Decentralization is what sets apart cryptocurrencies from traditional financial systems. How does a system with no central authority validating its transactions work? Through something called a decentralized consensus mechanism. Read on to find out more.

The exact structure of blocks can differ from blockchain to blockchain. This article will focus on explaining the structure of a Bitcoin block. After all, that is the basis on which most other blockchains were modelled.

Trading volume, market cap, ask, bid, sell order, etc. These are just a few of the terms in the vast jargon of the world of crypto. It all might be overwhelming to someone starting fresh in their crypto endeavors, so we’re here to explain what the most common terms they’ll be dealing with mean.

Fiat currencies fall into the category of inflationary currencies, while most cryptocurrencies are deflationary in one way or another. What does it really mean and what are the reasons behind that?

There is an ongoing debate concerning the differentiation between coins and tokens. There are at least two main contrasting theories on their functionalities and applications. By the time you finish reading this article, you will be able to distinguish between a token and a coin.

Blockchains keep a record of each transaction ever to have occurred on the network. Unlike banks, however, public blockchains keep this information open to everyone. This means that the information about all transactions can be freely accessed from anywhere across the globe.

In the context of blockchain, a fork is a technical phenomenon that occurs when a blockchain splits into two separate branches. These two branches share their transaction history up until the point of the split. From there on, they each go independently each in their own direction.

Decentralization is seen as blockchain’s ultimate attribute as it has many advantages over traditional centralized systems for storing information. Why is that so? And what does it even mean, if we say that a system is centralized or decentralized?

The idea of the blockchain has existed for over a quarter of a century, but it was popularized by the mythical founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. No one knows who Satoshi is or if he is even a real person. All we know is that someone using that name made a revolutionary breakthrough.

An exchange is a place where individuals or companies can trade currencies, securities, commodities and more. A cryptocurrency exchange allows you to easily trade one cryptocurrency for another (that’s a crypto-to-crypto exchange) or fiat money for cryptocurrencies (a fiat-to-crypto exchange).