From 860b969e56972955bb8313945e701b16b05efcf4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Radim=20Lipov=C4=8Dan?= Date: Fri, 17 May 2019 07:27:54 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Publish cryptocurrency page --- docs/_posts/2019-05-01-cryptocurrency.md | 105 +++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 105 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/_posts/2019-05-01-cryptocurrency.md diff --git a/docs/_posts/2019-05-01-cryptocurrency.md b/docs/_posts/2019-05-01-cryptocurrency.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae120db --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/_posts/2019-05-01-cryptocurrency.md @@ -0,0 +1,105 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: Cryptocurrency +subtitle: Introduction to Cryptocurrency terminology +gh-repo: daattali/beautiful-jekyll +gh-badge: [star, fork, follow] +tags: [introduction,cryptocurrency,terminology] +--- + + +## 1 Introduction + +Monero project offers a decentralized and anonymous open-source +cryptocurrency with a regular update cycle that does not limit the user +to use certain software or hardware. With such an open approach, it +is often difficult for users to keep up and be aware of many choices on +the client side, that can be either good or bad for them. +As cryptocurrency usage is rising in general, it is also more and +more frequent to encounter malicious sites or software developers +that aim to take control over users funds to gain an easy profit. This +thesis focuses on the Monero usage and mining from usable security +view to explain the current state in the Monero ecosystem and reflect +the real-world usage data from both users and miners surveys. +The goal of this thesis is to map usage habits of Monero cryptocur- +rency users and miners from both technological as well as security +view. Another goal is to create a detailed user guideline for user- +friendly and secure usage of the Monero cryptocurrency including +key management and backup strategy. For miners, the goal is to im- +plement an automated deployment of mining rigs using one of the +popular configuration management tools. +To find an answer to such research questions and to get real world +usage data, I conducted a Monero User Research survey in which +113 participants shared their habits regarding Monero cryptocurrency. +Based on the survey results and IT industry practices I proposed a +Monero usage and storage best practices guide that covers the key +generation, wallet management, and a secure backup scheme. +Aside from clients, key parts of Monero are also miners and Mon- +ero network itself. As miners are the ones who verify transactions and +keep the network running, it was important to describe the mining +software and categories which are later used in the Monero Miners +Research survey. In the survey, 60 miners shared technical informa- +tion about their current mining setups. This was later reflected in the +proposed guide for designing secure mining environment in which +the automation was the main aspect. +The thesis describes a detailed overview of wallet and its types, +as well as ways how to attack the wallet, followed by transaction +features in the Monero and problems in Monero environment from +both Monero network and Monero malware sides. +The thesis is divided into 10 Chapters. The first three Chapters +describe Monero cryptocurrency, its development cycle, transactions +in the network, wallets, multisig together with cryptocurrency com- +petitors, problems in Monero environment and overall Monero use +case. The fifth and sixth Chapters describe the Monero User Research, +its results and propos a detailed guideline for best practices in Monero +usage and storage. The eight and ninth Chapters describe the Mon- +ero Miners Research, its results and the design of the secure mining +environment. The last Chapter covers the final conclusion. + + +## 2 Cryptocurrency + +This Chapter is aimed as a starting point that explains terms and tech- +nology that will occur throughout the following pages and Chapters. +Although these terms provide only a short description, it is recom- +mended for every reader to swift through them as in later pages they +are discussed and used in detail thoroughly. +**Cryptocurrency** is a digital currency that is designed to use cryp- +tography to secure and verify its transactions. Cryptocurrencies are +decentralized as opposed to traditional money transaction systems +used in the banks. Decentralization is established by using distributed +blockchain that functions as a transaction database within the currency. +First cryptocurrency available was Bitcoin [1]. +**Altcoin** is a term used for every cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin. +**The fork** happens when developers create a copy of existing project +codebase and start their path of development with it. +**The market capitalization** (market cap) is a total value of cryp- +tocurrency that refers to the total number of emitted coins multiplied +by the value of the coin. +**The blockchain** is a technology responsible for storing every trans- +action that has ever been processed in the cryptocurrency, also often +called as a ledger. The main purpose of the blockchain is to ensure the +validity of completed transactions. +**Transactions** within cryptocurrency are processed together as +blocks that are verified by miners and then added to the blockchain +as a new mined block. +**The wallet** is a storage medium that holds private and public keys +by which the user can access, send and receive funds. Wallet effectively +does not have the coins but is rather a key to access them from the +blockchain. +**The node** is a computer connected to the cryptocurrency network. +The node is often referred to as a full node which means that the +computer maintains a full copy of blockchain. This results in node +downloading every block and transaction and checking them against +cryptocurrency rules, especially whether the transaction has correct +signatures, data format and the right number of emitted coins per +block. + +**The mining** process is done by miners that verify transactions on +the network and adds them to the blockchain together in the form of +a block which results in new coins being emitted as a reward for block +solving. +**Mining in pools** is the way how individual miners pool their com- +putational resources. Due to resources pooling, there is a higher chance +of solving the block, therefore gaining the reward of newly emitted +coins.