CRYPTO

QUANTUM
LEAP

WHAT IS
CRYPTOCURRUNCEY
What is Cryptocurruncey

Cryptocurrency is a digital or
virtual currency that uses
cryptography for security. It is
not issued by any central
authority, making it
decentralized and resistant to
government interference or
manipulation. Cryptocurrency
is a medium of exchange like
normal currencies such as
USD, but designed for the
purpose of exchanging digital
information. The most
important feature of a
cryptocurrency is that it is not
controlled by any central
authority: the decentralized
nature of blockchain makes
cryptocurrency theoretically
immune to the old ways of
government control and
interference.
 Bitcoin History

Cryptocurrency is one of the most hotly debated global financial topics today.
In 2013, Forbes named Bitcoin (BTC) the year's best investment. In 2014,
Bloomberg countered with its proclamation of Bitcoin being the year's worst
investment. From the early days of the FBI shutting down the dark-net black
market to the Securities and Exchange Commission approving ProShares
Bitcoin Strategy (ticker: BITO), the first Bitcoin ETF, in Oct 2021, cryptocurrency
has had an exciting and volatile history.
Here are some of the highlights of Bitcoin's relatively recent history:
How Bitcoin started.
Bitcoin core concepts.
Bitcoin price trajectory.
Bitcoin adoption and controversy.
Anticipating the future of Bitcoin.

How Bitcoin Started

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency created and is now the most traded and
well-known. It was first launched in January 2009 by a computer programmer
or group of programmers under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, whose
actual identity has never been verified.
A 2008 white paper by Bitcoin's mysterious creator originally revealed the
blockchain system that would be the backbone of the cryptocurrency market.
A blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that is replicated and
distributed across a network of computer systems to secure information.

Bitcoin Core Concepts

Block. A block of coins is divisible to eight decimal places. A millibitcoin (mBTC)
is 1/1000 of a Bitcoin. The smallest unit is a satoshi (sat), which is
1/100,000,000 of a Bitcoin. Transaction. A computer directive styled as
"payer X sends Y Bitcoins to payer Z."
Blockchain. Each transaction forms an unbroken link on the chain. This
transparent, public chain is what allows Bitcoin to exist and be usable.
Mining. Independent individuals or groups complete intensive and costly
computer calculations to create a block.
Block hash. Mining activities incorporate a record-keeping service that keeps
the blockchain consistent, complete and unalterable. The hashes validate
available Bitcoin and serve as a means of uniformly rewarding the miners.
Blockchain address. A sequence of 25 to 34 alphanumeric characters. This is
the information that is given to other parties so they know where to send the
coins. They are considered pseudonymous because, while the blockchain itself
is public, the address shields personally identifiable information.
Cryptocurrency exchanges may be required by law to collect personally
identifiable information, but each transaction can be associated with a
different Bitcoin address to maintain privacy.
Wallet. Any individual or entity wishing to exchange Bitcoin must create a
digital collection of the credentials, known as a wallet, necessary to transact
coins.
Full clients. This is a wallet that includes a full copy of the entire blockchain.
This is the safest form of storage, but it requires substantial digital space.
Lightweight clients. This is a wallet that includes a more limited version of the
blockchain in order to enable it to be portable on devices, such as a
smartphone. Since the entire blockchain is not available, a party using a
lightweight wallet must trust intermediaries who have full wallets.
Keys. These are the credentials stored in the wallet. Like a safe-deposit box,
there are two keys necessary for each transaction.
Public. This is the technology necessary to encrypt and decrypt
transactions. It is "one way," meaning that it easily unlocks transactions,
but it is very challenging to reverse the transaction. This key enables the
blockchain to be uninterrupted.
Private. This is the passcode that transacting parties initiate so that the
transaction is unique to themselves. To spend Bitcoin, one must know the
corresponding private key and digitally sign the transaction. The party's
signature is verified by the public key without revealing the private key.
If the party "loses" its key, the Bitcoin is unrecognizable and essentially of zero
value. According to Glassnode, a blockchain analytics company, it is estimated
that 10% to 25% of Bitcoins have been forgone by parties who lost the private
key. Additionally, if the private key is revealed in a security breach, it is
possible for the value of Bitcoins to be stolen and virtually unrecoverable. In
2022, cryptocurrency investors lost a record $3.8 billion to hackers.
Cold Storage. Private keys are stored offline to help avoid losing them or
exposing them to a security breach.

