Stories by Daniel Phillips
How Many Bitcoin Billionaires Are There?
Since Bitcoin kickstarted the cryptocurrency revolution in 2009, the crypto space has grown dramatically. And while some early adopters used their Bitcoin to buy pizza, for the most part the digital currency has become synonymous with wealth. As of June 2024, the real-time Forbes Billionaires List currently features 15 individuals who are reported to have made a majority of their fortune thanks to the world of cryptocurrency, compared to just nine in 2023. However, at the start of 2024 the list...
The 10 Public Companies With the Biggest Bitcoin Portfolios
This article was first published in July 2022 and updated in June 2024. For many years, the idea that publicly traded corporations might buy Bitcoin for their reserves was considered laughable. The top cryptocurrency was considered too volatile, too fringe to be embraced by any serious business. That taboo has been well and truly broken, with a number of major institutional investors buying up Bitcoin in recent years. The floodgates first opened when cloud software company MicroStrategy bought $...
What Is the Bitcoin Genesis Block? How It All Started
On Saturday, January 3, 2009, Bitcoin was born. With the creation of the very first Bitcoin block—known as the 'Genesis Block'—the first set of 50 BTC was mined into existence. This genesis block is considered the start of the Bitcoin blockchain—and the beginning of the cryptocurrency revolution. Many would argue that the day it was minted represents Bitcoin's birthday. Though others instead believe that Bitcoin's birthday is actually three months earlier—when the Bitcoin whitepaper was first re...
What Is Solana? A Scalable, Decentralized Network for Dapps
Decentralized applications, or dapps, are widely regarded as one of the key use cases for blockchain technology. In the last few years, dapps have come on in leaps and bounds, with dapp developers launching everything from games to decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms on blockchain—and a concomitant explosion in user interest. But there's a problem. The vast majority of these dapps run on Ethereum, which has struggled to keep up with rampant demand—leading to congestion on the network and soar...
What is the Lightning Network? Bitcoin's Scalability Solution.
Bitcoin has been hampered by its own popularity. Thanks to the way the blockchain is designed, the speed of transactions is slow and the cost of transactions has increased. Researchers, developers, and the Bitcoin community have been trying to come up with a way of allowing Bitcoin—and other cryptocurrencies—to accommodate more transactions. Their best efforts to date have focused around something called the Lightning Network. Can it fix the cryptocurrency's scaling problems? Speed and cost A bl...
What Is Yield Farming?
Yield farming involves lending cryptocurrency via, in most cases, the Ethereum network. By way of comparison, when traditional loans are made via banks using fiat money, the amount lent out is paid back with interest. With yield farming, the concept is the same: cryptocurrency that would otherwise be sitting in an exchange or in a wallet is lent out via DeFi protocols (or locked into smart contracts, in Ethereum terms) in order to get a return. Yield farming is normally carried out using ERC-20...
What Is Yield Farming? Beginner's Guide
Yield farming involves lending cryptocurrency via, in most cases, the Ethereum network. When loans are made via banks using fiat money, the amount lent out is paid back with interest. With yield farming, the concept is the same: cryptocurrency that would otherwise be sitting in an exchange or in a wallet is lent out via DeFi protocols (or locked into smart contracts, in Ethereum terms) in order to get a return. What Are ERC-20 Tokens, Gas, ETH? Ethereum's Architecture Explained Yield farming is...
NFTs: An Introduction
When you think of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), what might come to mind are images of cartoonish apes and kitties that sell for millions. But that's just scratching the surface of NFTs. As you will learn in this course, NFTs have the potential to revolutionize the worlds of finance, art, trademark law, and even real estate. Basically, NFTs are pieces of code designed to carry out a set of instructions if certain conditions are met. This code is also known as a smart contract. Usually, at the heart...
What Backs Bitcoin?
Up until relatively recently (the last century or so), most ordinary paper currency and coinage was directly redeemable for gold. This is because many of the wealthiest countries followed the gold standard, a monetary system where governments tied a fixed exchange rate for national currency to gold. As part of this system, countries kept sufficient reserves of gold in their vaults to 100% back their circulating currency supply, ensuring currency-for-gold exchanges were always possible. However,...
What Are Smart Contracts?
We’re all familiar with apps and app stores. You browse, download the app you want, and away you go. Behind the lovely UX and UI interfaces of mobile devices, these apps are performing a specific set of instructions as laid out by their creator. It could be a game, a calendar, or a way to buy goods and services. Smart contracts perform a very similar function. A smart contract is a contract—expressed as a piece of code—that’s designed to carry out a set of instructions. With smart contracts, how...
