Yesterday I was reading about the stories of people who had made massive profits from Bitcoins in a really short span of time. One of the millionaires wrote that firstly he found the idea of spending the real money on something like digital which only exists on a public ledger in cloud ludicrous. But when he read about the fact that the price of Bitcoin had risen up to 700% in 2017 since its launch and Ethereum (other cryptos) rise up to 3900% in no time, he was surprised and invested the huge money in Bitcoins (which obviously made him millionaire after a few months!). So, reading about the potential of Bitcoins and how the volatility can earn you huge profits might increase your interest in investing the Bitcoins. In this article, let us understand methods which can help you in becoming Bitcoin billionaire. Along with it, snippets of the success stories to pump up your hopes will also be mentioned.
Can Bitcoins Really Make You A Billionaire?
Tracking the past records, it can be advocated that Bitcoin is having a really high potential to make your wealth grow and become a billionaire. It can prove as the great opportunity of investment without taking the global economic condition in consideration. Introduced in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin was exchanged through its own payment network. Based on Blockchain technology, Bitcoin follows the decentralisation model where no intermediary is needed to back and manage the transaction between two parties. Digital currency based on a peer-to-peer network having no impact of global inflation can be considered an option of investment to earn huge profits. Undoubtedly, early birds have earned millions from investing in Bitcoins but according to many analysts, it is never too late to invest in Bitcoin because of the unique features it possesses and the gradually diversifying sector all across the world. Let us read some of the tips which can help you in becoming Bitcoin Billionaire.
Tips To Become A Bitcoin Billionaire
How to get rich from Bitcoin? In this section, I will try to describe several means for making money out of cryptocurrency and also Blockchain Technologies. Following tips are based on analysis of public registries and confirmed by some of the Bitcoin Billionaires.
- Trading: First and foremost method would be buying and selling the Bitcoins with the help of various crypto exchange platforms like exchanges (Coinbase, Binance, etc), OTC brokers, decentralised exchanges, peer-to-peer platforms and many more. If you had bought some of the coins in 2011 at $10 per Bitcoin price, then today you might be enjoying the fame of Billionaires. Either you can go for the highly risky (highly volatile Bitcoin) intraday trading or you can go for the long term investment plans and wait for the right time to sell the Bitcoins to earn massive profits.
- Strategise the Investment plan: Throwing the coin in a fish pond and waiting for the miracle to happen might not be the right approach in the crypto industry. You have to develop a written financial plan with an effective strategy based on historical trends and future prospects. You can follow the basic rule in the industry of investing when the prices of Bitcoin starts to rise, hold the coins till the growth stabilizes and then sell the coins for allocating the profits in another promising cryptocurrency available in the crypto marketplace. Demarcate your goals and targets beforehand in your financial plan.
- Invest in High Yield Investment Plans (HYIPs): Crypto doublers or the community who follows the shortcuts to double their cryptocurrencies might advise you to invest in some high yielding investment projects. You can invest in the promising ICOs but with the proper research of the authenticity with the help of given websites, whitepaper, team members, testimonies, licenses mentioned and many more. If you are lucky enough like that of Ether holders, you might become a Billionaire with minimal investment.
- Be a merchant: Do you know the fact that the first order placed with Bitcoins was that of two pizzas in exchange of 10,000 Bitcoins in 2010. Now, you can easily imagine the worth of those pizzas. So, if you are a merchant or any professional, you can ask for the payment in terms of Bitcoins or any other cryptocurrencies which might make you a Billionaire in the near future.
- Gambling: If you are a gamer either online or offline, daring enough to take the risks in Casino games, then you must try your hand in the Bitcoin gambling marketplace. It works like the traditional gambling but the money at stake got changed from fiat to Bitcoins and has the potential to make you a bitcoin millionaire overnight. But you must be careful with your money and spend only as much as you can afford to lose. This might be a shortcut but can effectively turn you to a Bitcoin Billionaire.
Stories Of A Bitcoin Billionaires
Some of the stories are associated with regular people who had made fortunes in crypto and became the Bitcoin Billionaires in no time by investing at the early stage of the launch of Bitcoin. These stories are primarily making the pans and shovels in the digital gold rush. You can also be lucky enough if you buy the bItcoins or other cryptocurrencies and the prices gradually emerge in the future (most probably they would emerge!). Some of the famous Bitcoin rich stories are:
- Erick Finman (Bitcoin millionaire kid): In 2011, Erick borrowed $1000 from his grandmother to invest in nascent stage currency, Bitcoin worth $12 per BTC. In the span of just two years, he became the youngest kid to earn the massive profits when Bitcoin hit $1200.
- Winklevoss Brothers: Twins were the earliest investors who earned the massive millions with the new groundbreaking technology-based Bitcoins.
- Peter Saddington: Peter bought the coins when the BTC was only $3 per coin back in 2011 and sold them when the BItcoin hit the price charts with $5500 within a few years earning the profit of almost 250,000%. Being a computer engineer and mathematic enthusiast, he said that an algorithm can never sink your money.
- Charlie Shrem: Charlie started as one of the first places to accept Bitcoin payments when Bitcoin was worth $3-4, slowly he had thousands of coins till the price reached $20. Later on, he expanded his business and now serving as one of the exchange platforms with the worth of multi-millions.
Beside Bitcoin millionaire stories, I must tell you that few of my friends bought 100 BTCs in 2010 when it was a few dollars worth and they sold it in 2017 with the worth of almost $20,000. Finally, luck hit their fortune and turned them into multi-millionaires in just seven years.
Thus it can be concluded that cryptocurrencies in the past have created a number of opportunities to become Billionaires and have the potential to make the same in future too. So, you can start with a small amount of money and when you start to earn a few of the profits, you can try for the big fish and become a Bitcoin billionaire.
Articles You May Read
Cryptocurrency has become the buzzword amid the pandemic across the world and the latest event of Bitcoin Halving. Investors are considering cryptos as the commodity which has the huge potential to double their money in no time. To buy, sell, or trade the cryptos to earn profits, you need to sign on the crypto exchange. Amid the Coinbase and Binance, another crypto exchange which is getting popular is Bithumb. So, if you are thinking of creating your account or using the services of Bithumb, then you have landed up at the correct article. In this guide of Bithumb exchange, I have got you covered with all the necessary information about the exchange. Let us get started with Bithumb.!
Bithumb Exchange | Brief Introduction
Bithumb is a third party crypto exchange that allows the users to invest in a number of currencies in the form of buying, selling, and trading. South Korea based crypto exchange was launched in 2013 by a company named as BTC Korea.com (Bithumb founder). In terms of daily trade volume, Bithumb stands out as one of the largest exchanges in the world. One of the reasons for higher trading volume could be the facilities provided to institutional investors by Bithumb. Trading volume ensures the liquidity associated with the exchange, thereby ease of trading to investors. With a user-friendly interface and intuitive features, whether the trader is a novice or advanced, both of them could experience the hassle-free services of Bithumb. Now, after the brief introduction, let us move forward to details of payment modes which can be utilized to buy the cryptocurrencies.
