Digital Currency or Cryptocurrency [Written Report]

Digital Currency or Crpytocurrency[Written Report]: For the last few years,cryptocurrencies have become quite popular. Among them, Bitcoin has receivedthe most popularity with its price increasing from $696 in 2016 to $62,000recently, an astronomical increase. Along with Bitcoin, several other crypto currencieshave now come into financial markets—Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Dash,etc (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptocurrencies). The basisfor these cryptocurrencies is cryptography and the techniques that we discussedthroughout the course. All of them employ blockchain technologies. In fact,blockchain technologies are being extended to other applications beyondcryptocurrencies. During the course, we talked about cipher block chaining.

You should write a 8-10 page report(12-point, Times New Font, single-spacing) that summarizes the developments incryptocurrencies, their relation to blockchains, and the cryptographictechniques that we discussed in the class. In particular, your report shouldanswer the following questions.

(i) What are cryptocurrencies? Whatare some examples of cryptocurrencies?
(ii) What is a blockchain? What is in the block of a blockchain? How are theylinked?
(iii) When are the blocks added? Who adds the blocks—centralized server ordistributed servers? Who maintains the blockchain?
(iv) Are these scalable? In other words, can the chains be as long as you wishthem to be? What are the performance implications of having long chains?
(v) How is consistency maintained among copies of blockchains?
(vi) Examples applications where blockchain technologies are being used.
(vii) Are these cryptocurrencies secure? In other words, what gives them theproperties of reliability, tamper-proof, and uniqueness (avoid doublecounting)?
(viii) What has puzzle solving to do with cryptography? Why have they becomepopular in cryptocurrencies?
(ix) What cryptographic techniques that we discussed during the course arebeing employed in these technologies?
(x) What are the advantages of cryptocurrencies over physical currencies orother digital currencies such as credit cards and debit cards?
(xi) Summary of your thoughts on cryptocurrencies—technologies used,advantages, and dangers.

Your report should be well organizedinto sections, starting with an introduction and ending with a conclusion andreferences. The references should be as per the IEEE (http://www.ijssst.info/info/IEEE-Citation-StyleGuide.pdf)