What Is MetaMask?
MetaMask is one of the leading crypto wallets, and relies on browser integration and good design to serve as one of the main gateways to the world of Web3, decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs. Here's how it works, and how to get started with it. What is MetaMask? MetaMask is a browser plugin that serves as an Ethereum wallet, and is installed like any other browser plugin. Once it's installed, it allows users to store Ether and other ERC-20 tokens, enabling them to transact with any Ethereum a...
Best Crypto Wallet: The Top 8 Hardware Wallets
When it comes to storing cryptocurrencies safely, hardware wallets are widely considered to be the gold standard. Hardware wallets keep the private keys to your crypto stored in a secure offline environment—meaning that unlike software wallets, they're completely immune to online attacks. The best hardware wallets are also resistant to physical tampering. Hardware wallets are ideal for anybody looking to safely store a substantial cryptocurrency portfolio, or carry their portfolio with them on t...
What Is Avalanche Network (AVAX)? The 'Flexible' Ethereum Competitor
In the race to produce the fastest, most feature-complete blockchain there is, a handful of major players have emerged in the last few years. Among these, Avalanche—an open-source platform for new financial primitives and decentralized applications—has solidified as one of the front-runners. Here, we take a look at what makes it stand out in an increasingly populated industry. What is Avalanche? Avalanche is a platform developed by Ava Labs that allows anybody to easily produce their own multi-...
What is MetaMask? How to Use the Top Ethereum Wallet
The decentralized internet, Web3, is built on a foundation of cryptocurrencies and decentralized applications (dapps). But in order to use them, you need a user interface. Ideally, an elegant, intuitive, easy to use interface. MetaMask is one of the leading crypto wallets, and relies on browser integration and good design to serve as one of the main gateways to the world of Web3, decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs. Here's how it works, and how to get started with it. What is MetaMask? MetaMas...
What Are Smart Contracts and How Do They Work?
We’re all familiar with apps and app stores. You browse, download the app you want, and away you go. Behind the lovely UX and UI interfaces of mobile devices, these apps are performing a specific set of instructions as laid out by their creator. It could be a game, a calendar, or a way to buy goods and services. Smart contracts perform a very similar function. A smart contract is a contract—expressed as a piece of code—that’s designed to carry out a set of instructions. With smart contracts, how...
The 15 Most Expensive NFTs Ever Sold
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are changing the way we think about art—and investors are starting to take notice. In the last year, NFTs have shot to the forefront of the crypto space. The cryptographically-unique tokens make it possible to create real-world scarcity for digital objects, and artists have seized on the opportunity presented by the technology. The NFT market exploded in 2021, generating some $25 billion worth of trading volume, and the momentum hasn’t slowed so far this year. This...
Beginner's Guide to NFTs: What Are Non-Fungible Tokens?
Cryptocurrencies, utility tokens, security tokens, privacy tokens… digital assets and their classifications are multiplying and evolving right alongside cryptographic and blockchain technology. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the crypto industry. In this guide, we explore what they are, how they work, and how they're being used. What are non-fungible tokens? Non-fungible tokens are digital assets that contain identifying information recorded in smart contract...
Can A Country Actually Ban Bitcoin?
Since the earliest days of Bitcoin, there have been concerns that it's only a matter of time until the cryptocurrency is banned by governments around the world. For one thing, Bitcoin is often cited as being a threat to traditional monetary systems, with the potential to undermine the control of central banks over the money supply. There are also concerns that Bitcoin facilitates drug trafficking, money laundering and ransomware, due to its pseudo-anonymous nature. But whether or not it's actual...
Uniswap: Beginner's Guide To the Leading DEX (2021)
The burgeoning decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem aims to use decentralized, non-custodial financial products to replace centralized middlemen in financial applications such as loans, insurance and derivatives. Uniswap is an example of one of the core products in the DeFi ecosystem, the decentralized crypto exchange, or DEX. DEXs aim to solve many of the problems of their centralized counterparts, including the risk of hacking, mismanagement, and arbitrary fees. However, decentralized exchan...
What Can You Buy With Bitcoin? (2021 Update)
Among retail investors, Bitcoin (BTC) is often regarded as a speculative instrument that may be poised for growth in the future. But Bitcoin was originally designed as a "peer-to-peer electronic cash system"—in other words, a decentralized payment method, enabling holders to manage their own finances and make purchases without relying on government-issued fiat currencies. Although Bitcoin doesn’t have the same level of penetration as fiat currencies when it comes to everyday spending, there are...
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