An introduction to crypto and blockchain presented at the Young Jain Professionals Conference.

1. “Crypto” for the Rest of Us
Young Jain Professionals Conference
Hilton, Long Island
6th October, 2018
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

2. What is “Crypto” or
“Cryptocurrency”?
• Digital money used for transacting
• Store of value, like gold
• Decentralized - no central bank like the RBI, usually, no
corporation
• Based on math and cryptography
• Transactions stored on a “Blockchain” or many times
referred to as a “digital ledger” (a very very slow
database with lots of redundancy)
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

3. What is a “Blockchain”
• A public ledger of all transactions
• Everyone can see every transaction that occurs

4. Bitcoin
Address
Transaction
Id
Amount

5. • Transactions are transmitted to the network and then
“miners” use sophisticated computers to solve a
mathematical equation to verify the transaction.
• A transaction is considered irreversible after 6 confirmations
are transmitted on the network.
• A “Public Key” is your address
• A “Private Key” is essentially your password to make a
transaction
• Typically, each transaction on a blockchain has a cost which
is usually paid by the sender
• Transactions are made from a wallet
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

6. Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

7. Why is this a Big Deal?
• Relatively quick transfers (as low as a few seconds to 10 minutes)
• Removal of barriers to transact with anyone, anywhere, any time
• Completely decentralized, do not need bank permission to transfer
money or sell a security to another person, or check who owns a piece
of art, or create and sell digital assets w/o worry of duplication, etc.
• Every transaction is immutable and public
• Transaction doesn’t have to be “money”, it can be the record of a
marriage, divorce, purchase of a home, sale of a business, etc.
• There will always be a record of the transaction as long as nodes are
sharing the database
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

8. Bitcoin
• Created by “Satoshi Nakamoto” in 2009
• Finite amount of “coins” can be mined - 21 million Bitcoins
• Value is created by “mining” and good old fashioned economics -
supply and demand
• Bitcoins (BTC) can be transferred to any address, anywhere for low
transaction fees
• Bitcoin addresses start with a “1” or “3”
• It operates almost as the reserve cryptocurrency and mostly as a SoV
• Market cap ~ $110 Billion
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

9. Bitcoin
• Inherently deflationary
• Daily volume: ~$4.5B1
• Highly volatile and potentially illiquid
• Uses “Proof of Work2” consensus mechanism
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain
1. https://coinmarketcap.com
2. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Proof_of_work

10. Bitcoin 2017-2018
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

11. Bitcoin 7 Day
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

12. AltCoins
• There are >1,800 cryptocurrencies and tokens. There is
Bitcoin and then there are AltCoins (alternative coins)
• Even some in the top 10 market cap are questionable
• Privacy coins like ZCash, Monero and others have been
gaining more interest from people because, like cash, they
offer a higher degree of privacy than most other
cryptocurrencies
• Other coins like Tezos are changing “Proof of Stake”
consensus where any stakeholder can participate in reaching
consensus
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain
“Caveat Emptor”

13. Ethereum
• Created by Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, Joe Lubin and others in 2014
• Similar to Bitcoin as it is based on Blockchain and cryptography.
• Ether is the “currency” used to transact on the Ethereum blockchain
• Enables creation of “tokens” using a programming language called
“Solidity”
• Tokens created on Ethereum benefit from the development of the
Ethereum Blockchain
• Uses “Proof of Work” but hoping to transition to “Proof of Stake1”
consensus mechanism
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-stake

14. Ethereum
• Building blockchain apps on Ethereum has fueled a
new generation of decentralized apps or “dApps” that
use blockchain while trying to hide the complexity of
blockchain
• Examples of tokens on Ethereum are:
• Basic Attention Token (BAT) +370% since ICO in May
2017
• 0x Protocol (ZRX) 1,235% since August 2017
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

15. ICOs
• ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) are crowdfunding campaigns to
raise capital via cryptocurrencies by selling tokens
• Many tokens are “ERC20” tokens which means they comply
with a standard and operate on top of the Ethereum blockchain
• ICOs have raised over $18 Billion in the first 8 months of 2018
alone1
• Many ICOs are utility tokens, others are securities, many others
are scams!
• “If it looks too good to be true, it usually is.”
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

16. ICOs
• The SEC is rapidly increasing enforcement of
securities laws violations from ICOs
• Bitcoin and Ether have been declared commodities by
the CFTC and SEC
• Other governments are trying to figure out how to
handle ICOs, though, most have stated existing laws
are applicable regardless of the technology. What
remains unclear is which crypto currencies are
securities and which are utility tokens or commodities.
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

17. Resources
• Some Int’l Exchanges
• Binance https://binance.com
• Bittrex http://bittrex.com
• Bitfinex http://bitfinex.com
• Cryptopia http://cryptopia.co.nz
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

18. Resources
• http://bitcoin.org
• http://ethereum.org
• http://litecoin.org
• http://tezos.com
• https://www.coindesk.com
• https://messari.io
• https://theethereum.wiki/w/
index.php/
ERC20_Token_Standard
• Bitcoin Wallets - https://
bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-
wallet
• Ethereum Wallet - https://
github.com/ethereum/mist/
releases
• Tezos Wallets - https://
github.com/Cryptonomic/
Deployments/wiki/Galleon:-
Releases and https://
github.com/Cryptonomic/
Tezori
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain

19. Thank You!
http://pjain.me
Twitter: @pjain
Community:
http://blockhack.io
Telegram: https://t.me/blockhackio
Copyright 2018, Pankaj Jain