One interesting thing about blockchains is that you can see all of the transactions ever processed on them. This feature, unique to public blockchains, will persist for all of time—or, at least, until someone switches the internet off.

You can download a blockchain ledger for yourself and read through it on your computer. But a much easier method is to parse this data with a tool called a blockchain explorer—a website that lets you scan through a blockchain’s entire history.

On an explorer, you can witness the moment, etched forever into history by the immutable nature of decentralized ledgers, that Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto mined coins now worth tens of billions of dollars. Or, you can follow the alleged money-laundering attempts made by those in control of the spoils of the Bitfinex hacker.

Privacy coins such as Monero mark the major exception to this fascinating rule. You can see that a transaction has taken place, but who sent what to whom is obscured.

In this guide, we’ll teach you the basics of how to use these tools for yourself. We’ll primarily rely on Etherscan, the popular Ethereum blockchain explorer—but trust us: most blockchain explorers are fundamentally the same.

On blockchains, transactions are batched into groups known as “blocks.” These blocks are then “chained” together on decentralized ledgers, which is where “blockchain” gets its name. Crucially, these transactions are confirmed by an anonymous network of computers.

On Ethereum and Bitcoin, they are processed through a mechanism called proof of work, whereby “miners” expend computational energy to race to find a specific number. Proof-of-stake blockchains like Solana,BNBchain and Avalanche let users “stake” tokens in order to process transactions; those who have staked the most transactions reap the largest rewards.

There’s one final thing you should know about blockchain explorers. For blockchains that support smart contracts, such as Ethereum, you can see all the code contained within a smart contract right on the blockchain explorer. smart contract are useful when you want to confirm that the token you’re buying, or the decentralized finance protocol with which you are interacting, is legitimate—people often misleadingly market tokens as the “official” smart contract, when in reality they are nothing more than knock-offs.

You can even interact with the smart contract itself by heading to “write contract.” Indeed, the websites of all DeFi protocols are just prettier ways of interacting with a smart contract.

Summary

So there you have it: Blockchain explorers explained for the layperson. If you still don’t understand, don’t worry: You have plenty of time to learn. So long as people are still using blockchains, you’ll be able to sift through blockchain data.

Over the years, you have consistently heard the term ‘blockchain,’ probably regarding digital assets, like BTC,ETH,BNB,ADA etc. In fact, you may be asking yourself, “what is blockchain ?” It seems like blockchain is a prosaic but in a speculative sense, as there is no real meaning that the ordinary man can understand easily. It is imperative to answer “what is Blockchain, “including the technology that is used, how it works, and how it’s becoming important in the digital world.

As blockchain continues to gain more exposure and become more user-friendly, the onus is on you to learn this evolving technology to prepare for the future. If you are new to blockchain, then this is the right platform to gain solid foundational knowledge. In this article, you learn how to answer the question, “what is blockchain ?” You’ll also learn how blockchain works, why it’s important, and how you can use this field to advance your career.

Blockchain is a structure that stores transactional records, also known as the block, of the public in several databases, known as the “chain,” in a network connected through peer-to-peer nodes. Typically, this storage is referred to as a ‘digital ledger.’

Every transaction in this ledger is authorized by the digital signature of the owner, which authenticates the transaction and safeguards it from tampering. Hence, the information the digital ledger contains is highly secure.

In simpler words, the digital ledger is like a Google spreadsheet shared among numerous computers in a network, in which, the transactional records are stored based on actual purchases. The fascinating angle is that anybody can see the data, but they can’t corrupt or hack it.

How we should view the Blockchain !

Highly Secure

It uses a digital signature feature to conduct fraud-free transactions making it impossible to corrupt or change the data of an individual by the other users without a specific digital signature.

Decentralized System

Conventionally, you need the approval of regulatory authorities like a government or bank for transactions; however, with Blockchain, transactions are done with the mutual consensus of users resulting in smoother, safer, and faster transactions.

Automation Capability

It is programmable and can generate systematic actions, events, and payments automatically when the criteria of the trigger are met.

How does the Blockchain function ?

