Well, if we leave the EU and the Pound plummets, there’s always Bitcoin,” a glum currency trader joked last week.“Assuming our computers still switch on after Brexit.” He was being facetious.But then the king of all currency speculators, George Soros, said this week that an “out” vote would trigger a more damaging fall in Sterling than the day he forced Britain out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.So could Bitcoin be a “safe haven” asset for just that kind of situation?Only for the ultra-brave.The crytocurrency’s recent rally - in which it hit $780, a 28-month high - was broken yesterday by a drop of $100.However, Ethereum, the rising star of cryptocurrencies to Bitcoin’s grande dame, rebounded, following a sell-off in wake of an attack by thieves who exploited a software bug.Volatility certainly keeps the Bitcoiners busy.According to Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of BITMex, a Bitcoin derivatives exchange: “[If] Britain flips the bird to the EU, expect a fire to ignite under Bitcoin.” But if every time you hear someone talk about virtual currencies, your mind goes blank, here’s your cut-out-and-keep guide to Bitcoin and the new contender, Ethereum.

To adapt a not-at-all patronising line from L’Oreal, here comes the computer science bit, concentrate... EU Referendum polling day - in pictures EU Referendum polling day - in pictures Cocaine!That’s what the oldies thought the young were going to buy with their bitcoins (and also my desperate attempt to make it sound exciting).Three years ago, the virtual currency escaped the shadows when global attention fell on Silk Road, an online blackmarket where you could buy drugs using Bitcoin.Of course, you can use the currency for thousands of non-nefarious purchases too, from cupcakes to a Canadian goldmine.There’s even a Church that accepts it.Bitcoin - the titan of the cryptocurrencies - was released in 2009 by an unknown genius, who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto.The idea isn’t intrinsically migraine-inducingly complex.It’s a virtual payment network, not unlike Paypal.Only Bitcoin has no owner: it’s a peer-to-peer set-up, with computers all over the world processing transactions and keeping a shared ledger (a “blockchain”).

And it has its own currency - the bitcoin - the unit in which the network carries out transactions.How do you get bitcoins?There’s no Bitcoin version of the Bank of England, printing fiat money.Instead, the Bitcoin computers - which are known as “miners” - have computational races in which they can gain prizes in bitcoins.bitcoin mining x86That rewards those who lend computing power.litecoin mining botHowever, that prize keeps shrinking (it’ll halve next month), which limits the number of bitcoins that can ever be in circulation.bitcoin linux minerAnd yes, if you’re clever, you could mine them - or you could just buy them using your bog-standard currency.bitcoin mavericks

There are now ATMs that take cash and convert it into bitcoins.The first in the UK was - you guessed it - in Shoreditch.You can hide behind a pseudonym.No one’s in charge.For businesses, it’s an efficient way to accept payments - there’s no credit card firm skimming off two per cent.ethereum distributed exchangeWell, you wouldn’t tell Grandma to bet her house on Bitcoin.bitcoin obtenirIt’s volatile, its value yoyo-ing day-to-day.There are worries around security - a chunk of financial malware attacks target the currency.Just this month, scammers tried to cheat bitcoiners by fraudulently asking for donations in the wake of the mass-killings in Orlando.Although venture capitalists have poured more than $1bn into Bitcoin start-ups, these are yet to break through into the mainstream.Who are the Bitcoiners?Techies with Mensa-IQs and libertarians who want financial privacy.

The Queen looking irked: “Tried Bitcoin.Didn’t have my face on it.” What is it?Ethereum is like the Superman to Bitcoin’s Batman: it’s faster, it has a less dark back story and may eventually make its counterpart look rather impotent.Either that, or it could mess things up Man of Steel-style.Some experts reckon Bitcoin and Ether don’t need to be rivals, though: they could coexist peacefully, with Ethereum riding on Bitcoin’s coattails (or, to extend this simile far too far, its cape).Ether is the unit for the Ethereum system.Like Bitcoin, the network can be used to make payments.But it can also create binding financial agreements (known as “smart contracts”) that are completely software-enforced - i.e.they put the lawyers out of work.That’s because once a programme is running, no one can stop it.As a result, there is a new entity called The DAO which has raised more than $150 million to support projects in the sharing economy.The simple explanation is that’s like a computerised venture capital fund that will pick investments based on investor votes.