Bitcoin Price Trajectory

Bitcoin has had a volatile history. Mark T. Williams, a faculty member
at Boston University's Questrom School of Business, once said that
"Bitcoin has volatility seven times greater than gold, eight times
greater than the S&P 500 and 18 times the U.S. dollar."
The Bitcoin supply was capped from the beginning by Nakamoto in order to
drive supply and demand. The maximum number of coins stipulated to be in
existence was 21 million. As of Jan. 29, there were 19,276,325 Bitcoins in
existence. However, the mining operators of Bitcoin regularly round down
calculations as each block of coins is created, leading experts to believe that it
will take until the year 2140 before the cap is reached.

After Nakamoto rolled out Bitcoin in 2009, he mined approximately 1.1 million
Bitcoin and disappeared in 2010. He ceded control to Gavin Andresen,
formerly known as Gavin Bell, who set out to decentralize the platform. This
meant that there was no central authority, server, storage or administrator. All
the parties were peer-to-peer and the blockchain was distributed to all. The
network existed merely to legitimize and confirm the transactions. The price of
Bitcoin dropped with the new uncertainty surrounding these actions.

However, control issues emerged when GHash.io, a cryptocurrency mining

pool, exceeded 51% hashing power for the first time. One of Bitcoin's tenets is
that power cannot be accumulated in too few hands, and GHash's popularity
meant that it was possible for coins to be double-spent, or counterfeited, and
they could push other miners out of being rewarded for their activity.
Fortunately for the Bitcoin industry, the parties voluntarily enacted provisions
that redistributed hashing power to acceptable, sustainable limits.
The first Bitcoin real-world transaction occurred on May 22, 2010, a date
known to Bitcoin enthusiasts as Bitcoin Pizza Day. Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000
BTC to have two Papa Johns pizzas delivered to him. The pizzas retailed for
about $25. At the peak of Bitcoin's pricing in 2021, the two pizzas would have
been worth $630 million.

Part of the extreme volatility in Bitcoin comes from the Gartner Hype Cycle, a
life cycle common among new and innovative technologies. The five stages
include: the innovation trigger, the peak of inflated expectations, the trough of
disillusionment, the slope of enlightenment, and finally, the plateau of
productivity. Many individuals created and then lost vast fortunes in Bitcoin,
causing eight Nobel Prize winners in economic sciences to call Bitcoin a
bubble, much like the oft-cited Dutch tulip mania in the 1600s. However,
Bitcoin supporters point out that although Bitcoin has crashed five times, it
has also returned to its previous price each time, while other bubbles have not
recovered their value.

The strength of the economy is also a huge factor in Bitcoin pricing. In what
has been designated as the 2022 "crypto winter," sharp declines occurred in
Bitcoin pricing as the Federal Reserve began aggressively increasing interest
rates to stave off inflation. Investor appetite for risk all but disappeared and
liquidity became a major issue among the exchanges. Bitcoin's value
decreased over 60% from a high of $68,990 in Nov 2021, and pessimism in the
markets still persists.
 Bitcoin Adoption and Controversy

Bitcoin supporters also note that more and more institutions, countries and
platforms are accepting the digital currency, and they hold hopes for Bitcoin
to become a global reserve currency.
Bitcoin is legal in seven of the top 10 world economies by GDP, including the
U.S. Nine countries have had an outright ban on Bitcoin, including Egypt and
Pakistan. Another 42 countries have implicitly banned Bitcoin, including Saudi
Arabia and Taiwan.
Some countries have actively begun trading in Bitcoin, often due to global
financial pressures. El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as its legal tender in 2021 in
order to resolve deep economic woes. Unfortunately, the price of Bitcoin
dropped precipitously since, the country is still struggling to meet its debt
obligations, and public adoption has been lackluster.
Ukraine posted two crypto wallets at the beginning of the Russian invasion to
raise funds, attracting more than $10.2 million within the first week to fund
both humanitarian needs and military support. Ukraine anticipates rebuilding
its economy using blockchain technology. Iran has transacted $8 billion in
Bitcoin in order to bypass U.S. financial sanctions on the country.
Bitcoin has also attracted controversy due to its climate change implications.
Mining bitcoin requires significant electricity usage and is responsible for
0.10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The University of Cambridge
publishes the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CEBCI), which
provides estimates on the greenhouse gas emissions related to Bitcoin,
currently calculated at 48.35 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Anticipating the Future of Bitcoin

