Here's what you know about Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin

Inspite of the rapid rise of the cryptocurrency industry, it still has miles to go to reach most investors. So far, a majority of crypto users are people who have some understanding of the technology or know about a few of the many jargons that are used. While most people know about Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin, few are familiar with terms like blockchain, hash etc. It is a digital-only currency in the sense that it cannot be printed, folded and kept in a wallet. The main principle that makes it different from fiat money is that it is decentralised, which means no single authority has control over it. In real life, money can be used to buy and sell things or it can be used as an alternative for store of value, like gold.

It is the tech that powers the industry. When an investor makes a transaction, the data has to be stored somewhere so that each transaction is recorded. It is an online ledger which allows anybody to view the details of each transaction anytime, anywhere. The decentralized ledger technology is built in such a way that it makes it difficult to hack or cheat the system.

Every time a transaction takes place, it has to be verified. After verification, the transaction details are added to the blockchain only. Miners are hired to verify transactions and they are paid a fee for processing the transaction. During the process, details of the transaction are put through a hash algorithm that converts the data into a set of unique numbers and letters.

The two transaction hashes are combined and pushed again through the hash algorithm. This process continues until there remains just one hash the root' haved of several transactions. The process creates new sets of data, but cannot be reversed to know the details of each hash.

It's a place to digitally store your cryptocurrency holdings. They are secure and protected. They give your private keys passwords to your cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. There are mainly two types of wallets: cold and hot. Cold wallets are stored in the Internet and Hot wallets are connected offline.

Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency and it is also the oldest in terms of market capitalization. It was released in 2009 by a person or persons under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. After Bitcoin, many other crypto coins came into existence like Ethereum, Ripple, Dogecoin and Cadence. Each of these coins have a symbol assigned to them, like Bitcoin has BTC, Ethereum has Ether and so on.