And it’s what was hacked this week, sparking the sell-off.How do you get your hands on Ether?A growing number of cryptocurrency exchanges - including the Bitcoin exchange Coinbase - now offer trading options.A big problem facing Bitcoin is a row within its community over expanding the network’s capacity - not an issue with Ether.Transaction times are faster and Ethereum releases the same amount of Ether every year.Since its software is more complex, critics claim it could suffer more security issues than Bitcoin in the future.The authorities may find cause for concern too, as potentially fraudulent contracts - such as the Ponzi schemes made famous again by Bernie Madoff - can be written into the system.Who are the Etherers?Microsoft, IBM and JPMorgan Chase have all shown interest.Economist Ben Bernanke looking glum with the tagline “Oh joy: more disruption”.It looks like you're new here.If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!Sign In Register Categories Recent Discussions Activity Unanswered Best Of... Categories All Categories Mining Pool Discussion General Project Discussion (non-technical) Education Protocol and Client discussion web3-js Whisper Swarm 2 RLP IoT & Hardware Smart Contracts and Dapps Serpent Solidity Projects Reference clients code and builds Eth & AlethZero- Cpp Implementation Geth - Go Implementation Mist Node.js Implementation Python Implementation Mix Other Implementations Meetups Other Events Jobs & Skills Press and Articles Audio/Video Ether Sale Other Languages Chinese German Italian French 2 Hebrew 6 Japanese Portugese Romanian Russian Spanish Turkish Watercooler [Berlin] Work for Ethereum - Title: Generalist, World-class C++ Developer & Technologist StephanTual 1,282 September 2014 in Jobs & Skills /job.txt Title: Generalist, World-class C++ Developer & Technologist , , ).Proposition:- Join a small, passionate and truly world-class team in one of the hottest start-ups and help rewrite the history of future generations.- Help design and implement a truly first-of-its-kind technological platform and develop expertise in a field that could become the single most important part of computer science for society in the 21st century.- Help create revolutionary developer tools and rewrite the rules of programming.- Enjoy life in kreuzberg, in Berlin the coolest, cheapest and sexiest place in Europe.Key responsibilities:- Taking a rough vision, (a set of loosely defined goals and use-cases together with a general realisation approach) and working within a prototype-driven development paradigm, you'll devise, design, prototype, document, test, refactor, integrate and polish one of a number of key sub-components of our platform.- You will manage your own time wisely, splitting between technology research, programming and integration, developer-community liasing and maintenance.- Though you will be assigned to a particular portion of the project as a whole, you will be expected to develop a broad understanding of all technologies and interfaces involved, and, where necessary contribute to their improvement and design.Key skills:As a generalist coder, you will expected to demonstrate exceptional adaptivity and learning abilities.

You will have a reasoned opinion on important aspects of the coding process, regardless of language or idioms.You will accept the human inability to have full knowledge on all subjects but will treat all tasks as opportunities to develop your understanding and expertise into an additional area.- C++ expertise (including STL, C++11 and one of Boost or Qt) - OR... Expertise in several languages, including OO C++-like languages (Java, C#), and can readily demonstrate the ability to pick up new languages quickly.- Minimum bachelors-level degree in hard science, engineering or mathematics from a first class institution.- OR... demonstrated world-class talent in devising, designing and implementing advanced software.- Proven knowledge /and/ interest in one or more of the following domains: - Cryptography, security and privacy.- Peer-to-peer, decentralised networking and data transfer.- Developer interfaces, programming environments, debugging and tools.- Language design & compiler implementation.