We will start this article off with a brief description of what CryptoCurrencies are and how they work. This will be brief, but if you want to dive in more there is plenty of information on Google about them.
CryptoCurrencies are based on what is called blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is basically a public ledger of transactions. You can compare it to your monthly debit card statement. You have transactions of money going in and going out. This is the same concept with blockchains except there is no third party intermediary like a bank, Paypal or a credit card company. This means that you can send currency to anyone in the world independant of a bank, government or third party.
I bet your saying to yourself, "Yeah, I really want the public to see all of my transactions and I doubt it is safe. Without a bank how could it be secure?"
With Cryptocurrencies you have a wallet address. This is a random string of numbers and or letters. So a transaction on a blockchain would look something like this. 0dj3940282034k9303 sent 5.72 Ethereum to 0dk9403judm398ss in 1.3 seconds - 47 verifications. Unless you know exactly who 0dj3940282034k9303 is, it is just a string of numbers and letter to you
This Blockchain is protected by Cryptographic algorithms very similar to the ones used by banks and credit card merchants. Computers from all over the world verify each and every transaction to make sure that they are legitimate and also to make sure that no one is able to double spend coins.
This is a very brief and simplified explanation as we wanted to keep it short. But we would definitely suggest doing to some research on Cryptocurrencies as it is a fascinating new technology and a completely new way to transfer value across the globe in seconds.
What is Ethereum? www.ethereum.org
While Ethereum can and is used as a currency, it is designed to do much more. Ethereum's vision is to in essence be programmable money. If this outside event happens (Outcome of a football game, Transfer of a deed of a house, product delivered) then this happens. The program cannot be manipulated or gamed. It follows the guidelines that the smart contract layed out when it was created.
Ethereum is unique in that developers from all over the world can create programs for just about anything using these smart contracts.
Large companies from all over the world have joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance which is a group that works together to develop new uses for Ethereum in mainstream business. If you look at the list of members you will definitely see some companies you know like Mastercard, Samsung, Microsoft, Pfizer and many more! Enterprise Ethereum Alliance
What is Litecoin? www.litecoin.org
Litecoin was created based on some of the same technology as Bitcoin. However it has many technological advantages to Bitcoin to make it faster and much cheaper to send funds from your wallet to another. You can think of Litecoin as Bitcoin 2.0.
It is designed solely as a currency. Litecoin transactions occur in literally seconds (Normally under 5 seconds) and the cost is normally around $0.03 to $0.05 per transaction. Litecoin does one thing and it does a fantastic job of it. It allows users to send money to anyone in the world in a matter of seconds for a few pennies. Imagine walking into your bank and telling the teller that you want to send $4,000 to your friend in Argentina and that you want it done in 5 seconds and will not pay more than $0.05. Your bank teller would laugh at you :)
Litecoin has an active development team and is working on making Litecoin the go to way to send money around the world instantly, purchase things online like an awesome Skystream TWO or purchase items in person at your local coffee shop. Litecoin has a bright future and is definitely worth reading up on.
What is Bitcoin? www.bitcoin.org
Bitcoin is the first Cryptocurrency to ever be created. It's creator Satoshi Nakamoto kept he true identity a secret and no one knows his real identity. He created Bitcoin, got it up and running and disappeared. He is the creator of Blockchain technology and obviously an extremely brilliant person.
Bitcoin is similar to Litecoin in that it's sole purpose was to be able to transfer value across the globe quickly and cheaply. In the beginning this was definitely the case. But as more and more people use the Bitcoin blockchain to send funds it has become slower and more expensive to use.
Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of infighting between many factions of Bitcoin development, mining and marketing. This infighting seems to have (Hopefully temporarily) stalled some technology advances to help speed up the network and bring it back to a fast and cheap way to transfer fund across the globe.
What is Bitcoin Cash? www.bitcoincash.org
Bitcoin Cash is the newest of these four coins and is actually a fork of Bitcoin. The creator of Bitcoin Cash did so because he thought Bitcoin was too slow. He made some changes to the core structure of how Bitcoin works to make it faster. These changes are viewed by Bitcoin not to be secure and to be a temporary solution.
As this is a very new coin it has yet to be seen if it can continue to be a fast and efficient way to transfer funds across the globe.
How to use Ethereum, LiteCoin, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to buy a Skystream TWO?
First you will need to have or purchase some of the currency you want to use. You will also need a wallet for that currency. There are plenty of websites and forums where you can find information on this. This is not an endorsement or detailed tutorial in any way. You must do your own research and learn how to use these coins. It is very easy, but does involve some research.
1. Check out as you normally would with your billing and shipping information. Choose a shipping method and click Save.
2. When you get to the payment method click on Coinbase Commerce.
3. Click on the Cryptocurrency you would like to pay with.
4. Enter the address shown in the send section of your wallet and click on send.
5. If you are using a mobile wallet that has the ability to scan QR codes you can choose that option and use your phone camera to take a picture of the QR code on the screen. This will enter the payment address for you.
Cryptocurrencies are a very new and very cool worldwide payment and transaction system. As a technology company we are proud to support new world changing technology and are very happy to be able to offer these payment methods to our awesome customers!
