The concept and operation mechanism of virtual currency
1、 Different definitions:
1. virtual currency:
virtual currency refers to non real currency
digital currency:digital currency is an alternative currency in the form of electronic currency. Both digital gold coin and cryptocurrency belong to digiccy
3. Cryptocurrency:
cryptocurrency is a kind of transaction medium that uses cryptography principles to ensure transaction security and control the creation of transaction units
4. Token (token):
a kind of article whose shape and size are similar to currency, but the scope of use is limited and has no currency effect, and its token is the homonym of token in English
Second, the characteristics are different:1; It can also be said that virtual currency is personalized currency. In another way, it can also be called information currency
2. Digital currency:
is an unregulated and digital currency, which is usually issued and managed by developers and accepted and used by members of specific virtual communities
Cryptocurrency:cryptocurrency is based on the decentralized consensus mechanism, which is opposite to the banking and financial system relying on the centralized regulatory system
4. Token (token):
usually needs to be exchanged for money, used in shops, playgrounds, mass transportation and other places, as a voucher to use services and exchange goods
extended data
at present, digital currency is more like an investment proct, because it lacks a strong guarantee agency to maintain its price stability, and its role as a value measure has not yet appeared, so it can not be used as a means of payment. As an investment proct, digital currency cannot develop without trading platform, operating company and investment company
digital currency is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the blockchain technology it relies on has been decentralized and can be used in other fields except digital currency, which is one of the reasons why bitcoin is popular; On the other hand, if digital currency is widely used by the public as a kind of currency, it will have a huge impact on the effectiveness of monetary policy, financial infrastructure, financial market and financial stability
In a narrow sense, virtual currency refers to the substitute currency circulating in the network virtual world. In addition to the virtual currencies issued by major online game companies with various names, Tencent Q currency is also widely used. At present, the network transaction of the virtual world has greatly exceeded people's imagination, and has formed a huge online transaction market of proction, supply and marketing. Moreover, a group of professional workers specialized in "coin printing" came into being; There are also special exchange shops for various game currencies
virtual currency and electronic currency are not the same concept
the definition of e-money is to convert a certain amount of cash or deposit from the issuer and obtain data representing the same amount. By using some electronic methods, the data can be directly transferred to the payment object, so as to pay off the debt. E-money means that consumers pay traditional money to issuers of e-money, and issuers store legal money of equal value with traditional money in electronic devices held by consumers
electronic currency is the electronization of the legal tender, including our common bank cards, Internet banking, electronic cash, etc., as well as the third party payment developed in recent years, such as Alipay, fortune paid and so on. No matter what form these electronic currencies are and through which institutions they circulate, their original source is the legal money issued by the central bank
but virtual currency is the electronization of illegal currency, and its original issuer is not the central bank. For example, Tencent Q currency and other game currency, such virtual currency is mainly limited to circulation in a specific virtual environment. After the emergence of bitcoin, through the blockchain technology to better solve the problem of decentralization, distrust, to achieve global circulation, is sought after in the world. Electronic currency and virtual currency are collectively referred to as digital currency
litecoin (LTC), released on October 7, 2011, is the most valuable counterfeit coin at present, accounting for about 2% of BTC's market value. The current unit price is US $2.31, with a total currency value of US $38 million
this is also a distributed (decentralized) digital currency. Unlike the sha256 mining algorithm used by bitcoin, LTC adopts scrypt algorithm. Scrypt algorithm uses sha256 as its subroutine, and scrypt itself needs a lot of memory. Each hash is used as the seed of the input, and then it needs a lot of memory to store another pseudo-random sequence to generate the pseudo-random points of the sequence and output the hash value. In the mining of BTC (bitcoin), it is not enough to rely on simple graphics card mining (it takes about ten to dozens of days to dig a BTC with general configuration graphics card). The emergence of various expensive mining machines has raised the threshold for ordinary people to get BTC through mining, while LTC has certain advantages in using PC graphics card mining This passage comes from Zhihu.)