Although Bitcoin is having a banner first few months of 2023, up roughly 40%
year to date as of Feb. 27, the cryptocurrency industry as a whole was dealt a
major blow by the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange FTX and
sister firm Alameda Research. The fallout may be felt for quite a while, and
Congress will be determining what regulations are needed for Bitcoin going
forward. It remains to be seen whether the industry can remain true to its
decentralization goal.
However, the time is also ripe for new innovation to take place in blockchain
technology, including non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, on the Ethereum
blockchain. Web3 applications are also gaining momentum, especially in the
gaming space, where digital currencies would have an eager audience.

Artificial intelligence is also rising in trading applications. Blockchain

technology may be the key to determining what content is AI-driven vs.
uniquely human, a differentiator that has a great potential impact on the
overall public adoption of AI.
However, despite the bumps in the road, blockchain technology is here to stay,
says Marion Laboure, a senior economist and market strategist at Deutsche
Bank Research. The $1 trillion market cap for cryptocurrencies is simply too
big to ignore, Laboure says.
 HOW DOES BITCOIN
MINING WORK?

What Is Bitcoin Mining?

Bitcoin mining is the process by which new bitcoins are entered into
circulation. It is also the way the network confirms new transactions and is a
critical component of the blockchain ledger's maintenance and
development. "Mining" is performed using sophisticated hardware that solves
an extremely complex computational math problem. The first computer to
find the solution to the problem receives the next block of bitcoins and the
process begins again.

Cryptocurrency mining is painstaking, costly, and only sporadically rewarding.

Nonetheless, mining has a magnetic appeal for many investors who are
interested in cryptocurrency because of the fact that miners receive rewards
for their work with crypto tokens. This may be because entrepreneurial types
see mining as pennies from heaven, like California gold prospectors in 1849.
And if you are technologically inclined, why not do it?

The bitcoin reward that miners receive is an incentive that motivates people
to assist in the primary purpose of mining: to legitimize and monitor Bitcoin
transactions, ensuring their validity. Because many users all over the world
share these responsibilities, Bitcoin is a "decentralized" cryptocurrency, or one
that does not rely on any central authority like a central bank or government
to oversee its regulation.

However, before you invest the time and equipment, read this explainer to
see whether mining is really for you.
 WHAT IS HAPPENING
TO THE VALUE OF
BITCOIN AND WHY?
Bitcoin is incredibly volatile. It
is prone to rising and falling
sharply on a daily basis. But it’s
not the only cryptocurrency to
have had a tumultuous time
recently.

Global stocks have gone into a

downturn as result of:
The war in Ukraine
Inflationary fears
Higher interest rates, which
will make it more expensive
for businesses to borrow
money
This has spilled over into the
cryptocurrency market.

The slump in November 2022 was triggered by the collapse of FTX,

which handled around $1 billion transactions each day. Its collapse is
having a knock-on effect on other crypto exchanges.
In June 2022 bitcoin dropped below $20,000 for the first time since
2020. This was prompted by the decision of Celsius Network, a major
US cryptocurrency lending company, to freeze withdrawals and
transfers, citing “extreme” conditions.
The move fuelled a slump across the cryptocurrency market.
China’s continued crackdown on crypto is playing a part too.
In addition to this, there have been sudden and severe sell-offs of
major cryptocurrencies. This has triggered panic and further sell-offs
which has knocked consumer confidence.
But bitcoin has recovered some of the ground it lost last year and is
now worth around $30,000.
 Crypto
Quantum
Leap

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