Transaction Fees | Deposits And Withdrawals
Deposit Fees
The fees incurred while depositing the coins depends on the type of coin being deposited. For instance, cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Ripple, and EOS are free while Bitcoin, Dash, and Litecoin incur a small amount of fees. (P.S: There is a minimum limit to deposit the cryptocurrencies on Bithumb account)
Withdrawal Fees
The fees incurred while withdrawing the coins depends on the type of coin being drawn out. The transaction fees keep on changing on the exchange depending upon the liquidity or demand-supply of that particular currency.
Trading Fees
For trading purposes, Bithumb charges 0.15% of the total amount of buying or selling of currencies as the basic fees. For instance, while purchasing $1000 worth of Ripple, traders have to pay 0.15% of the amount, i.e. $1.50. Trading fees can be lower if done through the Bithumb voucher decreasing down by 0.01%-0.07%.
Payment Mode | Method To Buy/Sell Cryptocurrency
Bithumb is the crypto-to-crypto exchange except for the citizens of South Korea who can enjoy both fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto mode of payments to process the deposits and withdrawals. For all other users, either they can open a crypto account on fiat-to-crypto exchange and then transfer the funds to Bithumb to avail the benefits or they can simply buy the cryptos with the existing coins in their crypto wallets. This won’t be as difficult as it sounds, you just need to create an account on the exchange like Coinbase (fiat-to-crypto), purchase the crypto from fiat currency either by bank transfer or credit/debit card and then you can easily transfer the coin purchased on Coinbase to Bithumb Exchange for further utilization.
Coins Or Tokens Available | Bithumb Exchange
Presently (June 24, 2020), Bithumb gives the option of 115 cryptocurrencies that can be bought, sold, or trade at Bithumb Exchange. For the convenience of investors, Bithumb had carefully categorized the coins as a major, New, I/W, etc on their website along with their trading volume and price trends. The majority of popular coins like Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Litecoin, and less popular coins like Ethos, Augur, etc are supported by the crypto exchanges.
Safety Review | Bithumb Exchange
While selecting any crypto exchange as the medium of trade, it is necessary to check the security protocols followed by the exchange. So, Is Bithumb Exchange safe? As the crypto regulations are strict in South Korea, the stakes on Bithumb become higher to maintain the security of funds of the customers. A number of personal details need to be filled while opening the account on Bithumb exchange, this ensures that only an account per user can be opened per person, thereby restricting the anonymous trading. Also, Bithumb exchange involves the procedure of two-factor authentication every time you log in to withdraw funds. Furthermore, to assure the safety of the funds, high-level encryption techniques are deployed by Bithumb ensuring the protection from cyber attacks.
Pros And Cons | Bithumb Review
Every crypto exchange has certain advantages and disadvantages. Let us list out some of the pros and cons of Bithumb Exchange in this section of Bithumb review.
Pros
- Minimal transaction fees
- Massive trading volume, thereby high liquidity
- 24/7 customer support with both live chat and phone
- Highly secured platform with two-factor authentication
- Ideal for both novice and advanced traders
- Accessibility of more than hundred cryptocurrencies
- Bithumb API or interface is user-friendly and intuitive.
Cons
- Only crypto-to-crypto exchange does not allow users to buy coins from their fiat currency
- The exchange was hacked twice, once in 2017 and other in 2018 (Bithumb hack)
- The verification process is slower compare to other exchanges
- Targeted to the residents of South Korea mainly not Bithumb Global.
Summing Up
And that is the end of the Bithumb Exchange guide from scratch, which reviewed the mode of payments, transaction fees, cryptocurrencies supported, security protocols, and pros and cons of the exchange, in brief, to help you in taking a self-educated decision before choosing the Bithumb exchange as your trading platform. In my personal opinion, you can choose Bithumb exchange though it has been hacked twice, it has the proven records of the highest trading volume and high liquidity. The exchange gives you an amazing opportunity to learn the transaction process with the virtual credits offered on the exchange. Either you are a beginner, advanced or professional trader in crypto space, the platform of Bithumb exchange would not disappoint you in any case and provides you with the best of facilities and services in the crypto market place, as per the Bithumb CEO.
Articles You May Read
In the recent digital technological trends, Blockchain has become the buzzword not only in the financial industry but in other industries like healthcare, education, automotive, entertainment, fashion, and many more. Blockchain technology is not only easing the several operations of the industries but generating the different employment opportunities in different paradigms from developers to content writers, from digital marketers to graphic designers. There is a rush to become a certified Blockchain professional with the number of Blockchain certification courses ranging from regular to correspondence. In this article, we are going to throw the light over FAQs or Frequently Asked Questions which must be prepared for the interviews of Blockchain certification.
Introductory Blockchain Questions | Certified Blockchain Professional
Before going for the interviews for Blockchain certification and become a certified Blockchain professional, you must know about some of the basic introductory Blockchain questions either by blockchain course for beginners or from the following article.
Question 1: Define Blockchain Technology
Before understanding the Blockchain as technology, we should get clear with the concept of Blockchain. Basically, Blockchain is a list of “Blocks of Information”. Blocks are securely attached together with the cryptography techniques. Coming onto Blockchain technology, it is a technology that maintains a distributed ledger of the financial transactions or value-based information which is encrypted cryptographically, ensures the integrity of information.
Question 2: Principle of Blockchain Technology
Whether it is google Blockchain Certain or of that IBM, you must be clear with the principle of technology. Blockchain technology works on the principle of decentralization. It works on the “peer-to-peer” network to eliminate the interference of a third party. Technically, developers of the Blockchain network implement “trusted nodes” or computers which are utilized for initializers of the network. Then, every single connected system (technically called as node) connecting the network does not receive any information about its status to that point.
Question 3: Can Block be removed? Can data be changed or tempered?
Block can be removed but only by the developer team of that particular Blockchain network. Tempering or changing of data is not possible, can only be removed and feed again, that too if a person has the access to the network as Blockchain is not controlled by any single authority.
Question 4: How Blockchain technology can assure the Privacy of information?
IBM blockchain interview questions booklet explains the answer well. According to it, Blockchain technology does not assure the privacy about the transaction (like number of coins transferred or amount, etc) but assure the privacy of data of the parties involved like their personal details with the help of block hashing process. This process involves “hash pointer” which is a string function (combination of random alphabets and digits) which connects one block with another or establish the connection between the data transacted.
Question 5: How Blockchain technology assures the transparency of the network?
Blockchain network is based on a consensus mechanism which is a kind of self-auditing ecosystem, reconciling every transaction in an interval of ten minutes. Thus, transparency is imbibed within the Blockchain network which cannot be corrupted as any change in a Block will requires the permission from a number of nodes connected to the network. As no single entity controls the information, Blockchain assures the integrity of the network.
