Adhiraj Pal - Cryptomania: An Essential Guide to Cryptocurrency

SLANGS USED IN CRYPTOCURRENCY MARKET

HODL Hold On for Dear Life

Altcoin Every other coin other than BITCOIN.

FOMO Fear Of Missing Out.

JOMO Joy of Missing Out

Moon Everyone wants their coin price to go up in the outer space.

Bag Holder Someone who is holding a lot of coins, in the hope that it will go up in the future.

Shitcoin A worthless or dead coin with no real value

Dumping Downward price movement or a decision to sell a coin.

DYOR Do Your Own Research

FUD Fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Whale A super wealthy trader with a lot of money to spend.

Mining Verifying transactions on a blockchain, resulting in rewards, for those who lend their computing power.

Long A decision to hold onto a coin.

REKT When a coin goes down sharply and you have a bad loss.

Lambo The car many people want to buy when they strike it rich.

Swing When the price of a coin is moving up and down at a rapid rate.

Pumping A coordinated effort to boost a coin by buying a lot of it all at once.

Bearish When the sentiment of a coin is negative.

Bullish When the sentiment of a coin is positive.

Exchange Websites that allow you to purchase and sell crypto currencies.

IFAT Any currency that is issued by a government

TA Technical Analysis

ATH All Time High

FA Fundamental Analysis

CONCEPT OF MONEY

Money is a medium of exchange in the form of coins and bank notes, which are used to buy goods and services of different kinds. Money, essentially is a store of value which gained the value once we as a society collectively agreed for its use to purchase the goods and services of the entire world. Money is an economic unit which facilitates all the financial functions of the world. The US dollar became the most powerful currency because people of the world agreed upon the fact that they want to hold the US dollar as it is the safest and most stable currency of the world. It is only because of the belief and the mutual agreement of the people that the US dollar became the most powerful and the most widely used currency. Now with all the technological advancements which we are witnessing day by day, the block chain technology has helped in introducing a new, decentralized mode of digital money or currency called the Cryptocurrency which the people have started accepting as a token of value.

What is a Cryptocurrency?

A Cryptocurrency is a digital asset which is designed to work as a mode of exchange where individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger which is present in a form of computerized databases, using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership. Cryptography is associated with a process of converting ordinary plain text into unintelligible text and vice-versa, in this method data is stored and transferred in particular form so that only those, for whom the data is intended can read and process it.

Cryptocurrency does not exist in a physical form (like fiat currency or paper money) and is not issued by any Central authority. Cryptocurrencies use decentralised control. When a cryptocurrency is mined or created prior to issuance or is issued by a single issuer, it is generally considered to be Centralized. When implemented with decentralized control, each cryptocurrency works through a distributed ledger technology, typically a Blockchain which serves as a public financial transaction database, which holds the record of each and every transaction that has taken place. Cryptocurrency in millennial language is considered as Digital Cash where no one else, other than the parties, needs to be involved to complete the transaction. The blockchain works as one big excel sheet which everyone can see, once a record has been put up there it can never be changed. In simpler terms if A sends some Cryptocurrency for instance a Bitcoin, to B, then the Blockchain would publicly declare that A has sent X amount to B, therefore there are no intermediaries required for the completion of this process. It is one of the most traceable data records to have ever been there, therefore these misconceptions that one can make money disappear through crypto are not true at all.

The king of all the crypto currencies is considered to be the BITCOIN, rest all other currencies are referred to as Altcoins. All these Altcoins inherited the title of crypto currency from the Bitcoin, while on the other hand it should have been termed as crypto tokens.

LEGALITY

The battle for legalisation of cryptocurrencies is going on ever since the success stories of Bitcoin had started surfacing all over the internet. The problem that we face with crypto currencies is that they do not have a regulatory system, as they are not made for the purpose of regulation. Therefore, it is difficult for the governments or the countries to legalise and make these currencies as their Legal Tender of Money.

Some countries who have made the cryptocurrencies legal include Japan , which is one of the fastest developing technology markets in the world. The countrys government has set up a specific PSA (Payment Services Act) based framework which allows some cryptocurrencies and a number of exchanges to be used for payment and trading purposes. Japan is now widely considered as a hub for cryptocurrency trading/exchange in Asia.

The United States of America (USA ), in 2013, had accepted Bitcoin as a decentralized virtual currency that can be used for performing transactions. It was classified as a commodity by CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) in September, 2015.

Bitcoin is also taxable as a property in the US. In simple terms, Bitcoin is legal in the USA, however, there is no clarification about the legalization of other cryptocurrencies.

Germany is one of the few European countries that not only allow cryptocurrencies but are also actively involved in the development of blockchain solutions for a better future. Germany has completely legalized bitcoin allowing citizens to transact and trade using this coin. The recognition of Bitcoin by the German government has also improved the value of these coins in the worldwide market.

France had issued a regulation note on 11 July 2014, in which the country has legalized the operation of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, along with cryptocurrency exchanges, taxation and provided authority to those who are involved in the trading and use of such crypto currencies.

Malta has added its name to the long list of countries that are finally accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a legal mode for digital transactions. The cabinet of Malta recently approved the bills regarding the regulation of cryptocurrency and ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) in the country, which officially makes it a fully-fledged crypto-legal country.

Canada in August 2017, accepted Impak Coin as its first legalized cryptocurrency. The Quebec regulation authority had previously legalized Bitcoin for some limited business models including ATMs and exchanges. However, the Bank of Mont real and some other Canadian states do not allow their customers to use their bank cards for performing cryptocurrency transactions.

Belarus, as per a recent order by the government will legalise the use of cryptocurrencies with effect from March 28, 2019.In addition to the leading crypto-coins, many exchanges, ICOs, and smart contracts will also be legal in the country. The step was taken with the aim to enforce the development of a digital economy. They are also considering to make crypto activities completely tax-free.