Resources from the Coffee Talk: Introduction to Blockchain & Bitcoin, organized at HATCH! NEST co-working space in Hanoi, on 19 August 2017.

1. Blockchain & Bitcoin
with Lennard Mulder

2. Decentralised Database Mining
WHAT IS A BLOCKCHAIN?

3. Mining

4. Money Verifiable
Data
Smart
Contracts
Bitcoin Factom Ethereum
Applications

5. First blockchain
Anonymous inventor(s)
Fast, Borderless
Cheap
Digital gold

8. Honeypots
Big data storage/audits
“Anchored” in Bitcoin

10. Unstoppable programs
EVM
Smart contracts

12. Responsible use of
Blockchain

13. Volatility

14. Scams

15. Security

16. CONCLUSION

17. • Many disruptive fields
(finance / data storage / contracts)
• Early stages
• Potential to change the world
• - Financial sovereignty, privacy
• - Banking for the unbanked
• - Transparent governance, governments
• - Data integrity
CONCLUSION

18. Thank you
Q&A

19. 1. other cryptocurrencies
There are many, and most are variants of main ones like Bitcoin or
Ethereum.
There is risk investing in these projects.
Do background checks, see if the people running the project have solid
verifiable backgrounds.
There are many scams, so beware.
More info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency

20. 2. exchanges: how to trust?
Exchanges have risk; they keep the key to your stored value
You are not in control of your money on an exchange, this makes quick
trading possible, but also makes it a “honey pot” for hackers who may
be able to hack an exchange to get access to user’s stored value
Do a background check on the exchange you plan to use; in particular
their security measures: “90% Cold Storage Multi-Signature” is
preferred.
Larger exchanges may have more trustworthiness, since they have more
at stake.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_currency_exchange

21. 3. what is the ‘network’ between
cryptocurrency holders?
There’s no Bitcoin “company”: you have people with computers trading value on a
network; you have other people running nodes, which keep a copy the ledger of all
trades; and, you have miners who process the ledger transactions into immutable
blocks of fully verified transactions.
These are real people who volunteer to run “nodes” in return, they’re rewarded with
transaction fees and getting bonus coins, for “proof of work” (literally working to
solve a math problem) to verify blocks.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Node_(networking)
The network of nodes (people running the blockchain software)
Every user is a node, but not every user runs a Full Node (a full copy of the
transaction ledger)
Some Full Node operators also “Mine” (confirming and adding blocks to the chain)
(there was a longer discussion of how nodes / network operate)

22. 4. speed of transaction
confirmation issues
Bitcoin transaction confirmations are 3 per second (10 min. lag) on average
Visa® Credit Card transaction confirmations are 1000’s per second.
Characteristics of cryptocurrencies have major advantageous over traditional
transaction methods, but they are not perfected yet.
As time goes by, people who operate cryptocurrency nodes, which support
their functionality, periodically disagree about software functionality
improvement strategies; this may result in a consensus to initiate a “fork”,
(a split, like “a fork in the road”) into two chains ( having the same past,
but different future). On 1 August 2017 Bitcoin “forked”.
In the future, we can expect improvements as engineers solve problems to
serve market demands; for sure transaction speeds will be included.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_scalability_problem#Soft_fork

23. 5. Should I buy and hold
Bitcoin longterm?
If you believe in the technology,
understand it, and think that demand
will grow, then a hold position would
be what you would think of.
The speaker thinks Bitcoin has
characteristics that make it
advantageous, and he is is a
long-term holder.
The speakers and HATCH! cannot make
investment recommendations.
You agree to use resources
your own risk: HATCH!
VENTURES does not
necessarily agree with, nor
endorse, any viewpoints or
investment advice contained
in any of the following
resources, they are
presented for educational or
entertainment purpose only.

24. 6. will cryptocurrency become a
standard currency?
The technology is new, and it is hard to predict the future, but it has
characteristics that make it have potential.
Some governments around the world are now experimenting with
cryptocurrency versions of state currencies.
At the moment, cryptocurrencies should be thought of as experimental
alternatives, and you should study and understand anything you buy
or invest in.

25. 7. is Bitcoin / cryptocurrency like
gold and exchangeable to other
money?
Acceptance is limited at this time, but as time goes by it is becoming
increasingly popular.
“wirex” is one exchange service we know about.
Use these tools at your own risk, be skeptical of every service you use,
and do your own research and due-diligence.