Question 6: Can Blockchain keep only value-based data like that of Bitcoins?
If you are going for the interview process of Blockchain architect interview questions, you must be prepared for this answer. Blockchain technology has always been misinterpreted that it can only save the data involved in the financial transaction of digital assets or cryptocurrency. But, actually, Blockchain is a distributed ledger capable of keeping records whether it is records of medical transactions, management of identity, documentation related to business, and many more.
Question 7: Define about the Consensus Mechanism followed by Blockchain
If you are going in the interview of blockchain developer certification, the question related to the consensus mechanism could be asked. As soon as a new block of information enters into the Blockchain, it needs to be verified by the connected nodes present in the network or follows the consensus mechanism to add the block in the chain. Nodes are involved in the verification process “Proof-of-Work” and the legitimacy of transactions. “Proof-of-work” is a mechanism that involves a person or company to enable their machines to validate the blocks with certain conditions associated with it.
Question 8: Brief about the process of “Secret sharing”
Secret sharing is one of the unique features of Blockchain technology which is related to the security processes of the technology. While using the feature of secret sharing, if you share any file with the number of users on Blockchain then the information will be divided into two parts. File can be viewed only when the different parts will be combined. (This question has been recommended by IBM Blockchain essentials quiz answers)
Question 9: Name the main types of Blockchain ledgers.
Basically, there are three types of Blockchain ledgers: centralized, decentralized, and distributed based on the model of information sharing they follow.
Question 10: Name a few of the Blockchain development platforms.
Popular Blockchain development platforms are Bitcoin and Ethereum. Other platforms which are IOTA, EOS, and Hyper ledger.
Summing Up
If you are updated with the latest technological trends, you must be aware of the demands of Blockchain professionals across the globe. As technology is gradually coming into the mainstream and adopted by various multinationals and other enterprises, besides the cryptocurrency, demand for Blockchain professional is deemed to increase. Tech-savvy people are visualizing the career perspectives in the respective Blockchain industry. Enthusiasts are desperately searching for the Blockchain certification courses so as to turn their passion into employment opportunities by learning about the technology in depth.
To sum up, it can be concluded that this article briefs the bare minimum question answers in simplest forms which you must learn by heart or understand them before facing the interview of Certified Blockchain professional. Even though this article covers ten questions, but they sum up the basic concept of innovative Blockchain technology.
Articles You May Read
In May 2019, Bitcoin was priced approximately $3500 and after a year, it went to three times up to $10,000. The hype of cryptocurrency started when the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed in 2017 and went up to $20,000 on a few of the crypto exchanges. Amid the pandemic situation where the pandemic is reducing the employment rate, value of fiat currency touching new heights, people are looking for alternatives to earn money. In this article, let us understand the shortcuts to earn free Bitcoin and that too on smartphones. So, let us start the journey of “How to earn Bitcoins on Android”.
Methods To Earn Bitcoin On Smartphones
If someone had asked me ten years back how to earn cryptocurrencies, then the options were very limited. But, now there are a number of options available to earn Bitcoins with a number of mediums like that of desktop and mobile phones. Cryptocurrencies can be earned through a variety of methods like mining, affiliate marketing, gaming, leverage trading, and many more. The number of websites and apps are captivating the interest of crypto enthusiasts and accelerating the crypto movement.
Presently, Google Store has been one of the easiest ways for Android users to earn the Bitcoins. There are a variety of methods mentioned below which can help you earn cryptocurrencies through your smartphones:
Mining Of Cryptocurrencies
Android Bitcoin mining apps can facilitate earning massive amounts of crypto coins with a small amount of subscription fees of the apps. With the help of your smartphones, you just need to share the computing power for the process of mining with dedicated mining pools. In exchange for Bitcoin payouts, you just need to download the app, pay the enrollment fees, and you are done. For instance, MinerGate, the Bitcoin Miner, Cloud Bitcoin Miner app can help you in earning not only Bitcoins but also altcoins like Monero, Dash, DigitalNote, and many more.
Affiliate Marketing
Many of the crypto websites and apps are giving the opportunity to crypto enthusiasts to earn passive income in terms of Bitcoins through their Android smartphones. Refer-a-friends partner plan or Affiliate marketing is one of the simplest ways in which you just have to refer to some services or products related to crypto space to earn Bitcoins. Every time a product is sold with the help of your link, a fixed amount of commission gets transferred to your account. For instance, the Affiliate marketing program of one of the famous crypto exchanges, Coinbase, gives you the chance to earn Bitcoins through your phone. Some of the other sites like BlockFi, Changelly, and many more offer the opportunity to get involved in affiliate marketing through their mobile apps.
Crypto Faucets
Do you ever think that just by clicking on an ad or watching the ad can help you in earning Bitcoins? Do you ever think that just by completing a two-minute survey can fill your crypto wallet with a number of crypto coins? Sounds strange? But this is possible with the help of crypto faucets apps downloaded on your Android smartphones. You can effortlessly earn the coins just by playing a game, signing up for a particular service, buying a crypto app at nominal charges, and with many more simple tasks. Many of the websites offer the opportunities to get the coins in this way like Time Bucks, Storm Play, Free Bitcoin, and many more. You can even earn bitcoin by walking through various apps.
Online Shopping
Who does not like to shop and that too online from your smartphone? How to get free bitcoins instantly? And if you are being told that you will pay for purchasing the products, then even the non-shopping enthusiasts will also be running to buy certain products. For instance, one of the cashback service providers called Lolli can fill your crypto wallet with the Bitcoins (earned in the form of reward). Bitcoin earning apps like Pei can also earn you Bitcoins.
Crypto Interest Account
Some of the crypto exchanges like BlockFi help you earn interest on the long term investment and thereby grow your overall holdings. You just need to open your account on the particular website or just need to download the app and have to hold some of the investments for the long term to gain a yearly interest in terms of Bitcoins. Apps uses the robust automated risk management systems to judiciously keep watch on your account and pay the interests as per the decided rate.
Leverage Trading
How to earn Bitcoins on android even when the price of BTC goes down? Some of the Android can even help you in earning Bitcoins even when the price of Bitcoin goes down. All you need is to download the apps facilitating the “Leverage Trading” and predict the trends of open buying (or long) or selling (short) positions. Leverage trading can prove to be the easiest way to earn huge profits with the effectiveness of the mobile app and the promptness of your decision making.
Freelancing Jobs
As the crypto sector is diversifying, the number of employment opportunities are increasing which can help you earn Bitcoin income. From promoting the referral link to writing content to develop apps. Some of the jobs can even be done remotely with the help of your smartphones. Websites like CryptoGrind, Coinality, Crypto Jobs, and many more can help you in downloading your CV and get the jobs accordingly.
Summing Up
Thus it can be concluded that Bitcoins can be earned easily through Android smartphones with little investment of time and money. Buying the Bitcoin can be the long term investment and even bit riskier for the newbies.
