So, who are we?
We are Maxim and Vyacheslav, the creators of the media platform Pro Blockchain, where you can see whats happening with the cryptocurrency market in real time. This is the leading media on cryptocurrency in the CIS countries.
We run a YouTube channel, a channel on Telegram, we are on social networks Vkontakte, Facebook2 and Twitter.
The ecosystem of our products already has a total of 500,000 people. Every month we have 50,000 unique visitors to our website, the audience of our Telegram channel (56,000 subscribers) and YouTube (200,000 subscribers) is growing.
On the YouTube channel we regularly broadcast live and thematic broadcasts and answer users questions.
Experts in crypto and investing often come to visit us. They share their experience and their thoughts on the market situation.
If you regularly read, watch, listen to Pro-blockchain materials, you will gradually begin to understand what is happening in the crypto market and where this, perhaps, the youngest and fastest growing global market is moving.
The channel and all resources named Pro Blockchain Media are our educational endeavor. Its not the first year we have been densely involved in the topic of cryptocurrencies, we want to share knowledge and help others to better understand the technology, which we are sure is the future. The future is interesting and full of opportunities for everyone who is ready to learn, delve into it, and take risks.
We have personally, through our own experience, studied how the cryptocurrency market works, and we continue to study, monitor it and keep track of meaningful information.
We have been closely involved in this topic since the end of 2015. We started with Bitcoin, then worked with Ethereum.
Before this book was born, we lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on the two of us.
Maxim: «Before I started working with cryptocurrency, I was involved in different types of businesses construction, catering, consulting. My path into crypto was not the easiest: once I lost all my investments. I bought Ripple after seeing how the market was gaining momentum, but then I lost almost 6 thousand dollars due to a rate hike. I quickly withdrew the rest of my funds and was extremely happy to have gotten my feet out of there. But this story, on the contrary, made me study the cryptocurrency market and its mechanics.
The most important lesson I learned after the first few years of working with cryptocurrencies is that there is no such thing as easy and fast money. To be an expert, you need to understand how the blockchain world works and what influences it. The biggest mistake beginners make is the desire to make money fast. No, it doesnt work that way.
Over time, I began to understand it not at the level of an ordinary person, but at the level of a professional. The market is alive, it has its own dynamics. You need to know when it makes sense to enter it, and when you need to leave quickly.
If you are going into cryptocurrencies, I congratulate you. Its a good decision. No matter what the skeptics say, Bloxxain is the technology of the future.
Once you start delving into this story, you will have a huge amount of knowledge on different subjects that you will then apply to your life. Working with cryptocurrencies, I started to understand how the media works, how it works, how news is manipulated. I can see what the future holds in smart contracts, in the future it will help formalize any transaction, from car leasing to real estate sales. It will help remove unnecessary middlemen.
Cryptocurrencies are good as a means of settlement. Imagine that all currency has run out, there are no rubles or dollars. But there is bitcoin or several cryptocurrencies. You can use them to pay with, to make exchanges, bypassing banks, bypassing expensive swifts.
You can keep savings in cryptocurrencies.
The more you know about crypto, the more you delve into this topic, understand, learn, the higher will be your value in the market as a specialist.
You dont have to invest and build portfolios. Bitcoin can be used as a means of keeping savings.
There is a saying: first people laugh, then they shut up, then people have nowhere else to go. And this is characteristic of any new technology. People used to laugh when they bought pizza with bitcoins. When Facebook3 was first invented, no one thought it would grow from a student network into the biggest social network in the world. Dont mind the ridicule, but you should definitely go into the world of Bloxxain with your head and take your time.
Vyacheslav: «I spent 10 years in the army, 5 years studying, 5 years serving in the Crimea. I got two higher educations and finished a lot of special courses, from analyst to courses on building sales departments. Then he quit his job and tried different jobs and businesses: trading, intermediary services, catering, consulting.
