[Crypto Getting Started #2] 10 must-ask questions when you buy a coin | 加密货币十问

❔ Have you ever wondered how to make sense of all the coins out there
❔ Have you tried to read some of the whitepapers and found yourself lost in the tech details

👉 Here are the 10 must-ask questions that I summarize and use as a checklist for understanding the coins
🌟 It all starts with how do you want to participate in the ecosystem

Type	Goal	Must-ask Questions
Issuer	You want to design a decentralized service and issue your own “coins” to support the service	What kind of blockchain structure to use What kind of consensus design to use (e.g. PoW, PoS, DPoS) How to reward everyone who supports this infrastructure, that includes miners or servers and the issuers themselves (“crypto economics”)
User	You want to use this particular decentralized service	What can I use this service for and can it still meet my scalability requirements (# of tx / sec) when more people are using it
Miner or Server	You want to provide the nodes for running the service and earn rewards	How to setup the node to mine or serve the app (under PoS, there is no miner, here we simply refer to them as servers) How to get rewards and what is your profit margin
Trader	You want to profit from buying the coins low and selling it high	Primary market: can you still buy from the issuer (if ICO is still ongoing) Secondary market: which exchange to buy and sell Valuation: how much do you value this coin Storage: which wallet to use

(Image Credit: blocktrak.com)

Alternatively, we can also structure this framework from the product point-of-view and divide the system designs into features (use cases and scalability designs), distributed system architecture (nodes and “crypto economics”) and database (blockchain structure, consensus designs).

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👉 To summarize the above, the 10 must-ask questions when you buy a coin are:

• What kind of blockchain structure it uses
• What kind of consensus design it uses (e.g. PoW, PoS, DPoS)
• How does it reward everyone who supports this infrastructure, that includes miners or servers and the issuers themselves (“crypto economics”)
• What can I use this service for and can it still meet my scalability requirements (# of tx / sec) when more people are using it
• How does a miner or server setup the node to mine or serve the app
• How does a miner or server get rewards
• Can you still buy from the issuer (i.e. is ICO still ongoing)
• Which exchange to buy and sell
• How much do you value this coin
• Which wallet to use

I have been trying to use this framework to analyze several popular coins and their whitepapers (e.g. BTC, ETH, Steem, EOS). I will try to share some of my analysis in the upcoming posts on these coins and the differences between them. Your comments and suggestions are welcome!

Last but not least, wish everyone a happy new year!

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❔ 你面对数以千计的加密货币，是否为到底买哪个发愁过
❔ 你是否试图读过那些质量参差不齐的白皮书，却不知道该精读哪些部分

👉 我总结了以下加密货币十问，希望可以和大家一起交流
🌟 到底要问什么问题取决于：你想以什么样的身份参与这个加密货币

参与者	加密货币十问
发行方	目的：你想设计一个去中心化的服务，并且发行“货币”来支持这个服务 （1）它的区块链的结构是什么 （2）它的共识机制是什么 (e.g. PoW, PoS, DPoS) （3）它是如何来奖励提供这个服务的每个参与者，包括矿工和发行方
用户	目的：你想用这个去中心化的服务 （4）它的服务有什么用处，当它的用户达到一定程度的时候，它的服务还能用吗（每秒的处理量能不能达到你的要求）
矿工（服务器提供方）	目的：你想要当一个服务器来赚服务费 （5）如何才能设置服务器来跑这个应用 （6）怎么赚钱，利润是多少
投资人	目的：你想要低买高卖来赚钱 （7）一级市场：你是否还可以从发行方那边买到 （8）二级市场：去哪个交易所买卖 （9）估值：你愿意在多少价位买 （10）存储：用什么电子钱包

我接下来也会陆陆续续用这个框架来剖析一些主流加密货币的白皮书，希望可以和大家继续交流。

最后，祝大家新年快乐！