This is because you are less likely to be exposed to scams, and you would certainly make profits through your Android devices. You can join purchase reward programs, open an interest-bearing bitcoin account, become an affiliate marketer, and even get paid to mine bitcoin without any specialized hardware from your mobile phones and start earning the Bitcoins even if you are a newbie in the crypto industry and dost know how to invest in coins.
Articles you May Read
As per Webster dictionary, “Charity” is defined as the art of being generous and helpful towards those who are in need by offering them money, food, clothes, or any other tangibles. Charity is considered as one of the acts of doing good to fellow beings all across the globe. For many years, this act of charity has been declining due to increasing skepticism related to transparency of the utilization of funds. Series of scandals are changing the perception of philanthropists and reducing their trust in charitable organizations. However, the recent advent of Blockchain technology has started giving the ray of hope to the charity industry. Blockchain technology has the potential to resurrect the images of charities who are willing to adopt the services based on their network. In this article, we shall explore the challenges that the charity industry is facing and new avenues of “Blockchain for Charities”.
Challenges Faced By Charity Industry | Blockchain For Charities
According to reports from various research firms, charity industry is facing the following challenges which is hampering the image of the organizations associated with industry:
- Lack of transparency regarding the utilization of funds of donors.
- Increasing overhead expenses for maintaining the administration actually reduces the money which is meant to reach the needy people
- Wastage of time in administering the documents, completing paperwork, and settling up the ledger accounts.
- Misreporting of expenses by some of the fake charity houses due to lack of traceability of funds.
- Settlement times are highly slow while transferring the funds from charities to beneficiaries.
- Donations sometimes piled up in the pockets of the corrupt official involved in immuting the records of ledger
- Problem in receiving the funds from abroad or across the international borders.
Blockchain technology is still underutilized in Blockchain charity donations and other solutions in the charity industry, but even a few of the solutions are doing magic to industry and slowly revamping the image of the particular sector.
Blockchain Reinventing Charity Industry | Blockchain For Charities
UN World Food Programme, one of the renowned names in the charity industry has recently conducted a Blockchain-based test project to supply the items to refugees in Jordan. With the help of Biometric technology, iris were scanned of refugees to provide them food, and the record of the refugees was maintained on the Blockchain network. And the whole exercise was speedy, and food reached the maximum of refugees.
With the help of best Blockchain solutions, we can
- Track the contribution of donors, making the system more accountable and reducing corruption.
- Reduce the transaction fees inside and outside the borders encouraging the donors to contribute more.
- Maintain the records on distributed ledger making the accounts transparent.
- Offer immediate financial support to the victims trapped in disaster or any natural calamity.
- Decrease the cost of maintaining administration and bookkeeping tasks, leaving the huge amount for contribution.
- Utilize solutions like smart contracts, stable coins, and many more to maintain the efficiency of the system.
Blockchain technology could restore some of the credibility lost which will ultimately increase the trust of the public. Blockchain grants can aid in strengthening the network between donors, recipients, and other stakeholders involved in the charity industry.
Blockchain For Charities | Donors | Recipients
For Donors
“Trust deficit” is currently the major factor for the falling contributions in the charity industry. Allegations of aggressive fundraising practices, a huge surplus of cash, mismanagement of records, and many more had engulfed the charity sector. But with the help of Blockchain technology, the trust of the donors can be regained by:
- Increasing the involvement of donors by giving them the voting rights after the evaluation of contribution maintained on distributed ledger.
- Enabling visibility and traceability of transactions allowing the donors to track the transaction from beginning till the funds reach intended targets. This would also help donors in making informed decisions.
- Reducing transaction fees and making the transaction at higher speed will increase the credibility of charitable organizations as the monetary benefits will be reached at the time when they are actually needed.
- Elimination of intermediaries while transferring the funds can increase the confidence and may encourage donors to contribute more.
- Non-immutability of data can redefine the credence of the charity industry as once recorded transactions cannot be altered by any of the corrupted officials.
For Recipients
Recipients nowadays not receiving the funds which have actually been contributed due to the overhead expenses, cost incurred in transactions, administrative expenses, and many more. With the help of Blockchain technology, they can receive more money than money would otherwise as the expensive transfer mechanisms will be bypassed. Fraudulent intermediaries will be reduced which will ultimately increase the funds transferred to the recipients.
Blockchain Charity Projects
Blockchain charity projects are impacting the charity sector by decreasing the massive financial and legal intermediaries. Some of the popular projects are:
- Alice: Startup based on Blockchain technology which helps in increasing the traceability of the funds donated and the impacts their money is creating. This startup is involved in rebuilding the trust as it offers innovative solutions to ensure that donation is utilized judiciously.
- Bithope: Company involved in the promotion of increasing the charity Bitcoin crowdfunding. Bithope is giving the chance to charity organizations to receive the funds all across the world along with anonymous contributions, proving as one of the best Blockchain charity companies.
- Cleanwater: Cryptocoin named as Cleanwater coin is exclusively designed to be used by non-profit organizations. As its name suggests, it encourages the community to provide contributions for the cleanliness of the water.
- Pinkcoin: Cryptocurrency named as Pinkcoin was developed to make donations easier. This coin also encourages the donors by rewarding them through its unique feature of staking technologies. It focuses on increasing the peer-to-peer transactions, thereby reducing the intermediaries and chances of fraudulently.
- GiveTrack: For real-time financial transparency, GiveTrack is one of the best solutions in Blockchain for charities. It offers you the feature to track your donations from any part of the globe.
Summing Up
The popularity of Blockchain technology is increasing day-by-day across the world not among the financial sectors but in every other sector which needs to maintain transparency, security, low transaction fees, quicker transactions, decentralization, and many more. Blockchain in charities is still in the nascent stage which needs to be explored for improving the efficiency of the industry especially reducing the trust deficit. Blockchain-based philanthropy can prove to be a noble way of giving, distributing, and accepting donations.
Articles You May Read
Everyone from enthusiastic investors to enterprising millennials, from financial institutions to multinational companies are jubilant to understand more about the Blockchain-based cryptocurrency, sometimes called as Bitcoins (but it is a type of cryptocurrency only!). More importantly, people trying to explore the knowledge related to currencies, exchanges, services, and products, to earn the speculative profits associated with Bitcoins. What is a cryptocurrency exchange? However, above all you need to know about choosing the best cryptocurrency exchange platform so that your funds will be secured, you can trade easily with nominal fees and many more. In this article, let us know about the factors that you must consider while choosing the best cryptocurrency platform.
How To Choose Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform?
Unlike the traditional stock markets, where the profile of the company is associated with the share value in the market; in crypto space, cryptocurrency exchanges hold the important place to keep your funds secure, tradable, and earn the profits. Following are the few factors which must be considered before choosing the best cryptocurrency exchange platform:
Security (Check the Locks!)