When I met Maxim, I already had an office. We consulted on various financial products. There were various partnership programs, we earned money as intermediaries, and we did quite well. How did we end up in crypto? We were developing our own cryptocurrency. Just in 2015, Ethereum had just appeared. We were leading the technical part of a project, and we needed an internal cryptocurrency for it. We were working with the Ambisafe team at the time, they had a great swing and were doing ICO projects on their own platform. Just with them they created a cryptocurrency that still exists somewhere.
In late 2015 and early 2016, my immersion into the world of cryptocurrencies began.
In January 2016, I bought 50 bitcoins (now and at the peak in prices in 2021, it was a huge amount), converted them to Ethereum and invested everything in the ICO of TheDAO project. It was the largest ICO that raised a lot of money, tens of millions. Ethereum alone was about 3040% of the total amount. The ICO was very successful. But at one point it was hacked. After this story, Ethereum split into two currencies. The so-called Ethereum Classic appeared. Thats when I realized what it was like when all your funds were invested in one place, what it was like not to diversify them, but to just pour them all into one project. At that exchange rate this mistake cost me more than 10 thousand dollars. But if you recalculate it at the current Ethereum exchange rate (ed. at the end of June 2023, the exchange rate is about $1900), its a colossal amount of money. I had about 1000 ETH, multiplied by $1900, and even at the current exchange rate its almost 2 million dollars!
But I was lucky, I managed to get the coins back and even some Ethereum Classic.
That information you will read in the book cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the very least. And you get it for free. Or for symbolic money.
Its up to you how you want to use it. Either way, good luck. We are sure you will never want to leave the path of conqueror of the Blockchain world.
Everything you will read in this book is the result of our experience, sometimes sad, sometimes successful. But absolutely we are not theorists, we are practitioners.
Everything we tell you about Bloxchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and other cryptocurrencies is tested on successful and unsuccessful transactions.
In addition to our own funds, we also manage portfolios. The volume of portfolios in different periods varies from 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 dollars.
For those who are especially advanced and motivated, there are recommendations from traders at the end of the book.
If you have the desire to learn and develop further, you can learn the profession of a broker in the cryptocurrency market and, due to your experience, flair and expert knowledge, advise others and manage other peoples assets.
I hope weve convinced you that we know a little more about cryptocurrencies than the average, run-of-the-mill citizen?»
Important information and disclaimer!
The authors of the book are not responsible for the content of the material from the sources mentioned in the book, for any damages or losses associated with any products or services mentioned in the book.
We encourage readers to do their own research about the product or service mentioned in the text with due diligence.
How to use this book?
You can read the whole thing from cover to cover if you are used to working thoughtfully and systematically with information.
You can start at the end. In the appendices you will find checklists for a beginner in the crypto market with a list of necessary actions. And also a small test that will help you understand what type of trader you belong to.
If you already know what Bloxxhain, Bitcoin, Ethereum are and how it all works, you can flip through the first chapters and read right from the part on portfolio formation and exchange trading.
The glossary of terms at the end of the book will help to structure the information and better understand the main material of the book.
In addition to the book, we invite you to subscribe to the accounts of the Pro Blockchain Media project in Telegram, YouTube, and Twitter.
If you have any questions or suggestions, we would be happy to hear from you.
Our contacts
Official website https://pro-blockchain.com.
Academy https://bitbrain.me/
Telegram https://t.me/Pro_Blockchain
YouTube http://www.youtube.com/c/PROBLOCKCHAIN
Twitter https://twitter.com/PRO_BLOCKCHAIN
If you, like us, are fascinated by the world of cryptocurrencies and seek to enrich your knowledge in this exciting field, then we have a special surprise for you! We offer you to go to a special secret page of our cryptoacademy website bitbrain.me/secret_bonus, where you will find a huge amount of useful text and graphic materials.
Enter by QR code!
