Decrypting Crypto: An Introduction to Cryptocurrency

In the past decade, e-commerce and cryptocurrencies have taken the corporate world by storm and are destined to become the very integral elements of the framework on which the global economy stands. Thus, as young adults and teenagers toil day in and day out to build a successful career and earn a big handful, it becomes quintessential for students to have an educated idea about the finance and crypto markets regardless of whichever subject they wish to pursue and build their career in. The knowledge and literacy about this aspect of the corporate sector, which is growing exponentially, can elevate their career to new heights, whether they make it the very basis of their career and earnings, are curious to know what is

trending in the world, or just want something as a side hustle.

Here are a few FAQs and guideline points where students new to the market often get stuck or find themselves in a mess. Although the expertise here builds up with experience, a proper guide and resourcefulness can always give them the upper hand.

What is cryptocurrency? A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It is a decentralized system for verifying that the parties to a transaction have the money they claim to have, eliminating the need for traditional intermediaries, such as banks, when funds are being transferred between two entities.

There are many components of a cryptocurrency system and these are the areas that can be exploited as side hustles. They are as follows.

Mining A common terminology used by crypto investors and enthusiasts, which often comes around as pretty ambiguous to understand for rookies, but is one of the main areas that can be exploited to earn money only by running your electronic gadgets.

On a blockchain, mining is the validation of transactions. For this effort, successful miners obtain new cryptocurrency as a reward. The reward decreases transaction fees by creating a complementary incentive to contribute to the processing power of the network. The rate of generating hashes, which validate any transaction, has been increased by the use of specialized machines such as FPGAs and ASICs running complex hashing algorithms like SHA-256 and scrypt. This arms race for cheaper-yet-efficient machines has existed since Bitcoin was introduced in 2009. Mining is measured by hash rate typically in TH/s.

With more people venturing into the world of virtual currency, generating hashes for validation has become more complex over time, forcing miners to invest increasingly large sums of money to improve computing performance. Consequently, the reward for finding a hash has diminished and often does not justify the investment in equipment and cooling facilities (to mitigate the heat the equipment produces), and the electricity required to run them. But as students, it is never necessary to go through all of these processes and expenditures and buy all these devices, but through software like Salad, Genesis Mining, Kryptex, Mobile Miner, etc. one can start mining and earning simply but setting up the system after downloading and entering system configurations, according to which the software will start mining, although the returns on this are quite less, but if done over a long time, it accumulates quite a few dollars.

Blockchain The validity of each cryptocurrency's coins is provided by a blockchain. A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography. Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. It is "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way".

Nodes A node is a computer that connects to a cryptocurrency network. The node supports the cryptocurrency's network through either relaying transactions, validation, or hosting a copy of the blockchain. In terms of relaying transactions, each network computer (node) has a copy of the blockchain of the cryptocurrency it supports. When a transaction is made, the node creating the transaction broadcasts details of the transaction using encryption to other nodes throughout the node network so that the transaction (and every other transaction) is known.

Wallet A cryptocurrency wallet is a means of storing the public and private "keys" (address) or seeds that can be used to receive or spend the cryptocurrency. With the private key, it is possible to write in the public ledger, effectively spending the associated cryptocurrency. With the public key, it is possible for others to send currency to the wallet.

Where to begin? This is one of the most daunting questions that arise in the minds of students who want to start their careers in cryptocurrency. Students often are reluctant to spend their money in the market at first and lack ideas about places where they can practice the skills they have learned through educating themselves about the market, causing many to lose interest. Sources that might be useful include Crypto-mania, an app that provides users with virtual money to invest in a mock marketing scenario, with real-time data and commission stats along with articles, guidelines, and free courses to educate oneself.

Thus I hope the above article gives very well-rounded and constructive advice on where to begin in your journey of investing, and also gives a good idea about the scope of side hustles available as food for thought and research.