Over, you may have noticed many businesses and firms around the world integrating Blockchain technology. But how exactly does Blockchain function? Is this an important change or a simple addition? The advancements of Blockchain are still young and have the potential to be revolutionary in the future; so, let’s begin demystifying this technology.

Blockchain is a combination of three leading technologies:

Cryptographic keys A peer-to-peer network containing a shared ledger A means of computing, to store the transactions and records of the network Cryptography keys consist of two keys – Private key and Public key.

These keys help in performing successful transactions between two parties. Each individual has these two keys, which they use to produce a secure digital identity reference. This secured identity is the most important aspect of Blockchain technology. In the world of cryptocurrency, this identity is referred to as ‘digital signature’ and is used for authorizing and controlling transactions.

The digital signature is merged with the peer-to-peer network; a large number of individuals who act as authorities use the digital signature in order to reach a consensus on transactions, among other issues. When they authorize a deal, it is certified by a mathematical verification, which results in a successful secured transaction between the two network-connected parties. So to sum it up, Blockchain users employ cryptography keys to perform different types of digital interactions over the peer-to-peer network.

Types of Blockchain There are four different types of blockchains. They are as follows:

Private Blockchain Private blockchains operate on closed networks, and tend to work well for private businesses and organizations. Companies can use private blockchains to customize their accessibility and authorization preferences, parameters to the network, and other important security options. Only one authority manages a private blockchain network.

Public Blockchain

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies originated from public blockchains, which also played a role in popularizing distributed ledger technology (DLT). Public blockchains also help to eliminate certain challenges and issues, such as security flaws and centralization. With DLT, data is distributed across a peer-to-peer network, rather than being stored in a single location. A consensus algorithm is used for verifying information authenticity; proof of stake (PoS) and proof of work (PoW) are two frequently used consensus methods.

Permissioned Blockchain Also sometimes known as hybrid blockchains, permissioned blockchain networks are private blockchains that allow special access for authorized individuals. Organizations typically set up these types of blockchains to get the best of both worlds, and it enables better structure when assigning who can participate in the network and in what transactions.

Consortium Blockchains Similar to permissioned blockchains, consortium blockchains have both public and private components, except multiple organizations will manage a single consortium blockchain network. Although these types of blockchains can initially be more complex to set up, once they are running, they can offer better security. Additionally, consortium blockchains are optimal for collaboration with multiple organizations.

Pros and Cons of Blockchain

Like other inventions Blockchain also has its own cons and pros to consider

Pros

One major advantage of blockchains is the level of security it can provide, and this also means that blockchains can protect and secure sensitive data from online transactions. For anyone looking for speedy and convenient transactions, blockchain technology offers this as well. In fact, it only takes a few minutes, whereas other transaction methods can take several days to complete. There is also no third-party interference from financial institutions or government organizations, which many users look at as an advantage.

Cons

Blockchain and cryptography involves the use of public and private keys, and reportedly, there have been problems with private keys. If a user loses their private key, they face numerous challenges, making this one disadvantage of blockchains. Another disadvantage is the scalability restrictions, as the number of transactions per node is limited. Because of this, it can take several hours to finish multiple transactions and other tasks. It can also be difficult to change or add information after it is recorded, which is another significant disadvantage of blockchain.

Conclusion

Although we just had a walk through of the potentials in Blockchain in this article, the career potential in this field is growing massively. Getting ahead of the game is always a good strategy for any one interested.

The rapid growth of the crypto space has introduced different exciting protocols. One that stands out is Synthetix. As one of the leading Defi protocols, Synthetix has great potential, Its design enables users to bet on the value of both crypto and real-life asset. It is successfully enabling users around the world to create and trade synthetix assets.

What is Synthetix?

Synthetix is a decentralized asset insurance protocol that is built on one Ethereum network, which allows its users to mint, hold, and trade a wide range of derivatives including commodities, fiat currencies, and even stocks in the Defi space. Synthetix uses multi-token infrastructure based on a system of collateral, staking, inflation and fees. Synthetix enables this service through code alone, without the need for a financial intermediary.

Why is Synthetix so unique?

