Crypto 101
Distributed ledger (DL) technology is the foundation on which
crypto-currencies (or crypto-assets, depending on where one falls
in the debate) lie. Bitcoin, the most well-known use case for DL,
is an attempt to solve the problem of storing and transferring
value in a digital, decentralised system.
Bitcoin is a means to compensate people/servers for the effort
required to "mine" (confirm) blocks of transactions and
add them to the global ledger/chain (block+chain). Bitcoins are
gifted to these miners upon completion of their efforts (without
which the system couldn't function) The increasing secondary
value of Bitcoin can then be considered as increasing the
confidence in the long-term viability of distributed ledger
technology as well as the desire for a store of value that is (a)
modern, (b) easily stored/transferable, (c) secure and (d) somewhat
anonymous.