Mt. Gox crypto exchange hack, Binance hack, and many more hacks are prevalent in the crypto industry but they are avoidable if the exchange is reputed or certain precautionary measures are taken from users side. Before choosing any platform, it is essential to research the legitimacy and security protocols of exchange. Cryptocurrency follows the decentralized model but the majority of exchanges are centralized controlled by their team. You can check the protocols by simply visiting to the website of exchange and check the details like 90% of client funds are stored in cold storage, the facility of transferring crypto funds to hardware wallet directly, multi-signature authorization for purpose of withdrawals, accessibility of account by two-factor authentication, having the SSL Site Security Certificates, these conditions are the bare minimum which must be present.
Supported Cryptocurrencies and Tokens (Check the CoinS!)
If you are a novice, you must have heard of a few of the cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and a few more. And you might end up choosing the exchange which has listed these currencies only. However, you must diversify knowledge about the fact that there are more than 5000 cryptocurrencies available in the market, with a number of stablecoins and tokens. Regardless of your risk-taking capability, you must choose a platform supporting a maximum of the digital assets. You can easily check the availability of cryptocurrency on the “List section” of a particular crypto exchange.
Liquidity ( Check the Flow!)
Most of us forget to check the liquidity or trading volume while scrolling for the cryptocurrency exchange platform. Liquidity is one of the major factor which makes the transaction speed faster without considering the price volatility of currency. It could be different for different reading pairs depending upon their supply and demand (cryptocurrency exchange rates), in the crypto markets. You can easily check the trading volume or liquidity by clicking on the website of CoinMarketCap and filtering the exchanges on the basis of liquidity.
Trading Platform (Check the Purpose!)
There are mainly three types of crypto exchanges in the crypto marketplace which are utilized as the trading platforms.
Full trading platforms: You must have heard about Binance and Coinbase, they are the full-fledged trading platform or marketplace where users can easily buy or sell cryptocurrencies. These regulated crypto exchanges allow the users to exchange among themselves within a platform by paying the nominal transaction fees.
P2P Exchanges: Many of the crypto traders, wish to maintain the privacy as much as possible, so they generally choose the peer-to-peer exchanges to trade directly with either buyers or sellers of crypto assets. P2P platform acts like a bridge between the traders so that traders can negotiate the prices, decide the mode of payment, and many other conditions. These platforms help in reducing congestion of network, maintaining security and trustless system for exchange.
Crypto Brokers: Crypto brokerage is one of the crypto exchange platform where the brokers or any middleman tries to negotiate the prices between sellers and buyers through their platform. If you are a newbie or do not want to engage in technical analysis, you can choose the crypto brokers as trading platforms.
Thus, you should consider that if the trading platform is a full-fledged exchange, P2P platform, or brokerage firm, before selecting the Best bitcoin exchange.
Fee Structure (Check the Hidden Ones!)
Transaction fees or fee structure is different on different exchanges. Some exchanges offer discounted fees depending upon their trading volume and reputation while other charges are higher for providing numerous services. While choosing a trading platform, the user must consider the competitive trading fees rather than choosing the platform which is offering the lowest fees in the crypto space. Also, do not forget to check the spread fees or hidden charges which could unnecessarily eat up your funds.
Method of Purchase (Check the Mode!)
Coinbase is a fiat-to-crypto exchange while Binance is crypto-to-crypto exchange. Before choosing the crypto exchange, you must take into account the method of purchase that a particular platform is offering. It could be back transfer, credit and debit cards, Paypal, or online wallets for fiat currencies while some exchanges allow you to purchase coins from cryptos only (bit inconvenient!). Newbies can go with the platforms which are accepting the fiats of their country while advanced or highly frequent traders can select any of the platforms.
User Interface (Check the Ease!)
Either you are a newbie or an advanced trader, a user-friendly interface with good cryptocurrency services could always captivates the interest of the investors. But the definition of interfaces differently for different users. Some of the investors wish to have all trading charts on their screen for the informed decision while others wish to have the recommendation board or live price charts on their screen. Depending upon the requirements, you must explore the interface of the website or app before making your account on that particular exchange.
Reputation (Check the Status!)
The cryptocurrency marketplace is still in a nascent stage which is non-regulated and decentralized, making it vulnerable to scams, hacks, and cyber attacks. So, before you end up in creating your crypto account on any of the exchanges, you must conduct thorough research either by reading the reviews or searching about the hacks associated with the exchanges. This exercise could make you aware about the security breaches took palace on the exchanges. Many of the giants even assures the compensation in case of any hack on the exchanges.
Summing Up
Considering the above factors, it can be concluded that while selecting a cryptocurrency exchange platform, the balance among all the factors need to be maintained to assure the best returns on the investments. Every exchange is different in terms of their payment infrastructure, security protocols, rules and regulations, fee structure, user experience, and many more. Therefore you need to self educate yourself about the major factors which need to be taken into account for a better experience in the crypto space.
Articles You May Read
Blockchain-based cryptocurrency has been storming the financial markets since the Bitcoin prices skyrocketed in 2017 up to $20,000 in some of the exchanges. Presently, also amid the crisis of global pandemic COVID-19, Bitcoin was considered as a commodity for investment and the latest event of Bitcoin halving had also diversified the crypto community involved in increasing the market capitalization and trading volume. Cryptocurrency is gradually coming into the mainstream as many of the tech giants, e-commerce websites and also stores next to your neighborhood started accepting the payments in the form of Bitcoin as it saves their transaction cost and time along with hassle management of transaction records on the Blockchain network. Crypto is getting popular not among the youngsters but among the veterans planning for their retirement portfolio like that of Cryptocurrency retirement account.
Cryptocurrency is flourishing in financial markets as a new asset class. With its highly volatile nature and puzzling price rollercoaster, it is captivating the interest of investors. Can I invest my pension in Bitcoin? Do you think it would be the right choice to add crypto assets to your retirement accounts? Besides speculation, can cryptocurrency be chosen for long term investment? There are different aspects that must be considered before adding Bitcoins to your cryptocurrency retirement account. In this article let us try to understand the benefits of adding Bitcoins and the options available in Cytoscape for less investment.
Cryptocurrency Retirement Account | Reasons To Add Bitcoins
Let us understand the reasons behind the addition of cryptocurrency is your retirement portfolio:
- Diversification: Generally retirement portfolios consist of traditional stocks and mutual funds, which are less risky paying less profits. For the rapid growth of investments and re-balancing the risks, one must consider Bitcoins as an asset for a retirement portfolio.
- Hedging Government: Governmental directives affect the one or another asset value-added to your retirement account. Bitcoins being decentralized assets is immune to the effects of policies, rules, and regulations. Thus, the addition of Bitcoin has the potential to provide more credence to the cryptocurrency retirement portfolio.
