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Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

ERC-20 Token Standard

ERC-20
is a technical standard used for smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain for implementing tokens.

ERC 20 Token Standard

Publications, blogs and industry news

Coins, tokens, mining and exchanges

COINS and TOKENS

COINS are digital assets native to a particular blockchain and defined by the network protocol.

TOKENS are digital assets defined by a project or smart contract and built on a specific blockchain.

Token can be UTILITY TOKENS or SECURITY TOKENS. UTILITY TOKENS are also called consumer or incentive tokens. UTILITY TOKENS are sold as part of a fund development and can be used as part of a network or project e.g. loyalty programs. SECURITY TOKENS are considered an investment contract and are subject to SEC regulations in the US. The Howey Test is used to determine if a token is a SECURITY TOKEN.

CoinMarketCap lists Coins and Tokens.

Etherscan- Ethereum Block Explorer Tokens

TokenData Token status, sales, analytics

MINING

BLOCK #0 The first Bitcoin block, called the Genesis Block was mined in January 3, 2009.

Use BLOCKEXPLORER to watch the latest blocks as they are mined.

Bitcoin miners use powerful processors and a secure hashing algorithm to generate hash output numbers until they find a number smaller than the current difficulty target. New blocks are found approximately every 10 minutes and the difficulty adjusts automatically approximately every 14 days. Miners send new blocks to other nodes on the network for validation. New blocks are added to the longest chain. Miners are paid a reward for new blocks. The reward is based on a concept called Proof-of-Work. The current reward for new Bitcoin blocks is 12.5 bitcoins. The reward is reduced by half every 4 years.  The total number of Bitcoins is expected to be 21 million predicted to occur in 2024. Miners are also paid fees for the transactions included in each block.

Proof-of-Stake and other consensus algorithms or variations on existing algorithms are being used or are being developed as alternatives to proof-of-work.

WHATTOMINE.com crypto coins mining profit calculator

What is My Hashrate? view your computer's hash rate

Miners can be individuals, pools or large industrial operations. Many are located where electricity is less expensive or subsidized.

Genesis Mining (Iceland)

AntPool Cryptocurrency mining platform

SlushPool Bitcoin mining pool

Why the Biggest Bitcoin Mines Are in China IEEE Spectrum 2017

 

How I built a Bitcoin empire. Marco Streng  TED talk

PRICES AND EXCHANGES

COINMARKETCAP

LIVE COIN WATCH

EXCHANGES AND TRADING PLATFORMS

Exchangeratings.com (Top Exchanges)

BYBIT

COINBASE

BINANCE

OKEx

POLONIEX

 KUCOIN

BITFINEX

BITMEX