Synthetix uses Chainlink’s decentralized oracles, which are more accurate and impossible to manipulate. With accurate current prices, all the synthetic assets have a corresponding correct value. The protocol’s synthetix assets, Synths, are collateralized through the Synthetix Network Token(SNX) which helps in driving value and liquidity to the underlying assets while also offering an increased level of accessibility to traditional financial assets and new trading strategies.

The most outstanding feature it has is the ability for anyone to convert Synths without the need for a counterparty. Any Synth can be traded for any other Synth on the Synthetix Exchange, and the functionality it has provided for an almost infinite level of liquidity. The Synthetix ecosystem can even reward traders by providing them capital for different components of the Synthetix ecosystem.

The system uses two types of tokens, the Synthetix Network Token(SNX) and Synthetix assets or synths. Synthetix Network Token(SNX) is an Ethereum token that powers the Synthetix platform. It’s an ERC-20 token, meaning that it operates using smart contracts. The platform’s complexity is a testament to the power of the Ethereum network.

How does it work ?

Synths use smart contract-based price discovery protocols, to track the prices of the assets represented, allowing you to hold and exchange Synths as if you own the underlying assets. In this manner, it provides exposure to a wide range of both crypto and non-crypto assets in a decentralized, permissionless, and censorship-resistant method, enabling participation in the Defi ecosystem even if you do not hold any of these assets.

Synthetix and derivatives are important for building mature markets for example markets that have reached equilibrium by facilitating price discovery and helping to hedge against volatility.

Synthetix markets itself as an exchange with “infinite liquidity” since there isn’t an order book or slippage in the traditional sense. Pricing is rather determined by an algorithm mechanism, more similar to how an automated market maker(AMM) works than a central limit order book (CLOB).

In essence, when you make a trade on Synthetix, you don’t trade against an individual or market maker. Instead, you repay part of your debt from the debt pool and borrow the same amount of debt in another Synth. Since Synths are issued n Ethereum, you can deposit them on other Defi platforms such as Curve and Uniswapand use them to provide liquidity and earn interest.

Summary

Synthetix is one of the oldest Defi projects out there that has an excellent decentralized governance structure and has already delivered one of the most complex and useful protocols built on Ethereum to date. It offers synthetix assets to users across the entire world, providing access to specialized trading strategies as a result of this, when taking into consideration the size of traditional financial markets, it has the potential to truly create a massive tokenized market of digitized real-world assets on the Ethereum Blockchain.

Even though Web3 evangelists have long touted the native security features of blockchain, the torrent of money flowing into the industry makes it a tempting prospect for hackers, scammers and thieves.

When bad actors succeed in breaching Web3 cybersecurity, it’s often down to users overlooking the most common threats of human greed, FOMO, and ignorance, rather than because of flaws in the technology.

Many scams promise big payoffs, investments, or exclusive perks; the FTC calls these money-making opportunities and investment scams.

Types of Cyber Attacks

Security breaches can affect both companies and individuals. While not a complete list, cyberattacks targeting Web3 typically fall into the following categories:

Phishing: One of the oldest yet most common forms of cyberattack, phishing attacks commonly come in the form of email and include sending fraudulent communications like texts and messages on social media that appear to come from a reputable source. This cybercrime can also take the form of a compromised or maliciously coded website that can drain the crypto or NFT from an attached browser-based wallet once a crypto wallet is connected.

Malware: Short for malicious software, this umbrella term covers any program or code harmful to systems. Malware can enter a system through phishing emails, texts, and messages.

Compromised Websites: These legitimate websites are hijacked by criminals and used to store malware that unsuspecting users download once they click on a link, image, or file.

URL Spoofing: Unlink compromised websites; spoofed websites are malicious sites that are clones of legitimate websites. Also known as URL Phishing, these sites can harvest usernames, passwords, credit cards, cryptocurrency, and other personal information.

Fake Browser Extensions: As the name suggests, these exploits use fake browser extensions to dupe crypto-users into entering their credentials or keys into an extension that gives the cybercriminal access to the data.

How to protect yourself?

The best way to protect yourself from phishing is to never reply to an email, SMS text, Telegram, Discord, or WhatsApp message from an unknown person, company, or account.