- Long term growth opportunities: Undoubtedly, Bitcoin is highly volatile but it is turning to an ideal long term investment asset and a good option to add in a retirement portfolio. Let us have a fact check in this case, prices of Bitcoin skyrocketed from a few cents in 2009 to $20,000 in 2017, thereby turning many of the holders into millennials.
- Direct Use: Unlike the mutual funds and traditional stocks, which need to be sold first and then can be utilized in mainstream, Bitcoins can be directly utilized as it has started to come mainstream both online and offline.
Cryptocurrency Retirement Account | Where To Invest?
Most of the investment advisors suggest having diversified retirement portfolios so as to limit exposure of any one type of asset which may result in reducing the volatility of a portfolio for a period of time. The addition of Bitcoin can help in maintaining the volatility and profits associated with a portfolio. But, while choosing the medium to buy Bitcoin, few factors like legal reassurances, custody options, legitimacy, and also fiat options must be considered.
Considering the mentioned factors, investing in Bitcoin funds can provide investors with exposure to the performance of Bitcoin and that too without actually owning any Bitcoins. Some of the following options can be explored for the cryptocurrency retirement investment:
Bitcoin Investment Trust
Bitcoin Investment Trust of Barry Silbert is one of the funds quoted under Alternating Reporting Standards in the crypto marketplace. With small annual fees, these Bitcoin funds had constantly returned huge profits. They can be purchased in traditional brokerage accounts in the name of GBTC.
Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Notes
Some of the service providers like Stockholm based XBT provide Bitcoin exchange-traded notes (ETNs). ETNs work differently than GBTC, as they are merely “Non-equity linked certificates” which are involved in tracking the price of Bitcoins. Generally, certificates are not principal-protected but the Bitcoin equivalent to the value of ETNs are issued and has a reputed guarantor from the marketplace. ETNs are traded with minimal annual fees with higher investment returns.
Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund
One of the promising Bitcoin Fund available in the market is Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund or GABI which brags being the first institutional grade program to manage exposure to Bitcoin. These funds are comparatively less volatile than Bitcoin itself with nominal fees and high returns.
Investing in Bitcoins Directly
Some of the companies allow you to directly invest in Bitcoins and add to your cryptocurrency retirement portfolio. Enterprises use mining pools to buy Bitcoins and with the help of wallet manager or crypto exchanges, maintains the portfolio. Some of the other Trust is made as custodian to assure the security of funds invested. You can easily invest some of your funds in Bitcoins directly though these companies with less risk in your mind due to their insurance policies. For instance, Bitcoin IRA as per BitcoinIRA Reddit is currently offering cryptocurrency retirement assets to US customers with Genesis Mining BitGo and Kingdom Trust.
Thus, as per your requirements and the money you wish to invest, you can either purchase Exchange-traded Bitcoin funds (BitcoinETF), certificates, investment funds or can purchase Bitcoins directly to diversify your Bitcoin retirement portfolio.
Conclusion
As per the research of Ark Invest and Coinbase, Bitcoin is the only asset that maintains consistency in reducing the volatility, having the prospects of stability in the future. So, while you are preparing for your retirement, you must consider Bitcoins to add in your retirement portfolio. Along with traditional investments in real estate or the stock markets, Bitcoin can also prove as the option for better returns. If you are a novice in crypto space, you can hire the advisories, download the various apps in smartphones, or can read the various blogs to strategize the investment related to cryptocurrencies. But, remember not to invest the amount which you cannot afford to lose, just invest which even if you lose, you can cope up with the loss. However, the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technology reduces the risks and would increase the potential returns over Bitcoin investments.
Articles You May Read
Not only electronic devices and high-speed digital networks are storming the financial space, but digital currency is also coming into picture for the banking and financial sector. Central banks like the People’s Bank of China, Bank of Canada, Bank of England, and many more are considering the possibilities to introduce sovereign digital currencies in their country. Some of the countries have accelerated the decision-making process while others are experimenting with technical specifications before the launch of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). So, do you know about CBDC? CBDC is the digital currency that is meant to be fixed in nominal terms having universal accessibility with the validity of legal tender for both public and private transactions. In this article, we will learn about the Central Bank Digital Currency and the future of monetary policy.
What is Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)?
CBDC or Central Bank Digital Currency is a form of currency based on Blockchain technology but meant to be directly issued by central banks or institutions of the country for both supplementing paper currency and to give competition to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. CBDC has the potential to transform the banking sector by being the part of monetary policy, impacting the speed of transactions, better management of databases, and everything from reaching the unbanked population to seamless cross border transactions.
The concept of CBDC was first mentioned in news related to “Central Bank Digital Currency Bank of England” in 2015 when the Central Bank of England focussed on the need for digital currency. Let us try to find out some of the characteristics which make the CBDC different from both fiat currency and cryptocurrency.
- Centralized: Unlike the cryptocurrency, CBDC will be administered and regulated by the central authority or financial institutions.
- Digital form: Unlike the fiat currency, which consists of physical notes and coins minted under a highly securitized environment, CBDC are digitally verified transactions on the Blockchain network.
- Non backed: As the fiat currency of any country becomes the victim of the policies of the US (being backed by Dollars), CBDC is not dependent on any country and thus non-inflationary as the unit of account for economic transactions.
- Costless: CBDC is based on a Blockchain network, thereby the transaction cost and time reduced to the minimum limits.
Central Bank Digital Currency And The Future Of Monetary Policy | Benefits of CBDC
As per the Central Bank Digital Currency IMF report, the introduction of CBDC has the potential to secure the settlement of cross-border financial transactions in less time and cost. Central authorities and institutions are exploring the opportunities to implement CBDCs in their systems or potential of Central Bank Digital Currency and the future of monetary policy due to the following reasons :
- Costless medium of exchange: Practically, while transacting the CBDC, transaction costs are minimal, making it nearly a costless medium of exchange. CBDC can be beneficial specifically to small businesses that have to bear high cash handling and interchanging costs while taking the payments via credit and debit cards.
- Speedy currency: Many central banks across the world consider that CBDC can pass the processes of printing or minting along with transportation to the proper infrastructure like banks, ATMs, and many more. Also, head of Central Bank of Bahamas, John Rolle advocated that rollout of CBDC not only speeds up the transaction but could facilitate in financial recovery after hurricanes by accelerating the process of real-time payments and deposits.
- Safer financial system: CBDC could allow the individuals private sector companies and also Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFCs) to have their settlements in central bank money rather than deposits. This would help in reducing the accumulation of liquidity and credit risk in payment systems. Also, people could explore the chances to alternative to bank deposits, which is more risk-free reducing the needs of government guarantees on deposits. Thus, the source of the financial system’s moral hazard could be eliminated.
- Better monetary policy: Presently, central institutions generally do not pass the ease or benefits implied on them by higher authorities like lower policy rates. With the introduction of CBDC, changes in policy rates or any other benefits can be directly enforced to the monetary transmission channel reaching to the households and enterprises, thereby strengthening the channel.
