Bitcoin beginners



Bitcoin is a secure and anonymous digital currency. It introduced the concept of the Blockchain, which is like a public checkbook that includes a permanent record of everyone's transactions. If it isn't included "on-chain", then it never happened. Bitcoin is also peer-to-peer (like BitTorrent), so anyone can use the network and you don't need a central server or authority to run it. It runs itself.

Bitcoin is stored in wallets, and is sent to "addresses". Bitcoin uses Public Key Cryptography (just like the Web does) to secure itself. You send bitcoin to someone's public key (which is usually just referred to as their address), and they spend it by signing a transaction with their private key. Not to fully explain Public Key Infrastructure, but with a signed transaction and the public key, both of which are very public on Bitcoin, anyone can verify that the transaction is valid and was signed with the private key, which is never revealed. In order for a transaction to be included on the blockchain, it has to be valid which means: it was sent from an address with a balance, it is properly signed, and miners include it into a block. Miners decide to include it in a block or not based on how big of a transaction fee you include in your transaction. If you include a fee much higher than what everyone else is paying, miners have an incentive to prioritize your transaction. If you include a low fee, miners might prioritize higher fee transactions over yours.

Bitcoin's public ledger (public checkbook) is called the blockchain. It's called the blockchain because about every 10 minutes, a new "block" should be found by bitcoin miners, and added to the end of the longest chain. The miners (which are usually thousands of expensive machines located near cheap sources of power and internet) are basically simple computers that perform a certain type of operation billions or trillions of times per second called "hashing". When you "hash" data, it comes out completely changed, but in a repeatable way (if both you and your friend hash the same data, you should get the same output). This is mostly used in the computer world to make sure files didn't get corrupted when being transferred on the internet, since if you run your copy of a file through a hashing function and compare it to your friend's, if it's the same you know that the files are identical. Bitcoin miners take part of the previous block and try to find some data to add to it so the hash ends up looking special (like this: 00000000000000000011e4668bf5aa3f4d2268a80951222252a712a12673afdc, which is the "winning hash" from the last block as of this writing). Everyone who participates in Bitcoin agrees, if you find a unique enough hash, you get to make a new block to add to the chain. Since the hash includes data from the last block, once you find a new block everyone starts the whole process over again. When miners find a block, they get to claim a "block reward" (which is 6.25 BTC right now), plus they get to keep all of the "transaction fees" of each transaction they include in a block. Once all of the Bitcoin is mined, miners will have an incentive to keep mining solely on transaction fees alone, but that won't happen for more than a hundred years.

The most important part about Bitcoin, the thing that's most revolutionary is that with Bitcoin, you don't have to trust anyone to send money. If you want to send money by the banking system today, all you need is an account number and a routing number and you can wire money in or out, but you need to trust the banks to do so. An account with a Bank is also just an IOU from the bank for your money, whereas with Bitcoin you own your money. You don't need a bank to send it, and no one but you can spend it.

Earning Bitcoin online

There are numerous websites on the Internet where you can earn free Bitcoin by performing several tasks like watching ads, playing games, etc. However, you will only receive a very small portion of Bitcoin.The amount of Bitcoin you will receive is always random and is different all the time. Here are some effective methods to earn free Bitcoin:

Bitcoin faucets

This method is a specific feature on websites that constantly provide Bitcoin to some users. For example, some websites dispatch a fraction of free Bitcoin every second as a reward for promotion. However, this is an exceedingly small amount that is awarded to one user after few minutes. The idea is that the faucet holds visitors to a website for a long time, and the website owner can get better ad revenue, more engagement, and other benefits out of it.

By doing online tasks

Performing a specific task online is another way to get free Bitcoin without mining. To get that, you need to complete specific tasks on websites. Some companies will pay you in Bitcoin to perform a task like testing their website, take surveys, retweet their posts, analyze or optimize their website, or complete other small tasks. Many other websites offer small Bitcoin rewards to the person who provides the correct answer to one of their questions. You can find a specific job that pays you in Bitcoin on BitcoinGet. You can also answer questions for Bitcoin on Bitfortip.

Referral program by Binance

Affiliate programs are widely available in the cryptocurrency industry. For example, you can refer a friend to a service. Then both of you get a discount, accumulate rewards points, or get a BTC and fiat currency bonus. For example, you can earn free Bitcoin by applying for Binance Bitcoin referral program. You can refer your friends and earn 20% when they make a transaction. Your friend also gets a discount of 20%.

By participating in Airdrops

Airdrop is a marketing method that involves sending coins or tokens to wallet addresses to promote awareness of a new virtual currency. Participating in airdrops is the easiest and fastest way to get free Bitcoin. By airdropping these free cryptocurrencies, you can sell them when the token is listed. Projects like Stellar Lumens and Ontology were once airdropped.

Using Bitcoin earning sites