Entering your credentials or personal information when using public or shared WiFi or networks. In addition, people should not have a false sense of security because they use a particular operating system or phone type.

Keep your asset safe

When possible, use hardware or air-gapped wallets to store digital assets. These devices, sometimes described as “cold storage,” remove your crypto from the internet until you are ready to use it. While it’s common and convenient to use browser-based wallets like MetaMask, remember, anything connected to the internet has the potential to be hacked.

If you use a mobile, browser, or desktop wallet, also known as a hot wallet, download them from official platforms like the Google Play Store, Apple’s App Store, or verified websites. Never download from links sent via text or email. Even though malicious apps can find their way into official stores, it’s more secure than using links.

After completing your transaction, disconnect the wallet from the website.

Be sure to keep your private keys, seed phrases, and passwords private. If you are asked to share this information to participate in an investment or minting, it’s a scam.

Only invest in projects you understand. If it’s unclear how the scheme works, stop and do more research.

Ignore high-pressure tactics and tight deadlines. Often, scammers will use this to try and invoke FOMO and get potential victims to not think about or do research into what they are being told.

Last but not least, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is a scam.

Tokenomics is a term that captures a token’s economics. It describes the factors that impact a token’s use and value, including but not limited to the token’s creation and distribution, supply and demand, incentive mechanisms, and token burn schedules.

What is tokenomics?

Tokenomics is the science of the token economy. It covers all aspects involving a coin’s creation, management, and sometimes removal from a network.

Why is it important ?

Blockchain technology enables projects to create micro-economies. To become self-sustaining, they need to figure out how tokens should work within their ecosystem.

There can be ‘no one size fits all’ attitude when it comes to tokens. Blockchain has enabled a diverse range of use cases and implementations. Tokenomics enables teams to create a new or adapt an existing model that works with what the project wants to achieve. This can create a high-functioning and stable platform, if done well.

Token distribution

Projects need to be able to distribute coins out to prospective users. If not, the network can exist but no one will be able to use it!

There are different ways this can be achieved. The networks reward validators, or miners, with newly minted coins; others sell a portion of the token supply to prospective users in an initial coin offering (ICO).

Other tokens distribute to users via certain actions and behaviours. Augur for example, rewards people for verifying facts on its betting network.

Price stability

Cryptocurrencies are notorious for their volatility. This is a problem as fluctuations attract speculators who can stop the network from working properly by buying and selling en masse.

Projects can combat this by ensuring there are enough coins to match the levels of supply. This helps to create a stable price for the coin, which encourages people to use the tokens for what they’re designed for.

Governance.

The core team behind each project devises the rules by how tokens are created, or ‘minted’, as well as how they are injected into, and taken out of, the network. Different projects take different approaches.

Future adaption

Most teams building a network won’t go on to be its rulers. That’s not how decentralization works. However, most developers know that what they build now may not necessarily work in the future. The way in which tokens are governed may need to be altered as the network grows and matures.

summary

Tokenomics is a fundamental concept to understand if you want to get into crypto. It’s a term capturing the major factors affecting the value of a token. It’s important to note that no single factor provides a magical key. Your assessment should be based on as many factors as possible and analyzed as a whole. Tokenomics can be combined with other fundamental analysis tools to make an informed judgment on a project’s future prospects and its token’s price.

Ultimately, the economics of a token will have a major impact on how it is used, how easy it will be to build up a network, and whether there will be much interest in the use case of the token.

Lets have a shift from those days when the only access to your favourite sports teams was television sets. Now, with the invention of social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram and Youtube you can engage and connect with famous people non-stop. The crypto industry has built something even better. Forget about enjoying content passively, now you can actively participate in your favourite team’s decision and more using fan tokens. Popular teams in various sports like Formula One, Football, etc have issued their own fan tokens. Let’s unravel how you can own one and understand how they work!

What are fan tokens?

Fan tokens are a type of cryptocurrency designed to provide membership benefits to fandoms of sports teams, bands and other groups. Holders of fan tokens are often entitled to membership perks, such as access to exclusive content, prizes, experiences and the right to vote on club decisions.