- Compensating alternative finances: When non-banking institutions like peer-to-peer lenders are involved in the majority of lending processes, consequences are faced while money creation and distribution. Many times peer-to-peer lending is preferred by the people of low incomes because when banks offer loans, it builds new deposits for the borrower. On the contrary, moneylenders directly transfer the pre-existing deposits from their savings account to the borrower account.CBDC can help in shifting the lending institutions by easing the process with maximum accessibility and least of procedures, as mentioned in a report related to CBDC Bank of England.
- Financial Inclusion: In most of the developing countries, the majority of the population left unbanked either due to improper infrastructure, lack of documents, or due to little awareness of the banking system. The introduction of CBDC in the system can facilitate the inclusion of left out people with minimal documents and relatively with no physical infrastructure, which can be termed as CBDC financial inclusion.
- Macroeconomic stability: Central banks all across the world aim for positive inflation rates of 2% or more for maintaining lower bound to respond to adverse shocks. Once the CBDC is introduced, the interest rate adjustment might be facilitated by interest-bearing design of CBDCs which will aid in eliminating the need for maintaining the inflation buffer or the deployment of monetary policy tools like quantitative easing and credit subsidies.
- Discourage illicit activities: Challenges related to counterfeiting, money laundering, tax evasion, and other illegal activities are associated with fiat currency especially, large denomination bills or notes. Blockchain technology-based CBDC can reduce the illicit activities as it offers a highly secured tamper-proof transparent network with easy tracking of transactions.
Projects Related To CBDCs
The implication of CBDCs by any country does not follow the easy procedure due to the number of political, digital, and economical challenges. But some of the countries outweigh the risks with opportunities, favoring the strong central bank system with less regulation and facilitating the citizens of the country as per the latest CBDC news.
- Project Ubin, Monetary Authority of Singapore: Introduced Blockchain-enabled CBDC for strengthening complex workflows of payment and decentralized liquidity mechanism.
- Project Jasper, Bank of Canada, and Canadain Stock Exchange: Aimed at maintaining the 24/7 accessibility of payment systems with digital infrastructure of Blockchain-based CBDC.
- Project Inthanon, Bank of Thailand, and Hong Kong Monetary Authority: Initiated the cross-border payment system with the launching of CBDC.
- Open Banking, United Kingdom: Initiative promoting the deployment of CBDC for exploring the synergies between finance, data mining, and management.
Summing Up
Blockchain technology-based Central Bank digital Currency assures the better architecture for a secure payment system with no intermediary point of failure while maintaining the integrity of the banking system of the country. CBDCs under the robust governance frameworks can be the new future for the medium of exchange. Central Bank Digital Currency and the future of monetary policy not only hold the seamless connectivity between common people, companies, and financial institutions but also includes the monetary sovereignty and macroeconomic stability of the system.
Articles You May Read
Cryptocurrency and Blockchain is a relatively new technology that is difficult to understand in one go. As the exposure is increasing, the concept behind them is also getting clear to the larger community. Also, new services and products are launching on a daily basis diversifying the Blockchain network. One such technology is the Hyperledger of Linux Foundation. In this step by step Hyperledger Tutorial, let us try to understand more about the nascent project.
Hyperledger Technology | Brief Overview | Hyperledger Tutorial
What is Hyperledger? Is it a company? Is it a cryptocurrency? Is it a Blockchain? In simple terms, Hyperledger is a platform for the development of Blockchain. As per the team of Hyperledger, it is an open-source collaborative effort which is designed to revamp cross-industry Blockchain technologies. Linux Foundation explains that Blockchain Technology has the potential to revolutionize the business processes by its unique features to ensure transparency, accountability, anonymity, and security. So, their team developed a platform for software developers and companies to meet the requirements by coordinating with each other to construct the Blockchain framework. Besides providing the technical knowledge and software architectures, users also got the opportunity to interact with experts of the industry who are members of Hyperledger like mobility tech giants Airbus and Daimler, IT Companies like IBM, Fujitsu, Nokia and many more.
Hyperledger Projects and Tools | Hyperledger Tutorial
Hyperledger Project of Linux Foundation includes more than 28000 participants and more than 3.6 million lines of code on Hyperledger GitHub. To strengthen the project, Hyperledger consists of 10 projects which include tools and frameworks to accelerate the development of businesses in terms of technology, framework, libraries, applications, and many more. Let us have a brief overview of these projects and tools in this Hyperledger Tutorial:
Hyperledger Projects
Hyperledger consists of the following six projects:
Hyperledger Burrow
Hyperledger Burrow is hosted by the Linux Foundation to facilitate a modular Blockchain client to design a permissible smart contract machine with the specifics of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). As the project follows the consensus mechanism of Proof-of-Stake, it is capable of offering high transaction throughput and transaction finality.
Hyperledger Indy
Hyperledger Indy is a project meant for maintaining a decentralized identity explicitly. It is a kind of distributed ledger which provides libraries reusable components and tools to design digital identities on the Blockchain network. One of the main aims of Project Indy is to maintain the security and privacy of identity while the users have control over their information shared. For instance, DigiPharm project is planning to launch a solution deploying Blockchain and smart contracts value-based payments in healthcare.
Hyperledger Iroha
Hyperledger Iroha is a project incorporated by a few of the Japanese companies for the development of a framework for a Blockchain. The platform is managed by Linux Foundation to administer identity, serialize data, and digital which could be useful for CBDCs, national IDs, interbank settlements, and many more. Iroha works on the consensus mechanism of the Byzantine fault Tolerant Algorithm, which is supposed to provide high performance and facilitates transactions with low latency.
Hyperledger Grid
Hyperledger Grid project finds the application in maintaining the supply chain management on the Blockchain network. It is capable of sharing capabilities to fasten the development of distributed ledgers to facilitate cross-industry supply chain solutions. Grid neither operates as Blockchain nor as an application but as an ecosystem for the development of solutions of the supply chain with the help of reusable and shared tools, allowing the developers to select the components for the appropriate market model.
Hyperledger Sawtooth
Hyperledger Sawtooth is a blockchain platform to develop distributed ledger networks and applications for enterprises to maintain the isolation of core systems from the app domain. Developers can choose the coding language as per their choice while developing modules for transaction rules and consensus algorithms for the businesses. This project has a feature of an advanced scheduler that bifurcates transactions into parallel flows, protecting the network from double-spending. Hyperledger Sawtooth is a Blockchain suite which is developed by Intel.
Hyperledger Fabric
Hyperledger Fabric or Hyperledger IBM is exclusively designed to facilitate the pluggable implementation of a number of components, to provide a resilient, scalable, and flexible economic ecosystem. This project ensures that unknown participants cannot enter the network by enrolling the members via a trusted membership service provider. Hyperledger Fabric is meant to strengthen the network of Business-to-Business (B2B) by strengthening the processes maintaining the confidentiality of shared data via consensus algorithms. For instance, Project Health Verity is constructed on Hyperledger Fabric for the purpose of maintaining the consent rights, both internally and externally among supply networks.
