Crypto Tamanga

 ESCROW SERVICES Escrow services is not unique to digital products and services. It has been used whenever a buyer or seller (of any product) doesn't trust that the other party will meet their obligation. WHAT IS ESCROW Escrow Services allow both buyer and seller to protect a transaction by placing funds (or products, whichever is convenient) in the hands of a trusted third party that collects, holds, and disburse funds until a specified set of conditions is met by both parties. WHY IS IT NEEDED? When interacting with someone you have not interacted with before, to minimise your risk, you ask for payment in advance, but this also inadvertently creates an issue for the buyer. Who is as well not certain that the seller will deliver as promised. Step in, escrow service.  HOW IT WORKS The buyer sends the agreed purchase amount to the escrow service. After payment is verified, the seller is instructed to send the goods. Upon delivery, the buyer has a predetermined period of time to insp

One frequently asked question by newcomers in the Crypto Tamanga community is: HOW CAN I EARN BITCOIN WITHOUT INVESTING. Well, the answer to this is not a straight forward one because a lot of factors come into play. Factors such as, how much time do you to have to burn? Services available in your locality, and general adoption levels of crypto in your locality. To put in context, in Zambia we do not have services that reward users in bitcoin and neither is the adoption to a point where I could readily be tipped or paid in bitcoin. That being said, for future purposes, here are some ways one can earn bitcoin without having to invest your money. Disclaimer: The content in this article is meant for educational purposes only, and must not be taken as financial advice. For financial advice, please seek the services of a registered financial advisor. For one who is a new comer to crypto, the thought of owning the first fraction of Bitcoin is a daunting one. This is mainly because, as a be

A cryptocurrency wallet is a digital wallet that refers to an electronic device, phone app, computer software or an online service that allows an individual to make electronic transactions. It stores private and public keys and interacts with various blockchains to enable users to send and receive digital currency and monitor their balance, send money and conduct other operations. In this three part series we take a look at the types of crypto wallets and how to secure them. When a person sends you bitcoins or any other type of digital currency, they are essentially signing off ownership of the coins to your wallet’s Public Key. To be able to spend these coins(money) and unlock the funds, the Private key stored in your wallet must match the public address the currency is assigned to. If public and private keys match, the balance in your digital wallet will increase, and the sender's will decrease accordingly. There is no actual exchange of real coins(money). The transaction is s

Financial scams such as Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, and the likes have been part of human civilization ever since the invention of money. However, these scams have become more prevalent since the emergence of cryptocurrencies, due to their nature – fast and anonymous. These characteristics of cryptocurrencies make them a preferred tool for bad actors in the space. Nevertheless, the modus operandi of scammers remain the same whether using fiat currencies or cryptocurrencies. Their style is to offer ridiculous returns on investments. Furthermore, they use pressure tactics to make would-be victims think that they have very limited time to take up the offer. This is done so that the would-be victim does not have time to give much consideration to the offer. Today, we will look at 5 crypto scams you should look out for in Zambia and how you can identify them. 1. THE PONZI SCHEME This is a scheme where the promoters make it seem like the business is making money and actually paying out a

Chainalysis released a report on crime in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The report, which   was released in January 2019, highlights the different types of illicit activities taking root in different cryptocurrencies. The report delves into how d ecoding hacks shed light on two prominent groups and their laundering strategies, how Darknet markets demonstrated resilience, and how Ethereum scams are small in scale but evolving fast. In this article we extracted the section that talks about Ethereum scams. The full report can be found here . Fewer scams, bigger revenues: a radically changing landscape for Ethereum crime In 2018, only 0.01% of ether was stolen in scams, worth $36 million, double the $17 million take for 2017. This makes scamming on the Ethereum blockchain one of the lowest-earning types of crypto crime analyzed in this report for 2018. Furthermore, the number of scams declined through 2018, although those that remained were bigger, more sophisticated, and

Image courtesy of Hacker noon In this article I take a look at Smart Contracts. Smart Contracts have taken a center stage as one of the applications of blockchain technology. Although it is widely accepted that they have great potential to change the way business is conducted globally, there still remains a low understanding of the concept. This article attempts to give an understanding of the concepts surrounding Smart Contracts, the potential, challenges, and future of smart contracts. History of smart contracts In 1994, Nick Szabo, a legal scholar and cryptographer realized that the decentralized ledger could be used to convert contracts to computer code so that they could be stored and replicated on the system and supervised by the network of computers that run the blockchain. He introduced what he called smart contracts, also known as digital contracts or self-executing contracts. Definition of smart contract A smart contract is a computer protocol intende