ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5
Do you demand a simple and concise explanation of complicated and complex topics?
Fret not, dear voater, for ELI5 is here! Ask a complex question, and get a simple answer!
General guidelines:
Your explanation should be friendly and straightforward, but not condescending.
- 1.1. Above all, you're here to answer questions concisely. Don't get needlessly hostile or complicated in your response.
- 1.2. We aren't literally 5 year olds. Well, most of us aren't. We can handle big words and long sentences. There's no need to dumb down an explanation unless specifically asked to do so by the asker.
- 1.3. If specified by the asker, responses to particular levels of expertise are encouraged.
/v/ELI5 is a place to get simple explanations of complex topics.
- 2.1. Yes/no answer questions, and questions pursuing an answer without an explanation of that answer, are not allowed.
- 2.2: If it doesn't have an explanation, it isn't an explain like I'm five question.
- 2.3. Refrain from posing hypothetical or personal questions. Ideally, every question should have a factually based, reasonable explanation.
Feel free to send prohibited questions to /v/nostupidquestions, they'll help you out instead!
This isn't a debating subverse:
- 3.1. Don't ask for personal opinions (and don't ask potentially loaded questions)
- 3.2. Don't present a biased response
Top-level comments should be on-topic.
- 4.1. Self-explanatory, really.
- 4.2. Jokes are allowed and appreciated if they're on topic and not a whole top-level comment.
Someone came here for an answer, don't send them somewhere else.
- 5.1. Your response should not consist wholly of a redirection link within a sentence.
- 5.2. It is acceptable to link to outside sources for singular words or concepts. This can be done to save you explaining concepts that are non-central (yet still important) to your response.
- 5.3. Don't copy+paste from outside sources without paraphrasing. Outside sources don't always explain concepts in layman's terms.
Don't know? Don't teach.
- 6.1. If you don't know what you're talking about, don't try to teach someone else about it.
You are allowed to post a question that's been posted before, but to save your own time, search for it before posting anyway.
Tag your post as "Explained" once you're satisfied with an answer
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[–] PolarZoe 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Basically, there are no separate bitcoins, there are only money transfers from wallet to wallet. All these transfers are stored in the blockchain.
Miners put all the transfers that are not in the chain yet together in a block and prove a difficult math problem to prove that all the transfers are there. Proving a block allows you to add an additional transfer from this block to your wallet and this is how new coins are essentially made.
This wallet is simply a string of characters and so is not save in itself. You need the right password to transfer money out of it, this is why if you lose the password, you lose the contents of the wallet.
Mining with an old computer is not recommended because the math problem gets harder and harder the faster the miners are able to solve the problem, this way the chance of finding the correct solution gets smaller and smaller, the faster the network gets. Unless you get a faster rig to compete.
[–] sodypops [S] ago
which is the most secure crypto currency? Also which do you think is gonna have the best value in the future?
[–] Mateon1 ago
I'm new to cryptocurrencies in general as well, and I can't tell what currency is the most secure, or going to have most value.
I'm excited about a cryptocurrency called Gridcoin, it's a PoS and PoR (Proof of Stake, Proof of Research) currency based on BOINC.
Proof of Stake means that your ability to mine a block depends on your balance. The more coins you have the easier it is. Think of it like interest rate in a bank account.
Proof of Research means that the person with the most magnitude (gained by participating to BOINC projects) mines blocks the easiest.
You can find a better explaination on their site, http://gridcoin.us/. If you want to participate by using BOINC you need to acquire some coins from a faucet and wait to enter the blockchain. If you want to gain interest, you can buy Gridcoin on an online currency exchange such as c-cex. The site goes into detail regarding the setup.
Remember to encrypt, and backup your Gridcoin wallet! You don't want to lose your coins! Also, remember to update often as Gridcoin is constantly in development.