SHA256 (Used in almighty Bitcoin!) and Scrypt (Used in Eth blockchain).

As it is a rather long post I am not gonna quote or paste in here for the sake of tidiness of this thread, If you wanna take a look at that you are more than welcome!

Cheers!

PS:
Kudos for the great work done by the OP and hope you will become a merit source in near future as the community (Not talking about shitposters but about the members who cares about the forum! ) desperately needs more and more active merit sources!   

[arde13]

Newb question: What is a hash? How is it generated?

Hash is the checksum. It is the result of the hash function.

[pugman]

I will add a question to keep this going.

We have seen bitcoin evolving from a payment option (currency) to an investment medium over time. Since the concept is still new , is more evolution possible ? If yes, in what forms can it be used in future.

This is a question which seeks more of opinions than facts. So doesn't actually count as a question. Will visit this thread later.

[tommisetiyawan]

I came across a concept that might be related to altcoins more than it being related to bitcoin, so I decided to bring it up here:

Question: What is a  permissioned blockchain? What is the difference between a permissioned blockchain and a normal traditional blockchain?

The difference between the blockchain that is allowed and the traditional blockchain is that there is someone specifically to control the blockchain that is allowed, while the traditional blockchain can be controlled by anyone, even controlled by the one who made the blockchain. And a more detailed explanation is that traditional Blockchain is a public blockchain, anyone can read blockchain data, but that is of course through the process and with a series of rules. while the Blockchain that is permitted is a private blockchain and is controlled in a way that can read or write data on the blockchain. Only verified entities that can run blockchain nodes are allowed.

[pugman]

This isn't directly related to bitcoin, but I just thought people should know more about this. There have been proposals for bitcoin ETFs to the SEC, and got rejected at least twice.

Question: Explain what is an ETF and how it works?
Apologies for not being around for this thread. Have lot a personal issues going around.

[cryptothief]

An ETF is an exchange-traded fund, basically a fund that owns a variety of assets enabling investors to own individual portions of the fund via a tradeable token. The value of the fund will rise and fall depending on the value of the assets it owns. It is tradeable, as are the underlying assets (on their own specific markets), so savvy investors can potentially take advantage of any difference in value to make arbitrage trades.

There is plenty of talk about crypto ETFs, and these would work by owning a selection of cryptocurrencies, likely to be market leading coins with high liquidity, constantly trading to maintain the specified/desired ratio. This spreads investors' risk across multiple currencies without having to make a number of trades to do so, therefore if the overall market value of the coins in the portfolio goes up, the value of the ETF will increase accordingly.

The concept of a Bitcoin ETF hit the news recently when the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) rejected the Winklevoss brothers' second attempt to create one and list it on a regulated stock exchange. According to this article, there have been 'seven blockchain based ETFs approved so far in 2018'.

I'm sure there is someone who will be able to go into more detail, but reckon this covers the basics.

[havok1998]

ETF refers to exchange-traded funds. ETF is type of investment fund that is traded on public stock exchanges, but is a bit different from mutual funds. By owning an ETF, the investor indirectly invests in multiple assets as shares such as gold or other foreign currencies,etc without having direct claim upon them. Its like they indirectly own these assets. Advantages of owing ETF are :
1. Higher liquidity.
2. Lower fees than other shares.
3. Diversification of investment into different assets.
4. Real time trading can be done like stocks.
Some example of ETF are : crude oil, gold, foreign currencies.

[RivAngE]

I'll try to keep is as simple as possible for people with no economic knowledge...


ETFs are tradable "intangible things" (the correct word is "securities"), which track the price of anything valuable or a combination of them.

For example there is an index called "FAANG" that tracks the combined price of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (hence the name).
Someone could buy a few stocks of these companies or they could buy FAANG ETF.

People can go long on an ETF (bet the price will rise) or short (bet the price will fall).

[DesertOasis3]

We are hearing a lot about ETFs at the moment with the particular relevance to crypto being the attempts in getting a Bitcoin ETF sanctioned by the SEC. So what exactly is an ETF? it is an Exchange Traded Fund that is based upon a group of stocks, indexes or commodities. Investors can buy into these instead of purchasing individual stocks with the advantage being that the good performers will balance out the poor ones and give you a reasonable overall return. They differ from funds in that a fund will have a manager making the decisions on what to buy and sell whereas the ETF just tracks them.

A Bitcoin ETF will be based on the Bitcoin benchmark index which will track the daily price of Bitcoin and investors can then get involved through the fund giving them exposure to the swings in price without having to buy or store Bitcoins themselves.

[kirreev070]

Question: Explain what is an ETF and how it works?

Exchange-traded fund (English Exchange Traded Fund, ETF) is an exchange investment fund, that is, it is an investment fund whose shares are traded on the stock exchange.
Operations on ETF shares can be made throughout the trading day, and their price varies depending on the activity of market participants.
All ETF shares must be fully secured with assets in the manager's account
In the case of bitcoin, transactions will be made not with bitcoin itself, but with ETF, which saves investors from having to have bitcoins.
The purchase in this case, as you have already understood, happens only indirectly.

