In the blockchain industry we hear a lot about consensus algorithms, we debate about them and try to learn as much as possible. As you know, to reach consensus on the network Bitcoin is using proof of work (PoW). Ethereum is using it as well, but soon will replace it with proof of stake (PoS). Why would they do that? Well, there are a couple of reasons, PoS is more efficient than PoW could ever be. But, both of them have their pros and cons.

In this article, we will make an overview of proof of work consensus algorithm, its good and bad sides.

As we all know, centralized exchanges are very risky. The history showed us, more than once, the potential risk which stems from many hacks happening over the last few years. Do you remember Mt. Gox hack? Or Bitfinex? Or maybe Bitstamp? Yea, many hacks happened, and many will continue to happen.

We have already written about decentralized exchanges and how they are slowly but steadily making their way on the crypto markets. It is a big deal after all. Centralised exchanges have their vulnerabilities as any other software, but the deal here is that they operate with large sums of actual money being exchanged by numerous traders. They are, in itself, a SPOF or a Single Point of Failure in the blockchain network. Therefore, concepts like atomic swaps come to the rescue.

Last year, on November 1-4, 2017 Ethereum Foundation Development Conference was held in Mexico. Many individuals from crypto industry attended that event, and one of them was Zack Coburn, the founder of EtherDelta decentralized exchange and co-founder of FirstBlood.

Developers all over the world are experimenting with Ethereum blockchain and many of them find Ethereum testnet hard to use. Because of that, you may want to set up your private blockchain network. You would have full control over that network, and would not have any blockchain apps that you don’t need. So if you want to have a clear blockchain setup only for yourself, there are a couple of things you have to define. One of them is genesis.json, a file in which you determine all specifications about genesis block of your blockchain.

A lot of talks has been brought up about cryptocurrencies. It is mainly the price that has been the highlight. The crypto markets are a highly speculative market with a lot of price being pumped and dumped based on future predictions of the price. Add regular mortals to the story which can now be in possession cryptocurrency with a swipe of a credit card and you are set for a perfect storm in capital markets which hasn’t been seen up until now.