26. 8. would you recommend a
cryptocurrency to buy?
We can’t make investment advice.
Many high-volume, high-value projects are “pumped” as a result of hype
and are extremely risky.
You should study every project you are thinking of investing in.
The market is irrational, so you have to do your own fundamental
research into the technology and the people working on each project.

27. 9. is the “network” the miners, or
all devices?
The “network” is all of the people running a Bitcoin client, includes
different types of interactions, wallet apps, nodes, and miners.
Wallet - people who simply send/receive transactions
Full Node - people who volunteer to keep a current copy of the
distributed ledger for verification purposes
Mining - people who also process transactions into blocks in return for
fees and token rewards (at this time, a mining “rig” (computer)
investment cost is higher than the average person could afford)

28. 10. do all the devices on the
network contain all the records?
SPV connects (wallet) - does not contain the ledger, it only broadcasts
and receives its own, peer-to-peer transaction records
Full Node - software which downloads and maintains a full copy of the
ledger
Full Node + Miner - people who also participate in the mathematical
processing work to add blocks to the blockchain

29. 11. can a government or a big
company affect the price of a
cryptocurrency?
Any entity which holds a lot of tokens can affect the price if/when they
buy/sell a large amount.
These people are called “whales” and they are de-incentivized to do this
because people generally avoid markets with extreme price swings.

30. 12. segwit, and other arguments
about project governance
To upgrade the bitcoin network (make it better), you can’t just upgrade it
on your own, since it is a consensus and distributed system. For this
reason there’s a lack of governance. Any upgrade requires all people
to agree to upgrade. If there’s a disagreement and a group of people
want to “fork” split off and run a new version of the software, then the
project splits. The split projects have the same past but a different
future (having different software, one new and one original).
Recently with Bitcoin there has been debate about “segwit” =
segregated witness (to speed up transactions), and block size
increases (to add more functionality by allowing larger blocks).
The market usually finds ways to deal with these matters.

31. 13. security of value of Bitcoin
vs. other cryptocurrencies
What if someone invents a new cryptocurrency in the future that is much
better than Bitcoin, or other popular currencies that exist today?
Bitcoin is first and biggest, it would take time for people to shift over to a
new project, but it is possible.
The risk of people shifting puts pressure on the Bitcoin community to
solve their problems of governance, transaction speed, and security.
Whichever coins do best will win and become more popular, and thus
“secure”.

32. 14. where to find market data
history?
www.coinmarketcap.com

33. 15. what is driving
the price of Bitcoin?
Many factors, such as news and hype, can drive a price.
Hyperinflation occurring in some countries has driven people to seek
alternatives to fiat currency for storing value, such as gold or Bitcoin.
Bitcoin’s unique characteristics are mainly what cause it to increase in
value.

34. 16. how to exchange VND
with cryptocurrency?
bitcoin.vn - fee-based broker of VND/BTC exchanges
vbtc.vn - cryptocurrency trading platform (free to bid, fee to take)
Bitcoin ATM (BTM) - one in HCMC (one in Hanoi coming soon), deposit
VND for Bitcoin; sell Bitcoin for VND.
Above services are licensed and regulated. Beware of, and avoid
unlicensed traders / exchangers: you can get scammed!

35. 18. what does a “fork” of a coin
mean to me?
Typically it means you end up with 2 different coins. When a coin forks,
you’d end up with the same value you held in the original project, in
the new project.
However, in some cases where value is kept on exchanges, the
exchange may or may not release the value in the new project
(remember exchanges control your value by proxy). For this reason
people have been advised to use “cold storage” for storing value of a
coin that’s not being actively traded.

36. Resources
You agree to use resources your own risk: HATCH! VENTURES does not
necessarily agree with, nor endorse, any viewpoints or investment advice
contained in any of the following resources, they are presented for your
educational and entertainment purposes only.
Licensed Vietnam resources for trading / exchanging:
bitcoin.vn - exchange; vbtc.vn - trading
Popular international exchanges:
Poloniex, Bittrex, Bitfinex, Kraken
Popular YouTubers:
Quickfingers Luc and High Altitude Investing
Some useful explainer videos:
How Cryptocurrencies Work
Blockchain 101 - A Visual Demo
Bitcoin (Khan Academy 9 video series)