Crytocurrencies are created, or mined, based on a mathematical formula. In the mining process, computers are tasked to solve complex mathematical problems and rewarded with virtual coinage. Over time, the equations become progressively more difficult to solve, slowing down the supply of new cryptocurrency units.

Can anyone become a miner?

Theoretically it is possible to start mining at home. But as the mathematical challenge becomes harder, more computational grunt is required. For this reason, miners often pool resources to buy access to supercomputers or server farms (networked arrays of smaller computers).

How many cryptocurrencies are there?

The market for such payment instruments is dominated by bitcoin, but there are scores of other currencies including litecoin, dogecoin, megacoin and there is even a sexcoin.