A high level overview of cryptocurrencies focused on Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and ICOs presented to the "Pay-it-Forward" group in Bangalore in October 2017.

1. “Crypto” for the Rest of Us
Pay It Forward
20th October, 2017
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

2. What is “Crypto” or
“Cryptocurrency”?
• Digital money used for transacting
• Store of value, like gold
• Decentralized - no central bank like the RBI, usually,
no corporation
• Based on math and cryptography
• Transactions stored on a “Blockchain”
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

3. What is a “Blockchain”
• A public ledger of all transactions
• Everyone can see every transaction that occurs

4. • Transactions are transmitted to the network and then
“miners” use sophisticated computers to solve a
mathematical equation to verify the transaction.
• A transaction is considered irreversible after 6 confirmations
are transmitted on the network.
• A “Public Key” is your address
• A “Private Key” is essentially your password to make a
transaction
• Typically, each transaction on a blockchain has a cost which
is usually paid by the sender
• Transactions are made from a wallet
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

5. Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

6. Why is this a Big Deal?
• Relatively quick transfers (as low as a few seconds to 10 minutes)
• Removal of barriers to transact with anyone, anywhere, any time
• Completely decentralized, do not need bank permission to transfer
money or sell a security to another person, or check who owns a home,
etc.
• Every transaction is immutable and public
• Transaction doesn’t have to be “money”, it can be the record of a
marriage, divorce, purchase of a home, sale of a business, etc.
• There will always be a record of the transaction as long as nodes are
sharing the database
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

7. Bitcoin
• Created by “Satoshi Nakamoto” in 2009
• Finite amount of “coins” can be mined - 21 million Bitcoins
• Value is created by “mining” and good old fashioned economics -
supply and demand
• Bitcoins (BTC) can be transferred to any address, anywhere for low
transaction fees
• Bitcoin addresses start with a “1” or “3”
• It operates almost as the reserve cryptocurrency
• Market cap ~ $100 Billion
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

8. Bitcoin
• Inherently deflationary
• Avg. daily volume: ~$1.5B
• Monthly volume: ~$44B
• Highly volatile and potentially illiquid
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

9. Bitcoin YTD
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

10. Bitcoin 7 Day
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

11. Ethereum
• Created by Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood and others in 2014
• Similar to Bitcoin as it is based on Blockchain and
cryptography.
• Ether is the “currency” used to transact on the Ethereum
blockchain
• Enables creation of “tokens” using a programming language
called “Solidity”
• Tokens created on Ethereum benefit from the development of
the Ethereum Blockchain
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

12. Ethereum
• Building blockchain apps on Ethereum has fueled a
new generation of apps or “dApps” that use
blockchain while hiding the complexity of blockchain
• Examples of tokens on Ethereum are:
• Basic Attention Token (BAT) +370% since ICO in May
• Civic (CVC) +240% since ICO in July
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

13. ICOs
• ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) are crowdfunding campaigns to
raise capital via cryptocurrencies by selling tokens
• Many tokens are “ERC20” tokens which means they comply
with a standard and usually operate on top of the Ethereum
blockchain
• ICOs have raised over $2.3 Billion this year alone
• Many ICOs are utility tokens, others are securities (shares),
many others are scams!
• “If it looks too good to be true, it usually is.”
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

14. Resources
• Some Indian Exchanges
• ZebPay
http://zebpay.com
• Coinsecure
http://coinsecure.in
• Koinex
http://koinex.in
• Coinome
http://coinome.com
• Some Int’l Exchanges
• Poloniex
https://poloniex.com
• Bittrex
http://bittrex.com
• Bitfinex
http://bitfinex.com
• Cryptopia
http://cryptopia.co.nz
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

15. Resources
• http://bitcoin.org
• http://ethereum.org
• http://litecoin.org
• https://www.coindesk.com
• https://coin.fyi
• https://theethereum.wiki/
w/index.php/
ERC20_Token_Standard
• Bitcoin Wallets - https://
bitcoin.org/en/choose-
your-wallet
• Ethereum Wallet -
https://github.com/
ethereum/mist/releases
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain

16. Thank You!
http://blockhack.io
Twitter: @pjain
Copyright 2017, Pankaj Jain