Learning Centre

May 24, 2021
1 min

Hashing and Cryptocurrencies

The backbone of a cryptocurrency is the blockchain, which is a global ledger formed by linking together individual blocks of transaction data. The blockchain only contains validated transactions, which prevents fraudulent transactions and double spending of the currency. The resulting encrypted value is a series of numbers and letters that do not resemble the original data and is called a hash. Cryptocurrency mining involves working with this hash. Hashing requires processing

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AFRICA TO MARS

May 14, 2021
2 min

What Is a Hash?

A hash is a mathematical function that converts an input of arbitrary length into an encrypted output of a fixed length. Thus regardless of the original amount of data or file size involved, its unique hash will always be the same size. Moreover, hashes cannot be used to "reverse-engineer" the input from the hashed output, since hash functions are "one-way" (like a meat grinder; you can't put the ground beef back into a steak). Still, if you use such a function on the same da

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AFRICA TO MARS

Apr 4, 2021
1 min

Peer-to-Peer Technology

Bitcoin is one of the first digital currencies to use peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments. The independent individuals and companies who own the governing computing power and participate in the bitcoin network—bitcoin "miners"—are in charge of processing the transactions on the blockchain and are motivated by rewards (the release of new bitcoin) and transaction fees paid in bitcoin. These miners can be thought of as the decentralized authority enforcing the

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Are There Any Problems with Cryptocurrency?

AFRICA TO MARS

Apr 3, 2021
2 min

Are There Any Problems with Cryptocurrency?

False Decentralization The issue of decentralization has been argued as a “false decentralization.” A large enough group of people verifying blockchain transactions does form a quasi-centralized entity. Those people are the miners, who validate the blocks in the public ledger and assign the blocks their unique codes, or hashes. This argument is directly related to the 51% majority issue that plagues newer cryptocurrencies but becomes less of a problem over time. Inefficiencie

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AFRICA TO MARS

Apr 3, 2021
1 min

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Definition

In its most simple form, decentralized finance is a concept where financial products are available on a public decentralized blockchain network making them open to anyone to use rather than going through a middleman like banks or brokerages. Unlike a bank or brokerage account, a government-issued ID, social security number, or proof of address are not necessary to use DeFi. More specifically, DeFi refers to a system where software written on blockchains makes it possible for

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AFRICA TO MARS

Apr 3, 2021
1 min

How is Blockchain Used?

As we now know, blocks on Bitcoin’s blockchain store data about monetary transactions. But it turns out that blockchain is actually a reliable way of storing data about other types of transactions, as well. Some companies that have already incorporated blockchain include Walmart, Pfizer, AIG, Siemens, Unilever, and a host of others. For example, IBM has created its Food Trust blockchain1 to trace the journey that food products take to get to its locations. Why do this? The f

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AFRICA TO MARS

Apr 3, 2021
1 min

What Is Decentralized Currency?

Decentralized currency, peer-to-peer money, and digital currency all refer to bank-free methods of transferring wealth or ownership of any other commodity without needing a third party. Most centralized, and some decentralized, markets use fiat currency—or physical money issued by a central bank, like U.S. dollars. Decentralized currency is used primarily in the virtual markets. Two examples of decentralized currency are bitcoin—the "coinage" used on the Bitcoin platform—and

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AFRICA TO MARS

Apr 3, 2021
2 min

What Do I Need To Mine Bitcoins?

Although early on in Bitcoin's history individuals may have been able to compete for blocks with a regular at-home computer, this is no longer the case. The reason for this is that the difficulty of mining Bitcoin changes over time. In order to ensure the smooth functioning of the blockchain and its ability to process and verify transactions, the Bitcoin network aims to have one block produced every 10 minutes or so. However, if there are one million mining rigs competing to

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AFRICA TO MARS

Apr 3, 2021
1 min

Decentralized Market

What Is a Decentralized Market? In a decentralized market, technology enables investors to deal directly with each other instead of operating from within a centralized exchange. Virtual markets that use decentralized currency, or cryptocurrencies, are examples of decentralized markets. How Do Decentralized Markets Work? A decentralized market uses various digital devices to communicate and display bid/ask prices in real-time. In this way, buyers, sellers, and dealers do not n

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AFRICA TO MARS

Apr 3, 2021
1 min

What's Next for Blockchain?

First proposed as a research project in 1991, blockchain is comfortably settling into its late twenties. Like most millennials its age, blockchain has seen its fair share of public scrutiny over the last two decades, with businesses around the world speculating about what the technology is capable of and where it’s headed in the years to come. With many practical applications for the technology already being implemented and explored, blockchain is finally making a name for i

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Forget Bitcoin: Blockchain is the Future

AFRICA TO MARS

Apr 3, 2021
1 min

Forget Bitcoin: Blockchain is the Future

Cryptocurrencies of all types make use of distributed ledger technology known as blockchain. Blockchains act as decentralized systems for recording and documenting transactions that take place involving a particular digital currency. Put simply, blockchain is a transaction ledger that maintains identical copies across each member computer within a network. The fact that the ledger is distributed across each part of the network helps to facilitate the security of the blockchai

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AFRICA TO MARS

Apr 3, 2021
1 min

Smart Contracts

What Is a Smart Contract? A smart contract is a self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code. The code and the agreements contained therein exist across a distributed, decentralized blockchain network. The code controls the execution, and transactions are trackable and irreversible. Smart contracts permit trusted transactions and agreements to be carried out among disparate, anonymous parties withou

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Learning Centre

"Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world" - Nelson Mandela

In any nation or continent that is actively growing and expanding, education is found to be a key element of this growth. When we look at Africa and its youth population, it becomes obvious that education cannot be sidelined.

At AFRICA TO MARS we are committed to empowering Africa by providing content in our learning centre that is informative, beneficial and trustworthy.

Our learning centre aims at assisting the crypto community in Africa with content that can improve the communities knowledge and understanding of crypto and the blockchain world.