Fan tokens provide a little bit of something for everyone. For fans, it’s the chance to determine, in some (often trivial and legally non-binding) way, the future of their favorite sports team or pop star, and speculate on their success in the web3 markets. For the sports team or pop star, it’s free money, baby!

Ownership of these tokens allows you to get into the inner circle of fans. Holders get access to a variety of exclusive voting access on different polls that dictate team decisions. These polls relate to decisions for match locations, tour bus designs, promotions, rewards, and merchandise designs. Owing more tokens gives you more voting power, thereby, giving fans the ability to influence their favourite team.

How do Fan Tokens function ?

Fan tokens are crypto assets that are issued by clubs, organisations, or teams for their fans. Ownership of these tokens allows you to get into the inner circle of fans. Holders get access to a variety of exclusive voting access on different polls that dictate team decisions. These polls relate to decisions for match locations, tour bus designs, promotions, rewards, and merchandise designs. Owing more tokens gives you more voting power, thereby, giving fans the ability to influence their favourite team.

Summary

You can buy the fan tokens during the FTO using the CHZ token on Socios. It is a native ERC20 utility token of the Chiliz blockchain that is secured by the Ethereum blockchain. The Socios platform also allows fans to engage with their football teams by connecting clubs and their fans. This helps the clubs to secure additional revenue streams that are digital, secure, and transparent. Just in case you missed the opportunity to buy fan tokens during the FTO.

If you are familiar with the world of cryptocurrencies, then the term, “crypto mixer” is something that you might have come across. A crypto mixer is essentially a means of making cryptocurrency transactions more anonymous and harder to track. People who wish to have higher levels of privacy and anonymity with their crypto and altcoin transactions frequently use crypto mixer to accomplish this.

What is a crypto mixer

A crypto mixer is a service that allows users to obfuscate the origin and destination of transactions. Users send cryptocurrency to the service, have that crypto mixed with other coins or tokens, and then send the equivalent amount of “mixed” coins to a recipient address, hiding the connection between the sender and recipient.

There are many legitimate uses for this kind of service. Just as you may not want your employer to know the intimate details of every bank or credit card transaction that you’ve ever made, you may also not want your employer — or anyone else, for that matter — to know every detail of every crypto transaction you’ve ever made either.

But as the adoption of crypto and blockchain tools grows, real-world identities are becoming increasingly linked to blockchain addresses — with every purchase, transfer, or interaction associated with those addresses laid bare on a public, transparent, distributed ledger. And that’s where crypto mixer come in.

How Do Crypto Mixers Function ?

Crypto mixer work by essentially taking your cryptocurrency, mixing it with a giant pile of other cryptocurrency, and then sending you smaller units of cryptocurrency to an address of your choosing, with total the amount that you put in minus 1–3%. The 1–3 % is generally taken as a profit by the coin mixing company. This is how they make money.

If you would like to use a coin mixer, then you have to send the company cryptocurrencies. Otherwise, they will have nothing to mix. However, because you are sending some of your money to the service to be mixed, you need to make sure that you send it to a reputable coin mixing company. Otherwise you could potentially be robbed of your money.

There are a number of companies who offer coin mixing services. These companies include Coinmixer.se, Helix, and Bitcoin Blender. If you are interested in having your cryptocurrencies mixed in order to increase your privacy, then you may want to consider one of these options. For the moment, coin mixing is perfectly legal in the United States. However, the legality of coin mixing varies around the world, as does the legality of cryptocurrencies themselves.

Crypto mixing is somewhat similar to the criminal practice of money laundering. However, just because a person participates in coin mixing does not mean that he or she is a criminal. It just means that he or she would like to achieve a higher level of anonymity with his or her cryptocurrency transactions.

Summary

Coin mixing is similar hiding your IP address by using the Tor Browser. The Tor Browser is a network of connected computers which are used to bounce communications signals all around the world. So, if you are using the Tor Browser in Philadelphia, your IP address signal may appear to be coming from Geneva, Switzerland.

Coin mixing is very similar because you may enter five Bitcoins from your wallet, but you may ultimately end up with 10 half Bitcoins from many different parts of the world. This makes your transactions extremely difficult to track. The more sources there are that go into your end product, the more difficult it is to track.