On this page, youll discover a treasure trove of valuable knowledge about cryptocurrencies, the latest industry trends, insider information, and more! Our team of experts has worked tirelessly to gather the most relevant and valuable information for you.
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We look forward to seeing you at bitbrain.me/secret_bonus. Unlock the potential of cryptocurrencies with us!
Part 1.
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
What are they and how to handle them?
Cryptocurrency is
21st century money
This industry is a newcomer among other types of economies, businesses, and human hobbies. It was in 2008 that bitcoin.org was officially registered and the first coins appeared.
However, as much hype as appeared around the crypto from the very first years of its existence, perhaps, was not with any other instrument in the field of finance and mutual settlements.
If you look into the essence of the term, its roots go back to the Greek language. Translated from the language of Antiquity (Greek) kryptos means «secret, hidden». Cryptocurrencies work thanks to data encryption technology, or cryptography.
Distinguishing characteristics of cryptocurrencies:
decentralized data that is stored on multiple computers at the same time;
anonymity (you dont know who transferred money to you, you dont know who owns the wallet where you transfer money);
security (the record of the transaction cannot be forged or changed).
We believe that cryptocurrencies are the new generation of assets that will change our lives.
Although there are still many skeptics who believe that the value of bitcoin and other coins is exaggerated, that their rate will sooner or later collapse, that this money is useless
This is normal resistance to the new. Once people did not believe in bank cards and were afraid of ATMs. Once upon a time, a smartphone with its simple functions seemed like science fiction. But a little more time will pass and cryptocurrencies will become a familiar means of payment for all segments of the population.
This book, among other things, will help you understand the essence of new money, learn how to handle them and not lose your blood fiat money on cryptocurrency transactions. But about that next
The revolutionary feature of cryptocurrencies is that transactions take place directly between users, without the involvement of anyone else.
For example, if you want to order a memory card for your phone or a trendy t-shirt on Aliexpress, you will need a bank card to pay for it. Thus, there is an intermediary between you and the online store the bank. Soon Aliexpress and other monsters of online commerce will accept crypto-money on par with bank cards, Webmoney and PayPal.
The basis for the development of cryptocurrencies was the invention of blockchain technology (Blockchain).
Blockchain, or «block chain» in English, is a system of distributed information storage. In the Blockchain system there is no single server where the entire database is stored, information can be simultaneously recorded on several devices.
All data in the Blockchain network is recorded in blocks that are linked to each other.
All transactions take place in the blockchain. Each transaction is written to a block and cannot be changed anymore. In order to form a new block, certain calculations must be done. That computer, which has managed to do the task, receives its reward in bitcoins. This process is called mining, and accordingly, the owners of the computers that do the calculations are miners.
The more miners there are in the world, the faster the transactions can go and the more stable the whole system is.
What is Bitcoin? It is essentially the name of a network that began operating in 2009 and which utilized Blockchain technology.
To break these concepts down, lets define it once again:
Blockchain is a technology that can be applied to more than just cryptocurrencies; bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, the first cryptocurrency, the progenitor of all other coins and by far the most valuable of currencies.
The term «cryptocurrency» gained traction in 2011 thanks to a Forbes magazine article on Bitcoin. Subsequently, the term «cryptocurrency» began to refer to any crypto-money.
The word Bitcoin is formed from two English words: bit unit of information and coin coin. The literal translation into Russian is «minimal coin».
It is the first most expensive and has the largest capitalization today cryptocurrency.
The purpose of bitcoin is to create a universal global decentralized payment system that is not under the control of banks, governments and other intermediaries. Bitcoin, like other cryptocurrencies, helps to make p2p (person to person) payments.
The pros of bitcoin compared to traditional (fiat) currencies are:
A bitcoin account can never be blocked by anyone. These are your funds forever. Only on the condition that you follow digital security techniques. Well talk more about security techniques later. And more than once.
Account transactions are both anonymous and transparent. The list of transactions can be tracked in a publicly available log. It is not known who sent the money and to whom.