[newinbtc]

Question: Explain what is an ETF and how it works?

Types of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
United States Market Index ETFs
Foreign Market Index ETFs
Foreign Currency ETFs
Sector and Industry ETFs
Commodity ETFs
Derivative ETFs
Style ETFs
Bond ETFs
ETNs — Exchange Traded Notes
Inverse ETFs
Leveraged ETFs
Actively Managed ETFs
Dividend ETFs
Innovative ETFs

What is an ETF?
ETF stands for “exchange-traded fund” and describes a kind of investment fund where the price of assets like gold, stocks and oil can be tracked. These assets can then be traded on exchanges, just like conventional stocks.

how ETF IS RELATED TO BITCOIN
Bitcoin ETF - when you buy bitcoin ETF. ETF tracks real time tracking of bitcoin price.
the difference is that when you invest in bitcoin etf you have lots of bitcoins without buying and storing it.

how you can buy bitcoin ETF - Example

this company provides same service.
The Greyscale Investment’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC)

This company is holding more than 175,000 Bitcoins currently

benefits of purchase share
ownership of cryptocurrencies
assets are stored with Xapo Inc. This is a deep, cold form of storage and it is highly robust.







Michael Strutton, the CEO of Ironwood says in his Medium post
IF THE INTRODUCTION OF BITCOIN ETFS ATTRACTS 20% OF THE AVAILABLE EQUITIES TRADING MARKET (122 MILLION) THAT WOULD ADD 24 MILLION NEW INVESTORS!”

[pugman]

Question: Explain the avalanche effect.
Coming with questions is really hard nowadays, you have to witch hunt for those that not everybody knows.

[vit05]

Question: Explain the avalanche effect.

This effect occurs when a small change in input leads to large changes in output. This is essential to ensure greater safety. Since it is much more difficult to predict what Input was, even when knowing the output.

If a single bit of the input leads to only one bit of the output, it is easy to try to find the input: just change a bit of it and check if it is correct.

It's like the butterfly effect. A small change leads to unexpected results.

Wiki

[vphasitha01]

Question: Explain the avalanche effect.

Avalanche effect is a property of cryptographic hashing algorithm. If small change(assume 1 bit changes) in the input value leads to a significant change(half of the output bits flip) in the output(hash value) we called it as avalanche effect of cryptography.

That way people can ensure that a person cannot predict the output massage by looking at the changes of the output hash. So this property brings more security for the massage sender as well as the receiver.

Source>>>https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalanche_effect

[Zoha_228]

Question: Explain the avalanche effect.
Coming with questions is really hard nowadays, you have to witch hunt for those that not everybody knows.

In cryptography, the avalanche effect is the desirable property of cryptographic algorithms, typically block ciphers and cryptographic hash functions, wherein if an input is changed slightly (for example, flipping a single bit), the output changes significantly (e.g., half the output bits flip). In the case of high-quality block ciphers, such a small change in either the key or the plaintext should cause a drastic change in the ciphertext.

[BusWay18]

Question: Explain the avalanche effect.

In  cryptography,  the  avalanche  effect  refers  to  a
desirable  property  of  cryptographic  algorithms,
typically  block  ciphers  and  cryptographic  hash
functions. The avalanche effect is evident if, when an
input is changed slightly (for example, flipping a single
bit)  the  output  changes  significantly  (e.g.,  half  the
output  bits  flip).  In  the  case  of  high-quality  block
ciphers, such a small change  in either  the key  or the
plaintext  should  cause  a  drastic  change  in  the
ciphertext.
 
If a  block cipher or  cryptographic hash function does
not exhibit the avalanche effect to a significant degree,
then it has poor randomization, and thus a cryptanalyst
can make predictions about the input, being given only
the  output.  This  may  be  sufficient  to  partially  or
completely  break  the  algorithm. Thus,  the  avalanche
effect is a desirable condition from the point of view of
the designer of the cryptographic algorithm or device.

(PDF) Study of Avalanche Effect in AES. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304141002_Study_of_Avalanche_Effect_in_AES [accessed Aug 23 2018].

[DesertOasis3]

Question: Explain the avalanche effect.

The Avalanche effect when describing cryptography refers to an eventual change in the output hash that affects half of the bits but is started by a tiny change of the input say just one bit. The Avalanche analogy comes from the facts that even one snowflake landing on the rest of the snow on a mountain can start a huge avalanche.

[Crypto_Sassy]

Question: Explain the avalanche effect.

Look like I am late to party. Everybody given the definition and quoting the source so I am not going to repeat the same definition.

Lets go in definition of word "Avalanche".  Actually avalanche is a snow slide or in other words a large mass of snow going down by the violent force (due to gravity). It is very dangerous and can have speed of 80 miles per hour or 128 km per hour. They just need a trigger  that is most of time is provided by human activity. Actually snow in steep slope are in a delicate balance and if this balance is broken then gravity start playing its role. They can grow more strong in their downward journey gathering more snow and disturbing other delicate balances too.

So slight change in input (trigger) causing the output to change too much (disturbed balance) is Avalanche effect.

Hope you guys enjoy this relationship between a natural effect with a cryptography phenomenon.