compared with BTC, litecain has made a little improvement in technology. If BTC is gold now, LTC is silver for the time being
the biggest advantage of litecoin is that it can confirm the authenticity faster. The virtual currency is designed and maintained by Charles Lee. Bitcoin transactions need to be verified, and the average verification time is more than 10 minutes. Most transaction websites need 1 hour to verify. The average transaction confirmation time of liteoin is 2.5 minutes. Developers claim that shortening the verification time increases the practicability of virtual currency. The bitcoin mining efficiency of customized machine and AMD GPU is the highest, making it almost unprofitable for miners using CPU mining. Litecain's mining excludes GPUs and custom processors, so it doesn't rely too much on a small number of professional miners
ppcoin
ppcoin (PPC) was released on August 19, 2012, which has improved the original technology of BTC. Use proof of make and add the concept of coin age
ppcoin is a bifurcated project of bitcoin, which aims to achieve energy efficiency and maintain the best performance of the original bitcoin as far as possible. The unit price of ppcoin is US $0.22 and the total currency value is US $4 million
ppcoin does not have a fixed upper limit of money supply, but it does not mean that ppcoin has obvious inflation compared with bitcoin. Bitcoin can be compared to gold. The annual inflation rate of gold is about 1-3%. Although gold has no known upper limit of money supply, we still know that it is a reliable scarce commodity
ppcoin has two types of casting: work certificate and equity certificate. The coinage rate of working proof is affected by Moore's law, which depends on the doubling of our working proof ability. What we all know is that Moore's law will eventually come to an end. By then, the ppcoin of inflation may be close to the gold level. The annual maximum inflation rate of certificate of equity is 1%. At the same time, ppcoin's transaction costs were destroyed to fight inflation. So on the whole, the coin design of ppcoin is still a very low inflation design in the future, which can be comparable with bitcoin<
ppcoin's reward is similar to lottery, which will determine the winning probability according to the number of ppcoin held by miners. Sunny king, one of the founders, said that their design is based on a new concept of long-term energy efficiency
terracoin
terracoin (TRC) was released on October 26, 2012, with a total currency of 42 million. The speed of each block is 2 minutes, slightly faster than LTC. There is not much special in technology, similar to the proction of BTC halved every four years
however, the operation team seems to have a strong business background and may be better than other bitcoins in circulation. The development of virtual currency is getting more and more attention. Now some teams with business background will accelerate the development of virtual currency
namecoin
namecoin is a distributed domain name system based on bitcoin technology. Its principle is the same as bitcoin. The first release date of this open source software is April 18, 2011
namecoin is generated from an original block which is different from bitcoin's main trading block. It uses a new blockchain, which is independent of bitcoin's blockchain. Because it is based on bitcoin, the security, distribution, robustness, encryption and migration of domain names are guaranteed mathematically. You can dig bitcoin and namecoin at the same time
this project was discussed and proposed by bitdns, which is mainly dissatisfied with the defects of DNS. The only top-level domain name of namecoin is. Bit. It costs namecoin to register a. Bit domain name.
1、 7 * 24 hours trading
the trading time of digital currency is very long, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. As long as you like, you can trade whenever you want. There is no time limit
friends who have worked in stocks and futures know that stocks and futures have trading time limits. A few hours of trading time in a day is not enough. Digital currency is a real all-weather trading, which can meet the needs of friends who trade in different periods of time. You can trade whenever you are free, even on weekends, It's just so willful
Second, there is no limit on price rise and price fall.
