If you have been a reader of my blog for a while, you would know that I am an avid cryptocurrency enthusiast. I believe in the tech more so than the financial side. I find blockchains fascinating because, despite their perceived complexity, you can implement a blockchain in any programming language; Javascript included.
I thought it would be fun to create a blockchain using TypeScript and then iteratively change the code to offer more flexibility, such as the ability to add metadata into the blocks and query the blocks themselves.
Bitcoin was created as a way to bypass the traditional banking system. But can it survive a financial crisis?
Cryptocurrencies are still relatively new and haven’t been tested in a significant financial crisis. If a global recession arose and banks started to fail, would people still trust Bitcoin? Would Bitcoin prove its independence from fiat?
Bitcoin is not backed by any government or central bank, which means it is not subject to the same regulations as traditional currencies. This also makes it vulnerable to wild fluctuations in value. In 2013, the price of a Bitcoin went from $13 to over $1,000 in just a few months. And then, just as quickly, the price crashed to $200.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are no stranger to meteoric price drops. In the blink of an eye, a coin can increase hundreds of percent and plummet to near zero. Cryptocurrency is an emotional and monetary rollercoaster.
Coinbase has just announced it is laying off 18% of its workforce immediately. Although, it is apparent Coinbase executives didn’t seem to have as high hopes as the wider crypto community, selling off $1.2 billion in shares since it was listed.
With the price of Bitcoin hitting a new all-time high and altcoins following suit, there has been renewed interest in cryptocurrency, specifically, mining cryptocurrencies. This has also been helped by Nvidia’s new power RTX 30xx series cards (not that anyone can find a 3080 anywhere).
There are numerous ways in which you can mine cryptocurrency. You have the various command line mining software that requires configuration and, sometimes, even compiling. You also have Cudo Miner, which will switch between coins to mine based on the most profitable, which is a little less configuration.
I have been trading cryptocurrencies since early 2017. And for a good while, Australians had limited options for reputable and secure exchanges to trade on. The first exchange I joined was Coinspot, which seemed like a decent option at the time in 2017. This was when Binance didn’t have an Australian version of its exchange either.
Since then, a cornucopia of cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms have become accessible to Australians, competition is now fierce.
Spoiler alert: CoinMesh is going to be a gamechanger.
When it comes to building decentralised blockchain based applications, admittedly it can get complicated fast. What libraries do you use, how do you safely makes calls to a wallet node and interact with the blockchain itself? This is something that Coinmesh aims to simplify.
Instead of having to worry about what libraries, adapters and tools to use, you get a graphical user experience that allows you to create a starting base for blockchain based applications via a simple UI.