Hyperledger Tools
Hyperledger consists of the following six tools:
Hyperledger Caliper: Benchmark tool which helps users to calculate the performance of a particular Blockchain while utilizing the predefined use cases. The adaption layer of Caliper allows the integration of multiple Blockchain solutions into a single network.
Hyperledger Cello: Blockchain module toolkit aiming to adopt the “on-demand as-a-service” deployment model for the Blockchain ecosystem. Cello aims to decrease the efforts needed for the creation, maintenance, and termination of Blockchains.
Hyperledger Composer: Tool for strengthening the Blockchain networks. Hyperledger Composer leverages tools like node.js, CLI, and many other editors along with business-focussed abstractions and sample apps. For instance, the AID tech project deployed Composer to assure that funds are distributed among the intended ones, avoiding fraudulent.
Hyperledger Explorer: Tool to create user-driven web applications. Explorer can be deployed to view, invoke or query blocks, network information, chain codes, and many more.
Hyperledger Quilt: Business Blockchain tool which supports the interoperability of ledger systems with the implementation of Interledger Protocol (ILP). Quilt allows the hosting of both JavaScript and Java Interledger in Hyperledger projects.
Hyperledger Ursa: Shared cryptographic library which aids in reducing the duplicity of cryptographic works, hence enhancing the overall security of the network.
With the help of this Hyperledger tutorial we came to know that, by deploying the various base projects and Hyperledger tools, a number of projects are on the ground while others are at the developing stage.
Summing Up
Hyper ledger works on an “umbrella strategy” to support and incubate a highly diverse range of business Blockchain tools like smart contract engines, graphics interfaces, applications, and libraries. One of the special features of Hyperledger is that it encourages the reusability of building blocks to enable thencies and tokens while the project based on Hyperledger signifies the capability for non-monetary, and high scaling industrial applications of Blockchain technology.e renovation of components of a distributed ledger. Hyperledger tutorial clears that the majority of the Blockchain projects focus on cryptocurrency.
Articles You May Read
The University of Melbourne, initiated deploying Blockchain for the purpose of issuing digital credentials which facilitates students to share their verified copies of qualification certificates with employers and other third parties in a tamper-proof system. The education sector is pacing up beyond smart boards and remote learning. In this gradually developing technological era, Blockchain technology can add to the new paradigm to the education system. Even some of the universities and higher education institutions have already started fueling their system with Blockchain to maintain student records, innovative learning techniques, and many more. There is a higher probability that Blockchain will become an impeccable part of the education system in the coming years. In this article, let us understand more about the scope of Blockchain in the education sector and try to explore the benefits of Blockchain in education.
Benefits of Blockchain In Education Sector
Blockchain technology is one of the recent technologies with the promising model of decentralization, where the data or information or any transaction taking place between the two parties don’t need any intermediary. As all the transactions are being recorded on a distributed ledger on the basis of consensus mechanism, the connected network of Blockchain is considered as transparent with easy traceability of records. The security of data is maintained by various encryption techniques on the network. Presently, the education sector is experiencing one or the other challenge which can be eased out by deploying the education blockchain projects.
Record Keeping
Blockchain can transform the system of “record-keeping” in the education sector making the trouble-free accessibility of data by admin, students, employers, and many more (depending on the permission). Degrees, certificates, diplomas, researches, and many other documents if maintained on Blockchain can help the departments to trace the progress of students, employers to directly access the documents, and also the issues related to intellectual property registration can also be resolved. For instance, Sony Global Education has designed the platform for the educational sector while collaborating with IBM, to securely share the records of students as and when needed.
Virtual Transcript
Creation of verifiable virtual transcript or keeping the records of all educational achievements on a Blockchain network can diminish the frauds related to CV, smoothen the transfer of students from one university to another, turn down the costs related to verification of credentials, thus making the education system efficient. Manual verification of records can easily be replaced by a Blockchain network ensuring the more transparency and security of the network. For instance, a company called Learning Machine launched Blockcerts tools after partnering with MIT Media Lab to provide open infrastructure to develop, issue, view, and verify Blockchain-based certificates.
Execute Agreements
Distributed ledger technology can benefit the educational system by automatically executing the agreements only when mentioned conditions are satisfied through the smart contracts. For instance, Woolf University utilizes the Distributed ledger technology to operate smart contracts, where a series of “check-ins” of students and teachers validates the attendance and completion of assignments. DLT based smart contracts can also be used for distributed learning schemes where an institution can directly fund the account of any student either its is scholarship or any award money depending on the conditions of smart contracts.
Processing Payments
Either it is a procession of student fees or their scholarship, transferring the payments is a labor-intensive process. Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies can make this process of transferring the funds streamlined, following the decentralization network with negligible transaction fees and time. For instance, King’s College, New York started accepting the payments in Bitcoin which eliminates the transaction fees linked to credit cards paid by students.
Partnership Platform
Along with maintaining the transparent record platform for the purpose of better communication and transfer of documents, Blockchain can also be in service to enhance the learning experience of the students. Personal guidance from the best of the professors, sharing of the most effective notes for learning, communicating about the upcoming research, and other practices to strengthen the relationship among the community members of the education system can be possible with the utilization of Blockchain technology.
Digital Rights Protection
In academic space, one of the recent issues of plagiarism has been noticed which is leading to the problem of digital rights. Blockchain for universities can expand its utility for controlling the disposal of copyrighted material across the Internet. As the data maintained on the Blockchain network is available to all but non-immutable without any permission. It can resolve the problems related to leakage of confidential information, design, and documents related to potentially patented products and many more.
Innovative Platform of Learning
Learning the new concept or theory can sometimes be boring if taught in a monotonous way, thereby students either miss out or misinterpreted the concept. But the Blockchain can develop the platform for effective learning by allowing the accessibility of interesting study materials, downloading the relevant books, and sharing the tips of best educators either from an institute or paid content creators. Blockchain in higher education can provide the best interactive network to ensure the overall development of the students. For instance, the Education Ecosystem platform uses the Blockchain network to interact with academicians, students, and content makers for a better learning process.
Summing Up
Thus, it can be concluded that Blockchain can revolutionize the education system in multiple ways. From storing information in a secure way to share with multiple members in a transparent network, a Blockchain network can be utilized in a number of operations. With the help of distributed ledger technology, the academic sector could turn to a faster and safer network. As the era of digitalization is gradually expanding with a number of breakthrough technologies, they must be applied wisely in the industries, government agencies, and many other institutions to take advantage of the best of those technologies. Benefits of Blockchain in education are still on the exploring stage, however, endless opportunities are available which can revamp the sector completely. So, let us just hope that besides the smart boards and digital screens, Blockchain could prove as all-new experience to the community.