there is no limit on price rise and price fall in the trading of digital currency, that is to say, it can rise and fall freely without any limit. You can say that there is a huge income space, but you can also think that there is too much risk. This is a matter of different opinions. There are good and bad, because the income and risk are positively related. Digital currency trading platform "currency exchange"
the price demand of the market can be truly reflected without the limit of rise and fall, because the rise and fall of the price is a very natural process. When everyone is optimistic, it will rise, and when they are not optimistic, it will fall. This is the law of price fluctuation, and the limit of rise and fall only adds human intervention to the price fluctuation to slow down the price fluctuation, But it can't really stop the price movement. Therefore, there is no limit on price fluctuation, which is the most real price fluctuation and truly meets the market demand and expectation
(3) t + 0 transaction: Generally speaking, the digital currency bought on the same day can be sold on the same day, that is, it can be sold with the buyer. It sounds very powerful. If the digital currency you buy makes money, you can sell it immediately and make it safe; If there is a little loss, you can also sell it immediately to prevent the loss from further expanding. All t + 0 trading system is really very practical, can be very flexible to deal with the hands of the position Four, two-way transaction digital currency can not only buy long, but also sell short. Most of my friends basically understand buying long and bullish, but they don't understand selling short and bearish. This is actually a reverse thinking, the key point is to judge the direction of rise and fall accurately, at the same time, there is a price difference to earn on the linefor example, we can buy at a low price and then sell at a high price to earn the price difference (buy long and be bullish); You can also sell at a high price first, and then come back at a low price to earn a difference (sell short and put). The operation steps are almost the same. It's just a direction of business
Five, margin system margin trading is to pay a part of the margin to buy the relevant digital currency, just like when you buy a house, you only need to pay a certain down payment to buy the house. This is the legendary leveraged trading, but at present only some platforms have leveraged trading. Margin trading (Leveraged trading) has achieved the goal of "small, broad and big", maximizing the efficiency of capital utilization, expanding both profits and losses. We can treat it dialecticallyThe form and expression of "virtual" is not the first important, the first important is the internal value. In other words, what is the relationship and difference between the value of virtual currency and that of general currency. In view of the depth of the background of the problem, we need to stand higher in the starting point of the research. The problem of currency is the problem of modernity, and the problem of virtual currency is the problem of post modernity. They do not share the same basic paradigm. It is the difference of paradigm, not virtual phenomenon, that leads to the difference between them
the formation mechanism of value is different
the value basis of general currency and virtual currency is different, the former represents utility, the latter represents value. From the point of view of behavioral economics, money, as a general equivalent, is called value in language, but it actually refers to utility. Virtual currency does not represent the "effect" of general "price", but the value itself. Virtual currency is not a general equivalent, but a manifestation of value relativity, or a symbol; It can also be said that virtual currency is personalized currency. In another way, it can also be called information currency. Their commonness lies in that they are symbols of uncertain value and relative value. When we say that, the traditional meaning of currency has been broken through. Money in its original meaning can only be a special case of the new currency in a broader sense. Money can be used as the symbol of general equivalent or relative value set
the monetary decision mechanism is different
the general currency is decided by the central bank, and the virtual currency is decided by indivials. The sovereignty of general currency is in the center of the Republic; The sovereignty of virtual currency lies in distributed indivial nodes. From the perspective of information economics, general currency is a special case of virtual currency. The special points of this special case are: first, the reference point does not change. Therefore, value is specialized from a set to a recible value. When the reference point remains unchanged, value is equivalent to utility; Second, the gain and loss of utility relative to the reference point remain unchanged. This means that the value of reference point is a stable rational value and equilibrium value. In a rational economy, the reference point may remain unchanged, but it is still a scattered set. The difference is that every point (the actual transaction price) of this decentralization is unstable, and only the equilibrium value is stable; But in the value concentration of virtual currency, every point may be stable, on the contrary, the rational equilibrium value may be unstable. Reflecting on the monetary decision mechanism, the central bank is the personified representative of a fixed reference point of rational value, while the virtual money market (such as stock market and game money market) is determined by forces other than the central bank. In this sense, some people in economics call the stock market as the virtual money market, and the economy formed by the stock market and derivative financial market as the virtual economy. The essence of virtual economy is information economy with indivial as the center
the value exchange mechanism is different
the value conversion of general currency is completed in the money market; The value conversion of virtual money is completed in the virtual money market. The value exchange between general currency and virtual currency is completed through the overall exchange of the two markets. Under special conditions, there is an immature exchange relationship between indivial markets. Therefore, it can be said that general currency and virtual currency are in different markets. Fisher Equation (QP = MV) describes the value conversion relationship between commodity market and money market; The extended Fisher Equation (MV = BH) describes the value conversion relationship between money market and virtual money market. Some people worry that the game virtual currency may cause inflation. This is because he does not understand the market exchange mechanism of virtual currency and confused the money market with the virtual currency market. Just as the imbalance of supply and demand in the commodity market can not directly lead to the imbalance of supply and demand in the money market, it must lead to inflation by issuing more money in the overall market; The imbalance of supply and demand in the virtual money market can not directly lead to inflation in the money market. The key to the problem is whether a unified virtual money market has been formed. The stock market is a unified market, but the game market is not. For example, the ratio of a game virtual currency to RMB may initially be 800000 to 1, and then it may change to 8 million to 1. Maybe we can buy a castle's virtual currency today, and maybe we can only buy a Tomahawk tomorrow. This phenomenon is indeed possible; If virtual currency forms a unified market, it may indeed exert pressure on the money market. The problem is that there is no such unified market. The issuers of game currency are independent of each other and do not have the status of financial subject, let alone the exchange with money at the level of financial market. What's more, whether it's base money or value-added money, the amount of money (m) and the level of money price (V, i.e. velocity of circulation) have not changed, so we can't think that there will be monetary inflation or deflation. For the current game currency depreciation phenomenon, it is better to explain that the service conditions of a game as a value-added service have changed. Due to the general improvement of the level of players or the increase of the number of players, the demand for virtual currency increases, and the price of services and virtual currency decreases. As a result of this change in the supply and demand conditions of services, service prices have declined. This is a phenomenon that can be explained by a real commodity market
advantages: convenient cross-border payment and constant quantity. Disadvantages: the price is unstable. It rises and falls rapidly.
1. E-money is a kind of virtual currency. It is a kind of invisible currency based on the highly developed bank electronic technology. It uses digital pulse instead of metal, paper and other carriers to transmit and display funds, and processes and stores them through chips. Therefore, it has no physical form, size, weight and imprint of traditional currency, and the holder can not get the actual feeling of holding
2. E-money is an online currency. Electronic money is usually transmitted on the private network and processed through POS and ATM. In other words, electronic money is a large amount of money circulating online through the network in addition to the existing banks, cheques and banknotes. The storage of electronic currency needs storage equipment, the exchange needs communication means, and the computer for encryption and decryption is needed to keep its security
3. Electronic currency is a kind of information currency. In the final analysis, e-money is nothing more than conceptual money information. It is actually a special information composed of a group of numbers including the user's identity, password, amount, scope of use, etc. When people use e-money transactions, they actually exchange relevant information. After the information is transmitted to the banks that set up this kind of business, the banks can settle the transactions for both sides, so that consumers and enterprises can receive and pay each other in a more economical, convenient and faster way than the real banking system< Generally speaking, e-money can be divided into the following two types:
1. Card based e-money system includes smart card and stored value card, both of which are plastic cards with purchasing power, in which the electronic value has been paid by the cardholder in advance“ "Kaki" procts are mainly micropayments designed for retail transactions, and show the potential to replace banknotes and coins in this field
2. Based on computer software procts, this kind of procts need to install special software on the computer, so that the electronic value can be transmitted through the telecommunication network. Software based systems mainly realize remote payment through computer network, and they have the strength to replace cash and other paperless payment tools to a certain extent
through the above analysis, we understand the basic concept, characteristics and classification of e-money. In addition, we know that e-money is the medium of e-payment. We can clearly see the role of e-money in the process of e-payment through figure 1.